Pardon my lack of writing skills as I try to paint a picture briefly:
You find yourself in the middle of the events taking place in Black Mesa, you are either a security guard (not Barney), or a scientist (not Gordon) caught up in the events, and you just want to get the hell out of there alive, and you are not the only one with the same goal. So you team up and work together to escape the the already falling apart facility crawling with nasty creatures and well trained killing marines along with some desperate survivors... And they are the least of your worries, as there is something else, far worse lurking the corridors of Black Mesa, and it too wants to survive.
Between the security guard and the scientist, there is a relationship of cooperation formed, as these two characters have very different skills, abilities and talents, and together they will complete tasks together to escape each level until the two of them get out of black mesa alive. The Idea i will be describing below, is an idea that i have been formulating from playing many games, however at the same time i feel this idea is also very unique experience that should be tried. I have ofcourse designed the idea around a standalone game with a unique story, but for modding purpose and experimentation I feel the Half-Life Black Mesa setting may suffice as it will be much easier to work with and pretty much everything required is delivered on a silver platter, and will require minimal work in order to test the idea. So read on to get a feel for my idea. The security guard:This player is all the braun, he is the brave one going out risking he’s life to collect items, and do all of the field work, armed with a sidearm, and further on to collect other weapons, he is placed in the middle of danger, fighting he’s way to accomplish the goals set out to him by the scientist. The scientist:This player is all the brain, the one with the smarts, not very useful out in the field where dangers lurk around every corner. Though he may be required to enter the field under protection of the security guard to get around or achieve certain goals, he will spend most of he’s time in somewhat safe locations, finding ways to aid the security guard in terms of navigation, surveilance, and access. Scientist also has knowledge and ability to craft useful items, weapons and gear to either defend himself or for the security guard to aid out in the field. This sets up a game with two very different perspectives, a co-op game with a horror survival element. The game play in a nutshell: Cooperation is best explained as the relationship between the sniper and the spotter. The spotter being the more experienced one, taking the lead, and doing all the planning, calculations and making the decisions, and the sniper just carries the load and pulls the trigger. As with that, one could look at the security guard as the sniper and the scientist as the spotter. While security guard scavenges the level moving around and finding items, accomplishing some tasks and facing all kinds of dangers he will need to combat himself out of, or at times flee from, hes level of interaction outside of combat is very limited. While the player may be armed and ready to combat himself out of any threat, ammunition will be a scarce commodity for this brave warrior, so combat should be avoided, and with the aid of the scientist player, make your way around the threats, or lure them away. The scientist does not fair too well in combat, combat skills are next to non existent. He is best to survive by running away or hiding from any dangerous threats. However the scientist will have plenty of knowledge on computer systems, electronics, engineering and construction. The game play for the scientist will rely on hacking, fixing, crafting, and monitoring, as well as communicating with the security guard in order to achieve goals and complete tasks to progress to the next level. The scientist will be able to monitor a layout of the level as a map, only being notified of a highlighted room based on movement with no actual knowledge of the other players exact whereabouts or direction other than what the other player can describe, and also keeping track of the other players movement from one room to the next via communication and rooms highlighting up. The scientist player will need to navigate the security guard player to locations of interest. The scientist will also gain access to security feeds in order to see certain rooms and corridors and relay information to the other player as to what may be expected around the next corner. With access to some security panels, the scientist could also be able to control certain objects in the environment, such as doors, alarms, lights, water, ventelation etc, all to be used to the players creativity. Alot of the interaction may require hacking, over rides and repairing before gaining the control of these environmental advantages, and also may be located in different areas, which may require the scientist player to move around in order to make use of these interfaces.
Communication:
Communication is very important in this game if it has not caught your attention, so there is alot of emphasis on the communication aspect. The communication between these two players will take place through 2 way radios used by the security guards, which are limited to battery power as well, as susceptable to other enviromental conditions that may limit it’s use. Alternate communication such as the scientist player making use of the anouncement intercoms within the levels and rooms will also be possible as a fallback means of communication. Each level will have a security booth where there will be additional batteries as well as a charger, and some ammunition. It will be vitally important to find these as communication will depend greatly on it. The radios will also prove to be a risk, as any sound from the radios through communication will attract attention to any nearby threats, this said, it will also be possible to switch off radios for times it is absolutely necessary, as well as to conserve battery power, this however comes at a risk of missing very important messages that could be relayed to the other player. Surviving:Besides the cooperation between the two players, there will be other survival elements in play, mostly nutrition. A players stamina, energy, and sanity will depend on comforts such as safety, food and drinks, being exposed danger and starvation for too long will cause the players to suffer with their skills and abilities being nerfed. The enemies:Enemies will come in many different forms, from desperate survivors, to creatures of another world, to trained soldiers ordered to kill on sight. Everything known to the Half-LIfe universe, but there will also be another threat, a creature that will rome the rooms, and corridors of the facility, trying to survive as well. This creature in particular will be your biggest threat, as it cannot be killed, however it can be chased away or stunned, but it will hunt and it will kill everything in it’s way. The environment and levels:The Black Mesa reseach facility will be the setting where this will take place as a mod, however the environment will be very familiar, my intention with the co-op play is that there should be multiple levels not all played through in order, instead each level has multiple ways of escaping, which could either lead to enter the next level in diferent ways and locations, or might lead you to an entirely different level. Players could escape the black mesa facility by skipping certain levels depending on their routes of escape. However this is intended more on the focus of my idea for the standalone game, it would be nice to see this achieved in the mod. But this is up to whomever adopts this idea, and whether they would like to follow through with this.
I think up till now I have covered the basics of my game idea, and should be enough to interest any teams that want to adopt this idea and make it a reality. I will continue to find a template to do a more in depth document explaining this idea in much more depth and to a standard required to work with, so as to share my idea and vision with. As I am revealing this idea out to everyone though, please feel free to ask for more information, share ideas and suggestions, this can help to flesh out this idea, and possibly make it even better, and for me to make a more complete document. Also for anyone who wishes to adopt this idea and make this a reality, I am not looking to assemble a team here, I am not recruiting, but an already existing team, preferably with some experience will be welcome to adopt my idea, and as it is my idea, I would like to be involved in the project, to a minor degree of course. I am not looking to boss anyone around so I am not looking for a title as project manager or such, simply just credit to the title and the guy with the idea, and just share my vision and communicate it as clearly as possible to the team in order to make it the most awesomest project ever. Also would be nice to get a tour on how these teams work together in order to bring an idea to life, I would find that very interesting to observe and be a part of. So feel free to inbox me if you have a team and are interested in my idea, or feel free to discuss this in the thread, share some more ideas, suggestions and ask anything you want, you may even criticize if you like.
