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Design ideas for me :)

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Sun, 05/21/2006 - 01:12
Christian223
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Joined: 12/31/1969

Hi, ill intoduce myself first:

My name is Christian Ibarra, im 23, i live in Argentina, im a graphic designer, and indie video-game developer wanabee, since i started to study game design, i was facinated by the way that boardgames are thought, they are so advanced and varied in design than video-games (and more interesting), so, i have been lurking this forums for months, and i was thinking i could get some help with my game design.

So, my game wants to be a casual-for-the-whole-family-fantasy-Hero-game, where you get to be a real hero, i want to include all the aspects (or the most important or interesting) of beign a hero in the game. There would be many heros in the land fighting to be the most famous hero in the world, the winner of the game is the one that gets more "Fame" points or something like it.

So, i want monsters in the game, monsters that have control of villages and the village people want your help, so you have to go to hunt the monster and get rid of the problem, then the villagers love you and make you a statue to show their appreciation.

Now, i have many doubts about the battles, i think the majority of people dont like to fight or dont find it interesting, so, whats a more interesting way to resolve a conflict like this?.
The monster is terryfing the village, i must go where the monster is and make the monster dont bother them, do i kill him or do i kick him out of the area? whats an interesting way to fight?, do i give him something so he is more calm?.

Thanks in advance, any idea is welcome.

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Sun, 05/21/2006 - 02:05
#1
Gimmy
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Joined: 12/31/1969
Design ideas for me :)

Hello and welcome...
I feel that way too about board games even thou I'm studing programing (to create computer games) right now.
as for your game you could insert a few RPG style ideas, each player will have a charecter (not has to be so much different, they all could be warriors or something) and states, like meele, magic and persuation or speech craft.
some monsters will have the options to negotiate with, but if the hero will not have a certain requirements in his states (or maybe certain artifacts) this option (for negotiation) will not be available.
as for battle, I suggest you'll make it short (say like munchkin), and the hero could use artifact's and stuff he finds. more over the hero will need to fulfill quests to gain Fame Points and items to fight the Boss monsters terrorizing villages. a random quest\Boss mechanic could be inserted too.
You could also think of a mechanic for more player interaction, like that each player need to support a legendary monster (more of that a head),
and players support monsters by giving them artifact's so that the other player will have more difficult battle. this mechanic is like most traitor's mechanics, at the beggining of the game each player secretly get's a card that name the legendary monster it soppurt's, and this secret is not revealed until a player fight's that monster.

a great settings for the game could be the greek mythology, a land with monsters and some Legendery monsters to fight with, and many options for quest's.
So far my ideas probably reminds runebound or some thing like that (I guess ^_^), hope I helped.

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Sun, 05/21/2006 - 05:47
#2
TheReluctantGeneral
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Joined: 12/31/1969
Re: Design ideas for me :)

Christian223 wrote:

Now, i have many doubts about the battles, i think the majority of people dont like to fight or dont find it interesting, so, whats a more interesting way to resolve a conflict like this?.

The monster is terryfing the village, i must go where the monster is and make the monster dont bother them, do i kill him or do i kick him out of the area? whats an interesting way to fight?, do i give him something so he is more calm?.

I think you are absolutely right to be thinking about other ways of resolving conflict than a straightforwards 'fight'. There are many such games on the market, and they are not normally family games. Maybe you should look to make the game more one of puzzle solving with a heroic theme, in which the obstacles/monsters faced by your heroes are too powerful to attack directly. Instead your heroes must find artefacts, spell knowledge etc and particularly enlist the help of non-player characters to defeat the baddies.

If you imagine a typical family - dad, little guy, mum, and little girl, the latter two are going to prefer, probably, to play as heroes who are not big strong men with swords, but as clever cheeky characters who solve problems with their brains. They may also not want to 'kill' a dragon, but will prefer to make friends with it or tame it or something.

An example mission: a dragon is terrorising a village. There are two ways of solving the problem - learn a spell from the witch who lives in the forrest to banish the dragon, or find the dragon tamer who lives in the mountains and persuade them to help you. Along the way other obstacles must be avoided, such as trolls in the mountains or theives in the forrest. Which method you pick depends on your character's strengths and upon your style of play.

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Sun, 05/21/2006 - 11:59
#3
Gogolski
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Joined: 07/28/2008
Design ideas for me :)

Christian223 wrote:
So, my game wants to be a casual-for-the-whole-family-fantasy-Hero-game, where you get to be a real hero, i want to include all the aspects (or the most important or interesting) of beign a hero in the game. There would be many heros in the land fighting to be the most famous hero in the world, the winner of the game is the one that gets more "Fame" points or something like it.
This hero-idea sounds a bit like an RPG. I'll assume that your hero gets 'stronger' (and more famous) throughout the game...
Christian223 wrote:
The monster is terryfing the village, i must go where the monster is and make the monster dont bother them, do i kill him or do i kick him out of the area? whats an interesting way to fight?, do i give him something so he is more calm?
I'd go for a drive-the-monster-away kind of playing style. When the monster flees, it can flee to another vilage on the map, where it terrorises the vilage together with the monster that was already there.
That vilage would be harder to free from its monstrous dictators, because there are two monsters. But if your hero gets stronger during the game, it's possible later in the game.

At the end of the game, all monsters are grouped in one town and live happy together in their monster-reservate...

Cheese!

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Sun, 05/21/2006 - 13:16
#4
Christian223
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Joined: 12/31/1969
Design ideas for me :)

Thank you! those are all great ideas!.

Yes, it will be an rpg but very very casual.

I really liked the idea of the monster reservoir, haha! :)

Now, i have other kind of doubt, i said that i wanted to include all the interesting parts of beign a hero, but if i do that i fear that i will include too many elements, for example, this game of driving the monsters out of the village is a game in itself, but what if i want to make a "dressing game"? where i collect armor parts to make my hero more powerfull instead of getting weapons? or i make him get artifacts, weapons, magic scrolls and armors? wouldnt that be too much?. I also thought on making many mini competitions, a beatuy contest, a love contest where you have to conquer a lady, a horse racing contests where you bet who the winner will be, etc. I also thought on making the heros have zones of control, so you can have wars against other heroes castles and also give the posibility of improving your own castle, making it bigger and full of weapons and army number, of course i thought that all this would be played very simple, but, still, isnt it too much?.

Thanks again for all those wonderfull ideas, im going to apply serious thought on all of them.

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Sun, 05/21/2006 - 16:29
#5
Gogolski
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Joined: 07/28/2008
Design ideas for me :)

Quote:
Now, i have other kind of doubt, i said that i wanted to include all the interesting parts of beign a hero, but if i do that i fear that i will include too many elements,
...
of course i thought that all this would be played very simple, but, still, isnt it too much?.
You make it as simple or as complicated as you want.

Castle:
Your castle has three stats: attack, defense and beauty.
Each has three upgrades
Attack: Melee fichters, archers and catapults
Defense: Surrounded by water, walls and towers
Beauty: Gardens, statues and paintings
=> Attack and defense help you when you are under siege, beauty may help you get a bigger income or more quests...
The castle can have these 9 upgrades as sqares on the board. You just put a counter on them if you aquired them.

Hero:
Lets assume your hero is represented by a card. You can put cards next to it:
1 armor-card
1 two-handed weapon-card
2 one-handed weapon-cards
1 one-handed weapon-card and 1 shield card
1 amulet (= artefact with a power or special ability)

Horse:
The horse is a card you put next to your hero-card.
There are three different horses. They each have a price. The cheapest horse can carry 2 things (appart from your hero), the medium horse can carry three, the uber-horse can carry four. (you put these item-cards next to your horse...)

You realy can go as far as you want, but you can keep it relatively simple by just making if cards with one stat., so you don't have to calculate much...

Cheese!

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