Game Design Idea – Puzzle-RPG (part 2)

Glad to see that I’ve, in turn, inspired someone else. 😉

So yesterday I began brainstorming an idea for a Puzzle RPG game an how I came to such an idea. Two boundaries kept me from developing this idea further; combat and statistics. However, I was playing Ninjatown last night and I had a minor epiphony about how to traverse these particular issues.

So I’ll start with Combat. This is the potential game breaker, because the two solutions I came up with drastically change the way I initially thought the game would be played (though one more than the other) but I think that were it to be thoroughly thought it, the game would maintain a simplistic approach.

 

The first Idea

 

 
So the first idea, the gameplay is the initial Blockbreaker idea that I had, you break the blocks to uncover parts of the map, by clicking or directing to a location the character inside the box will automatically move to the uncovered location provided there are no bricks in the way. Enemies are seen roaming on the board as well, when an enemy comes into contact with the player a battle screen will appear on the bottom window, this battle plays like a typical RPG turn based battle (a la Final Fantasy) and all movement and gameplay on the main board is halted for the duration of the battle.
This idea, in theory, works pretty well but it may get a bit too complex later on in the game (RPG conduct dictates that enemies and bosses are harder later on in the game, after all) but by halting the main gameplay the player’s focus is kept on the battle screen until the fight is over.
The second idea changes the core puzzle element of gameplay a bit and fuses two screens together, the basis uses the same windows that the first idea would use, but it uses them in parallel. The puzzle element in this one is Bejewelled rather than Blockbreaker. As the player plays the puzzle game, the bottom window shows a graphic representation of an RPG, you see a character moving on a 2d plane throughout an environment, but the player is not in control.
Instead, actions are dictated through what jewels are broken in the puzzle game, for example; if the player breaks movement gems, the little character in the RPG window will begin moving forward (how far it moves is dictated by the gems broken), if the player comes into contact with an enemy and, say, an attack – or magic? – gem is broken the little character will slash with it’s sword or shoot or fireball or some such.
This makes the goal of the game to make your little character get from one end of the 2d level to the other, which effectively makes it a puzzle platformer rather than a puzzle rpg which shifts the genre a bit.

I’m not sure which idea I like more at this point in time. I’m trying to flesh out both. Look out for a few more mockups and things in my Sketchbook later on today and hopefully you’ll understand what I mean.

– Chris out

~ by Chris Walter on February 12, 2009.