I was alone with my thoughts today and I thought about a potentially cool platformer concept based entirely on “luck”
The idea would be that the character would have some lucky object and that luck would be a tangible resource in the game much like health. Certain activities in the game would cost you luck (i.e. walking over a questionable bridge, or under an unstable boulder). If something happens that costs “luck” and you don’t have any you die. Some things would be mandatory, i.e. the bridge and other things could be avoidable like a trap that you could jump over if you see it.
There could be potentially different paths to get through each level and you have to choose carefully to ensure you have enough luck left to get to the end.
In order to pull it off one would need to be pretty creative with mechanics and level design but I think it would result in a pretty fun and unique experience.
The mechanic could work, and could be interesting IF the game and the levels have been very carefully designed.
One thing you need to make absolutely sure of is that luck doesn’t randomly impede the player’s progress.
For instance if the level relies on a random amount of luck to get through, and the player does everything right in the level, but still can’t get through due to some random luck mechanic, that is a HUGE design fail and players will stop playing your game at the first whiff of that.
As long as the player is in ultimate control of whether they can finish the level or not, then you should be fine.
A nice way to balance this mechanic, is to have 2 or 3 different possible paths to take to complete the level, don’t make it linear with only one possible solution.
When I say “luck” in the context of this idea I don’t mean as a stat that effects any kind of random chance. It’s more like a guardian angel that protects you from harm. I’ll use the rickety bridge as an example. If you got to the bridge with a full “luck” bar then you will walk across no problem and it will subtract a certain amount from your “luck” possibly based on how long you remain on the bridge. If you don’t have enough luck left then the bridge will collapse. So there’s nothing necessarily random or unpredictable about it as long as you have enough “luck” left then you’re good.
It kinda goes off the concept of how a cat has 9 lives or the idea that you can only get lucky so many times.
A very interesting idea. I was thinking more as in the realm of a series of unfortunate events. Every time you go across a bridge, under a boulder, across a river or up a mountain, something bad could randomly happen. On each play the bridge will not always collapse, the boulder will not always fall, the river will flood on occasions or the mountain may avalanche.
But as Meltdown had stated, the player should be in control and have an option / opportunity to escape.
The same goes for random good events happening. The player would still be able to equally gain or lose the opportunity for a good luck event.
Anyhow, I like the idea / concept. It all depends on execution.
Btw just to be clear I probably won’t develop a game on this idea so if anyone seeing this wants to run with it do so without any moral quandries. That’s why I’m posting it here
Yes Starpaq2 I agree that it all depends on the execution. Could turn into something awesome or something very boring or confusing.
Reminds me of 4 Crystals of Trazere (aka Legend) - your characters can purchase “Luck” from the temple.
Luck allows you to survive blows and magical attacks that would insta-kill your character; once you are out of luck you can no longer dodge those attacks.
heres my take on it. you’ve got your luck meter, and your character is on a nonstop lemming like path to her destination. as the character aproaches a potentially unlucky object, you have the choice to use some of your luck to keep it from becoming disastrous before you get to it, or push your luck and try to pass it with a chance that something bad might happen.
now here’s the kicker, if you don’t secure the object before you pass, and something bad does start to happen, you know have to react fast and use your skills to stop bad things from happening. say a boulder is coming at you, maybe you have to roll another boulder into the first one to knock it off course, or move someone else in front of you so they get hit instead.
I had a go at a little demo of how I think this kind of mechanic could work, not to sure about it though, after playing I find that there should be no random chance. You click on obstacles to use some luck on them.
I think the original idea is interesting, but I’m having trouble seeing it as the main mechanic for a game. Perhaps as part of a themed set of mechanics? Perhaps there’s more to the mechanic than you describe?
Your character would be a leprechaun, right? Collect horseshoes full of luck, and four-leaf clovers. Pots of gold at end of rainbow, it’s got platformer written all over it.
How about when your luck is high, enemies are randomly killed in improbable and amusing ways (lightning strikes, parts of aircraft fall from sky squashing them…), but when your luck is low, the game gets really nasty to you. Or you could spend luck guessing the combination to a safe for a reward.
