Lookin for feedback on game loop: Photograph items to gather "proof" that cryptids exists.

[mild bough]

Hey everyone, I am Looking for initial thoughts on this game idea that I made a prototype for:

Game loop idea: explore outdoor areas looking for cryptid (monsters) evidence.
You use a camera to snap photos of the creature, or photo of the physical clues (say, footprints).

Then you return to the base, to "upload" the photos taken and you'll get a score.

This is what's currently in my prototype.

Watcha yall think? Something worth here? You can try the prototype out here if you're curious: https://happyzombies.itch.io/subject-unknown

I think this idea can easily be expanded on, think multiplayer, camera upgrades, monsters/cryptids with different affects, etc.

I really am looking for feedback/ideas here so if it's worthwhile for me to put more effort into it. Thanks!

[flat scroll]

This is actually a pretty good idea with lots of flexibility on where you can take it.

The main character could be someone who went hiking and caught a picture of them and now is trying to escape or they could be an experienced cryptic photographer.

Actually I just thought of a different idea.

Each level is a different scenario, different place in the world, and different people. Then you can create a story for them and eventually all these characters find and post on the same image board online and work together to document these creatures, or maybe even find a way to kill them.

[still owl]

nice idea what if you take one picture and they start chasing you for a min then stop

[flat scroll]

If you wanted to get even more ambitious you could make it multiplayer and every time you load into a region the monster is randomly generated with a random assortment of abilities and behaviors and then players can upload their findings on the in game website.

You can have a bunch of different places as the maps.

The Appalachian Mountains.

The Catacombs.

The Valley of Kings.

[mild bough]

@flat scroll yeah I think the setting can be anything... initially I had this idea from those "let's find bigfoot shows" but the idea I guess came more from the 2nd Jurassic Park movie, The Lost World. In the movie, Hammond sends a team to document dinosaurs with photos, so this can be similar to that like, a cryptic enthusaistic hires a "team" to find evidence of these folklore. So if multiplayer, the players are really sent to gather evidence—photos, clues, or recordings, etc. —of cryptids.

[flat scroll]

That’s a cool idea. You can also make it a more drawn out kind of survival game as well because realistically you probably wouldn’t find the creature your first day out there and maybe you get supplies for only a certain numbers of days and if you take longer than that you either have to leave or craft and hunt your own stuff, find water etc. You can even take it a step further where you don’t have much for your first couple expeditions but finding more evidence will get you more funding so you can be out longer for future expeditions. This would add replayability. Like for example you just started the game, you only have enough for a day, and you find some footprints, some hair, maybe even a picture and maybe even get a picture. Then an end game player would have like a week’s worth of supplies and could be going for higher risk things like blood samples or corpses.

Actually now that I think about it I’ve just described an extraction shooter but without the shooter.

So much stuff you can do with this.

I can’t play your demo right now cause I’m at work but I might check it out later.

[mild bough]

I think an extraction shooter is close to the genre, something like Lethal Company or REPO, I guess?

[mild bough]

Let me know if you play it, it's just a POC/prototype to kinda get an idea of how it might play out... I like to execute on my ideas of course lol

[flat scroll]

I’ve never heard of those games not gonna lie.

[flat scroll]

@mild bough I played it, and it was pretty cool. I'm a big wuss though even this game had me scared haha. For the life of me though I could not get a picture, the sensitivity is so high and it was a little frustrating.

Low key I'd be down to help you out in my free time, make a couple models, write a couple scripts, help with some bugs. I really like the concept.

When he started running at me full speed I screamed like a little girl.

[mild bough]

Yeah sorry about that, you can press ESC and an options to adjust the sensitivity since that’s a thing I couldn’t figure out 😂