The basic game idea is that you’re a plague doctor, and you cure/help clients to get cash/gold, and you use said cash/gold to buy food at a tavern to fatten up, I’m not sure about what the winning condition should be besides getting chonky and big but feedback is greatly appreciated and if anyone has any ideas lemme knooowww
Not a bad idea. A novel twist could be that you are a charlatan knowingly peddling snake oil and quackery to bilk a poor town out of money and wares. How much can you expand your waistline at the town’s expense before you must leave - being careful not to be too greedy lest you be run out of town sooner!
“Will Quack for Snacks” would be my working title for such a project.
Alternate ideas could be “convincing” the locals that these dodgy medicines are good for them but cause inevitable fattening up and you have to see how many people you can fatten before you have skip town.
Sheeesh this is actually a really nice name idea I might use it. And if I’m creative enough I’ll probably use your game idea, as I’m not that creative or smart when it comes to making game mechanics
Not sure about fattening OTHERS but we’ll see
Sure, when I start on the game I’ll actually need some art so I’ll see if I can ask you
the suspicion of the town could be effected by how good your medicine is but the medicine that actually works is more expensive than you are selling it for. so for influential people (lords, nobles and the like) you try to cure them but still make people think that it is the snake oil that does it and not the medicine. not sure how this could be implemented but maybe you would have to sneak real medicine in their food or drinks instead of diluting the snake oil for the best result (maybe you could pay someone to do it).
other quackery could be trying to sell things like strength potions and you have to get “actors” of good character (so people believe them) to fake it working.
something more sinister could be making sure there are enough sick people so you have customers and maybe introduce new diseases to the town
Thank you guys sm for the feedback and ideas , it makes me wanna work on it even more once I finish Reed Feed. I most definitely will probably use the name “Will Quack for Snacks”
Edit; for the main plague doc design I might go with this art I requested from @VeryPeckish on twitter a while back
So initial feedback is good and there are some ideas floating around. Looks like you’re ready to start making some decisions to start drafting your design spec so as to outline the game you want!
Focusing on the moment-to-moment gameplay loop ie, what specifically the player will be doing in the game per “loop” (in-game day, round, turn, level etc - the whole game itself if it’s just a small arcade-like experience) and how they will interact with the game within it. You can drill into further, more detailed systems and sub-systems but for now try to address this point first as a foundation.
That’s the very much the meat and potatoes of the gameplay it would seem so those mechanics must be something that you want to see in-game and/or have confidence of it being workable.
On the face of it you have a number of or facets and interesting challenges to explore, not limited to:
People are vague about what ailments they have or what medicine they need
The local ingredients for making medicines are not understood by the player/main character as to what they do (experimentation or acquisition of knowledge required!)
People may be more or less suspicious of your treatments depending on your reputation as a doctor (might naturally tick upwards as the doctor’s weight increases).
The triage of keeping patients of varying health and condition alive based on the ingredients you have at your disposal - especially problematic if you keep making patients worse with your treatments!
As people die, your reputation and town standing will suffer. Too many deaths on your watch and you get run out of town!
So an idea is that you have a logic problem / puzzle of trying to discern the correct properties of ingredients or ingredient combinations and the resultant potions, whilst also being able to manage your resources and your reputation - not only as a doctor (for better sales) but your standing in town (to avoid game over).
Thinking about it further, the way I envision the gameplay is with it splitting into two phases or acts:
Act 1: As a fresh-faced, newly qualified doctor landing themselves in a city under the grip of the plague, your mettle is tested straightaway. You’re unfamiliar with the regional herbs so you’re going to have to gather and learn their effects on the fly…
Act 2: Now that you have settled yourself in and have earned a reputation for yourself (not least of which being one fond of the local delicacies as your tightening doctor’s coat suggests). Moral ambiguity begins to set in amidst the outbreak. You’re onto a good thing and the townsfolk are so wealthy - why not keep the gravy train rolling? Do you uphold your moral principles when treating patients or do you decide, ingredients permitting, to sell patients a little extra “medicine”? Healthy people don’t need doctors after all and cake isn’t cheap! Playing with fire risks you getting burned by the townsfolk’s ire so don’t play carelessly with their lives!
