Tell me what you think
by Kraig McFadden · in Game Design and Creative Issues · 11/01/2009 (6:45 pm) · 3 replies
Okay, I have an idea for a health system that could do away with the health bar and hp for good... Assuming it could potentially work. I'm not going to spill all the beans (I want to keep my idea of course) but I will say some on the subject. I really need to know if this is possible.
So here's the plan:
There's a number of bars that apply to different aspects of your character's health (like stamina bar, energy bar, blood bar, hunger bar, mana bar and more) as well as a couple of pages with depictions of your character's injuries. (This is for an action/combat/survival RPG) The pages are pretty simple, so I'll tell you about them.
Page one: Exoskeletal Structure (or something like that. Your skin pretty much)
On page one we see flesh wounds like cuts, bruises, and rashes etc. This could be a sign of an illness or it could mean damage underneath. Also, it could mean that if you get hit in the same spot you will suffer substanitial damage (reducing various bars) and your character would have to use medical tools to heal or whatever.
Page Two: Skeletal Structure (your bones)
This page covers broken bones and bruised or fractured bones. This could mean you can't use certain limbs, or it could mean that an organ is damaged and various bars will deplete until you die. This page could also show vulnerabilities and spots where if you get hit your organs will be damaged.
Page Three: Organs
This shows internal bleeding and damaged organs. Injuries on tihs page could prevent you from performing certain actions, or could deplete certain bars.
Page four: Injury Summary
This page just covers any and all signifigant injuries that need immediate attention, will deplete bars, or could stop you from performing certain actions. It would also have a list of possible remedies for the injury.
That's about it. If you think you know if this is possible or not, email me at darkrend7@gmail.com. I don't want to spew my ideas out to the general public.
Thanks!
So here's the plan:
There's a number of bars that apply to different aspects of your character's health (like stamina bar, energy bar, blood bar, hunger bar, mana bar and more) as well as a couple of pages with depictions of your character's injuries. (This is for an action/combat/survival RPG) The pages are pretty simple, so I'll tell you about them.
Page one: Exoskeletal Structure (or something like that. Your skin pretty much)
On page one we see flesh wounds like cuts, bruises, and rashes etc. This could be a sign of an illness or it could mean damage underneath. Also, it could mean that if you get hit in the same spot you will suffer substanitial damage (reducing various bars) and your character would have to use medical tools to heal or whatever.
Page Two: Skeletal Structure (your bones)
This page covers broken bones and bruised or fractured bones. This could mean you can't use certain limbs, or it could mean that an organ is damaged and various bars will deplete until you die. This page could also show vulnerabilities and spots where if you get hit your organs will be damaged.
Page Three: Organs
This shows internal bleeding and damaged organs. Injuries on tihs page could prevent you from performing certain actions, or could deplete certain bars.
Page four: Injury Summary
This page just covers any and all signifigant injuries that need immediate attention, will deplete bars, or could stop you from performing certain actions. It would also have a list of possible remedies for the injury.
That's about it. If you think you know if this is possible or not, email me at darkrend7@gmail.com. I don't want to spew my ideas out to the general public.
Thanks!
About the author
I'm a teenager looking to make games. Simple as that. I've always been interested in video games, and now I'm taking it a step further.
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#2
11/02/2009 (9:54 am)
Alright, thanks for the help. I actually have more than a half-dozen bars.... So I think I might make Primary Bars, Secondary Bars, and little bars in a far-away screen that people can gaze at occasionally for fun. Or, better yet, the bars will remain hidden until they start to deplete. Then, they'll pop up for the player to see. The screens on the other hand... I guess the point of page four (the summary of injuries) is so it's relatively simple. The game isn't neccessarily a fast-paced game unless you get into a battle, so I guess it's kind of like Fable or Oblivion in that way. Of course, this is a large-scale project, not something I'm going to attempt right off. Again, thanks for the input though! I just wanted to know if it's possible, and I got that and a bunch more. 
#3
Now you're talking :)
A good way to design features is to play them out in your head, or even storyboard them on paper. I have design journals with pages of very rough sketches of what the UI looks like click-by-click, which is especially useful if the UI elements do fancy things like opening drop-downs or changing configuration. It gives you a way to sort of preview the gameplay in a rudimentary way.
Another method is paper cut-outs. if you have UI elements, you can draw them and cut them out, and then just position them on a piece of paper to see the best visually-pleasing configuration. Or, you can even scan them and cut them out in Photoshop and then bring them into the engine to place them that way (I've done this as well, worked pretty good).
Oh, and don't forget: When designing gameplay, your best friend is Excel. Hope that helps.
11/02/2009 (12:41 pm)
Quote:Or, better yet, the bars will remain hidden until they start to deplete. Then, they'll pop up for the player to see.
Now you're talking :)
A good way to design features is to play them out in your head, or even storyboard them on paper. I have design journals with pages of very rough sketches of what the UI looks like click-by-click, which is especially useful if the UI elements do fancy things like opening drop-downs or changing configuration. It gives you a way to sort of preview the gameplay in a rudimentary way.
Another method is paper cut-outs. if you have UI elements, you can draw them and cut them out, and then just position them on a piece of paper to see the best visually-pleasing configuration. Or, you can even scan them and cut them out in Photoshop and then bring them into the engine to place them that way (I've done this as well, worked pretty good).
Oh, and don't forget: When designing gameplay, your best friend is Excel. Hope that helps.
Torque 3D Owner Ted Southard
Honestly, the chances of your ideas being stolen is pretty small. You should understand that designers have at least a dozen ideas in their heads that they want to do before they go and try thinking more up, and if they need to steal your idea, they're probably not creative enough to suceed.
As to the idea itself- it depends. It sounds very complicated, and can detract from a game except in circumstances where the complex health rules is actually part of the mechanics (like a medical game, for instance). If you're doing something fast-paced and you throw a half-dozen bars at someone, it can put them off. For a certainty, no one health system is the "right way" to do things.
Now, tech-wise you can implement parts of this with things like hitboxes (for where deep tissue can be accessed), damage tables or other simple means. Or, you can just set the effects as variables like other games do. It's relatively easy to say "you have a sprained ankle" and then reduce player speed by 40% and show an icon for it until the player gets a heal or the timer is up.
My own opinion is that, used solely as a health-determining mechanic, it's probably too complex for fast-paced games, but used with complimentary gameplay mechanics, it can find a home. Of course, you should also realize that feedback is only as good as the quality of the information provided, so take what I say (good and bad) with a grain of salt.