Game Developers Club
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Files / Game Ideas 2014

Inheritance

Name: Wil Hromek

Game Title: Inheritance

Game Format: 2D

Most Similar Genre: 'Dungeon Crawler", Action/Adventure, Rogue-like

Core Mechanics: The three main game mechanics of Inheritance are the PLAYER, their HOUSE, and ADVENTURING:
-PLAYER: The player will take control of a character, maneuvering him from a top-down view. Player characters explore the world and battle opponents using two kinds of attacks, as well as utilizing latent abilities. Each character has four important statistics: Health(how much they can be hit), Special(points used to perform class abilities), Magic Damage and Physical Damage. The player character's offensive and latent abilities are determined by their class, which is chosen by the player at the beginning of play. The classes are split into three main groups:

-MARTIAL: Fighter, Bowman, and Ronin. The martial classes are defined by their high health values and physical damage output. Each class is fairly simple: Fighters use various types of melee weapons, and their Special attacks are focused on chaining together highly damaging combos. Bowmen use crossbows, firing more bolts in more directions based on different Special attacks. Ronin use dual-weilded swords and are unique among the martial classes in that they use Special points to maneuver quickly around the battlefield instead of enhancing their attacks.

-ARCANE: Wizard, Bard, Alchemist. The arcane classes are defined by their lower health values and versatile, powerful magic attacks. Arcane characters focus more on using Special attacks, and thus have a higher learning curve then other classes. Wizards have the lowest health of all the classes, but they have a wide range of highly damaging ranged spells. Bards are quick with moderate health, and their magic focuses on pacifying or charming opponents to their will. Alchemists have very slow potion-throwing and flintlock pistol attacks, but they can damage enemies in a wide splash range.

-DIVINE: Cleric, Paladin, and Heretic. The divine classes are a happy medium between the other two groups, mixing magical damage with moderate health and physical attacks. Divine classes use their Special points to enhance their regular attacks, making them a good medium between Martial and Arcane classes in terms of complexity. Clerics can cast healing magic, enhance weapons, and call down wide-range splash attacks. Paladins have the highest health of all the classes and can cast defensive magic at the cost of weaker physical attacks. Heretics, because of their dark pacts with demons, begin play with no Special points, instead gaining points as they defeat opponents. Once they gain their maximum amount of Special points, they enter a special Bloodlust mode during which they can make powerful attacks (and use Special abilities) for a limited time.

-In addition to their class, characters will posses a randomly assigned 'trait'. This 'trait' is a little quirk to the character's main statistics, and serves to make each character unique in the way they play. Some examples of 'traits' would be Miserly(Treasure found is worth considerably more then normal), Nimble (Character moves much faster than normal), or Knowledgeable (Special attacks cost less points to use)

-HOUSE: The player character's house serves as a 'base' for the player between adventures, acting as a location to store equipment, change skills, and expand their class options. The main aspects of the House include:

-The player begins the game by creating a single character. The player's house is directly influenced by the kind of character chosen, and certain options will be locked out until they are obtained later. (Example: If a player makes their first character a Wizard, their house will begin as a Mage's Tower. This means that future player characters can only be Arcane classes until the player unlocks the other two groups by expanding his home.)

-The main mechanic of Inheritance occurs when a character dies. Instead of a 'continue' option, the player is given control of the previous's offspring at their house. This means that any treasure or equipment on the player character is lost upon death.

-The player can choose to store equipment at the house, thus preserving it as a 'family heirloom' and preventing it's loss upon death. The house can only preserve a handful of items, so the player must make good decisions about what he saves and what he takes out into the world.

-The House can be expanded upon by paying for additions with treasure found on adventures. Expansions include additional class choices, a greater amount of storage space for 'heirlooms', and additional class abilities.

- The player can also create their 'heir', which the player will take control of in case of character death. While the gender and inherent 'traits' of the heir are randomized, the player can choose what class and what abilities they will gain once control is handed over to the player.

ADVENTURING: Most of the gameplay will revolve around navigating a top-down/semi-isometric world, battling opponents and gaining treasure. Some important aspects of these activities include:

-Exploring the world is the only way for players to gather equipment. 'Equipment' includes any sort of stat-boosting item (Sword of +1 Physical Damage, Helmet of Incredible Speed), class-based item (Additional Spells, Better Martial Techniques) or one-time-use item (Potion of Fire Breath, Vial of Explosive Casting).

-Player characters have limited equipment space (You can't carry a full set of armor, five longswords, 12 healing potions, and a sack of gold in your pockets), so players must decide whether to trek back to their house to drop off equipment, or to pass by lesser equipment in hopes of finding better equipment down the line.

-The world grows more and more dangerous(and conversely the treasure becomes better and better) the further the player travels from their home. The world is also home to a handful of 'dungeons', which grow more difficult the further one progresses into them. Dungeons are easier to travel to, but provide a much less dynamic experience then running around in the open air.

-The world is not randomly generated, and remains fairly the same each time the player plays. The only differences in the world would be monster placement, dungeon locations, and random treasure placement, each of which is randomly determined after the player begins the game as a new 'family'.

Planned Engine: Unity 2D

Proposer Role: Art Lead

Looking For: Programmers, Programmer with knowledge of the Unity engine

Why: I believe my game should be chosen because it presents a very ambitious goal, but it is also straightforward enough to be easily completed by a dedicated group. In addition, the game's core concept can be built upon and can incorporate any number of ideas the development team wish to put foreword.