VN Ren'Py Need feedback & ideas for game

[Caeli Astraeus]

Hello & thank you for taking time out to read this. I appreciate all feedback and everyone that even clicks on the thread.

Right now, my idea for my game is a survival/defense/management type game. The MC crash lands on a planet in a sci-fi setting where they explore around and have to find loot and salvage on a daily basis to keep Scrap, Food, and Riches up.

My idea for it is a day based system where random events can happen each day to negatively or positively effect the player as they attempt to build up their outpost. It's kinda a sandbox game in the sense of buying different upgrades at different times to progress the story of eventually getting off planet which would be developed at v1.0 up from v0.1 and with a hopeful continuation past 'main release'.


So to summarize with added extras -


Morning, Noon, Afternoon, Evening, Night day progression. When choosing to go out and explore the island instead of letting NPCs assigned go and do it, it takes 2 day spots from Morning to Afternoon then Afternoon to Night. The player can not explore after afternoon. Exploring could yield scrap, hunting , treasure or combat opportunities.

Daily Encounters - Including new characters, getting positive events or negative ones,

Scrap, Food, & Riches System - As 3 different currencies to manage daily & used for upgrades/leveling up NPCs/buying stuff from the occasional traders.

Tamable Wildlife - Can act as early warning detection without buying tech from traders or building it with different characters that unlock blueprints.

Crafting - Use a certain amount of scrap to build stuff instead of upgrading outpost or trading from certain traders that only use scrap instead of riches. Can upgrade items if the player would prefer to use those instead of others.

After exploring enough to reach possibly established villages/places of interest, they will be added to the player's choices of locations to go to instead of going out and exploring.

Quest System - Self explanatory.

Character Status System - Certain interactions/failures in combat would result in injuries that would have lasting effects for either several days up to until the player builds a medbay upgrade for their camp that can fix it. I.E, a severed limb or ripped out eyeball.

Combat System - Turn based with hitpoints(dependent on armor), hit chance (dependent on weapon & character worn accessories). I kinda want a pokemon type combat or a topdown with a spriteboard with moving characters. I might do the pokemon type combat first just because the topdown spriteboard thing might be too hard for me, a first time game maker and someone without any knowledge of python at the moment.

Ability System - Gain XP that turns into points that can be spent on these abilities that would enable better ways to harvest, scrap, explore, combat moves, etc.


All of this will be done in ren'py. I appreciate any and all feedback or suggestions for this project.

 

[sdfgjhdfszbg]

Sound good. Nowadays kinda hard to have a 100% original idea but it does sound like a solid game concept. What type of models will you use? DAZ? game engine? Will be MC crash alone in this planet?

 

[The M.O.]

I think doing something like this on a smaller scale that renpy entails is a bigger draw to many players than the bigger outings that have tried similar. In

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and Subnautica I adored the ship crashing sections, however to get longer play from me on those would be too tall an order.

''Morning, Noon, Afternoon, Evening, Night day progression. When choosing to go out and explore the island instead of letting NPCs assigned go and do it, it takes 2 day spots from Morning to Afternoon then Afternoon to Night. The player can not explore after afternoon. Exploring could yield scrap, hunting , treasure or combat opportunities. ''

This reminds me of a game released to promote Fallout. I loved the idea of sending out people to forage. I'd like that as a big point if it could be harnessed properly.

''Tamable Wildlife - Can act as early warning detection without buying tech from traders or building it with different characters that unlock blueprints.''

Love that. Had ideas similar myself for games.

 

[Caeli Astraeus]

Sound good. Nowadays kinda hard to have a 100% original idea but it does sound like a solid game concept. What type of models will you use? DAZ? game engine? Will be MC crash alone in this planet?

The models will be sprites that either my gf will draw or ill have commissioned. I don't plan on having those done by the time the demo for the story concept releases and will most likely use placeholder art. The game's engine is ren'py and yes the MC will crash alone on the planet to discover many kinds of wild life and manners of robots.

I think doing something like this on a smaller scale that renpy entails is a bigger draw to many players than the bigger outings that have tried similar. In

You must be registered to see the links

and Subnautica I adored the ship crashing sections, however to get longer play from me on those would be too tall an order.

''Morning, Noon, Afternoon, Evening, Night day progression. When choosing to go out and explore the island instead of letting NPCs assigned go and do it, it takes 2 day spots from Morning to Afternoon then Afternoon to Night. The player can not explore after afternoon. Exploring could yield scrap, hunting , treasure or combat opportunities. ''

This reminds me of a game released to promote Fallout. I loved the idea of sending out people to forage. I'd like that as a big point if it could be harnessed properly.

''Tamable Wildlife - Can act as early warning detection without buying tech from traders or building it with different characters that unlock blueprints.''

Love that. Had ideas similar myself for games.

At the end of the day it's still a porn game but im going to try to make it playable like a real game. My goal is to draw inspiration from city simulation games in terms of the way resources should be managed. Like if your outpost goes several days without any food, some workers may break away and leave, prompting you to either chase them down or continue on with your game and hope they come back. (Which would most likely have a random chance).

 

[probably_dave]

The premise does sound good.

I like the slowly building your base to include additional characters. I also like the idea of taming animals. If you're looking to go a step further, you could even have the animals in your party when you go exploring (who doesn't like having a faithful pet when running around an unknown planet?)

My one concern would be if the game gets grindy. Especially if what you get from exploring is randomized. It could also lead to frustration if exploring only leads to certain events if pre-conditions are met, especially if these conditions are unknown to the player.

One option to avoid this, would be to use a map based exploration system. You can chose to go to different areas and each of these might change the random stats that apply. You could also let the player know how many special events are left in that area so they know they don't need to explore it any more (unless for scrap or the occasional treasure). As the player progresses, new areas can be opened (e.g. building a bike will allow you to explore further out, etc). You could also have a risk system for each part, and if you send a NPC to a high risk area without being sufficiently armed, they will run away, get captured or worse. This type of thing should hopefully give your player a feeling of progression rather than a 'hit explore and see what happens'.
There are a lot of games with exploration type mechanics out there. I would suggest you write down what you liked about each and what you disliked. From there, try and build on what you liked and minimize what you disliked.

A few suggestions that come to mind that have some type of exploring mechanic. I would also suggest reading the reviews of each to give you ideas of what people liked and didn't like.
Lust and Power, S.H.E.L.T.E.R, Apocalypse

 

[Caeli Astraeus]

The premise does sound good.

I like the slowly building your base to include additional characters. I also like the idea of taming animals. If you're looking to go a step further, you could even have the animals in your party when you go exploring (who doesn't like having a faithful pet when running around an unknown planet?)

My one concern would be if the game gets grindy. Especially if what you get from exploring is randomized. It could also lead to frustration if exploring only leads to certain events if pre-conditions are met, especially if these conditions are unknown to the player.

The randomized stuff will be item drops, resource gain from any 3 pools, and there will be a secondary tick for how many times the player explores that will build up to milestones to proc events from a random pool. The tick can proc numerous times depending on how many NPCs the player has set to exploration.

One option to avoid this, would be to use a map based exploration system. You can chose to go to different areas and each of these might change the random stats that apply. You could also let the player know how many special events are left in that area so they know they don't need to explore it any more (unless for scrap or the occasional treasure). As the player progresses, new areas can be opened (e.g. building a bike will allow you to explore further out, etc). You could also have a risk system for each part, and if you send a NPC to a high risk area without being sufficiently armed, they will run away, get captured or worse. This type of thing should hopefully give your player a feeling of progression rather than a 'hit explore and see what happens'.
There are a lot of games with exploration type mechanics out there. I would suggest you write down what you liked about each and what you disliked. From there, try and build on what you liked and minimize what you disliked.

A few suggestions that come to mind that have some type of exploring mechanic. I would also suggest reading the reviews of each to give you ideas of what people liked and didn't like.
Lust and Power, S.H.E.L.T.E.R, Apocalypse

Thank you for this, i'll add it to my notes and build on the explore system I had added more notes to last night. Thank you for the game suggestions, the only one i had played was shelter.

 

[Caeli Astraeus]

Not sure if bumping is against the rules, we would appreciate more feedback though. Thank you.