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.

Beneath the Ground…

The biggest event of the week so far is some great news that I received just a few hours ago. The fanzine Beneath the Ground, the “intellectual wing” of the turkish game mag Oyungezer has decided to feature one of my articles as part of its February edition. They also made a little interview with me about the state of game industry and game research,  and my current game project IC2010.

Just to remind you: it’s all in turkish! :)

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 #25

2009’s first game idea is about a very simple and loft topic: paper airplanes. Intrigued? Read on! Here comes…

Game Idea #25

Paper Plane Simulator

Paper Plane Simulator is a paper plane game in which you can design your own paper plane and test it under various weather conditions and in different environments.

How far can your design go?

The game has a paper plane editor with a variety of pre-loaded designs that can be altered in order to accentuate certain properties of the design. The design preferences will have an impact on the paper plane’s performance. The players can save their paper planes and test them against the various missions and the career mode that the game provides.

Paper Plane Simulator is a fun little  game that provides us with the joy of creation and exciting spurts of experimentation with our own paper plane designs. 

Note:

For an experiment on paper airplanes with Maya and nCloth visit Colored Mice.