Friday, January 18, 2008

Game Idea: Luddite

Yet another strategy game I'm afraid, though one that requires an equal mix of smarts and explosions. I know, those two things aren't usually the busomest of buddies, but I figure everyone likes explosions and the smarts are sort of unnecessary once you get into it.

You're a demolitions expert, one that is currently part of a guerrilla team of rebels fighting a conquering race of colossal mechanical creatures. In order to bring down these mechanical titans, you need to blow them up from inside their own power shielding, which renders them invulnerable from outside weaponry (which is how they took over your world so quickly). A second factor is their repair-bot technology which allows them to quickly replicate any damage by speedily reforging lost metal parts and repairing/welding holes and the like. As such, you need to move fast and create a network of explosives that will destroy the creatures utterly once set off, detonating every vital part before they have a chance to recover.

As such, you need to study the theoretical blueprints, reverse-engineered by fellow rebel scientists who have a vague understanding of how these synthetic aliens work, and plant all the necessary explosives before being discovered and then escaping the creature's proximity before the bombs go off. Sounds simple enough, right?

The gameplay is in the form of a stealthy platformer with multi-goal-based objectives (such as "go here and then here and then here" rather than a single course through the level) and a constantly moving and dynamic "stage", similar to the bosses in Shadow of the Colossus, though far larger and less personal. You have to evade not only the detection systems of the gigantic robot you're walking over and under (which tend to be in the form of smaller robotic parts shaped like alarms and cameras) but also the repair-bots themselves, who will identify you as a mechanical error and try to fix you. Just to clarify: you don't want to be fixed by those things. You have little in the way of weaponry, since most of your carrying capacity is taken up by the many explosives you need to plant, so discretion is the key. You can actually blow up the repair-bots without immediate detection if you're careful, since there's a delay between the destruction of a repair-bot and the time when the lost signal is acknowledged by the main lifeform, but this will mean speeding up your work since you now have a time-limit. Prolonged detection or the acknowledgement of a lost signal will mean highly corrosive gas will be vented throughout all areas of the lifeform, eliminating any organic life (such as yourself) that may have gotten in - You can, however, escape the gas by retreating temporarily and trying again later (hopefully with all the planted explosives still in place).

Your character is also equipped with a lightweight flying apparatus which can be unfurled and escaped on when necessary to escape the gigantic robot, either before it vents the gas or before the explosives go off. A partially destructive result (PDR) will not destroy the lifeform but its repairs could take a considerable amount of time to complete, based on how many explosives went off and how many repair-bots you put out of commission. A completely destructive result (CDR) will eliminate the creature entirely, allowing you to move onto the next one. Each being has its own personality and appearance, ranging from humanoid to animalistic to far more conventional "mechanical" shapes such as a giant sphere or a tank. It's up to the pre-mission theoretical blueprints and the various modifications to those plans while on the job to decide where best to plant the explosives. Sometimes, some reconnaissance is necessary for an informed decision of where best to strike - your colleagues can interpret what you're seeing from a video feed from your beneficial vantage point this close to the creatures and may often change their minds about the best spots to place an explosive.

Obviously, the danger level will be considerable, since you're carrying a lot of dangerous materials and have very little to defend yourself with. In most cases, you can simply dump the explosives and get the hell out if it's getting too risky. The explosives aren't easy to get ahold of, but they're far more replaceable than you are (which makes a welcome change). You can decide to leave the explosives (both planted and abandoned) where they are if you escaped without detection, or set them off to create a distraction to escape in as well as give you a head-start on the next attempt. The robot will recover the damage quickly if you failed to destroy it completely and be more alert for your next attempt, but may still be distracted with repairs when your next attempt is ready to go.

The tense, time-sensitive action, the deliberate decisions needed when calculating the optimum destruction as well as the non-obtrusive-but-still-sort-of-prevalent stealth elements should be a decent package. The massive majesty of your antagonists should cause some amount of awe and dread too.