On Concepts

Research continues. Meanwhile, I'm going to go into more detail on how the concept as a whole is shaping up.

As of yet, gameplay is centered around a planetoid. For sense of scale, say it's circumference is around the length of a football pitch. This planet is represented in 2D. Gravity pulls the players inwards towards the center of the planet. At the east and west "poles" of the planet are coloured areas- arbitrarily, red and blue. The "red" team start off in the red zone, and the "blue" team start off in the blue zone. Additionally, if a player dies, they respawn in that zone after a short delay. There are, in addition, two "teleport pads", one at the north pole and one at the south pole. Before the start of the game, the two teams of 5 are matched up somehow- probably using a matchmaking system. Some considerably research would be needed to find how to balance this. These are teams of 5 in order to be large enough that teamwork and strategy is in effect, but small enough that it doesn't become a free for all. At the start of the game, each player chooses a class. They will play as this class for the duration of the game. Classes are differentiated into different roles on the team- so some offensive, some defensive, some supporting.

Once play begins, the players spawn at their starting zones, and are allowed to start moving and preparing. After a short wait, the "ball" is spawned on one of the two "teleport pads". Herein lies the objective of the game. Players have to work with their team to pick up the ball, carry it to the opposing coloured zone, and drop it to win the game. While holding the ball, players are essentially defenseless, necessitating teamwork in pushing forward. The teleport pads can be moved between freely during the game, with a moderate cooldown specific to the player, to allow play to move between the top and bottom halves of the planet.

Individual players have a number of unique abilities, each with different effects and cooldowns, as well as a unique speed and quantity of health. In addition, all players will have some means of turning "up" into a valid direction to go, to encourage play in two dimensions, rather than just one curved dimension- the most likely candidate for this slot is jet-packs, which thematically makes sense with the "spectator sport of dystopian future"  aesthetic and story. Players holding the ball will not be able to use any of their abilities, but will instead be able to throw the ball or place it on the ground. This will allow passes and "ruck overs" to be made if a particularly slow (or otherwise ill-suited to play the ball) class ends up holding it.

This is obviously a VERY rough outline of gameplay. Significantly more work and design needs to go into this, and will do so over the coming months. But, as of yet, it seems a solid enough concept. However, I'm not an impartial judge- so, audience, I have a question!

Would you play this?