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[mesotes]

Shrrom Shroom!

Introduction:
First of all, I dont know exactly were to put this, so I hope something more specific like this still fits in with all those more broad topics about game design.

I dreamed about this game and it probably was the fault of Super Mario War and a screenshot of a game made for the Ludum Dare contest. The game was about mushrooms too. So this dream botherd me now for a week, always came to my mind that i should write it down or something. Now that I did, I felt bad about it cause I'm probably not going to code it (several reasons). So that bothered me again for some 2 days and now i thought this is a good place to post this idea..

So if anyone feels inspired or even makes this, it will make me happy it did so .

Core Features:
Its about beating the crap out of each other.
You are able to eat up to 3 Mushrooms gain powers.
While using your Powers you are able to alter your surroundings.

Mushrooms:

Fire	Water	Poisen
Close Combat stronger fewer charges (maybe reducing charges of a Water-Wielder on Hit?)	Long Range weaker more charges (maybe reducing charges of a Fire-Wielder on Hit?)	Middle Range reduces Health after peroid of time one Charge spreads fast on release, gets slower
Sprawl	Strengthen	Change
?	?	?
+(Fire/Water) gives more Charges +(Poisen) lengthens effect (eat alone) cures Poisen if poisened or gives Health back (but not both)	+(Fire/Water/Poisen) increases Damage (eat alone) increase strength of standard attack.	+(Fire)Turn into a unstoppable Magmaball which is always in motion.(additional damage to Water-Wielders) +(Water)Turn into a ball of Water which can sprint a short distance and knock everything in its path away.(additional damage to Fire-Wielders) +(Poisen) Turn into a cloud of Poisen which damages on contact (slow movement?) (eat alone) ?

[there are some Combinations not covered]

Ultimate Combos:
Strengthen+ Change + Fire
Turn into a Vulcano: Wreck havoc by controlling Fire Balls which shoot out of the ground.

Strengthen+ Change + Water
Turn into Rain: Rain drops (hard as steel) shoot down from above automagically. Control the wind to change the drops direction.

Strengthen+ Change + Poisen
Turn into Enviroment: You control: flowers which are able to spit out clouds of poisen which hover in the air for some seconds, tendrils which extend poisonous thorns, ...

Misc. Notes:
The collected mushrooms are always visible for each player and are represented by a colorfull Icon/Orb floating around the Player.

When a player eats mushrooms, s/he will eat them all at once (you cant eat just one of the Mushrooms youve collected Mushroom). --> The order in which the mushrooms were collected doesnt matter.
Mushroom need time to be digested? ( --> weak while digesting?, --> the longer the stronger the effect? )

All powers are temporary, although they can be enhanced in duration and strength.

When acquiring a power, a glow surrounding the player will get weaker indicating how long its going to last. (when having 3 secounds left -> blinking glow?)

While wielding a power you cant eat any mushrooms, but you are still able to collect them.

Fire-Wielders are able to burn the enviroment when using their power.
Water-Wielders do the opposite.
Poisen is neutral.

Enviroment should have some effects on the players.. (and their powers? like the Ultimate Poisen Change)

[William Broom]

It sounds really cool. However a lot of people don't like Smash Bros because the random apperance of items can be unfair, especially one-hit-kill weapons like the Dragoon or Hammer. It seems like what you're doing here could end up like an entire game of Dragoons and Hammers. What I would recommend is that you consider how you would reduce the randomness of mushroom appearances. Maybe the mushrooms always grow in the same spot, at the same rate, and you can see then gradually growing larger so you know when they are going to be ready to pick. Or maybe the players can even plant seeds themselves. I dunno, it's just something to think about.

Also I love the guy farting out poison gas. I don't know if this is the tone you are going for, but I think it would be cool to emphasize this and make the whole game really grotty - maybe the water guy can pee on his enemies, and the fire guy belches or something.

[SirNiko]

Bouncing off William's comments, this will be a game in need of a lot of balancing. This probably isn't something that can be done entirely on paper: you'll need people playing, tweaking, and reiterating dozens of times before the balance becomes apparent.

You might consider going with this, and then fine-tuning based on player experiences. The overall concept seems solid, aside from the balance issues.

Are you planning to go for something that's wild and party-like such as Smash Bros, or do you intend for this to be a more balanced, technical game that is appropriate for tourneys?

-SirNiko