As many of us took expansion fetishes from either one of the willy wonka movies, I would be very interested to hear any ideas that we have as a group for a Factory based game.
Of course there’s the Fanatical and more then mildly insane owner, Eccentric to the extreme, and more then willing to let you go… Well, either the dissappeared way, or go from visitor to equipment/resource for his factory.
Add in some fanatical workers in the loompahs, maybe change it so that depending on the room, they try and do different things, obligatory blueberry room ones try and do… well, the ovbious, etc.
The Machines and candy itself shouldn’t be overlooked, as both could be great feeding or transformation. Entire assembly lines together and trying to get you bloated, thanks to faulty machinery or programming. Candy itself could start to get sentient, feeding itself to you, or doing any number of devious things.
Anyways, There’s not enough here to do a Whole one… But enough for others to suggest ideas, entire wings of the factory, or areas to explore.
I think a game like this would work better from the point of view of the owner of the factory, because most of the hapless victims have very little agency on the whole thing.
If we did go the way of the singular character adventuring through the factory, it would become just another text RPG like Noone’s or Atticus’. That might be what you want, but I think this could be a great setting for a management game, involving the management of a factory that produces weight gain stuff.
I think you both have good ideas here. This is definitely a setting I’d like to see in a short narrative, CYOA-style, if it’s from the protagonist’s POV. Basically, you’ve gotten yourself lost in the factory. Maybe you’ve accidentally discovered the owner’s devious intentions, so now you’re trying to find a way out. But each room you encounter fattens or fills you somehow. Where most CYOAs give you items, this one give you traits, like how big you are in places, and then the game reacts or changes what choices you have access to based on what traits you have. For example, if you have the ‘Round’ trait, meaning you’re basically a shuffling ball, you might come to a ramp and can’t help rolling down it into more trouble. Otherwise, you’d be able to avoid it. If the layout of the factory, and therefore the paths you take, could be procedurally generated then the factory can change and affect you in different ways each time. Just some thoughts, cause I’ve been wanting to see a weight gain CYOA for some time.
Obviously, a management game would be more of a simulator like Fetish Master, and so would be more involved. The trick would be making sure it’s not too dry. I’ve played some life sim games, and FM for a bit, and it always feels like you’re doing a clicking routine 90% of the time hoping to stumble into something interesting. The first idea that comes to mind is that you start off small, with one or two basic ‘procedures’ like blueberrying someone. This leads to a minigame or series of choices where you change or fatten them up. Here’s the catch: the better you do at the minigame, the more successful and productive the procedure is, giving you revenue to expand your operation; the worse you do, the more interesting the results and the more progress you earn towards researching new procedures and facilities.
Example of a procedure: the Soda Room. You have to entice the subject into trying a soda that turns them into a balloon, without them hurting themselves or even popping. If you keep them at a managable size, you can turn them into a floating sign for the factory, adding ad revenue. If you fail (too big or not big enough), you don’t make money, but you learn how to better refine the recipe for the soda or unlock other procedures to try.
I almost wanna try doing the CYOA game myself, but I’m not a writer (as in I haven’t published anything) and I’m not a programmer. The last time I did any coding was with C++ in 2002 for school. I have ideas for how a game like that could work and how to make it interesting and different from the usual, like the stuff you see on writing.com. I could probably even pull it off with Visual Basic, but I don’t know if that’s even a thing anymore.
If there’s anyone who is interested in collaborating with me, preferably someone who has some kind of coding experience, send me a message on here. Any other suggestions (like a good place to learn a simple coding software) are welcome too. In the meantime, I’ll be sketchbooking some ideas and game mechanics.