Some notes

Idea for Obake's final mission: Mid-mission, you get cut off from command. You're going up against impossible odds. You're fucked. When you get cut off, the music stops and is replaced with white noise. This continues until the level is over, or whenever comms are restored.

The goal of this is to make the player really feel like they're fucked. It will be hard. Very hard. But if the player can push through the barrage of bullets and defeat the immense force, they will feel an incredible sense of relaxation.

I might want to expand on this a bit. Mention it on IRC, and possibly with William on GTalk if he doesn't join the chat.

Another idea; Faptau saves the day by being the only Tau actually good at melee. All that wanking did some good, I guess.

Colliding Worlds

I thought of this on the bus. Here's the chat I had with Blackmoon when I bounced the game idea off him. Additional notes are below.

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Joel:

I had an interesting idea for a game on the bus home.

Ever played Knytt?

mysticblackmoon:

Nope.

Joel:

Well, it's a bit like a Metroidvania, only there's no specific order and very few enemies.

Really though, the focus is the scenery porn.

mysticblackmoon:

Alright.

Joel:

Look it up some time.

Anyway, my idea was pretty much that, only in 3D and with Mirror's Edge or Assassin's Creed-style parkour.

mysticblackmoon:

Hm.

So it'd be kinda like the 2008 Prince of Persia, but not suck?

Joel:

Yeah.

Oh, and I liked that game.

mysticblackmoon:

It was pretty, but not fun.

Joel:

Well, I liked it. I guess we can agree to disagree.

I was thinking that the setting would be a bunch of different landscapes sort of shoved together.

mysticblackmoon:

Indeed.

Hm.

Joel:

If you can't imagine what I'm talking about, think a patchwork map.

mysticblackmoon:

No, I kinda kinda imagine.

Joel:

The plot (or what little plot there'd be) would be about this.

Basically, something has caused these plots of land to be removed from their original place and be smooshed together here. In order to get the land (and yourself) back to their original places, you have to collect these MacGuffins.

mysticblackmoon:

Hm.

You think you'll ever work on it?

Joel:

Maybe.

I'll put what I just said on my blog.

If I ever have the resources to make this kind of game, I'll probably go digging through my blog for inspiration.

That's where Obake came from, actually.

mysticblackmoon:

I see.

Joel:

Yeah.

It's very useful that way.

----

The PC is a short-haired blond women, possibly wearing a white hoodie. The parkour person with a hoodie is kind a cliché, though. I'm not sure if I want to do that. Hope is a possible name for the character. Dunno why.

As I hinted, the main focus of the game is the scenery porn. The plot coupons and parkour are there to give the game some actual content. Scenery porn is like a condiment- if used right, it can make something much better. It just can't work by itself.

The plot coupons give Hope knowledge and abilities. Say, the first plot coupon she picks up lets her sense what general direction plot coupons are in. Others might improve her parkour. In fact, maybe this is how she learns it. This also lets us explain the plot easily. Whenever she picks up a coupon, we're treated to a little video that shows what Hope has learned. Again, easy plot device.

Just an idea I had.

I first typed this up stream-of-consciousness to a friend of mine via GTalk, so that's why the paragraph breaks are the way they are.

The protagonist is a normal guy in high school/college/whatever fits the story best.

He's also kind of a loser.

So, this girl he's had a crush on for a while finally starts to take interest in him.

And becomes his girlfriend.

And has sex with him.

And becomes subservient to him.

And so does everybody else- he suddenly starts getting better grades, etc.

I'm not when he'd realize this, but he's a subconscious reality warper, not unlike Haruhi.

Even when he realizes this though, he can't control it.

The world starts to seem like a dream.

I'm not sure where I'd go from there, but whatever happens would be very fucked up, mind-boggling, weird, and very, very, interesting.

Escape From San Francisco

I've always thought that San Francisco is a beautiful city. I've also wondered why no sandbox games are set there. Sure, San Andreas has something resembling it and Crackdown is obviously inspired by it, but there's no games that actually take place in the city. I for one, would like to change that.

I don't have much of a plot yet, so for now I'll just put out bullet points.

• The PC is a cyborg- I've always liked the concept of a cyborg. The augs should be pretty obvious- it looks cool, and shows who and what the PC is.
• Mechanical monsters called "Jackals". Ten foot long black quadrupedal hunters with huge claws and more flexibility than seems possible. Nanotech, maybe? They also have hexagonal half-domes in place of heads. It's one big sensory organ- they can't sense anything else. It detects various forms of radiation (including visible light) and sound. The Jackals also have a very good sense of direction, and will not stop at any cost.
• Ooh! A revelation! The PC is an early cyborg, hence the appearance. The Jackals based off newer tech, which uses nanomachines to do most of the work. There should be big dudes with nanoaugs as well.
• The player should be able to move through the city very easily. Something a little like what games like Just Cause 2 and Prototype do. Some way for the player to get in the air quickly and easily. I also liked the building climbing of Assassin's Creed, The Saboteur, and Crackdown. Maybe have something like that, but more flashy and automated? Euphoria or another similar engine might be a good choice.

Shiny New Australia

An idea for a manga or something I had a while ago. One person (Let's call him Bob for now) has conquered the world. As a gift, he's given Australia to his best friend Alice. Alice believes that what Bob has done is utterly wrong, and does everything in her power to dethrone Bob and free the world.

So she accepts.

Well, she accepts, but she's really preparing for a huge coup, dismantling Bob's power in the meanwhile via underhanded trickery and other tactics worthy of a true Chessmaster.

Unfortunately, that's all I have for now. I'll have to mention this to some tropers, see what they think of it.

Gameplay correction for Mach Racing

http://kotaku.com/5520839/one-little-change-to-how-cars-will-fight

I'd thought of how powerups might stack, but I think this would probably work better. Alt-fires are good, anyway.

Now I just need to decide how or if the player can strafe...

New title for BLADE

Farming Armageddon.

I realized on the way home from a friend's house that a certain Iced Earth album I have is called Framing Armageddon, not what I previously thought it was. I then realized that that would be a good title for the BLADE series. I've been looking for a new name for a long time, and I've finally found one.

Since the series is about war and those profiting from it, I think it's fitting.

Unperfect Utopia

Fuck Utopia (Idea for GTA-esque game)

What would the underworld of a utopia look like?

I'd thought of both these ideas a while ago, but I never thought of putting them together. I might have to make this into a game one day.

Ideas;

• PC is an average Joe who starts to notice that he doesn't actually enjoy the utopia he lives in. He decides to do something about it, by causing chaos. Make things a bit more interesting. As the game progresses, he starts to seriously think about toppling the utopia.
• The game takes place in the capital city of the utopia. It is very clean, with an emphasis on bright solid colors.
• At the start of the game, the cops are unarmed, and mostly doing things like helping kittens out of trees. There's no crime, so the police is unable to deal with serious threats, such as yourself. This will help the player ease themselves into the game, and shows the state of the city. As the game progresses, they become better armed, more numerous, and smarter. In general, the police represents the state of the city.
• Everything is destructible, with destroyed things slowly rebuilding themselves via some sort of applied phlebotinum. Probably nanotech.
• What allies would you have? Maybe the underground I mentioned in one of the threads. Mr. Cales has a very nice idea there.
• The game's story changes depending on your actions. Not by way of choosing "good" or "evil" missions, but your general conduct.  A "good" PC will be a revolutionary figure, while an "evil" PC will be an immoral bastard in it for the fun. A "neutral" PC wants to topple the utopia, but hasn't given much thought into what comes after. He figures somebody will pick up the pieces, just not him.

Haven

This is something I made up in the shower (yet again) for Mach Racing. It's based on Big Blue and Green Plant from F-Zero, but most of it is my own material.

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Haven lives up to its name in many ways. For some, it is a welcome retreat from their daily life. For other, richer folk, it is a place to live in solace. For those who wish to stay away from the public eye for whatever reason, it is a welcome hiding place.

It is a beautiful planet, its biosphere preserved by law of the local government. Human settlements are few and far between, separated from the rest of the area by powerful force fields.

Because the biosphere is so closely guarded, the populace can not feed off of it. Thus, Haven imports almost all of its necessities. Thus, a few sacrifices have been made. For example, race tracks have been built within various settlements for racers to compete in, but more importantly to provide the government with much-needed income. There are currently two such tracks on the planet, but there are plans for a third.

The first is built within the capital- or rather entwines it. The track dives and meanders between the buildings and the trees. It is somewhat controversial due to the noise and the way the track is built, but this will be rectified as soon as enough money is raised.

The second is built in one on Haven's floating cities. It goes above the main shopping district, passing by the commercial sectors, strategically avoiding the residential district but staying close to it, and finally going into the ocean. The course is a huge boon to the city, though it does have its detractors.

Are the UGG unnecessary?

I haven't seen doing anything with them, even though they would probably play a huge role in BLADE, especially the first game. I think it might be a good idea to write them out and have humanity become space-faring some other way. Lost precursor tech, maybe?

Nah. Too cliche. I might do a twist on that, though. I'll have to think about this. I'll also have to talk to Aaron about it and see what he thinks.