Christmas Wish Contest (We'll make your game for you)

Make games! Discuss those games here.

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TMC
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Christmas Wish Contest (We'll make your game for you)

Post by TMC »

SDHawk, Giz and I were sitting around in IRC (i.e. our bedrooms) lamenting that we'd not released a game this year and/or hadn't reached our annual quotas, and decided to do something about it. Predictably we couldn't agree on which marvellous idea to pursue.

That's where you come in!

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Design a game, and we will attempt to turn it into reality before the end of the year (or possibly before Christmas).

- You have exactly [s]five[/s] seven days from right now to submit your proposal (but we may be flexible if you want to elaborate later). Post here or email or PM or however you want to enter.
- Proposals from newbies may get bonus points
- We'll pick one winner, unless all submissions are too unsuitable/unrealistic/unagreeable. Your prize is that we make an honest attempt to create your game and release before Jan 1st (in which case everyone wins something).
- We're the ones making the game, we don't particularly want additional oversight or control from you. We may or may not share our progress with you or the public until the horrible end.
- You give us the moral right to make whatever we want out of your idea, even a satirical/mocking interpretation if it's called for. But we will treat the design as a constraint to be followed, in the main.

Requirements:
- It should be simple/unambitious enough to actually be doable in a few weeks at a low pace of free-time work. We have other things to do too.
- Flesh out the idea a bit (e.g. a design doc). Remember, we're asking for someone to make the difficult decisions, a one-sentence summary doesn't help. More detail will definitely work in your favour. Consider including details like maps, dialogue, art direction, mockups (all optional of course)
- I guess it doesn't have to be a good proposal. If you give us bad or ridiculous ideas, that may be amusing or just give us an easy excuse.


Google Search "Awesome game idea"

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Last edited by TMC on Thu Dec 31, 2015 7:13 pm, edited 9 times in total.
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Bob the Hamster
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Post by Bob the Hamster »

I love this idea!

I am really looking forward to seeing what people suggest
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Post by sheamkennedy »

I have an idea which is very simple, no dialogue necessary, no character building...

The idea is to make a something similar to the "Game and Watch Gallery" games for gameboy with a Santa's workshop theme.

For example Game and Watch Gallery usually consists of many simple minigames in which the player attempt to get a high score. Getting a certain score results in a new minigame becoming available from the startup menu. For simplicity I suggest there be 3 minigames initially available and if you get the proper score in each one then a fourth final minigame be made available which somehow concludes the game.

Some examples of minigames you could make:
-a game in which you play as elves loading gifts in to santas sleigh.
-a factory type game where you play as elves working in some sort of assembly line with increasing speed of workflow.
-a game in which you have to avoid something, perhaps snowballs that are flying at you.
-feeding reindeer
-the final game could be something to do with Santa delivering the presents. Maybe you have to make the sleigh avoid clouds, or maybe you have to click a button to trigger presents to be dropped down chimneys.

In terms of art you can really do anything. It would be sweet if you could make it look in the style of old game and watch games. These games tend to have a very minimalistic style with choppy animation. I really like the style in which you can see a faded version of each animation frame in the background (see the very bottom image for reference).

Here's some reference images:
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Post by Gizmog »

That Game and Watch idea is kind of fun, and I don't want to take anything away from it. I just had to share this PM I received though! It's so sad, and especially around the Holidays-
Dear TMC Christmas Contest,

I have an idea for your contest that I don't dare share publically because of persecution. I'm that rare combination-nerd: RPGs and Sports. It's always shocked me how inclusive RPG Communities are until you say you like Sports.. and then suddenly you're that demonic musclehead who can't satisfy his lust for cheerleaders and stuffing nerds in lockers (Hey, that sounds like a pretty good game! -TG) who gets ostracized from all community activities.. I know, it's so unfair! Wasn't Sabin the greatest character in FF6? Blitzball! The hypocrisy is mind-boggling...

But I'm not here to yell about people closing their hearts to the spirit of competition. I'm here to tell you about a game! I think it would be super coolio to have an American-Rules (America DOES rule.. -TG Football RPG! You'd play a shrimpy little guy who just got picked up by the team, and on every play you'd sacrifice your health to try to turn the tide of battle... but you have to be careful! Run out of health and the team has to go without you.. maybe for multiple games. Ideally, the game would end with your team winning the playoffs thanks to the football beast you've progressed into! Kind of a stat-building, time-management strategy thing... but most importantly, it'd let nerds relate to jocks on a base level.. stats and gains, bros!

I think this game would be an important step towards making sports socially acceptable and I hope you'll consider that social service angle when you make your choice. As a sports fan yourself, I'm sure you know what I mean.
I've never read anything so touching in all my 83 years.. though I don't know why he thinks I'm a sportsfan. If TMC and Hawk don't go for that, wow... their hearts must be made of stone.
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Post by sheamkennedy »

That was touching and a great idea for a game too. You don't see many sports games pop up these days either. I actually remember an old NES game I really liked, it was a Basketball game and was actually pretty fun despite the limited functionality. The best part was the free throws because it would give you a side-to-side meter and an up-and-down meter that move rapidly and you'd have to time your button press to try and centre them to make a successful shot. Now if this were to somehow have a stats system where success of certain events was based on a stats algorithm then it would have made it that much better.

Another really neat sports-like game was Super Dodgeball for NES. I absolutely loved that game! Also it was kind of stats based but you couldn't raise your stats. Essentially each players stats were based on their haircut, thus if you understood the stats differences you could use this to your advantage to win. I also kind of used the layout of the court as a reference for my game Gun Pigs which is sort of sports meets gun fight (and not at all stats based).

Also I think whomever posted this might be surprised with the actual reaction of the community to sports, I think they are imagining the worst case scenario. I for instance like certain sports and played sports all through middle school and high school. I also watch sports occasionally too. I mainly played basketball, Canadian football (similar to American but slightly different rules and terminology), rugby (probably my favourite to play), also long distance running in track and field, and Taekwon-Do (which I have a black belt in).

In terms of watching sports I tend to watch Basketball, Rugby and Hockey since I find them fast paced. Most other sports I tend to find boring to watch but that's just my opinion.

I think sports are very similar to some video games in a way. There are set constraints/rules as to what the player can do to accomplish some sort of goal. I suppose RPG's are more task based which kind of is different, not to mention they have some sort of storyline whereas sports do not (hmmm, sports with storylines... that'd be interesting).

Hopefully I don't get heckled for saying all this but I trust that most people will respect that I like some sports, in the same way that I'd be open minded to the things that other people like.
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Post by SDHawk »

Unfortunately it seems that anonymous has also contacted me:
After hearing Giz and sheamkennedy say all those supportive things about sports I'm starting to feel a lot better about myself! Now that I know there are so many fellow sports fans out there I feel much more confident about making my dream game myself. So I'm writing in to ask you guys to please not make my Football RPG so I can do it myself! Thank you so much for giving me the confidence to go out there and do this.
So the hunt is still on for YOUR game ideas.
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Post by Spoonweaver »

:zombie: Necro Atsume! :zombie:

The undead collection game.
The spiritual successor of Neko Atsume.
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feed them flesh and even brains; instead of cat food
have a graveyard; instead of a backyard
place gravestones, hangman trees, and pumpkins; instead of cat toys

AN INSTANT CLASSIC!
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Post by Mogri »

Make a game about football players, but all of the actual football is automated and takes place largely offscreen.
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Post by TMC »

Dear Repressed Football fan,

I'm warmed to hear that you've regained some confidence in your self-image, though it's too bad you've withdrawn. This idea of a sports game where you play the wimpy player risking their lives and doomed to get trodden underfoot would resonate with vitamin D-deficient nerds everywhere, I'm sure. More seriously I think it has merit. Plus I think Giz, sheamkennedy and Mogri all brought up some neat ideas which I hope you'll incorporate, namely stats depending on haircuts, stuffing people in lockers, and possibly avoiding unnecessary depiction of football (that stuff's hard! Keep it simple!)

Regards,
TMC's A-team.

---------------------------------

Actually Spoonweaver, that cats herding game you suggested seems like a good idea to me. I don't really know what cats and undead have to do with each other. Do you at least set your undead loose on some fearful souls? Are the zombies cute? Facing lack of better motivation if we used this idea I think I would just tone down the emphasis on undead... maybe to zero.

---------------------------------

We've also received a short design document for a combination shmup-RPG. It's nice to see something actually elaborated a bit and which tries to sell its novelty. (I forgot to say that originality is definitely good, all three of us are interested in experimenting with game ideas.) I guess that brings the number of non-withdrawn suggestions to four already!
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Post by sheamkennedy »

I look forward to this football game in the future!
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Post by kylekrack »

A while back I had an idea revolving around controlling multiple different characters independently from one another. I began putting a tech demo together for it, but I never finished and that's lost by now. Anyway, the way I had it set up was by disabling caterpillar mode on the 4 heroes in a party, and then having one button cycle through the heroes. Switching to a hero would focus the camera on them, and make the arrow keys only move that hero. It's a simple concept, but could allow for some difficult gameplay, being able to manage the actions of multiple different characters semi-simultaneously.

This function could run in any direction, but I think it might be fun (and not too terribly complex) to have a sort of defense game, where you control the defenders. Let's say you're defending a castle from an incoming siege (or multiple sieges/stages/levels). You have archers on top, manning ballistas or firing at enemies coming up on ladders. You have other soldiers fighting enemies who've made it on top of the walls, or manning cannons on top. You have men below, barricading the front gate, medics to tend to wounded soldiers, and whatever other jobs need to be done within castle walls.

Perhaps not all of those positions should exist, so that it doesn't become overwhelming for the player. However, many of the actions could be automated, and the player more or less controls the positioning or tagetting of the soldiers. I've seen defense games like this before, but I found that they tend to undermine the importance of the backstage jobs. Perhaps the game could focus more on this, or somehow make it more interesting. To clarify on that, think of the "peasants" or "workers" in RTS games. You order them to go mine gold to make money so you can produce more units. But if you lowered the complexity of the actual fighting, I feel you could make much more out of the "workers'" jobs. Or, the game could only focus on those atop the castle walls. Either way would work.

I hope this idea isn't too vague or all over the place to even be helpful. I'm always happy to clarify on things that don't make sense.

P.S. I'm thinking there could also be a lot more to this game as well, if you had the time and effort to put politics and economics into play. Negotiating with other kingdoms and trading to buy new technologies, more men, and greater defenses. That sounds like a much grander scale, but would be pretty cool.
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Post by sheamkennedy »

@kyle: Neat idea. I've often thought about cycling through characters like that for a game too. Personally I'd say it would be cool to use this technique of handling multiple players for a infiltration type game. I'm thinking something like Metal Gear Solid but where you cycle through the control of multiple characters in order to dupe the guards and open up security measures that could not normally be opened by one person (for example one character steps on a pressure plate which opens a gate, the other player can then walk through the gate while the first player is standing on the plate). This actually totally reminds me of the gameplay of Lost Vikings 2 (I'm sure Lost Vikings is like this too but I've only ever played the second game in the series).
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Post by TMC »

On second thoughts, I won't count one sentence descriptions as entries. Spoonweaver's is very short, but "exactly like this existing game but with these changes" is actually pretty specific. However I'd never heard of Neko Atsume, and can't install it on my phone, so that's not so good.

Brainstorming ideas is only the first stage of designing a game. I'd like to encourage contestants to try to nail something down after their brainstorming: try to think through how these pieces would fit together, which parts are still unexplained, and which ideas are just distractions or too complex. Decisions have to be made! Although I try to write down designs I know a personal flaw is that I never delete anything from the design, I just move it to the "later" section, and I'm hopelessly indecisive when moving past brainstorming. In fact this is the main reason my Random Collab this year failed: neither Ichiro or I would make any decisions. And it's for a similar reason that Giz, Hawk and I decided to run this contest.

I think Kyle's got some nice ideas (in fact that sort of castle defense game is something I've always wanted to make, and I know similar games are a lot of fun), but as Hawk said in IRC, it's more a pool of ideas than a design. If you want my opinion, sure, managing the backstage jobs as well would be interesting, although not essential. Politics and economics sounds like a whole 'nother game.
Last edited by TMC on Sat Dec 05, 2015 10:47 am, edited 5 times in total.
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Post by SDHawk »

To sort of clarify on TMC's post.. what we mean is we want more exact descriptions. Many of the entries so far are pretty free form in that they offer several possible ideas to work with, rather than a specific thing to make. Basically you're restraining yourselves thinking that we want idea suggestions that give us room for our own ideas, but what we actually want is more of a dictatorship that specifies exactly what everything is and why it's there.

To take kyle's idea as an example: What are the exact class types available to the player? How do they relate to each other? How do they function? Does a miner just have to walk to an ore node, press enter to get ore, then walk back to base or is it more involved than that? What does the AI of each unit the player isn't controlling do exactly (would a miner still mine, or is it limited to only fighters attacking any nearby enemies? Can the player get them to follow them around?)? How many characters does the player have total, do they create more or do they respawn on a timer after death? How exactly do they target enemy units? What are the exact types of enemies that will attack the player, what is their behavior, what do their attacks do, and what are the best/worst means of dealing with them? Are there different levels or does the game keep going infinitely? What would each level be composed of? How do upgrades and building stuff all work exactly? What ARE all the buildings, upgrades, etc and what does each do? Do you build your own walls or are do they start with them? Is there a story? What's the story about, what are the plot points, how do they relate to the level structure? What's the setting exactly- fantasy or sci-fi or wild west or something else?

These are the kinds of questions we want answered in your final proposals. As much as you can think of. We want blueprints, not just ideas. Use visual concepts if need be. The less thinking we have to do about a design, the more likely we are to use yours.

Of course if we run into problems with the details after seeing them in action, we'll make the adjustments as needed (or cut things / scale things down if they're too much) so don't stress too much about making the details air-tight. And feel free to post in here with your brainstorming ideas as you develop them. Just try to present them in a more concrete form before the deadline. Of course multiple entries per person are allowed if you want, just try to make each a detailed proposal.

(Don't worry too much about exact scripting implementation details/complexity either, we're all proficient programmers. Just worry about keeping the overall scale down so we have enough time to get it all done. But DO worry about implementation details like what the controls for the game are. )
Last edited by SDHawk on Sat Dec 05, 2015 11:29 am, edited 4 times in total.
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Post by kylekrack »

I wasn't sure how specific you wanted me to be. I can definitely elaborate on everything and give you exactly what I had in mind for that game. Give me some time and I'll have everything.
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