Would using real-time day/night to effect gameplay be a good idea?

[Probotector 200X]

Not exactly sure if this is the right forum, but I think it is.

So, my question is, would playing an RPG that uses the actual time of day, and that time effects certain gameplay features and possibly even some story options greatly, sound like a good idea? Would it bother you? Get your more interested?

An example: If you play a lot at night, you'll encounter werewolves and vampires much more often. Fight them too much, and your characters might become werewolves and vampires themselves. Werewolves and vampires would only be usable or be much more powerful at night. So, by playing at night, you give yourself extra benefits that only work at night.

Or maybe you can use some Sun Warrior class, who gets empowered by the Sun. If you prefer to play during the day, this class is very powerful, always being fully charged.

As for story options...say halfway through the game, you have to join some group. They don't take kindly to werewolves. So if you are a werewolf, they won't accept you. But what if you approach them during the day? They won't know you are a werewolf until night falls. Or maybe you become a werewolf after you join them?? Then, they could either kick you out, or make an exception to their anti-werewolf policies because you've already proved yourself? Might be complicated.

There are ways to do this I'm sure. I've seen scripts that allow you to use the time on your computer for in-game stuff. Then, it's a simple (errr...probably complex for me) matter to make conditional branchs and such based on the time of day, what enemies you fight, alter skill powers, etc.

The problem is, some people don't have time to play during the day, or not at night. So they wouldn't even get to choose which time of day they prefer. Or they might not have a consistent schedule, and can't use their werewolf class one day because they only have a short time during daylight to play. (of course, you can adjust your computer's clock, right? but that's kinda lame to have to resort to that)

I know these kinds of features could be done using a normal day/night set-up, not based on the real-time or your computer's clock, but I think it could be a cool feature, and I liked how it's like that in Pokémon, I play mostly at night, and that visually is represented in game, but gameplay-wise, it actually makes little difference (effects some encounter rates? And a few other things I think)

Good idea? Bad idea?

 

[Andar]

Simulating a day/night cycle for situations in the gameworld has been done before and can be a good idea depending on implementation.

However, forcing changes on the player depending on what time it is in the real world isn't a good idea in my opinion - some people can't play at the time when they want due to things like jobs, family or similiar disturbances ( ). So forcing them into a playstyle with a game and changing that game's storyline depending on a factor they can't influence is a bad idea...

 

[Tai_MT]

Simulating a day/night cycle for situations in the gameworld has been done before and can be a good idea depending on implementation.

However, forcing changes on the player depending on what time it is in the real world isn't a good idea in my opinion - some people can't play at the time when they want due to things like jobs, family or similiar disturbances ( ). So forcing them into a playstyle with a game and changing that game's storyline depending on a factor they can't influence is a bad idea...

Pokémon is a fantastic example of this.  Day/Night cycle which affects which critters show up.  The issue with that?  Someone like me with a job during the day can't catch anything that appears only during the day because of the "6:00 equals nighttime" rule the games employ.  This ultimately forced me to play during weekends when I could be otherwise doing other things, or it forced me to change the clocks in game to better reflect what times I played instead of what time of day it actually was.

A day/night cycle can be a good thing and be a lot of fun.  I've seen it implemented successfully in a ton of games.  However, linking your day night cycle to "real life time" is not really a great idea.

 

[orochii]

When I was planning my game, one of the things I wanted to add was a day/night cycle. I did added it, but this was one of the things I got into consideration, either using CPU time or in-game time. I decided for the second one, because CPU time is always set to real-life, so the player can't influence it. It also makes necessary for you to rethink some stuff, INNs for instance. You can't advance time, and so it makes it seem surreal, leaving your party resting for 3 seconds and then having good health (instead of resting at night, and waking up on morning). Still a rest that replenishes all is surreal, but... let's think that HP damage has a lot of interpretations.

Another thing I pictured was instant teleports, where I do add minutes/hours depending on how long the travel is (your characters move automatically from place to place to avoid backtracking and the such).

For a regular RPG, at least in my opinion, an in-game time works better than a global CPU time for those issues. Because of the benefits that time-skip leaves you as a developer, without making it feel funny ahahaha.

This is what I think of course, there are 100s of ways to do anything, so you can think the solution that fits your interests,

Orochii Zouveleki

 

[Engr. Adiktuzmiko]

depends on your target audience... like stated above, forcing heavy changes depending on time of day has a huge impact for people that can only play in a certain time of day... assuming you get time from the internet or something... if not, then the player can simply adjust his computer's clock to make it day or night... though this will actually mean that using a PC clock is abusable...

I was actually thinking of doing that, having events that happen during certain months of the year... then I realized how abusable that was...

 

[Celianna]

I agree with Tai_MT, it sounds like a great idea, until you realize most people play at night.


Just use a sped up day and night cycle, and everyone will be happier. There's no reason not to do this, as it makes players experience multiple days within a single playthrough, and they can still game while being comfy at home, and at night. Don't do real-time. Even in Animal Crossing the real-time sucks, the game could have been great if it had sped up time, and you could experience holidays, without it being on the actual holiday where you're probably way too busy to go and play it.

 

[Engr. Adiktuzmiko]

seriously, if I realized that the game uses my computer's clock and I can't play at day, I'll just adjust my comps clock when I need it... 

and after all, I'm more of a fan of in-game time rather than real-time for this single player RPGs... real-time events are more for server-based games like MMOs...

 

[Probotector 200X]

Y'all bring up good points.

My idea was for a different kind of "experience". That is, a game that adjusts to your playstyle in a way. Play at night, and you get access to "night creatures", like werewolves and vampires. Play during the day, and you get powerful solar attacks. But, that's kind of based on an ideal set-up. Like you get to choose when you get to play. I know, people are busy. I myself usually have some time during the day, but most of my "game time" is at night. On the other hand, having some things chosen for you...well, it's a reflection of life, isn't it? You adapt to what you get and make the most of it. But who really wants that out of a game? I know many people play games as a form of stress relief or escapism, so why reflect annoying things in a game?

I still think the idea has some merit, but I don't think I could really do it well. Well, that, and affecting the story might be too much.

Ultimately, what I want is a way for players to actually choose their play style based on the time of day, but I'm not satisfied combining that with the way most games handle progressing time. Days tend to feel to short or too long (relatively, you know). I think, the best thing to do is...make time pass in-game, but slower than games like Ocarina of Time (where days last like 2 minutes), and have ways to rest to change the time to your liking. Like say you wanna go Werewolf as much as possible, so you do all your exploring and fighting for the 30 or so minutes it takes for an in-game day to pass, then when you see the sun rising, set-up camp and rest for the day, and continue your Werewolfing. But have some kinda restriction, otherwise you might as well just choose the time of day from the menu! Maybe like, if you rest too much, your party gets bored, or lethargic, lowering your speed.

I don't know, really. This is more of a conceptual idea, nothing really concrete yet. A project that would start with gameplay, and work out the story later. Which is typically backwards of me.

 

[Celianna]

I'd like to mention that your day and night cycle should reflect the fact whether or not if you have the power to skip/change time when you want. For example, if you cannot change the time yourself, by for example, going to sleep and waking up the next day, your day and night cycle should be fast. 30 minutes for an entire day is very long if the player has no option but to endure this entire time. I recommend 15 minutes for a 24 hour day. If however, you can skip some amount of time (for example, by sleeping), then you can go for longer days, such as 30 minutes, or even an hour.


In my own project, I have 8 seconds in real life be equal to 10 minutes in-game. This makes it roughly 20 minutes long for each day, and it works for me, since different things happen during different hours of the day. The player also has the option to sleep (wake up at 7 am the next day), or take a 4 hour long powernap to skip time without going to the next day.

 

[Erynn]

I am more a fan of inclusive game mechanics myself. That is, game mechanics that are open to everyone. Limiting content to certain times of day or night and then using a real time frame for that limits the player a great deal - whether or not you argue they could change system settings if they find the time they are trapped in unfavourable, it creates an element that can be a great turn off immediately that doesn't actually add that much to the game. What if someone wants to play a different kind of content after their current play through? Many gamers these days have full time jobs and families. They don't have the luxury of picking and choosing when to play a game to access it's features that most appeal to them. Accessibility is a big deal in gaming. Does making it real time really add anything significant to game play? Enough to counterbalance it's exclusionary nature? I find a faster moving time shift - at least 4x, preferably faster - to be far more appropriate to opening the game to players. Games are about their players more than they are about their designers... without players there is no game. The overall effect it has on them, not just the intended effect, is worth thinking about. To me, it will never be worth it. Choosing the times your player plays is a step too far in to the meta.

 

[Gilsev]

If the day/night cycles are not real time based, but 1/4 real time, or less, that can work quite well. If players can quickly find out that a full day passes every 2 hours they can, free time willing, play at a different time in order to achieve different goals.

If there is content that is only available during the day or night, do you really want to potentially alienate players by their real life commitments and deny them access to content? One way around this could be to have daytime content available at a late point in the game during the night cycles, but only if the content has not already been completed during the day and vice versa. This could give everyone access to the entire game worth of content, while still including an interesting mechanic.

 

[Eschaton]

Do you need a day/night cycle?  Is it for depth or immersion?  Are there strict in-game schedules that NPCs keep?  Are you going to enforce the PCs that they sleep?

Above all else, how does it serve your core gameplay mechanics?

If not, then why bother?

 

[Berylstone]

Or maybe you can use some Sun Warrior class, who gets empowered by the Sun. If you prefer to play during the day, this class is very powerful, always being fully charged.

Good idea? Bad idea?

It's an interesting concept to try and mix real life with your gameplay.  I believe there was a handheld game once that tried to encourage gamers to go outside more by making it necessary to charge your power bars with actual sunlight

But in the end I would side with what seems to be the consensus here.  Limiting or expanding the player's options in a way that would intrude on their real life schedules is likely to cause aggravation. 

 

[Probotector 200X]

I've kinda already figured out this isn't the best idea, but that doesn't mean I've abandoned the idea completely. I still believe real-time affecting gameplay (like Pokémon's day and night, but more extreme) could be an interesting concept, but it would have to be done in a way that doesn't annoy people.

@Eschaton: Basically yes to all of those. I have an RPG or two that would benefit from normal day/night cycles. But the real-time thing doesn't seem like a good idea for the moment. One of the main things I want out of a Day/Night cycle is character customization. Werewolves were a basic example I brought up. Werewolves can be done however you want though. Only change from full moon light, only change at night, change at will, change when provoked, etc.

@Berylstone: You are probably referring to Boktai: The Sun is in Your Hand. Never played, but Django (main character) and his Gun Del Sol appeared in a few Mega Man Battle Network games as a bizarre, out of place cameo/crossover thing. I believe Gun Del Sol was stronger if you were outside? (the human player Lan, connects to internet from outside, rather than inside, lets Mega Man use stronger Gun Del Sol in cyberworld, or something like that)