Archived from groups: rec.games.roguelike.development (More info?)
Okay, bare with me for a moment. As of now, I work, and live, at a
hotel. The hotel is roughly 30-40 years old, so it isn't really
rundown, but it's starting to show some signs of wear and tear. It's
nothing special, just pretty mediocre and average. It has 110 rooms, a
few offices, an indoor pool nestled in the atrium, exercise room, 2
laundry rooms, a few storage rooms, a bar, restaurant, and kitchen, and
some basement rooms. Now, most of this stuff looks pretty normal,
except for the following:
The bar and restaurant are temporarily closed, and I find that
(semi-)abandoned areas have a creepy kind of vibe at times.
The kitchen is open for breakfast every morning, but only a small
fraction of it is used, and the rest stays darkened, constantly creaking
and echoing strange noises across the area.
The basement areas are creepy as hell. The kitchen has two stairways
into the basement, neither have doors, so you can see down there
everytime you pass by. The stairs are a bit unnerving, too, for reasons
hard to explain. Something about them just seem a bit, off. Like, they
weren't built to normal specifications, and the stairs are just a
*little* bit too shallow, and a *little* bit too wide, giving it an
ominous look. Now, actually going into the basements is more than a bit
scary. They could easily be sets for some kind of horror movie, and
have a dark, oppressive, cold feel to them, much different than your
typical basement. I wouldn't be surprised to find some psychotic serial
killer living down there, with his collection of human "trophies" all
lined up on the concrete floor.
Anyway, I've been thinking lately, that my hotel could make the perfect
setting for a creepy, mystery-unraveling, survival horror game. I think
I'd be able to lend the game a certain degree of authenticity, given the
fact that I could use the actual hotel blueprints in the game, which
would certainly enhance the realism. However, using the actual hotel
layout in the game would negate the need for a random dungeon generator,
which is sort of an essential need for any RL. After some thinking, I
figured that a game (in my opinion) can still be an RL, even with a
hardcoded map, *if* it randomized enough other gameplay elements, such
as event locations, events, monsters, items, etc.
As is necessary for any "horror" game, I'd keep combat to a minimum.
Any combat present would be very deadly and difficult, and would most
certainly require clever thinking or plain old luck. At the start of
the game, I'd probably have a randomly generated plotline get chosen at
the start of the game (note: not a truly random plot, but just choosing
randomly from a list of premade plots). They'd involve a mystery to be
unraveled, complete with murders/supernatural/occult/etc. Possibly some
Lovecraftian influence, but if so, kept to a minimum.
Anyway, that's it. Any comments/suggestion/ideas? Obviously this
probably is most interesting to me, given the fact that the game would
take place in my home/job, but, if done right, surely someone else would
want to play it...
Okay, bare with me for a moment. As of now, I work, and live, at a
hotel. The hotel is roughly 30-40 years old, so it isn't really
rundown, but it's starting to show some signs of wear and tear. It's
nothing special, just pretty mediocre and average. It has 110 rooms, a
few offices, an indoor pool nestled in the atrium, exercise room, 2
laundry rooms, a few storage rooms, a bar, restaurant, and kitchen, and
some basement rooms. Now, most of this stuff looks pretty normal,
except for the following:
The bar and restaurant are temporarily closed, and I find that
(semi-)abandoned areas have a creepy kind of vibe at times.
The kitchen is open for breakfast every morning, but only a small
fraction of it is used, and the rest stays darkened, constantly creaking
and echoing strange noises across the area.
The basement areas are creepy as hell. The kitchen has two stairways
into the basement, neither have doors, so you can see down there
everytime you pass by. The stairs are a bit unnerving, too, for reasons
hard to explain. Something about them just seem a bit, off. Like, they
weren't built to normal specifications, and the stairs are just a
*little* bit too shallow, and a *little* bit too wide, giving it an
ominous look. Now, actually going into the basements is more than a bit
scary. They could easily be sets for some kind of horror movie, and
have a dark, oppressive, cold feel to them, much different than your
typical basement. I wouldn't be surprised to find some psychotic serial
killer living down there, with his collection of human "trophies" all
lined up on the concrete floor.
Anyway, I've been thinking lately, that my hotel could make the perfect
setting for a creepy, mystery-unraveling, survival horror game. I think
I'd be able to lend the game a certain degree of authenticity, given the
fact that I could use the actual hotel blueprints in the game, which
would certainly enhance the realism. However, using the actual hotel
layout in the game would negate the need for a random dungeon generator,
which is sort of an essential need for any RL. After some thinking, I
figured that a game (in my opinion) can still be an RL, even with a
hardcoded map, *if* it randomized enough other gameplay elements, such
as event locations, events, monsters, items, etc.
As is necessary for any "horror" game, I'd keep combat to a minimum.
Any combat present would be very deadly and difficult, and would most
certainly require clever thinking or plain old luck. At the start of
the game, I'd probably have a randomly generated plotline get chosen at
the start of the game (note: not a truly random plot, but just choosing
randomly from a list of premade plots). They'd involve a mystery to be
unraveled, complete with murders/supernatural/occult/etc. Possibly some
Lovecraftian influence, but if so, kept to a minimum.
Anyway, that's it. Any comments/suggestion/ideas? Obviously this
probably is most interesting to me, given the fact that the game would
take place in my home/job, but, if done right, surely someone else would
want to play it...
) has some "quests" embedded
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