I was talking with a friend about how cool a tide system could be in some a video game. To clarify, when I say "tide" I'm referring to the way that water rises and falls depending on where the moon is. It could block off certain areas of the map and add a cool mechanic to day/night cycles. I was curious if anybody had ever seen this in a video game before? If you have I'd love to hear how it was implemented! :)
I think that would be a very cool mechanic, especially for a sim game like animal crossing or stardew valley were there are already resources that only appear during certain times.
I would be careful about implementing it in games in which players expect to constantly move the story forward by progressing through a map in case it impedes progress. For example, how annoying would it be if you could only go to a gym in pokemon during certain times of the day, forcing you to wait around until the tide came in? Basically, it would have to serve a game play purpose, not just be there as a cool thing, or players will get frustrated that it exists
Yeah, sounds like a good idea- the moon is often underused in videogames, and I'm not aware of any game that does this. It's sort of like the way some games have shops that are only open in the daytime, bars at night etc, except more natural. Would work well in a Tomb Raider game too. You could have secret areas open up, and the peril of being stuck when the tide comes in (in the North West of England, this is a serious thing).
So when's the game coming out? ;)
Yeah, I was thinking along the same lines for how it could be implemented! Unfortunately not working on a game with that mechanic right now. This is my current project: https://keveatscheese.itch.io/haunt
I have some ideas for a turn based survival game with a procedural open world that could have a tide system though.
I cant remember to have seen it, but it would be a nightmare to implement. First, you have two tides a day. Second, the time shifts by 6 hours a week. If you have low tide at 10 you will have low tide at 16 a week later and also at 22:25 the same day. And third, how high the tide gets is dependent on what coast. Mediterranian sea has about 10cm, but venice about 100cm. If you have walls or rocks you can see the algae and guess how high it will get. Someplace like New York has about 2m. And then there are places like Los Angeles, where you do not have a sinus curve, but a bigger alternating with a smaller one.
Compare
https://www.tideking.com/United-States/New-York/New-York-City/
https://www.tideking.com/United-States/California/Los-Angeles-County/
https://www.tideking.com/Italy/Veneto/Provincia-di-Venezia/Venice/
My guess is, that most games do not even correctly place the sun in the sky, let alone the moon. Or, gasp, show correctly the phenomenon if you can see both in the sky.
But yeah, i imagine some secret places or clue games could use that as a plot device. But those seldom take real time into account. If you can specifically wait till low tide, it is so suspicous that players will know what to do. And if you play over several days, if you have accurate tide implemented, the sea level would allow for you secret to show on a different day at the same tiem.
I have not seen it and wondered why. And then found a very plausible reason. You supplied another one. Most people do not even know how tides work. (Including game devs ;-)
And another one would be, either you have to make additional static images or you have to allow your engine for different water levels. You do not do that kind of thing for some secret.
But I think I remembe two instances with rising and falling water level. Less tide but sea water making the beach dissappear happens in some Mario Kart levels. And in an old Tomb Raider that had a level in Venice. But I think that was some other mechanism, like flood gates and not the tide.
The only time I ever see tides in games in 1 game: Fire Emblem : The Binding Blade for GBA. There's one mission in which a path will appear after some turns allowing you to assault enemy's base through that path. I don't know if the path will be submerged some turns later cause I had won the mission before that.
There's another game with rising water which prevents you from returning or accessing certain area if you are too slow. It's called Riviera for GBA. The water level never drops though.
I seem to have seen tides mechanic in other game but can't remember the game's name or even how tides work there.
I've checked my FAQs collections and found a game using tides as mechanic. Here's a playthrough video to show what I meant:
Breath of Fire 3 has a mini game in which team must race against time to get all treasure in area which will be covered by tide water. It's tide for sure but more like timed mini game to me.
