8 replies to this topic

[blah]

Alright, need some help.

Developing a game where you wake up as a janitor robot in a huge building and everythings gone down; you try to figure out what happened.

The plan was to have one huge boss stalking you and using the environment against you (he can control the walls and have guns and spikes and things pop out at you). Each sector will have one boss that has the ability to control the entirety of it, and you must go through all sectors. That is, each sector will essentially have a "manager" that can control its "employees" and the place they work in.

Was hoping for:
-What kinds of weapons could a janitor robot have? Right now he smacks people with a squeegee
-How can you make it feel like you are going against the environment, and still be able to combat it (rather then just run through everything?) I can have turrets pop up into the ceiling, but its hard making it not seem super-scripted.

rambles

[razourik]

I would think that if you're a janitor robot who wakes up in a death trap, you wouldn't be able to defend yourself, you would just get scrapped, but perhaps he would have the ability to float/fly (so that he doesn't have to walk into the muck he cleans up)

[mach3000]

weapon ideas..

1. he usually shoots out water from his fingers to clean stuff, but in this situation, he mixed in different chemicals and it can be flamable, acidic, sticky or whatever.

2. shoots out extra, extra durable garbage bags to capture enemies

3. super vacuum to bring things closer to him

4. extendable arms to replace lightbulbs in high places (if ya didn't like the flying idea the other person had)

5. all the dust he's collected could be shot out as a smoke screen to blind the enemy for a moment

6. collect garbage from ground, like shards of glass, and shoot them back at enemy

[McBink]

I quite like the sound of this idea. Seems just "quirky" enough to work. I do have to ask though, would this be a Metroidvania style game? The story seems well suited for that genre: the powerups the janitor obtains can help him to alter the environment as he attempts to solve the mystery of what's going on.

I also like the idea of an omnipresent boss. Have you, by chance, played Metroid Fusion? The SA-X in that game is a really great example of that idea done well.

[chance]

The story doesn't make sense to me. OK, bosses are stalking you and using the environment against you. But why? Why do the bosses want to kill the robot janitor?

I mean, the game might be really fun. But the story makes no sense.

[McBink]

I don't think the story really needs to make sense, to be honest. The concept certainly has an amount of weirdness to it. Most games do. As long as developers embrace that weirdness fully, you can get some really awesome games. Just look at the Katamari series.

[chance]

I don't think the story really needs to make sense, to be honest. The concept certainly has an amount of weirdness to it. Most games do.

Very true. Logic isn't a requirement. But since you made the main character a robot janitor -- instead of a regular person -- I figured the story had something to do with robots... or janitors.

[Yal]

One way to make it feel like the environment is against you... (by the way, you should totally play I Wanna Be The Guy) would be to have lots of multiple paths, but no matter which one you pick, lots of stuff will still pop out.


Idea: there's a 2D green-line radar map over the level visible all the time, and there's loads of surveliance cameras. Their field-of-view is visible on the radar map but not on the screen, and when you're spotted by a camera, the map turns red, your position is shown on the map, and the boss starts activating everything he can that's near you. Normally, he just activates a few things at a time since he can only have that many things running at once unless he want the entire level to short-circuit and bust the electrical power plant, and to not let you escape, he has to turn on stuff all over.

Getting discovered and then hide should give you the opportunity to sneak into another sector of the map, where everything is now turned off, and try to cover as much ground as possible until the boss finds you out and activates the turrets there. (Running obviously makes you more likely to run into a camera in THAT sector, so don't drop your caution just yet!)

[blah]

thank you for all the suggestions!