I've been thinking of different game ideas for my next project and I thought this game idea was the most interesting and unique (in my opinion).
I have been playing the elder scrolls series and I've noticed that, even though alchemy is used a lot in the game, it is not at all fun or interesting. There is little fun in making different combinations of ingredients with practically no interaction or research involved.
So, I decided I wanted to make a potion making game. I also wanted the potions in the game to have a use so I've decided to incorporate some kind of a dungeon crawling aspect. I want to make finding the ingredients fun. I don't want it to be like in Skyrim where you happen to come across an ingredient, I want it to be a search for a certain ingredient. I have the idea that the player would be given a book at the start of the game which could be called something like "Potion Brewing - Basics" where the player would gain all the knowledge to make basic potions. You would have guides on identifying certain ingredients, constructing tools to help make the potions and guides on making the potions all together.
I want the potion making to be incredibly interactive. For instance, you want to make a potion that helps you see in the dark but before you can do this you have to get a certain ingredient then ground the ingredient with a mortar and pestle. This would include hitting the ingredient by clicking with the mouse ;)
The adventuring aspect of the game would be requiring rare ingredients. First of all, you would be able to make basic potions with ingredients which grow in safe areas. You would then use the potions you have made to make you better at combat to then slay creatures to harvest ingredients for their bodies or to get past them to get access to these ingredients.
Inspirations for this idea come from The Elder Scrolls series and a Harry Potter movie (The Half Blood Prince to be exact).
This is a work in progress idea and I would love to get constructive criticism or questions regarding the idea. I'll be sure to keep gamedev.net updated when I start to develop the game.
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I've decided to give it the working name: Potius Dominus
It's Latin for Potions Master. I thought calling the working title Potions Master would be a bit cliché, hence the Latin. Potius isn't actually Latin for potion. The Latin should actually be Potio but I thought it didn't sound right.
Potion Making Adventure Game. Viable Game Type?
Author
Sounds like an interesting concept, and something a bit different from the norm! As usual, the devil is in the details, and whether or not it is actually fun would depend on the execution.
This sounds like it might get tedious and frustrating, especially if it's something that has to be done often. It would probably be a great mechanic for a different input device like the touch stylus on a DS, a WiiMote, or perhaps even Kinect, although obviously those options may not be available to you. It could also be well suited to a touch screen, but unfortunately the adventuring aspects would likely be much less so unless you could come up with a different approach.
ground the ingredient with a mortar and pestle. This would include hitting the ingredient by clicking with the mouse
This sounds like it might get tedious and frustrating, especially if it's something that has to be done often. It would probably be a great mechanic for a different input device like the touch stylus on a DS, a WiiMote, or perhaps even Kinect, although obviously those options may not be available to you. It could also be well suited to a touch screen, but unfortunately the adventuring aspects would likely be much less so unless you could come up with a different approach.
Author
Sounds like an interesting concept, and something a bit different from the norm! As usual, the devil is in the details, and whether or not it is actually fun would depend on the execution.
[quote name='CryoGenesis' timestamp='1351985304' post='4997007']
ground the ingredient with a mortar and pestle. This would include hitting the ingredient by clicking with the mouse
This sounds like it might get tedious and frustrating, especially if it's something that has to be done often. It would probably be a great mechanic for a different input device like the touch stylus on a DS, a WiiMote, or perhaps even Kinect, although obviously those options may not be available to you. It could also be well suited to a touch screen, but unfortunately the adventuring aspects would likely be much less so unless you could come up with a different approach.
[/quote]
Yes, it does sound like it would become rather tedious. Although, one idea I had would be that the mortar and pestle would have to include some sort of accuracy to keep it interresting. The player would have to crush the ingredients based on the instructions provided. For instance, you have to break a certain ingredient to a 'not too fine' consistency and player would have to guess whether they have broken the ingredient down to that consistency without any other help apart from the vague scrawlings in the book.
Another idea I had would be that, past a certain level, a lot of ingredients would have no knowledge to them whatsoever and the player would have to experiment to find the functions of these ingredients. The player would have an empty bookshelf where he/she could fill with journals full of information and diagrams which the player would write. Like a personal encyclopaedia. This would be useful due to the sheer number of ingredients and potions which could be made. Newly discovered potions could be named by the player along with having different coloured bottles so the player can colour code his/her collection.
Thanks for your feedback.
Newly discovered potions could be named by the player along with having different coloured bottles so the player can colour code his/her collection.
I don't know what platforms you are looking at, but to me this particular idea just screams to be included in a social game, and it could be a bit of a race and a big deal to be the first player to discover how to create a new potion -- particularly if it was a very useful one.
I've seen a few games about brewing potions but they do sound quite different from this concept - they are more like a real-time sim where the player grows plants or tends animals to get the brewing ingredients. The goal of the actual brewing is mainly to unlock new levels of sim, though it also generates money to spend on plants/animals/upgrades/consumbable bonuses. Or the potions themselves can be the consumable bonuses.
Author
[quote name='CryoGenesis' timestamp='1351987573' post='4997022']
Newly discovered potions could be named by the player along with having different coloured bottles so the player can colour code his/her collection.
I don't know what platforms you are looking at, but to me this particular idea just screams to be included in a social game, and it could be a bit of a race and a big deal to be the first player to discover how to create a new potion -- particularly if it was a very useful one.
[/quote]
Just standard indie PC game. I'm going to write it in Java so if I decide to port it to android then it may be a little easier. I would imagine that after something is discovered then people would just share the information which, I guess, destroys the element of discovery in the game. I doubt anything like this would be popular enough to get any online guides anyway ;)
I'm thinking that finishing the game then putting it on steam green light is a good idea but I don't know much about green light really.
Author
I've seen a few games about brewing potions but they do sound quite different from this concept - they are more like a real-time sim where the player grows plants or tends animals to get the brewing ingredients. The goal of the actual brewing is mainly to unlock new levels of sim, though it also generates money to spend on plants/animals/upgrades/consumbable bonuses. Or the potions themselves can be the consumable bonuses.
Yeah it does sound a bit different. I guess the main difference would be that the rarer ingredients would have to be taken through some sort
of danger. For instance, you are looking for troll saliva which is hard to extract from a live troll so you will have to slay one but to do this you need to be strong enough which would mean drinking a potion to enhance your body (a potion that transforms you into a wolf for example). So to be able to progress in the game you would need to get ingredients that make stronger potions that help you get ingredients to make even stronger potions.
One idea would be a programming game like SpaceChem. Basically, in your game you get various ingrediants with differing properties. To turn those into usable potions the player has to process them by grinding them up, boiling, distilling, or fermenting the ingrediants.
Now, you can start of with things like a simple mortar and pestle, boiling apperatus, etc which the player experiments with to get the right result. Then, as they make money selling potions they can buy automated devices like grinders, distilers and the like. Then they hook all the automated things together into paths and adjust them properly so that the setup can automatically make the desired potions. So at the end, you wind up with a big arrangement of beakers, tubes, bunsen burners, and the like with the end result dripping the potions into prepared bottles.
So... lets say it goes like this:
1. Adventurer goes out into dungeons or areas, picking up all the plants or dead animal parts they can find and taking them to a shopkeeper. (maybe have a humerous cutscene where stereotypical adventurers dump a huge pile of vendor trash onto the counter of some poor shopkeeper who is obligated to buy everything).
2. Shopkeeper then sorts all the various ingredients and has to find out what they are good for. This involves either researching them in books or experimenting with them.
3. Experimenting also involves processing the ingredients like grinding, heating, distilling, or whatever to see how that changes the effect.
4. Once you get that information, see about making potions with it, experiment with different processes (cooking time, ratio of ingredients, etc) until you get a decent recipe.
5. Then buy the equipment to mass produce the potion and start making potions. You can of course make potions manually but that could be time consuming if the player doesn't like it.
I suppose if you want to keep the mystery of it, you could do something like a Roguelike (like Nethack) where items have randomized appearances. Like say... if Firevine roots can be used in Potions of Endure Cold, then you can randomize the appearance of them and only let players identify them once they determine enough of the roots main properties. So in any given game, a Firevine root could be red, yellow, purple or some other color with other ingrediants sharing the same range of appearances. So each game, players have to sort the ingrediants they are given, identify them through experimentation and create the results anew. Thus keeping each game fresh.
Now, you can start of with things like a simple mortar and pestle, boiling apperatus, etc which the player experiments with to get the right result. Then, as they make money selling potions they can buy automated devices like grinders, distilers and the like. Then they hook all the automated things together into paths and adjust them properly so that the setup can automatically make the desired potions. So at the end, you wind up with a big arrangement of beakers, tubes, bunsen burners, and the like with the end result dripping the potions into prepared bottles.
So... lets say it goes like this:
1. Adventurer goes out into dungeons or areas, picking up all the plants or dead animal parts they can find and taking them to a shopkeeper. (maybe have a humerous cutscene where stereotypical adventurers dump a huge pile of vendor trash onto the counter of some poor shopkeeper who is obligated to buy everything).
2. Shopkeeper then sorts all the various ingredients and has to find out what they are good for. This involves either researching them in books or experimenting with them.
3. Experimenting also involves processing the ingredients like grinding, heating, distilling, or whatever to see how that changes the effect.
4. Once you get that information, see about making potions with it, experiment with different processes (cooking time, ratio of ingredients, etc) until you get a decent recipe.
5. Then buy the equipment to mass produce the potion and start making potions. You can of course make potions manually but that could be time consuming if the player doesn't like it.
I suppose if you want to keep the mystery of it, you could do something like a Roguelike (like Nethack) where items have randomized appearances. Like say... if Firevine roots can be used in Potions of Endure Cold, then you can randomize the appearance of them and only let players identify them once they determine enough of the roots main properties. So in any given game, a Firevine root could be red, yellow, purple or some other color with other ingrediants sharing the same range of appearances. So each game, players have to sort the ingrediants they are given, identify them through experimentation and create the results anew. Thus keeping each game fresh.
There is a japanese RPG series that revolves around alchemy called Atelier. Though I haven't played it.
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