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Original post by lonesock An interesting (to me) alternative would be a game crafted around a plot like in Groundhog Day. Where the actual game time is short (20 minutes - 1 hour?) so it could be played in one sitting, but then you restart that period, and must use the knowledge you gained in the last pass to do more investigation, whatever. The tension could be that you have a limited number of retries, with some randomness (10 +- random * 2), so you need to learn a lot on each pass. And maybe some events are permanent, so for example: each time you kill someone they are mysteriously dead at the beginning of the next pass (maybe the player could find a newspaper somewhere in the world, and look at the obituary page?).

Now that is a cool idea

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Original post by lonesock An interesting (to me) alternative would be a game crafted around a plot like in Groundhog Day. Where the actual game time is short (20 minutes - 1 hour?) so it could be played in one sitting, but then you restart that period, and must use the knowledge you gained in the last pass to do more investigation, whatever. The tension could be that you have a limited number of retries, with some randomness (10 +- random * 2), so you need to learn a lot on each pass. And maybe some events are permanent, so for example: each time you kill someone they are mysteriously dead at the beginning of the next pass (maybe the player could find a newspaper somewhere in the world, and look at the obituary page?).

I really like this idea, and I also like zombies, here is my extension.

Same restart with new information idea, unlimited retries.

You start in a zombie infested city, you don't remember anything but you start with one clue. You have to battle your way through zombie attacks long enough to find out the next bit of the story. You are infected and so you die after a little while anyway (timer on screen). So you keep trying to get more info on what you are supposed to do. No saves etc. And the last 'manoeuvre' has to be quite difficult to be able to finish the game.

And once you have finished the game, at least you can still shoot zombies. :)

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Original post by Sir Sapo Quote: Original post by lonesock An interesting (to me) alternative would be a game crafted around a plot like in Groundhog Day. Where the actual game time is short (20 minutes - 1 hour?) so it could be played in one sitting, but then you restart that period, and must use the knowledge you gained in the last pass to do more investigation, whatever. The tension could be that you have a limited number of retries, with some randomness (10 +- random * 2), so you need to learn a lot on each pass. And maybe some events are permanent, so for example: each time you kill someone they are mysteriously dead at the beginning of the next pass (maybe the player could find a newspaper somewhere in the world, and look at the obituary page?). Now that is a cool idea

Sounds like 'Tru Calling' [smile]

Scripted events that happen independent of player interaction can be good, but you need to make damn sure that the player knows what's going on. If you're walking around exploring and suddenly get a 'mission failed' gameover because something happened the other side of the map, you'll be pissed off. If you tell the player "the motorcade will be passing at 12:30" then you need to make it easy for them to check the game time and see how long it is until 12:30.

Another thing is that active time events can - and should - still allow the player to mess with the proceedings. Say there's an enemy contingent due to arrive in my town by crossing a bridge over the river. They're going to arrive at a specific time. If I can get to the bridge and blow it up, they have to go around the other way, giving me an extra half hour to prepare things before they arrive. The event still happens regardless of what I do, but precisely when and how it happens can still be altered by my actions (e.g. the other bridge isn't strong enough for the tanks to cross so they get left behind).