Hi! I’m a Programmer who does anything what comes in mind when bored.
Currently I’m developing and planning a Minesweeper spin-off game out of boredom, and I’ve been now struggling on what I should keep, add, change or remove from the game I’ve been thinking of.
While I got the base game working, the roadblock I’m dealing with is what elements should be engaging enough for people to enjoy.
The UI design and other details aren’t important for now.
Ok, but what is this game all about?
The short answer:
A minesweeper game with Lives and “Combat” system.
The long answer:
A Minesweeper game where you can fight, compete or cooperate with other people.
Although it looks like an ordinary
Instead of making everyone lose because someone stepped on a mine, you can use mines as your method of self-defense, sabotage someone’s progress by triggering a mine tile near them or use abiities/powerups that can explode nearby mines to their opponent.
And due to the combat nature of what’s said above, the grid will be constantly reset on certain areas and “Safe Zone” tiles.
Not only it’s going to be purely combat, but this will include Teams, Cooperation and Deathmatches!
Alright, but what’s stopping you from continuing the game?
Currently I’m dealing with some technical stuff, but what I’m more focused on is the ideas that I need to consider fully consistent with every other mechanic, including the base game of minesweeper.
One of the ideas I believe that’s consistent is the Safe tiles:
(Example)
This basically just acts like an empty tile, except that it’s used for people to spawn in, either be a Team or a single Player, while revealing their surroundings (and Flagging mines) for people to safely start without RNG screwing them up.
In FFA/Deathmatches, This tile spawns exactly where the user has been spawned.
It will automatically change into a random tile after a period of time has passed, or the player has moved out of the tile, causing to lose any protection.
In Teams/Cooperative, the tile will have a different color for their respective team.
These will have a large area cover for other teammates to spawn, in order to allow them to spread safely around the grid.
Similar to above, these will be reset to random tiles after a certain time has passed.
As for other ideas that I’m still figuring out, these are what i have in mind:
-
Power-Ups/Abilities
Basically abilities that you can use only once.
One allows you to trigger nearby mines from the selected area, regardless if it’s flagged, hidden or already triggered.
Other just reveals the area, flagging mines or stealing other’s flagged tiles.
Obtaining them is what I’m concerned about, since there’s no proper conditions to obtain a Power-up. -
Lifes
This one’s simple, you have multiple lives before you actually lose in the game depending of the game mode.
Losing them is by either stepping a mine with no one near by, or being attacked by someone’s else blast radius. -
Mine-Combatting system
As mentioned before, This will allow people to attack others, which would require to change how the flag system works.
Basically, You can reveal everyone’s flagged tiles, either be mines or non-mines (except yours or your own team)
That’s interesting, but what’s the purpose of this topic besides from explaining?
Well, to ask other people of what they think of my whole game idea concepts and consider what I should add or change to what I currently have!
Not sure what else I could say, but any reply is appreciated.
Oh, and apologies for any writing mistake I might have done!
Thanks!