Hey everyone. It’s been over a year since the first chapter of The Suits Have Gone Mad was released and I thought I’d share my thoughts about how I want to continue the game. Feel free to leave your opinions or thoughts too.
The issues with chapter-based releases
Chapter-based releases are a concept not unfamiliar to the indie scene. Many games have been very successful using this structure for releases. It allows a dev space to breathe and learn from the previous chapter to improve for the next.
However, this release structure has glaring issues…
Delays between each chapter. Long delays damage the hype of a release and raise expectations the longer it takes.
Judging the experience as separate pieces. Each chapter tends to be viewed as an individual experience from the last. I want TSHGM to be a singular whole experience without the idea that each chapter should be better and bigger than the previous one.
Linearity. This is the biggest issue in my opinion. The first chapter of TSHGM is an extremely linear experience. I want the full game to stray away from that ‘on-rails’ feel. The current idea is to encourage freedom of exploration by creating a set of objectives that can be tackled in the player's chosen order where they will have to explore the offices to discover how to complete each objective.
This means that TSHGM will most likely not be released in a chapter-based form. Instead, it will be released as a singular full experience.
The gameplay loop
There is no apparent gameplay loop in the first chapter. The slight smidge of a possible loop is in one of the final sections of the chapter in which you have to dodge the suits while waiting for an elevator.
This was intended to be extended into a system where you have to survive for a certain amount of time in an enclosed area while suits chase you around. From testing, I’m still not entirely convinced that it is a viable loop. I’ll need to do more testing. The current idea I have is a sneak, run, search loop.
Sneak. Stealthily moving around the office undetected while suits patrol. If the player is spotted, we enter the run stage.
Run. The player has to run away from suits until they are out of a certain range, similar to the chase sequence in the first chapter. The hidden stage is entered once the player is out of range of any pursuing suits.
Search. Suits will investigate the area where the player was last seen. This downtime will allow the player to explore other areas without needing to sneak around.
This system will need to be tested and balanced to feel fair, but I feel it will work well within the setting.
Is TSHGM a horror?
The term horror is a bit subjective and I’m undecided whether I should be classing the game as a ‘horror’. The game feels like an in-between of a horror game and an action game. It feels best to call it a thriller.
But does labeling it as a horror drive away those that believe that it will be too scary of a game to try? Will horror enthusiasts say that it fails as a horror as they expected it to be extremely scary? This is still a decision I’m yet to decide on. I don’t want to unnecessarily cram in horror sections for the sake of keeping the horror label on it.
I haven’t begun working on TSHGM yet. But just wanted to share my current feelings about it. I’m very passionate about the project and want to achieve its vision. Let me know what you all think and sorry if I’m rambling on too much.
Cheers,
Blnk Dev