Suggestions to improve the replayability of Gish

What about gish online? that would be fun to see... http://www.pontifex2.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':D'>

[DonutGuyX]

1. An editor

Here are some things I would like to see in it:

-Ability to create levels and boss battles (with dialogue), and link them together so that they form a campaign, like the single player game.
-Ability to add switches, triggers, enemies, light sources, secret areas, warp zones, water and lava, and pretty much anything else found in the single player game.
-Ability to create custom VS modes and levels.
-Ability to create custom tilesets, interactive objects (anything affected by gravity that you can mess with- you should be able to determine their shape, mass, etc.), and monster graphics. This is assuming the user has a graphic editing program like Photoshop.
-A good interface within the actual game so that custom single player campaigns and VS levels are easily accessible.



2. New VS modes, levels, and options

Examples:

-Ability to play against one or more bots with scalable difficulty.
-Ability to play online.
-Ability to set the number of victories necessary to win the match and add a handicap to either player.
-Ability to set starting life.
-Ability to set game speed.
-New characters to play as.

-Lava battle mode, similar to spike pit, except the players battle on platforms over (or floating on) the lava pit. Platforms in the air are attached by rope to the ceiling so, with enough force, the platforms could break, fall into the lava, and float there.
-Fortress mode, in which each player is in a fortress on either side of the screen, and the players must hurl blocks at the enemy fortress to destroy it.
-Monster battle mode, in which the players compete to defeat the most monsters (combos are worth more points) within a certain time limit. If one player dies, the other wins.
-Monster survival mode, in which the player that survives the longest against an endless horde of monsters wins.
-Destruction mode, in which a structure composed of blocks lays in the center of the field, and the player that deals the most damage to it wins.



3. An expanded playground

It's currently pretty sparse.



4. More challenges and unlockables

This idea's borrowed from the N64 game, Goldeneye, but it would work great in Gish:

Each single-player and collection game level would have a target time shown when starting the level. The times would be relatively difficult to achieve, and each level would probably have to be played several times in order to beat the time (although some levels would be easier than others). If you beat the time, you would permanently unlock a cheat that could be toggled on or off from the screen in which you choose "new game", "continue", etc. The cheats could have useful or interesting effects and multiple cheats could be used at once. Some cheats could be used during multiplayer.

Examples:

-Invincibility.
-Microscopic enemies.
-Big head mode.
-Low gravity.
-Small Gish.
-High-mass Gish.
-Play as Gray.
-Gish on fire mode.
-Maximum health is 1.
-Stick to anything.
-No friction mode.
-Glowing Gish mode.

High scores would not register and new cheats could not be gained when using cheats.




If I missed anything, feel free to post it.  http://www.pontifex2.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':)'>

[budgiedood]

lovely ideas! If we get the mapmaker and enough special triggers, we wouldnt need any more Vs mode levels, and we could maybe have a top 5 custom levels of the month (sent in by you and me).

[Jonathan_NL]

- The ability to change physical properties of stuff, including the environment, probably with an additional high-score list for collection levels. I think it should be an unlockable mode, and possible in vs. when at least one player has unlocked it.
- Over the internet would cause too many 'lag', especially for Gish. Over a LAN would be possible, I think. http://www.pontifex2.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':)'>

[Zaker]

What about making more modes for gish, like super stick, super heavy or mini gish? another thing that could be put in a new level is a tar pit, the opposite of a lava pit, instead of draining life, it could be giving life.

[DonutGuyX]

Along those lines, an unlockable "tar grappling hook" ability would be awesome. You could press a button to launch a long line of tar in the direction you're holding to swing across ceilings, fly to distant objects, and pull in hard-to-reach blocks and enemies.

It would probably be too powerful though, so maybe it should only work in certain levels or situations.

[budgiedood]

Great idea donut, might be hard to program, but it shouldnt be limited, it should be hard to use though!

[Tyroie]

I like the grappling mode idea myself. Maybe put it in the form of a key that when pressed, it's sort of the opposite of heavy; Gish loses his natural ability to "stick together" as one glob, and stretches "freely" based on his momentum and gravity.. Sort of like you'd imagine him to do in that extremely thin funnel you find on one of the church levels, kind of lengthen him out. If used correctly, it would be a bit of a grappling hook, but it wouldn't just be like a Quake-style hook, it'd go with the physics. And it would also make him real vulnerable, though if you hit the Heavy key at the same time as that key, I suppose he'd be stuck in his stretched form.

I think Gish over the 'net would work fine if you made it work like ZSNES' or Quake 1's (not Quakeworld) internet play works. The short version is, you press a key to move, or do whatever, but you don't see it happen until the server sees it happen. So if your ping is 200, when you press left, you'll see yourself move left 200 ms later. Zsnes gives both players the delay so it's fair. Can't really imagine how this game could use the newer general first persion shooter netcode of prediction and the whole "You appear to be moving forward but you're actually behind where you're walking" deal...