I like the idea. It's a unique spin on an overused premise.

I would start by focusing on core mechanics. You have already established that it will be some sort of defense game, yes? So, at it's most basic, you fend off enemies. Having health replenish only with certain items emphasizes planning and avoiding risky encounters whereas automatically regenerating health encourages more bravado. If there are rounds of play, I would lean towards health items that you can purchase between rounds. Maybe candy to restore health and band aids for use in rounds?

You may also want to consider different types of opponents to change up strategies. Examples: The basic cardboard box zombie is slow and weak but numerous. Use anti-horde strategies (area clearing items, etc.). The big cardboard monster is much tougher and stronger, but solitary, so requires much more targeted attention. Light cardboard monsters are flimsy but fast. Spawner monster is slow, weak, but tough and generates baby monsters. Tape monster doesn't hurt players, but entangles them, slowing them down.

For weapons, I like the idea that they are not just flat out weaker or stronger, but behave differently. The basic squirt pistol would probably be the starting weapon, right? Light, fairly quick, but not very strong or long range. A heavier pistol might add range or more water per shot at a decreased rate of fire. Maybe some sort of scatter shot weapon that sprays a broad area in front of the player but is very short range. Or a water balloon launcher to fling those balloons at long range (obviously would require you to fill balloons as ammo).

For traps, remember that sprinklers can spray in a variety of patterns. The basic area sprinkler, side to side sweeps, directional sprays, etc. Each would have advantages and drawbacks (for example, a directional spray covers less area, but also uses less water and is great for choke points).

Also, maybe players can build hard barriers out of boxes or something that only certain enemies can bypass (fliers) or destroy.

There are casual gamers on BYOND too. Just because someone plays IOS games doesn't make them a different type of gamer.

Thanks for the helpful reply, there's a lot of great ideas in there, and I can see you're at least mildly interested in the project! Would you mind if I got your opinion on a few ideas that spring to mind right now?

Having a finite amount of health, that starts at 100 and drops as you get attacked, like more oldschool games, as opposed to newer Jam-On-Screen-Regen style mechanics.

Only really having one or two maps, but making it/them huge, twisty, windy and varied. For example, as opposed to having three maps 'House.dmm' 'Garden.dmm' and 'Street.dmm', having a single map which initially starts at the Garden, but depending on how you're doing lets you decide to go into the house or street, a bit more like Call of Duty: Black Ops.

I would really appreciate a few more suggestions on weapons, should I go for a class-style system, where you can only hold one of SuperSoaker class and only two of WaterGun class. Or a more generic weight system with changes to the player's speed, or a hybrid system, or a more modern day shooter system of two weapons with an optional smaller side weapon.

I love the idea of having weapons which are YOURS. There are many super soakers in the world, but this one is yours. Springs to mind, and I love this whole progressive feeling of being able to keep your things and slowly upgrade them. That's in, and I don't care what people say, but how do you think I should manage this? Individual stat upgrading, such as Water Capacity and Velocity? Or larger more generic upgrades such as Tier 1 (A small increase to all stats) into Tier 2 (A larger increase) etc. Or maybe something all together more unique. Should I have weapon progressive levels? I dislike the unrealistic terms of the more you use a weapon, the better the weapon gets, but if implemented with the class based weapons above, you could level up your small arms and big arms to make a more appealing choice to you. I really don't like the idea of forcing players to use what they first started with though, and the bonuses wouldn't probably be huge.

Currency? I'm really stomped on this one. I guess it all depends on whatever the merchant ends up being, assuming I implement one. Is he some lone wolf kid, or something more? Or even better, a Dead Rising style system, where you find the parts yourself, and those in themselves are the parts. If I did this, I'd probably implement some kind of blueprint system to help out.

Water Sources. Where I live there are very few houses around, and I've rarely spent much time outside of my Island, however on my trip to Australia, I saw many neato things like Fire Hydrants and Water Tanks. What's generically available for immediate water supply around the local neighbourhood? I plan on having a hosing system you can lay down, so you can create bases around the town(?) that you can retreat to if you need to for some added defense and water.



Thanks!

Large maps and small maps both have advantages and disadvantages. Larger is harder to cover for single player and small groups, but accommodates larger numbers much better. Small maps can be high pressure but get overloaded with larger numbers of mobs/players. I haven't played CoD:BO, so don't know how they deal with it.

As to classes, you always have one. The question is do you want more? Classes generally force more specialization and often have built in mechanics to encourage coop play. Even if you do not limit weapons by class, you can control how they use those weapons. So, for example, maybe the Sniper gets +2 range on all direct fire weapons (or has an advancing perk system that adds +1, +2, then +3), while the Grenadier gets an increase in blast radius. Even using the same weapons, they play different.

Weapon customization adds another step to this. I would suggest making it a system of tradeoffs. The basic components of most ranged weapons are things like range, accuracy, lethality, weight, capacity. So maybe you can put a bigger reservoir on for +capacity but also +weight or a wider bore barrel for more lethality but lower capacity (shoots more water per shot). You could augment this by having different quality parts that make the trade off more or less efficient (IE a good reservoir increases capacity by 30% with a 10% weight increase while a lower quality one has a 20% increase in both). I would probably use weight as the great equalizer, meaning the more (ad bigger) guns you carry, the less water, health restores, gadgets, etc. you can carry.

There is no reason you can't have a merchant and parts scavenging. The merchant could be a vending machine, a shifty loner, an ally that holes up during waves of enemies (see Killing Floor) or whatever. Scavenging could be based on exploration (opening cabinets, breaking crates, etc. for weapons and guns). Maybe you even sell the junk you can't use to get more money.

As to fresh water sources, in the US, there is generally a water supply provided by a utility company. Water is generally transported through large underground pipes that connect to individual properties. Properties not connected to a water supply often rely on wells, which is essentially just a tap into a below ground aquifer. Common water distribution systems include residential plumbing (faucets, toilets, showers, etc.), commercial plumbing (restrooms, drinking fountains, etc.), and emergency systems (fire hydrants, fire sprinkler systems. Home owners often set up elaborate sprinkler systems which may be manual or automatic (which can use all sorts of zone and timer systems). Commercial sprinklers tend to be automatic. Keep in mind that natural systems like rain, rivers, etc, can also provide water, but are probably not in the scope of your game. I would guess that faucets, hoses, and fountains would be used to refill (which could be hazardous while enemies are around) and that faucets could be tapped with a hose to extend the refill point to another location or to power a trap system such as sprinklers (which would prevent refills while it is hooked up). Players may also be able to carry jugs of water for portable refills at the expense of weight.

You may also want to have risks like electricity and fire to encourage creative playing. So, setting up a sprinkler near an outlet creates a risk shocking players that pass through (I would probably have it just be a stun effect that doesn't hurt the cardboard zombies) and a risk of fire from short out. While fire is bad for cardboard, it is also bad for structures and players and takes water to put out!

Conglaturation.