It's been a while since I've developed any kind of game, and I'm feeling that need of "
accomplishing something"
, so naturally my brain is constantly thinking about new ideas for mechanics.
After
the DROD Roguelike Project I thought I was done with DROD-related games, but today I had an idea which I think is interesting.
In short:
- Tile based game
- Turn based game
- Behaves like DROD/Wonderquest/Voligner
-
Unlimited undo
-
Certain elements aren't affected by undo-ing
So this could be actually described as the offspring between DROD and Braid.
I'm going to probably have two "
undo"
keys:
- A regular "
undo"
key, that can only be used once (a-la DROD)
- A time machine "
undo"
key, that can be used as many times as you want
The regular undo key would affect every element in the room, while the time machine undo key would affect every element except some elements marked in the editor, or that are upon a special terrain, etc.
I'm actually thinking that a steampunkish time machine would be a great justification for the mechanic. The main character has this time machine that can be used to rewind time, turn by turn.
There would be time-resistant terrain where elements cannot be brought back in time, or some special critters/characters that aren't affected by the space-time continuum. The player itself could drink potions to get affected/unaffected.
Now things start to get interesting. I'm going to make an example with common DROD elements. Two roaches are one after the other, walking in a straight line towards the player. One of the roaches is standing on a time-resistant tile, the other one isn't. The player decides to rewind time for one turn, causing both the roaches to be on the same tile at the same time.
This could have a lot of interesting repercussions, here are some ideas:
- This would create a paradox, making the room collapse on itself, killing the player
- Elements could have special behaviors for "
merging"
, for example the two roaches would give birth to a super-roach
- In a simple manner the time-resistant roach would survive while the time-traveling roach would die
Additional thought-provoking questions and ideas:
- Would the time rewind undo use a turn when the player is unaffected by time traveling? Would it behave like normal undo, thus moving the player in the previous location, when he is in his normal state?
- After rewinding, would doors be opened/closed again if the element which struck an orb is time-resistant and isn't there to strike the orb anymore?
- A puzzle example could be leading a regular roach in a certain path, then releasing a time-resistant roach queen and rewinding time to make the roach behave as a "
bridge"
for the queen and bring her in some otherwise inaccessible alcove
What do you think? Do you feel like this idea has some puzzle potential?
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[Last edited by vittro at 03-06-2012 08:35 PM]
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