So, this is a simple concept, but I think it has potential for a lot of content and variety without too much programming work.
You’ve got a laboratory, and you’ve got potions that cause various effects, mostly along weight gain/expansion lines, naturally, but probably also some TF and ‘side dish’ kink stuff to go along with getting huge. You can mix them to create new combined effects, and then choose to either drink them yourself or give them to a test subject. There’s no single ‘you win’ goal, the point is to try out the combinations and enjoy the results.
It could work as just a text adventure like in Twine or something, with the possibility of adding pictures of the results. That would require me to get an artist on board, though.
Ah. Not quite, I don’t think it would have nearly as many combinations and recombinations. It really depends on what I can pull off in whatever it was programmed in.
This sounds like a fun idea, and I wish you luck with it. I think the real challenge is going to be handling the combinatorialexplosion, when combining ingredients with each other. Your choices basically boil down to:
put in a large amount of time and creativity to cover all possible combinations (and keep in mind the number of combinations grows exponentially, literally, with each additional new ingredient you add, and the number of ingredients you can choose at once for a recipe, plus any other variations or mechanics you might include, like the effects of temperature or brewing time or prep methods, or whatever)
restrict combinations somehow (null results, for example)
use some kind of simulation rules to programatically and automatically generate new potion brewing results instead of defining them all by hand
simplify (restrict the number of ingredients to start with)
or some combination of the above
Ideally, you want enough ingredients and final potions/outcomes to offer some variety and interest; enough complexity and consistency to the rules you use to generate the outcomes (either by hand or by simulation) that the player can learn them and have some hope to predict and get to a desired outcome; but not so much variety or complexity that it’s too difficult or boring to learn.
It can be a real challenge to balance all that and still make a fun game, but nothing that can’t be overcome with some planning. But if you’re looking for ideas, examples, or inspiration, you might try googling “potion mixing games”, or look up mmos, rpgs, muds, etc. that have some kind of crafting/brewing/cooking elements or minigames.
Oh, yeah, I don’t have any intention of trying to make every possible combination an option. That’d be impossible. It’d just be base potion results and whatever combinations I’m into/have ideas for, TBH.
OP said he’d never heard of Doodle God, which another posted brought up in relation to the topic. I was just showing him what that guy was talking about.
I feel like an idea like this is more reminiscent of an old flash game called simply ‘bartender’ or something like that, where you’ve got a WALL of ingredients and you mix at your own leisure to find combinations of drinks and what different things do.
I imagine the weight gain content would be when you’re testing the drinks, and I imagine that using yourself as a test subject can make mixing potions a little harder to do being a bit heavier or bigger in a tiny space. With something like that, maybe you could have it so that test subjects are people you have to hire, so that using yourself is a last resort to figuring out what your mix does. Then you sell your mixes to the public, and maybe as the days go by you’d notice some of the public would be differing in sizes. But why would you be doing it in the first place? Maybe you’re a mad scientist, driving to make the world a little rounder. Or maybe you’re hired by another person who aims to do that.
I’m sorry for ranting a bit, but this idea has a lot of potential! I look forward to whatever project sprouts from this!