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| Idea Info |
Name:
AfterLife
Index:
Primary
Category:
Strategy
Submitted:
4/20/2003 7:45:16 AM
Written By:
gofer-chan |
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AfterLife
4/20/2003 7:45:16 AM
By: gofer-chan
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all Game Ideas by this Member
Category: Strategy Games
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AfterLife is an RTS set in the... well, afterlife. You control one of the higher angels/demons in Heaven or Hell. You're granted a small piece of land in either area, and are instructed by God or the Devil to use it for soul gathering. The graphics would be in a 2D Starcraft style, except in town the camera is zoomed in much more, at an isometric angle. The game would be done in a very humorous style, since it deals with content that could be offensive to some people, and I believe that humor is the best way to deal with ANYTHING touchy or offensive ^_^!
During the game, you have 2 different view modes. One is "Life" mode, where you can watch whatever game map you have selected. The game map is always some sort of town. Usually, the towns are fairly small, to cut down on the micromanagment you'll need to get souls, which we'll get to in a moment. Every town contains at least one Church, which is a gateway to Heaven, and at least one Haunted House, which is a gateway to Hell. Also the town has an alignment meter. Depending on what the angels/demons do, this alignment meter can be pushed towards good or evil. When good, more Churches will be built, giving the angels more ways to enter the town, and inhabitants of the town will start out a little more good than usual.
When evil, more houses will turn into Haunted Houses, giving demons more ways to get into the town, and inhabitants will be a little more evil than usual.
The other view mode is "Afterlife" mode. In this mode, you can switch between Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory. In Heaven or Hell, depending on which one you chose, you can build structures. The landscape of the afterlife is randomly generated, clouds in Heaven, rocks floating in pools of bubbling lava in Hell. When starting a game, you always have three structures: a gate to purgatory, a gate to God/The Devil, and, far away from the gate, a fortress. You also start out with 5 human souls, and one Imp (If Hell) or Cherub (If Heaven). If your fortress is destroyed, the game is over. To build more structures, Karma, the game's only resource, is required. Karma allows production of units, casting of miracles, and structures to be built. Some examples of structures are:
Torture Chamber/Paradise Room-
Putting your souls in here slowly increases your Karma. Each Chamber/Room can hold 3 souls.
Demon Pool/Angel Academy-
You can send souls to either of these places and refine them into angels or demons. Angels and demons are the "units" of the game, and the only ones that can battle and gather souls.
Gate to God/Devil-
This is where you can sell souls, angels, or demons. If running low on Karma, you can give units to your boss for a bit extra. Also, you can buy more land for your piece of Heaven/Hell from your boss. In the beginning of the game, you have very little space to work with.
Gate to Purgatory-
Leading a unit into one of these brings it to Purgatory. Purgatory is the "battlefield" of the game. For every Church/Haunted House in the town, there is one white or black gate in Purgatory. Demons can go in black gates, and angels in white. The locations are randomly generated. The landscape of Purgatory is pretty much empty, flat plains with nothingness down below. Random hills and cracks dot the landscape.
Gargoyle Statue/Archangel Statue-
Very similar to the power Gargoyle/Archangel unit, except they are stationary. These statues stay in one place, and fire projectiles at any enemy who comes near.
Soulfly-
These portals teleport any unit from one area to another, within Heaven or Hell. Makes getting around easier!
Bone Wall/Pearly Wall-
These walls keep intruders out.
Golden Hall/Soul Well-
You can use souls to research new units and miracles here (lead souls into the building to speed up research, at least one is required). You cannot research certain miracles and units unitl Hell/Heaven is a certain size.
Er, okay, that's a sample of the buildings. Now I'll talk about Soul Gathering, the deepest part of the game. In the town, like everywhere, death is a possibility. However, nobody dies by themselves. When a townsperson is about to die (by the way, the townspeople are all unique, which is the reason the towns are small and not very populated) a notice appears, shaped like a little skull, in the corner of the screen. Next to the skull is a timer, slowly going down. Clicking on it will summon the Angel of Death (Heaven) or the Grim Reaper (Hell) into the town in a Church/Haunted House of your choice, for a small base Karma cost. However, your Karma ticks down as the Angel/Reaper remains in the town. You must find the townsperson who is about to die, signified by a skull above his or her head. On the map, you can't tell if a townsperson is going to die or not, you have to go up to them on the actual game screen and see if they have a skull floating above them. Once you do, you have to start folowwing them around. The Grim Reaper/Angel of Death can do nothing until the timer next to the skull in the corner of the screen turns red. Once this happens, the person will have done whatever it is that causes him to die. (Getting hit by a car, getting sick, getting mugged, whatever.) Then you have a few seconds (it usually turns red with about 15 seconds left, so you have to find them before that) to go find and attack the person who is about to die. If the timer runs out before that person is attacked by the special unit, the person survives the encounter. If the person is attacked by the special unit, he/she dies, and becomes a soul. Then the Grim Reaper/Angel of Death disappears. Those special units cannot attack other units, but can be attacked. When attacked, it only slows them down, not kills them, but time is precious when trying to end somebody's life. Once the soul is sitting free, you must lead it into a Church/Haunted House using a demon or angel. However, if the soul is not your color, you cannot take it without first converting it. While a soul, the person just wanders around the city. A person's color when they die is determined by their life. If they have a good alignment, they will be a bluish color, and will only be usable by angels. With an evil alignment, they will be red. If neutral, they will be opaque, and usable by anybody. If you get a neutral soul, it's a good idea to convert it, since someone can easily take it from you. Souls will follow any unit they see, but if a unit or group of units more powerful than the one they were following appears, they will switch to that group. Souls will only follow their alignment, however. Once a soul is lead to a Church/Haunted House, they enter Purgatory along with the Demons/Angels leading them. They must be led into Heaven/Hell, where they can be used for unit production, Karma production, and research. However, when leading them from Purgatory to Heaven/Hell, watch out, since the other side will be trying to intercept you on your way there, and fight you for the soul.
Okay, here's a rundown on Miracles, the only way to interfere with the lives of people in the town. For a Karma cost, you can cast miracles on people and places in Town. Miracles must be researched in a Soul Well/Golden Hall before used, however. Also, you must wait a certain amount of time between using miracles. Miracles can make more people move into a town (even though that happens automatically, but slowly), change somebody's alignment (that also can happen automatically, through random humorous events), and cause life-threatening situations. It can also turn the tide in battle, but only in the town, not purgatory, since miracles can't be cast there. (By the way, demons and angels are not visible in the town by the human residents.) Here are some miracle examples:
Ice Over-
Cause a thin sheet of ice to coat an area determined by the player, large iced areas require more Karma to create. Slipping on the ice is a possible way for townspeople to die. The ice will slowly melt away.
Enrage Animal-
This makes any animal go CRAZY. It will attack people, and run around town. Funny effects when used on creatures such as bunnies and parrots! Death-causing animal attacks can happen sometimes randomly, but this miracle can sort of speed up the process.
Poison Gas-
This causes a small cloud of toxic gas to appear, invisible to townspeople. Not only is it hazardous to units (enemy and friendly) but it can cause sickness in townspeople.
Evil Dreams-
Use on a sleeping or unconcious person to give them evil thoughts, which does not directly change their alignment, but makes them likely to do evil things upon waking.
Good Dreams-
Use on a sleeping or unconcious person to give them good thoughts, which does not directly change their alignment, but makes them likely to do good things upon waking.
Lightning Storm-
Causes a lightning storm which covers the whole town. Lightning can randomly strike units, townspeople, and buildings. When buildings are struck they catch fire, which usually kills everyone inside. However, a new house will be built soon, since every town has a preset number of houses. During a lightning storm, which lasts about 30 seconds, people run for cover and go inside of their houses. (By the way, by double-clicking a building anytime, the camera will change to a view inside the house.)
Rainstorm-
A cheaper version of the lightning storm. During a rainstorm, no lighting strikes, but people run inside for cover. During a rainstorm, sex is also more likely, an action which usually knocks someone's alignment towards the "negative" end. By the way, during sex, it's all done under the covers, Sims-style, you see nothing. If you keep the camera on it too long, God/The Devil calls you a pervert and moves the camera to some random place on the map, away from the sex ^_^.
Earthquakes-
Earthquakes are expensive but fun. Large cracks appear in the ground, swallowing up people, buildings turn to rubble, it's absolute chaos.
Lifesaver-
When someone has the skull above their head, and the skull timer is in red, you can use this miracle on them. They will survive the incident. Useful if the other player is about to kill a person, and you don't have any units nearby.
Soul Convert-
While certain units can convert souls for free, this miracle, for a high Karma cost, can convert souls anywhere in town, even those following another player. Annoy people by converting their souls just before they reach purgatory!
Okay, there's the miracle example list. Later I'll update this with a unit list, I'm too sleepy now. How does everyone like my idea? Comments plzthx.
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......
4/29/2003 9:37:25 AM
Comment by:
jamus_se
The scary thing is, the idea of a Heaven or Hell game has been done before, similar to this fashion; except that the focus was SimCity-like micromanagement. Obviously, the game didn't become very popular, but so was Dune 2.
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4/30/2003 7:53:01 AM
Comment by:
gofer-chan
Okay, thanks. Any ideas on what I can do to improve this? I'm gonna update it soon.
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new stuff
5/6/2003 12:46:00 AM
Comment by:
error404
Maybe, in the game, secrets in the town should be included, like a hidden graveyard that you can find and use to get more souls. Also, another one could be bibles and grafitti, and special units could make them, and after reading them, the people could turn more good/evil. After a while, though, the bible should disappear, and the graffiti should be cleaned up. Good game otherwise, though.
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new stuff
5/6/2003 11:42:22 PM
Comment by:
error404
maybe, also, you can have units (Iris for heaven and Kappa for hell) that look like humans and can set up shops that sell pendants (skulls or hearts) that change the alignment. Also, if you are heaven and raid hell (or vice versa) and steal souls, you get super karma that is used to either translate into karma, up the ratings of everyone in town, or other strange stuff.
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Good idea
3/8/2004 11:25:38 PM
Comment by:
Idealess
that's a awesome idea i would play if someone could make a good 3d version of it, i am a programmer but can only make games like mario. Do u got any game ideas for me Email me at Radrex749@aol.com
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GameDiscovery.com : Strategy Games : AfterLife
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