Hey all,

We are working on a 2D action-adventure game with an emphasis on "adventure" . The game involves two playable characters, one of them is a superhero. The abilities of our superhero are open. His main characteristic is that he can manipulate and transform things in a stupid and humorous way. He shaves a gorilla to help him become a human!

The main challenge for us is to deliver the superhero experience to the player within the context of a 2D action-adventure game. The superhero must use his powers to solve puzzles and overcome the villain in various encounters. We also require some basic mechanics like simple jumping and punching. The closest thing that comes to my mind is Valiant Heart.

We will have some classic puzzles in sequences when the superhero is not present, but we would need a different set of mechanics and different sort of puzzles for the superhero to give the player a vastly different feel.

What do you think about it?  How can we achieve creating the superhero experience -without too much action-  using very basic mechanics? What kind of puzzles our superhero must face? and how can he solve them in his superhero style? Some examples and inspiration from other games might be helpful.

Cheers.

I think the very first thing you need to do is define the powers of your superhero.  You need to lay out exactly what he can do, how he can do it, and the limits.  Set the rules of your world.  The player needs to know the rules and limits, or else it's going to be a giant guessing game for them (like many old adventure games ended up being, with stupidly random solutions to puzzles). Once you have that, then you can start building puzzles around it.  

1 hour ago, JediEwok said:

I think the very first thing you need to do is define the powers of your superhero.  You need to lay out exactly what he can do, how he can do it, and the limits.  Set the rules of your world.  The player needs to know the rules and limits, or else it's going to be a giant guessing game for them (like many old adventure games ended up being, with stupidly random solutions to puzzles). Once you have that, then you can start building puzzles around it.  

Thanks for your comment, I think that's true. To figure out what those rules are, we need to think about the possibilities of puzzles being solved by some superhero, so we can come up with a useful set of rules.

Do have any ideas about some puzzles that can be solved by some superhero abilities?

You are looking for puzzles that can be solved by doing fantastic and unrealistic things. This is not at all the same thing as puzzles fit for a superhero story; your puzzle-solving character is weird but not heroic.

Forget about the "superhero experience": the game you describe is humorous and on the spectrum between quirky and very silly, and its characters should be too. Leave "superhero style" to action games.

On 8/8/2017 at 1:56 PM, LorenzoGatti said:

You are looking for puzzles that can be solved by doing fantastic and unrealistic things. This is not at all the same thing as puzzles fit for a superhero story; your puzzle-solving character is weird but not heroic.

Forget about the "superhero experience": the game you describe is humorous and on the spectrum between quirky and very silly, and its characters should be too. Leave "superhero style" to action games.

Thanks for your comment. That's right! We are looking for the puzzles that the player would say "Haha that was hilarious" after solving them. Do you have any examples or ideas?

We think we can have our superhero, still. For example some of our puzzles can involve defeating giant robots, by solving some sort of puzzle. Although there is not much action involved, the way our puzzles are presented to the player can give him the impression of a superhero. What do you think?

We have currently limited the abilities of our superhero to flying and a very powerful punch.