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[Xion]

It seems like it would be more strategic than self-inflicted crisis. Like, say you do poorly on one level. You could be briefed about the next level and then decide where to spend your tokens. If the briefing says there'll be a ton of enemies, you sure won't want to halve your gun power, so you may have to settle for a storyline turn for the worst (a really cool character dies.)

Besides, this could be counterbalanced by positive tokens gained by doing daring feats like bullet grazing, or (if a shmup) getting rid of entire enemy chains without letting survivors through, or even some random "try this" stuff like killing only x type of enemy for as long as possible, or surviving without firing a shot or grazing a wall. I think a negative-only system would be horrible, since things would never get better. Also, some negative tokens mayn't make things harder but easier, which still sucks if you're going for a high score and can't seem to find enough enemies to chain a combo. It would require a bit of balancing but the potential for awesome is ridiculous.

[Radix]

You only have one life, and when you die the game uninstalls itself and adds your computer to a blacklist for the server-verification part of the installation process.

If I ever put crates in a platform game, I'll probably splatter my brains in the bathtub.

sadface

[Ixis]

I dunno, I like Xion's point about spending positive points however.

I mean, if I we're playing this game, what would stop me from just doing horribly on certain levels until I can powergame my stats to un-godly proportions? Unless the game forces the storyline forward, or you can't farm coins by repeating missions, it's essentially a system that rewards players for intentionally losing.

Also, as another side note, I feel the game should be either extremely difficult, or outright impossible to play, which would validate the use of coins more. In a way the player would lose (of course) but then use the coins to shape the way they want to play, and slowly dig away at certain exploits to best their enemies.

As for the game continuing the plot even if the player dies... I disagree. I think you should move the plot forward as a reward for players accomplishing a challenge. Unless of course this is like in certain fighting games where losing just brings you one step closer to a sucky ending. Games need penalties to make them challenging and fun to play, and rewarding players for not completing a task sends the wrong message in my opinion. Devil May Cry does it right in that if you can't beat a certain section the game changes its difficulty automatically. That's a better system I think than trying to tackle the immense task of multiple branching story-lines based around how you lose and why (which could easily get hard to keep track of and contain in a game.) Maybe some events can move forward, even if the player dies, but not all.

And perhaps you could re-tool the death/save-point system like in Braid, Prince of Persia, Prey, etc?

I mean, it's an intriguing system, and sounds fun to play, but too easy to exploit.

[Xion]

A game where death is not the end of the game, but the beginning of a new one:
You play a hero. Hero goes on quest. Girlfriend is an integral part of story for first part, then you leave the village and she stays behind. If you can, you go through the game without dying. Beat final boss. End game. Win. However! If the character dies, the player then assumes the role of the girlfriend, who sets off in search of her boyfriend/original hero for fear of something horrible happening to him. She finds out how the hero died and swears to avenge him. She picks up where he left off and gets a little further. She dies. You then assume the role of the monster who killed her. He dies. You assume the role of the leader of the village in which the slayer of the monster lives.
So essentially, every character in the game is linked and potentially playable. Dead characters can never return, but when you die you just assume the role of the last story-significant character encountered. You can come across things previous characters affected - open chests, slain beasts, you may even happen across their bodies and take their equipment. Every time you role-jump the game's win condition changes to suit the current role. You may go from having to beat the Dark Warlock Kythaggor of Mount Chu'Lukok to having to conquer a town that has been slaughtering your kind because of your monsteriness. Each quest in itself may only be bite-sized and short enough to finish in like, 45-60 minutes, but all the possible branches result in endless possibilities. By the end of the game you might be on another planet, or in the arctic, or on the other side of the planet, lost at sea.

's just an idea.

[Ixis]

A game where death is not the end of the game, but the beginning of a new one:
You play a hero. Hero goes on quest. Girlfriend is an integral part of story for first part, then you leave the village and she stays behind. If you can, you go through the game without dying. Beat final boss. End game. Win. However! If the character dies, the player then assumes the role of the girlfriend, who sets off in search of her boyfriend/original hero for fear of something horrible happening to him. She finds out how the hero died and swears to avenge him. She picks up where he left off and gets a little further. She dies. You then assume the role of the monster who killed her. He dies. You assume the role of the leader of the village in which the slayer of the monster lives.
So essentially, every character in the game is linked and potentially playable. Dead characters can never return, but when you die you just assume the role of the last story-significant character encountered. You can come across things previous characters affected - open chests, slain beasts, you may even happen across their bodies and take their equipment. Every time you role-jump the game's win condition changes to suit the current role. You may go from having to beat the Dark Warlock Kythaggor of Mount Chu'Lukok to having to conquer a town that has been slaughtering your kind because of your monsteriness. Each quest in itself may only be bite-sized and short enough to finish in like, 45-60 minutes, but all the possible branches result in endless possibilities. By the end of the game you might be on another planet, or in the arctic, or on the other side of the planet, lost at sea.

's just an idea.

Sorry Xion, but Quantic beat you to the punch sorta: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omikron:_The_Nomad_Soul

[Jimbob]

Isn't that what happens in Dwarf Fortress as well when your adventurer dies?

[Radix]

Sorry Xion, but Quantic beat you to the punch sorta: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omikron:_The_Nomad_Soul

As good as that game was, there was a whole lot of unexploited potential with the posession thing. Basically only your starting character seems to have had an existence before you meet him, and when you're forced to abandon that host the game loses a lot of its appeal. With the exception of dashing off to get a body for an early lesbian scene there's nothing to changing hosts besides stats and cosmetics.

A city full of people whose lives are generated like how DF generates its world and legends would be a game all by itself. You could jump from body to body playing different roles and learning about a their lives by pretending to be them, or manipulate the society as a whole by influencing politics and public attitudes, or skip around until you find a host with some problem or intrigue to solve. Maybe you could turn a character into a criminal and then live the life of one of their victims, stuff like that.

[Ixis]

Hmm, I'd like to see that done multiplayer too. Like, what if there was another player out there who could be anyone at anytime, and they're doing their best to win before you do?

[Wilson Saunders]

Radix that sounds like a lot of scripting unless you could have people react dynamically and in a realistic manner. If you could pull this off well I think you would be in line for research grants in behavioral psychology.

Looking at the TIG source main page and the two SHUMPS I started thinking about a new SHUMP idea. It would still have the tones of enemies, the over the top bosses and the frantically weaving between bullets. However it would also include a class system similar to RPG or MMORPG’s. Now I am not talking stats and leveling up I am instead talking about specified rolls for players based on what type of ship they are currently piloting.

For example there would be the Tank style ship. It can take a lot of damage, and does very precise close range damage. It would be providing cover for the other ships when the bullets get too dense.

There would also be a DPS (damage per second) ship that can do large amounts of damage to a particular spot at any range. The boss killing ship essentialy.

Also there would be the area effect ship that can do light damage to a vast area. This ship would be able to cut through swarms of smaller ships much faster than the other types.

A healer ship would round out the group. Perhaps shooting bullets that heal friendly ships or inflicting minor damaging to enemy ships.

The game could be played alone with one player swapping between ships depending on which ship best suites the situation. However it would be best played cooperatively on a single screen. Two or more ships fighting side by side using their strengths to  protect each other’s weaknesses.

[sharksweetheart]

.

[clevceo]

I had a random idea.  Maybe a platformer/adventure game where you (the player) follow a criminal into your computer and you chase him through multiple different apps.  For example, you're in Windows Explorer, and you see him climb into a certain folder.  You have to jump from icon to icon until you reach the folder and climb inside.

Maybe you could even follow him into a few different computer games.

It's a random idea and I don't think I'll attempt it before I'm done with my current game.  Anyway, I'm more interested in playing it than making it, so feel free to steal it (if you like it).

clevceo

[ravuya]

There was a game called "Virus" (Sega?) that used your computer's filesystem and files to create the game world; I don't think it was very popular. It might not even have been released; I just remember reading about it.

Edit: Yeah, here. I think the "Sega" bit came because there was also a game called Virus for the Saturn (as well as the Braben classic).

[Hideous]

Say, the world is all grey and damp, and you're a trippin' psychedelic flower man. It is your duty to spread flowers and blinding seventies wallpaper everywhere.

I have a horrible feeling that this idea has been used before, though. 

That reminds me of De Blob.

[Radix]

"Virus"

One of those games I never got around to playing, but it always stuck in the back of my mind as a really cool idea provided you could find some non-gimmicky way to apply it.

[can-o-spam]

Hey, I thought I'd toss this out there.

I just watched the video for Bjork's song "Earth Intruders". You can watch it here:



I am struck by just how much it reminds me of a video game. The simple profiles of the figures, the sprite like repetition of the same, etc. etc. Probably it is the single plane of existence and unidirectional motion (left to right) that really do it for me.

So, wouldn't it be great to play a game that looked like this, or even sounded like this?

Ok, I'm done.

[Bennett]

I really want to play a game called "SimAirport". You would have to design an airport from the ground up, balancing efficiency against security and cost. If you decided to increase security at the last minute by putting xray machines in every hallway, you might wind up with four hour delays, decreased revenues and irate customers.

Periodically, you'd get special problem situations - a passenger who refuses to turn off her cell phone, a guy who tries to light his shoe on fire, corrupt baggage handlers, or a China Air jumbo jet that overshoots the runway and lands in a river. And you'd have to comply with a range of unreasonable requests from the feds.

It's like SimHospital, but perhaps more personal, especially for those of us who've had to wait for hours on the runway for no discernable reason. And it's like Simcity, only more interesting because you actually have changing play conditions.

[Stij]

I was thinking about this the other day...

Co-op games are a dying breed. Most recent popular games don't have co-op, and if they do, it's only online. Whatever happened to inviting a friend over to play Contra or Double Dragon?

Which brings me to my idea: A game that is designed exclusively for co-op. It would be kind of like Ikaruga, with polarities and all, except instead of being able to switch between polarites, you're always positive, and your friend is always negative (or vice-versa). You would have to rely on each other to fight enemies.

Not sure what kind of game it would be, but I'm partial to run-and-gun platformers, i.e. Gunstar Heroes. I guess it could be a shump too, but I'm not a huge fan of those.

[Ixis]

I was thinking about this the other day...

Co-op games are a dying breed. Most recent popular games don't have co-op, and if they do, it's only online. Whatever happened to inviting a friend over to play Contra or Double Dragon?

Which brings me to my idea: A game that is designed exclusively for co-op. It would be kind of like Ikaruga, with polarities and all, except instead of being able to switch between polarites, you're always positive, and your friend is always negative (or vice-versa). You would have to rely on each other to fight enemies.

Not sure what kind of game it would be, but I'm partial to run-and-gun platformers, i.e. Gunstar Heroes. I guess it could be a shump too, but I'm not a huge fan of those.

The Halo series, Super Mario Galaxies, Rock Band, Trauma Center Second Opinion and Super Smash Bros. Brawl all have co-op. I think it's on the rise, actually.

[cag]

I think he means a game where co-op is not only optional, but necessary to the core game mechanic.

[Stij]

^Exactly. But you're right,Ixis, there are a few recent games that have it. SMG's co-op mode was kind of disappointing though.