forage mechanic

[Oddball]

So I'm wondering any idea's of how i can implement this without frustrating the player

So in my game, a mother has to cross a war torn country with her childeren and keep them alive, and part of the way i'm telling this story is through game mechanics

So, I was thinking each night while they move stealthfully around, they also have to find food. They way i thought to implement this is a hunger meter that is filled/depleted based on how the player distributes the food they find. They find food by shining a flashlight on it which makes the event visible. which is risky, because it increases the aggro range of hostiles (there's no combat in this game) Only there's a problem...

While i want food to be scarse enough that sometimes the player has to prioritize the childeren over the mother, i don't want a situation were the player goes sevral "levels" without finding much/any food and the player gets punished for something outside of there control. Any ideas on how to fix this potential problem? I think this mechanic would help immerse the player, but i only want it to be slightly frustrating at worst, else players arn't going to like the game

 

[Restart]

Do what resident evil did, and silently have the spawn rate vary based on how well the player is doing.

 

[Oddball]

So like, if they have lower HP more dandelions and watercress will spawn, but if they have higher HP less stuff will spawn? I feel like that would take away moments were the player has to make a meaningful choice. Then it will be more another cog on the wheel, rather than another page in the story

 

[lianderson]

Restart's advice does work. In fact, I'd recommend it too.

 

[Restart]

So like, if they have lower HP more dandelions and watercress will spawn, but if they have higher HP less stuff will spawn? I feel like that would take away moments were the player has to make a meaningful choice. Then it will be more another cog on the wheel, rather than another page in the story

That's a question of tuning the mechanic.

Figure out exactly what decisions you want the player to have to make, and make some rules on how to detect them programmatically. You can even get clever and reduce drop rates if things have been going too well, and guarantee that players will run short of food as many times as you want in a given playthrough.

 

[Kes]

This appears to be asking about something for a specific, individual project, rather than a general discussion of the concept. As such, it does not belong here.

[move]Game Ideas and Prototypes[/move]