Need inspiration/ideas

[Izeck]

My project has come to a halt. Here is the dilemma:

I need to make 5 dungeons (I’ve already made one). Water/Ice, Electric, Fire (Done), Spirit (aka: Nature) and Dark.


Fire (This one is complete): The player needs to travel through a cave that has been flooded by lava. The place is filled with tormented souls from the people who died in here. They have been driven mad and will attack the player on sight. Using warp points to travel forward, the player needs to navigate until they reach the final location, slay the creature that's causing the lava to flow and complete the dungeon.


Spirit: The player enters the temple and is greeted by the monks. They give the player a simple task "Prove your worth". After completing a dungeon filled with puzzles and brain teasers (of which I have no idea what they could be), they give the player what they came for. This is as far as I've gotten with this one.


Water: Nothing


Electric: Zip


Dark: Nada =[


If anyone has any ideas I would deeply appreciate the help.

 

[Dad3353]

...
Dark: Nada =[

If anyone has any ideas I would deeply appreciate the help.

In my Demo Teaser, I have a series of Maps which, together, constitute 'The Tower'. It can be played on t'web, with no install necessary, here...

Rachdale Cheese Teaser ...

Maybe you could have a go at it (Go to 'The Tower' on the Intro Map...) and see if it inspires you..?
Hope this helps.

 

[Izeck]

In my Demo Teaser, I have a series of Maps which, together, constitute 'The Tower'. It can be played on t'web, with no install necessary, here...

Rachdale Cheese Teaser ...

Maybe you could have a go at it (Go to 'The Tower' on the Intro Map...) and see if it inspires you..?
Hope this helps.

Thank you. I'll have a go at it and see if it gets my brain moving.

 

[Jiriki9]

HArd to say much without knowing more about the game: is it in a medieval setting or in which? How present is magic? What character is played? How much "Grind" does it have?

Generally, "electric" seems a bit off with the name - or well, it depends on the setting of course. Ideas: Ruins of a sunken, ancient civilization, which was very advanced technologically. Enemies here would prob'ly be he ancient machines. this might be full of traps and would definitely have puzzles which have to do with setting switches and maybe re-activating the energy of the place. Conveor belts would also be fitting.
However, you could also go for something more to do with lightning, maybe more enemy focused. Still, traps and barriers which have to be switched off seem logical here.

Water/Ice: Well that is a HUGE difference for a dungeon, in my eyes. Water could even be relatively peaceful, with maybe quite some dialogue-based puzzling. Ice however would most likely not be so. Tons of options here. A frozen Castle. A sunken City. A Beach Cave. An Ice cave. An underwater Labyrinth. An island with underground ruins - which starts to sink when you beat the boss and you have to get out in a set time. Depending on your game you could also go for something alternative and have it more something to do with ships (A naval battle in which you jump from ship to ship? A Ship Graveyard? A Pirate ISland). Snowy Mountains of course are also possible for Ice.

Dark: Well, some sinister Building is classical here (Like a Tower as @Dad3353 said, or a Mansion, or a Castle). Dark Forest or Underground Abyss are also possible. Sinister Atmosphere is important - more important than puzzles, maybe. Secret passages might add to that. Restricted view (like only a small Area around the hero) would DEFINITELY add to that. People/Things which unexpectedly change/ are not what they seem might be good as well.

Spirit: Maybe dialogue-based puzzles? Riddles can be an option. Item-finding, -placing, -combining in P&C style might be interesting as well.

Whew, a lot of words for me not really having any time for this. Hope it helps.

 

[Izeck]

I'm having a lot of trouble with the riddles and puzzles. My mind just isn't able to come up with any good ones. I've done some light searches for them, but I don't want to copy/paste some other games riddles. I hope I'm explaining myself well.

 

[Juneberry]

I kind of understand and kind of don't. Just to be clear, what is it you're looking for?

I think one kind of riddle that might be nice to include (or at least, one I enjoy) is "What am I" riddles. It can be made even more interesting if you make it that there's multiple things that seem similar in the area, and you have to get the answer right to find the item you need via where it's hiding (and if you get it wrong...I dunno, you can be attacked?)

 

[Izeck]

Oh! Thank you. I really like that one lol.

As for what I'm looking for. To be honest, that's the problem. I don't know exactly what I'm looking for. I want to make each dungeon into a different experience, something to keep the player entertained. Something that will make them say "Hmm, I wonder what this one is going to be about". One thing that makes me want to not play a game is repetitiveness. When each mission/dungeon/area is basically the same experience as the previous one it becomes boring.

 

[Lore]

An idea for puzzles could be that you design some symbols, (one for each dungeon maybe?). The player would then have to recreate said symbol using items found in the dungeon, and then push them into place in order to progress to the boss room.

Additionally (and this is further to @Jiriki9's suggestion for the lightning/electric dungeon), maybe have a series of switches that need to be hit in a specific order, the order of which would be scattered throughout the dungeon. You could also make it more challenging by having the player needing to hit those switches out of order in order to progress to get more clues as to the right order.

 

[Juneberry]

Perhaps for water, you can make it an underwater 'dungeon' where you have to do something related to fish- for example, you might have to chase a certain kind of fish down, or something of the sort. Or you could have to go ice fishing somewhere, to make it water and more icy. That's my first thought.

For dark...Perhaps it can be unrealized at first, but attached to the firey lava cave? Or it can be a place where it's always night with a new moon somehow. Or, y'know, a cellar.

 

[Izeck]

Those are some really good ones. I'm going to start some mockups and see how it goes. I still need some major help with riddles/puzzle making though.

You guys are awesome!

 

[Yorae Rasante]

If you go for water/ice, it could be alternating between some rooms where the ground is slippery and you don't stop going forward until you hit something (oh, the time I got stuck in such a puzzle in pokémon silver...) and some rooms where there is a current from time to time and if you don't get to cover between them you are sent backwards. Like the wind in the mountain on Chrono Trigger, where you hide behing trees.

Thunder, depending on how you want to do it it will give a different feel of futuristic/teslapunk(steampunk with electricity)/ancient civilization... but the main thing is that the puzzles deal with moving machines and electric barriers.

Dark, besides, you know, making things dark, maybe you could work with light. As in, in the light the encounter rate gets really high, or something blocks your path that you can only avoid in the dark or by not moving during the light.

Spirit... I like your idea. Just keep researching different puzzles until you get the inspiration to do your own... or change an old one enough to be usable but still not the same. Would be a nice bonus for those that recognize it.

Fire, instead of warp points, you could use temporary passages with the rise and fall of lava you jump through?