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[Vulduin]

I have a rough idea for a game which is inspired by my favorite album called "Home" by Gavin Castleton. I have some ideas about how I would like the game to feel to the player and the message I would like to try to convey, but I'd like some help brainstorming specific ways I can bring these concepts to life.

Background

To give you some background on the story, the album is a concept album which tells the story of his relationship and eventual breakup with his long time girlfriend. I know this sounds cheesy and cliche, but there's more to it. He tells the story in the form of a zombie apocalypse. The never ending swarm of zombies serves as a metaphor for the deeply seated issues in their relationship that creates the stress and tension that ultimately pulls them apart.

I think there is a lot of potential here to make a game, but so far I only have some conceptual ideas and need help thinking of the mechanics. Let me try to explain what I've got so far...

High Level Game Concept

I want it to be a 2D game, possibly a platformer/sidescroller, but more likely a top-down type of game in the style of the Legend of Zelda, The Binding of Isaac, etc.
There will be two 'main' characters, a boy and a girl, with the male character being playable and the female character being more of a sidekick controlled by AI. I do think it'd be cool to have the female character playable as well to give both perspectives of the same story, however I'd like to keep the scope as small as possible for now.
The game will start with both characters working together, fighting off zombies to survive. Their abilities will synergize well, making the player feel like both characters feed off of each other and make each other stronger. As the game progresses the zombies increase in numbers and strength which takes a toll on them, and their ability to work together degrades. Eventually I want this to get to the point where the characters no longer synergize, but actually hinder one another. This will culminate in the female character being pushed away and leaving the player alone to fend for himself.
This is super high level and I realize that, but I purposefully explained it this way because I didn't want to put any constraints on the feedback/ideas I receive.

Some Rough Ideas

The actual mechanics of how the two main characters interact is what I'd like to hear your thoughts on. Right now I have some unrefined ideas of how I think this could be done, but none that I feel all that great about. Here's are some ideas that I've had that may help you get an idea of what I'm looking for.

1. The player character has two forms, a normal and a "berserker" form (think The Hulk). This form can maybe be activated by the player, or will just happen passively due to taking a certain amount of damage or something like that. While in this form, the player is stronger and can mow down zombies easily, but at the same time damages himself and the female character. I like this idea because I think it is representative of the reckless/destructive behavior that can cause tension in a relationship. The problem I'm having with this idea is I'm not sure what the female character brings to the table. Maybe some sort of healing ability?

2. Tension between the characters can be created by having resource pools which are drawn from to perform abilities, such as energy, mana, etc. This could be a shared resource pool or separate for each character. As the game gets more difficult both characters have to use their abilities more selfishly to stay alive and therefore do not have enough resources to use their more collaborative abilities. My issue with this is, well, I don't really have any interesting ideas for the abilities!

3. Since this game is inspired by an album I think it'd be pretty cool to incorporate music in the gameplay some way. Crypt of the NecroDancer is a game that does this very well and I've tried to use that as inspiration for some ideas. I was thinking that it may be cool to have the characters work well together when they are using their abilities in rhythm, but forcing that rhythm to be disrupted over time.

Any feedback or ideas is greatly appreciated! I'm having a bit of a creative block right now so hopefully throwing some ideas around will help get me thinking on the right path.

[JindrichP]

I think that you just need to focus at your message. Do not create too many features around it.

Shared pool sounds fine. It works as a symbol of relationship. When it is empty, it starts to crack. Once there is too many cracks, the relationship ended. Relationship itself helped you to gain your powers and you can´t have it without it.

I think that one ability could be something like "force push" or "super armor" because when you are in a working relationship you have energy to overcome hard situations with some sort of ease because you feel support. It is just way much easier to go through problems. Other ability could be something like "healing" because that´s how it works: you had a bad day and your partner may be able to calm you down, put a smile on your face etc.

And that would lead to change the "hulk"/"healing" part. They both should be hulks. Both genders may become really angry. If you want another option then something like "poisoning" - one has musles, another tongue. But again, I think it would be better to use both abilities for both genders.

[Vulduin]

Thanks for the response JindrichP! I think you're right about keeping it simple. Sometimes I overthink things... And the more I think about it the more I agree that a shared resource pool is a simple and effective way to get the point across. It's a simple mechanic which will create the give and take type of dynamic that I'm looking for.

I'm not sure that I agree with having both characters share the same abilities though, I think it is important to have asymmetry between them. As the game progresses and the characters relationship is strained, the player will need to use more selfish abilities to stay alive. These abilities will help them fight off the zombies but also hurt the female character. I want the player to feel guilty about doing this to the other character. If the female character does it right back to the player then I think the player will feel like she is just a burden and won't feel bad about hurting her.

The idea of having the player character have a hulkish ability and having the female character have a healing ability is growing on me. I think there is a good balance of interesting gameplay and metaphorical meaning.

I'm thinking that maybe having a stress "resource" may be appropriate. The player character would hulk out after reaching a certain stress level, and the female character will gradually lose healing effectiveness as her stress level rises. Taking damage will increase stress level, and stress will decrease incrementally over time as long as the character isn't getting attacked. For the player, going hulk mode will reduce stress and cause the player to transform back to normal mode.

I feel pretty good about this idea but I am still open to any ideas, feedback or suggestions!

[JindrichP]

I am glad I´ve helped you a little.

I think that you should chose abilities based on your experience with womens and relationships. I would prefer same abilities for both of them, but with some randomness, because that´s more or less my experience with relationships. I especially don´t like "women-healing" idea, because for me it is a sort of cliché and a message that mans can not be caring etc. I don´t agree with that and I am not like that. You may have another experience and what is so cool about videogames is that you can let all of us to "relive" your experience through game. So my opinion is: just do it based on your experience and then it is going to be awesome.

[Vulduin]

Yeah I hear what you're saying, it is a bit cliche and I'm aware of that. I'd prefer something a little less stereotypical which doesn't portray one character as being totally "good" and the other character being totally "bad". However I also want to maintain that feeling of guilt when the player realizes that their selfish actions is what pushed the other character away. It's a fine line and I expect that I will have to tweak things as I go to make sure that the proper message gets across.

[The Translocator]

One interesting possibility is to make upgrading your own abilities require shifting your focus from the combat by actively avoiding it- making the selfishness more of a direct choice, but maybe also necessary to progress through some parts of the game like it sometimes seems in real life. ?

[Vulduin]

I totally agree. It's more subtle than having abilities that actively counteract each other but it serves the same purpose and is simpler (which I like). Putting the player in a position where they need to decide to prioritize their own survival at the cost of subjecting their partner to the brunt of the zombie attacks is a great way of creating the tension that I want.