#have design

[havedesignwilltravel]

ONE-LINE GAME DESIGN #3: Rugby Quest

Like Punch Quest... with BALLS!

PREMISE:

The idea for Rugby Quest came whilst seeing some rugby being played on a TV in a bar. I thought it would be cool to have a really simple, fun, sports-themed game that could be played quickly and easily, without the burden of the actual rules of the sport.  :)

CONCEPT:

Rugby Quest is an endless runner style game, best played on a mobile / tablet device. Simple controls, stylized visuals, micro-transaction options.

Rugby was just the initial idea behind the game, but the concept has the potential to be spread across a heap of ball sports - basketball, cricket, gridiron, volleyball. Imagine spiking a flaming volleyball at an opponent's head. BAMMM!

The game would be played similar to Punch Quest - basically a guy running along tackling / diving / kicking / clotheslining the shit out of enemies (potentially opposition characters). There would be boss battles at the end of each level, as well as the opportunity to score a try / touchdown / goal after defeating them.

Special moves include various uses of the ball - kicking / passing / throwing - and also variations on the ball itself - exploding / homing / penetrating.

Plenty of loot to be gained throughout the levels, as well as upgradable abilities and special moves. Vanity items, like particular team uniforms, would be available by spending a premium economy. 

STORY:

No big story in this one... kinda like the sport itself. Just massive blokes pummeling the shite out of other blokes... with their balls.

[havedesignwilltravel]

ONE-LINE GAME DESIGN #2: Super Mutant Prison Break

A rouge-like Magic Sword (old school!) meets Smash TV with MUTANTS!!

PREMISE:

A prison break. Unleash locked-up mutants to help you along your quest of escaping a seemingly-endless prison tower!

CONCEPT:

Arena-based run-and-gun rouge-like arcade-action-RPG. Pretty simple game loop. Kill monsters (prison guards) to gain keys. Use keys to unlock cells and gain a mutant companion. Kill stronger monsters to gain more keys to unlock bigger / stronger mutant companions.

STORY:

None, really. You are stuck in a mutant prison (possibly the only human there). You are trying to get to the helicopter on the rooftop of the prison tower. That's about it.

[havedesignwilltravel]

ONE-LINE GAME DESIGN #1: Devolution

Imagine Prototype meets Super Mario Brothers but played out backwards (kinda like Braid).

PREMISE:

The idea behind this game was to create a playable loop that relied on the player character devolving as he progresses (as opposed to evolving) - so, basically losing abilities as the game goes on.

CONCEPT: At the end of every game level, the player selects one of his character's body parts (head, torso, arms, hands, legs, feet) which then reverts from crazy mutant anatomy (granting the player powers and abilities) back to a human body part (completely removing those mutant abilities).

There still needs to be a reasonably positive progression loop, so once the player has human body parts, he may equip armour and items that he has collected throughout play. These can't be equipped while the slots are still in their mutant form, ie. if the player has clawed mutant talons for hands, he won't be able to equip the super-cool gloves he picked up during his adventures until he reverts his hands back to human form.

These pieces of equipment may lack certain 'powers' but will make up for that loss to some degree by granting larger buffs / boosts to the player's stats and abilities. Some body parts (hands, for example) will also allow additional abilities that are not available when in mutant form, like the ability to hold weapons or throw grenades.

STORY: The story line will play on common game tropes which are used throughout Super Mario, like rescuing a kidnapped princess.

The player's character has fought through castle after castle, attempting to rescue her, and transforming in to a beast-like mutant in order to have the strength / power to defeat foes and overcome obstacles along the way.

Once he finally reaches his princess, she is horrified by the mutant he has become. He decides to fight through castle after castle AGAIN in order to gain magical alien potions which will allow him to revert his mutant body parts back to their human form.

This is where the game starts.

[havedesignwilltravel]

I'M BACK, BITCHES!

After a reasonably long hiatus, I have returned to my Game Design blog.

Here are some answers to some questions that nobody asked:

WHO are you?

My name is Matt. I'm a Game Designer. I have worked at a bunch of different game companies, including Electronic Arts / Visceral Games, Bigpoint, and Tantalus. Check out my website: www.havedesignwilltravel.com

WHY are you back?

I felt like I needed to start putting a lot more of the crazy ideas that I had for games into words and sharing my general thoughts about games.

WHAT is this blog all about?

Previously I was doing my "a-game-a-week" challenges which took a bit more time (sometimes more than a week) than I had while I was working. The plan this time around is to post much shorter game 'pitches' for ideas that I have already had (not just randomly selected themes)... Well, that, and funny cat pictures.

WHERE is all this shit going down?

Europe. I am currently working in Berlin, Germany, at a company called Bigpoint where my team is currently smashing out a highly-ambitious F2P MMO strategy browser game for a super-huge fantasy IP. Berlin is cool.

WHEN will you post a new game design idea?

Whenever it's ready, yo! That's one of the big things that gets me every time! No more time constraints. A-Game-A-Week is pretty damn hard to stick to week-in week-out, especially when you are pulling 50hr work weeks at a full-time game design job.

HOW do I come up with such awesome ideas for games?

A combination of natural-born talent, drugs + alcohol, and an inability to sleep.

Check out my website, and other game concepts, at www.havedesignwilltravel.com

[havedesignwilltravel]

Global Game Jam '11

Yup. Didn't get my A-Game-A-Week game in by Friday... AGAIN.

Valid reason though - I was attending the Global Game Jam for 2011 - my first one.

Didn't really know what to expect, but was definitely looking forward to it anyway. It was cool. Ups & downs and stress and no sleep and barbeques and some very cool games at the end of the day. Plus a lot of fun...

My team ended up getting a somewhat playable game out in the end... but we cut it pretty fine. I was MIA for Saturday night (friend's B'day) and got back Sunday morning to find that the game had made very little progress and seemed to be going down a completely different direction... with less than 5 hrs left (out of 48 hrs) on the clock. I sat down with my main programmer (who had not slept AT ALL in the previous 32 hrs) and SMASHED OUT a playable demo with a heap of potential.

We were never going to win any major prizes. We aimed pretty low so we could get something out in the time limit, and we got close to where I was aiming... but I feel like some areas could've been better. It was still fun anyway.

I will post more details soon... maybe some pics of the game... or the executable itself. Look out for it soon.

[havedesignwilltravel]

Week #4 Game Design Theme - "Bounty Hunter Educational Game"

Okay. So, back on the game design horse. This week's challenge is finding the educational side of bounty hunting.

There is no particular genre other than it needs to be educational... to some degree. And it has to revolve around a bounty hunter or involve bounty hunting... in some way.

If you feel like having a go at coming up with a game concept, please feel free. You can e-mail me your concepts and ideas here - matt @ havedesignwilltravel dot com.

Check out my website here: www.havedesignwilltravel.com