I was at work today and randomly got an idea for a quick-paced co-op game that popped in my head, but before I commit more time to it I want to make sure it doesn't already exist, although nuances to current games are often enough for differentiation. Anywho, here's all of the random things that popped in my head related to the design, all in a fairly infantile stage.
Summary
We'll call it 'Tower Crawl', just for the sake of calling it something. The idea is that it is a quick-paced, co-op, card hack-n-slash dungeon crawl type game, however you are storming a tower occupied by a variety of up-to-no-good monsters! Aiming at 1-4 players (solo is definitely possible I think) who are braving five floors, waiting to face a final boss at the end.
Game Layout
Each floor is composed of four event cards, flipped and resolved one at a time, with a floor boss at the end of each floor. The event cards are just mini-games of sorts, puzzles, or combats that the party must get through. Not sure if there should just be a straight event deck used for every event regardless of floor, or a deck for each floor or the first option, but with five events on the card matching whichever floor you’re on (which I just thought of but seems very doable).
Player Roles
No classes for characters, officially, but each member would choose a set of starting treasure cards/slash equipment, with four distinct starting sets. I figure it would be somewhat light-hearted and cartoony, so like the fighter set could have a wooden sword for the weapon and a simple leather vest for the armor piece. Think of it being Munchkin-y in flavor.
Decks
There would be a small final boss deck that would be flipped for the boss of the final floor. There would be a treasure deck, which would be drawn from if the challenges on the event cards are met. There would be an event deck representing the challenges for each room on the floor. And monster deck for combats, if the event card says a monster appears (or multiple), then flip monster cards for the room. And finally something that I thought would add flavor is a (what I’m calling) modifier deck. At the bottom of monster cards, some will say to add a modifier. This would necessitate adding a twist to the battle. Examples of modifiers (think of them like plot twists if you will) could be “Add an additional monster” or “They were expecting you! -1 to each party’s attack ability”, things of that nature.
Combat
The final component to this idea is how combat would play out. I imagine combat would be straight forward. The party is combining their strength versus that of the monsters. Just as parties may vary in size depending on number of people playing, so will monsters. So the base amount for attack rating would be number of people. One person versus a pack of wolves (4 we’ll say) is going to be significantly harder than a group of four versus a pack of wolves. Then they would add their items to the battle and one-use cards they want to use and flip any modifiers for creatures and whomever's rating is higher wins. Since I was thinking only cards and no dice, ties would default to the monster side and a new event would have to be drawn. Failure of events results in a new event needing to be drawn. Game ends when the final boss is beat or when the group fails a certain number of times. Should the failure number be determined by number of people in the group?
Anyways, just wanted some quick feedback and was wondering if anyone knew if this was similar to anything else. It’s not that I am afraid my idea is unoriginal, because game design is about innovation not invention; I know its ideas are unoriginal. Just, if this game exists, I could buy it rather than design it. Since I came up with it within like fifteen minutes, I just wanted to consolidate my thoughts and throw it out there.
