Let's Talk Originality

[DocSeuss]

A comment by GunFlame got me thinking, and I'm eager to see your creative juices flow.

 

Alright, so, you've just been told by your favorite publisher that you have carte blanche to develop a game on three conditions, that you make it good, that you make it sellable, and that you make it original. In terms of originality, you're left to define that on your own. You can create new game mechanics if you want, or maybe you'll go with familiar mechanics in original settings, or maybe you just want to do an original take on an existing franchise, the way Neal Adams or Bruce Timm interpreted Batman, for instance. It's up to you.

 

So... what have you got?

 

(I'll write up an idea tomorrow. I've got to go to bed.)

[SixTwoSixFour]

Alright, Doc has given me the okay on posting an idea of, frankly, excessive length, so you can blame him if I go overboard here. I'm here to discuss an idea that's been obtrusively taking up space in my head for a while now- a fighting game (from Six?

) called Bladework.

 

Disclaimer

 

This is a work of fiction, it's not a commentary on persons living or dead, or any religions or countries or anything like that. We all know it, but this world does have its own religion, so I thought it worth mentioning.

 

Also- yes, I'm very bad at naming people and places. Thanks for mentioning it.

 

 

World Background

 

Bladework takes places on a swords and sorcery fantasy world called Tryss. Tryss is divided up into four continents, but its oceans are extremely treacherous when you get further from land, so the continents are relatively isolated. Because of this, one of the continents is not populated by humans at all, and one of them by far less advanced civilizations. Of the two that remain, Vindar and and Esrael, our focus is on Esrael, a somewhat Europe-like continent with several major countries, along with numerous smaller ones, that is constantly embroiled in war. Esrael has three major players- the monarchy of Kaer, the theocracy of Elemnia, and the representative democracy of Ord (or as they prefer to be called, the Free Lands of Ord).

 

Our story, however, takes place not in Esrael, but in another plane of existence. When the world of Tryss was created, it was created by a god called the Father. The Father was, for a time, the only god that the world had, and while he was a very wise being, he felt that his hand was felt a little too heavily. He wanted mortals, which he had created, to feel more in charge of their fate, and less like he was directing their actions. So he created a group of twelve gods and goddesses, quite a bit lesser than he, to interact with the world as they saw fit, and through doing so, help lead mankind. They were the Pantheon.

 

This turned out to be not such a great idea. For a time, it was a good thing, but the Pantheon were like spoiled children, and quickly turned to infighting, trying to prove themselves better, stronger, smarter than each other. They were not all powerful, but they were able to drive the humans to constant war in their name, and even a few of the Pantheon were killed. At this point, the Father decided to put a stop to it.

 

He forbid his children to interfere with the human world, and forbid himself as well- divine intervention had done mankind nothing but ill. Instead, he created something new to channel the Pantheon's competitive instincts- a tournament.

 

This tournament would be one of the most powerful warriors that the world had seen, sponsored by whatever god or goddess got to them. The Pantheon could only recruit these warriors on the moment that they died, keeping them from passing on and instead bringing them to this afterlife of battle, and each god or goddess could only sponsor three warriors. The battles in this tournament would be no consequence- there was no death here, only injuries that healed in a matter of hours at most. And when the tournament was over, it would simply start over again.

 

For the Pantheon, the tournament became a way to demonstrate supremacy. Sponsor the right champions, update your roster when a new warrior falls in combat, and you could have the best record in the Pantheon, and therefore be the best god or goddess. For the warriors, it was a second chance- if you performed well enough in the endless cycle of tournaments, and the Father approved of you, you were permitted to choose between passing on to the afterlife, or being resurrected at the moment of your death. And for the Father, it was a way to help mankind... for these powerful warriors that were being brought to the tournament, they were not flawless. They were people with wounds, flaws, and regrets that time alone could not heal. Through this environment of battle, and meeting other warriors with their own flaws, these people would learn what they regretted in life, and learn to move past it... and then, the Father would approve of them, and let them move on- though he does not tell anyone that this is his purpose in it.

 

This is our stage- the Grand Bladework Tournament.

 

 

Forgers and Casters

 

In the world of Tryss, everyone has magic of a kind. The question is more, how does that magic manifest? People in the world are classified as Forgers or Casters based on how their magic manifests.

 

Forgers are people who are able to turn their magic into a literal weapon- some kind of armament, be it a sword, an axe, a spear, a bow, or what have you- created by mixing the magic in their blood with their soul's resolve to take a stand and fight. Forgers are easily the majority of the population, with exact ratios varying by nation, but never lower than 99/100. Not all Forgers, however, have their weapon, their Forge. A person who has never been put in a position where they have to decide to fight will not have a Forge, and thus many civilians, especially merchants, are Forgeless- Forgers who have simply never had to defend their lives or the lives of others.

 

The Forges that these Forgers wield (yeah, that's not gonna get confusing, well done, Six) are significantly stronger than normal weapons, and grow more powerful still as the Forger gets stronger, eventually capable of superhuman moves, and energy slashes, and all that jazz. A Forge is a creation of its Forger's soul, and thus, it is the ultimate in bad manners to touch or handle another's Forge. They don't get dull or need repairs anyway, so there is no real reason to touch it, unless you are holding that person as a prisoner. You cannot hurt someone with another person's Forge- trying to wielding it will only result in you hurting yourself. Traditionally, dead Forgers have their Forge used as a grave marker.

 

Casters are the other kind of person, and they are exceedingly rare. Casters do not need to use magic in their blood, they are capable of pulling magic out of the very air, and using it to perform the kind of things you're used to seeing mages do- throw fireballs, shoot waves of ice, control the wind, heal wounds, all that good elemental power stuff. They are kinda squishy in combat, but the power they wield is more than a dozen Forgers can hope to muster, and so a powerful Caster is a truly terrifying thing, and a military's most valuable resource. However, there is a price to pay.

 

Magic is not a thing that man was meant to play around with a whole lot, and it does not have very good effects on a Caster. Cast enough spells in a short period, and you will go into an intoxicated state called Arcane Oversaturation Condition, or “magic high.” When in this state, your judgement is impaired, and your thoughts hazy, and for someone with the power of the elements to be in this state can be a pretty scary thing. They can't get the door open, so they just blow it up, instead of, say, unlocking it. That kind of thing. And that is just a short term problem. In the long term, the arcane energy will eat away at your mind, and eventually, you will completely lose it. Go insane.

 

Now, this is not an absolute fate for all Casters, however. If a Caster can find a Forger that they feel a special connection with- often romantic, but also friendship or just deep understanding- then they can make that Forger their Anchor. An Anchor is there to ground a Caster, slowly draining the arcane energy that builds up in them, and releasing it safely. If a Caster paces themselves with their magic, and has an Anchor, they can avoid the long-term consequences of magic use. If they cannot find an Anchor, they have to give up magic, go crazy, or simply use very basic magic exclusively, such as alchemy or healing magics.

 

A Caster can only have one Anchor, though if that Anchor dies, it is possible for them to find another. The connection between a Caster and their Anchor is not exclusively removing the poisonous arcane energy from the Caster- they also have some low-level empathic connection, able to sense each other's moods and locations. Enough distance can sever this connection temporarily, though it will be reestablished if they get close enough again.

 

 

Characters

 

I'm not going to do a write up of all the characters I would have, I'm just gonna do five, so that you can get an idea of what the cast would be like.

 

Faron Montague- The main protagonist, Faron was a modern day Kaeren Ranger- a member of an elite team of Forger-Caster pairs. Faron is a confident swordsman who fights with speed and power, making up for a lack of technique with his vicious strikes and his incredible stamina. Back in the normal world, the Caster that he was partnered with, Sara, was also his lover, and he was very protective of her. He died trying to protect her, and he now worries for her safety in the normal world, and wishes to win the right to be resurrected as soon as possible. He fights with a thick, single-edged sword, that while not exceptionally long, is quite heavy, and hits with a great deal of force.

 

Faron has a special meter called Momentum that fills when enemies block his Special Attack moves, but depletes slowly over time. If it is filled all the way, the next Special Attack that his enemy blocks will break their guard, leaving them stunned for a short time for Faron to deal with them as he sees fit.

 

Ma'aer Elras the Third- A king of Ord, in the days that it was a monarchy, Elras the Third is a legend in modern times as a mighty conqueror and formidable warrior. His conquests led Ord to conquer nearly all of Esrael, before his ambitious second-in-command poisoned him, and seized the throne. With Elras dead, and his second-in-command being not nearly as able a commander, the empire swiftly crumbled. An arrogant, elegant man, Elras wears his Forge, a short sword, at his hip, but does not fight with it- he does not need a sword to keep up with such weak opponents. Instead, he fights hand-to-hand, with a swiftness and grace that is more than enough to keep up with the others in the tournament.

 

Pressing the Special Attack button with Elras causes him to perform attacks with his sword while still keeping it in its sheath, demonstrating his scorn for his enemies. His Super Move causes him to draw his sword for a short period of time, giving him access to an entirely different and more powerful moveset. Were he to take this tournament more seriously, he might be the most powerful warrior in it.

 

Ainsford- Ainsford (no first or last name, just Ainsford) is one of Elemnia's Inquisitors, exceptionally skilled solo operatives of Elemnia's church. He was one of the most (in)famous up until his death, with his involvement in various operations of spying, assassination, diplomacy, and more being told in undertone around the continent. However, one operation ended with him learning things he never wanted to know, and he killed himself. He was denied rest to compete in the Grand Bladework Tournament, and though it seems unlikely that he is pleased with this turn of events, he is a very quiet, hard to read man, and his displeasure is not palpable. He is one of the only warriors that hopes, should he be granted permission to move on, to go to the afterlife rather than resurrect.

 

Ainsford fights with a pair of tonfa, which he uses with precision and strength- they may not be a bladed weapon, but they are very lethal in his hands. A very evasive character, Ainsford's Special Attack moves allow him to do very short teleports- flashes, if you will- before attacking. However, these flashes can be somewhat predictable, and are best used sparingly.

 

Ranaes Rommwell- Elemnian by birth, Ranaes was an officer in the army for some time before being captured by a Kaeran Corsair officer named Drake Barsett. During her time in captivity, she developed a rapport with Drake, and because of this, Drake was tried for treason and conspiracy against the crown. The circumstances dramatically changed Drake's perspective on the world, and he broke free during his trial, slew the king, and escaped, bringing Ranaes with him. Together, they formed a small faction of rebels and dissidents, but Ranaes was killed when they were ambushed by the Kaeran military. Though intelligent and quick-witted, Ranaes prefers to stay out of the spotlight- she doesn't want to be the guy, she wants to be the guy's right hand man. In the Grand Bladework Tournament, however, there is no one for her to play lieutenant to, and not having that has made her lose confidence.

 

She fights with a rapier, and can fight in several different stances, each with a different focus. She is also the only character capable of canceling an attack with a stance change- she doesn't do a lot of damage with individual hits, but she is capable of long and varied combos. Her Special Attack button is used to change her stance.

 

Fela Hale- One of the Grand Bladework Tournament's few Casters, Fela is a special one, but she has been special all her life. Born to an ordinary Ordian family, Fela was a magical prodigy. Casters are rare enough, but Fela was of incredible power, capable of magic that awed all who witnessed it. The only problem was one of her Anchor- though she (and others) tried, no one seemed to work as her Anchor, to help diffuse the powerful energies that she was using. Faced with the prospect of giving up her magic, or having it drive her insane, Fela took a third option.

 

It was not at all unheard of for Casters who could not find Anchors to become alchemists, using their magical power to turn combinations of ingredients into magical potions, but Fela took the field in a direction no one ever had before. Not content to sit in the background brewing potions while others did the fighting, she brewed potions that enhanced her physical abilities, and then went into battle with a non-Forged sword, chugging the potions on the field to keep up with her Forge-wielding enemies. Eventually, she fell in battle due to a different kind of overdose- she drank too many potions in an attempt to keep up with a powerful enemy, and her body failed her.

 

Her Special Attack moves cause her to drink her alchemic potions, providing short-term buffs to her various stats based on what potion she drinks. These potions stack. With no potions, Fela is a below average character, but with all potions applied, she is quite strong. The trick is getting an opportunity to drink them.

 

 

Basic Combat Systems

 

Bladework is a one-on-one fighting game, based in a large arena. The maps are not multi-floored, but they do have higher and lower ground, and higher ground is an advantageous position in the combat. Some characters can make better use of higher ground than others, though. The game uses a traditional stamina system- characters have a life bar, and getting hit by attacks removes a portion of that life bar. Some characters have more life than others. When the life bar is empty, they lose the round. You can set the number of rounds, but by default, it's best two out of three.

 

The game does regular and special moves like most fighting games, with various motions plus attack buttons triggering special attacks. Think Marvel vs. Capcom, Street Fighter, or BlazBlue. It uses an ABCD button setup- that is, light, medium, heavy, and special attack buttons. It also has other buttons that we'll go over later. Those buttons do what they sound like- light is weak but fast attacks, heavy is strong but slow attacks, and medium is in between. Special attack is used to activate your character's unique ability- read up on this in the Characters section.

 

Other than the life bar, characters have two other on screen resources- the super meter, and cooldowns. We'll address them one at a time. The super meter is much like other fighting games- a meter that builds as you take and deal damage, as well as for a few other actions. This meter numbers 0 to 100, and you can spend it to do various moves. If you burn 25 meter, you can use an enhanced special move- a more powerful version of a normal special move. If you burn 50 meter, you can use a Burst- basically, a shockwave that radiates out from your character and knocks away the enemy if they're close. You can use it at any time, so it's used to escape from a combo that your enemy is doing to you, primarily, but it could also be used to actually start your own combo, or cancel out of a move (rather inefficiently). If you burn 75 meter, you can do a super move, which is like every other game in that it's a big awesome combo move.

 

The other resource is cooldowns. You have two cooldowns, assigned to two completely separate buttons, that we'll call E and F. Cooldowns cost nothing to activate, and are not character specific, but once you use them, they will not be available again for a set time. The point of this is twofold- one, to keep really powerful techniques from being used rapidly in succession, and two, to encourage you to not worry about “wasting” them, since they'll be back in a little bit no matter what anyway. The first cooldown is the Hard Cancel- referred to as a bunch of different things in different fighting games, like Rapid Cancel (BlazBlue), Focus Attack Dash Cancel (Street Fighter IV), and other things. Basically, it allows you to stop the animation of whatever you're in the middle of, and go back to a neutral state. I don't wanna get too much into it if you don't play fighting games, but they're really really good.

 

The other cooldown is a brief speed boost, useful for assaulting someone who has the higher ground, or for lengthening a combo. Or, of course, just getting away from them.

 

Those are the basic systems of Bladework, but there are some more complicated ones too. See the Advanced Combat Systems area.

 

 

Advanced Combat Systems

 

Bladework has a few systems that aren't designed for your average player- they're going to be more useful for the more skilled players. These systems are parries, ripostes, and combo counters. I'll describe each in turn. Parries are pretty obvious, I think- they are a defensive move where you block an attack with very precise timing, and thus take no damage at all, whereas you might have taken some block damage otherwise. Parries are a simple concept, but as in most fighting games, they are very tricky to pull off.

 

Ripostes are special moves that you can do after parrying an attack- they have special properties, are only immediately after a parry, and are more powerful than normal attacks. However, they are slightly easier to parry, which can lead to tense games of parry, riposte, parry, riposte, until someone slips up and gets hit. Of course, that's only at a pretty high skill level.

 

Combo counters are a totally new idea (as far as I'm aware), and will take a fair bit of explaining. Basically, in a fighting game, when you're being comboed, it's usually fairly predictable- if you know the character that you're fighting against, you know what moves they will use in sequence, and assuming the other guy doesn't mess up his combo, you know exactly how the next handful of seconds are going to go as you are helplessly pounded on by an enemy, incapable of reacting. Combo counters are a system that allow you to do something while you're being comboed... if you know what that combo will be.

 

Basically, when you are being comboed, you can start hitting buttons as though you were the one doing the combo, and the game will track if the buttons you are hitting are the same ones that your enemy is- if the combo that you are pressing is close to the one that the enemy is doing. If you are accurate in your button presses, you will get a damage reduction to the overall combo based on how accurate you were, and if you were very accurate, you can even counter the combo entirely, reducing the majority of the damage and dealing the enemy a single, vicious blow. This blow can't be comboed after, but it's a harsh punishment for a predictable combo. Through this system, combos would become less by the numbers, and unpredictability would become the most important aspect of them at high skill levels.

 

Those are the Advanced Combat Systems of Bladework.

 

 

That's it, though I could talk more, that's already five... no, SIX pages in OpenOffice, and good god I am a monster. But I typed all this, so I am sure as shit posting it.

[Saturnine Tenshi]

Not letting you steal my ideas, you thought thief!

[DocSeuss]

Why on earth would I steal anyone's ideas? I have at least a dozen fantasy RPGs alone I could talk about. I have a metric shit ton of ideas and no room to steal anyone else's.

 

Also, a lot of last-minute type things all came up, strangely enough, at the last minute. So while I will be posting something soon, broken internet at work and lots of homework due tomorrow are taking priority, and Thursday's going to be a twelve hour day, and Friday's when I pick up Gears 3... so it'll probably be either late on Friday or during a break on Thursday.

 

I'll also read and comment on whatever's been posted when I can.

[DocSeuss]

Holy hell, Six. That is a lot of stuff! It's... interesting. I'm not big into fighting games, coming from a PC background, so I can't comment too much on it, unfortunately.

 

For my part, I've been hyperbusy the past few days, and am actually pretty busy right now, but I did want to actually bother to write this. It probably won't turn out as well as my notes, but, hey, busy. :\

 

Because I don't have my notes with me and I keep getting interrupted, I may be omitting a lot of information. Hopefully you at least get an idea of what I'm going for.

 

---

 

The Great War ended just five years ago, but not due to one side or the other capitulating--no, the poison gas used in battle somehow created a zombie plague! Now, I know, I know, zombies aren't original, but hold on a second. I'm fairly sure nobody's done the undead quite like this. For one thing, it's not about the undead. Not once does your character come into contact with an active one, at least, as the game's currently planned. Hell, you may never see one.

 

Anyway, as the zombies grew in numbers, the people fell back to and fortified many cities. Generally, it was the largest ones that survived, like Paris and Berlin. Rome, tragically, fell, but the Pope and a large number of the Vatican were moved elsewhere. These cities are connected by rail, and massive trains and their armed escorts transport people and resoures between cities. Most of Europe now looks like the aftermath of the Meuse-Argonne offensive, all mud and dead trees. Life in the cities is uncomfortable, to say the best. Wood and food are becoming scarce, and most of the people living there are doing so in poverty. Occasionally, teams of heavily armed men venture out into the wasteland to gather resources, but, again, it's not the focus of the game.

 

It's absolutely vital to understand that the focus of the game would be very much on its characters and the world they live in. Realistic consequences, like the absence of resources, are the focus, not the zombies. They serve more as a reason to isolate the cities and make it hazardous to go out into the world. Honestly, they could be anything, but ultimately, they need to be a thing that a fence or a wall can keep out. I'd toyed with the idea of just saying that the world was covered in noxious gas, but there's no reason to think that the gas wouldn't seep in.

 

As for you, you're a thief. Coming in on the train from Berlin at the start of the game, you've been hired by a particularly wealthy individual to begin stealing works of art. It is this indivdual's desire to preserve art (and become even more wealthy in the process), as he believes, with good reason, that "this undead thing" is merely temporary. You're a bit more than that, however. Not content to be merely a thief, you're also one of the few people in the world who knows anything of magic, something which assists you in your thievery.

 

The game itself would be mechanically similar to Assassin's Creed, in that it takes place in third person and your character can scale any number of buildings. Where it would deviate is that it would use some sort of procedural technology to rapidly generate interiors, so that every building in-game could be entered and potentially everything could be stolen, so long as you could conceivably manage to fence it. It also deviates from Assassin's Creed in that it's never designed in contravention to the core ideals of your trade. What I mean is that, well, in Assassin's Creed, you're more like a guy who shows up, makes a scene, and disappears. Rarely are you some sort of stealth assassin who no one ever sees. Your character, an ugly little man reminiscent of Peter Lorre in Fritz Lang's M (which is also a great example of the game's tone), is not particularly glamourous. He's just a man who does his job and keeps his head down, for the most part.

 

That doesn't mean he won't carry out some spectacular heists, though.

 

I guess you could say it's Assassin's Creed by way of the various games inspired or developed by Looking Glass, such as Thief, Deus Ex, and System Shock, with The Witcher's depressive plague atmosphere thrown in too.

 

As far as atmosphere goes, the entire concept is influenced heavily by films of the 30s and 40s, such as Mad Love,

, and The Third Man. At its most oneiric, the game would be inspired more by Berry's The Manual of Detection (which, if you haven't read it, you must drop everything to pick up and read) or Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes. In game, Paris is a city that's always overcast. The lighting is moody. Happiness is largely absent. Remember, this is a city that's dangerous to leave, and, as such, is dangerous to stay in as well. There are specially protected gardens that exist to grow firewood and food for people, and stealing from them is punishable by death. In fact, the corpses of the thieves are used to fertilize the crops, or hang outside the gardens as warnings to any would-be thieves.

 

The story itself is probably the least fleshed-out bit, in terms of actual plot (it's one of dozens of games I've thought of, and it's an idea I'm particularly fond of, especially because of the ideas of playing a non-generic character, using zombies to shape the world rather than the gameplay, and the fact that it's inspired by lots of old films I love). Right now, it sits in my head primarily as setting and atmosphere.

 

That said, I do have bits and fragments--there's the quiet, almost pathetic Riddle St. Croix, a waitress at one of the few still-operating clubs in Paris, who will ultimately turn out to be a cat burglar. You'll steal, at one point, from a weary band of Vatican-employed soldiers who just recovered some important relics from a monastery out in the wasteland. The cast itself is all over the place; you've got a group of displaced American doughboys, a pair of jazz musicians who moonlight as detectives (as an homage to Century Rain), an cougar who refuses to admit that she's too old to sing in her own club, Moses Malone, a peculiar gentleman who, through the course of the game, brings a dead circus to life, is an inversion of the Magical Negro trope, serving as an antagonist. He's also a wizard, and far more magically skilled than you.

 

You'll have a lot of freedom in your interactions with characters--treat a man well, and he's more likely to befriend you. If there's a particular character you'd like to romance (if you're only into games because you enjoy vapid fucksims), that'll be an option too. Of course, the fact that you're not a magnificant sex beast means that it won't be easy. Ideally, the dialog in the game would operate closer to Deus Ex: Human Revolution's in that you can "lose" conversations. No more point sliders based on silly morality. The game won't judge you on what you do; it will simply react. If you choose to kill someone, you're less likely to get paid for a mission. If you're an evil monster, then the story and its characters adjust. Likewise, if you're a paragon of goodness, the sorts of people who employ a thief might think twice about working with you.

 

In many ways, the game very consciously uses old ideas. It's an argument against the belief that every story that can be told has been told, doing so specifically by remixing dozens of old ideas. It's intended to be like a new dish, but made with many familiar ingredients.

 

Well, I'd hope to write a nice, organized game, but I've spent too much time as it is. Hopefully this sounds pretty cool.

[fuchikoma]

I have a few that I'd like to do, but probably won't...

 

3D Bullet Hell:

 

I want to make a third person bullet hell shooter that preserves the conventions of popular 2D games - for instance, making the player's hitbox smaller than their model, but making it visible so they can dodge effectively. Also, attempts would be made to reproduce similar styles of geometric bullet patterns seen in the 2D games. Checking today, there's at least one game that does this now(!), but most of what I've seen has just been concepts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Time trial Kung-fu:

 

 

(XKCD "Post Office Showdown.")

 

Have you tried to play

It's like a freeform 3D programmable QWOP. It's intensely difficult to not just fall on your face because you have to program every muscle movement explicitly. On the other hand, you can make any possible movement in theory.

 

I'd like to make a game with the same style of programming your moves and then executing them, but with much smarter fighters, so you can tell them things like "run up to that guy, and from 1m away, strike with your elbow on his forehead" and the animation system would make the best effort your physical attributes allowed to do what you tell it to. The scripting would be largely based on connecting your joints or limb segments with corresponding points on the opponents, as either a strike, grab, release or block. (I'm not sure how to balance it yet - maybe you can grab a punch or kick, but depending on force or angle, it might break your wrist or fingers or do more damage than a blocked strike...) This way, you could still do advanced moves like flying knees or throws, but you'd have the versatility of whatever you could think of physics-wise. Foot sweeps, throwing someone by the belt, bone and joint targeted attacks, etc.

 

Then once the engine is in place for that, I'd make single-player mode a time trial challenge! You'd be timed in animation frames, so it makes no difference what speed you watch the fight at, or how much time you spend scripting it, but you'd have to clear different rooms with different props and configuration of non-random (standard, repeatable) AI opponents. You could compete on the leaderboards for who can clear each one the fastest, and watch what would be some truly tiny replay files data-wise.

 

 

Kamizumo:

 

Nothing fancy to this one at all.

I was just thinking it'd be interesting to see how much nuance you could put into simple controls. You could use pressure sensitive buttons, motion sensing, or even button press timing, but it would be a game of trying to tap hard and fast enough to advance on your opponent, but not enough to destabilize yourself. In 2-player, it would sort of be a contest who can keep it closest to the limit, but also watch your wrestler on-screen and respond to the feedback of how you're bouncing and leaning and back off accordingly. I think this could make it the kind of game it's very hard to find the exact perfect strategy for, but one where you could definitely develop a skill for it. It'd be an XBL indie title at best, but anyone could pick it up and have a quick play without much thought.

 

 

 

I also think it'd be an interesting exercise to make a really realistic game where you play as an ordinary monk/nun, of whatever denomination... Certainly no mass appeal there, but I'm sure it would get some press at art games events and some interesting critical feedback. Sort of a mundane experience simulator, like the line-waiting adventure game.

[MasterDex]

I'd love to make a hunting game. I imagine it having fantastical creatures similar to our own with lion-like or elephant-like creatures to hunt. When you kill them (I'm thinking tame them as a possibility too), you can skin and gut them and later use their hides, bones or innards for crafting things like armour, weapons or potions/poisons or food. I know right now it sounds a bit too much like Monster Hunter but stay with me.

 

It'd be done in a first person perspective in a completely open world. The skinning and crafting would have player input. While the skinning would be straight-forward enough with a cut, for example, drawn by the player. The armour crafting would allow some customisation with where to place, for example, a 'lion' pelt or tougher 'elephant' skin while the act of armour crafting itself would feature things like timing button presses to the belt of a hammer. Potions and poisons could be affected on a percentage scale by volume of components with x millilitres of a certain component modifying something like the healing effects of the potion. Include the challenge to match specific ratios for the best results coupled with player controlled mixing through analogue movement. Crafted Items form the crux of the game and support the economy of the in-game world with sellers constantly on the look-out for certain components and other NPC's dispersed throughout the world in various hovels and towns offering rare items for certain crafted items (often rare themselves so there's a sense of equivalent exchange). Online would mean an auction house and p2p trading, obviously.

 

I'd make the game suitable for plugging in plenty of new content and release new creatures, blueprints, formulae, etc as often as possible, building from a base experience. In terms of originality, I don't know if it could really be considered all too original but I think bringing something that's normally left behind the scenes in games under the control of the player is semi-original.

[Thorgi Duke of Frisbee]

I've always wanted to play a game that throws you into the shoes of a cat burglar. Put the player through a small tutorial manor, afterwards dumping him in an entirely open city full of the wealthiest people with the best security systems. Give the player the ability to scout the houses out, learn every single secret, nook and cranny they can before they head off into the act of stealing the jewels/cash/other valuable item. You can hire an entire team (who require their own compensation) or take it on yourself, and the plan would work just like an Ocean's 11 movie. Of course, cops, guards, and other security measures would be out to stop you; if you fail, you're dumped right out of the mansion and given a chance to try it again.

[DocSeuss]

I've always wanted to play a game that throws you into the shoes of a cat burglar. Put the player through a small tutorial manor, afterwards dumping him in an entirely open city full of the wealthiest people with the best security systems. Give the player the ability to scout the houses out, learn every single secret, nook and cranny they can before they head off into the act of stealing the jewels/cash/other valuable item. You can hire an entire team (who require their own compensation) or take it on yourself, and the plan would work just like an Ocean's 11 movie. Of course, cops, guards, and other security measures would be out to stop you; if you fail, you're dumped right out of the mansion and given a chance to try it again.

 

I think heists, at least, as heist flicks go, aren't a viable single-player game mechanic. They're about as valid as competitive Portal multiplayer (I find it really weird that people thought I was crazy for suggesting that it was a horrible idea, but the fact is, as cool as it could be, like heists, it just can't be made to be very fun). I've been thinking about this a lot recently, as I just watched Ocean's 11 and am presently watching Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.

 

Actually, I'm guessing that the heist's awkwardness in games this is the reason why Subversion isn't doing too well.

 

The main problem is artificial intelligence. See, a huge element of the heist genre is improvisation, which AI can't handle very well (there's also the element of misleading the viewer and then revealing how everything was done, but that can't really be done in a game, unfortunately). There are ways to cheat this, I guess. You could, for instance, scout various things, and then tell people to take those tasks on, Mass Effect 2 final mission style, but that wouldn't make you feel very heistey.

 

I would think the best way to do it is SWAT 4 co-op style: multiple players carrying out the mission with various tasks, using five roles (leader, bruiser, face, thief, hacker?). Make it... I dunno, nu-Hitman style (or, hell, old Hitman style) instead of first person. Then you'd cover the AI issue.

 

Otherwise... I guess I'd suggest going with a SP that lets you pick a class and then operate as a member of a team, being told what to do and when to do it. S'not quite as fun, though. It's that damned AI problem.

 

I think heist games are an awesome idea, but I think that they're a bit like Portal versus multiplayer: difficult to make an effective game mechanic.

[Saturnine Tenshi]

Didn't think parenthetical clarification was necessary. I guess it was. ; HO HO HO I'm kidding, chum!

 

I spent a good year developing lore for what I intended to strap onto a nice RPG engine. Bought the commercial license for the two most recent RPGMaker releases(VX and XP, I think). Unfortunately, coaxing programmers into developing custom scripts is far more difficult than, say, children, confectionery and cars. That did, however, facilitate my going about another approach and using that effort to write a true story in the world I crafted. Which was all I really wanted to do, anyway.

 

I'd still like to tackle the original idea. Yet with my wife working at a studio, I'm also down an artist/quasi-programmer.