A peaceful dungeon exploration game

[Etinarg]

I don't want to go into the horror game direction (enemies which you can't fight but which can kill you so that you must constantly avoid them).

I assume this will limit enemies to roadblocks, which are immobile and mostly passive, unless the player is very close - and in this case they are just more elaborate version of gates that must be opened.

I'm wondering if things like the "bejeweled" type of puzzles can be done with a first person view. I'm bad at thinking up new ideas, but maybe I'll have some success at mixing genres.

Shift colored walls to open new passages

[Twiccan]

Just a random thought that popped into my head, so you can decide if it would be a worthy idea or not, but...

What about a game where you don't fight any of the creatures in the dungeon, but instead you bribe them to leave!  You collect gold and treasure that you can sell for gold, but when you encounter a creature, you have to guess how much it will cost for them to go away.  If you are right (and have that much gold, of course), they leave and you get the exp.  If you are wrong, they say if you are too high or too low and then that particular creature won't talk to you for another x turns.  You can also have food as normal that you have to find or buy, so you can't just sit there and press the next turn button over and over.

Just a thought...

[Etinarg]

That's an interesting idea. Bring some sausages to bribe the zephyr hounds, gold for the ghost of the king, cheese for all the rodents, wine and rations for the orcs. Then make a party alltogether

More seriously, this could be an interesting sort of puzzle, particularly to find out what the different inhabitants of the place will like.

[Krice]

How about that economy modelling? Actually it could be fun if the player character would have to search for job and go to work every morning. Then get paid and buy food to survive. There could be some gardening also, to grow plants and sell/eat them. Stealing could be very important in a game like that, but also dangerous.

[Etinarg]

I once wanted to make a Sims clone, too, but it seemed too big for me. The ideas are nice, still. I think, though, the scope of my dreamed up "dungeon exploration game" idea is too small for these activities.

What could work here is item crafting - if there are things like sticks and rocks, it might be an idea to let the player build simple tools from those which are needed to solve some of the puzzles.

[Twiccan]

That's an interesting idea. Bring some sausages to bribe the zephyr hounds, gold for the ghost of the king, cheese for all the rodents, wine and rations for the orcs. Then make a party alltogether

More seriously, this could be an interesting sort of puzzle, particularly to find out what the different inhabitants of the place will like.

Yeah, that would be cool.  And of course in roguelike fashion, it could be random each time you play.

[Hi]

one thing I find fascinating is complex systems.
like a program I made it's a perpetual desert with wind blown sand dunes the only thing you could do was place walls that blocked sand, but it was still really fun to play with because the sand dunes formed beautiful patterns.

If you made destructible walls, flowing water and all kinds of interesting creatures to interact with each other, you could have a fascinating nonviolent roguelike. Even if the only thing you could do was build and remove walls.

[Z]

Have you read this thread (and the similar thread on rgrd that it refers to... and we get the infinite recursion since there is a  mutual reference)?

My opinion is in there. I agree with Ido that combat is overused for a reason (nothing else that is so interesting has been found).

Speaking of peacefulness in games, I recommend Iji (a recent very good platformer), its approach to pacifism was IMHO very interesting and original.

[Vanguard]

Speaking of peacefulness in games, I recommend Iji (a recent very good platformer), its approach to pacifism was IMHO very interesting and original.

I liked Iji, but I actually thought that its approach to nonviolence was one of its weakest traits.  It's nice that the game reacts a bit differently if you don't kill anything, but ultimately the best method for pacifism is just to bunny hop past everything as fast as you can.

[Z]

I'm quite sure that one could have a different opinion, that's why I wrote IMHO Spoilers in black follow.

I liked the idea of tricking the player to play according to the standard RPG convention that enemies are things that you should kill (to gain XP, if you have no better reason), and then penalize them for doing that in several ways (fighting takes time, is boring, and you actually gain nothing - so pacifist play is much more pleasant; people will call you a killer instead of turning friendly). It shows how senseless war and violence are (which might be quite an obvious fact for you, but in game conventions it is usually otherwise). Also, from the game design point of view, it was interesting how really small modifications are enough to completely change the mood between playing in aggresive and pacifist styles. Sure, there are lots of details which are not done perfectly

[Hi]

I agree with Ido that combat is overused for a reason (nothing else that is so interesting has been found).

I disagree.  Personally I find combat boring, I was introduced to roguelikes through dwarf fortress and I don't blame them for not being exactly what I dream of.  But there is the potential for a much more interesting game when the possible interactions between agents are not almost always adversarial.

[Fenrir]

It needs more to stand on its own, I think, but perhaps something like this could be developed to the point where it could replace combat.

[Etinarg]

My opinion is in there. I agree with Ido that combat is overused for a reason (nothing else that is so interesting has been found).

I just was reminded, that I once tried to research basic activities that might be interesting in games - I had forgotten where I potsed this, but google helped me to find it again:

Group 1 - Collecting:
- Collecting
- Farming
- Hunting (includes fishing)

Group 2 - Construction:
- Lair/Nest/Buildings
- Vehicles (waggon, ship ...)
- Altering the landscape (includes tunnels)

Group 3 - Crafting:
- Create items from resources and more basic items

Group 4 - Trading:
- Buy/Transport/Sell
- Shops
- Banking (-> Currency)

Group 5 - Politics:
- Forming a group/clan/faction
- Negotiate with other groups/clans/factions
- Fighting/War

The first 4 groups are mostly peaceful activities. I'd really be surprised if combat turns out to be the most ineresting, but I agree that it is the most thrilling, due to the usually "all or nothing" nature of cambat in game. Partiocularly roguelike games, where loosing a battle is the end of the game.

Now I must take better care not to forget or lose this again.

Also, thanks to all for your suggestions Unfortunately a bad cold has gotten me again, I feel unable to do some serious work, also I'm busy with another project, still a peaceful one, a trade and exploration based one, and mostly, a space/sci-fi based one.

edit: Ocne the fever allows me to think more straightforwwrd again, I'll still research all the links and suggestions. Just to say, the project isn't dead, just paused while I'm busy with another idea - I use to work this way, a few weeks on one idea, then a few weeks on another one. I'm trying to keep coming back ...

[Aganazer]

Sneaking would be a great non-combat activity that can still cause some tension. You could even have a dungeon full of monsters and you need to sneak in to get some relic like Indiana Jones. It would be real cool to make an Indiana Jones inspired treasure hunter game with dungeons full of traps, puzzles, secrets, and enemies to sneak around. It could have a 'push your luck' type of mechanic making it a lot like Diamant, the board game.

Evasion is also a big part of this. Evading zombies during an apocalypse would make sense. A game like that would easily have the need for other non-combat activities like collecting and fort building, rescuing survivors, and then some aspects of diplomacy with that group. You could even have vehicles and trade with other safe houses. I suppose all those features together doesn't need to be zombies, it could just as well be an alien invasion, demonic uprising, or even a Red Dawn-esque military invasion.

Combat IS overused. I would love to see more non-combat activities in games.

[Vanguard]

You could do survival-type stuff like the UnReal World does.  Getting shelter against bad weather all that.  Would hunting be too close to combat to use?  Even if the animals had no chance against you in a fight and just tried to escape?