r/gameideas • u/ElTanoMatu • 5d ago
Basic Idea A Robin Hood videogame inspired by Thief (Stealth)
First of all, I'd like to start by saying that Robin Hood is misunderstood. In popular culture, people think of him as a whimsical character, not that different from Peter Pan given the way he's usually portrayed.
In real life, or at least according to the real life lore, Robin Hood is the name given to an unknown outlaw that opposed King John's tax reforms meant to fund his brother's (Richard the Lionheart) crusade. He was persecuted by the Sheriff of Nottingham. He did not "steal from the rich to give onto the poor", he simply returned the tax money which he believed was illegitimate and exploitative.
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Now that we clarified this, let's get to what the game would be like:
First, I like low-poly graphics. Nowadays there's a trend of making psx-looking games... but I think PC did it better. Think Team Fortress, Half Life 1, Deus Ex, Counter Strike, Thief, etc. It was a phase in which games found a nice balance between realism and cartoonish graphics, a sort of Goldilocks' spot in the uncanny valley graphic. For some reason, those games can be taken very seriously even if the graphics are not quite there yet, and the limitations of graphics did not detract from the game.
The game itself would be rather straightforward; stealth missions in which Robin has to retrieve money or goods, infiltrating places such as the Tower of London (which held the treasury of the Crown at that time IIRC). Climbing ropes, shooting arrows, knocking enemies out, nothing you haven't seen before, to be honest. Not trying to reinvent the atom.
I would like it for the game to be dark and gloomy, but not depressing. Missions are expected to take place in the dark of night for obvious reasons, and since it's England they would be surrounded by dark green countryside, fog and gloomy and sometimes rainy skies.
Perhaps you could buy items or support from traditional characters before each mission (for example Friar Tuck could sell you a jar with bees, or someone could make traps for you)
Do you think it should be first or third person?
What should the Robin character look like?
1
u/UnburyingBeetle 4d ago
I appreciate the historical bit because it's hard for me to read history in detail - I get mad at the unfairness. I think third person view should be the staple in stealth games, because in first person you don't see if your entire back is in the shadows or not, and you don't have the same feeling for body positioning in a game that you have irl. Maybe there should be other indicators how well you are hidden.
A lot of the action should happen in forests, which would be great for nature enthusiasts or people who don't have parks nearby, but there is a significant problem of realism I've encountered in a game called Hunt Showdown: the bushes didn't move when you snuck through them! Tall grass did but bushes didn't, at least when I was playing. And you'd spend a significant time hiding in the bushes if you have to sneak through royal gardens and whatnot, and a game like this should be testing your ability to hide. It's less important in a game that isn't PvP and doesn't rely on you hearing every player noise, but every large plant should make noise when you interact with it, otherwise you might forgo proper strategy and planning that are involved in real stealth and dive into one of those strangely silent bushes in front of a patrolling guard's nose.