Monday, April 5, 2010

Survival horror, the game

I have been playing now Resident Evil 4 on Playstation 2, and I cannot stop the thrill the game gives to me. Graphics are great, gameplay fun, it is really long, you get to really shoot enemies, there is few puzzles to solve...

I have allways been a great survival horror games fan. And best survival horror games for me have been Resident Evil and Silent Hill serieses. I have played also others, but for me those two game lines are the best.

I am working on my own rpg system, as I have already mentioned in this blog here and there. As playing Resident Evil now, I thought that I will do a mini rpg about survival horror inspired by Resident Evil series. Simplified rules of my upcoming system called YDIN. Mainly I am writing this thing to playtest the actual rules. Rules in this mini game are more simple than I am planning to make in full version of the YDIN rules set, but still, I get to test them out in a fun way.

This game I am working on now isn't actually a full blooded rpg where you do a character in a free world and everything is possible to happen. This game is about survival and horror. You make a character (there is suggestions you can create your character from like medic, police, handyman and student). They all got basic characteristics but you can personalize them a bit. Point is to get into the action fast!

You might think, that there is already All Flesh Must Be Eaten. Yes, I know. And it is a great toolbox for zombie and monster games. Still, I am not trying to do a good zombie survival horror game, but mere a playtest setting for myself. If you want more detailed zombie action, I highly recommend you to check out AFMBE (if you haven't done so yet). Back to what I am working on...

Rules will use my own system called YDIN (in finnish, it means core). Rules don't cover everything, but are focused on things you need in survival horror setting. There is no actual setting or background, but I will write few suggestion how things have gone bad and why character(s) is (are) in the situation they are.
Rules are described simply enough to not to waste too much space, but I try to introduce them easily enough that others can also playtest the rules. So, basically it is test drive for YDIN with an add on to play your own survival horror game. Nothing too detailed, but everything you need to get into the action. It might need a bit work from Gamemaster, but it is not a full game. If I get really inspired in this, it might get a bit bigger.

As I am focusing YDIN to be a real rpg you gotta pay money for me to get it (not big cash though), this I will publish free. It is a demo. Test drive.

Now as holidays are over, I know that my writing speed slows down but I hope to get this thing out soon enough.

Also I get to try out layouting with this rpg for future use. I know, that in free rpg's layout doesn't matter that much as I have seen so many home brew games and campaigns even in .doc format, but I want this to look even slightly neat piece. And as I am trying to make it easy to play, goal is to make it easy to read from your computer screen.

So, heads up and wish me luck on this one!