Current Events > I have a game idea

(+) Yeah! (+)

You are in charge of a prison (maybe mental institute?) which has 300 cells arranged in a 6(labeled A-F)x50(labeled 1-50) grid, and 300 prisoners (labeled 1-300). Your job is to place every prisoner in their one and only correct cell (i.e. Prisoner 214 goes in Cell B7); if you place a prisoner in the wrong one, they will be killed, and it is impossible for you to go back and fix your mistakes. This is obviously not going to be possible by pure chance, so when you place certain prisoners correctly, you will be given hints on how to place the remaining prisoners. Based purely on these hints, it is possible to solve the entire puzzle with zero guesswork; however, you will be given help items to make your life easier. You also have an ingame interface to help keep track of everything. Each prisoner has their own personality or quirk and relations with other prisoners, and you can talk to them before you place them to get an insight into the world the game takes place in. The number of prisoners that are alive at the end of the game is your score, and your score determines the ending you get.

My current, VERY rough idea for the narrative of the game is that (spoilers i guess lmao) the justice system is extremely draconian and gives no benefit of the doubt to the accused because the people in charge of the system don't believe it's possible to use logic to clear their name, so all of the prisoners are innocent. The player character is the result of an experiment by a scientist who believes in the power of reason, and the ingame interface to keep track of everything are the results of that experiment. Depending on how many people you save, you're somewhere on the spectrum of the shining example of how logic can save lives used to overhaul the legal system or executed as a mass murderer.

I'm not a narrative guy, and I'm very open to suggestions, but I feel like there's potential for a very cool story to be told here.

I already know how to code this.

sounds like complicated sudoku. I would play.

Pssh. More like a lame idea.

I've heard worse ideas. Seems like a cool indie game idea.

It would be trivial to make this entire ass game in HTML/JS, if you figure out the hints.

Questionmarktarius posted...

It would be trivial to make this entire ass game in HTML/JS, if you figure out the hints.

I'm aware, but I'd like to do something cool with it presentation- and narrative-wise.

Garioshi posted...

I'm aware, but I'd like to do something cool with it presentation-wise.

webgl?

Garioshi posted...

I'm aware, but I'd like to do something cool with it presentation- and narrative-wise.

I'm feeling like a really simple Ascii interface and aesthetic suits the idea, but it's your game.

Make it an all female prison and you'll make millions of dollars

Cool idea yeah, reminds me a little bit of the movie The Platform in terms of the potential narrative themes

discodancer77 posted...

sounds like complicated sudoku. I would play.

I was thinking more like mindsweeper but yes I would play this game.

Joelypoely posted...

Cool idea yeah, reminds me a little bit of the movie The Platform in terms of the potential narrative themes

Was that the weird prison film with Christopher Lambert?

Joelypoely posted...

Cool idea yeah, reminds me a little bit of the movie The Platform in terms of the potential narrative themes

Definitely going to give it a watch. If anything else comes to mind, please let me know.

Questionmarktarius posted...

Was that the weird prison film with Christopher Lambert?

Different one, but that one looks interesting too.

I want to code this just for the hell of it.
I already have a server I'm pissing away money on because some Drinking Topic thing never panned out.

We need an artist. I suggest @Hambo.

If CE collectively makes a game i'll buy two copies of it

Smashingpmkns posted...

If CE collectively makes a game i'll buy two copies of it

Imagine if we made our own version of Pokmon Clover. Man Fan would have to be a major character for sure.

discodancer77 posted...

Imagine if we made our own version of Pokmon Clover. Man Fan would have to be a major character for sure.

ManFan and the thousand Vegy alts

Questionmarktarius posted...

ManFan and the thousand Vegy alts

Would they be the evil team or the Champion + Elite 4?

I had an idea recently for a game based on The Shawshank Redemption. Basically envisioned something between Telltale & LiS, where you play as Andy Dufresne.

There are multiple means of escaping the prison, or failing your own plan. For example, Andy can work to prove his innocence & be released legally. He can gain the trust of the one good guard, and be smuggled out. He can use the wrong poster and the Warden tears it down out of spite, discovering the hole Andy plans to use to escape into the drainage pipe.

Or, maybe you can steal a guard's uniform and get a copy of their routine to escape that way. Fake your own death somehow, etc.

I wonder if there's a middle ground between that and your idea, or a way to use this to flesh out what you want your game/narrative to be like.

What if you're playing as a prisoner who is somehow acting as the warden, and your goal is to make everything run smoothly for just one day so you go undetected and can leave? Idk

Questionmarktarius posted...

I want to code this just for the hell of it.
I already have a server I'm pissing away money on because some Drinking Topic thing never panned out.

We need an artist. I suggest @Hambo.

Awwww, bruh.

bump

Sounds like a game Daniel from SL would make and kill everyone in

The player character should be revealed to be an AI that is being tested for the first time. If it succeeds, obviously prisoners live, but the AI goes on to help millions of people.

If you fail, not only do prisoners die, but you become discontinued too.

So there are stakes on both ends.

_____Cait posted...

The player character should be revealed to be an AI that is being tested for the first time. If it succeeds, obviously prisoners live, but the AI goes on to help millions of people.

If you fail, not only do prisoners die, but you become discontinued too.

So there are stakes on both ends.

Not a bad idea.

Garioshi posted...

Definitely going to give it a watch. If anything else comes to mind, please let me know.

That certainly was A Movie

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/7/8/5/AAYofGAADhSh.png
Extremely rough demonstration of what the interface could look like. I want it to be as accommodating as possible to logically solving everything.

I mean, it's an idea. Any idea's potentially good.

It's why the "idea guy" is mocked in game developer circles, both indie and bigger studios.

-BrokenSpiral- posted...

I mean, it's an idea. Any idea's potentially good.

It's why the "idea guy" is mocked in game developer circles, both indie and bigger studios.

Except maybe kojima

-BrokenSpiral- posted...

I mean, it's an idea. Any idea's potentially good.

It's why the "idea guy" is mocked in game developer circles, both indie and bigger studios.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SsBDrRgunQ

Should the gameplay just be pure logic, or should interaction with the prison yard be a big factor as well? I'm thinking unassigned prisoners might get in fights and the like, and if you don't end up resolving conflict correctly, people end up dead.

There was a game idea

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/1/7/8/AAYofGAADhYq.jpg
a more detailed look at what the workspace should look like

Garioshi posted...

Should the gameplay just be pure logic, or should interaction with the prison yard be a big factor as well? I'm thinking unassigned prisoners might get in fights and the like, and if you don't end up resolving conflict correctly, people end up dead.

Prison yard interactions would certainly give the game more character. You could throw in feuds between prisoners or between prisoners and guards as complicating factors, and if the feuds are randomly assigned each playthrough, it would offer extra replay value.

This looks... complicated.

Questionmarktarius posted...

This looks... complicated.

The goal is to make it as easy as possible to solve the entire game logically, and you're going to need some flexible tools to do that.

The placeholder title for this game will be "Silent Gallows", because it sounds cool