Now that I think about it
...here is a game pitch I made a while back
Idea pitch session 1: Game pitch 4 of 4
Castlevainia game – “multiplayer castlvainia, control all characters with one person”
How would a multiplayer castlevainia game look? That was the question spawned from the announcement of castlvainia: “harmony of despair” a genuine multiplayer castlevainia game! In order to grasp how that kind of set up would play out a series of observations were made…
1. If the game is multiplayer either one person must not be able to take down a monster alone or they can’t take down a group of monsters alone.
Resulting scenario – if you have a huge monster come out one player could simply grapple with it to keep it from moving. While held in place the second player could come in for the kill.
2. If the same player is used over and over to hold any & all enemies in place while the same other player was used to kill said enemy that would become blatantly obvious and by extension monotonous.
Resulting scenario – The player that holds the huge enemy in place gets swarmed if he tries that tactic against a group of small quick enemies. So use the second player to fight through the group and cripple there movement so the first player can come through and attack without being swarmed. This causes the game to turn into a treat management puzzle game where the player is tasked with determining what order should enemies be attacked and with who.
3. If two players are busy wrestling with a huge were-bull, axe wielding minotaur, or armor knight in the middle of the screen what do they do about the other monsters moving in for the attack from the left, right, or even from above them?
Resulting scenario – (we’re obviously going to need more characters in the party than two) So I started mining characters from the series of games to use. Mr. whip himself Belmont could be used to deal with characters that attack from one side of the above wrestling match. Alucard could be used to attack enemies coming from the opposite side.
4. If two players are wrestling a huge enemy while two others handle single targets on the peripheral you can never have more than two co-op required enemies on screen at once. And if you had two co-op enemies you can’t put any more enemies on screen cause there are no players left to fight them since they are already busy fighting enemies.
Resulting scenario – (mine more characters from the series to allow for more scenarios) I remembered a werewolf from castlvaina 64 and a little girl from one of the GBA / DS games. This allows for multiple large co-op required enemies on the screen at once along with lesser enemies to fight on the peripheral which allows for the epic scale associated with needing a party to fight a battle instead of one person.
5. If you have 6 people running around on screen along with enemies shifting around everywhere the screen may get cluttered.
Resulting scenario – Leave the party at six players and allow the girl the power to somehow disperse a large group of enemies.
Given this set of observations the game is defined as one where…
1. A player either can’t take down an enemy alone or a group of enemies alone.
2. Different people are good at fighting different types of enemies.
3. Party members are used to cover each other while another is busy taking down an enemy.
4. Crowds of enemies on screen must be managed by the player.
Finally, what are the breath and depth of possible scenarios in a game such as this?
Story – A string of events that detail how each character joins the party and how there journey affects the game world.
a. Introductory segments for each character that shows the circumstances by which they meet and join the main party.
b. Segments that dictate the action that is currently depicted on screen.
c. Changing segments that will introduce new scenarios and recycle old scenarios in interesting new ways by varying the patterns & durations of occurrence given the story laid out.
Fighting – Dealing with the list of threats in the game world using up to 6 characters simultaneously to fight through the scenarios of a level. Each fight offers different mixes of enemies being thrown at the player where the player has to threat manage the enemies on the screen and decide in what order do the enemies get attacked and by whom.
a. Fights are tied directly to the current place in the story line.
b. Fights involving varying number of party members. Current party may have 1, 5, 3, 6, etc. members.
c. Fights along side guest party members where more guest can be picked up as others fall.
d. Fights against current party members.
e. Large field skirmishes where lots of enemies are fought by the party along side allied parties to mimic army on army battles.
f. Fights with back to the wall or closed entrance while some group member(s) leave party to open an entrance.
g. Feint fights where the party is fleeing the enemy, sealing the path behind them, and attempting to open the path in front of them.
h. Fights where some player(s) are positioned elsewhere on screen to activate something that helps damage or open up the possibility of the group damaging an enemy.
i. Boss fights.
Group platforming – Navigating through an area by making way over gaps and obstacles.
a. Simple timed gap and obstacle jumps one player followed by the other.
b. One player hand springs other players to higher points and the group pulls the last player up by rope.
c. One or two players defend the group as the rest navigate some obstacle.
d. Sneaking into an area to open the way for the group by platforming a wall instead of going through the entrance.
Running – Running from one side of the area to the other.
a. Platforming on the run through a level not stopping or slowing down.
b. Fighting on the run through a level not stopping or slowing down.
c. Fleeing from a flood of enemies too numerous to fight as a group.
d. Breaking through a line of enemies while on the run shoving them aside or running them over.
e. Running from cover to cover from a barrage of enemy projectiles.
Exploration – Searching an area in hopes of finding a given person, place, or thing.
a. field exploration
b. town exploration
c. structure exploration
Talking – Extracting information from people in an effort to further the story and flesh out the world.
NOTE: If you open in a new window you can then enlarge image to better view text.
Games to reference:
Castlevainia *series* (Theme)
Vampire Hunter D *anime series* (alt-Theme)
Ghost n goblins*series*(Theme)
Castlvainia: “harmony of despair”(multiplayer castlevainia)
Valkyrie profile*ps1 game* (using a group to fight)
Patapon(using a group to fight)
Serious sam (threat management)
Generic tower defense game (threat management )
Ideas tossed around:
Give the player the need to buy consumables arrows, special items, food, weapons, and armor so in addition to combat there is a hint of resource management to occupy the player. There needs to be an archer in the mix along with a class that does status effects to vary up the gameplay and keep things fresh. The characters need to level up and acquire new abilities or the gameplay will become stale vs. Giving the player all the abilities upfront then use the story to feed them various new and adjusted old scenarios in which the player has to remember or find out which ability to use in a variety of thrown scenarios.
.....1. Requires many assets and animations for different enemies.
.....2. The party based fighting could cause a lull in development while figuring out how to get the interactions and transitions to work.
Note: I couldn't pull the details with images and diagrams from the PDF notes in a timely fashion so I've made the PDF available...
Click hereDropbox - pitches.pdf