Idea for October 30th, 2012
Summary
A grid-based puzzle game where you work together with clones of yourself to to solve movement-based puzzles.
Theme(s): Forking, Branching, Cloning, Pushing, Pulling
includes topics that expand on the theme
Based on these themes we thought of a few ideas:
- A branching RTS game that you can create copies
- A multi-Tetris game
- "GeneHub" a game about a dystopian future gene-trading and gene-sharing website
- "Assimilate!" a simple puzzle game about multi-character simultaneous movement.
We Chose Assimilate
Genre(s):
game genre with possible significant changes or important points
Puzzle
Mechanics/Systems
individual gameplay mechanics and mechanics categorized by system
Objective:
get through the level by moving yourself and your clones to solve the puzzle and get out the door.
Object/Tile Types:
- Matter Emancipation Grid (Kills clones but not you)
- Lava/Fire (kills anything)
- Pits (fill in with a block or clone)
- Reversal Tiles (clone moves in the opposite direction)
- Moving Platforms (conveyor belt)
- Floating Platforms
- Teleporters
- Push Blocks
- Wall Blocks
- Sticky Block
- Buttons or Switches
- Spawn Point
- Clone Pad (and clone spawn pad paired to it somewhere else in the level)
- Keys
- Doors
Mechanics:
- Cloning
- Standing on Buttons (and standing on multiple buttons simultaneously)
- Pushing/Pulling Blocks (and pushing/pulling big blocks requiring multiple clones)
- Orientation
- Carrying Objects
- Cloned Clones?
- Merging Clones
- Clone Power: the number of clones you can make in a level.
- Movement: clone only moves if the player moves. If a clone hits a wall it will stop moving while you continue to move.
PROGRAMMING PRIORITIES: (What to implement first)
Priority 1:
* Grid-Based Movement: no set size
* Basic Floors
* Walls
* Spawn Point
* Exit
* One clone of the character that spawns in another area of the level at the start of the level
* XML coded levels (to support ease of adding levels)
Priority 2:
* Buttons/Doors
* Clone Pads to create clones in-game
* Pushing Blocks
* Death Tiles (Lava)
Story
narrative elements concerning plot, characters, world
- A (super) Wizard Adventure
- Star Trek: stuck on an alien ship
- A child stuck inside a crazy circus
- Tesla escaping from his own workshop
- Dystopian Chucky Cheese: "Where a kid can be more than 1 kid."
- Tomb Raider: egyptian style
- Reddit: You wrote a really terrible comment on Reddit but you want to up-vote it as much as possible. The only solution you can think of is to clone yourself as much as you can and get all your clones to up-vote it. Every level has its own post that we write up.
- Corrupt Political Leader trying to vote for himself using clones.
Contributors
includes GDC members who contributed to this idea and were present during the discussion
- Grayson B.
- Clinton
- Andy Leung
- Dylan Rimmer
- Alex Ryan
- Scott Inglis
- Lanz Singbeil
Additional Comments
// After the meeting if you have any additional ideas or comments please keep them in this section//
Level Editor: encoding your levels in a .jpg (injecting metadata into the screenshot and allowing players to then easily share the picture and load it into the game).
