Side-scroller game for OUYA

[Paul]

I should be sleeping since I have to work today, but when I have an idea I can't stop obsessing about it sometimes.  Anyway, I was thinking more about the possession idea, and thought that a good name for the game, or at least for the main character, would be "Caped Soul".  This is a subtle anagram I've used before (rearrange the letters and you get "Paul's Code").

I put together a concept image for the caped soul (pieced together results from a Google Images search, healed, desaturated, colorized - not really an original work, just a basic concept):



This should demonstrate why I can't be the artist - the character would need to be more spirit-like, and is much too serious.  It would need to be made way more "Nintendoy" to fit into the style of game I'm wanting to do here.  I was going to say more "cutesy", but I'm not going for Casper here either.  Hopefully you get the idea.

This creature would start out in his ghostly form, and be able to jump into things.  When damaged, he would pop back out in his ghostly form, and of course from there if damaged he loses a life and the level restarts.

[Paul]

I was thinking about this some more today, and I really think the Caped Soul/ possession idea is the direction I want to go with this game.  There are all kinds of unique experiences you could create with this idea, and deciding what to possess and in what order will make the game experience different each time you replay a level.

The idea of possessing statues, not just enemies, is something that really has potential I think.  For example, you know how several games have statues of heads on the dungeon walls, which spit magic balls or arrows?  Wouldn't it be cool to possess something like that and snipe the enemies on the map?  How about statues of guards at the entrance to a palace?  Or possess a gargoyle statue and go on a rampage!

It would be important to limit this power somehow, or the game would just be too easy, and no fun to play.  One idea would be to make it so possessing something takes some amount of time (targeting and then staring at at the target, for example).  The more powerful the target, the longer it would take to posses.  Fast-moving targets would be very difficult to posses, but would be a huge advantage if you can pull it off (flying enemies, for example, to skip over difficult areas of a map).

I also like the idea of making the ultimate enemy to be other creatures like yourself, who can also possess things.  It could be used for some very exciting bosses at the end of the levels - utilizing the environment through possession to attack each other!

[EGOvoruhk]

This sounds kind of like a 2D version of Messiah. Not exact, but I'm getting reminders of it with the possession talk. I liked Messiah


Also, I just felt the need to say that this:

It would be important to limit this power somehow, or the game would just be too easy, and no fun to play

is oh so very wrong, and one of the biggest mistakes game developers make.

Why is Mario fun, because it's hard? No, because it's fun. Fun and difficulty aren't mutually exclusive. Never limit a fun (main) game mechanic unless you're going to replace it with another fun game mechanic. If you want to make it hard, then on the last level, have the protagonist turn the antagonist into a human, or other killable form, maybe trap him in whatever last possession he took, and limit them that way and give them another way, that's not frustrating, to beat the game... even though that's so cliche

Whatever you do, just don't make the game get progressively harder for no reason at all. Plenty of games barely progress in difficulty, but stay fun throughout. If it's too hard, people might start throwing their controllers like the old days

[Vincentmrl]

TWhy is Mario fun, because it's hard? No, because it's fun. Fun and difficulty aren't mutually exclusive. Never limit a fun (main) game mechanic unless you're going to replace it with another fun game mechanic. If you want to make it hard, then on the last level, have the protagonist turn the antagonist into a human, or other killable form, maybe trap him in whatever last possession he took, and limit them that way and give them another way, that's not frustrating, to beat the game... even though that's so cliche

Whatever you do, just don't make the game get progressively harder for no reason at all. Plenty of games barely progress in difficulty, but stay fun throughout. If it's too hard, people might start throwing their controllers like the old days

SMB, nsmb, even mario kart double dash, these all get harder progressively because the player gets more experience. A game must have progressive difficulty because it can get boring. Even an easy game like Klonoa (PS1) got some hard parts, still the concept is crazily simple.
Also, what's bad about throwing controllers like the old days? Wasn't the game supposed to give nostalgia?

[Paul]

It would be important to limit this power somehow, or the game would just be too easy, and no fun to play

is oh so very wrong, and one of the biggest mistakes game developers make.

Why is Mario fun, because it's hard? No, because it's fun. Fun and difficulty aren't mutually exclusive. Never limit a fun (main) game mechanic unless you're going to replace it with another fun game mechanic.

I agree with your point in principle - I definitely am not suggesting making it difficult just for the sake of being difficult.  Instead, my idea was to make it simple in the initial levels (to get used to the game-play) and progressively more complex (perhaps "complex" is a better word than "difficult", but the two often go hand-in-hand).  If the game is a simple mindless repeating level after level, then it will not be fun either.  Not talking about making huge pit that you have to run at with a tiny platform to land on.  Rather, I'm talking more about complex scenareos and more difficult things to possess, to make you strategize what you want to possess in what order, so that you can not only complete the level but also get a good "score" or be rewarded for accomplishing a particularly difficult possession.

[Tom.K]

About possessing, maybe this would make it more complex... you could try to possess every possible object in game, including doors or walls or gates or lamps, so pretty much everything, the only thing it would depend is how it will affect its abilities. Player will have to find a way how possesion of those things would help him, or not.

No limits, but no hints either. Some objects should have an additional random ability/disability so that it doesn't always end up that you think that something will do what you think it will do, but it may do something else, too. The scenario by itself could be dynamic, so that it's not always the same objective or process to make objective successful.

[Paul]

That's an excellent idea!  It would be a good way to hide items like extra lives, warp zones, etc (instead of pounding blocks with your head or pressing "down" on pipes).  It would also give you the sense that you were controlling a powerful character, which is what I want.  I'd like to draw the player into the character and get a sense of what it would be like to have the ability to just take control of things at will.  Jumping into simple things like doors and what-not should be instantaneous point-and-click, so you could quickly cover everything on the screen and move on without getting bored.

[Vincentmrl]

I agree with the idea, it makes me think about zelda games, they're puzzle all the way and if you don't use logic you get stuck forever. Also the game should have an hint you have to think about to find out what it means, appearing after some minutes being stuck.

[Paul]

Any thoughts on a story?  Perhaps a starting point to build on, is that Caped Soul could be a rebel of some sort, who is fighting against others of his kind.  Not sure if he should be a "villain" trying to become the most powerful of his kind, or a "hero" fighting against some injustice perpetrated by others of his kind.  Also along that same vein, not sure if most "enemies" should be innocent bystanders or minions of the other spirits (or a combination of both).

[Vincentmrl]

what about the backstory on the evil guy, saying he was good but then something bad happened to him/soeone hypnotizes him to make people think he's the villain?

[harrbri]

how bout the main character has had his body stolen...
or id love for the main character to have "square eyes" from to much video gaming....
or the level to fold upon itself so you can play in the background and the foreground in opposite directions...

[Paul]

I think what I'll do next is write a very basic core for the engine (something without any "bells and whistles"), probably in a web applet (using jPCT, since it can be easily ported to jPCT AE which I'll be using for the 3D engine in the OUYA game).  I feel like I'll be able to generate more interest in the project if I have a simple demo for folks to look at, and we can tinker around with it while brainstorming.

The demo will be a single screen, a ground, a background, a single platform, a single 3D enemy, and a single 3D object.  You'll be able to walk, maybe jump, possess the enemy and object, and control them once possessed.  I'll make some simple placeholder images and models for the demo (unless anyone has some stuff I could borrow)

[Vincentmrl]

I have a blocky king harkinian model I made long ago, he's holding the cup. Tell me if you want to use it as placehorder model

[Paul]

Haha, sure that will work for a place holder 

[Vincentmrl]

ok I sent you a pm with the model. Tell me when you'll use it (and also tell  me how good it is :3)