Hey. I'm new here, and I have some new AWESOME game ideas. Okay, I wanted to share one of them: Survivor. There are many zombie games made, but none like mine. My idea is that you are playing as a survivor in a neighborhood. ZOmbIe ApOcaLYpsE happens and you wake up to your parents (?) attacking you. The whole game's premise is to survive, but there are alternate goals such as finding other survivors or a chopper, etc. It is played on dumptruck loads of maps created with graph paper. It has roads, houses, stores (WAL-MART) highways, and everything else! Your character has a few stats: Health (100) Speed (10/ how many grid spaces you can move in a turn) and Strength (80 lbs/ how much weight you can carry). You don't know what are in houses until you enter, and lift up the flap that is covering the house, and scavenge for food, lumber, weapons, clothes, etc. Combat is simple, and its very realistic. There are seasons in the game that affect gameplay, along with days and months. Very importantly there are times of the day; Night, Morning, Noon, and Afternoon. It cycles. Anyways, I'll add more later. I'm way excited about this!
Survivor
Welcome and best of luck!
Looking forward to hearing your ideas.
Levi Mote
Bonsai Entertainment
www.bonsaigames.net
Sounds like you got yourself a meaty project :-)
I would worry about the time it takes to play (although some gamers are happy spending 4-8hrs on the same game). From the above, assuming one minute per turn per player, 4 periods x 10 turns x 10 days = 400min per player so 800 for a two player thing, over 13hrs. But hey, why not? :-)
My suggestion is to make a very basic prototype and take it for a test drive. You might realise than 100 Health is too much (or not enough). It'll help you add real numbers to your description and get a feel for where you're going with this.
Best of luck!
Zombies are fun. Scavenging is fun. Building a fortress so that you may turtle and defend yourself against overwhelming odds is fun. I suddenly want to play Minecraft.
Your scale confuses me. You've got a day/night cycle AND a seasonal cycle?
Does this game have an end?
Check out Imminance!!!!
First off; Welcome! I'm not really into zombies at all, but your idea sounds interesting. This reminds me of the movie "I Am Legend" with Will Smith; and feels like a computer game made into a board game - which isn't negative at all - just saying.
I know your ok with the single player/epic scale direction - & that's cool, but I could really get into this game if it were scaled down a bit in terms of play-time and game size. I'd also like to play a zombie in this type of setup to create player interaction in a 2-6 player game. It would be a blast to have 6 people playing zombies and 1 playing "The Legend" or survivor. Kinda of an escape and chase type of feel. Just my opinion... Great start!
I like the idea, but I think that one you start getting into a solo game which takes multiple sittings you start to compete with videogames and electronic media, which is a losing battle (sadly). Explain the draw to me - why would I want to sit and play a game (survival or otherwise) with no end? And why would I want to do it alone?
You have a lot of really awesome ideas, but you have to give players a reason to want to explore all of them. How do I win your game? Do I just walk away when I'm bored and say "I lived until I got tired of this"? What stops me from doing that after the first day-cycle? What sense of accomplishment does that provide?
This would make an awesome computer game, maybe even an MMO - an endless simulation of what it could be like. But for a boardgame, I think it would be hard to find players willing to dedicate that much time. 'Risk', 'Axis and Allies', and 'Proud Monster' can all take *days* to play, even with dedicated gamers. When is the last time someone asked if you wanted to play a game of Risk? Did you finish the game? People play games to pass the time, and if your game can't be wrapped up in an hour or two, you are losing a huge part of the market.
Thanks. Feedback?