Maze Elements?

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Zomis
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Maze Elements?

Post by Zomis »

I guess that the old style mazes makes you sick after a while, when you just have to start somewhere and then end up somewhere else, like this level: http://www.zomis.net/rnd/show.php?file=630&s

So I guess it's time to implement some new Maze Elements. Any suggestions?
The Maze Elements doesn't only have to be RnD-applicabable, they could be anything.

The only ideas I've got so far is these:
- Teleporters
- Checkpoints (RnD: Emeralds)
- Keys and Locks
- Enemies
- Line of sight

But something tells me that this isn't everything. There is probably so much more which could be made with Mazes! Suggestions, please!
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Davacardo
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Re: Maze Elements?

Post by Davacardo »

Zomis wrote:I guess that the old style mazes makes you sick after a while,
Yep, that screenshot made me feel a little nauseous.

I guess the Game of Life and Biomaze elements don't count? I could never get them working properly anyway. The Game of Life dies and the Biomaze forms one pattern and never changes.

To be honest, mazes involving grey doors, invisible walls and/or elements like fake grass are extremely annoying if too big. But they may not count as true mazes, not having clearly defined walls.

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HerzAusGold
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Post by HerzAusGold »

Some ideas

most likely:
- pushable walls (or rows) so new ways are created or destroyed

and others:
- trap doors (rescue with collected paracute)
- stairs or ladders (teleporter) to have like a 3D maze
- energie pills
- energie unloader
- dynamite or bombs
- switches (wall disapear, aso.)
- new maze (region) switch
- robots (or other enemy)
- tasks (envelope)
- "one way" ways
- "ice" ways (flat, up and down)
- way is destroyed after one, two or tree times
- but can be repaired with "clue" (collect object)
- walls can be broken with shields
- collect "eyes" for a map
- doors and keys

Cheers
HerzAusGold
And the answer is ... 42 !
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RAP
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Post by RAP »

I don't know why this topic never went on, but since I recently played Rocks 'n' Diamonds again -- I feel like playing the same game with a different environment of game-play in my hands (but right now it's R&D West!)

I like both of your list of ideas Zomis and HerzAusGold, but are you guys actually doing to make those levels themselves, or create a program that creates those maze levels?

*waits with some decent interest* x3
Zomis
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Post by Zomis »

I was more thinking about letting a program generate mazes for this. I did some scripts in RnD Scripter that generated mazes, but it wasn't with so many different elements. :/

If I find time somewhere in the future, I'll definetly have a deeper look at this. Until then, it's mainly about brainstorming :)
Dark
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Post by Dark »

I'm afraid I do agree on standard mazes not beeing too interesting, especially when they depend upon trial and error to find objects which aren't immediately obvious such as fake grass, grey doors or invisible walls.

That being said, my favourite game of the Bomberman series was Bomberman 2 on the snes, which featured far larger single player levels and was said to be much more puzle orientated than the others.

Game objects included pads where you culd place your bombs to give them a max explosion range, dynamite which blew up in a huge radius, jump pads to fling you about the stage, reacters which would explode and kill you if you placed a bomb under them, and destroyable walls which would come back after about a minute. There were then many elements which people would recognize from rnd including stairs to have multi level mazes, various passible or swichable doors, and conveyers for your bombs.

Yet, all the way through there was the usual bomberman style combat against enemies to be done.

while I know Holger is stil considdering the bomberman elements, I do wonder if the reason I enjoyed these so much was the mix of puzle and action/combat elements.

Back in the 8 bit days, there were a lot of maze games which had a repton style view, a basic attack which would hit along side your character and a large area to wander around.

I wonder if all that's needed to make a maze game playable, is the insertion of action elements, ---- say enemies and shooting just as seen in zelda.

That would then give the player some breaks betwene basic maze tasks, and figuring out key, door, switch turn style and goodness knows what other puzles.

Afterall, isn't that why the bd games are so addictive in the first place?
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