Soundly Games

Game ideas made by two game-loving jerks

[jeffmumm]

My first auto-tilemap (art not final)

[hellyeahchandlerbing]

[poob-face-who-deleted-her-blog]

See what a group of engineers did  to encourage people to use the stairs in Stockholm.

Badass

[flame-cat]

let’s do this isntead of blocking off escalators and elevators k

[scarlett-nighten-deactivated201]

That is amazing

[grooming-tails]

Honestly shit like this makes me love humans .. and I normally hate them so thank you engineers y'all are perfect beautiful people and need all the huggles

[official-lucifers-child]

i would definitely spend like an hour there, going up and down and playing songs

[sushinfood]

Every time I see this post I just grin.

[soundlygamesconcepts]

Gamification at its finest. My uni professor in that class used this as a prime example of how this works.

[soundlygamesconcepts]

Game I'm working on right now: Hylja

The game I'm currently making is being done for my last year bachelor's project, and features a man named Birk who finds himself pulled away from 1800s Norwegian society to a remote forest cabin. It's not a usual abandoned forest cabin, however, as a female creature is inhabiting the space.

The female creature in question is a Huldra, a mythological creature resembling a woman with a cow's tail, and a hole in her back. She is very intent on making Birk stay at the cabin, no matter how much he wants to or not.

Story:

The game starts off calm and atmospheric, simulating the mornings of early spring in Norway. Here the character is trying his best to find a way to escape, and the player is led towards the cabin to investigate.

In the cabin, you find a journal, which leads you further into the story, meeting Huldra during both day and night. Your main objective is to complete a boat that is nearby, and depart on the fjord back to civilization.

After ultimately denying Huldra's advances, she starts trying to force him to stay. She is obsessed with keeping him there, so much so that she loses her senses and becomes the monster she is deep inside.

This will change the pace of the game from that of an adventure/walking sim game, into a horror game.

Gameplay features:

First person perspective

Adventure/walking sim -> horror

Atmospheric, nordic

[soundlygamesconcepts]

Mental Fixer-upper

You play as a fictive you, roaming around in a seemingly random brain, where your main goal is to light everything up and fix the place, as it seems there are many loose wires, and lots of problematic behaviour going on.

As you progress through the game, it becomes more and more apparent to the player that this is the playable character's brain, and they are in some kind of psychosis/coma/depressive state that makes them lose a sense of reality. It's a fictional take on how dissociation *may* be perceived, although that might feel wrong for many. For now it is just a concept about someone "fixing" their own brain, while the player doesn't know about it until later.

Background

The player doesn't know much in the beginning other than that they can't see a lot due to darkness (the lights are out). So the player roams around trying to figure out a simple puzzle. The background of the story will just for starters be that the MC is inside of a brain that's dysfunctional. It doesn't fully comprehend *what* is wrong until later, and doesn't know its true identity. This way, the player is unbeknowst helping themselves without knowing, as a way to learn to love and help themselves.

Theme(s)

Self love/help

Mental health issues

Goal(s)

To show how a person with mental health issues' brain works (and doesn't work)

To promote selv love

To spread awareness

Game details

Lowpoly cartoony styled graphics, similar to Human Fall Flat's style

3rd person perspective

Free camera or locked in one place following the character through rotation, depending on the scene

Platforming and physics oriented puzzles, as well as mini games where it is zoomed in and you only see a "game board"

[soundlygamesconcepts]

VR God Game

You use something called haptic feedback gloves to control the world, building things with resources you pick up from the ground, assigning people work after a while and managing their town/helping them out when in need. Kind of resembles a VR Black & White game, but using something like HaptX vr gloves!

[kaijuborn]

“Games make us happy because they are hard work that we choose for ourselves, and it turns out almost nothing makes us happier than good, hard work. We don’t normally think of games as hard work. After all, we play games, and we’ve been taught to think of play as the very opposite of work. But nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, as Brian Sutton-Smith, a leading psychologist of play once said, “The opposite of play isn’t work. It’s depression.” When we’re depressed, according to the clinical definition, we suffer two things: a pessimistic sense of inadequacy and a despondent lack of activity. If we were to reverse these two traits we’d get something like this: an optimistic sense of our own capabilities and an invigorating rush of activity. There’s no clinical psychological term that describes this positive condition. But it’s a perfect description of the emotional state of gameplay. A game is an opportunity to focus our energy, with relentless optimism, at something we’re good at (or getting better at) and enjoy. In other words, gameplay is the direct emotional opposite of depression.”

—

Reality is Broken, by Jane McGonigal

This book is fantastic and well worth reading even if you only play games and aren’t interested in making them. It’s about how games make us better and how they can change the world, by making it more gamelike and thus more motivating and rewarding. 

You can also watch her TED talk about the same subject here!

[soundlygamesconcepts]

Island Manouver

So this game is kind of barebones right now, but it's at least an idea:

You are living on a small island, reminiscent of a boat drifting across the infinite ocean that lies ahead of you. Through craftsmanship you are able to create a sh#%@y fishing pole, and have now finally found a source for food, after drifting for what seem to be ages, starving. The main objective of the game is to survive, yet we will most likely see the character live and be happy as well.

You will have to also collect driftwood, scattered throughout the world, as there seems to be no sign of civilization. Maybe there has been one and it's lost forever? Maybe you will be able to find ruins of old cities above the water? Maybe even you will encounter other floating islands, once that are bigger and better than your current one.

Craft engines for your island, so that you can propel yourself ahead; create a large sail to put onto your makeshift hut; maybe just use... ores...? The possibilities are endless, yet you must move.

[soundlygamesconcepts]

DunQra - Dungeon Crawler

Background

Since the beginning of time, good and evil, heaven and the underworld, has fought with each other in countless wars, wreaking havoc throughout the world. When the gods saw a chance of loss in the war against evil, they sent out help to the bravest of mortals, which in turn was granted godlike gifts. These heroes, together with the gods, forced the evil demons and spirits to retreat, and as they were sealed away for eternity, there was peace. That is, until a cult of heretics found a secret chant that would restore the portal to other worlds, once again spreading corruption, sin and evil throughout the Land.

Introduction

You awaken in your cell to the sound of the jailer walking around, swinging his key chain around his finger, whistling a carefree tune. "Which one of you might it be, I wonder..." he said as he looked into the neighbouring cell. "Is it you? I wonder... Hmmm... no, I don't think so!" As he said this he continued walking down the hallway, towards your cell. "Ah! This one it is!" He startled you, as you were expecting an execution. You silently prayed your last prayer as he fiddled around to find the correct key...

[This is where character creation starts.]

As you are lead over a long bridge, that's hanging over a lava pit, you hear shouts, screams, as you are left wondering what's happening. A sudden crash to your right confirms your biggest worry: a pair of humongous eyeballs were gazing down upon you. Those were the eyes of a giant, like those in the legends! You were quick to start running, and barely got away from the threat in one piece... You looked back one second, only to see your previous jail cell being smahed to pieces by a giant boulder. You nod once to commemorate your fallen jail brothers, and say a small prayer...

Gameplay

This is true-action rpg fighting as you'll ever see it in its purest form. We want to make the elements of our levels destructable and as realistic as possible. Stone crushes and cracks, ice is slippery, water makes it harder to move around, fire burns, etc. etc..

In DunQra, you start out by being a nobody, but are soon told you are an ascendant of the Great Heroes of Legends. Thus are you entrusted with the godlike abilities that are only written about in children's tales and fiction. So you thought. You are greeted by no other than the King of The Land, as he is there to tell you about the prophecy.

It is up to you to decide if you want to side with darkness or light. Your choices matter in the game.

You can also play any race and class you want, as long as you are trained with the weaponry and earn skills.

The game is based on small groups of players, where you help each other solve mysteries, grind for loot and kill bosses.

[soundlygamesconcepts]

Sound of Nothing

Short introduction:

- You play as a native American in ancient time, you come from a tribe that has gifts given from the gods of music and have magical attributes.

- Your tribe gets turned into stone by evil forces, and only you remain, you have to save your tribe from extermination.

- As a hunter, you have fair skills in using weapons, as well as other survival methods. You use this to your advantage as you cross the dangerous enchanted forests that lay between you and the truth behind the evil that has stricken your tribe.

Genre and art style:

- The game is first and foremost an RPG, with a strong emphasis on questing, fighting and storytelling.

- Isometric view, with a pixel-art inspired graphics style

Gameplay:

- We take inspiration from games like The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Titan Souls and other fighting RPGs, where the player use magic and weaponry to defeat his foes

- You learn more spells/songs as you progress further in the game

- Use music both to solve puzzles, progress in the terrain/quest-line, as well in combat