Posted April 04, 2024 by Sutherwin
A level-based 3D puzzle game where you have to break into increasingly fortified buildings within a time limit. Levels would be divided into a preperation phase where you ready your tools, and a destruction phase where you send a minion to destroy the building within a set time. Buildings would be made of clearly distinguishable materials which would be associated with different weights and time to break through and so on. To compensate for the increasing building strength, the player will be able to increase the power of their controls, gain new weapons or tools, and strengthen existing tools. Each level is over when the minion reaches a goal inside the building, or runs out of ammunition without being able to get inside.
I had this idea when thinking over Cell Machine (Sam Hogan) and Besiege. Although both of these games are puzzle games, their approach is different. While Besiege is a sandbox, Cell Machine forces you to position your few cubes correctly before each turn. The idea is to combine the 3D and life-imitating graphics of Besiege with the automation and challenge-through-scarcity of Cell Machine.
The main controls would be the mouse (to adjust the view of the camera throguh either right-click or the scroll wheel).
The key obstables to completing this project are perfecting the physics for the destruction and the range of tools. However, the concept is easily adjustible (reducing the range of tools, for example), without sacrificing the core concept.
Another level-based puzzle game where you find anomalies in 3D terrains. At first, it may be something obvious like a water texture on top of a hill dripping water upwards. Other anomalies could be a door only visible from one side or a animal with a missing limb. Each anomaly then is a key theme of the next level. Anomailes would glow brightly when found. The level difficulty could easily scale by increasing the number of decoys, eventually creating a hall off mirrors-esque scenario.
The main controls would be the mouse (to adjust the view of the camera and to select objects) and the WASD/arrow keys to move the camera relative to its direction. This game could eitehr be played through a character moving around the scene in either first or third person or as God.
The graphics I had in mind were either low poly or otherwise not very realistic.
The implementation of core features of this game have either already been covered through self-study. One exception for this could be engaging scene transitions.