Drawing physical objects gameplay mechanic. I love playing around with physics in games. Elastomania, Max Payne 2, Gish, Worms, you name it. So, I started working my way through Oli's Collision Detection and Chris Heckers rigid body tutorials, and now have a fairly servicable 2D physics engine. Now, to make a game: My idea would be to have WSAD control a character in the standard way. The mouse would be used to draw polygons within a certain radius around the character. Completing these polygons, either by clicking on the first point again or pressing certain key, would make the objects solid and capable of interacting with the game world. At this stage the objects position is bound to the mouse, and keeps the same orientation relative to the player when it is moved around. So, controlling the polygon with the mouse, the player can: Hit enemies. Shield himself from projectiles, deflect laser weapons. Jump onto the polygon, enabling him to fly (along the same vein as lifting yourself up by your own collar). The polygon could also be released from the players control, either by throwing it as in Madness Interactive or Black and White, or launched like in Halflife 2. It could now be: Used as a projectile weapon. A bridge. Used to block enemies passage. Dropped from high places. Enemies could pick up blocks that were thrown at them and throw them back, or weild them as weapons. Prevent door from closing. And so on and so forth, I don't really have to elaborate on the sorts of ways objects can interact with the environment. I was also considering different kinds of polygons that could be created, such as: Flaming polygons for use as projectiles or to damage enemies that step on them. A sticky block could be stuck to the level geometry, allowing the player to make ladders. Floating blocks which the character can jump on and then draw new blocks (distinct from jumping on blocks which are still bound to the mouse). Hollow polygons which could be drawn around enemies to trap them. I've still got a lot of planning to do. If anyone has any critisisms, or suggestions of new polygons types, ways a block could be used when bound to the mouse or unbound, or puzzles or combat situations (or indeed, combat puzzles, aka Boss Fights) featuring matter creation, I would like to hear them.

Would there be any incentive to drawing a triangle over a box, or a pentagon? It would be nice to know that what you draw matters, especially in combat.

You could have shape stacking puzzles to get into different places, depending on the view, as well.

Another thought: It strikes me that what you draw should fade away eventually, or what's to stop you from just drawing one thing and using it forever?

How about including other gizmos that you can add to your drawn polygon(s)?

Like you could collect 'polygon powerups' like pin joints, sliders, wheels, springs, etc.

So then you could decide to attach a triangle and a long rectangle together with a pin and make yourself a crude catapult. Maybe power it with a spring and launch yourself over and obstacle. Or fling stuff at enemies.

Or attach round polygons to a block via pins and roll your way down a hill while being chased by some enemies.

Something like "crazy machines" but as a shooter! that’s a good idea! Solving physical problems to kill enemies could be amazing. Please include a lot of cool particle effects!

In response to Wavinator.

It would be fun to have the shapes you draw matter, but I decided against it for a number of reasons.
If the type of block was dependant on the number of points in the shape, then it would place a restriction on the number of block types. The 6th block type I designed would take a while to draw. It would be a pain to have to draw a 6 sided shape every time you wanted a floating block, especially if you needed to quickly draw a block to escape a dangerous situation. If I had 20 different types of shapes, the problem is exagerated.

If I allowed the user to draw irregular polygons, then rather more options are opened. However, that would mean writing code to decompose shapes, deal with the physics and collisions of these shapes, and then pattern analysis to determine what the user was trying to draw. A lot of effort and possible loss of robustness. It would be fun, but would need a better programmer than I.

The players motivation to draw new polygons will be the fact that he has used up the one he last drew. It will be thrown at an enemy, or stuck to a wall, or it is holding down a switch or something.


In response to CombatWombat.

Why didn't I think of that? Attach that big heavy poly you just drew to a rope, and attach that to the roof. Instant pendulum to slam into enemies, or to ride across a pit. Being able to attach doodads to objects in a similar fashion to Gary's mod adds a definate layer of depth. Hell, players could even build traps in real time to impede other players progress.
Building a catapult to propel yourself across the level would be fun too.


In response to Kambiz

I'm downloading the Crazy Machines demo now. I always loved The Incredible Machine. Have you tried Eets? It's another new game along similar lines.
www.eetsgame.com