Idea: A 3D platformer that makes (some) sense

[migo]

Mirror's Edge was one take on the Mario style gameplay in 3D with a real world, and it worked in some ways and not in others, mainly the visual style suggested a large sandbox but in reality it was linnear.

So here's the premise for a game:

You're a mountaineer, your goal is to be the first person to reach the top of the highest mountain (fictional world so we're not dealing with Everest). You have an arch-rival who on the day before you're going to start your climb, steals all your equipment and kidnaps your crew, so rather than being able to scale the mountain you have to do everything by hand and with no equipment. You start at the bottom having to run around the mountain, slowly spiraling up and zig-zagging back and forth.

This is where you run and jump, you've got a steady slope going up, gaps you need to traverse, thickets of trees to go through, waterfalls, and everything else that's fun and challenging. There are vines to climb, little caves you can go in as short cuts to get higher, and hazards that have you sliding back down. Although unlike previous platformers you don't die, there's always enough of a slope for you to hang on and survive the fall, but you end up lower on the path.

Eventually you catch up with some groups of your arch-rival's crew, free some of your own crew to get some help and start recovering your equipment, so you can begin scaling the mountain rather than running around it, and get some rope to keep yourself from falling down. You also pick up some raido equipment, GPS and the like so later on you can spy on your rival to know where he is to get the jump on him and get more equipment back, as well as hinder his ascent.

It has elements of 2D platformers - a single path you can go along with hidden short cuts, but rather than having platforms that seemingly exist in a sea of nothingness there's a context for them. The short cuts also make sense, a vine to climb along, a cave that lets you get further along much faster, and such. It also has the power ups, but again they make sense in context with acquiring mountaineering equipment.

So what do you think? Something that if done right could be a lot of fun or is the absurd lack of reality what makes the 2D platformers fun?

 

[Heart of Darkness]

See, the thing about these types of threads, is that it takes more than an idea to sell a game, let alone make it fun. While I'm not saying that it's a bad idea--it sounds interesting--it's just that, without a demo at your disposal, it's hard to call a game "fun." Without first hand experience of the controls, the gravity, and the actual mechanics at hand (Are vines too easy to climb? Is it impossible to go through a water fall made of realistic water?), it's nearly impossible to say if it works.

Theoretically, anything that's done right could be a lot of fun, but the catch in that is determine what's "right." It's subjective; make the jumps floaty and some people will praise it for more open, longer courses, while others will criticize it for not being realistic, being a romanticized version of mountaineering, or taking too long for the player to fall. So it's ultimately hard to say based on an idea.

If you're any good at using a 3D game engine or making your own, make a mock-up of the game, and then see if it works for you. Then give it other people, and see what they think. That would be my advice, since it would give you something to present rather than an idea.

 

[imnot]

sound intresting, now make it please , valve mabey?