Recently, on the resource, on the occasion of the start of the rebranding process, they proposed , which could become part of the Habr ecosystem. In my opinion, one of these parts could be a role-playing dimension of the site, where each user can become a kind of "treasure hunter" and "adventure master" in one person. About how this might look like, and will be discussed in this article.
I draw your attention to the fact that we are talking about a mode that is optional, “bonus” in nature. It is understood that the user can switch the site to the quest mode if he wants. Then he will see several interactive windows, in addition to the standard ability to read articles.
Collection rings
To begin with, by connecting a game mode to himself, the user gets the opportunity to compile a collection of several (from about 2 to 6) Habr articles, which, in his opinion, are related to some common topic. Then you need to give the collection a name, as if it were a unique location in the game world and save it, after which it will become part of a certain section of the Habr game universe.
The picture shows an approximate view of the interactive game panels that are displayed around the currently open article.
Let's go through the blocks:
- Information about the user's game character. The contents of the inventory or available abilities can also be displayed here, when necessary.
- Main options and energy scale. Here are just the buttons that open the inventory, or the hero's abilities. A button for setting a game profile (heroes, locations), a button for accessing game logs, and so on. Energy is spent on the movement of the main character - 1 unit per 1 cell. Every day the user receives 40 units of energy (not necessarily exactly 40, but let's take this number as a starting point), unspent can be accumulated. Once a week, unused energy is reset.
- The current location is displayed here. At the moment, the character has reached the last, sixth cell and can leave the location by pressing the lowest button.
I note that the division into blocks in this way, of course, is very approximate. It could also be a single horizontal / vertical block - it already depends on which of the solutions is best to build on the architecture of a particular site.
Let's go back to the location that the user created.
She needs to come up with a name. For example, something like this:
Statistical Deviation Lock
Magic Lots Tower
Lone Developer's Pier
Yellow Underwater Island
Station "Opensource 5"
Cemetery of Broken Manuscripts
Temple Numbers
Tavern "The Last Operator"
Dragon Stadium
Circle of the White Witch
Anomaly Breakthrough
Having determined the name of the location, the user comes up with and installs two unusual abilities and two original items that can be found by other users when visiting this location.
These can be, for example: invisibility, mind reading, healing, weather spell, communication with plants, magic mirror, rabbit's foot, digital sword, time control ball, universal screwdriver, labyrinth map, blue potion bottle, paradoxical umbrella, microscope, a deck of cards and the like.
Also, the user creates for himself a certain hero who can travel through the links of locations. The hero has a name, class/race, status, current quest, and some other conditional parameters. He also carries items with him and he has a set of abilities - this is all the hero finds / exchanges in his travels.
Let's look at an example of a "ring" location. The hero is on the third cell, which is highlighted in dark green. When he got to the location, he appeared on the first cell, which is at the top of the list. All articles of the location are immediately visible to the user - if you click on their names, the page with the article will open. And in order to move the character, you need to press a button that is highlighted in light green. This will take energy, and the current open page will not reload. When the hero reaches the last line, the light green buttons will disappear.
At any time, without waiting for the opening of all cells of the location, you can press the lowest button and get to the crossroads. No energy is wasted for this transition.
Crossroads-pointers
After creating a ring-location, the user gets the opportunity to create a "crossroads". This is also a location, but already in the form of links-links going from the center of the intersection to the locations-rings. When designing an intersection, the user connects two rings (his own and one of the others). The number of connections can be expanded by adding a couple more branches. That is, the minimum intersection has two exits, and the maximum one has four. At the same time, when the hero enters an intersection, he always sees one less exit, since he cannot exit the same way he entered.
In the center of the crossroads, the user creates a game subject (NPC), inventing a name and class/race for him/her (junior scientific goblin, Chaos church priest, pirate princess, mutant chameleon). Also, the subject comes up with phrases that he / she will say in relation to each transition (“in the west you will fall into mathematical swamps”, “in the north the road to wisdom awaits you”, “neon corridor ended with a door with the inscription wellcome, samurai”, “look to the right, see the crystal bridge?"). And, of course, a greeting phrase.
The picture above shows an example of an intersection. Getting to this location, the user is not on the cell, but can click on the only one available (spending 2 energy), then a window will open with a game subject that welcomes the hero. After that, you can leave by one of the links that lead to ring locations (also for 2 energy). If you ignore the "shack" of the NPC, then the transition to any pointer costs 4 energy.
An ability can be sacrificed to the subject, in return he will impose some status on the character (blessing, curse, "charged with electricity", "reduced", "divided by zero", "leaves fiery trails behind him").
You can also donate an object to the subject, then the hero will receive a certain “quest” (“clear the sewers of rats”, “invent a perpetual motion machine”, “pass the rite of passage into knighthood”, “pass a term paper on magic weaving of a fireball”, “find all seven Great Keys ”, “find a way to entertain the Supercomputer”).
His abilities can be used on the subject, which will be reflected in his log-history ("Yoshi uses the Mushroom Commander ability on Mario"). A couple of items can be exchanged for those kept by the subject.
Adventure
The process of the adventure itself looks like this - the hero has a certain number of moves that he can make during the day (determined by the energy reserve). Getting into the location, the user immediately sees their collections of articles and can read them, this does not affect the game itself. The hero, on the other hand, is installed on a certain cell of the location and, moving through the fields, can detect objects or abilities. The hero can pick up one item and one ability just like that, if there is free space in the "inventory" or in the list of "powers", the second ability and the second item require you to remove the previously installed elements. If the hero takes a more complex ability/item, then it is marked with a "like".
When the hero finds an item at the location, the inventory opens in the hero information window. The found item is shown on the side, from where it can be picked up, if desired.
The hero's inventory can also be opened independently, through the button in the options block. If the hero is at the crossroads, "visiting" the NPC, then the items that are at the NPC will be displayed on the side and you can make up to two exchanges. Similarly, you can cast an ability on an NPC by revealing your abilities while their screen is open.
The user's hero can leave the ring location at any time, then he will be offered several intersections associated with it. If there are no connected intersections, then the hero will spend some energy wandering in the fog until he stumbles upon a random intersection.
In addition to adventures, the user can view game logs by going to a separate page. Both your main character and NPCs, and, probably, the heroes of other users.
There he will see entries similar to the following:
{Ghostbuster} casts {Optimize Spell} on {Mermaid Queen}
{PhP undead} gives the task {professor of mathematics} - {purify the poisoned waters of the river}
{art director's dragon} trades your {sword of frustration} for a {floating ssd drive}
Development
It describes, in general, the very basis of how you can build a gamification system that combines a certain meta-game, as well as the process of collecting materials into a certain separate connected space - something like a labyrinth / dungeons / city, where the content is somehow structured, collected to special areas/zones.
The karma and rating of the Habr user can also somehow affect the amount of daily increase in his game energy. As an option.
Naturally, there may be tables with general game statistics. Various tops. For example, the most frequently visited locations, items with the most "likes". By the way, these same items can become colored and increase their rarity (as in Diablo), with the accumulation of a certain number of ratings.
You can also add the ability to teleport the hero to the page being read by the user at that moment (for 5 energy points), if, of course, it is already tied to at least one game location by someone.
You can eventually make some additional types of locations. Not only rings and intersections. Or allow users to create more of the kinds of locations that are available.
The administration itself has the ability to create some unique game objects and structures - the same guilds, clans, test zones, and so on. That is, the heroes will be able to somehow enter there, take part, communicate.
By assigning numeric identifiers to abilities, heroes, and items, this allows the narrative results of their various interactions to be calculated. For example, if earlier the hero applied an ability to the subject and it was simply recorded in the log, then through the identifiers and the association matrix, it will be possible to output entries in the log like: “you apply {paradox breath} on a {forest beetle}. consequences: {shift, time, open}". In this kind of food for fantasy, there is already more and new elements appear on which you can build a larger role-playing system.
I already wrote more about the concept of trait-identifier interactions that generate stories in an article about . It has more potential than simple randomizers, since the results of various interactions, on the one hand, look chaotically random, which is what we want from a randomizer, but, nevertheless, for any pair of interacting objects, the result is always constant.
With numerical identifiers, you can do a lot of interesting things without even building complex systems. For example, how about some Al Habraic Transformation Cube available in the game. The hero puts an item and ability there, receiving in return an achievement (achievement) developed by the administration. It is understood that there is a whole table of such achievements - each with its own number. And when the ability is multiplied by the item, then if the result is an achievement number, then the player opens this achievement.
Also, the quests received by the hero can have some simple condition number under which the quest will be considered completed. The trigger can be the acts of the hero using abilities on the NPC - if in the next such interaction the number-condition was reached, then the quest is completed and you can take a new one. The hero can even get experience for this, if we want to introduce levels or something else into the game for experience.
Over time, the basic rules and emerging game elements can be developed into something more ambitious, approaching the likeness of a specific social network, moreover, with an active direction, because the very name Quest suggests certain goals, active setting of tasks and their solution.
You might think that Habr Quest was not (or not only) in the form of an add-on to the site, but, perhaps, a separate mobile application, in which, in addition to the game itself, the Habr page viewer is built in. In this form, the game itself can be presented in a more interactive and free form, not constrained by the block format on the website. That is, not only buttons and drop-down lists, but also drag-n-drop, animations and other features of gaming applications.
Such are the thoughts. What do you say?
Source: habr.com