I'm a game designer. That means I solve problems.
Not problems like 'What is beauty?' because that falls the purview of your conundrums of graphic design.
I solve practical problems.
Fr'instance, how do I allow you video game fanatics to tear some virtual mean old mother hubbard a superfluous new behind?
Traditionally, I'd use a gun. And if that don't work, I'd create a different gun.
Like the one featured in my game on the Play Store that was
designed by me,
built by me
and my hope is,
now enjoyed by you.
Typical Disney-style story of a kingdom with an anxious new ruler whose inherited chief advisor has a goatee, dresses in black and red, smirks a lot and keeps a snake as a pet.
Every single villanous plot to overthrow the kind and âweakâ ruler fail because the advisor is 110% loyal but his vibes make all the baddies assume heâll help out in the insidious coup plan so they recruit him, and he absolutely delights in puppeteering wannabe autocrats into digging their own graves. He doesnât want to rule, heâs having way too much fun being a villain honey trap.
Add-on to this idea: the ruler and the advisor have some elaborate code speak based on like gardening or knitting or something (because chess would be too obvious) to secretly keep each other up to date on ongoing plots. When the advisor slips up at one point, and is kidnapped and replaced with an impostor, this is what alarms the ruler to that the rescue ninja need to be sent out.
âYeah the shadow clobe was perfect except he had no idea how to prune grapes properly.â
To my 25 - 35 year olds, you've reached the age where people around you are starting to give up on themselves because they think it's too late. Don't let that energy rub off on you. It's not too late.
Concept: conservationist metroidvania where the only way to get the best ending is to avoid killing any of the endangered local wildlife, which gets progressively harder throughout the game because each mobility upgrade creates new ways to accidentally explode critters.
This post has received the expected range of pissing-on-the-poor responses (e.g., people ignoring the particulars of the proposed scenario and assuming that I just don't know what a pacifist run is, or that I'm falsely claiming to have invented the idea, or that I'm unaware of other metroidvanias which have implemented pacifist runs in the past, etc.), but I've gotta admit I'm a little bit fascinated by the one that was like "this is just Pikmin".
I feel like the particulars of the scenario aren't obviously distinguishable from a pacifist run because people underestimate the impact of developers being actively adversarial to a pacifist run. Most people's video game experience is limited to games that the developers want a wide audience to complete!
Yes, most games have pacifist runs, some even with official support, but it's rarely a major focus of development or mechanics. You may think the devs of a particular game are out to get you - I can assure you they are not. But they could be.
I'm imagining stuff like it being possible to kill something underneath the platform you're running across if you use the wrong dash mechanic - if you go too slowly, the platform falls and crushes it, if you go too fast, the explosions caused by your big stompy feet crush it instead. (And of course, the hitboxes are always slightly larger and longer-lasting than the effects.)
You need to picture a game where every single mobility upgrade has the same potential for accidentally fragging random wildlife as Metroid's screw attack. The high jump boots cause you to emit a damaging plume of superheated exhaust every single time you jump. There's a ubiquitous species of frugivorous quasi-simians that think your bombs look delicious and will steal and eat them (and then blow up) if you set one within their line of sight. The upgrade that gives you immunity to environmental damage takes the form of a shimmering force field that attracts small birds and fries them like a bug zapper.
The stealth upgrade lets you bypass certain large predators, but conversely, there are prey species where if you decloak within a certain radius of them, they have a heart attack and die of surprise.
The upgrade that confers knockback immunity is better to avoid entirely in the conservationist run unless you're also going for 100% because it causes creatures with ramming attacks to take potentially lethal contact damage as they slam into your immovable bulk.
The Sound of Silence is a horror games that dynamically adapts to a personâs greatest fear. It will deliver a different experience to each player. The game is said to be released in early 2014.
Puzzle platformer that plays the whole "the robot needs to have boobs because they contain [insert vital system here]" trope 100% straight and allows you to modify the player character's capabilities by equipping various sorts of boobs. You have separate left and right boob slots, and some of the possible combos are hugely busted.
theres too many pokemon games where you play as a kid whos full of life and full of potential. there needs to be a pokemon game where you play as a college dropout who lives in a shitty apartment
your starter pokemon are trubbish, rattata and glameow. which symbolise the trash you keep forgetting to take out, the rats living in your walls and the stray cat you keep trying to befriend but it keeps hissing at you.
you guys dont get it its not supposed to be dark and edgy its supposed to be living in a mundane setting and slowly rediscovering the wonder in the world by going on a journey with a magical trash bag that is your friend, its about love and recovery and coping with the stress of your adult life with your friend who is made of sentient garbage
You get home from work. Finally. The sun's already set outside your apartment window. At least your apartment has a window.
You discard most of your work uniform in the corner with the other laundry and click on the TV before landing in your couch with a heavy sigh. The blue light of the TV floods the otherwise dark room.
"Joining us today for an exclusive interview is Red, four time Pokemon League Champion, who also famously disbanded criminal organization Team Rocket at least twice! Thank you so much for tuning in."
Pokemon league champion, huh? You think to yourself. You used to want that. A child's dream - it was silly, really....
You'd heard of Red - of course you have, you don't live under a rock - but this was the first time seeing them up close, no filter. They looked tired. They actually looked about your age.
"Now Red," the reporter continued, "You've already told us about your travels through the world, your experiences as Champion, and your fight against Team Rocket and similar criminal organizations. I know we're almost out of time but there's one last thing we'd like to hear from you - do you have any words for the future generation of Pokemon trainers? Any advice for those just at the start of their journey?"
The Champion waited a moment before answering: "Yes. I meet a lot of people. A lot of people who used to want to be trainers. And I understand, it's not for everyone. But, people say 'Oh, you're still going at your age?' or 'Oh, I wanted to when I was younger,' or 'Oh, I couldn't now, I'm too old.'" Red shook their head sadly. "These people are my age, maybe even younger. They're wrong. It doesn't matter how old you are and it never did. It doesn't matter if you never got a Pokemon from the local professor at ten years old. It's not just for children. It's for everyone. The bond between people and Pokemon is not something you miss out on just because you had to grow up."
Red pauses again, and you realize you're paying more attention to the program than you thought you were.
"Pokemon are everywhere. The world is filled with magic. It's never too late."
"It's never too late..." you repeat under your breath. Something about the Champion's words clicked inside your brain. The world is full of magic....
As if on cue, sounds from within your apartment catch your attention: Rustling in your garbage can, scrabbling inside the wall, clawing at your window.
Cautiously you approach your trash can. It smells terrible, but then again it always does. You slowly lift the lid, and the rubbish inside shifts to reveal a green bag with white eyes. You knew that Trubbish were born from waste and preferred unsanitary environments, but you didn't think it'd been that long since you took the trash out.
The Pokemon shuffles to try and hide and knocks the bin over in doing so, spilling itself out onto the floor. You chuckle a bit.
"I guess now the trash can take itself out," you joke. The Trubbish seems upset by the quip. "Oh no, no, it's ok," you correct yourself, trying to spare its feelings. You find this creature, born of rubbish against its will, to be relatable. After all, you didn't ask to be in this trash heap either.
"It's ok," you repeat, more softly this time. "I'm. I'm trash too."
The stench from the trash can starts to dissipate as the Trubbish's... bag ties? ears? perk up at the attempted sympathy.
[A bond has been formed.]
~~~
[INVESTIGATE WALL]
You'd always blamed the noises coming through the walls on the neighbors, but this is too close to deny: it simply isn't a human-made noise. You locate a crack in the wall that you hadn't noticed before. The sound is getting louder. The sound is getting closer.
A piece of drywall crumbles away. You have just long enough to think Damn, I'm not getting my deposit back, before a very startled Rattata leaps through the newly made hole and bowls you over. You land badly on your ankle and let out a cry of pain, crashing to the floor.
That's definitely sprained... you think, holding your injured foot as you lie there in temporary shock. The Rattata seems apologetic. It vanishes back into the wall for a moment.
You swear. At least you have a compression bandage in your first aid kit. While you contemplate how best to stand without putting yourself in further pain, the Pokemon reappears, carrying a small blue fruit in its mouth. It drops the fruit beside you and rolls it towards you with a paw.
An Oran Berry, you recognize. Of course - Pokemon eat berries when they're hurt. Touched by the gesture, or perhaps not wanting to hurt the little creature's feelings, you take a bite.
It tastes terrible, but you power through it; you've eaten worse. Either by the berry's healing properties or the Pokemon's kindness, your pain eases a little.
[A bond has been formed.]
~~~
[INVESTIGATE WINDOW]
You go to your window and struggle for a moment to pull up the tattered blinds. You see two glowing eyes in the darkness. A Pokemon? They certainly don't look human, anyways. As a matter of fact, they seem familiar. The impatient scratching continues.
You open the window. A small, cat-like Pokemon hops inside, as if indignant at being kept waiting. You recognize this pokemon by the notch in its ear as the stray Glameow you've been trying to befriend.
It hisses at you. Which, for this particular Pokemon, is typical. As you go to shut the window you notice that it's favoring one of its legs while it walks.
Is it injured? Did it come to you for help? You were pretty certain this pokemon hated you. But, sure enough, you notice a cut on the Glameow's leg as it hops up onto your couch, as if it already lived here.
The Glameow seems to be avoiding eye contact. It occurs to you that it may have had no where else to go. You rummage through your cupboards to try and find a remedy. You remember seeing on the news that lemonade can be used in place of medicine for Pokemon who are injured. Moo Moo Milk is better, but you don't have any. You stopped buying it because it always spoils before you remember to drink it.
You had exactly one can of lemonade left. You crack it open and pour it into a bowl. The Glameow hisses again when you offer it, but soon gives the liquid a sniff before drinking it slowly.
You never realized how quickly Pokemon could heal. After it finishes its drink, it allows you to pat it on the head...
... for about two seconds before it hisses again. Still, the little Pokemon doesn't try to escape. It simply curls up on your couch and falls asleep.
Game where the ancient hero is awakened from the deathless sleep of centuries in the hour of their people's greatest need, only to find that civilisation is thriving and there are no obvious threats on the horizon; the game then becomes a fish-out-of-water detective sim as they try to figure out what woke them up, and also solve other, smaller mysteries along the way.
razes your village and cuts down your parents in front of you, leaving a sword at your feet and telling you to become a worthy rival and take revenge. five years later you've finally tracked me down, but when you arrive I'm already bleeding out in the arms of a different girl i did the same thing to
There's so many horror games about having to try to weed out and deal with inhuman imposters, but I want one where the script is flipped. You are something inhuman, you are an imposter, and if you want to survive you have to blend into a world that is trying to hunt you down and destroy you. You aren't human, but you must masquerade as one and infiltrate their world, or you will die.
I actually think we need to start inverting more Horror premises/tropes.
Like "You have to venture into the scary insane asylum!" VS "You're a patient who was admitted by force to an asylum, and you are very clearly in real danger, but everyone is pretending that you're just deluded, and are essentially leaving you to die because they don't really see you as a person."
I feel like there's a lot of Horror tropes built off of the fear of the other, when in reality it's actually often the other who is in danger. Maybe we could start recognising that more.
Interesting how the first half of the post has picked up popularity while the second part, which perhaps clarifies the idea of the original post, hasn't.
It's been interesting to see what media people are recommending based on the first post alone. A lot of recommendations for games/franchises like World of Darkness, Carrion, Kill All Humans, Among Us, etc. It's interesting because these are games that put you into the shoes of the violent other that has to infiltrate, without actually challenging the idea that the other is a threat. They actually parrot the ideas of the other as violent.
Funnily enough, the people recommending the comedy game Octodad understand the post much better than most of the people recommending horror media. A few mentions of Am I Nima, which isn't finished yet but does look like it could be what I am describing, so brownie points to the people recommending that.
But everyone saying stuff like "This is just being Trans/Autistic/Etc" really gets it, like really really gets it. Horror always communicates the fears and anxieties of the people who create it, this post was basically: "What if instead of communicating the fear of the other, we communicated the fears of the others, which are actually vastly more legitimate than the dominant groups fear of the other. We should recognise that it is overwhelmingly the others who are the ones who actually suffer and die, all for the perceived "saftey" and "comfort" of the dominant group."
This idea is about transphobia, it is about ableism, about anti-imigrant rhetoric and white supremacy, about queerphobia, it's about all of it. It is horror from the perspective of minority groups. It is the twisting of a trope built upon reactionary fears and narratives in order to critique them, it is a direct allegory for all those experiences you are describing.
Overall, it's just interesting to see who gets it and who doesn't.
really mean minecraft mod idea: rituals that work but in a very vague and hard to understand ways
at the start of a world, a set of actions are randomly chosen which have some positive effect. walking counterclockwise around a tree or throwing an item into a fire or killing an animal with an axe. there has to be a very large number of possible actions such that they won't seem to repeat.
when doing a ritual, you get a buff that's clearly there but kind of subtle. maybe ores drop more, or monsters don't hurt as much. it's never communicated that you have a buff, the idea is that you accidentally do a ritual and notice "oh shit I'm getting really lucky, maybe I should do that more"
there's also a set of attributes which can greatly increase the effectiveness of your rituals, completely randomized per world of course. sometimes it's additional steps, drawn from the same set as before. sometimes it's decorating the ritual site in a particular way, with skulls or candles or flowers. maybe it's more effective at a certain time of day or phase of the moon. maybe it's more effective on the top of a mountain or in a cave.
because the magnitude and duration of the buff is randomized, you can't really know if stuff you're doing is helping, but you'll be always trying shit out and modifying your rituals. the buffs get really impactful, and you can hardly play the game without them.
after a while you'll build up elaborate rituals and intricate temples housing them, and importantly
half the shit you're doing does absolutely nothing
if you get lucky a few times with a modification to the ritual you'll adopt it even if it actually does nothing. depending on how succeptible to confirmation bias you are, you might develop whole rituals that literally do nothing but you're entirely convinced that they do. you'll be dancing around trees and putting pumpkins on your head for literally no measurable benefit.
will this be actually fun? probably not. will I actually make this? absolutely not. i just think it would be an interesting case study in behavior. if someone wants to steal my idea, please do and tell me so I can play it.
I think another common misstep people make with cosmic horror is an overreliance on secular nihilism and extraterrestrial theosophy (idk what else to call Ancient Aliens/Chariots of the Gods stuff). Part of the actual horror of cosmic horror comes from the twisting of the charactersâ world view, the fundamental understanding of the universe being turned upside down, which is something entirely relative to the characters themselves.
But so many half-hearted attempts at cosmic horror just drop âThere is no God, it was always space squidsâ like itâs some kind of universal maxim on the characters and then just⊠leaves it, regardless of how it actually affects the characters or setting. (Itâs particularly jarring when itâs ham-fisted into high fantasy or sci-fi where itâs like yeah, man; no duh thereâs space squids. You tried to make-out with one last week.)
The revelation of cosmic truth has to be meaningful to the characters. If your character believes in a fundamentally good and reasonable universe, then you can hit them with the old-fashioned cosmic nihilism. But if theyâre already cynical and skeptical, then you need to show them something else, like that there is, in fact, a God, but sheâs actually a giant cat that feeds off of childrenâs tears, and that everything in the charactersâ lives that they attributed to free will and chance were actually her grand design. Something like that.
i do not âdelete sentencesâ when they start âhindering the plotâ i COPY PASTE THEM into a SEPARATE DOC made just for keeping all my USELESS LINES that i will also NEVER USE so therefore i should JUST DELETE THEM but i DONT because id FEEL BAD if i did
doppelganger spotting game where you lead a neighborhood watch and have to interrogate suspects to determine if theyre doppelgangers or not. your verdict has to be evidence-based, or else just executing or pardoning someone without concensus will lose you the trust of your community. its always harder to prove someone innocent than to prove them guilty, however, because people are only ever detained if people think theyre a doppelganger to begin with. however, late into the game, its revealed that there was never actually any monsters, it was just the government using mass panic as pretext to exterminating anyone with a physical or mental condition that made them "abnormal", and if you executed anyone at all, you were complicit in it
Impractical Problems @impracticalproblems - Tumblr Blog | Tumgag
