Ironblood

A game concept for Vaatividya's Bloodborne 2 contest.
A prisoner awakens trapped in the wreckage of a ship with light emanating from the floor. The ceiling suddenly breaks apart and the room begins flooding, the water boiling as soon as it hits the ground. The only way to escape is through the roof. After clearing the opening, the prisoner attempts to swim upwards but no matter how much they struggle they always sink back to the ocean floor.
This is the ironblood curse, which permeates the sea and has afflicted many of its denizens, condemning them to a life among scavengers, or a painful death. The curse manifests in different ways; namely the inability to swim, but also physical disfigurations and an affinity for blood and blood control. The church on the surface experimented with the curse but blood control remained weak in most subjects and mutation cases far outweighed any subjects who actually benefited. As they could not find much use for it on land, the curse became primarily a means of execution for the church’s enemies and dissenters by infecting them and throwing them to the sea.
This project is based on the depths of the ocean and their unexplored terrors, as well as my take on how to make underwater gameplay interesting. It veers from Bloodborne's setting and aesthetic a little, but the basic themes surrounding the horror of the unknown and journeying into darkness to discover horrifying truths are my main inspiration. It's basically my fantasy game of going underwater and fighting sharks with a sword, but with a dark and bloody coat of paint.
Underwater gameplay is often relatively sluggish and unwieldy due to omnidirectional movement controls and the nature of the environment fighting the player at every moment. This sluggish movement is akin to the feeling one has in a dream where movements feel floaty and weak. With this concept I’m trying to play into that feeling while also giving the player options to fight against it and even make use of it. The character is restricted to the ground due to the ironblood curse, but harpoon grappling and current control provide more movement options. Underwater combat is therefore mainly ground based, but there is variety to be found in weapon types and their interactions with currents. Slowed fall speed underwater could also allow for some “aerial” combat when harpoon grappling.
Realistically this whole concept would probably be pretty difficult to implement well because there are so many variables to account for- mainly current control and its complexity. It would need to be complicated enough to be engaging, but not overwhelming so as to make combat a slog. Figuring out a proper control scheme for it would be another issue. Alternatively, it could be a passive effect that occurs automatically in fights, or a simple timing based system, but that might detract from the flow of combat I’m going for. There’s also verticality of level design because the goal is reaching the surface, so there's problems like which things can be platforms and how can sea caves/ tunnels be integrated with sunken ships and other objects to make areas that aren't just a jumbled mess. Or if creatures could be grappled and ridden for short distances before they slowly bleed out, how far can they be ridden? The character is generally grounded, but their freedom of movement should still be balanced with actual interesting level design.