ABANDON ALL HOPE, YE WHO PRESS ENTER HERE.
YOU ARE DAMNED.
FIGHT TO AMUSE THE DEVIL.
WINNER GETS A SECOND CHANCE.
Each match starts with 3, 2, 1, SUFFER!
It's a low-poly multiplayer boomer shooter set in Hell with a gameplay loop like Unreal Tournament inspired by the success of the likes of Ultrakill and Cultic.
You play as a damned soul fighting for the Devil's amusement. You're trapped in an arena with randomly selected weapons and items scattered around, with which you must kill other damned. (Death is temporary in Hell.) One lucky winner gets a second chance.
The soundtrack will be death metal (obviously).
The signature mechanic is that health and pain are tracked separately. The damned are more durable in death than they were in life, so it's not enough to go for the kill all the time. Health is a static bar that must be healed, but pain is on a level that goes down gradually (like the opposite of a stamina bar).
Low pain = normal gameplay.
Medium pain = lowered accuracy, yelling which pings your position.
High pain = medium pain + blurred vision, slow movement. Screaming.
Agony = incapacitated for a few seconds, covers face with hands during this time. Crying. Eventually resets to medium with brief immunity to pain gain (so as to prevent a death spiral).
The damned have two weakspots, the head and the groin. Headshots deal double damage, groinshots cause instant agony. The damned automatically cover their groins with their hands unless wielding two-handed weapons, reloading or using an item, so a groinshot is both a matter of timing and a way to balance two-handed weapons.
You have three slots with which to carry weapons and items. Some weapons deal more damage than pain (like knives and bullets) and others deal more pain than damage (like flamethrowers and chainsaws).
All healing items cause pain. They include (so far) welding torches, barbed wire bandages and a surgeon spider demon that crawls on your back when activated and regenerates health over time.
Armour is spiked on the inside, causing pain when equipped but reducing both damage and pain until depleted. There's a breastplate, a helmet which makes you immune to headshots but constricts your vision, and a codpiece which makes you immune to groinshots but causes high pain when equipped.
Pain can be eliminated by eating a dead damned's brain, can be slowed with pills and you can use a syringe to reduce both health and pain. This is another reason why headshots aren't as desirable: if someone dies from a headshot, their head explodes and so you can't eat their brain to end your pain.
Some weapons can be goreloaded - if you don't have ammo, you can spend health and pain to load them. I'm still thinking up a list of weapons and what they do.
Ideas for weapons: (should have a look at the likes of Unreal Tournament and Cultic for ideas)
• Pistol (1h, low damage, low pain, short range, high fire rate. Can be dual-wielded)
• Revolver (1h, medium damage, low pain, medium range, medium fire rate, goreload - you pull your teeth out and load them)
• Shotgun (2h, high damage, low pain, short range, low fire rate, spread shot. Can be used to shotgun jump)
• Sniper rifle (2h, high damage, low pain, long range, low fire rate. Has a scope)
• Flamethrower (2h, low damage, high pain, short range, high fire rate, goreload - you stab the canister into your stomach to refill it. Creates lingering flames which risk self-burn)
• Crossbow (2h, medium damage, medium pain, medium range, low fire rate, goreload - you tear out a rib and load that. Missed arrows can be collected)
• Buzzsaw launcher (1h, low damage, medium pain, low fire rate. Buzzsaws ricochet off surfaces five times before breaking)
• Rocket launcher (2h, high damage, low pain, medium range, low fire rate. Fires slow-moving rockets with splash damage. Can be used to rocket jump)
• Caltrops (1h, no damage, high pain, placeable trap. Throw them on the floor for area denial)
• Knife (1h, low damage, low pain, melee range. Starting weapon)
• Chainsaw (2h, low damage, high pain, melee range)
• Grenade launcher (2h, high damage, medium pain, medium fire rate. Launches bouncing bombs that explode after three seconds. Can be used to grenade jump. Grenades can be picked up (or caught in the air) and thrown before they explode)
Environmental hazards abound, mostly things like fire and spikes that harm you when you walk/fall/get launched into them. There will be jump pads, but there won't be fall damage (they can have ONE mercy). Another "hazard" will be demons, unkillable 2d sprites that roam the arena and fly through walls at a slow speed to discourage campers on pain of instant death when touched.
Perhaps there a number of different demon sprites based on common phobias (spiders, snakes, dogs, sharks, clowns, ghosts, octopi) and whichever one you pick you're most afraid of is the form you see the demons as.
Transitions between screens take the form of some massive creature biting down on the screen in the style of a hellmouth.
A game this dark can only endure when combined with comedy, which would need to be worked on as part of development. I do have two ideas, though: I said there'd be a second chance for the winner. The punchline is it's just another chance to play and win in the Games, not a second chance at life or anything. The Devil explains this to you when you win a match for the first time, and laughs in your face.
Damned models are randomly selected upon spawn. Most of them are naked people of both sexes, but there's a very small chance you end up with a VIP skin like Donald Trump, Jesus, Queen Elizabeth II, Charlie Kirk, Charlie from Hazbin Hotel, Doomguy or Harambe. Everyone has glowing red eyes.
There will be multiple game modes: Deathmatch (KILL ANYTHING THAT MOVES), Team Deathmatch (UNITE AGAINST THE OUTSIDER), Capture the Flag (WHAT'S YOURS IS MINE) and Domination (i.e. capture the points) (WAR FOR TERRITORY) to name a few.
Some ideas for achievements:
• EPIC FAIL: Pick up a grenade and switch to another item before it explodes.
• HARD AS NAILS: Kill another damned while in high pain.
• IT BUILDS CHARACTER: Enter agony five times in one life.
• TOOLS OF THE TRADE: Get a kill with every weapon in a single match.
• THIS AIN'T DOOM, BITCH!: Shoot a demon.
• VERY INANIMATE PERSON: Kill a VIP.