Wow! I did not mean to be gone for so long!
Haven't done a whole lot with the project, But I thought I’d at least throw out some ideas I’ve had,
Thinking in terms of game-play, the main questions I'm tackling is what would make this game fun, and what would make it distinctly different from other games.
I struggled trying to answer those questions for a while, but then it suddenly hit me. This game is about Spirit Blade, so what makes Spirit Blade different?
For me, it's not the fact that it IS the only Sci-fi Christian Audio drama. It's tha fact that Spirit Blade is not just a sci-fi story set in a dystopic future world where conspiracies are everywhere and monopolizing corporations vie for power and control. Nor is it just a standard sword and sorcery fantasy story where the hero is trying to find a ancient tome that wields incredible power. Nor is it a just a supernatural thriller where the main character battles demons and other unearthly creatures across two separate dimensions, trying to thwart their masterplan to conquer the world. All those can and have made good stories. But what makes Spirit Blade Spirit Blade is that it combines all those stories into one incomparable epic. Thinking long those lines, It became a lot easier to tell how a game set in the same setting could be different.
Thinking along those lines, these were some of the ideas I had of to make the game different and fun:
The ability to "Shift" to the spirit world and back, where your enemies, and possibly fighting style will change (Instead of troopers there will be demons of various castes,)
When in the real world, if you cause a disturbance, or are recognized by the guards as a "Seeker", the guards will sound an alarm and begin firing at you. you will have the option to fight back, but you can't do so for long because guards will continue to spawn nearby for as long as the alarm is sounding. You will have to flee in hopes of losing your pursuers until the alarm is over, when you can venture back out. (Similar to some of the game-play in Red Faction: Guerrilla)
The tutorial series I'm following for the games foundation (which they are designign as a fantasy game) has six major combat skills (With the option to add more if desired.) which are Melee, Ranged, and Magic Offenses and Defenses. That triggered the thought that even though Spirit Blade is Sci-Fi, the Characters in it use melee weapons alot. So why not have that option in the game as well?
Melee will be the use of/protection against swords, spears, axes, etc., either in the real world or the spirit world.
Ranged will be the use of/protection against firearms and blasters etc., either in the real world or the spirit world.
Magic will be the use of/protection against meracli attacks (I need to know how to spell this!) This is just to be used in the spirit world. (It was just in the spirit world, right Paeter?)
There are also three "Vitals" in the tutorials which are Health, Energy, and Mana(which I changed to Spirit
)
An idea I had was that when in the spirit world, your Spirit bar becomes your health bar, and slowly decreases for the duration of time you remain in the spirit world. I would like to stress the point that the lord Nephilim points out in the first spirit blade "that mortals are so fragile in this plain.."
What do you all think about it? Does anyone have any other suggestions about game-play or anything else?
I found a Design Document Template and posted it
Here, which I will edit and fill out more as we decide more things. (Maybe a Mod could sticky it for me
)