What I'll say about acid, fire, and stuff like that is that we will only include it if there's a good way to fit it into the gameplay. If having acid makes sense with the sort of contraptions that will be possible in the game, we might do it. Otherwise, no. Even if we do decide that it's a good idea, those kinds of things are low priority features that we'll only do at the end once we've finished all the other stuff, if we feel like it.
Espically when they're techincally not 'alive', if you will.
And, will you be constructing like Rube Goldberg stuff, or will it be motorized, or gravity controlled?
Yes, the ragdolls will most likely be sort of dead, like they won't be walking around. They might be able to stand up and then go limp or twitch around if they get hurt or something, but for now just think of them as dead.
The contraptions will be sort of Rube Goldberg-ish, though less whimsically random and more jumbled, quick'n'dirty efficiency. They can be motorized and gravity controlled, though obviously the motorized parts will be more expensive.
I don't know if you caught this when Exilement posted it, but there is a class of objects we call the Movers, the ones that initiate motion, which include gravity (weights) and motors:
Type 0 -- Terrain
Type 1 -- Movers (motors, rockets, weights, magnets, explosives)
Type 2 -- Connectors (beams, connectors, ropes, pulleys)
Type 3 -- Activators (switches, fuses, toggles)
Type 4 -- Weapons (hammers, spikes, blades, lasers, etc)
Well the only real gun that would be fun to watch would be a cannon ^^.
Watching the ragdoll fly across the screen from the sheer power of it.
We agree. I was thinking that to make a cannon, you'd combine a heavy ball with an explosion in some sort of tube, and attach some sort of Activator to the explosion, like a switch or fuse.
I have actually just signed up so I could be associated with this forum. It seems like an awesome idea. I've had some ideas too. We could also have some things like rope. You could create some pretty cool contraptions with it. You know, like weight one end and stickman hang on other. Or you could have like a throw off a cliff with rope round neck kind of idea. That would be nice. Or you could cut the rope to start the mechanism. I think those are pretty nice ideas.
Also, I was wondering, are there any games like this?
I'm flattered that you would sign up here just to talk about the game! Rope will definitely be in there, and that's a good point that it should be breakable, in order to do things like drop a weight.
Probably the most similar game to this that I know of would be
Armadillo Run. Except in that you're trying to get a ball to the exit instead of killing a ragdoll. But I imagine the physics and interface would be comparable.
I think a boxing glove would be ok... You could give it a trigger. You could also have it so it fires a wall of spikes or something.
It would probably be just a heavy block (hammer) rather than a glove, but that could work. So let's see, attach a compressed spring to the hammer, and keep it in place with some sort of block in front of it. Then when the block gets knocked out of the way, the hammer will shoot out and smash through whatever is in its path. Or there could be an automatic spring that changes length according to an Activator, like a switch or toggle. Hmmm, more object ideas...
Exilement, maybe our Type 3 objects, Activators, should be called Triggers instead? Or something? I guess it's not really important right now.
I'm getting some thoughts about game modes here... I think rhythm is going to be important for some of them, of these cascading chains of events. Like ragdolls coming in at different times...