Idea Hotline Miami mixed with BioShock?

[JesseKam]

I have an idea for a top down shooter, essentially Hotline Miami with the plasmids of BioShock. A Fast Paced Top Down Shooter with magic powers.

For the equivalent of mana, instead of using potions like most games, to get 'mana' you would have to absorb it from the corpses of your dead enemies. Which takes a period of time and makes you vulnerable.

The powers that you use are fire-based in nature, so by using them they 'disintegrate' the corpses of your enemies and thereby you can't absorb any mana from them. Ammo is also limited, so the player will have to choose to kill an enemy using projectiles(losing ammo but allow absorbing the corpse for mana) or use powers(which use mana and conserves ammo albeit being unable to refill mana)

I plan to have 3 types of weapons, Melee, Pistol and Rifles each has their pros and cons.

Melee does not require ammo but is extremely risky due to it's up-close nature.

Pistol requires lots of shots to kill, but has a higher fire rate and ammo for pistols is found in greater numbers.

Rifles require few shots to kill, but has a low fire rate and has rarer ammo.

There are also 3 unique types of enemies along with 1 normal enemy type.
The three unique enemy types have 9 variations, all of them an upgrade of the last.

The three basic variations are either fast, durable or stealthy.

A friend of mine suggested that in the mid-game, normal enemies have a chance to cower in fear and run away, which triggers unique enemies to kill them.

I already have the basic top down shooter mechanics settled down and I just need to begin programming the powers, the enemies and design the first few levels.

 

[Niels]

Sounds like a fun game

Only thing I can think off is that plasmids and rifles are both ranged attacks, so melee wil be like a last resort.
Unless you make plasmids short range AoE style shockwave, traps etc.. or make melee really powerfull by decreasing weapon firerate or implanting awesome melee weapons (like in condemned)

 

[JesseKam]

Sounds like a fun game

Only thing I can think off is that plasmids and rifles are both ranged attacks, so melee wil be like a last resort.
Unless you make plasmids short range AoE style shockwave, traps etc.. or make melee really powerfull by decreasing weapon firerate or implanting awesome melee weapons (like in condemned)

I've recently just finished the last power idea. The PC has 5 powers to use.

Firewall
Mana Cost : 100

Player creates a wall of fire to protect himself, which disintegrates any bullets that come his way, which ends when it reaches the time limit(8 seconds), or when
enough bullets have been disintegrated. This allows the player to defend himself for a short period of time.

Smoke Bomber
Mana Cost : 400

Player transform into an invisible ball of smoke, which will detonate, upon pressing the Right Mouse Button or in 7 seconds, and incinerate any nearby enemies. This
allows the player to escape a firefight and ambush a group of enemies.

Fireball
Mana Cost : 300

Player throws an orb of fire towards his enemy, which incinerates and then bounces off of them to incinerate the next,essentially causing a domino effect, it will kill
up to 3 enemies

Dome of Death
Mana Cost : 700

Player creates a dome of fire around him, which disintegrates any enemy that comes near him, this also works if the player runs towards an enemy.

Phoenix (Transformation Skill)
Mana Cost : 1000

Player turns into a phoenix, who has half his health but explodes upon death and is promptly 'reborn', runs extremely fast, kill upon contact and can draw en enemy
towards him. After 10 seconds the player exits 'Phoenix Mode' and has no mana and has half his health drained.

 

[Wabbajackalope]

plasmids

NO BEES????

what kind of monster are you? you have three fire powerups (4 if you include the pheonix) make one of them a swarm of bees, its the right thing to do.

you know you want to

 

[Genetix]

Here is a game design tip - those mana values won't mean anything until you actually have a prototype of the game up and running and test them out. (Not trying to come off harsh), Once you have built this system and start realizing how it all actually feels and runs, then comes the balancing.... Not to be over critical, it's a great start - hope to see more once you have fleshed it out a bit!

 

[Yal]

A tip... I'd make pistols do more damage than more powerful weapons in the long run, so that you'd conserve more ammo by using the weak gun as much as possible. The strong gun(s) should do more damage in the short run, for times when you need to get rid of a powerful fast enemy ASAP. For instance, the pistol might actually do 50% more damage per bullet, but the machine gun fires the bullets more quickly, so you can do more damage with 1 second of machine gun fire than with 1 second of pistol fire, but 6 pistol bullets do more damage than 6 machine gun bullets.

Another way to make melee more reliable/fun to use would have enemies that don't see you be vulnerable to backstab attacks that instantly kill them, or maybe you can use melee to knock enemies off ledges or into fire traps or something like that, so that melee is more useful to hit enemies into something that hurts them than to actually deal damage.

 

[JesseKam]

Here is a game design tip - those mana values won't mean anything until you actually have a prototype of the game up and running and test them out. (Not trying to come off harsh), Once you have built this system and start realizing how it all actually feels and runs, then comes the balancing.... Not to be over critical, it's a great start - hope to see more once you have fleshed it out a bit!

Yeah, I'm using those numbers as placeholders for now.

 

[JesseKam]

A tip... I'd make pistols do more damage than more powerful weapons in the long run, so that you'd conserve more ammo by using the weak gun as much as possible. The strong gun(s) should do more damage in the short run, for times when you need to get rid of a powerful fast enemy ASAP. For instance, the pistol might actually do 50% more damage per bullet, but the machine gun fires the bullets more quickly, so you can do more damage with 1 second of machine gun fire than with 1 second of pistol fire, but 6 pistol bullets do more damage than 6 machine gun bullets.

Another way to make melee more reliable/fun to use would have enemies that don't see you be vulnerable to backstab attacks that instantly kill them, or maybe you can use melee to knock enemies off ledges or into fire traps or something like that, so that melee is more useful to hit enemies into something that hurts them than to actually deal damage.

Well, I designed the pistols to do low damage, but have a higher fire rate, albeit the bullets will reach the target slower.

On the other hand, rifles do high damage, have a low fire rate, albeit reach the targets faster, but decrease your movement speed by 25%.

For melee, it would be a high risk-high reward style. No need to use ammo, faster movement speed(+25%) but you're going to have to be up close with enemies. A backstab mechanic would be overpowered due to the fact that one could instantly take down one of the strongest enemy's in the game(which is literally a walking safe) by sneaking up behind them.

But melee could be better used as a knockback weapon as you said, later in the game you would encounter a stealth enemy that can lay down traps, disguise as props and are invisible until they are extremely close to you, this is balanced by having them be killed instantly with 1 shot and having their traps affect enemies and themselves.

 

[JesseKam]

I've finished typing out the enemy types
There are 3 basic types
Runners | Giants | Espionage

Runner Types
Shankers

Shankers have a +30% to their movement speed and can deal massive damage to you, however they can only deal damage through melee so you have time to deal with them.
HTK(Hits to Kill: Melee/Pistol/Rifle)1/1/1

Bombers

Bombers are strapped to the brim with C4 and intend to rush at you and explode(think suicide bomber). They have a +40% to their movement speed and will suicide bomb you, however there is a 1 second delay before they explode, and it not only kills them but any surrounding enemies.
HTK 1/2/1

Carriers
Carriers are Bombers with the ability to transport Giant Type enemies towards you. It could be a Brute, Panzer or a Safe Room. While carrying they get a -40% to their movement speed and if killed they die along with their cargo, but once they are 300 pixels near you, they will unload their cargo and rush at you, at a +60% movement boost.
HTK 2/3/2

Giant Types

Brutes

Brutes are big and towering, slow and fat, which makes them the perfect tanks, however their size is their downfall as they take up a 2x2 space and thereby they can be shot at easier. They suffer a -20% movement speed
HTK 3/6/4

Panzer

Panzers are double the size and have a -40% to their movement speed, not only do they have a 3x3 space and even more health, but they can now absorb Mana from dead bodies, by doing so they regain a bit of health. Of course there is a risk-and-reward because when they absorb Mana, they have a 10% chance to die from a heart attack(insert obligatory fat joke here) at the same time absorbing mana takes time, roughly 6 seconds.
HTK 6/12/8

Safe Rooms
They are walking safes, that absorb Mana faster, and they take up a 4x4 space along with having a -80% movement boost and have a 20% chance to die from absorbing mana. Even worse, when they die, they open their vault, which unleashes 3 random enemies, could be Bombers, Normal Enemies, or even worse, a carrier carrying another safe room.
HTK 10/18/14

Espionage Types

Rogues
They are easy to kill but invisible until 150 pixels near you.
HTK 1/1/1

Hunters
Now, Hunters are invisible until 100 pixels near you, and can create traps(trip wires or stun mines) that can stun you, at the same time they can work to your advantage as enemies can also be affected, along with the Hunter themselves.
HTK 1/1/1

Morphers
Morphers can disguise as props, be invisible until 50 pixels near you, create traps that can actually damage you or hinder you(Now they have bear traps, poisonous gas, fake dead corpses that remove mana and health from you) but they can disguise as props, that aren't that all suspicious until you inspect it closer(as in walking 50 pixels near them) once spotted they will try to shoot you or run away(probably to die by their own traps)
HTK 1/1/1

These are all the enemy types to help balance the powers you gain throughout the game. There should be around 4 difficulties, Easy, Normal, Hard, Very Hard.

Easy should make the last variation of enemies appear only at the end game and be severely underpowered.

Normal should make them appear at the end game but be underpowered a bit.

Hard makes them appear mid game, and have the stats shown above(which should be tweaked) and starts making the second variations appear by the 4th level.

Very hard removes the first variations, replacing them with the second variations, with stronger stats, with the third variations appearing by the 4th level with overpowered stats.

Course there is more to change for difficulty scaling, but thats all these are the enemy types I plan to have appear in the game,