Roguelike idea

I think it all falls down to execution, but the core idea is interesting. I like how "death" is treated in your high level concept (feels a bit like how rogue legacy recycles previous characters). Might be good to have a few winks to your previous characters too, such as say:

Your first character is dead. There is now a tombstone in his home village. If you visit it, you can steal a gear item he had in life (that awesome sword for example)

Would characters still have levels? I think you could come with a system that ties in time and experience: age. Since ultimately your character will die anyway, might as well introduce this long-forsaken mechanic where a character "ages".

Èach character could start their journey at around 13-18 years of age. Up until 30, they'd grow in all stats much more rapidly, beyond which physical abilities would lessen up until 60 or so. Beyond that point, the character would reach some kind of stagnant stage (or so).

Characters would get a chance to die from illness at any age, but the death% would increase drastically as you age (especially beyond age 40).

A number of things could make you age, such as combats, actual obelisks ("it took the man 3 years to master the flame!"), etc. It would be a very interesting resource that you, as a designer, could employ in various different ways.

Best of luck! I'm actually curious about how that might turn out...

I thought to not consider levels for a specific reason: player frustration.

Since characters must die in order to let the game progress (you need various characters types to achieve all the requirements to pass Age), I think it is frustrating for the player to grow a character and loose it in a systematic way (and begin again with a level 1 character)

The more, experience points, the holy grail of character progression, will still be there but will be a "world" resource: you gain them as humankind, not as character. You need a certain amount to pass Age, together with some other resources. I think at something like Social, Scientific, Artistic and Spiritual obeliks areas (and relative kind of characters).

So the real character is actually the world/setting... characters are more like troops in a rts.

But I like your suggestion of consider character age, thank you. I need to brain-crunch this thing but seems interesting, since the concept of "age" seems to be a key feature of this game idea.

I see your point. Age does seem like it would still be fitting...

Perhaps an adventurer is naturally expected to retire if he lives beyond 40 years of age anyway? That might help you introduce / force other types of character gameplay and a good tie-in to the next life perhaps.

Your game description kind of reminds me of Dwarf Fortress, [*1] which is a very popular game.

It is all in how you design your game - I do not know how well this would work

You don't buy or find equipment and you don't level: discovering technologies bring better equipment and stats to your characters.

, however there is nothing wrong with trying new ideas to see what happens.

[*1] Adventure Mode

Your game description kind of reminds me of Dwarf Fortress, [*1] which is a very popular game.

Mmm, don't think so. I played DF (but not in adventure mode) and it is a very different game. Adventure mode appears to me like a traditional roguelike (with all the deep of DF, by the way), it's "character-centric"; even if you can find and loot the corpse of your previous character there's not such a strong concept of "world-advancement".

But you're right, "there is nothing wrong with trying new ideas to see what happens".

I think I'll give a try if tomorrow this will still sounds good to me .

I think a prototype, even with very raw/low tech and feature set would be the best way to start with this. Toy with the concept a bit more, see what works / doesn't.

If you can, have a dev journal on this, I'd really like to keep track of your progress!

I think a prototype, even with very raw/low tech and feature set would be the best way to start with this. Toy with the concept a bit more, see what works / doesn't.

If you can, have a dev journal on this, I'd really like to keep track of your progress!

this.

Journal will be the tool of choice to talk about this, but a thread in the forum is the better way to have quick feedback to start with.

Your idea regarding age is taking form, solving a design issue I had: rechargeable powers. Some characters can take advanced actions, powerful things that can incide in the world.

For example: after you discover the obelisk "social organization: tribe" you unlock the chieftain character, which can create new villages. But at what cost? I don't want to spend gained resources, since I want them as a collectable-only thing. So the idea: he can set a new village every x year of game-life. Similar mechanic will be suitable for other characters.

(New villages are a key feature, since characters can move in a limited range from the native village, and exploring the map requires new spawn spot to be created)

So the idea: he can set a new village every x year of game-life.

Any idea on how you'll have time "advance"? Will be it flowing organically (each action comes with time moving forwards, or even realt-time moves forward), or related to player actions?

I don' know how far you want to reach into this, but it might be fun to advance your world so far that you can time travel back to a previous era with a character (but may be entirely beyond the scope of what you're trying to achieve).

So the idea: he can set a new village every x year of game-life.

Any idea on how you'll have time "advance"? Will be it flowing organically (each action comes with time moving forwards, or even realt-time moves forward), or related to player actions.

I should be working, but actually I'm thinking at this aspect at the moment

What I want to discourage is the left-right-left-right trick to let turns (time) pass. So probabily large scale time advancements (years) will take place according to something else, like the discover of an obelisk (3 years to master the fire, as you suggested before). But it is something I have to think of. Since the character life is a pretty clear abstraction of many human experiences I feel I have room for inventing.

I don' know how far you want to reach into this, but it might be fun to advance your world so far that you can time travel back to a previous era with a character (but may be entirely beyond the scope of what you're trying to achieve).

aha, time travel! THIS is the ultimate-complicate idea for a time-age-based game . Definitely something to write down and remember! What if at the end of the game, once reached the top, you need to discover the way to come back and start again? ahah, what a great image for the "cycle of life"! Funny

This seems like a rather interesting idea!

It looks as though you have enough for a prototype at the moment, so I'll just add one suggestion: instead of having the next character's class be randomly selected, allow the player to choose. The concern that prompts this is that a player wanting to do something specific--try out a new class, unlock an advancement specific to one or another class, simply engage in the gameplay of a particular class, etc.--might end up being assigned another class, and thus end up with a choice: put off/give up playing as they want to, or deliberately kill off the new character.

Of course, you could also provide a "random class" option for players who want it, in addition to the above.

It looks as though you have enough for a prototype at the moment, so I'll just add one suggestion: instead of having the next character's class be randomly selected, allow the player to choose. The concern that prompts this is that a player wanting to do something specific--try out a new class, unlock an advancement specific to one or another class, simply engage in the gameplay of a particular class, etc.--might end up being assigned another class, and thus end up with a choice: put off/give up playing as they want to, or deliberately kill off the new character.

In Rogue Legacy, there is a limited form of freedom of choice, which I think is fitting. Complete control over your destiny might prove a bit boring, but complete randomness misses your ability to make a meaningful choice. What if you end up with 7 different classes, but only 3 are ever presented to you at a new life, and never the one you've just done (in the past 1 or 2 lives)? You'd have to think about the future of the world:

I want an adventurer now so I can discover things that are far off, but then I'll need someone with more "mundane" skills to act upon that knowledge, reflect and adjust... Planning for the future of the world appears to be quite on theme with your concept, and I can really see these "omhfff" moments when one ends up with a "bad draw".

"Damn, I really needed a cook or smith, but I ended up with a tailor, sage and prophet! How can I make this life meaningful is my greater plan for this world?"

In Rogue Legacy, there is a limited form of freedom of choice, which I think is fitting.

Hmm... I think that the disconnect here may be in part that I'm not much of a player of roguelikes (although I'll admit that arka's idea here does interest me). I honestly think, however, that my response to being a "bad draw" would be to simply pick one, kill him off, then get another draw: I really don't like being told "no, you can't have that because the dice say so".

Additionally, I think that I recall watching Let's Plays of Rogue Legacy and seeing cases in which the player was disappointed in the selection available and didn't seem all that invested in that generation's character, moving quickly on to the next generation.

(While not quite the same thing, I have encountered something similar in playing an early version of Bro Force, as I recall: in that game, the player's next character was similarly randomly chosen--and I didn't like it. Again, I wanted to choose which character to play as, since I preferred some over others.)

I think that I'd prefer (relatively) complete control; rather than finding it boring, I think that I'd find a system like that in Rogue Legacy frustrating. However, I may well be in the minority on this, and may not be in the target audience for this game, so perhaps take my opinion with a grain of salt.

Of course, there's always the middle ground option: make it a setting. Allow users to select between three options: hardcore rogue-like, in which the next character is entirely random; Rogue-legacy's mechanism, in which the player selects from a randomly-generated set; and what I proposed above, allowing the player free choice.

Once again, great suggestions here .

I agree that the initial total random mode is not so good as it appears to me 12 hours ago. Thaumaturge is right. There's no fun in getting a random class (less useful at the moment), while there is strategic choice (-> fun) in choose one from the unlocked ones. I would like to avoid the "pick one, kill him off, then get another draw" scenario.

I need to sleep now, but chances are that tomorrow I'll start to type down something for a prototype.

Thank you guys!

I think it sounds like (potentially) a lot of fun, and a good balance between something that feels big in scope but could be implemented.

For the random class thing, here's a possible middle position between random and choosing from unlocks. I figure you'd be reborn as a child anyway and so potentially have some choice in what you become. But you're born somewhere and to someone, and that can serve as a default (you're a smith's son and so you have a potential class right there, no need for further looking) but you can also go out into the world and find some other master. There's a cost associated with that, though -- potentially a lot of time searching for the right master, and that's time without class abilities, without leveling the class, etc.

Part of learning the world (by exploring, through NPC chatter) would be learning where mastery has spread (that all the masters of magic are that one town where the magic obelisk was found recently, but that blacksmithing has already spread over the world except on this one continent, etc.), which would inform your choices of what to be. (I'm supposed to be an animal trainer, but I don't want to be, and all the smiths are far away, but the miners are everywhere and that's good enough for me.)

For time passing, you could set a threshold of movement -- say, moving through five different world chunks is a time unit. So if you move into a new world chunk, and it's different than the previous four unique chunks you were in, time increments. (Assuming square chunks, five would mean that there isn't anywhere you can run in a tiny circle to increment time.)

That's actually a pretty interesting idea; I don't know how well it would work, but it seems very likely well worth prototyping.

I started a set of journal entries to report progesses about the prototype of this thing: here

Thank you guys, you gave me the kick I need