Your thoughts required :) Thread

This may be a little different than a game proposal, so here goes ...

I'm about to start my final year project at University, and you guessed it, its going to be a game level (Computer Games Production course!). As part of the criteria we are required to ask some form of question, and the question I want to ask is:

"Can a game be fun without using traditional combat methods?"

Basically I want to create a small level (at least to start with) and basically use light and sound to give the effect of enemies around, for example cliche evil spirits and whatnot. An bare basic example I had was your enter a room, its dark and there is a creepy sound indicating the presence of an evil spirit, which you cannot see. When your player entity is within the room your health drains, giving the indication the spirit is hurting you, to defeat the spirit you simply switch on the light or perform some other task that results in the spirit sodding off basically. As part of my research to finding out whether this kind of method is as entertaining as using a traditional weapon, such as guns and melee, I would like to ask you all if you would be inclined to play such a style of game.

If you would like to help me out, then could you state 3 things for me:

Your age, preferred genre of game (FPS, RPG etc etc), and finally a Yes/No to if you think the above idea appeals to you.

Many thanks to any that participate in this small piece of pre-research

Well, he never described it as being a first person shooter (or indeed, even a first person game). Personally, I believe it can work, but it has one issue where it may fall apart compared to a traditional combat orientated game; variety. You will need a number of unique scenarios with unique solutions in order to keep gameplay interesting, otherwise you'll devolve into mindless repetition of the same tasks

You are quite right, I didn't state what type of game it would be, you are correct in that it would be an FPS (or in this case just FP lol), and I acknowledge that it would require many different scenarios to maintain the standard of entertainment, that'll be part of the challenge for my assignment, to come up with those different scenarios

Edited by: Sivi

27, FPS and Yes
About your concept: Do you want to concentrate on invisible "spirits" which are only recognisable through sound and light changes or have "real" enemies as well? When I read your concept I was thinking about a giant snake sitting on top of a pile of bones and the player has to sneak by it to find a bone in the shape of a flute and put her to sleep by playing a lullaby on the flute (maybe like FLUTE HERO ^^ ) or similar encounters where the player has to find a way to get rid of an enemy in a non-combative way? The challenge of course would be to think of ways on how to give the player hints what he has to do in every unique situation...

In terms of having tools and what not, i was definitely leaning torwards having some kind of utility belt, dropped from someone like a maintanence worker/janitor etc, so you'd have wrenches and stuff, not to be used as melee, but to perform tasks around the levels. I definitely like that fear meter, reminds me slightly of Penumbra where the more you look at the dogs eyes the more you shake and make noise, resulting in the dog seeing you, which was a very nice touch IMO.

Correct, which is why I chose this for my final year project, to see if breaking that unwritten rule can be accomplished, or to further research any existing titles out there that already break the rule Right now this is all theoretical stuff

14 (although MA games are not a problem for me)/fps,rts/Yes
like said before it should be a little more complicated then a direct route to the light e.g. some obstacles. and also if your in a room with no light how will you find your way to the lightswitch?
EDIT: when you said the 'room was dark' did you mean pitch black?

Edited by: MrCupcake

As soon as I finished school with my GCSE's (which werent great) I went on a 1 year college course BTEC First Award in ICT, after gaining a Merit in that I moved onto another 2 year course for the BTEC National Diploma in ICT, during the final year of that, the college helps you out with UCAS for getting you onto a University course if you wish to go down that route, Universities tend to look for A level grades or equivilant, there really are lots of games courses around the country, I was quite surprised.

As for DiableHunter asking about a dark room, It wouldn't be pitch black, i'm thinking a low level of unnatural light, etc dim reds and greens to enforce the players knowledge of a presence, I would also like to include some form of lighter that gives you a small amount of light to cast onto walls and such, but not enough to make the spirits not harm you, also it runs out of lighter fluid and you have to find refills or something like that, means the player won't want to use it constantly