This is a random thought to write down something I thought, it's gonna be pretty awkwardly formatted cause I'm just going off of what I'm thinking about right now.
I was watching Dagzz's video on Roblox horror games and they made a remark about suggesting how maybe for Chapter 3, the devs should start to deviate a bit from the established format of Chapter 1 and maybe lean harder into the Roguelike elements. And I randomly had an idea come to me of one way they could do that. I've been playing a lot of Persona 4 recently and I had a thought of:
What if a theoretical Chapter 3 (or for the purposes of this post, a Rooms clone) leaned more into the style of old dungeon crawlers where you're running through more involved floors than one room after the next?
In my head that means that instead of being formatted as running through one room after another in relatively quick succession like in Spooky's, it's running through "floors" of rooms. Every floor has a randomly generated layout, cobbled together out of multiple hallways layouts and random treasure laying about.
On top of the staple enemies to Doors like Rush, Screech, and Eyes for example, there would be a handful of new entities that would wander around the area to try and hunt you, similar to Figure where they roam the halls to harass, all while you try to quickly find an exit.
In a sense, my idea boils down to every floor is the Figure encounter but trimmed down to just finding the exit. The obvious changes that'd be made are wandering enemies would have to not instakill and would just deal a fair amount of damage. And while I don't have an idea of how many new enemies that'd harass the player, I feel like the hard limit of wandering enemies on a floor is at minimum one, maximum 3 or 4.
I feel like entities like Screech and Eyes can exist in this, and as risky as it would sound I feel like Rush/Ambush could reasonably spawn in so long as hiding places spawn in and frequently enough, and maybe the player is allowed more time quickly scramble to one. Maybe in general their spawn rate should be greatly lowered so the player can actually focus more on the roaming enemies.
Also because by nature rooms are lot more elaborate and naturally takes longer (presumably unless connecting pieces are small or floor generations are small enough, though I feel like that might come into conflict with), you can't do 100 floors of that and have it not be exhausting to get through. If possible I'd feel like maybe it'd be a good idea to cut things off at 50 instead of another 100. And FYI, I've not played Persona 3 so idk how that game does it and keep the player going (besides having anything else besides dungeon crawling). And I'm aware Tartarus is more than 100 back-to-back floors.
Maybe as a slight way to make the game more interesting, new enemies spawn in through special distinct rooms like in Spooky's. Like every 10 floors, you'll spawn in one of many types of rooms that'll activate a new monster to cause problems
This is me ratting off ideas for entities.
I don't have any ideas for enemies more in line with Doors, instead being more like Figure where they wander the halls.
Eyes Clone
Basically an entity that vaguely mimics Eyes but has different functionality. They're a corporeal entity that very slowly wanders the area. If the player looks at the entity, the player has a brief period of time to look away with the entity quickly turning their head to look at the player. If the player keeps looking at the enemy, they'll start to move slower and have more trouble looking away from the entity until the player completely loses control over their character and cannot do anything until they've taken some form of damage. While looking at the entity, they'll approach the player to attack. They only attack when they're within range and can attack regardless of if you are looking at them so you need to dash by them and not just look away from them.
Weird Yellow Mage Idea
Basically something similar to the Yellow Mage from Fear and Hunger. Basically an immobile entity (Not even a way to teleport) where if you stay within their range, they'll start doing something and eventually deal damage to you for staying too close to them (Minus the losing a limb part), and continue to do so until you're dead or out of the range. If you want to get past them, better run past them.
This could work as a basic Rooms entity as something that just exists randomly that creates small deadzones you need to be aware of.
Golden Hands
Idk something akin to the Golden Hands from Persona 4. Maybe it'd be a nice idea to have an entity where the point is you'd want to snag them to take their goodies. Basically, they're a passive entity that will instead run away from the player instead of directly chase them. And if the player can somehow catch them, they'll drop a really good item. Something rare or at least worth while, whatever that could be. Maybe would be a nice idea to just have one slot take up an entity chasing the player.
The Reaper???
Basically the entity that'll force the player to start heading for an exit if they stay on the floor for too long. If the player stays on a floor for too long, maybe trying to scavenge for as many resources as possible, this thing would spawn and start hunting the player. This is indicated with a text blurb notification and a noise. The player isn't dead if they touch the entity but they're gonna take a lot of damage if they land a hit.
Some Kind of Bear Trap Monster
I've had this idea for whenever the Spooky's BYOM thing drops. Basically a slow, corporeal entity that only attacks through getting close to the player, and is on constant pursuit of the player. On top of that, they're an entity that persists through floors. And their main gimmick that separates them from other chasers is that their presence spawns in many bear traps on the floor that the player needs to navigate around (Or somehow attack to trip them early)
This part is me ratting off my own ideas for a Doors clone. Ideas listed above also applies to this theoretical game.
Idk why but in my head, instead of it being traversing through enclosed indoor spaces, I had a thought of what if the location was walking through seemingly endless city alleyways. Like a Backrooms vibe but instead of endless indoor spaces or eerily empty open spaces, it's a back alleyway for a city that seemingly never ends. You're walking between areas that normally cars would drive through to deliver stuff but at every turn, there's just tall buildings after tall buildings that's separating you from the streets. You're ducking in and out large trash bins to hide from entities, opening doors into backdoor storage rooms that seemingly don't have any other purpose besides just the exit for supplies and shelter, you're looking through trash for whatever you can to survive, passing through backyard gates (Idk that's the only thing I can think of separating areas) after backyard gates until you hopefully find an exit.
Idk the idea to me sounds unique anyways. It probably isn't but I like the idea cityscape environment for this kind of game. Feels unique to have an urban fantasy vibe kind of thing.
There's an idea I have where maybe more open streets that are just blocked off could be the more elaborate encounters and maybe an office building could work as a Chapter 2 area.
NGL there's a silly idea to have the shop the Velvet Room where there's just a magic door that just exists and there's just a guy there that just offers junk to you. It's a randomly appearing on most floors instead of specifically after a more involved longer room, and you can enter to buy or acquire some more helpful stuff, taking inspiration from Binding of Isaac. And once you leave the room, it disappears out of thin air as if it never existed (to prevent using it as a cheese strategy for avoiding entities.)
Those are just random thoughts an ideas I have for this theoretical game. Idk if I'll get to the point where I'll single handedly make a 3D game by myself with all that made, but it's the thought that counts I guess.
