Concept 1:3 - Rain to encourage indoor movement (Level Pathing concept)

[Cyber Rat]

Original post:

Due to heavy rain, the player's movement would be somewhat impeded. This gives the player motivation to seek indoor routes for better maneuverability, but the tradeoff could be a more complicated or difficult route.

2AM elaboration:

Using the outdoor route:

-The route is much shorter and linear than the indoor route. The trade off is that it would require precision and skill. Jumping on platforms could cause the player to slip (ice level style). Visibility is also poor, so running into badniks or other hazards is also a problem (note that the amount of badniks and hazards is lower than in the indoor sections). Spindash could be impeded by rain and (the now) muddy ground, making it less effective.

Using the indoor route:

-The player has complete control over his movement, but is faced with a much longer route. Whereas you couldn't see minor hazards in the rain, the indoor route should obvious hazards (maybe worse than in the rain?), but your main advantage is that you can actually see where you're going.

Variants:

-The rain from outside is getting slowly into the indoor corridors. The least dangerous variant would be a little water like in Green Hill Zone Act 2 in Sonic 1 for the Master System. The worst case scenario would be a sharp rise in the water level like the sand in Sandopolis Zone Act 2 (Sonic & Knuckles);

-The storm is not just a storm, but a hurricane. The player needs to find indoor sections of the level to avoid getting blown away. This variant would require some indication as to where the player should go, like maybe following the direction of the animals (who are also running away from the hurricane). The indoor sections could be small corridors into which you jump (they could even have only a single spring for you to get out when you deem it safe), or they could be full-blown tunnels;

-The addition of "improvised dams" could help the player cross certain sections. The player could spindash into rocks to make them stop or slow down floods.

Discuss.

[FanGameRevolver]

sooo....basically the Heavy Rain campaign in Left 4 dead 2, you progress through the same areas twice but on the return trip its raining and flooding and you take a completely different route across higher structures and buildings to speed up your progress.

[DimensionWarped]

There's actually a lot more room to build on this concept. You could talk about special means of getting cover, possible gimmicks for making the rain less impeding in certain conditions, things that could make the impediment worse, etc.

[Scarletdark]

I liked your idea about the indoor route. The variant about the rain slowly creeping in was a cool idea. But, I also thought that perhaps rather than it slowly creeping up from the bottom-up, what if the door from which you entered inside was to burst open from the pressure of the flooding water and cause a massive wave that would force the player to scale the level as fast as possible. Even the smallest of obstacles could become a hazard if it gets in between you and the end of the level when a GIANT wave of vertically traveling water is chasing you. I'm still getting to know the basics (noob) so correct me if I'm wrong. But......

Couldn't you create an object that once the player sensor comes in contact with it would cause the a wave to begin moving forward at a certain x speed. And if the player comes in contact with the wave he GTFO (he dies, lol). I'll work on some pics tommorow in school to show what I mean.

(P.s. Nice Idea starting this monthly concept thing DW, now I got something to work on during extreme boredom in school...)