Alright, so, I've been thinking of a game concept that I'd kind of like to do something with. However, my specialty is on the modelling, animation, and project planning side of things- I'm not a programmer, or a GUI designer, etc- so in order to really get anything like this started, I'd need a team assembled to help create it.
As of this moment, this is not a, "this will definitely be made", more or less, it is an idea that I would like to try and recruit a team for, or see how much interest it would have.
Right now, it is more or less a basic outline of a few random scattered ideas, and isn't entirely organized yet into a full planning document or anything, it was kind of... I wrote down my ideas for it as they came to mind, but here it is:
Basic Summary: You are a young creature, part of a program developed by humans to populate a remote island and observe how well the population thrives. As a juvenile animal, old enough to walk, run, and the potential to learn basic survival skills, you are taken away from the facility in which you were raised and released on the island. Now, you must survive.
All playable creatures in the game are placed on the island as young animals and the player must try to survive and grow up into an adult and continue to live their life without succumbing to the environment or other players. Similar to The Isle's current dev branch survival mode, but with many differences.(such as revolving around modern creatures, and not dinosaurs.)
You can either play a carnivore or herbivore in the basic plan, potentially extending to fishers, insectivores, omnivores, etc with differing styles of gameplay for each creature.
Playable carnivores include: Wolf, bear, lion, cheetah, wolverine, small wildcat, fox.
Playable herbivores include: Deer, elk, rabbit, gazelle, zebra, bison, + probably others
The aim is to, while using a similar idea to The Isle(survival mode, specifically), be a different and more immersive type of gameplay with more elaborate gameplay mechanics that make playing any animal enjoyable, including the "small and weak" ones, or the "prey". Many of the animals will be hardy enough to be very difficult to take down in a hunt, but acheivable if strategy and pack hunting behavior is used properly, and some will have higher speed, endurance, or other abilities over their predators. Rabbits will have burrows they can dart into to escape the jaws of a predator, and are fast enough as is to escape, requiring ambush tactics to catch. Gazelle are fast, nimble, and agile, able to outmaneuver even the predator most adapted to hunt them, the cheetah. Any hunt will require strategy on the part of the predator and prey won't just be an easy meal- but once a predator is able to catch their prey, that meal will last for days.
Alongside competing against other players for food and to not end up food yourself, the environment around you will also be a challenge- weather events could either make things easier or difficult for you depending on your species. Floods, droughts, fires, and many other events could occur.
The game also operates on a seasonal system, cycling through the seasons naturally over time. The game, just like real life, has a 365 day year in which the seasons change and develop over time. A full day cycle lasts about an hour, with day and night lasting 30 minutes each, making a full real life day equal about a month ingame- meaning a full seasonal cycle will last 12 days.
Breeding
Breeding and reproduction is also a possible thing within the game. Mammals are able to breed, and females can become pregnant. This lasts three ingame days, the equivalent of three hours in real time. When the end of the pregnancy comes, and the female gives birth, new spawning players of that species can choose to be spawned in as a newborn and one of the mother animal's offspring. This provides the benefit of already having a parent secured to raise you to adulthood without having to survive alone or trying your luck approaching adults who might decide to kill you instead of adopt.
Other Gameplay Mechanics
- The longer you manage to survive, the stronger you become. If you make it to adulthood, and continue to survive for a long period of time, you will continue gaining strength and stats, until eventually you become a strong and experienced animal with the scars to show it, making it clear you're strong and have survived for a long time. In a wolf pack, these players would likely be the alphas, or in a herd, the herd leaders.
- Every species of animal will have 'base' stats and abilities, but every individual of a species will have their own unique stats as well, usually a bonus on top of regular stats. Some individuals of a species may be stronger in some fields than others- you may have a particularly fast wolf, or a particularly strong lion. When spawning in for the first time, the game will roll for your stats on top of your creature's base stats, and you will continue gaining stats over time. Breeding plays a part in this as well, adding another benefit to being birthed instead of spawned, despite starting as a younger age than a new spawn- parents' stats can carry over onto their offspring.
The Island
The island is a large island filled with multiple habitable types of land for the creatures placed here to thrive in. While many of the animals found on this island are not naturally from the same parts of the world, they are able to thrive due to the conditions still being able to support them. Much of this island is either forest, plains, or mountains, with many rivers, ponds, and lakes scattered throughout, as well as caves and hidden spaces to discover.
** I have a lot more ideas for this, honestly, but that's what I really wrote and got into and elaborated on. If anyone with game development skills is interested, contact me on either discord(Tosca#8203) or Skype(mello.mikora1).
If I can actually manage to assemble a team of devs for this, then I'll begin on actual planning to make this game a thing.
