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Oh, I'm going to use placeholder titles, to make response a lot easier.
"Rock Game"
The back story with this game will be Christianity influenced(I am not religious by any stretch, but am consistently intrigued by Theology) and while it will not be so close to call it Christianity themed, I'd like for it to be easy to see the derivatives. An intro to the setting would be, perhaps, to the world as whole. A few still shots of a busy city, with many people, loud yelling and clamoring. Zooming out, from clouds, galaxy, and innevitably the entire universe, whiteness. A whisp of electricity that is vaguely hand shaped opens, then closes. Zooming back into space, to a collection of meteors that are floating among the void, you see them ignite into fire and speed off into a direction. This direction, of course, is Earth; where the doomsday gang is hurtling. At impact, after the explosion, there is a molten planet which was once ours - now filled with lava and bare rock. Infinitely quiet, a stark contrast to how it was seconds before. I want this to be quickly, to bring home the fidelity of these creatures.
A scene switch back to the far reaches of the universe, where the Hand entity was, there's a man. Sorrow filled, shaking his head. He turns mournfully, giving the being a glance and then quickly vanishing leaving behind the same type of electricity. A view from the ground up on Earth, amongst the molten rock he appears in an explosion of lightning. With a quick and smooth outward gesture, the landscape begins to change. The lava evaropates, the sun brightens onto the land, and below ground rocks are tightening. This pressure and the cooling action of the removed lava creates a multitude of gems, which are now shaking at full speed and slowly rising. Around the god-like man these rock beings quickly rise - each have a crystal embedded within their palm. Standing around him, he looks up. Some dialogue will come forth at this point, I don't know what, but an explanation of unjust punishment for acting how they were programmed and that they are now purely soul - that the deities will leave them to an immortal life without intervention. This is when the game would start.
Again, this is simply outline, there are probably plot holes and a lack of accurate descriptions but that'd most likely resolve if I even move forward with this.
The game itself would be magic based as the unobstructed soul would allow for wordly manipulation. Communication rudimentary, but some remnance of basic wording because the soul had still been through civilized life and remembers it's past. I was thinking that the rock beings would quickly separate into their own groups, each pursuing a different ideal of how to proceed in this new world. This is where the combat takes place. Dependent on your group, you will amass a certain type of spell craft (I'm thinking based on the elements, while cliche I think the idea of one controlling fire or water or air OR earth entirely cool. NERD ALERT!
). Instead of spell creation I would like to allow spell manipulation.To draw a comparison, I'd say it'd be like chess. You have pieces that have defined movements, but their purposes are endless. I think it's fine to predefine spells and I don't think that is the issue with spell systems. I think the issue is the lack of weight. If you're creating the typical fireball, you are doing an amazing feat. I want the fireball to have WEIGHT, to act like a hurling ball of fire and to react like a fireball. Here's an example:
You have at your disposal the manipulation of fire. Determined by some user input, you can alter how the fire will be executed. Maybe a long click will allow a spray, or one click followed by holding the right mouse button directly after will create a fireball and the duration you hold increases size. Spraying towards the ground might allow you to quickly move out of the way acting like a jetpack since it's pressurized. This is basic but I like the idea of a contextual type of spell cast. That when these things are released you FEEL the power. I want combat to be slow and dliberate, these are hulking creatures that cannot move quickly. I don't want a lot of spells being thrown back and forth, I want each spell to be large and have a multitude of options to counter or redirect it. I am not sure how damage would be governed, I'd love to do a high lethality system with a fun destruction-physics animation, but I'm not sure.
As an aside, the earth spells would only work on inanimate earth, these beings are the blblical golem and more clay like than boulder like.
Art style would most likely be matte colors among earthy tones. Kind of that grounded but extraordinary religious feeling you get in old paintings.
That is the basis for the above idea, which... I kind of feel embarrassed for even typing. I had to force myself through that. The other idea I had has been in my mind since childhood but again, not completely developed. Though with a bit more knowledge of the industry I can make a more educated detail of the idea than what just sounded cool.
"Hunter Game"
A game set in the early ages amongst the werewolves and vampires and all other badies we've heard about. I want these creatures to be rare and for you to be the hunter. Living among a few towns that would be entirely made up, you'd spend a lot of your time sparring different forms of combat with others or managing a business or keeping an hear/eye on local talk; Or all of the above!. The talk would be text based as I'd want it to be completely randomized ala Gnomoria/Dwarf Fortress. These would either lead to inconclusive or conclusive beasts that you would in turn, hunt. The preparation would, again, be slow. Amassing the weapons, the text on said creature, more villager topics, and the like SHOULD be difficult work. I'd like the combat to be a bastardization of Jedi Academy and Mount and Blade. Meaning, the ability to block but also have controlled directional attacks. I prefer the movement based directionals in JA to the Mount and Blade mouse directionals, but I'm unsure. I would not opposed to having one universal block button.
I want fights to last for a long time, where there is a lot of build up. More over, I want each situation to be different. This could work by setting up a variety of assets for the environments then using a tracking system similar to "The Hunter" ( a hunting game) in which the target has a randomized path that leaves behind "footprint" assets that indicate direction. Upon successfully finding the enemy (let's assume vampire) you will be attacked and you can block, use other equipment, grappling, and ultimately come out on top or die. I'd like for the fighting to make it clear that if you lost, it was your fault. So maybe you hit him with holy water, direct him to a church amongst the cross, or just combat him.
I'm torn on the after-death condition. I think respawns trivialize and undermine the whole process. I could do permadeath, I know a wealth of players that would enjoy such a system. But, the day to day tasks MUST be equally as fun if that is used, the hunting being a treat. I think a variety of what you CAN do and keeping the tasks tangent with the hunting skills is important to sustain interest. That being a business owner you will be greeted with a "tycoon" like sim, a detective you get to utilize the random text system to find crimes, a hoodlum you get to rob and break into homes, etc...
The game should stand up as if there were no creatures.
Well, that's it. I hope myself and others learn from the results of this thread. Thanks for reading!
