Game Brainstorm

 

Game 1: Platformer

sourced from (https://www.pcgamesn.com/best-platform-games)

For my first idea of a game I thought about creating a platforming game taking inspiration from games such as ‘Limbo’, ‘Hollow Knight’ and ‘Ori and the Blind Forest’. Growing up, I never got into the platforming genre of games, I thought they were boring and lame and offered little to no progression apart from reaching a new level or in the case of Mario, saving Princess Peach. This so called ‘progression’ to me at the time paled in comparison to games like ‘Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2’ where every level you gained you got something new or even ‘World of Warcraft’ where levelling up felt accomplishing because you knew you got that one talent point that you needed in order for you to do more damage or heal better. But growing up, I realised that the simplistic goals of a platformer like ‘Mario’ is just as enjoyable as getting that one piece of legendary gear in ‘Diablo II’. So, because of my inexperience with platforming games, I would like to dip my toes in and try and create one myself which no doubt will be difficult seeing as : 1 – I have never created a game and 2 – I never really played a platformer through to the end so the mechanics and specifics of the game will be a little foreign to me.

In my research for this game idea I came across this article titled: ‘How to design levels for a platformer’ (http://devmag.org.za/2011/07/04/how-to-design-levels-for-a-platformer/).

The article goes through the steps one should take when attempting to create a platforming level and general brainstorming such as the background of the level and how simplistic or out there you want it to be, the enemy types, power-ups and locked secrets or treasures.

Game 2: FPS

Now when I say and FPS game I don’t mean in the same detailed way as ‘Call of Duty’, ‘Battlefield’ or ‘Medal of Honor’. I want to create a simplistic game, one that reminds me of my childhood.

When I was younger living in my grandparents’ house, they used to have this plastic 1911 handgun with wires hanging from the magazine which always made me wonder what those wires were used for. Later I found out that you could plug those wires into the TV like a console and play a game.

sourced from (https://www.ebay.com/itm/353536825727)

It looked something like this. My mind at that point was blown away.

The game would not be too complicated, I am thinking somewhere along the lines of an arcade game where the player is stationery and enemies pop up on the screen for you to shoot but sometimes instead of an enemy a civilian would pop up and if you shoot them, you lose points or a terrorist holding a civilian and you have to aim for their head and free the civilian. The levels themselves might not have an end, something along the lines of you keep playing to get the highest score possible until you run out of lives or a instead of lives, there could be a certain amount of time allocated to getting the highest score you could get. I could either incorporate both of these mechanics into the game or completely cut one out but that remains to be seen.

In my research I came across this article: ‘First-person shooter design: what to save, and what to frag’ (https://www.gamedeveloper.com/design/first-person-shooter-design-what-to-save-and-what-to-frag).

The article talks about how the FPS genre is full of lazy and tired ideas that have been used since the genres’ inception in the early 1970s and how no matter what new innovations for the genre come out, in a couple of years they will all become tired and lazy.

sourced from (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.kiloo.subwaysurf&hl=en_IE&gl=US)

Game 3: Endless Runner

Endless Runners are basic and simple but still end up somehow having people sink hours on end to them. A good example of that is ‘Subway Surfer’ which is a mobile game in which you play as graffiti artist who is running away from a police officer on the subway tracks ad have to swipe on the screen to avoid being hit by the subway or try to collect coins. The goal of the game is very simple: Survive for as long as you can and get the highest score possible. The difficulty of the game is that the longer you keep going, the faster the trains will come at you so there is a good bit of challenge to be found even in and Endless Runner.

For my research I looked at the article titled: ‘Endless Runner Games: How to think and design’ (https://www.gamedeveloper.com/disciplines/endless-runner-games-how-to-think-and-design-plus-some-history-).

This article goes through a bit of the history of mobile Endless Runners and their different subsections and how they evolved from being what is referred to as ‘two-touch gameplay’ to ‘one-touch gameplay’ where instead of having to tap the screen twice for multiple actions, it now only requires one tap on the screen.

The article also goes through the steps of creating your own endless runner game and how the author had this idea in mind and as he kept adding to his idea it started clicking in his mind that what he is doing could be a great idea for an endless runner.

sourced from (https://www.housebeautiful.com/lifestyle/g32034422/best-puzzle-games-apps/)

Game 4: Puzzle Game

Probably one of the most popular genres on the mobile app store, the puzzle games. These are very simple games that provide some challenge at later levels.

The puzzle game genre of ‘match three of’ is probably on of the most popular out there with the standout being ‘Candy Crush’. The game involves matching three candies of the same colour to get points and a certain number of points are required to pass a level.

Another example of a puzzle game would be ‘Roll the Ball’, which is a game where the player must match the puzzle pieces in order to have the ball roll through them to get to the next level.

Even simpler than the two above is a simple word puzzle in which you are given a list of words and a square full of jumbled letters and the goal is to find all the words given to you. All these games are simple, but they have their target audience.

In my research I found this interesting article about puzzle games called ‘The Amazing Cognitive Benefits Of Puzzle Games’ (https://www.meeplemountain.com/articles/the-amazing-cognitive-benefits-of-puzzle-games/).

The article talks about a survey that was done that shows that most adults that play puzzle games find it relaxing and give their brain a boost.

 

Finally, I would like to create a game like this because the idea of creating a challenge for someone else to complete seems intriguing for me and I would like to see if I am up to the task.