Design Method 2
Tag System
After all of that, I took some time to look at the mechanics and how to refine them. So I took a look at the Rangers and understood something. What I did understand is currently, they are able to do their abilities an infinite amount of time with a limited range (just a thought not an actuality).
Then it got me thinking if one ranger strays too far, how would the other one be able to catch up so that there needs to be a restriction on how they move, for example, if the Ranger 1 could teleport over a small ledge first and a big block that requires movement for Ranger 2 to get over that gap is too far away and is located on the other end of that gap what type or range would be necessary to get the block over. Either just design a puzzle where it can be done, or develop something to make that range infinite.
This birthed the idea of the Tag System.
The point of the Tag System is to allow a higher level of co-operation between the Rangers, where each Ranger will be responsible for the other abilities, in some way. For example if Ranger 1 on the other side of the ledge and the block is unreachable to Ranger 2, Ranger 1 can go close to the object, tag it, and then Ranger 2 can freely move that object with his ‘telekinetic’ abilities. If Ranger 1 need tag a new object, it would simple destroy the previous tag and go on the new object.
This could also work with Ranger 1 and his ‘teleport’ ability. For example, if Ranger 2 goes close to the ledge, tags near the ledge, allowing Ranger 1 to safely cross over with his teleport ability. Below are some other examples to make this point a little more coherent:
I understand that giving the option of doing your ability in the other players hands can seem like a bad thing, but I really think it balances out well, they will be limited to how they can do their skills but it add a layer of necessary cooperation to puzzle solving. Moving on to my next point; the Aliens.
Aliens Refined
Thinking about the Aliens and how they work, thinking about it in more depth if they were to spawn enemies into the map, they shouldn’t have resources to waste just to bring out people from their home planet, so it got me thinking, What types of abilities could they have. Suddenly if we are talking about traps:
What if these Aliens could place traps in the environment
What if these Aliens could create trap doors for the Rangers to go through, like a door that goes into a room full of traps
So I thought maybe some abilities should be locked behind a cooldown, whilst the more powerful abilities could cost something rather than waiting. They can move and collect the resource they need for these powerful abilities so there is an incentive to make these traps but also a restriction so they can’t just activate traps whenever they want to because then the game would be unfair.
So the Alien can call his friends to help after a certain amount of time, and if the Aliens want to build something like a machine that does something in regards to gravity then they need to build it with the resources they can get which also works thematically.
Now the flow of the game is looking like this:
Narrative
Finally it would be nice to also create a bigger back-story then the one that was already written so it adds a big more context to how our Rangers got their powers, how are they a part of the game, what do they do at least those types of things, so it isn’t just meaningless nonsense, which now there is a bigger story to uncover:
Themes such as:
How do these Rangers know each other?
Why is One an Alien and the other one a Human?
How do they both receive their psychic abilities which the player can use?
What is their inspiration for coming to the planet they are on?
Next Steps
After all of this I now need to thin how I’m going to implement the Dynamic Levels into the game. I already have some fundamental knowledge of making puzzles so from here I need to start with a structure to make sure it make sense, not only to me but the other people on the project as well.