I've got a game idea. A workable idea. A fairly non-violence-based idea. I think it might work. I need feedback.
The setting: A building. Maybe one story, maybe more, I don't know. Just that it takes place in a building, with rooms and hallways and all that jazz. The building is on fire.
The hero: A firefighter.
The goal: Hunt down all the fires in the building, put them out, and save any people trapped behind the flames before they die.
Each stage would be a new building, probably increasing with size as the game goes on. Infinitely? I don't know. Maybe. The stage would begin with one or more civilians wandering the building, and one or more fires spread throughout the building. If left to themselves, the fires grow. Rooms can have furniture, which would serve to slow you down and to hasten the spread of the flames. You would enter at the ground floor, and try to get to the civilians as quickly as possible. If they see you, then they'll start following you automatically. Once found, you then lead them to the exit, or perhaps a window on that side of the building (from which a ladder would be raised to let them down... not sure on the specific mechanics here).
Display would be either straight top-down or from an angle as per my Zombie City titles. Control would be with WASD to move and the mouse to aim and spray water. I haven't thought of how to limit you from constantly firing the hose... if you had limited water, there would need to be a way to replenish it. The level would end when all civilians are either saved or dead, all fires are extinguished (optionall? stage-dependent?), and you escape the building. Depending on the amount of property damage and the amount of lives saved, you recieve a ranking on the mission. Faliure would be reached by either getting too low of a ranking, or dying on a stage.
So that's the basic idea. I think there needs to be something else to it... it's almost too simplistic. But it's a start.
Comment comment comment comment for the love of God COMMENT.
Wednesday, November 16, 2005
Ding ding ding?
6 comments:
Thank you no, but I will NOT comment. Goddamn bossy people.
Don't be a meanie. You know I love you.
Excellent feedback, skinny! Let's see...
Hose length: Adds nasty limitations to stage size, would get annoying, and the math would he ugly as HELL to implement. I don't know about this one.
Water Pressure: Yeah, this sounds like a pretty good system. Maybe let the hose run for about 3-5 seconds before dying down, then recharge over about 0.5-1 seconds. That could work.
Don't require fire elimination: Yeah, I have to agree with you on that one. Maybe leaving too many fires burning would lower your ranking for the mission, but so would time spent, as a detrement to the player scouring every room of the house on every level to keep his score up.
Fires coming back: I was thinking of having more fires appear over time on some levels... that could have a similar effect to what you're talking about. Or something. Hm.
Special item: Hmm... I dunno about this one. It'd be hard to represent - remember, the graphics for this game will be highly abstracted due to lack of artistic resources. That, and adding a plot on top of the fire rescue thing might send me down the same road as the problems your site talked about in their Trauma Center review.
On the other hand: CATS. There needs to be an opportunity to rescue cats.
I remember that there was a game like this for the SNES, about a firefighter who went into buildings and saved people. But since I haven't seen it in ten years - and since that firefighter game was tied to a movie - I don't see why not.
Also, 'just' fires might be boring. Firefighters do more than just rush into buildings, I'd assume - you could do a 'slice of life' thing, I guess, or tie in an overarching plot of some kind.
*shrug*
I think I've actually played that SNES firefighter game... I don't remember it being very good, though. And I think it had bosses, which is a very strange choice for the subject material.
As for the "slice-of-life" idea, keep in mind my biggest limitations: resources, and time. My goal is to create a simple, fun arcade game, centered around putting out fires and saving lives. Adding much more than that is probably too much to ask a lonely, time-pressed coder. At the least, it's more than I'm going to do.
And where did you get to my blog from? Your name sounds damn familiar.
I haven't had the chance to play it yet, but your concept reminds me quite a bit of Firefighter F.D.18, a recent Konami game for the PS2.
Good luck with NaViGaWriMo when it starts up again!
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