First Game Idea (Waiting Room Game)

This will be an almost straight rip of the notes that I made on my notepad, sadly without the diagram to illustrate my rather disorganised ideas. I may well splash out on a printer for my room some time soon, so perhaps I will be able to scan in images to make these posts a little more vibrant. Until then, without further ado;


The Waiting Room Game (Working Title)

Setting - A city hospital waiting room in the aftermath of a terrible viral outbreak. Infected patients are heading in from all over the city after a broadcast details a new medicine, distributed for free (Unlikely I know) from your nearest hospital. Levels take the form of a pacman-esque maze, top-down, the corridors of which are formed by chairs, faulty vending machines and broken water fountains that press in from all sides. At one end of the level a set of double doors admits patients at increasingly small intervals, who subsequently shuffle though the maze of clutter, inexorably searching for anyone who has anything to do with the hospital and the greatly sought after cure.


Objective - As a doctor, you are tasked with delivering the new medical cure to the patients that are heading to your hospital, sneezing all over the place and generally being infectious. In order to accomplish this, you must collect the medicine as it is teleported in at random positions in the hospital. Once attained, the medicine must be hurled with great force directly at the patient who is subsequently cured and disappears from the level in a puff of good karma. HOWEVER, this is not so simple a task as it sounds. As the patients wander through the level they will invariably sneeze, firing hideous, globular packets of infectious ooze down the corridors, ready to infect anyone unfortunate enough to be hit by it. Those patients in the later stage of the virus may also be prone to leaving rather unsightly piles of vomit in the aisles of your hospital, which cannot be passed until some lucky nurse cleans it up, effectively blocking the path to your success. (In less fantastical terms, patients will fire projectiles that will either kill you instantly or possibly add to an infection meter that must not become full, this is how the game will be lost. Re. the puddles of sick, possible addition that means level will change dynamically, sick will have to be cleaned by an npc (possibly bought with in game points?) in order for the doctor to pass.)

Reason to continue playing - Upgrade system, everyone loves those these days. Upgrades will allow you to remove infection currently in your meter, summon a nurse to remove sick from aisles, possibly increase the doctor's speed, allow for medicine to be distributed as an AoE style circle, for removing multiple patients. 


Controls - Again, Pacman-esque, controls are likely to only be up, down, left, right for navigating the maze and space bar when appropriate to fire medicine ahead of the player character. Possibly some HUD buttons or other keys for deploying items which will be bought in-between levels.


Glaring Problems - Having used the phrase 'Pacman-esque' twice so far, there are of course worries that this idea may not be the most original. Also perhaps not much room for interesting upgrades/ increasing difficulty. Also, the plot is a little sketchy, why does the doctor just not heal himself? Possibly this can be explained away by some hilarious joke about NHS cuts. We shall see...