A friend of mine started working on a game again and it brought back the idea I've had for years now.
I don't know how to code. I don't know how to make models or art. I already have a full time job as a creative.
But this idea is living rent free in my head and has for ages and urgh I want to work on it but I would be starting completely from scratch.
I've always loved the Dungeon Keeper style games where you play as someone building a dungeon. But I've always hated the writing in those games - so many of them are the "bwahahaha, I kill puppies for fun evil" cartoon over the top stuff that I don't like. I also don't like that they are tower defense games usually, or the occasional Legend of the Keeper/Darkest Dungeon style game which is super restrictive.
What I want is a game that is part Dungeon Keeper, part X-Com, part Management sim.
You are a dungeon core, meaning you're a powerful being in charge of running a dungeon. This is important because as a dungeon, you are one of the locks on the gate of a powerful, dangerous entity that wants to escape into the world and trigger the apocalypse. But some of that creature's power bleeds through to you, letting you summon monsters that are on theme with that creature (so if you're holding in an Archdemon, you can summon fiends.) You can then use various Hearts that you make to give the creatures you summon unique powers and gear.
Adventurers come to your dungeon regularly, but they're not trying to kill you. Instead, they are trying to beat your dungeon, collecting loot from the mobs in your dungeon as the adventurers come in. The fastest way to get stronger is to kill them, earning your experience. But every time a group dies, your reputation as a dangerous dungeon goes up, and more powerful groups show up. Similarly every time a group wins with no deaths and minimal damage, your reputation as a dangerous dungeon goes down.
The combat in the game would be CRPG style combat with a grid based movement system where you control your monsters as you fight against them, trying not to kill them all every run (unless you want a challenge mode) because the threat of adventurers will quickly outpace you, but still being dangerous enough that you level up and don't get stuck with weak groups you can't level up fighting. If you stay too weak too long, your contained entity will break free and devour you.
Basically you're trying to build a theme park of battle, where guest satisfaction partially depends on some of them not leaving in full health, and you are controlling the monsters that fight them. That would be the core gameplay loop - fight people, get rewards, spend rewards upgrading your dungeon and your monsters, repeat. You'll also have other dungeons in the area that communicate with you, opening a way for some rather chill storytelling slice of life stuff including romancing between dungeons because that's fun and I'm gay. (I've written two books inspired by this concept and both featured lesbian dungeons because I'm me.)
There's more too it in my head than just that, including a laundry list of ideas I have placed aside and labeled "These are scope creep, save them for expansions after the game is done/things to add during Early Access" such as managing the town that springs up outside your dungeon, sub systems for your dungeon being aesthetically pleasing, going even more detailed with the monster mechanics, story modes where each entity option - I'd start with 5 of Undead, Demon, Fae, Beast, and Horror - would have a storyline attached to it and the player would gradually learn more about the world as they progress through each campaign, adding more monster types, the ability to spawn mobs that can go to the surface and go on quests for a brand new campaign and to spread your dungeon's reputation further to bring in new adventurers... there's a whole lot down the line that could be done, but the above would be the primary game that everything else gets built upon.
Literally 99% of what I can do here however is write and system design and also like...I do have experience managing projects technically. But that's about all I have to bring - I have to stress that is my entire skillset here, and honestly it's mostly the writing part.
Mostly just sharing so the idea is out of my head and on the internet.
