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Member Since 15 Nov 2012
Offline Last Active Dec 16 2012 12:30 PM

Topics I've Started

Design: Hellish Administrator. Feedback?

21 November 2012 - 03:59 AM

Hi all, I've been working on an idea for a few days and just wanted to run it past some people to see what they thought of it. The game will be a business sim, based on the processing of souls in Hell. The player acts as the administrator of the facility and there will be a number of levels.

I think this game would work quite well on a tablet, as the time to play a level is not too long (5 minutes?) and the game would fit the touch and swipe input method quite nicely.

The premise is that the player is one of the administrators of Hell, charged with running punishment facilities in Hell. The level will have a shell in which the player must place various rooms which either fulfill the functions of reception, diagnosis, treatment, public facilities and staff amenities. A variety of preset room sizes allows the player to touch the desired room and then touch within the shell to place the room. The player then touches the required objects to place within the rooms. Staff need to be hired by the player, who will draw a regular "pay" from the power metre.

The goal of the game is to process enough souls to generate the required power as set on each level. The game takes inspiration from the Bullfrog classics and will be presented in a comedic cartoon style. Please feel free to leave any feedback on this idea as I'd like to see if it's worth developing the idea further. A very short design idea brief follows.

Thanks for reading. :)


Hellish Administrator!

You are an administrator of Hell, charged by Satan to maintain the operations of Punishment Facilities within the Seven Hells. Satan and his cohorts are off battling God and the angels, so you need to ensure the steady flow of soul punishments to fuel Satan's power. If you fail, Satan will fail. If you succeed you will be rewarded handsomly in The Chaos.

The campaign takes place over a number of levels. Each era of Earthly time requires the administration of each of the Seven Hells. Through the campaign you administer each of the Seven Hells during each era. The eras are: Anchient, Roman, Medieval, Renaiscance and Modern.

As administrator you are given a section of Hell to manage. You are required to process incoming souls, determine the punishment, deal the punishment and collect the extracted power. You will be paid for each service provided by you, which in turn is then used to hire staff, pay for maintenance and expand your operation. Each level will be completed when you have collected the goal amount of power from souls. As well as collecting power, your operations will have a satisfaction rating based on feedback from the processed souls. Satisfaction is rated on things like waiting times, ability to process required punishment, cleanliness and maintenance, as well as other factors. If your satisfaction rating drops too low you will fail the level.

The game is a real-time construction management sim, very much the same style of play as games like Theme Hospital, Theme Park and SimCity. In the allocated space you are required to build a reception area where incoming souls are processed into the waiting queue. From the waiting queue souls are required to see a Soul Practitioner who will evaluate the soul and recommend a punishment for the soul. The soul then joins the queue of the relevant punishment room and when the room and a Punishment Practitioner are available the soul enters the room and the punishment is dealt. If the punishment is the correct one for that soul, the soul's power is collected and the soul is free to leave the Punishment Facility.

In the event a punishment is recommended by a Punishment Practitioner and that punishment room has not been built yet, the soul will wait around for a short period of time hoping that you build the punishment room. If the soul's waiting time expires, the soul will turn to dust and be scattered on the floor. The soul has perished and will negatively impact your satisfaction rating. Punishment Practitioners can also make mistakes, thus decreasing the satisfaction of the soul. A Practitioners experience will determine the chance of a mistake being made.

The amount of power extracted is determined by the soul's life force. As a soul spends time in Hell, its life force depletes. It is important to process souls quickly, as the quicker a soul is processed the more power from its life force is extracted. Souls may only remain in Hell for a period of time before their life force is spent and the soul returns to Pergatory. One of the tools available to the player is to speed up or slow down diagnosis. Speeding up diagnosis will allow your Practitioners to process souls quicker, but increases the risk of a mistake being made. Vice-versa, if diagnosis is slowed down, the risk of a mistake drops but Practitioners process souls slower. A player can over-ride a diagnosis if they see a mistake has been made or to send a undiagnosed soul directly to a punishment room.

Punishments will be based on the seven deadly sins. Souls will have visual clues as to what sin they have performed to earn being send to Hell. Some clues will be subtle (such as a fat soul for gluttony, or a green soul for envy) whilst other clues will not be so obvious (for instance the liar). If a player recognises these clues they can take a risk and send a soul directly to the relevant punishment room. The liar is the hardest sin to diagnose, as not only can a soul lie verbally to the Practitioner, the liar may also display other sin's visual clues.

The game is won if the player collects enough power from souls to meet the level's goal. The game is lost if either the timer runs out, or the satisfaction level of the Punishment Facility drops below a set threshold.