This is a puzzle like game...sort of a cross between Robotron, Smash TV, Pengo, and a bit of Sonic and Lemmings Plot: Sometime in the future a computer virus is takeing over a space station by takeing control of robots and fuseing together with the humans...It''s up to the player to rescue the humans onboard the station... Gameplay: Players control the hero in a top-down enviroment (or 3rd person if done in 3D)...The player only has one weapon...a elecro magnet...this magnet has two settings: push and pull...press one button and the magnet will pull metal objects (like the evil robots) toword the player...press the other button and the magnet will push the metal objects away...the range and strength of the magnet depends on how long the button is held down (and the longer it is held down, the more time it takes for the power supply to recharge before the magnet can be used again)...things like enemy laser blasts are not effected by this magnet. Players must save the humans...the humans generaly run around in a panic until the player touches them...at this point the humans would follow the player around calmly...when the player nears a teleporter the calm humans will enter it and be rescued...when a laser blast is near a calm human, they will duck until they are out of danger...if a calm human is touched (from a robot, danger in the enviroment, etc..) they will panic again...if the player is touched all the calm humans following him will panic (if the touched player has no calm humans following them, the player will die)...robots who touch a panic human will infect the human with the virus turning them into a robot (the type of this robot depends on both the type of robot and human who contect each other...there are six basic humans...old, middle aged, and young with each being male or female) Players can also interact with the enviroment by pushing "blocks" around to rearrange things (the evil robots are generaly stupid...tending to follow signs on walls and such...covering such signs may cause the robots to become confused, allowing the humans to escape), magnatizeing certain areas for a short period of time (certain walls for example could be magnatized...with the robots either being pulled to it or pushed away from it...depending on which button the player presses) So what do you think?...does it sound like a fun puzzle type game?

Sounds to me like it could make a rather addictive top-down 2d game to me! It could also be interesting to throw in the occasional low gravity level where everything keeps moving for a short time after it has started to move.

Moe''s Site

It sounds pretty neat, but it really does remind me of this puzzle game on the gameboy (forgot the name, sorry) where your goal was to push and pull boxes until they end up on the goal - or somewhat like Adventures of Lolo on the NES now that I think about it.

What''s the difference between the basic humans? Just cosmetics?

I can see that if you start to have a conga line following you, the game will get frustrating since it will be very easy for the robots to just touch one of them.

I think this idea has potential, it just needs some more depth to it - perhaps some outside help that you can hire to fight off robots, or, the less violent approach, have robots you can build to assist you in someway to help you collect the humans. Hope this is helpful.

Glad you like it

The main difference between the humans (besides the way they look) would be the speed at which they can keep up with the player...the older humans are slower...but the types of robots that are created from them are much more powerful then the typs generated by the younger faster humans...so to keep the situation from becomeing worse the player may want to put priority on saveing the older humans.

There will be many different types of robots...each "designed with a special purpose in mind"...for example there will be a "spiked" robot that generaly moves around slowly, unless the player crosses it''s path, then it will briefly charge at them...if the player were to magnatize a wall and this "spiked" robot is pulled against it...the player then could then use his magnet push action to force other robots into range of the magnatized wall...if these other robots then get pulled to the wall, they could hit the trapped "spiked" robot, and essentualy be destroyied upon impact ...essentualy there would be a "call order" to what effect robots have on each other...a large "armor" robot may end up crushing the "spiked" robot in the same situation.

In another situation the player may find themselves in a room with a large pit in the center...the only way across would be to activate a switch the controls a bridge to cross the pit...but the switch is on the other side of the pit...so players must use thier magnet force to push a robot across the pit and into the switch.

The "conga" line is intentional...players only earn points for the humans they save...each "level" is complete once all humans are acounted for/ or all robots are destroied...say you are on level 1 and you basicly let the robots have all the humans...the level is done as soon as a robot touches the last human...but because none of them are still alive you get zero points...now lets say you destroy all the robots...each human left alive will earn you 100 points...and every human who you get through the teleporter (the ones who follow you) earn you 300 points...so there is incentive to help the people and not just destroy things (or let them get destroyied)

quote: Original post by MSW
The main difference between the humans (besides the way they look) would be the speed at which they can keep up with the player...the older humans are slower...but the types of robots that are created from them are much more powerful then the typs generated by the younger faster humans...so to keep the situation from becomeing worse the player may want to put priority on saveing the older humans.

This seems like bad design to me. If the older people are slower, the robots will find them easier to catch, and yet they recieve a higher reward despite the lower effort.

quote: Original post by MSW
The "conga" line is intentional...players only earn points for the humans they save...each "level" is complete once all humans are acounted for/ or all robots are destroied...say you are on level 1 and you basicly let the robots have all the humans...the level is done as soon as a robot touches the last human...but because none of them are still alive you get zero points...now lets say you destroy all the robots...each human left alive will earn you 100 points...and every human who you get through the teleporter (the ones who follow you) earn you 300 points...so there is incentive to help the people and not just destroy things (or let them get destroyied)

I don''t know about anyone else, but to me points don''t mean anything unless they can be exchanged for something that will help me progress through the game. What you seem to be suggesting however, is almost guaranteed progression regardless of the player''s performance.

Sorry to sound negative. I actually like the basic idea you''ve presented, and I can''t wait to see it implemented, but the little things like these can make all the difference.

quote: Original post by Plasmadog

Original post by MSW
The main difference between the humans (besides the way they look) would be the speed at which they can keep up with the player…the older humans are slower…but the types of robots that are created from them are much more powerful then the typs generated by the younger faster humans…so to keep the situation from becomeing worse the player may want to put priority on saveing the older humans.

This seems like bad design to me. If the older people are slower, the robots will find them easier to catch, and yet they recieve a higher reward despite the lower effort.

Bad design?…This creates a situation where players may have to chose between helping this slow human or not and risk the consequences…if the player helps the old humans, thier stratigy will need to change as they lead them to the safety transporters…the old folks can't keep up like the younger ones can…the player will have to work harder to save the old humans…without provideing a incentive (worse consequences for allowing a robot to touch them) few players would even try to save them…this is part of the game balance…essentualy its important to save all the humans…this just makes it more interesting (deeper gameplay)

quote:

Original post by MSW
The "conga" line is intentional…players only earn points for the humans they save…each "level" is complete once all humans are acounted for/ or all robots are destroied…say you are on level 1 and you basicly let the robots have all the humans…the level is done as soon as a robot touches the last human…but because none of them are still alive you get zero points…now lets say you destroy all the robots…each human left alive will earn you 100 points…and every human who you get through the teleporter (the ones who follow you) earn you 300 points…so there is incentive to help the people and not just destroy things (or let them get destroyied)
I don't know about anyone else, but to me points don't mean anything unless they can be exchanged for something that will help me progress through the game. What you seem to be suggesting however, is almost guaranteed progression regardless of the player's performance.

Sorry to sound negative. I actually like the basic idea you've presented, and I can't wait to see it implemented, but the little things like these can make all the difference.

Okay…Sorry, I messed up when I wrote that…I had ment to say that if no points are scored the level will need to be repeated…also a ranking system could be applied ("must save 3 humans in this level", or "must get 900 points to procede to the next level")…in many ways the game is very "old school" where getting the high score is important, sorta like in a raceing game where you are trying to beat your previous best track time…the whole point of the game would be the inventive ways the player can use this electro magnet…not in aquireing more stuff…sorry that doesn't appeal to you.

[edited by - MSW on April 5, 2002 10:39:46 PM]

quote: Bad design?...This creates a situation where players may have to chose between helping this slow human or not and risk the consequences...if the player helps the old humans, thier stratigy will need to change as they lead them to the safety transporters...the old folks can''t keep up like the younger ones can...the player will have to work harder to save the old humans...without provideing a incentive (worse consequences for allowing a robot to touch them) few players would even try to save them...this is part of the game balance...essentualy its important to save all the humans...this just makes it more interesting (deeper gameplay)

Well, I can''t argue with your logic, and I may have been putting myself in a robot''s shoes when I wrote that comment, but I wonder if it will actually work out like you say. What I mean is, will the slower ones really take more work to defend? It seems to me that the faster ones will stick pretty close to the player, and may end up getting in the way a lot. These fast ones may turn out to be much harder to keep out of trouble than the slow old ones. Just a thought.

quote: "must save 3 humans in this level", or "must get 900 points to procede to the next level

Ah, that''s more like it. I didn''t necessarily mean using points to buy upgrades and powerups, etc. I just feel that points should be requisite to progress, and this is what you are now suggesting.