next »

[st33d]

Currently making a metroidvania without upgrades.

The point of the game is to collect all the gems, so areas are sealed off by locks that require you to have enough gems.

And so gem-locks could bar the way to switches that open up other puzzles.

[vinheim3]

^ Although that isn't a Metroidvania. Metroidvania is more a feel rather than a genre, and you wouldn't feel it much if your game had these numbered locks which disappear with the appropriate number of gems. I know this because I played a game like this where you control a tennis ball as the protagonist.

One idea for a Metroidvania with no upgrades is one I've had for a long time. Design the game mechanics such that a single "heart" is the difference between life and death:

(Fantasy Explorer Nitroid! did this by having save points everywhere and each heart is depleted after 2 hits. So moving from place to place would be like "there are 7 things here that can potentially hurt you before you move to the next save point" and having 4 hearts (8 hits) would make it easy, but having 3 or 2 hearts would up the difficulty, and this feeling is felt everywhere in the later parts of the game)

Then have the whole world open with no locks anywhere. The challenge is that people who are great in platformers can go to the end stage straight away, while others can only skip a stage or 2 or would have to start with the easiest area.

[baconman]

Oh no, it -could- feel like one, if it's done how I think it's being done (IE: collecting a certain amount of the gems actually unlocks more than one new route). It could possibly transcribe later into the kind of game where once you've collected a certain number of gems, it'll trigger some kind of event that changes the landscape a bit, allowing you to access new areas; but from a basic design standpoint, it's completely possible to do.

Yours just sounds like a MV with a masocore twist. Keep us posted.

[st33d]

The game I'm doing is two player.

You can split up or double-team unlocking areas. Finding secret areas or completing extremely difficult side routes will allow you to sequence break. Or you can sequence break in two player mode by cheating at some puzzles (we will have single player barriers though to preserve some puzzles from cheating).

I also have switches and scripted events working that make permanent changes to the levels.

Plus the players have mini-maps. Non-linear level design should be fine.

[gunswordfist]

I think sometime I want to make a metroidvania game. However, I don't want to bother with the whole standard jump upgrade and new ability thing. What would be good alternatives to upgrades? I was thinking of an inventory with various special or not-so-special items that you could use in certain areas, sort of like a point-and-click adventure game. Ideas?

If you're using an inventory, having an in-game inventory menu would be great (think RE5)

I think powerups would be a great replacement, if it's that type of game.