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View Full Version : My ebleet game idea... a.k.a. "Screwdriver"



spoomusic
04-24-2006, 04:34 PM
Hi everyone,

I had a game idea and I wanted to share it with you all, in case someone thinks that it is interesting and would like to develop it. Some people think that you shouldn't share your good ideas, but I'm one of those open source types so... it's called Screwdriver.

The game is similar in style to Tetrisphere (http://www.gamespot.com/n64/puzzle/tetrisphere/index.html).

Now for a simple explanation of how my game works...

The center of the playing field is dominated mostly by an odd, futuristic looking box. The outside is covered in metal brackets in a variety of shapes which have been screwed into a core box. The screws vary in color. There are other things aside from metal brackets that may be connected to various points on the box. The background is essentially a rad winamp plugin that pulses and moves according to the music.

For the gameplay explanation, please refer to my uber drawing below.

http://spoomusic.com/a-zot/screwdriver/box1.gif
(imagine this image is way cooler and it's not a lame square but a 3D
cube and this is just one of its sides face-on)

The purpose of the game is to completely expose the core box, which really could be any shape.

Also on the screen is the player's tool box which, at level one, contains only a screwdriver. There are also a few little colored squares that correspond to the color of the screws that are holding the brackets (and odd else) into place. So, for the box in the picture above, there would be a pink square, a brown square, and a purple square.

The following is all using the mouse. The player would first select the screwdriver, which then becomes his cursor. Player then moves the screwdriver to select the pink color square. Player then hovers over the pink screw holding in the tubing and starts left clicking. Each left click turns the screw 1/4 of a turn. The player has to click it about five times to remove the screw since this is level one and this is a very short screw. Player then unscrews the other pink screw, and upon doing so, the metal bracket shatters with some utterly nifty polygon effect. The player is now one step closer to completing this level.

As you can hopefully see by my pretty drawing above, the metal bracket at the top of the box bends over the corner of the box onto the top side. You can't see this in my drawing, but you'll have to trust me that it is also screwed in on the top side with three screws just like on this side. So, player still has the screwdriver selected, but first the player needs to select the brown color to get those two brown screws. Player then selects purple and unscrews the purple screw. To get to the top side of the box, the player right clicks and drags downward, which rotates the box. This can be done in any direction. The player can also zoom in and out with the mouse wheel. The player then unscrews the remaining screws and has taken yet another step towards completion of level one.

This continues until everything has been removed from the core box at which point play proceeds to the next level. Each level adds more screw colors, more screw heads (as in not just philips head, but different shapes like a star shaped head, a heart shaped head, and other fun stuff), more screw types and their respective tools (as in hex head bolts, nut drivers, a soldering iron, and even teeth for those screws which have no heads), and increasing numbers of layers of brackets and odd else that cover this box to the point that it takes quite a while to even expose parts of the core box.

Base points will be scored by how quickly you complete each level. Bonus points will include getting hard-to-reach screws that are one or more layers beneath the top layer. When a player clicks a color (to designate which color screw he will be unscrewing), there is a small timer and bonus points are rewarded for each consecutive screw that the player unscrews of that color before the timer runs out. Combos are performed by unscrewing certain colors in a row within the timer (ie: two purple screws and two brown screws both unscrewed in under six seconds per color will award combo points). Combos are also performed by detatching more than one connector with only one unscrewing.

I have more ideas that involve higher levels, unorthodox tools, traps, and player 'weapons' , but I will spare you poor readers and allow you to first digest the basic mechanics of the game...

If this post is in the wrong thread, please let me know and I can try to move it...

Please comment.

jefferytitan
04-24-2006, 05:15 PM
Call me a violent old dinosaur, but it sounds like it would be much more fun if you were dismantling something potentially dangerous (i.e. a bomb or reactor) and the trick was removing parts A B and C without touching parts D E and F.

Also, building is much more tricky than dismantling (in my experience) because if you attach parts in the wrong order, later steps can prove impossible. Of course that could be frustrating gameplay-wise. Perhaps you can reverse a bunch of steps easily, but it costs you points? Multiple clicks to unscrew one screw seems redundant to me, unless half-unscrewing a screw can make a significant change in the game state (i.e. you can see through a gap and realise that unscrewing it is a bad idea).

Power-ups could make parts of the object to become translucent so you can better understand how it works/how it's built.

Just my thoughts...

Bmc
04-25-2006, 05:00 AM
why not make it yourself?

just scrap the winamp plugin (because it would probably be too hard for you to do if you don't program) and get gamemaker or something

spoomusic
04-25-2006, 08:44 AM
Jefferytitan, some awesome ideas ...


Call me a violent old dinosaur, but it sounds like it would be much more fun if you were dismantling something potentially dangerous (i.e. a bomb or reactor) and the trick was removing parts A B and C without touching parts D E and F.

Yeah! This is an awesome idea. The core box is actually a really sensitive bomb... and there are pieces that, if you touch, or maybe touch with the wrong tool, will cause the core box to detonate or something. That's a cool idea!


Also, building is much more tricky than dismantling (in my experience) because if you attach parts in the wrong order, later steps can prove impossible. Of course that could be frustrating gameplay-wise. Perhaps you can reverse a bunch of steps easily, but it costs you points?

This is actually on my notes as an alternate game within the game.


Multiple clicks to unscrew one screw seems redundant to me, unless half-unscrewing a screw can make a significant change in the game state (i.e. you can see through a gap and realise that unscrewing it is a bad idea).

The multiple clicks thing is to keep it a bit frantic and fast paced. The idea is that the game is operating on a few timers and I picture the player in a manic clicking frenzy (if the core box hasn't already exploded - heh!) ... Perhaps each click needs to be withing a three pixel radius or something or the tool flies back into the toolbox. Adds a little precision to the game...


Power-ups could make parts of the object to become translucent so you can better understand how it works/how it's built.

Whoa... I like this idea a lot. The visual I got when I read this was awesome.


Just my thoughts...

Good thoughts!
Thanks.

spoomusic
04-25-2006, 08:49 AM
Hi BMC,


why not make it yourself?

just scrap the winamp plugin (because it would probably be too hard for you to do if you don't program) and get gamemaker or something

I've never used gamemaker, but I can tell you that I probably just don't have the time to make something like this... and I definitely don't have the artistic skill.

Of course... that's not to say that if someone actually wanted to make my idea that I wouldn't jump on the opportunity to be part of the action!

Thanks for the comment.