Non-combat Mechanics

Alright guys, lets open up a little discussion about how we can go about making a strict non-combat system work.

As far as I understand it, we don't want the player to be able to fight back against any enemies that are encountered.
This opens up a few possibilities.

1) Does the player have health?

Is it game over when an enemy touches you once? Can you take multiple hits? Do you die when you fall off of something?

2) Can any potential enemies be defeated?

Is the sole purpose to avoid everything that can kill you? Can the environment possibly be used to harm enemies since the player cannot?



Obviously we have the artifacts to continually strengthen the player throughout the game. What other ways can we make the player strong besides the obvious
jump higher, run faster, etc.

3) Does the player have any other mechanics?

Since we're talking about survival and avoidance now, can the player maybe stun or slow down enemies for a period of time? Will the player gain items to allow for that?
Will artifacts allow for that? Or will the player be stuck with his basic toolset of running, jumping, climbing, etc forever?

And if the player can gain other items, how does he get them? Does he find everything in the environment? Are there other treasures left behind by the old civilization?
Will we have any currency? Maybe a creepy salesman who mysteriously ends up where you're going (a la Resident Evil 4)?


These are just some of the questions that popped up in my head. Feel free to add more, and leave your comments on the few I listed above!

Aaron Gutierrez wrote:

Alright guys, lets open up a little discussion about how we can go about making a strict non-combat system work.

As far as I understand it, we don't want the player to be able to fight back against any enemies that are encountered.
This opens up a few possibilities.

1) Does the player have health?


Is it game over when an enemy touches you once? Can you take multiple hits? Do you die when you fall off of something?

I'm not a fan of one hit deaths, I feel like they'd be kinda anti-climactic in this scenario. Come from nowhere one hit deaths if you aren't paying attention? That can be cool, but dying from one hit on a regular basis seems like it'd lose it's effect real quick. (but having plenty of graphic animations of the player being devoured by zombies sounds awesome)

Aaron Gutierrez wrote:

2) Can any potential enemies be defeated?

Is the sole purpose to avoid everything that can kill you? Can the environment possibly be used to harm enemies since the player cannot?

I think that would be cool. I think that as a player I'd get tired of my only possible response to enemies being to run away

Aaron Gutierrez wrote:

Obviously we have the artifacts to continually strengthen the player throughout the game. What other ways can we make the player strong besides the obvious
jump higher, run faster, etc.

3) Does the player have any other mechanics?

Since we're talking about survival and avoidance now, can the player maybe stun or slow down enemies for a period of time? Will the player gain items to allow for that?
Will artifacts allow for that? Or will the player be stuck with his basic toolset of running, jumping, climbing, etc forever?

I'm starting to feel like this post should be split up into multiple threads   But I think that yes: artifacts will allow for some extraordinary abilities, short term flight? maybe altering gravity for the player?

Aaron Gutierrez wrote:

And if the player can gain other items, how does he get them? Does he find everything in the environment? Are there other treasures left behind by the old civilization?
Will we have any currency? Maybe a creepy salesman who mysteriously ends up where you're going (a la Resident Evil 4)?

I feel like this crosses the line and makes our game have more RPG elements than we really want. I think that if we stick to splinters (the artifacts that give the player special abilities) that we'll have a fun, simple, and somewhat elegant set of mechanics