(Is this in the right board? Who knows!)

January Event Game Idea: Herding Hijinks

(Title is work in progress)

Seeing as Fire Escape, the August Event game came out semi-recently, I was thinking about games that could be added to other events that would be both fun and fairly easy on coding. One I've come up with is a type of game I've seen in a couple of other places, but I have no clue what it would be called. It's a type of herding/roundup game that I think could go really well with the January Event: Great Hunger.

Game Description:

"Oh no! The herds are splitting during migration! With the little prey there is around already, you take it upon yourself to reunite the herds and encourage breeding!"
The aim of the game is to get the herds of animals back to their families. Herds will be in groups of 5-15 of the same animal (depending on the difficulty you choose, which will be described later) and will all move independently. You'll play as a lioness (or a male lion, if you want the player to feel more like they're controlling their king than their hunting parties) that will move around the screen, trying to guide the animals to the "safe zone" (which can be pictured as a water hole or the rest of the herd, something to make it obvious). The animals will move away from your lioness, and you have to try and manipulate them in a way that'll get them into the "safe zone". The game will be top-down so it's easier to look at, and easier to do art for.

But How Is The Game Hard?:

An issue with this is that the concept may be too simple and easy to execute. So I thought a good way to fight that would be "slippery controls". By that I mean your lioness will take a bit of time from when you press the forward button to start moving at her proper speed (she'll slowly accelerate to reach it) and when you take your finger off the forward button, she'll take a little while to slow down. I think maybe half a second to a second would be a good enough time for the lioness to fully speed up and slow down when each button is pressed and released, as it isn't too obnoxiously difficult to control, but it does make you plan your moves a little more carefully. The herd animals will move the same, some may take longer than others to speed up and slow down depending on their type, which will again be discussed later.

Another way to make this game difficult may be to add in a Health and Damage system. Say your lioness has 5 hearts that are displayed at the bottom of the screen. Touching the herd animals in certain places may deal from quarter of a heart of damage to a whole heart of damage depending on what type of herd animal is hit. If you run out of hearts, it's game over.

How Will Points Work?:

As with all the Lioden games, points mean prizes. Prizes in this game will most likely be event currency, and maybe a chance for a carcass or decor (maybe even a Reptile Roundup skin if you're so inclined). But what determines how many points you get? How many points will you need for each prize? This is my idea for how each of these things could work, but obviously like everything in this suggestion, they can be changed.

- Levels:

Much like Liomemo, there can be a number of levels. Let's say there's 5 levels (there can be more) and in each level there's a new challenge:

Level 1 - Zebras: You will guide a number of Zebras (5-15 depending on difficulty, which is mentioned later). They move pretty much like your lioness does, with the same level of acceleration and decelaration, so guiding them will be fairly easy. If you run into one (which may be unlikely unless they're run into a corner or side) they will deal half a heart of damage (those hooves are strong!). Get them all into the "safe zone"!

Level 2 - Gazelle: You will guide a number of Gazelle (5-15 depending on difficulty). These little buggers are slippery, they accelerate really fast and get spooked super easily! Your lioness can scare them from further away than she can with Zebras, so even the slightest movement towards them might send them rocketing off as far as their little legs can go! If you run into one (possible if cornered), it'll only do a quarter of a heart of damage, though. Get them all into the "safe zone"!

Level 3 - Wildebeest: You will guide a number of Wildebeest (5-15 depending on difficulty). These guys are slooow, they take longer to accelerate than your lioness (about 0.5 seconds longer) so running into them is pretty easy, and you won't want to do that! These guys do a whole heart of damage if run into! Get them all into the "safe zone"!

Level 4 - Rhino: You will guide a number of Rhino- wait, why are you trying to herd Rhino?! These guys are slow to accelerate like the Wildebeest, but running into them won't do any damage, they can hardly feel you through all that thick skin! But watch out! If you walk infront of them, they'll charge forward! If a Rhino manages to hit you while charging, it'll deal a heart and a half of damage! Yikes! Caaaaarefully get them into the "safe zone"! (Number of animals can descrease in this level to make it easier. Easy may only get one Rhino, Medium two, and Difficult three.)

Level 5 - Stampede!: Something spooked the animals, and they've all got muddled up! You'll get a mixture of the animals you've previously encountered (although maybe not as many rhino, perhaps one or two!) and you'll need to remember everything you did in the previous levels to get them back into the "safe zone"! (Numbers of animals can increase in this level to get an even mix for the easier difficulties).

- Difficulty:

There could be a set of three difficulties you could choose to alter the game: Easy, Medium and Hard.

Easy: You get 5 animals in each stage to herd, and only one Rhino in Level 4. Due to there being less animals, you'll get less points (explained later.)

Medium: You get 10 animals in each stage to herd, and two Rhinos in Level 4. Due to there being a moderate amount of animals you'll get a moderate amount of points (explained later.)

Hard: You get 15 animals in each stage to herd, and three Rhinos in Level 4. Due to there being a large amount of animals, you'll get the most points (explained later.)

- Points:

To score points, you need to get animals in the "safe zone." Each individual animal is worth a certain amount of points, the amount of points can change depending on what animal it is, but let's focus on how this plays into difficulty.

Let's say each indivdual animal is worth 100 points. In Easy difficulty you only get 5 animals in each level, so you can only get a maximum of 500 points per level. In Medium, you'll get a maximum of 1,000 points per level. In Hard, you'll get a maximum of 1,500 points per level.

If we want to think about the leaderboard, to make things more competitive you could (but don't HAVE to) put in a combo feature. If you get multiple animals in in close succession, you could get x2 or x3 bonuses per animal. (So animals can go from 100 points to 300+ points depending how big your combo is). So it might be a good idea to get loads of animals into a group, then chase them all towards the "safe zone"!

-Time:

To make the game less easy, I thought each level could have a time limit. You should aim to get as many animals in the "safe zone" within the time limit as possible, if you get all of them in before the clock runs out, then you get maximum points! But if you only get, say, three animals in before the clock runs out, then you only get 300 points (assuming each animal is worth 100 points).

Prizes:

Although I don't really know what amount of points could amount to what prizes are given, I have some ideas as to what could be given as prizes.

Event Currency will almost always be given (unless you get a suuuuper low score) but here are some other ideas too:

Uncommon: Gazelle carcass, Zebra carcass, Wildebeest Carcass, Half-eaten Rhino Carcass.

Rare: Rhino Skull, Guilt Trip.

Rarer: Already existing decor (such as the orphaned baby animal decors).

Rarest: New decors???? (could be animal decors, lioness decors, bone/food decors, a game-only background)

I believe that's everything, although I might have missed some things out. Again, this is only an idea, and even if it does get considered, it has every right to be altered and changed!

Suggestions/Additions:

1. radius should be visible in the beginning of the level so that you know where it is, but as it progresses it fades and you have to eyeball it - ✨ opi #realsunset (#100335)

- Could also only be available in the easier levels then disappear for the harder ones

- Could be a power-up much like the snail in Reptile Roundup

2. could also be used in the April events! With different colours of fluffballs instead of different types of animal!