Gameplay Ideas
Posted: Mon Jul 30, 2012 12:21 pm
Since Subversion has been placed on the shelf due to the lack of good gameplay. I had a few thoughts...
The whole idea behind the game: to "hack" the environment is plain and simply awesome. But with this comes a couple of problems. Introversion explained that levels can easily be solved in 'the wrong way' by simply drilling the door open, or killing a guard, turning of the power etc.
Since the whole game aims to be realistic in how you want to solve the problem. Taking away tools and forcing the player to solve problems in a predetermined way is a bad solution.
So I was thinking. What is it that I like about Heist movies, what is the thrill? For sure it would not be a simple "in and out job". The thrill lies in the uncertainty of the situation. People in the wrong places, items not it the right spot and so on. One of the most famous one is "This is not the right safe! I can't open this."
A game like Subversion should not be on a level by level basis. Introversion wrote an engine to generate an entire city. The players sandbox is this city and everything you do in it should have repercussions.
For example in the game "Homeworld". There is a limited amount of resources in the entire game. You need to survive on what it there and what you have. Doing each level in the most efficient way possible, because you will need those ships in the end.
Maybe one of the major parts of a game like Subversion is not the Heist itself, but also the work planing for it. In movies there is just as much screen time spent (if not even more) on the planning than the actual Heist.
The player should probably not have a godlike view of the level. Nor having total control over the team. Micromanagement should be limited to telling each individual to do certain thing. If something unexpected occurs it depends on that character what the outcome will be.
The player should be the person sitting in a car outside the building. Controlling what is going on. But in no way have a complete view of the "battlefield". The thrill lies in "what might happen".
In "Uplink" this thrill is at its peak when the time is running out. Will I be caught or not?
The whole idea behind the game: to "hack" the environment is plain and simply awesome. But with this comes a couple of problems. Introversion explained that levels can easily be solved in 'the wrong way' by simply drilling the door open, or killing a guard, turning of the power etc.
Since the whole game aims to be realistic in how you want to solve the problem. Taking away tools and forcing the player to solve problems in a predetermined way is a bad solution.
So I was thinking. What is it that I like about Heist movies, what is the thrill? For sure it would not be a simple "in and out job". The thrill lies in the uncertainty of the situation. People in the wrong places, items not it the right spot and so on. One of the most famous one is "This is not the right safe! I can't open this."
A game like Subversion should not be on a level by level basis. Introversion wrote an engine to generate an entire city. The players sandbox is this city and everything you do in it should have repercussions.
For example in the game "Homeworld". There is a limited amount of resources in the entire game. You need to survive on what it there and what you have. Doing each level in the most efficient way possible, because you will need those ships in the end.
Maybe one of the major parts of a game like Subversion is not the Heist itself, but also the work planing for it. In movies there is just as much screen time spent (if not even more) on the planning than the actual Heist.
The player should probably not have a godlike view of the level. Nor having total control over the team. Micromanagement should be limited to telling each individual to do certain thing. If something unexpected occurs it depends on that character what the outcome will be.
The player should be the person sitting in a car outside the building. Controlling what is going on. But in no way have a complete view of the "battlefield". The thrill lies in "what might happen".
In "Uplink" this thrill is at its peak when the time is running out. Will I be caught or not?