Phase 3: Brainstorming
Yeah. It’s time! This is the part everyone loves. Throwing everything against a wall and seeing what sticks. No limits. What matters here is getting as many ideas as I can. I can always trim them down later, but the more concepts I work out, the more I have to play with.
A lot of this is going to be a very random process. That said, I’ll try to organize it for you. Just know that I sat down with a pen and paper and just jotted down a ton of things, then reorganized them after the fact. I’m not going to point out everything here. Instead, I will offer a few lists and I will break down a few specific ideas.
Focusing on Overlaps
Jungles! All three of my inspiration games have a jungle for one or more levels. It seems insane not to include a jungle as a primary location. Several enemies overlapped in two of the games, as did the concept of fire or explosions. Man-eating plants show up in two. Skeletal beings show up in two
Possible Locations
Jungles, obviously. Beyond that we have a haunted mansion, a volcano, a prehistoric landscape, icy hillsides, old mines, ruined temples, Industrial buildings, and even the interior of a dinosaur. The inside of a monster has a lot of potential, but I’d need to largely ignore the other two games to make it central.
Possible Enemies and Traps
Purple clad enemies who sometimes explode if they die.
Land mines. Lots of landmines.
Spiked logs and a rolling bolder.
Dinosaurs, including a skeletal dino, electric flying fish, piranha. A mammoth and cave men.
Apes, bees, bats, spiders, goats, yeti, snakes, vampires, ghosts, mummies, and slugs.
Giant wall face.
Dead enemy leader as a false ‘boss’.
Possible Treasures
I have considered taking the ABBA code and making it into a healing potion effect somehow. Maybe the potion of Abba. I am also considering something where it can’t be taken with you. A key location where anyone can be taken to revive, but only if they died within this jungle. It might create some interesting game play.
Stone and/or bone weaponry.
Yellow or Red Diamonds.
Magic coins and/or the Coin of the Lost Realm.
Treasure chests hidden all over the place!
A skeleton key.
Possible Shadowdark Extras
Create a unique race (Ducks? Technically been done before but still.)
Create a Unique Class (What though? Jungle warrior, ultra richman, primative?)
Tables! It almost isn’t Shadowdark without at least one table. For this one, I am leaning towards using a table to simulate a lot of smaller areas to save on space and allow a better key map area.
Unique Mechanics Ideas
Pogos (Yeah, probably not).
Smacking walls to reveal treasure.
Teleportation via mirrors. This one has high potential
Eggs hiding items of value.
Exploding a bit of floor to reveal a staircase.
Weapon that changes into lesser versions or better versions when you touch something (can’t always be avoided).
Unlimited Respawns (See ABBA).
Conclusions
There’s more on my list, but you get the idea. Figure out the things that stand out to you. You can clearly see patterns emerge. For me, a Jungle as the core of things seems obvious. Using the undead and explosions in some way are also pretty clear. Other things I might or might not use include the revive effect, the living dungeon created by a monster interior, and some interesting maybe items. I have a lot to work with here. Next would be focusing all of this mess into something more reasonably usable. That will be tomorrow’s post I think.
