Game mechanics you'd like to see

[minakichan]

I'm working in my uni's game research lab ("RESEARCH" lab >_>;), and my team's project is to create a one-mechanic game using the Unity game engine by the end of the term. Our team is kind of in contention right now on our mechanic, so we're going back to the drawing board; someone suggested we ask fellow gamers for ideas, so I thought I'd hit CAA.

What kind of interesting gameplay would you like to see in a simple game (think minigames), particularly something that hasn't been explored much? It has to be one specific action or maneuver that can be used repetitively in interesting ways to make a more engaging complete game; examples might be anything from controlling gravity to stretching Luffyesque attacks to Spiderman webslinging to Portal's gun system, just to name a few. We're trying to avoid the pick-stuff-up-get-power-ups-attack-enemies route Mechanic is more important than story or characters or worldbuilding at this point. Also, to give some scope, Unity is a 3D platform with built-in physics and manipulatable terrain, so incorporating those aspects would be best.

Thanks in advance~ Suggestions before Tuesday (yes, very short notice >_>) would be mecha appreciated...

[Raiden no Kishi]

What about phase shifting? Solid gives durability and power at the cost of mobility, liquid gives speed and flexibility at the cost of power, vapor gives flight and something to do with pressure, but gives you no power or durability. I don't know, but the concept of phase shifting appeals to me. Maybe you can do something substantial with it.

.rai//

[ClosetOtaku]

I really enjoyed Portal -- but I would imagine that would take a lot of effort to replicate that jumping capability.

Something that may be Portal-esque that would not be as difficult (and something along the line of phase shifting) would be the ability to move back and forth to different points on the time line.

For example, imagine you consumed an item in order to cause a certain effect. You could consume the item, cause the effect, then jump backward in time, grab the item, then jump forward again to the old time line, where the effect would be in place but you would still retain the item.

I know, full of paradoxes, but just a thought...

[Danderson]

Gameplay never explored? How bout the ability to create ur own combat moves and attacks within the game. I'm not talking just pasting together baisic moves already given to u by the animators, but maybe a convient way for the player to effect how their character can move when in combat, almost like an animator would......the challenge would be making it convient for anyone to use.....But I think the end result could be really amazing.....

[minakichan]

Wow, phase shifting... That sounds incredible! It would definitely be a blast to render a character turning into a liquid or something, and it's really interesting, without being impossible to implement. I'll look into it.

Concerning Portal, I actually don't think the implementation would be that difficult-- at the simplest level, it's just relocating your coordinates while maintaining momentum and direction (but I haven't played much Portal, so I'm not sure on the mechanics exactly). The time-travel idea would be REALLY cool *time travel nerdout*, and paradoxes might not actually be that much of a problem, depending on what assumptions you can make about time (lol). I think the issue is more a matter of having to retain all of that data of what your character has been doing in the past-- a massive log on your character's position, status, and other objects for every so often. TT_TT It would be awesome in the future, though, if technology gets better *_*!

As for user-generated combat moves, haha, I would love to see something like that (how many times have I wished I could perform certain moves in fighting games!), but I'm not sure how it could work at all. Given one's possible combination of various buttons or keystrokes, there's only so many combinations possible with a control pad or keyboard, so I'm not really sure how it could work? But if you have any ideas that would make it possible (aside from hooking a player up to a motion capture device XD), I'm all ears.

[ClosetOtaku]

Concerning Portal, I actually don't think the implementation would be that difficult-- at the simplest level, it's just relocating your coordinates while maintaining momentum and direction (but I haven't played much Portal, so I'm not sure on the mechanics exactly).

If you get the chance, play Portal -- then go through the levels again with the Valve development team commentary on it. They explain why they included various things in the design, how they cut corners on the refresh when moving through the portal to make it appear instantaneous, how they figured out what kind of visual cues to use to keep the player informed of what could and couldn't be done, and so on. It really is a very valuable lesson in all the thought that goes on behind game design. And it really is a very good game.