Different game mechanic for an RPG - your opinion?

[whisperstorm]

I'm working on creating an experimental rpg for facebook. The game mechanic however is a bit different from your typical rpg fare. Gameplay consists of two different phases - a dungeon creation phase and a dungeon exploration phase. You essentially create a dungeon that other facebook rpg players will explore. Your goal is to create both an attractive and challenging dungeon. The more people that "play" your dungeon the more money you get (somewhat like an amusement park sim). However you also recieve bonus items for every time a player attempts to beat your dungeon but fails (dies). You also get a chance to "steal" one of the player's items if they fall into a particular trap. However if they successfully reach the end of your dungeon they will either get a bit of your money, or possibly one of the items in your "hoard". A hoard is basically the stakes you put up for grabs in a given dungeon. The sweeter the items the more likely folks will try to play your dungeon and you may get $ and bonuses.

Now the point of the money and bonuses is to beef up your own character. During the play phase you visit other player's dungeons - check out the win/loss ratio, look at the "hoard" items up for grabs and decide if you want to attempt to play a given dungeon. If you die, you cannot play that dungeon again for 24hrs, however you can choose to "bail out" and leave a dungeon i the middle with no penalty. However the dungeon owner gets credit for your visit.

What I'm trying to do is somehow tie the well-being of your character with how well you can create a satifying "dungeon". You might choose to create an easy dungeon which has cheap items in its hoard to encourage lots of players - or you might create a really difficult one with high stakes, but run the risk of no-one wanting to play it.

My question to folks here is does this sound like a viable game mechanic for a site like Facebook? As you get more visitors to your dungeon you "level up" in that you are allowed to add more monsters, traps, etc. to your dungeon to make it both more interesting and challenging.

The idea is to try to create a situation where folks are "self - creating" levels that everyone wants to play.

Does this sound like something that may have legs or would this just degenerate into opportunistic folks creating degenerate levels just to help each other out...

[voxel]

The idea is to try to create a situation where folks are "self - creating" levels that everyone wants to play.

mygamebuilder.com

You are onto something tho...

[Bmc]

I think if it's something you are passionate about doing then it's worth taking a stab at it. It might not work, it might work gloriously.

[Mikademus]

I've got to give you credit for a very novel idea! On a purely conceptual level I'm intrigued and stimulated, however, this game will live or die by the interface and graphics. I also think it is one of those ideas that sound principally easy but turn nightmarish to implement.

Still, given that most games today are tired rehashes of something already done to death but in somewhat altered setting or graphics, you've might have successfully innovated --at least somewhat-- within the dungeon crawl RPG genre!

Basically, a persistent online Dungeon Keeper, eh? :)

[Nikos Beck]

It sounds like a great idea. Run with it, see how it does. I'd start with the dungeon creation and exploration and see if it resonates. It seems like it would. Facebook has plenty of simple little games based on tidbits of facts. Is it possible to use Facebook content since you're aiming at the Facebook crowd? The traps can be a pit, if the player gueses the trivia correctly, they survive, if not, they rely on their "escape artist" skill to avoid it. You don't have to include Facebook content.

I think the idea of swag is great. If it's at all possible it'd be great to keep a list of where the swag came from. I make an "anti-gossip helmet" and when someone beats my dungeon they get it, then they can see me in the list and check out my profile, when someone wins it off them that person can then see where it came from.

There will be jerks who make impossible dungeons. You can't avoid that. If you have a large enough user base, the jerks will be in the minority.

I look forward to seeing it.

[datxcod]

I think I saw a game with a similar idea but instead of dungeons, users create gardens and they get points (and money I think) with each visit from users.

[barrygamer]

Sounds like a cool idea. As others have said though, its all in the implementation. (I'm not a Facebook user, I can't comment on that side of things).

One could try a very simple system of tokens/rewards: players pay a token to enter a dungeon, the creator gets half, and half goes into the pot for winners of that dungeon. Players could rate the dungeon on how fun it was. Hence, there is always motivation to create fun levels, rather than just difficult levels. The reward pot would automatically grow larger for more difficult levels, the creator would not control that. Players can enter a level as many times as they like (until they complete it, I guess), they pay a token to re-try.

I've probably broken your entire system with that suggestion, but anyway, I like your idea :)

[Jesse Aldridge]

I think it's an interesting idea.

...but why not make a separate website for the game, instead of using Facebook? I suppose you could probably do both.

[Bmc]

I think it's an interesting idea.

...but why not make a separate website for the game, instead of using Facebook? I suppose you could probably do both.

I think the idea loses it's allure if you take away the Facebook aspect.

[Matt2East]

Very interesting marketing idea!

[GolfHacker]

Sweet idea! Taking the whole user-created content thing to another level. I like it! Congrats on an innovative idea!