Co-op horror idea. Options

[Harryb412]

Okay, so an idea I’ve put some thought into is for a co-op horror game, and attempting to make one that is genuinely scary.

The first issue is actually making a co-op game that is scary, the ability to talk to another human player takes away a lot of the immersion, so the first issue I was thinking about is how the players would communicate.

My first idea would require the players to own microphones, which isn’t really a huge issue as most players who like co-op games would own one.

Mic Communication in-game

In most co-op games you need to hold down a button to talk, the same applies here except the player holds down 1 of 3 buttons. [possible issues here being too many buttons to keep track of when other game play mechanics are applied]. For the purpose of the example the buttons are 1, 2 and 3.

1 activates “quiet speak” the other player can only hear you speak if they are within 10 meters of you, if they are outside this radius the audio will not be played.

2 activates “normal speak” where the player needs to be within 40 meters of you.

3 activates “loud speak” where the player needs to be within 80 meters.

The figures here may be way off, they aren’t final. It’s just to give you an idea of how it would work.

The question is, why is this necessary? Well it encourages players to stick together and work as a team, there wouldn’t be any way to know if a player has been attacked if they are out of your hearing range.

Another idea is that the enemies could hear you speak, so if a monster is within 40 meters of you when you use “normal speak” they’ll be able to hear you and will start to approach, this means the players would have to be careful when communicating because they could alert monsters.

The issue with this is that it relies entirely on mic communication, players without a microphone would be crippled.

Though that could be easily fixed with allowed text communication. Though this does break immersion, it would only be used as a last resort if the player does not have a mic, and the same as with mic communication, text communication would have the 3 levels of volume.

Teamwork

So communication is done, but now we need to give a players a need to work together. The issue with co-op reliant games like Left 4 Dead is that it is very possible to ditch the team and do your own thing. While this will probably get the team killed.

The aim of this game is that the players need eachother, so my idea is this, the players have very different abilities, and each ability is required to defeat an enemy.

A possible issue is that the idea I have would only work if it is a 2 player only game. I believe a bot player would just not have advanced enough AI to make a fun single player experience.

Anyway, the idea is that one player can’t see the enemies, only damage them and the other player can’t damage the enemies, only see them.

This would mean that the blind player would need to be directed by the other player so that the enemies can slowed down.

I say slowed down because being able to kill the enemies would make them seem less scary and more vulnerable, the idea would be to escape them not kill them.

The seeing player would have to use physics objects to show the location of the monster.

For example, dropping a bucket onto the its head, or covering it with flour. After time the monster would obviously shake these items off.

An issue here is that it wouldn’t be that hard for the blind player to spot the monster, it’d be easy to know where it is once they start getting attacked, so my idea is that only the seeing player is being attacked, and if they die it is game over.

The monster would cause melee damage, though it can daze the blind player by hurling physics objects.

Hopefully these mechanics would encourage team work, one player being required to be protected by the other, while the player that needs protection is the only one capable of seeing the enemy.

Another mechanic I thought of to encourage players to stick together is fear, much like the game Amnesia, if you spend too long in the dark you start losing grip on your sanity, but also if you spend too much time apart from your partner your character becomes fearful and loses grip on their sanity, this will distort your vision and make your character clumsy. Every now and then they could lose their footing and slip, causing a loud noise. Which in turn would cause the monsters to know your location.

The key to surviving would be quickly solving puzzles to move on and making as little noise as possible, it would not be advised to try to actively fight the monsters.

That is all.
[original blog post here: http://www.goodluckcowboy.co.uk/?p=168 ]

[Zinx10]

Wow. Very unique idea. c:
I would support yo 90% of the time if you went with it. c:
(The other 10% is if it for some reason did terrible, which is shouldn't.)

[Titanhex]

Instead of giving players different abilities couldn't you just have a minimal amount of coop to start with, then add modes or scenarios where coop becomes key. For instance an enemy who can spit blinding poison into your allies eyes, forcing you to be their eyes for a while.

I think giving everyone separate abilities could work, but would be better suited for a mode of gameplay rather than the default.

However a lot of the aspects of a game you've described here sound really enjoyable and immerse. I like the idea.

[elliott20]

I've always had one single problem with these kinds of games - most of them let you kill the monster. That itself wrecks horror games.

[Harryb412]

[updated the blog post]
When I refer to a player as the “blind player” I don’t actually mean they’d be completely blind, I just couldn’t think of a concise way to refer to the player that couldn’t see the enemy.

I’ve also been thinking about the enemy itself.

Monsters

Above I said the monsters couldn’t be killed, I realize now that this could be a bad thing as it’d remove the need for the blind player.

If you’re trying to escape the monsters then what is the use of a player who can only attack?

What would need to happen is the player being unable to escape until they’ve solved the area’s puzzle, meaning they’d need to stay in one area with the monster but still avoid getting killed by it.

Rather than killing the monster the blind player would have to immobilize it so that the puzzle solving can continue. Though steps would have to be taken to avoid the blind player just spamming.

Say we include some kind of magic, the blind player can cast a spell to bind the monster in place for a certain amount of time, using the spell takes a lot of effort though, so it can’t be cast repeatedly. This would remove the ability to spam the spell all over the room hoping for a lucky shot.

I think I should also revise the idea that only the seeing player can be attacked.

I now think both players can be attacked, only the seeing player is a much higher priority target. If the seeing player can’t be found, the blind player will become a target.

So now we’ve got invulnerable monsters who can be immobilized for a set amount of time.

When they break free of the immobilization they should knock back the players or daze them to give the monster a chance to move before they are instantly hit by another spell. This would also alert the players that the monster is on the move again.



An example I’ve thought of is this:

The players need to solve a puzzle in room A, the monster is also in room A.

They lure the monster into room B and immobilize it.

Using the time they’ve now got by immobilizing the monster they move to room A to solve the puzzle, one player could also work on stacking items in front of the door to buy more time when the monster is on the move again.



A question I’ve been asking myself is how many monsters are there?

It might get too frustrating with more than one, but it might be too easy with just one. Though the monster’s could be nerfed to make it work with more than one.

For example, when the monster moves physics objects are repelled just a little, like a candle stick getting pushed off the table. Not enough for the blind player to be able to hit it with a spell, but enough to know where it is.

And idea could be that physics objects are repelled more the faster the monster is moving, so if it charges towards a player physics objects would get launched across the room. This could do a good job of adding more stress to the situation, having a relatively quiet room suddenly burst to life.

That’s all I have for now.

[ipsissimus10]

I love the Idea Of The noise attracting monsters, Team work is a huge issue with games, If you can solve this problem Kudos !

[Harryb412]

I think the biggest struggle is making the players WANT to work as a team, rather than have the game just yell "TEAMWORK DAMNIT"

[ipsissimus10]

I think the biggest struggle is making the players WANT to work as a team, rather than have the game just yell "TEAMWORK DAMNIT"

Resident evil 5 doeas A good job with teamwork, Gears of war 2 is OK at it , I would love to see A COD game that is Strategic.....

If the government , and Media Forces A nation of people to act A certain way, Im sure we could figure out how to get 2 people to work together ...lol

have you ever heard of Game Theory...... This theory might help illuminate An Idea....

the best way I have seen Co op cooperation , is when EV requires two people , and going solo is A suicide mission . If people have classes with exclusive capabilities , this will force then to work together , The noise Idea you have is Awsome . I love Stealthy games.


This post has been edited by ipsissimus10: Sep 23 2011, 12:03 PM