This is an idea that is too long to post as a reply. Overview Player plays a bunny to survive, to mate, and to be an epic bunny hero with wacky abilities. Genre 3D Action RPG, Comedy Level Progression There are 10 levels. Each time the player bunny levels up it gains a new action. This level-related abilities is independent to special actions that the bunny could get by exploring and learning from Hermit Bunnies. Level 1 (30 min) o Eat o Jump o Run At level 1 the bunny can perform three actions. The Bunny starts at a bunny hole. To advance to the next level, the Bunny needs to return to the hole having eaten 1000 Cal worth of food. Jumping and running burn calories. The food is out on the field including carrots. The field has a farmer that protects the carrots and a fox that eats bunnies. The player would compete with other bunnies to get the amount of food needed. While the Bunny is young, it can build up tolerance to different food type. This could help the bunny later when there isn't enough carrots to be found. Search for different things to eat if possible. The estimated time for the player to understand the rules and successfully is 30 minutes. The players are free to form bunnies clubs that team up to distract predators. Level 2 (30 min) o Eat, Jump, Run o Dash The Bunny has grown a little bit and now it can dash, which is also a calories burning action. Being able to dash allows the bunny get through more dangers areas. Return to the home hole with 2000 Cal to advance to the next level. Level 3 (4 hr) o Dash, Eat, Jump, Run o Dig Digging allows the bunny to use the gopher tunnels and to get under fences. Some gophers don't like intruders to their tunnels. At this point, the Bunny can explore many places. This allows the player to find and meet Hermit Bunnies. Hermit Bunnies travel around the world to teach a limited number of bunnies new skill each day. Each week, their locations would change, but each region will have one Hermit. The bunnies that can find them will get to learn one of their special skills. Some skills require a certain tolerance that the bunnies must have through diet. Training is tough and consumes calories. Hermits would not teach if a bunny is too weak. The Bunny could also explore for the sake of gathering items or to modify itself (finding a can of paint and dye itself). To advance to the next level, return to the home hole with 4000 Cal. Hermit Skills include: o Alchemy o Breathe Fire o Chain Lightning o Cloth Making o Diving o Fly o Freeze o Healing o Hypnosis o Laser Beams o Metal Eating o Metal Working o Mining o Necromancing o Pick Lock o Rocketry o Summoning o Stealth o Swimming o Tractor Driving o Transform o Woodworking o X-ray vision ... Most skills requires energy to perform. Some skills require gathering of special material or ingredient. Level 4 (6 hr) o Dash, Dig, Eat, Jump, Run o Sing It is time to find a partner. Travel to a colony sufficiently far from the home hole and look for a spouse by singing in the field. Singing attracts predators. Each day, in each region, there are a limited number of potential spouses. Spouse bunnies are attracked to bunnies that sings well, that takes practice as well as energy. To have a family, the bunny must also find a place to dig its own hole. To advance to the next level, the bunny must bring a Spouse to the new hole with 8000 Cal. The play time includes surviving, traveling, searching for a place for new home, and finding a spouse. Level 5 (8 hr) o Dash, Dig, Eat, Jump, Run, Sing o Lead New bunnies are born. Lead them to the field to get food. Most of them can eat what the Bunny can eat, but there could be some variation. The Bunny can decide to lead all of the bunnies to the field at once or just one at a time. When a kid returns home with 1000 Cal, it has grown enough and it is counted as a successful offspring. When that happens, the Bunny can assign whether to let them leave the hole or keep them in the hole. To advance to the next level, the Bunny must have 10 successful offsprings and return home with 2000 Cal for itself and 2000 Cal for Spouse. Every day, a kid loses 100 Cal, when it drops to 0 the kid dies. Kids and Spouse can also die when they get attacked on the field. If the Bunny and Spouse have 8000 Cal each at the end of the day, more bunnies will be born. If a Spouse dies the Bunny must find another. The Bunny could dig multiple homes and have multiple Spouses. Bring a Spouse or a Kid to a Hermit would allow the Spouse to learn the skill. Level 6 (12 hr) o Dash, Dig, Eat, Jump, Lead, Run, Sing o Fight Some neighboring bunnies are unhappy with the Bunny's success and a rival will appear to invade the Bunny hole. The Bunny can flee or fight, but the cycle would not stop until the rival is defeated or until the Bunny has no spouse. The Bunny could fight, use special skills learned from Hermits, or use any item it had gathered from exploration. To advance to the next level, the Bunny must defeat the rival and have 8000 Cal for itself and Spouse. Level 7 (14 hr) o Dash, Dig, Eat, Fight, Jump, Lead, Run, Sing o Invade (PvE) The Bunny can choose to invade the holes of other bunnies. If the Bunny wins it could claim the new hole and the new spouse. Invasion is entirely optional, but it is the fastest way to expand its own population if the Bunny is successful enough to gather enough food for multiple litters. The Bunny advances to the next level when its successful offspring count reaches 100. Level 8 (16 hr) o Dash, Dig, Eat, Fight, Invade, Jump, Lead, Run, Sing o Challenge (PvP) The Bunny now establish dominance in the region by challenging other level 8 or higher player bunnies. This is a game of dominance that involves no invasion. When the Bunny had won 10 times and have a winning ratio of at lesat 2:1, it advances to the next level. Each day, a Level 8 Bunny is required to accept the first challenge. Alternatively, the Bunny could advance to the next Level by having 1000 successful offsprings. Level 9 (18 hr) o Challenge(PvP) Dash, Dig, Eat, Fight, Invade, Jump, Lead, Run, Sing o Challenge(Fox) By now the Bunny is almost invincible in the region. It is time to settling some debt with the Fox with all the skills that the Bunny had learned from the Hermits and items gathered. To advance to the next level, the Bunny must fight the Fox with or without Spouse and kids. Level 10 (20 hr per month) o Challenge(PvP,Fox) Dash, Dig, Eat, Fight, Invade, Jump, Lead, Run, Sing o Challenge(Cat, Crows, Farmer, Gophers, Harvester, Hound, Hunter, Little Red Riding Hood, Loggers, Ox, Raccoon, Rats, Rooster, Snake, Volcanic Dragon, Wolf) At the last level, the Bunny turns Epic by challenging everything else. The Bunny earns an attached record for each victory. Many of these challenges requires the Bunny to journey to new area where the the Bunny must adapt to the new environment (which involves digging new home). A new boss is introduce every month for the players to challenge. The new addition could also be a quest, an event, treasure hunting, or an limited time Hermit that teaches a skills. ---- Thoughts?

Re:

1) Do children lose calories if you don't log on: [ No ]

In the way I imagined it, the children will only lose calories while the player is playing. One day in the game is about 1 hour in real life. So when the kids are born the player must increase not the play time, but the intensity of the play to feed the newborn bunnies. The player chooses when to have newborns because of the 8000 Cal x2 requirement.


2) AI system for children hunting on their own: [ Almost None ]

At the hole, the Bunny would select which member of the family to bring outside. Once outside, the follower would just follow the Bunny closely. When the Bunny is sufficiently close to food sources the follower would go eat it. So by default, the children do not hunt on their own. There are reared, not supervised. When a child return to the hole with 1000 Cal, the player select whether to keep it or to free it. Freeing the kid basically means saying goodbye and never see that kid again. Rearing/Command-related Hermit skills:

o "Go home": Allows the Bunny to send a follower home directly while out on the field

o "All you can eat mode": When activated, the followers will automatically eat stuff near them.

o Carry Food: Allows the Bunny to carry food home without eating it. If there is food left at the hole, the children will automatically share them equally.

o Family Call: Allows your freed offspring to come out to attack your target during a fight.

o Piggyback: Allows a child to ride on your back.


3) Average mortality when children hunt on their own: [ They don't hunt on their own ]

Those children are dependences. Rearing is like playing the normal game with additional difficulty and stress. The Bunny cannot be too bold because while the Bunny can Dash, the child can not (Spouse can). The children cannot jump as high as the Bunny. So it could happen that a child is stuck. If a door closes between the Bunny and the child, the child would get trapped and don't know where to go. Moving as a group also makes it harder to hide from predators because a predator could see the follower. Some child would be randomly born with a special skill that the Bunny has. For example, if the Bunny has a stealth mode, a kid could also have stealth an innate mode. The Bunny could test this by going into stealth and see whether the kid can mimic that action or by using the Hermit ability "Skills Examine".



Genetics:

When the Bunny is courting, it could select a spouse with certain abilities that might pass on to the kid to increase the survival rate of the kids. For example, if the Bunny found a Spouce from the Volcanic region that has the genetic ability: Fire-proof, then a kid might also inhert that ability and be born as a fire-proof bunny. (The Bunny itself could become fire-proof by getting that ability from a Hermit.)

That is a great idea! ^_^

Can't tell from your description, would there be story-heavy parts and quests? It doesn't necessarily need them, I was just wondering where the main source of the player's emotional involvement would be.

Also, singing would be hard to implement as gameplay, might work better to substitute the gathering of materials to build a house? Perhaps food stored at the house could be automatically eaten by spouse and offspring to counteract calorie loss if the player wants to be able to ignore them to go search for more hermits for a while.

Sounds awesome! One thing I would say is that for level 4 you have allocated 6 hours. This may be fine, but if all you have to do in the level is practice singing, and then sing, it might be a bit dull. It depends on how you intend to make the practising work. Is it just going to be, sing 10 times, then you can sing successfully? Or is there going to be some sort of complicated mini-game that will actually take 3/4 hours of playing to do it well. I think if you artificially force the player to "learn" something that requires no actual skill, they may get bored if that is all they can do.

Re:

Story & Quest

The main story is "Bunny Thrives and Goes Epic". The steps of the story is integrated to the sequence of actions that the Bunny can perform as it levels up.

Hermits can give quests. But most of the time the quests are integrated with the skills that the Bunny tries to learn. For example, to learn Rocketry, the Hermit might ask the Bunny to gather certain material. The gameplay of the quest would then involve doing some research on where such material can be found, gather them, and return to the Hermit while the Hermit is still there (or to look for him againt the next week).

Some quests are just curiousity quests. There are many things in the shed. Many food in the kitchen (of the farmhouse). Curiousity would drive the player to explore. What I mean is, suppose you hop to the shed and you see that another player Bunny is look at you from the window of the shed from inside the shed. Wouldn't you just want to go in too?

Some quests are based on NPC dynamics. Muffin quest: When a wolf is chasing the Little Red Riding Hood, the Bunny can trip the her. The wolf gets her and the Bunny can get all the muffins. Everyone is happy. Alternatively the Bunny could trip the wolf and be rewarded with a muffin. Certain quests would allow the Bunny to befriend NPCs. Befriending the chickens would allow the Bunny to hide in the chicken coop without getting chased out, and to play with the chicks. Befriending the dog would allow the Bunny to ride on the back or to be protected to get to some locations. Befriending the frogs allow the Bunny to live in their territory.


The player's emotional involvements are:

1) Curiosity: The player wants to get and to reach places that other bunnies can get
2) Simplicity: The Bunny life is simple and relations are clear cut
3) Threat: Danger never really go away on the field. This is different from an MMORPG where, when the PC is sufficiently leveled up, there is nothing to fear. In this game, everytime the Bunny sticks its head out of the hole there is a chance that the Fox is sitting right next to it.
4) Adventure with Spouse or Kids: The Bunny gets to travel, explore, learn skills, with the Spouse(s) and Kids. It is just cute.
5) Socializing: The players can share information about where the Hermit is, where things are happening, and cooperate to get access to places and do things that a single Bunny cannot do (such as Tractor driving). They can cooperate to make the fox do Whack-a-mole to help bunnies out of their hole. A KO'ed Bunny can be revived by a Bunny with that ability, and a Bunny can learn to body paint other Bunnies. Epic Bunnies would be asked to solo the Fox. Low level Bunnies can spectate when dueling Lv8's (thus showing off their whacky skills). Bunnies with crafting skills could be asked to make clothing and armors and jewelries etc.


Courting: Singing and Dancing

Singing is for getting the attention of potential spouses initially. When there are potential mates, their ears would stick out from the bushes. Continue singing would make them emerge from bushes.

I imagine that courting has a part of dance-dance-revolution element where when a potential spouse gets close, the Bunny needs to mirror or match its rhythm. If there are multiple suitors the potential spouse would move toward the one that matches it better. The different suitors will discover the complete sequence of the dance as they dance, and the spouse bunny will choose the first bunny that can perform the entire sequence. Elementary dance moves:

o Vertical Jump
o Hop left
o Hop right
o Crouch
o Hop forward
o Hop backward


The Duration of Level 4

The estimate 6 hours of level 4 includes the part where the Bunny feeds itself to 8000 Cal. That alone could take 2 hours when the player tries to do it for the first time at a new place (includes traveling time and getting familiar with the environment). The player also need to locate potential spouses, and out-dance the competitors. Because the number of potential spouses are limited every day, there could be times with the Bunny cannot find any in the region. The 6 hours include the time when the Bunny just have to wait till the next day. There could be players that just enjoy out-dancing the other players to take their potential spouse. But from the eye of the spouse, if the two suitors dance equally well, it would pick the Bunny that has fewer spouses (dead or current). The spouses don't care about the the level of the suitor.

Minimap is a Hermit Skill. Some Hermit skills are share by multiple Hermits. A basic skill like Minimap might be shared by most of them, such that the first time that a Bunny meets a Hermit it could learn minimap.


Location of the Hermits

In general, once a player finds the location of the Hermit, it can tell the world by posting online. So it is not extremely hard to locate if the players cooperate and perhaps search in different areas and post the areas that had been searched. The Hermits could be hidden in weird and dangerous places such as in front the dog house or under the farmer's bed. Hermits are invisible and invulnerable to the physical world. The dog cannot see the Hermit in front of its house but it can see the player. Hermits with simple skills visit regions at easier locations. Hermits with hard and rare skills appear at dangerous locations. So sometimes even though the players can see where the Hermit is, it could occur that no one figure out to reach it without getting KO. The solution would general involve skills and cooperation by more than one player.


Food storage

Yes, the Bunny can store food at home so that the kids don't starve while the Bunny goes off to look for a Hermit. But the normal way to do is to first fully feed them so that they can leave the hole, then go on to look for a Hermit. There won't be additional newborn if the player does not stock up the Calories of the Spouse. The ability to bring food home is a Hermit ability. In addition, food storage is another ability and could require additional material (e.g. a jar). This mechanism is set so that a normal player would need to decide when to have kids. There should be nothing automatic about rearing. For a normal player, the Bunny would have to have brought each newborn to the field and had found food together. So even though the game would allow food storage, the balancing would make that the more tediuos way to feed kids.


House Building

Bunnies don't build houses. But they could decorate the interior of their holes. So underground, the Bunny could have a proper front door, have a mail box and such, but those things do nThe ot show up above the ground, because the ground above would become too cluttered.

Bunny could befriend a bird by helping it build a nest.


Educational Values

The player would inadventently learn about the calories and nutrition values of various produces and other real food types, where they are grown and what they look like before they are harvested.

[Edited by - Wai on April 20, 2009 7:31:32 PM]

Arcade Mode




What do you think is the hardest part of the 3D implementation?

The game progression sounds like a rip of Spore, with a lot of features taken out. Aside from that, this idea IMO is uncreative; replacing typical beaten-to-death RPG fare with bunnies is not a good thing. Finally, the Hermit skills seem like an uncoordinated cohesion of subconscious chaos.

Next.

Emotional balance in a game where the player plays a prey

This game has a property where the majority of the gameplay does not involve agression. The player plays a prey.

The skill set of the Hermit Skill is a response to the condition where, in an online game, a population would exist to do delinquent things. That is the population that have fun by breaking immersion. In this case it is already whacky and cannot be further broken.

Since the player plays the role of a prey, you could imagine that if the game is a realistic simulation it could get pretty stressful. So on one hand the player plays a prey, on the other hand, it cannot be too stressful. Let the Bunnies shoot rockets to the fox. It gives the player some sense of extraordinary power from time to time, but without ever changing the fundamental role between the avatar and the environment. A Level 10 Epic Bunny is still a prey. That is the fun that the player can count on.


Survival Statistics

When the player Bunny is attacked, the game keeps track of the number of times that the Bunny is defeated or successfully evade the attack. There is no HP for a bunny because the power of the predators are so overwhelming that not dodging an attack means instant death. For any practical purpose the Bunny has only 1 HP. A near-death experience would be one where the predator hit the Bunny but the Bunny only tumbles. There is one set of statistics per predator type.

Fox: 14 Hit, 34 Miss
Hawk: 3 Hit, 0 Miss
Hunter: 1 Hit, 0 Miss
Poison: 8 Hit, -----
Snake: 7 Hit, 3 Miss
Trap: 2 Hit, 1 Miss

In the above stats, the player Bunny got killed by the Hawk 3 times, and had never survived when a hawk attacks it. The player could be just too slow to react to the clue of a Hawk attack. (The player bunny died 35 times so far in 6 ways.) It got killed by the Fox the most, but it also has the highest chance to dodge the Fox attack. The player learns to deal with it.

What happens when a bunny dies:

The bunny could get revived by another bunny that has the skill and is willing to do so. Spell casting costs calories. If there is no one that can revive the bunny or that the player does not want to be revive at that spot, the player can choose to restart at the home hole with calories loss. The player could use that as a mean to teleport home. It hurts the stats a little bit but it is fun to watch. Anything that the bunny was carrying would remain at the spot.



Size and Perspective

Bunnies are small. Predators are big. Human characters are like giants.

[ Inside the fenced area ]
[ Dashing ]
[ Accessories/Hermits ]

[Edited by - Wai on April 21, 2009 5:40:48 PM]