kill to get card mini game.

[izyCoder]

Hey guys, I want your suggestion on my new mini game concept

Ok, when you enter the game, You'll be given a random colored card. There's Red, Green, Blue, and Yellow Card. The game is easy. When you register for the game (for an amount of fee) you will be assigned a team by the system. It's what color of your card. If you get blue card, you're in the blue team! Then, you will be transfered to a field and there's a stall and a camp, You will be given for an amount of time to explore the field.

The function of the stall is, when you thing you're getting weak, you can buy a potion/weapon or any accessories at the stall. But one thing to remember, the items is not permanently owned. Meaning that when you leave the game, the item will be deleted it too (if you not consume it or weapon).

The Function of the camp is for you to heal and rest. There's also an option to end the game earlier.

So, when the countdown is start you need to travel around the field to find for a monster or enemies. There's also a chance that you will find other participant and you can fight them too.
When the enemy touch you or you touch the enemy, you will be brought to battle scene. You will fight the enemy.
Well, the rule is easy. If you wins against the enemy, you will have its loots and there's a chance it have a card (each enemy have different chance%). The hardest the enemy, the more card you'll get. Its range of 0-5 cards, depends on the enemy. But if you lose, all of your card will be still by the enemy! Woahhh... it's cruel

The you need to start over, the system will assign you a random team and give you 1 colored card.

Well, that mechanic is boring right? You can also actually use the card. Yes! use the card! Each colored card have 5 random buffs. If you use the card, you will lost the card but in exchange, you will be given a random buff! These buffs will help you to fight with your enemies. If it's not enough, yet you can still buy any items that you want at the stall. But it uses your money.

But one more thing I need to remind you, you can only use a card that's not on your team. Meaning that if you're in the red team, you cannot use red cards! Lets say you fight a bat, you got yellow card but you're in the red team. So yes, you can use the yellow card.

So, what happen when the countdown is over? The game is over! hahahaha...
So, let's say (this is my struggles!) each card have an amount of points of 10~50. If you have 7 cards, each card have it's own amount of points (this were its defined your buffs). When the game is over, all of your points will be added and you will get your final points (omg, i don't think this will work

)

Then, there's a list of the top 10 participant. The more points you get, the more chance you will be in the up (weird words~~~ lol)

All 10 will get their own reward. The end. Lol. Im suck~

So what do you thing? Oh and, buffs! Suggest me buff?
- The normal atk up (red) , def up (blue) , agi up (green) , luk up (yellow).
- Where the chance to get card is 50% higher (yellow).
- Where you can check if the enemy have card, how many, what color. (blue)
- Enemy will scare of you, they will run away. so you will not touch them and fight. So your only chance is to fight other participants. (red)
- All cards you get after the buff is active is high-point (40-50) (what color tho?)

Thanks for your reading

 

[mlogan]

I've moved this thread to Game Mechanics. Please be sure to post your threads in the correct forum next time. Thank you.

 

[Basileus]

This seems insanely long and convoluted to be just a mini-game. I'm just not seeing the point of this game. If the only benefit to playing is a generic "reward", then why would I pay money to fight people in this mini-game instead of just fighting people normally in the main part of the game?

Why on Earth can Red team NOT use Red cards? Shouldn't Red team use only Red cards?

There is no point to having teams in the first place if rewards are given to the top 10 regardless of what teams they were on.

There is also very little benefit to actually using the cards - those types of in-combat items exist in games like Pokemon and are infamously "vendor trash" since no one bothers using them. It actually seems FAR more tedious since using a card for a temporary buff deducts points from your final score, thus using a card is always harmful and never worth it.

Which circles back to the point of the game - WHY am I collecting these cards? All I can gather is: Start with 1 card > Be unable to use that card because it is your "team's" color > Fight dudes to try and pick up more cards > Have more cards than an arbitrary list of random numbers to place in the spot of the top 10 you want to get the prize you want...and if you lose a fight it's instant Game Over because you lose all your cards.

This just seems tedious. The point of a mini-game is to introduce different mechanics for the player to master to provide a fun diversion from the normal gameplay and offer interesting rewards for mastering the game. If the mini-game is just normal combat encounters with an arbitrary fetch quest tacked on, then there is 0 incentive to ever play that game. You need something for the player to DO that isn't just normal combat. Good rewards are okay, but a fun central gameplay mechanic is key - otherwise there is no reason for the "mini-game" to exist.

 

[Wavelength]

Sounds like a mini-game... stretched to mega proportions! In a hugely epic game this kind of thing might be worth making as a feature minigame, and a substitute to a Coliseum (allow players to play in different difficulty levels such as "Rookie", "Veteran", and "Champion" that have stronger rivals and monsters as well as better prizes, so that it never gets boring as they level up to high levels); in a smaller game, this could honestly be the entire central gameplay style of your game rather than just a minigame (imagine a "league" held in different places around the world, while some bigger story plays out in the background). Of course, your combat needs to be a fun activity on its own merit, or everything will become tedious.

I agree with @Basileus that your "team" mechanic doesn't seem well-implemented. If you want to go the "team" route, the scores should be based on your team - and the player should have some opportunity to recruit other members to their team, etc. Otherwise, I think you should eliminate the team concept and make it a free-for-all among all participants. I also agree with her (him? Sorry, I don't know your gender & I'm just going by your avatar!) that it's silly to not be able to use cards of your team's color, if you do have teams.

I disagree, though, when she says that there is little benefit to using the cards - if you make the buffs big enough (stuff like doubling a stat for the rest of the battle, inflicting Silence on the enemy, or healing half your missing life), and the cards don't cost a turn to use, they would serve as great "last resorts" when you come up against a battle you're not sure you can win. Better to use one card than to be defeated and lose all of them! Risk and reward. I think it's cool.

You should also do some thinking about how "realistic" you want to make the rivals. Do they also use their cards if they run into a tough fight (and will this make it feel unfair to the player)? Do they come into battle badly injured sometimes, as if they had fought several other things before getting to you? If they are injured, will they head back toward their camp (where you might be able to find them and pick them off before they make it) to heal up? It depends on how much work you're willing to put into it (and thus whether this is a central playstyle of your game or "just" a minigame), but it also depends on how well you think the player will be able to figure out and understand these rival tendencies. If the player is clueless as to what their rivals are doing, or why they are doing it, you might as well not even have the feature. It's something I'm struggling to figure out a good balance for, as I redesign one of my old games (where you have rivals on a strategic game show).

If you do complete this "minigame" at some point, I'd be happy to test it out and let you know what I think!

 

[Gin]

Wow...this sounds like a lot of fun!!!\/ Just go with the ideas you have now and hurry to test it and release it. The deadline is tomorrow(I think...It´s on the 28 of march, but I don´t know which time zone) so enter in speed mode and get things going!!!