LilyStorm wrote:
I am a game programmer.
Cool.
well since several people posted I will go into more detail.
If you've played Dark Souls, you'll know that there is a kind of punish/reward system in place.
This game would save itself every time something interesting happened. That way when you die, you lose something. Instead of 'dying' like in normal games, you could be knocked unconscious and mugged so you lose whatever money you had on you and possibly any credit cards and jewelry and other gear like watches and smart phones. Then it would show your character canceling those cards, reporting to the police stolen property and then them laughing in your face or just taking the call and ignoring you after that (as in you never get your money or property back). Even better after you beat the game, they could have a police officer show up with all your stolen stuff saying they finally caught the mugger.
So if you die whatever you accomplished within the social aspects of the game stay the same, but you lose your assets. No loading from a previous save.
Since we are targeting mobile platforms we probably don't want to go 3D (as that would limit our demographic). So a 2D isometric 3/4 angle view action game with RPG like elements. Similar to GTA titles, you would be free to run around and kill any NPC you want or steal from them. Authorities would only be alerted if a witness saw the crime and cared enough to call it in to the police. This would cut both ways though as someone stealing from you would be as unlikely to be caught.
The game would skip over the boring parts (not making you flip burgers for hours on end) and only have decision points for missions (so there might be a time crunch one time mini-game where you have to flip as many burgers as you can as fast as possible, simulating a real customer rush at a fast food restaurant. Then based on your performance you can get 'points' which the player can't see that add up to promotions or job references for moving up.
Social aspects would be included. Like having a girlfriend or family members (randomly generated at the beginning of the game, or chosen through actions in game). Based on how you treated them, they would call in to your work and leave message for you that would impact your 'points' for promotions or job references. There would be issues of getting injured and wrung through the medical establishment where you would have to figure out how you are going to pay your mortgage and your medical bills all while maintaining pristine credit all the while dealing with government incompetence (such as a government medical website that doesn't work for 99% of users).
What would make the game fun would be either the ability to run around and mug your boss or your ability to thrive in the post apocalyptic world. I could see some players becoming serial killers with their characters by dragging people off when there are no witnesses and killing them, or having multiple girlfriends at the same time, juggling them around.
The thing that would separate this game from other similar games would be the mental health meter. This meter would rise and fall based on the situations and actions taken in the game. If it falls below a certain point, your character would wake up in a mental hospital with negative social status after rehab or counseling, it would be a big set back, but you would retain your job (for a short time if you are unable to raise your social status fast enough) and property, but lose social 'points'.
The action portion of the game would be the various mini games you could play such as burger flipping and making burgers to order during a rush as well as driving and not getting injured or wrecking the vehicle, but still getting to places on time. The driving portion of the game would be a top down view of your car on a tiled map. The car would stay still and the background would scroll by and rotate. You would also be able to walk around a large isometric tile map, talk to strangers, your boss, or anything else. You would also be able to pick things up and use them on other things or store them in your inventory. Certain things would be usable as weapons like knives and guns. It would be possible to 'go postal' at your work place using weapons. Of course it would be very likely that the police would arrive and try to swat you down. In this case you would end up in a jail scene and get out for 'good behavior' (or possibly have a special jail level where you have to avoid the gangs (or join one) and try to get out in a few days for 'good behavior' and get your case dismissed as 'temporary insanity'.
It would use either mouse and keyboard controls or controller, or a touch and gesture interface. Tap the item you want to pick up and then tap what you want to use it on. Mini games would have their own specific control schemes. Flipping burgers would have you tap the spatula and then the burger you want to flip, or tap and hold on the burger to take it off the grill. You would tap the frozen pink slime box to put more burgers on the grill. There would be a couple of timers at the top of the screen you could set (they would be totally independent of the mini game, for the use of the player) to help determine when a burger is done, but no guarantees. If you forget to start the timer, you can accidentally burn the burger.
Inventory would be done using a paper doll system with nested windows for containers. The game would not pause while you are perusing your inventory. This would simulate someone searching through their bag for a specific item and certain things might key off of how fast a player can manipulate their inventory. Double tapping an item would equip it. Double tapping the paper doll slots would unequip items. There would not by any free open slots unless an article of clothing provides it. So unlike most games that have a huge 300 slot inventory, wearing a pair of jeans would provide 4 slots 2 front pockets and 2 back pockets. If you want more space you would have to get a shirt with pockets, a bag, backpack, or purse. Leaving stuff at your house would be possible, but family and girlfriends/boyfriends could get into it and use it or sell it (depending on their individual morals chosen randomly by the game). Your house could get robbed (rarely, but possible). So leaving anything lying around would involve risks.
The idea behind the game would be multiple interacting systems to generate a living breathing world. So a player might carefully drive to work, but become late. This would lower the 'points' needed to progress at a job and lower their mental health meter. They would have to make up for this. Speeding or crashing the car might cause financial loss through getting a ticket. They would have to deal with this too. Neglecting your girlfriend/boyfriend might cause excessive phone calls at work, which would affect your 'career meter' (previously noted at 'points') which might keep you from getting a promotion which might prevent you from getting along with your girlfriend/boyfriend, causing a spiral, until you find another means of injecting money into your characters life.
The AI would be planned to follow a path and interactions would be on a grid of how much that NPC likes or dislikes you, which would be affected by their first impression, your clothes, what you say (dialog choices), and your general reputations (you'll have a reputation at work, home, and social). Police would be sent from the closest police station and have to actually get to your location if you commit a crime and are reported. This could take 30 seconds or several minutes depending on their location and yours. We'd use a modified A* algorithm to calculate shortest paths.
During the game several world shaking events would happen. The government would shut down (which would cause widespread social panic so your mental health meter would take a hit as well as personalities of NPCs being affected). Parks would close and government services would be suspended, except for law enforcement. So some dating sites and possibly NPCs would be more affected than others.
Later the government would fail to raise the debt ceiling causing a default on their loans which would cause widespread economic destruction. Basically things like prices would skyrocket and your chance of getting laid off would increase dramatically.
At some point your character will be mistaken for a terrorist. Either because they paid for their coffee with cash or because they made the wrong facial expression while getting on the bus, or some other similar reason. Then they will have to endure indefinite detainment without court dates in a government facility where they will 'not' torture the character using ultra loud noises, sensory deprivation, and other non-torture techniques. After realizing the mistake they will let the character go who will have cut their mental health meter down to a sliver. The player will have to recover extremely fast or go insane and have that game interruption happen. Social statues will be affected also and almost certainly the character will be laid off.
I'll give more details after feedback on this...