Utterly Mad

Okay, time to say why I haven't been writing or well doing much anything.

I've been working on a idea that may sound outlandish in a way, but I kinda want it to sound outlandish.

First it started out as a joke "sim" game to help me get some experience in the world on coding.

Then I started thinking about expanding the joke into something more bizarre.

Then finally after some doodling and some thinking (families out of town so I've had plenty thinking time); I've decided on a game that I'll give the [WIP] name Utterly Mad. Why? Because the idea, story, and concept are all Utterly Mad and will most likely make me look like a bafoon.

I want to make a Metroidvannia style'd game in which you descend down into your new house's basement to discover a entrance to a dungeon that slowly reveals more Lovecraftian and Poe elements the further down you go; this is where its going to sound crazy but... I want to do it in a cartoony artstyle and now I will explain why.

1. Because all I'm really good at is doodling and making semi-crap/semi-decent cartoon drawings.

2. Because when you start finding "deep lore" {Basic example: Dagon, Red Death, or Cthulhu}, I want them to look 'realistic'. Think of how Courage the Cowardly Dog was cartoony, but at random times they'd have photoreal monsters that normally hail from other dimensions.

3. Cartoons are easy to animate better without them looking like utter shit in 3D.

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Originally I wanted it to be another run-of-the-mill FPS horror, but I think a 3D or 2D game might work better. Also its mostly just a string of ideas at the moment, nothing really concrete except one thing; I want the game to become more macabre and bizarre the further into the dungeon you go, possibly simulating a descent into madness that so many Lovecraftian or Poe characters often go through.

And the level design is also another problem, I'm thinking about making it 3D with rooms similar to how Zelda dungeons are (they have a simple or complex puzzle in them that you have to solve, or its just a room).

So instead of trying to piece words together I'll just list a list of things.

I don't really want guns in the game, at all, if you're going to be fighting or defending against horrors from the depths of wherever; then having a gun may either defeat the purpose of them being all-powerful beings, or maybe because I personally think adding guns into a horror game is kinda cliche in a sense. However I don't want the player to be defenseless, I think using makeshift weapons or traps, or artifacts that you gather would be way better then firing bullets at something. [Perigrin, I think that melee crating system we talked about for The Highway would be great in this respect!]

The bonus or secret areas should be something really cool or interesting to find, I don't want it to be a shitty room that looks like the rest but it has more ammo or whatever. No, I want the bonus levels to be a "taste" of what the later game will feel like. I'm talking about breaking through a wall and finding a portal that leads to the Dagon's underwater city, "Y'ha-nthlei" Or have a secret room that has a secret item for a secret puzzle of secrets.

I personally like it when games have a huge mystery inside them, that gamer nerds go on about for years and years to figure out. I was personally thinking about having a secret quest to defeat or join The Yellow King, and finding him would require know how of both the lore inside the game, and lore outside the game. And maybe having a few other things like this for the more less known Old Ones like Nyarlathetep or having a bigger quest that involves finding The Yellow King; said bigger quest would be about finding 'Azathoth', and upon seeing Azathoth, your game will crash.


Also even with the cartoon-style I want there to still be horror in the game, and since its cartoony it'll help enforce the fact that subtle or 4th wall horror might catch people off-guard (which in turn may surprise or scare people). One example of this would be the mirrors, early in the game (I'm talking right at the start) if you stare into a mirror for more then 5 minutes the area around the mirror will start to darken, tendrils will slowly start pouring from the edges of the mirror and tentacle-like appendages will start creeping out towards the player. If the player just keeps on staring the appendages will wrap around the player and pull them into the mirror. Killing them instantly. (Although I have an idea that involves doing this exact same thing to get to another location.)




So what do you think?

[[Also when I mean cartoony, I don't mean going full-on Wind Waker. I'm talking more "Spooky's House of Jumpscares" or the game "Eldritch". Basically giving the monsters exaggerated proportions, giving the character exaggerated facial details, etc... Alright better comparison, think of Monkey Island with Wind Waker's animation, with a hint of Lovecraft drawn illustrations.]]