Well, they can level up be ding tasks, puzzles, and such correctly, and by complete the level/stage, itself, and if they do any fighting in the occasional fight, they can level up from the that. I say treat the ability to level up more as a reward for doing the required objectives, and go by my idea.
Complete a tasK; they get, say 1-3 points, depending on how well they completed it.
Complete a level/stage: they get, 1-5, depending on how well they completed it.
It takes some originality, but I seriously think we should take the levelling points away from fighting and have them to be able to do it by others means, otherwise, its just going to turn into a typical dinosaur fighting game.
We really need to figure out a structure for this game? What is the objective? Will the characters gain levels over time? If so, what benefits will these character levels have? Obviously if we're not fighting, it wouldn't be direct attack or defensive ability. Here are some examples of levelling benefits that I have brainstomed:
Structure: I would suggest a 'stage' set-up. A large level for you to explore extensively, with various objectives that you must complete in order to continue, and you can also have 'sidequests' that you can do by choice for extra points.
Objective: Well, we need to think of a story. I'd be happy to do some quick brain-storming to do it and I'll offer you some plot ideas, okay?
"Will the characters gain levels over time?" I think they should. The benefits of the these levels will improved abilities, like the ones you suggested.
If the characters aren't levelling from doing battle (which, as previously mentioned, would be unrealistic for the Gang in most scenarios), how would characters' stats increase? Would it be based on completing tasks and objectives?
I think that would be the best choice. If you complete a task or objective, youget points, and the amount of points that you get should reflect how well you completed the task. Plus, they get more points at the end of the level, and again, how many reflects how well they completed the level.
I can roughly picture how to program such a game in a text-only environment , in C++ (it wouldn't be overly difficult, just time-consuming), but I wouldn't even know where to start when it comes to graphics. Using the pre-built engines, however, it may take some work to figure out how to do this.
How would this be text-only?
I sympathize with how much work you'll have to do for this, but if we get a game that captures the spirit of the series out of this: your work will have been well-worth it, I think.
Hmm, like a grading system? It's an interesting idea, but the only thing I don't like about this is that is rewards good players and punishes poorer players. This goes back to the old story of "the rich get richer and the poor get poorer". If you're not especially good at the game, you need all the help you can get. If you're a better player, you don't need the high levels that a poor player needs to get through the game. In short, it makes the game too easy for a good player and too hard for a poorer player. This would only work if the game had difficulty settings, where poorer players could turn down the difficulty to make getting the higher grades possible for them. Even for one difficulty, such a system would be difficult to balance, mathematically. I won't even discuss the amount of work and testing needed to balance multiple difficulties
About that. I guess I should have explained myself better. I wasn't thinking in terms of rewarding the players, individually, since the gang is a team. I was thinking that all the players would get the same amount of points awarded depending on how well they, as a team, and how they were able to pull it together and work with one another.
