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Rules For Survival Games: Do & Don't

FengolFengol
edited in General
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/10/21/rules-for-survival-games-do-dont-9/


[list]
[*] DO give some thought to how humans work, if yours is a game about humans.
[*] DON’T include day/night cycles if your night time isn’t as equally fun to play.
[*] DO give some thought to the balance between in-game time, and how long it takes to do things.
[*] DON’T put zombies in your survival game.
[*] DO give me time to explore.
[*] DON’T require initial drudge work.
Thanked by 4wogan dreampunchboy DarkCarnivour watson

Comments

  • woganwogan
    If I built a survival game, it would be one where you're awarded food and water by a god, based on how fancy your hat is, and have people competing for most elaborate headwear, but the joke would be that the awards are totally random.
    Thanked by 4brondin Ramperkash DarkCarnivour watson
  • FengolFengol
    @wogan PLEASE make a survival game based on fancy hats!
  • brondinbrondin
    wogan said:
    If I built a survival game, it would be one where you're awarded food and water by a god, based on how fancy your hat is, and have people competing for most elaborate headwear, but the joke would be that the awards are totally random.
    GOTY 2015 right here. After that pitch, I think you might be honour-bound to make this game. :P
  • woganwogan
    brondin said:
    GOTY 2015 right here. After that pitch, I think you might be honour-bound to make this game. :P
    I know very little about hatcrafting, though! But I suppose I could learn, in the name of surrealist games :D
  • dreampunchboydreampunchboy
    @Fengol I like it so far :)
    How do you guys feel about hunger and environmental impact like cold and heat?
  • MCAMCA
    edited
    Those with furry hats would do well under cold conditions, and those with broad-rimmed hats better in the heat? And if the hat's materials are natural you could eat it, and if synthetic then you risk death…?
  • FengolFengol
    I think the benevolent god should prefer hats with animal prints like zebra or leopard
  • ShadowBladeShadowBlade
    We had a survival idea and prototype rattling around.. Be cool to try and get that further when there is some time(ahahaha..). Alas, no hats. :\
  • woganwogan
    MCA said:
    Those with furry hats would do well under cold conditions, and those with broad-rimmed hats better in the heat? And if the hat's materials are natural you could eat it, and if synthetic then you risk death…?
    I think hats can do more - you can bolt on cages to hold small animals, or amplify the base hattiness with magic gems. I think hats also need to be intimidating, to some extent - if your hat is impressive enough you should win battles by default.
    Fengol said:
    I think the benevolent god should prefer hats with animal prints like zebra or leopard
    Possibly - though that would involve killing the actual animals. Maybe there should be different gods you can pray to, and they each have specific requirements. As far as you know, anyway - in reality the rewards are still totally random, not based on any input from the player.
  • brondinbrondin
    Hmm, how about: Hats are made from raw materials that would otherwise be used for survival, like shelter, food, and tools. They confer some benefit, but not as much as if you just used the materials for non-hat activities. However, each day/week/whatever unit of time seems best, the deity secretly compiles criteria for his hat contest, which functions as a sort of lottery; winning grants you huge amounts of stuff that'll keep you alive for a long time, but chances are very slim that you'll end up winning, so it might be best to use your available resources more practically. Obviously it'd take a lot of balancing to see to it that playing the hat lottery is a viable play-style, or players will just be reasonable about how they use raw materials, and then you'll never see any zany hats. Anyway, that's my unsolicited two cents :)
  • FengolFengol
    If you don't mind @wogan, I'm working on a prototype using this idea
  • woganwogan
    Fengol said:
    If you don't mind @wogan, I'm working on a prototype using this idea
    Not at all! Have at it. Would love to see what you come up with :D
  • woganwogan
    brondin said:
    ...or players will just be reasonable about how they use raw materials, and then you'll never see any zany hats.
    And I think the point would be zany hats - you want to incentivize ridiculous headwear here. So maybe we'll borrow a concept from the christian bible: When Moses was leading those refugees across the desert, the bible tells us that god delivered fresh manna every morning, but it couldn't be stored.

    So same idea here - get random manna rewards that only sustain you for the day. You can't hoard or stockpile any food, so you're forced to spend the day cycle hunting for materials, the night cycle crafting, and hoping that daybreak yields you enough food to survive another day. And if you don't make it, you have the chance to move quickly and steal someone else's food.
  • BoysanoBoysano
    DO: Give the player impossible moral and ethical choices she has to make
  • brondinbrondin
    Boysano said:
    DO: Give the player impossible moral and ethical choices she has to make
    DON'T: Tie those choices to some sort of 'karma meter', having players live with the consequences of each one of their choices works better than allowing them to erase past transgressions by spamming the 'give flower to old lady' command, or whatever its equivalent might be in the game.
  • BoysanoBoysano
    good point, implementation is key
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