Game Idea #30

I arrived at another milestone: Game Idea #30! It’s a strange feeling to be honest. I remember the day when I wrote down my first idea… 30 weeks have past since then? The sands of time… Anyway, here comes

Game Idea #30

Darwin’s Voyage

Darwin’s Voyage is an adventure game in which you step into the shoes of Charles Darwin. Your goal is to play trough several puzzle-filled levels and collect the items and evidence that allows you to construct the theory of evolution.

Take of from the British Isles and cross the Atlantic Ocean to reach Latin America. Surmount the Magellan Horn, travel the Ands and continue your journey of awakenings until you reach the Galapagos Islands, for a magnificient finale. Travel through dozens of countries, meet dozens of people, collect hundreds of items and unveil the truth of earth, nature, and the species.

Darwins Voyage is a puzzle and adventure loaded game with an educational value. It will keep the player busy for many hours, reliving one of the most important individual adventures in human history.

Game Idea #29

Game Idea #29

Escape from Alcatraz

Escape from Alcatraz is a board game in which player have to find a way to freedom from the infamous prison-island. Players start in the center of the map and dig themselves tunnels to the shores of the island.

Players can do both, go their individual way, or following the footsteps of another player. Following the footsteps of an advanced player is a safe way, however, the advanced player can place traps or obstacles into the way of his followers. On the other hand a leading player will always have to fear surprises that might hit him with the next undug square he enters. 

Escape of Alcatraz is a entertaining game with lots of player interaction and tactical gameplay. Players will also need some luck to be the first to reach the shore. There is only one boat waiting, so it’d be better if you’re that guy.

Game Idea #28

Game Idea #28

Paparazzi

Paparazzi is a board game for at least four players. While each player has a secret affair with another player, each player is also assigned to bring to day the secret affair of his opponents. Hence each player in this game is both, hunter and hunted. The player who manages to bring all secret relations to day before her own relation is being exposed will be “paparazzi”, the winner of the game.

Paparazzi combines mechanics of detective/mistery games with gossip paper ethics in an entertaining puzzle, guessing and secrets trading game.

Game Idea #27

Game Idea #27

Kubooa!

Kubooa! is a strategy game in which you try to blow up your opponents planet by aligning other planets in a way in which they unleash gravitational powers so that everything in the way of this power erupts.

The idea for Kubooa! comes from a news article that was published a few years ago: The article assumed that if all planets in our solar system are aligned on the same axis, their relation would create a gravitational force that would make our Earth erupt! Kubooa! uses this idea as its winning condition. Here you move around tokens that represent planets with different sizes and gravitational forces. Your goal is to create an axis that is strong enough to blow up your opponents planets. But beware: while you try to play tricks on them, they could have some bad surprises for you too.

Kubooa! is an engaging and entertaining strategy game in cosmic settings that follows the gameplay of games like checkers and tic-tac-toe. You’ll be a Death Star in person, and the only true  power you need for this will be logical thinking and strategic finesse.

Game Idea #26

This week’s game idea is very cruel. It is an experiment on how to use the video game medium to create deeply emotional moments during gameplay. It is an attempt to answer the question wether video games can make us cry. Here comes…

Game Idea #26

Waterproof

Waterproof is a FPS that is designed in order to conduct an experiment about player emotions.  The goal is to utilize the normally invisible “fourth wall” (the computer or TV screen) in such a way that it is perceived as part of the game world. This means that the player will be aware of the fourth wall, but still it will not cease the process of immersion. To the opposite it will carry immersion to a level that might cause reactions such as crying.

The frame story in which this emotional experiment will be executed is about a underwater research station that soon becomes subject to mysterious events. The player will be soon forced to find a way out of the station. Not just to save his own life, but also that of his 16 years old daughter. The player must manage to escape rooms and corridors before the automatic waterproof doors are activated and start to isolate the sections of the station that are flooded with massive amounts of water.

The game will utilize many storytelling techniques to create identification between the player and the daughter. This will be crucial for one of the  possible ends of the game, in which the daughter will get locked in a room and drown in front of our eyes. During this scene we will run through a door in the last second and see that our daughter got trapped. The water will soon start to flood the room and we will watch the events through the small visor screen of the waterproof door.  We will see her trying to find ways to get out, but she will not be able to do so. Finally she will turn to the visor we look through:  our computer screen. It will be the water and bullet proof window towards which she will scream and put her hands on while she waits for her death.

Btw, half the way of my self-imposed 52 Game Ideas challenge is done. Only half a year to go! Actually I started playing with the idea if I should start a second year: 104 Game Ideas :)

Game Idea #23

This week’s idea is based on an tribute to one of my favorite games, X-Com Apocalyse. However the way I envision it, it is placed into the settings of an island with political unrest and power struggle, very similar to Jagged Alliance. Here comes…

Game Idea #23

Guerillas

Guerillas is a RTS game with lots of challenging maps and tactical missions.

You are the leader of a resistance organization located on an island in the Dalmatian Archipelago. It is towards the end of the Second World War and the island is under occupation of Italian and German forces.

The Allied Forces have established contact with you and they want to create a resistance front on the island which would help driving the invaders out and spark similar resistance on neighboring islands, enabling seafare for ships under the flag of the Allies.

As the leader of the movement, it is your task to recruit volunteers for the task, ensure the logistic support of the island population, create saved zones, launch attacks on Axis Forces troops and Convoys, cut their support lines and gradually liberate the island.

 

Game Idea #22

This week’s game idea was inspired by a debate on torture in games  on Raph Koster’s blog. I want to bring the player to a point where she is left alone with the heavy burden of a moral dilemma.  Here is…

Game Idea #22

Carcass

Carcass is an adventure game in which you are in the shoes of an Amnesty International volunteer who is sent to New Orleans to research a torture case in which a group of local  policemen are accussed to have mishandled and tortured a group of mostly black civilians. Your goal in the game is to investigate the case and bring those who are responsible in front of law and hopefully behind iron bars. 

There are a variety of puzzles and interconnected events that give you clues about how things happened and who was responsible for the violent acts. In the process, you become subject to hostile action yourself. You receive anonymous letters, you find your hotel room broken in and chased by cars etc. But there is more: some of your eyewitnesses will change their statements, official papers will get lost etc. You will enage into a variety of deeply touching and disturbing conversations with officials, eyewitnesses, local inhabitants, victims and the accussed.

The game ends at the point where there is no doubt that those accused have tortured the victims. All you need is a confession, someone to witness against them. But the spiral of silence can’t be broken…  Only a confession of those responsible will get them behind iron bars.

In the final shot/cutscene your avatar will come close-up to the camera and stares at you while the guilty but untouchables are sitting in the interrogation room in the background. Your avatar then exits the frame and you are left watching the guilty ones.

Game Idea #21

Game Idea #21 is about Diaphainein, a Cloud City. It is one of the visions I maintain about my favorite story in Italo Calvino’s “Invisible Cities”, the story about the portable city Sophronia. I imagine Diaphaeinein as a nomadic city, a wandering star, a cloud city that moves with the winds and hides  behind clouds to protect itself from the eyes of  too ambitious earthlings.

To connect this idea to another novel of Italo Calvino: I also imagine Diaphainein as the final destination of Cosimo, the hero in Il Barone Rampante.

Anyway, now let the game speak for itself. Here comes:

Game Idea #21:

Diaphainein

Backstory

The next time when you look up to the sky, be patient and look deep into the clouds. After a while your eyes will see in a way they haven’t seen before. Then you will notice a big cloud within the clouds. It has a slightly different shade and shape. Very gently this different cloud will come to the foreground. Then you will suddenly see the white ropes and white baskets attached to it. And the big white magnificient balloons… Ah, there it is! You see it now: Yes, this is Diaphainein. Loft like an ocean of cotton it is. Enjoy this moment in which it reveals its beauty to you; close your eyes, carve this image into your memory. Imagine yourself up there, yes, look down to the slowly travelling fields and rivers below. Feel the wind in your hair, greet the birds on their way to the South. Now open your eyes and look at it again… Ha! It’s gone. There the clouds travel along with the busy winds, carrying away with them the most amazing of secrets. No, don’t even try. Noone will believe you.

Gameplay

In Diaphainein you are the captain and major of a cloud city. Your goal is the steer your city safely through the skies through valleys and over mountains and oceans without exposing it to the ambitious earthlings that are a threat to your peaceful lifestyle. In the process you must collect resources, protect yourself from storms, grow the size of your population and city, build new housing units, public spaces, and most important, maintain your altitude.

The game ends when Diaphainein touches the ground or is shot down by evil earthlings because it was exposed to them.

A Different  Scenario

“It was a wonderful afternoon. I ran through fields, climbed on trees, walked through shallow waters. I played with everything I could find: Sand, mud, stones, roots, grass. Soil; red soil, brown soil, black soil. Earth was so rich.

Finally I laid on the gentle ground of the greenest of clearings and watched the clouds passing by. “How different they look from here I thought”, and fell into a sweet sleep. In my dream I saw Diaphainein floating through the air above me. It filled my heart with bliss and joy to imagine it this way.

When I woke up, the sun was almost sinking. “It’s late!” I heard myself saying. The way these words came out of my mouth -almost automatically- made me even more anxious. I ran the whole way back to the spot where we had anchored. And when I finally arrived there and looked up to the sky, all I saw were clouds. Big white clouds.  My city was gone. Diaphainein had taken off without me.”

 

Game Idea #19

Game Idea #19

Paradice

Paradice is an arcade game about a snowman who wants to reach the Antarctica to find eternal peace.

The game consists of several levels in which the player must collect a  number of snowballs and other items without being caught by a group of humans that chase him with shovels. This is a tricky task, not just because the shovelers co-operate in chasing the snowman, but also because as time passes by, the sun comes up and it gets hotter, causing our snowman to melt down. The snowman will be defeated if he melts down before accomplishing his goal (or if he gets caught by one of the shovelers). However, power-ups will reverse the situation and freeze the shovelers and once our snowman catches them, they are sent back home in front of a chauminee, where it will take some time until they normalize and come back to chase him.

Paradice is a simple game of the Pacman tradition and it is supposed to help us to kill a few minutes inbetween work to get a moment of relief.

Game Idea #18

This weeks idea is reserved to one of the heroes of my childhood: Tarzan. I was lucky enough to watch almost all of the movies which featured Johnny Weissmüller as the legendary king of the jungle. Maybe the time has come to make a game for this character with the signature cry! Here comes…

"COMMUNICAAAATIOOOON!!!"

Game Idea # 18

Tarzan

Tarzan is a TPS in the settings of an African jungle. You control Tarzan, the king of the jungle, and protect your family (your wife Jane, + your son and daughter), the natives and all the animals from the evil intruders who dared to disturb the peace of your kingdom. Your ultimate goal is to drive them out and restore the order of the jungle.

Next to all typical types of moves in a TPS (think of Lara Croft, Spiderman or Max Payne), in Tarzan you can move your character quickly trough the jungle by using rope-like plants or by swinging from tree-branch to tree-branch. These are tactical elements which give you an advantage over your enemies which rather move on the ground of the jungle. Since you are Tarzan, a human raised by animals, you also have psionic powers which enable you to control animals and let them carry out certain actions. You will make use of the abilities of birds, mammals or reptiles which will all be of help to you as you must solve certain puzzles while you try to beat the intruders.

Tarzan is a world made up of myth and truth, legend and nature, fantasy and reality. You will acrobatic action and pictoresque peace. You battle cry will put its mark onto the jungle.