One thing I've always found interesting is when people write alternate game mechanics for Sburb, or when they interpret Sburb into a different kind of game genre while still keeping some of the original elements.
In the comic, Sburb is this kind of Building Sim RPG that lets the user make whatever they want while they go on an epic quest. It reminds me a lot of Minecraft.
In this fic I'm writing, I thought it'd be cool if Sburb ran less like a Building Sim RPG and more like a Rougelite dungeon crawler, similar to Cult of the Lamb or Hades where you have to do various runs of difficult dungeons and you can make complex builds with stats and stuff.
I really liked when Homestuck was less about the narrative and story, and really heakerned to the whole "video game" motif. They even had whole sections that you could play LIKE a video game with action and what not lol. Anyways, does anyone else have any cool alternate game mechanics they like to add to Sburb in fics or fanworks? Or do you have any ideas for how you think Sburb works outside of the limited information we have in the comic?
The reason I think a Sburb Rougelite would even be fun is because you could make the enemies progressively stronger and tougher by prototyping them, there could minibosses holding loot that hide lore to the world and stuff, doing quests for some NPCs that require you to slay some ultra hard boss that sets the tone of each players planet seems like a really fun game and also I just really fucking love rougelites.
And because the characters all have different classes they could have different stats and builds and stuff, so someone who isn't physically strong could be super powerful in some other way. Maybe there's a meta build that one character follows and they cheese the whole game with it lol.
Oh yeah a Sburb Roguelite has been something I thought would be really cool for the longest time too! I can imagine it actually wouldn't be too terribly hard (relatively speaking) to make a fangame of. I mean, of course, game development is HARD, but it seems more possible than just trying to make sburb itself and all of it's advanced mechanics. Focus more on just themes of things with a couple of unique sburby mechanics. I even once brainstormed some roguelite mechanics myself and thought it'd be cool if the house building part of sburb would instead be sort of like an NPC housing thing kind of like Cult of the Lamb, you'd get consorts or other people to move in and you can upgrade your base of operations and such.
That being said, I've been working out the idea for my own Sburbventure for a while now kind of inspired by Monopoly, which, despite my love for the roguelite action elements brought up here, would focus much more on building and even automation, so it becomes a city builder sim where you have to house consorts and build your society. Which I think could work well for a sburb game trying to prepare it's players in running a universe, by giving them responsibility over building their land up to being a functional society (albeit one of consorts lol). Of course it'd have elements of buying land, and possible even economics, conflict, diplomacy, etc. I think it'd be fun to explore.
Wow your interpretation of Sburb sounds like it'd be really fun to play. And speaking of which, I do play Cult of the Lamb a lot and when I think about a Sburb Rougelite that's kind of the game I always envision where you can still manage and build things, but you have to leave to go on fun yet dangerous adventures. I also like the fact that Death isn't really a give in so you can make excuses for why you can do multiple runs and such.
The Monopoly Idea also sounds really cool lol I bet you could even refit an old Monopoly board to be based around Homestuck and stuff just to play that kind of Sburb. Something more akin to The Game of Life (another fun board game I used to play with my family a bunch) where maybe the end goal could be the ultimate prize like in the comic or something, and the player who has the happiest consorts or whatever wins.
Oh yeah lol, that does sound pretty fun. I wonder how Sburb would be if you traded out it's Chess DNA with other board games (as I have with Monopoly)? I wonder how drastically things would change there lol. Maybe that'll be something to make a thread about.