Third Project - Brainstorming : 1-11-15

Spent Wednesday talking about ideas with the programmers and some of the animators after brainstorming "trust" with them and the audio students. We were thinking about networking but came to the conclusion the it may work at the gallery but would be too complex for itch.io in the time frame we have, I'd rather have the programmers helping in the games production rather than sorting out networking. We were also discussing what the animators are good at and what they need to accomplish, by the sounds of things their theme is mythology.

With this in mind I have come up with  few ideas that have no theme / plot and are mostly about the mechanics so that way they should be flexible enough to accommodate any theme (Norse mythology, Greek mythology, aliens, etc.). They should also be flexible in terms of art style, any of these ideas can be in 3D or 2D, toony or realistic styles.

I managed to come up with the first idea that day (technically it was a few days before this but was more refined on the Wednesday). I was originally thinking a 2D top down, two player survival with friendly fire but now I think it would look better 3D with the camera fixed forward on an acute angle. The players are able to stab each other in the back by shooting each other, when their health drops below half they become very slow and could be used as bait for the monsters in order to escape difficult situations. There would also be multiple levels to help establish trust (or lack there of) between the players.

The second idea I came up with on Thursday is more of a strategy game with some turn based aspects. What I mean is both players have AP and use it to build up little societies but need to give something to the other player in order to refill it. The idea was to be a race to the moon theme where players start in the Middle Ages and work their way up to the Space Age but can attack each other to reduce population or resources the opposing player may have. The trust aspect was mostly just trusting the other player to be making weapons for mining rather than war.

I decided to try a single player game for my third idea where the player is guided to the end goal by an NPC but the NPC kills them in the end. The player put their trust in this NPC just to be stabbed in the back at the end. This was sort of Bioshock inspired, more specifically it was inspired by the "Would you kindly?" phrase. The player is lead down the path thinking their choses are good and their own but reveal they were under the control of another.

The forth idea went back to a two player idea but instead of trusting the other player not to stab them in the back I decided to try something with trusting the other players abilities. One player would run through a dungeon killing stuff while the other rigorously tapped on traps and doors to keep them from activating or closing and screwing over the first player.

The final idea is pretty short but involves a lot of real world communication. One player would be safe in a bunker with enough provisions to last them several years (lets say ten) and the second player would be outside (maybe fighting off monsters) trying to convince the first player to let them in before the time ran out and nukes would drop (so not Fallout 4 inspired). The problem is player one doesn't know if the second player would shoot them or not. If they both survive then the provisions will only last them half the time (so five years) but if player one doesn't let player two in or if player two kills player one then whoever survives will have all the provisions to themselves.

At first I was pushing towards my first idea but now I'm liking the forth one more (shows why multiple ideas are better than the one), however I would like to work on the first idea as a side project. I may start doing this whilst working on the primary project or over the holidays. I already want to continue working on First Horror as well as VIRION during the rest of the trimester so I may leave the new idea for a later date.