That could work too, yes.
I’m not a huge fan of this approach, as it is quite cryptic most of the time, but if this is your thing, go for it !
Creating a great lore seems to be more work to me, though.
I mean im asking to see what people think. Yeah im making a game because I like the idea. but for a game to succeed everyone needs to like it you know.
well not everyone but you get it
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Completely.
As your game concept is quite hardcore, finding inspiration for your story in soulslike seems logical.
The exact lore/story right now is secondary to the actual gameplay.
All you need is a premise to build everything off of. 1-3 sentences explaining the characters and world.
For example, for Monkanics, it’s the following:
Monkanics are cybernetic primates with slightly enhanced intelligence and a tendency for chaos. But the humans who created them went on lunch break and never came back.
Now, they survive, invent, and go on monkey-brained misadventures for food (Preferably bean-anas).
It isn’t specific enough to lock me in too early, but it also enough to design everything around it.
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yeah no im just asking whether to make one or not cause that changes a lot
the exact details arent important yet
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That’s up to you. Is the story important for setting the stage? And how strongly do you design your game around it?
I keep Monkanics’ plot elements loose, but I DO have a theme.
“D-I-Why Sci-Fi” pretty much describes the entire game.
Maybe you should come up with a general theme. Like cooperation, survival, togetherness, etc.
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I have a theme, I don’t care that deeply for a story but the game needs a beginning and an end and for games that aren’t round based that usually requires a story you know. Also since the world is handmade it helps me decide where to place specific things etc. .
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What’s the natural beginning and end of the game loop?
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Well, big dungeon exists. The start of the game will be entering. Why does the party enter? During the descent the main question in their heads could easily be: “What’s at the bottom?”. And the game ends at the bottom. You don’t just go into a dungeon without reason, you don’t survive off of living mushrooms without a reason. You don’t go until the end without reason. And you don’t do the secret at the bottom without reason.
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That didn’t answer my question. How does the game loop start? And how does the game loop end?
I have an idea.
Since the game’s called “The Embers Below”, what if a portal to hell opened up deep underground, and the only way to close it is to venture downward and close it manually.
This opens up a lot of natural questions like:
- What monsters/creatures are coming from the portals?
- What or WHO opened them and why?
- Who is brave enough to risk their life to close the portals? And why?
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True. Forgot to put that part in lol. Sorry about that.
The game loop itself:
If input it into a flow chart it’s a bit hard because a lot of it is happening simultaneously.
So I can’t do this how I usually would so forgive me if this text sounds a bit loopy.
The game starts by going into the dungeon (obviously not game loop yet).
The entire game takes place in a very vertical “dungeon” it’s a bit of a mix of made in abyss and delicious in dungeon, (both peak anime btw), if you look up images you should get a vibe pretty quickly.
The goal of the game is descend to the bottom.
The players will have to on each “floor” find the way to the next area. This requires scouting and planning instead of just fighting until you get there. Similar in a way to many high difficulty games if you fight massive hoards of enemies you will die. That’s just kinda how it is.
Unlike high difficulty games this game isn’t going to be hard. It will just be different. You will have to on each “floor” do a few specific things:
- Find the way to the next floor
- Build a temporary “base” (consisting of just popping a campfire, bedroll, etc. into a place the monsters can’t reach)
- Not starving, getting killed by monster, etc.
- Lastly packing everything up and then safely bringing everyone to the next layer where you repeat the cycle
In the early layers this loop will be very easy to do. Most high places should beonsger free, the way to the next level is very obvious, food (edible monsters) is everywhere, very few actually dangerous monsters exist. The first layer will likely have an incredibly small amount of monsters and instead just let the players get used to surviving by foraging and searching.
Later however the monsters change, they might learn to climb, try might learn to hear you, etc. .
Food also becomes harder to obtainsking you resort to eating the deadliest of monsters and engaging fights just to have a meal. And finding the most hidden and isolated of places to eat up camp. In the last layer there will l likely be very few monster free spots and you will have to fight incredibly powerful enemies just to eat.
I hope that explained everything.
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Wait this is actually perfect. OMFG. Thank you. This works so well on so many levels.
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This is PEAK adventure anime! You have so much to work with, it’s insane.
Your game loop is solid as well. It’s a blend of dungeon crawling and survival.
You can also apply a genre label to the game to make it easier to design. As you can follow and/or bend standard genre conventions.
For example, “The Embers Below” is a co-op survival dungeon crawler.
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Yeah I have been trying to figure out how to design the map to give the exact vibe I want. It’s been a challenge cause I like to know enough about each of the aspects of the game before starting to make that aspect. But since you have to find the way down but I also want a bit of that Made in Abyss verticality it’s a kinda contradicting vibe.
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I think that contradiction is the main hook you need to expand upon.
If you think something is weird, odds are, that’s what makes your game stand out.
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Yeah that’s fair. Often a games idea can be as unique as it wants to be but if that unique vibe isn’t something you can actually see then it feels familiar.
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Well, then get building.
I had a ROUGH time with my emotions when Monkanics didn’t exist. It technically still doesn’t, but it’s progressing enough where I feel content about it.
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It doesn’t start, it doesn’t end. Thus is the definition of a loop.
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That’s a great point, actually.
I guess the proper question would be, “Where does the game loop start repeating?”
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