I don't post here much but I figured I'd give 7DRL a shot.
I tried to prototype this idea years ago and kinda failed and 7DRL seems like a good opportunity to try again with a new design:
https://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/LarsDoucet/20121109/181316/Tourettes_Quest.phpHere's my new scope document and pitch:
A procedural death labyrinth where your character has Tourette Syndrome and Narcolepsy symptoms.
The base game is a bare-bones dungeon crawler with JRPG-style battles along the lines of Dragon Quest or Earthbound.
On each level, you have two goals:
1) Make it to the stairway to start the next level
2) Increase in power by fighting monsters and finding treasure
To win the game, the hero LEIF must make it to the final room on the final floor and defeat the final boss, FEIL.
If you don't get strong enough, the challenges will eventually be too hard for you in later levels. But, if you take too many risks and explore too aggressively you will increase your stress levels, which brings on negative effects.
Let's see if I can pull this off:
On each level, you will be afflicted by a new symptom:
Level 1-6: Tourette Syndrome symptoms, selected from:
-Involuntary action (your RPG battle command scramble their order in real time as you get more stressed)
-Automatic action (your RPG battle command is sometimes completely overriden in favor of a randomly selected one)
-Vocal tics (your RPG battle commands get infiltrated with useless commands like "cough" or "grunt")
-Coprolalia (your RPG battle commands get infiltrated with spells that only do bad things, but still cost MP)
-Echolalia (your RPG battle commands get infiltrated with an "echolalia" command that repeats the last action an enemy did -- against you)
-Palilalia (your RPG battle commands get infiltrated with a "palilaia" command that repeats the last action you did)
-Motion tics (on the dungeon crawl, you will take steps in the wrong direction)
Level 5-10: Narcolepsy symptoms, selected from:
-Sleep attack (you will fall asleep in battle for X turns, and will not see actions enemies take while you are asleep)
-Full Cataplexy (you will "fall asleep" in battle for X turns, but still remain fully conscious and aware of what's going on until you "wake up"
-Partial Cataplexy (certain battle commands will be grayed out)
-Hypnogogic hallucinations (you will encounter fake enemies on the dungeon map that die in one hit and never attack, but are otherwise indistinguisable from real enemies)
-Sleep paralysis (after battle you will sometimes be forced to waste X turns trying to wake up. This is often accompanied by hypnogogic hallucinations)
I figure I'm either going to get this out in a week over a 7 day jam, or I'm never going to do anything with this idea at all, ever, so might as well challenge myself. I doubt I'll come close to getting the full scope but if I focus I should be able to at least hit some of that.
