Sometimes I get an idea and instead of just writing it down or sketching it out, I build a prototype to see how it'd all work - sometimes you don't know how well something will work until you actually feel it for yourself in game.
Recently, I built this prototype of a "rooms within a room" idea that has been kicking around my head for a while. I've been wanting to do something like this since I made !, but only just thought of this way of doing it the other day, and would be interested to hear any feedback on the concept. If you'd like to try out the basic prototype, you can do so here.
There are no puzzles or real interactions yet, but it should give a reasonable idea of how it will all work in the end.
16 comments:
Just tried the prototype. That's a very cool original idea with a lot of adventuring potential. I thought of something like a time machine or something that would allow you to travel between ages and each column would contain the same place at different times. I'm very curious to see what you make of this IF you will.
Thanks for sharing the idea! It reminds me of DotT/Time Gentlemen Please time based puzzles, which were very creative indeed.
I suppose another way of doing it could involve the same building done from different cultures - you could have the same house in african, asian and european styles (which would make for a very stylistically satisfying result, most probably. In a fantasy setting, you could do it with Orcish, Dwarven and Elven buildings, in science fiction you could do it with several different alien factions... the possibilities are quite impressive when looked at from that angle!
I'm very fond of trying out/thinking of new ideas like this, I feel that there is much potential within adventure games for such experimentation. Thanks again for sharing your thoughts!
I've played the prototype; I really like the idea. I was thinking that another way of doing can be to have the same room/place in different dimensions, each column representing a dimension. The main character can look (slightly) different in each dimension. It would be awesome to see, for example, Paris with the Eiffel Tower in one column and Paris with the Statue of Liberty in the next one :) (and the main character is just trying to find his dimension).
Anyway, there are endless possibilities. Just like cianty said, I can't wait to see what you'll make of it ^_^
I think I roughly get what you mean! I'd be wary of making too many columns though, it would probably get quite tiresome switching through 7 different dimensions (although I could probably implement a simple menu system if such a situation arose...
Thanks for the input!
Just to follow up on my Twitter reply - I love this idea! It's a very intuitive and simple design to pick up and play, and the possibilities are endless (as the others have said).
Only issues I can see are the number of 'rows' in each column - I think it works with 3 at the moment since any more and it would start to become a pain to cycle through. Saying that, there's nothing stopping you from having the whole thing scroll horizontally, or having this one screen represent one locale seen from, for example, different ages. Other screens for other locales etc.
NPCs might be a bit of a headache - can they move between panels and what would happen to them, their clothing etc? I like the time-travel idea suggested by cianty. It might be quite fun if only the player character can time travel between the panels and you get a snapshot of life in each time period through the window of each panel. You could have NPCs going about their business, moving around in the panels and disappearing off the edges only to be seen again when you switch to another view of that panel (essentially each panel made up of rooms and some within the same panel could lead to each other).
It's a really cool little prototype - exactly the kind of thing that can be experimented with easily enough on paper too - and I hope to see a fully playable version in some form someday. Slap a patent on this tech now - I can see lots of AGSers wanting to play with something like this, myself included;-)
If I was to have multiple rooms, I'd definitely make the progression linear to prevent players from being overwhelmed with too many things.
NPCs allow for the most interesting puzzles, I think. I think every puzzle idea that has spawned from this prototype has involved characters!
As for patents - I don't think it'd be a bad thing if other people tried the idea out for themselves. I'm always interested in seeing people's takes on ideas, and would love to see more people trying to make such adventure prototypes :)
As for whether it ever turns into a game - I have enough ideas to turn this into a short game, and may do so at some point when time permits me to do so. Until then, I'm satisfied that I've turned it into a prototype that tests my idea and lets other people appreciate it firsthand :)
Oh, I wouldn't make more than 3 columns for each screen. And like Stray Dog Strut said, you can have the room scroll horizontally. By the way, you're planning to have more than one room, right? :)
As for one room or many, depends on the game design! I haven't really come up with a game to build out of this yet, so apart from a few puzzle ideas, I'm not really sure :)
I only really developed the idea into something I could actually build about a week ago, and only finished putting this together today (been very short on time lately), so nothing is set in concrete at all :)
Cool idea Ben, does have potential for a nice little game.
Thanks Arjon! Who knows, I may even turn it into a game at some point :)
Nice idea! You could have it where the 'rows' have different seasons (Summer, Autumn, Spring, Winter) and how their effect changes the environment of each column for example an NPC could be sunbathing in summer and you could change it to winter and he would be wearing a hat, gloves and a scarf.
Puzzles could be quite interesting too. Say you need to gain something by growing a plant (a vegitable or something), so in spring you plant a seed, in summer and autumn it's grown some more, but in the winter it dies. The player would have to come up with some way to cover it in the autumn period so that it survives to reach winter.
I'm just brainstorming, I'm sure there is a lot of puzzle potential for something like this.
Good work Ben!
Ah, that's a great, fun, very creative idea. I'm sure puzzles along that variation would be a great addition to a game in this style.
Thanks for sharing the idea!
I tried the prototype when the post appeared. I liked the idea. But I somehow did not have any interesting suggestions. :(
But now I came up with something you could do with this mechanic. You could implement alternative puzzles (every one would be based on the same place/segment of the screen, but alternative dimension) that would lead to a global outcome across all the dimensions. Then (for example) the tone of the story would be different depending on which dimensions you choose while puzzle solving, hence the player can create their own story depending on which puzzles he chooses to solve. Something like Double Fine's Stacking, only better. ;)
Interesting idea there, Igor! I liked the multiple puzzle solutions in Stacking, for me that really added to the game. While it'd be hard coming up with enough good puzzles to do this across a whole game, I can definitely see merit in the idea :D
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