Another boring post by me, Orion. I''m really not into game design as much as I''m into game writing, but when I''m coming up with characters and stories, I end up coming up with some ideas that I think fit in this topic. Basically, I was coming up with a character whose body naturally produced electricity, but he had to have a lot to eat to do this. This is where I came up with this idea. How would it work if you had to keep your main character feed. Basically, you have a meter that tells how hungry he is. The meter is separated into three levels, red, blue, and green. If you''re in the red, it means he''s very hungry. If he''s in blue, he''s perfect. If he''s in green, it means he ate too much. Being in the red and green causes him to slow down and lose strength, and depending on how far away from the blue you are, you more your stats go down.

sounds interesting..

random ideas
I was once intrigued by an idea I saw in a comic of Ranma 1/2, where there was an eating contest between two of the superpowered characters. They had to eat lots and lots of food. I thought that it would be cool if more Japanese style RPGs had the occasional mini-game instead of yet-another-random-fight.

Of course a food game could be done like a battle, with the player taking chunks out of the cake.. which would be like reducing its hit-points.

Or you could have "magical" food like flying pizzas that the player has to jump and catch in his/ her mouth.

The player might have to chase after the food to get the next piece before the other player. Kind of like playing as a ghost in Pac-Man?

Erm.. yeah.

I wasn''t meaning it to be too comical. I would think it''d be more realistic. Eating different foods would cause different effects. For instance, eating something with protein would increase your defense. Eating an energy booster would increase speed. Eating candy would increase your speed, but eating too many would make you sick, ultimately reducing your stats. Eating carrots could increase your accuracy.

Your idea is highly stylized. No food has such rapid or drastic effects. You''d be better off with a drug system for what you describe, like the one found in Fallout. Variables like addictions, withdrawal, and tolerance come into play, as well. Neat.

I''ve played several games where you''re required to eat, and in general its just plain not fun. The only exceptions I can really think of being the Sims and nethack. In the Sims, the game is a life simulation, so not eating would be just plain odd (and eating can fulfill other character needs such as social interaction). In nethack eating is usually isn''t much of a restriction (unless you play a monk) because almost everything can be eaten once you''ve killed it; plus you can get super powers from eating certain monsters. (Mmmm... Wight corpse.)

quote: Original post by SiCrane
plus you can get super powers from eating certain monsters. (Mmmm... Wight corpse.)

that reminded me of a folklore that tells of a story of this guy who eats the vomit of a djinn and got superhuman strength in return.

Food has been done several times before but never really added anything to games so it was one of those things (like instant death in adventures) that was abandoned.

Eating, drinking and sleeping are housekeeping chores. They are things we have to do in real life but they aren''t generally interesting/fun and quickly became annoying when implemented into games. Of course if your doing an annoying housekeeping game, like Harvest Moon, then it would probably fit in.

Then there is the logic issue. If you eat then why not drink and sleep - for which you need some form of day/night time.

Dan Marchant
Obscure Productions (www.obscure.co.uk)
Game Development & Design consultant