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Simple put, getting back into programming again, I wanted to take on a small project. Not necessarily something easy, but something without a lot of graphics requirements. While I'm illustrating a bunch of ideas each day, I don't want to then turn around and spend more time in Photoshop. So the idea came that I would work on a Roguelike, complete with ASCII graphics. Then I looked through the 47 ideas posted thus far and thought, which one of these would be awesome as a Roguelike? The answer? [#030 - Communist Zombie MUD] (though without the multiplayer aspect... at first) The premise of this idea is simply a cross between that idea, a Roguelike, and an arcade game.
Each game involves creating a character. This is not an RPG. You character does not get better over time. How you build your character at the beginning is all skills and abilities you will have. Like #030, there are different character classes, and by accomplishing deeds, you will unlock additional kits to build each character, include more classes. The world is generated each time you play. You don't get to keep your character, you don't get to keep the world. Unlike most Roguelikes, this one takes place on a static piece of land, and your goal is more or less to survive off this piece of land for as long as possible. The whole thing is generated up front. Think of it like Dead Rising's survival mode but with a newly generated mall each time. Like the character kits, parts of the generation algorithm will be unlocked as you progress through the game. For instance, when you first start out, you may just have access to a few types of buildings (maybe an office building and warehouse). Accumulating points and deeds will unlock new building types, like a mall, sewers, a military base, hospital, park, school, department store, grocery store, apartment building, hardware store, zoo, golf course, rich guy's mansion, sporting arena, and so on. Each one of these things may also level up and improve over time. Initially, this is to keep the basic game simple. Roguelikes are extremely difficult to get into (especially if you've never played one before) and compounding the whole getting used to the text world with a complex simulation can only lead to frustration. Introducing new features slowly is a way to acclimate a new player to the simulation without crushing them with everything all at once.
Gameplay is basically a survival mode. You get hungry and tired and must find resources to keep your strength up. There is a never ending supply of zombies arriving at a steady pace, but you may build barracades at their spawn points to slow them down a bit. You get points for every zombie you kill, and there should be some sort of combo system or score multiplier for excellent kills. Basically, just kill zombies and stay alive. In the game world are a few potential allies. If you find them and protect them, they may join you or offer unique services. For instance, if you manage to rescue a doctor, he will help you heal when you visit him (perhaps cure you if you become infected as well). Zombies will attack them too, so it is in your interest to have them follow you to safe locations and to otherwise protect them from death. Some allies might even follow behind you and attack zombies too. In addition to simply surviving and accumulating points, your character will be presented with five deeds to accomplish. These will be things like "Clear out the mall!" or "Find a flamethrower!" and other things that would be generated randomly depending on the world's design. Accomplishing a deed is worth a lot of points. Deeds are given in small sets to force the players to attempt the hard deeds, rather than just do a bunch of easy ones and wait for more easy ones to show up. However, if a deed is no longer possible or the time limit runs out, it will be removed and you can get a new set of deeds. The world is one cohesive entity. As such, zombies can follow you into buildings, or you can go up to the roof of the building and jump to the roof of another, or shoot zombies in the streets from the second floor window. It's one big system and everything touches everything else. But it should be able to provide an experience like setting an explosive in the boiler room, then running to the roof of the building with steaks hanging off your belt (to attract zombies into the building), then leaping from the roof to another just before the boiler room explodes taking out the building and everything in it. You should be able to out run a bunch of zombies by ducking into an alley and hiding in a trash can, or by dropping down into the sewers. You should be able to put a bunch of explosives in a car, then drive it into a group of zombies, blowing up an entire city block. Each game should give you a story like that.
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