Fun Stuff > CLIKC

Let's make a Game Design Doc, guys!

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Ozymandias:
You got like. Zero imagination.

KvP:
Say what you will about it, people would play it for more than 2 hours. Really, there are no stakes in the original premise. There will definitely be a good deal of "normal gamer" frustration when they're faced with all sorts of unnecessary danger - players know that the goal of the game is to reunite with your parents. If you encounter security guards and such it's frustrating that you would "lose" the game when the loss of the game inevitably results in the optimal ending of the game. That's an actual game design problem. Likewise if you end up having the little girl (and it has to be a little girl, because little girls in peril are a cheap source of suspense) in actual danger you need a good reason why the player would try to get through that danger rather than turning around and returning to safety. It's like the character in a movie going down into the basement, over and over and over, but there's no real point in doing so, except that the killer is down there. "The game was designed that way" is not a compelling reason. You're really just perpetuating bad game design for bad game design's sake.

Boro_Bandito:
I still think something like a "big scary monster" aka pedophile or kid-snatcher would have to be there, because KvP is right, it doesn't make any sense for a girl to be running away from everyone even if her imagination has kicked in because if she gets caught then she's either back with her parents or an authority figure who will eventually bring her to her senses, there's got to be some sort of goal in mind that she's got to accomplish and to evade getting caught for. Maybe she lost her favorite stuffed animal, or maybe there's some sort of mystery of some sort that she can solve. I don't think it becomes hackneyed and unoriginal just because there's a plot.

I still think the game mechanic of the world around you slowly becoming more bizarre is a cool idea. But I like there to be plot to my games. Also it has to be an RPG so there's got to be some sort of leveling or skill increase or something going on.

KvP:
A mystery would suffice. The substance of it would depend on whether or not you want to introduce a supernatural or crime element to the story. If the girls' imagination is going to do anything beyond provide creative art design you need something that gives it bite, whether it be that the imagined stuff is in some way real, or the protagonist has a health problem (asthma or a heart condition) that makes fear or excitement dangerous.

LTK:
A game based on a child's imagination. Is that possibly inspired by the bit in Bioshock 2 where you control the Little Sister? I like it, anyway. A carnival or circus seems like a sufficiently mysterious/dangerous environment where that might work. Perhaps the quest or the mystery that needs to be solved could involve another child. Listening to (or eavesdropping on) fortune tellers can stimulate your imagination and change the world around you.

If you're going to play the game as if everything you imagine is the real thing, I wouldn't let failure (returning to your parents) break the spell, that it wasn't real. You'll want to keep that illusion going for as long as possible so not to break the immersion.

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