shade gameplay

What makes Shade fun?

Discussion

Please see the gameplay discussion wiki for a discussion of the gameplay elements in Shade. Virtually all gameplay elements are open to debate at this stage in development. The most effective way to get your new idea adopted is to prototype it and demo it to the rest of us. Of course, feel free to discuss ideas if you don’t have the time or resources to implement a prototype.

Core Mechanics

• Mushrooms grow when in the shade
• Mushrooms shrink when in the sunlight
• The player can move freely around the stage
• The player has a “sun meter” which goes down when in the sun
• When the player touches a mushroom he picks it up and it follows him
• When the player takes the mushroom back to his “basket” the mushroom is “collected”
• Collected mushrooms fill up the player’s sun meter
• Mushrooms that reach a certain size become monster mushrooms which can move about the stage
• Monsters eat other mushrooms (not the player)
• Monsters cannot be destroyed by the player
• Monsters shrink in the sunlight
• Monsters grow by eating other mushrooms
• Monsters are slow and have bad vision

Secondary Mechanics

These mechanics will complement the ones above and help make Shade a more fun experience. As always please feel free to discuss them in the gameplay discussion wiki.

• Poison mushrooms act similar to regular ones but reduce the player’s time in the sun meter
• Some animal moves about the stage moving mushrooms
• Some animal moves about the stage planting small trees which grow and then cast shadows for some time