The Mechanics

Ahh yes, the Mechanics. No, I'm not talking about the Megadeth song sounding eerily familiar for some reason... *ponder*... but rather the mechanics of this fancy game and/or demo I've been ranting about the last couple of days.

You can make the most visually unappealing game ever, but if the game mechanics are quality enough you can never stop playing it. Why does this game where you move a 6-pixel frog through traffic still sell over Xbox Live Arcade in 2007? It's fun. The mechanics are very suiting for the game and it breeds enjoyment.

One of my favorite games of my childhood, the one responsible for countless lapses into imaginary adventure land, was Pool of Radiance for Commodore 64. Aww yeah! With 5 minute load times every 5 minutes that game was a trial in patience - possibly the sole reason I'm such a patient person today (Thank you SSI!). But I have played through many times through out the years and if I were to hook up the C64 that I still have this afternoon it would be the first disk that I would grab. Holy moly, in a game as out-to-get-ya as that, it was a battle of mechanics manipulation around every corner and you can't help but love every minute. Every game should have incredible mechanics, but sadly so few actually shine in that department. This will not be the case here...

One thing I anticipate is a very robust combat engine. I developed a combat system from scratch on a MUSH that I developed with friends several years back and it was incredible. 20+ bare-handed fighting techniques each unique, 20+ sword techniques each unique, and 10+ polearm fighting techniques each unique. The system allowed for a million unique configurations and kept it simple enough that anyone could use it, but with enough strategy that no two fights were the same. Good stuff, especially for a game that only saw 10 - 20 players. Hehe. My goal is to hone the combat system of this game to such levels or beyond while maintaining flexibility that it doesn't dominate the game as a whole.

Ehh... I was planning on pasting the game summary I'd written up a year ago into here to explain it all. It is a good explanation, but it's... verbose. Nasty habit of mine... So I will just leave a brief list of functionality I expect instead.

• 2D side-scrolling platform MMORPG (demo will probably just be a dungeon crawler brawler)
• Combat featuring "Street Fighter" style move sets, grappling, and timing-based attacks
• 8 - 10 races and 12 unique classes
• A great deal of PvP player-driven conflict
• Dynamic areas of control
• Group system where leverage has a great effect on the outcome of battle
  
• Ideally, an intelligent tutorial system that can ease anyone in... yes, even your grandma
• 17 types of weapons so far
• Real-time archery/throwing system... none of that point, click, and snore junk!
• Lighting will play a big role in exploration and there will be many scary dark places