So I'm making a scary fps game similar to the original Amnesia. I would like your help with mostly game design stuff like gameplay and the plot design. >Plot The basic premise is that you wake up in the cellar of an old establishment. You have no recollection and you find out what's happening as you make your way up out of there through reading notes and stuff. You find out that you were investigating a cult that planned to summon the devil/cthulu/some big bad. You infiltrate the cult but you get found out and thrown into the cellar. So now you have to work your way up to stop the ritual from happening.
So here's the thing. I'm having trouble trying to tie down a setting for the game because my autism keeps bothering me about really trivial stuff like improper level design. Like, a winding labyrinth of sorts under the church where the ritual takes place. How did it get there? Who made this labyrinth? If its underground wheres the ventilation for this coming from? This shouldn't matter when you're playing video games but for someone who's making one, It bothers me. If it's an underground cavern labyrinth of sorts how are you supposed to breathe? Wouldn't a sprawling maze like labyrinth under a church be nonsensical? Do I just chalk it up to a big labyrinth opening up out of nowhere like they do in bloodborne? >Gameplay Gameplay is similar to amnesia too. You go around collecting candles for illumination. But I would like an alternate option to just running away and hiding inside a cupboard or under a table or slashing at enemies in particular.
Also how do I make sure the plot unravels in a tense way to the player with a big twist at the end like in amnesia where the player themselves were key to the events of the game happening?
>If its underground wheres the ventilation for this coming from? T Yeah you actually have autism. Then again I dont have an answer to this either. Where does the air for underground labyrinths come from?
Easton Brown
Just do whatever is cool. Worldbuilding and detail can go a long way, but don't let it stall you from a cool setting. There's magic and shit going on in the plot so you have some leeway with suspension of disbelief.
Oliver King
>There's magic and shit going on in the plot so you have some leeway with suspension of disbelief. No this is stupid. See, you cant break the rules of the world that you're building because its magic.
Adrian Torres
this is probably better posted on reddit no joke, you have a great idea, but 4chins wont tell you useful advice
Kayden Gonzalez
>How did it get there? Who made this labyrinth? If its underground wheres the ventilation for this coming from? Have you been to Paris or Odessa? Yeah. all the answers exist in reality dingus. I doubt you've actually got anything made yet, and are instead just ideaguying, so there's your (you) Otherwise, post some footage from what you've got already.
Sebastian Jenkins
If you're asking these general and basic questions, you're not ready to make a game. You don't have a clear idea for what you're trying to do and you don't have the wherewithal to carry it out to the end. Spend more time developing skills, researching horror and figuring out your ideas instead of asking random people on a video game board.
William Evans
Go to a world-building subreddit and ask for help. For a small amount of compensation, some autist will think up all the ideas for you
David Ward
Cthulhu generates oxygen throught magic, thats why you (and he) can breathe in caverns. That also makes jim combustable, so cultists have to use electric light on lowest level, otherwise whole complex will go up in flames and explode
Asher Garcia
Huh, interesting premise. I'm a sucker for anything that has cults in it.
I think a labyrinth-like setting beneath a church would make sense--sorta like the catacombs. What's interesting about that too is that they used to see if it was safe to pass through or enter rooms by lighting oil to test whether or not there was oxygen, which could be something cool to implement (just an idea).
As for the plot, that's a lot harder to help, haha. Looking into story building might help you. Even researching screenplay writing, or using something like the story circle could help you structure your story in a way that makes sense and comes together nicely in the end.
Sounds cool tho! :)
Caleb Allen
How about my idea of a hiking game where you get a gigantic 4000 square mile forest, where you get to do all sorts of regular outdoorsman activities, but there is a single cryptid monster of some kind in there somewhere, and however unlikely, it can find you. You can set up camp, hunt, fish, cook, do nature photography, row a boat, set up lures, traps, camouflages, and primitive alarm tripwires. Your map is paper and you have a compass. (Easy mode gives you a GPS device) If you hear something strange in the night, you might be in danger and you need to find some way to use your survival skills to avoid getting got. The only way to win is to get out, and depending on how far into the wilderness you are, it might take half a day of travel to leave.
The hiking thing could be interesting but definitely not my type of game personally. Sounds ambitious and obviously, I'd play up the cryptid thing in that case so there's some urgency to it? That would definitely be easier plot-wise, however, haha.
Owen Murphy
Yeah OP is wasting his time here >OP asks for help with world building >HIRRRR DURRRRR IDEA GOY Stfu faggot you need a vision of what you're goimg to build.
Jordan Green
Catacombs is an easy excuse if the game is set in Europe, there are famous ones in multiple countries.
>Gameplay Have you played Penumbra? It's the first game they released, I recommend you picking it up, imo it's better, they lost something when they "improved" their design ideas.
Thinking about things logically like that is a good thing. It makes the experience more immersive and can pull a player deeper into the world. Of course it's possible to go too far with it, but in your case of the tunnels beneath the church, I think it adds up. Think about why the labyrinth is there, instead of a bunch of empty dirt tunnels, think about how the cultists would have used the space, do they stay down there? Do they use it as a storage space? Do they keep people down there for when they need to use them for sacrificial rituals? Why does this space exist? How do the people in the world make use of it? For games that show this kind of level design I recommend two very different games, Arx Fatalis and The Witness. Arx Fatalis shows how to do the underground labyrinth thing realistically, they have these big vents that blow in air from the surface. There's a whole society living in this underground labyrinth with towns and cities and a whole culture and it's all designed to be realistic and believable. You could learn a thing or two from it. The other game, The Witness, is a very different game from Arx but it has, I think, some of the best level design in any 3D game. Not only is it designed in a realistic and believable fashion (most of the time) But the design of the levels themselves are so well done that simply playing through them makes for a satisfying experience. This comes from not only the geometry of the levels, but things such as sound and lighting are very important. It can teach you not only how to design levels in a realistic manner, but also design them in such a way where simply walking through the level is a satisfying experience. Another thing I would recommend is thoroughly analyse Amnesia TDD, why do you think that game worked so well, what makes it better than other horror games?
>But I would like an alternate option to just running away and hiding inside a cupboard or under a table or slashing at enemies in particular. You have the means to fight back, but for X reason, you can only kill so many on one floor and have to choose your targets carefully. Maybe your weapon just breaks and you have to find a new one, or maybe there's a meter representing some abstraction (sanity, morality) that fills up and gives you a game over if you kill too much.
Hudson Jones
>How did it get there? Who made this labyrinth? If its underground wheres the ventilation for this coming from? save all this for flavor text. i also share your tism, but i'm perfectly content with >john t. wilkerton had this underground area built back in 1902 that's enough for me, desu.
Owen Phillips
>original Amnesia >walking simulator with a horror theme # 9051751 kek not even worth looking at the description
Aiden Flores
>start off by describing the plot instead of gameplay >doesn't even have a good idea for it >doesn't know how the gameplay is like aside from being similar to Amnesia
No, you are not "making a game". I can tell you right now you don't have what it takes and it will go nowhere. If you really are serious about it, team up with someone who knows what he's doing.
Joshua Morris
>>Gameplay >Gameplay is similar to amnesia DROPPED
Another thing is that you don't have to be wholly realistic about everything, just the right things. You don't need to explain how people can breath in an underground labyrinth, most people wouldn't question that. Where it gets really important is when you consider how people make use of a space. Another game that has an underground civilisation thing like Arx Fatalis is an early access game called Exanima. You explore different floors of an underground dungeon that you quickly realise are part of a large underground society. You start on a floor full of storage rooms full of wood and there are black smith areas, so you can assume this is where the labour men of this society spend most of there time. Then you go to the prison section and then you can find the place where common citizens live where they have a theatre and even grass to simulate a park. There's a whole floor in the dungeon dedicated to fabrics and clothes making. None of this is told, you just find it and deduce it on your own, and you're able to deduce it because of how it's designed. You can imagine how people would live in a place like this, and that's the most important part. Now whether or not you want to buy an early access game that will likely never be finished, that's another topic. But this is one thing Exanima does expertly imo.
Jace Phillips
>What's interesting about that too is that they used to see if it was safe to pass through or enter rooms by lighting oil to test whether or not there was oxygen, which could be something cool to implement (just an idea). This actually does sound cool. How would one implement this in a game though I'm curious? Does one die If they enter a room with no oxygen instantly?
Christian Gray
Instantly wouldnt be a good idea. Maybe after like 10-20 seconds. The player might walk into a room and they're lantern would suddenly go out, giving them their cue to get out of that room, would be neat.
Caleb Brooks
Cool idea, are you making it in ue5? Im going to spitball ideas what if the cult used the main character as a sacrifice thereby trying him into the plot more, what if the cult worships some kind of pit or well and threw the player in there as a sacrifice and instead of waking up in a cellar you wake up at the bottom and have to find your way back to the surface. Maybe when the cult learns that you didnt die and their sacrifice failed they then try to sacrifice someone else but this time ensuring they die. The goal could be to save them or maybe the cult succeeds and the pit then becomes some kind portal to hell. Idk
Chase Gonzalez
If you want a dumb idea and explanation as to how you can breathe underground. You are already dead. This could go 2 ways. In one, you are actually the demon/big bad being summoned and you are actually trying to get to the ritual to come out, you are just using the corpse of the mc as a flesh taxi but his memories had you confused as to why you wanted to go there. Second option is that you are already dead as well, and the cultists that you see are aware of your undead status and want to capture you since you seem to have some affinity for the occult, which explains your undead status. You can have the baddies underground wear gas masks in the lower levels. All of this could be hinted at for both options as the game progresses and have a big bat twist at the end of the game. Take it or leave that's the best I got at 4 am with my sleep deprived brain.
