Challenge 8: The Randomly Generated Game Title Extravaganza

We've decided the challenge format was getting stale--

As much as I kept adding new things to my random game generator to spice things up, because the results are always in the same format, it was starting to get a bit dull.

So today I'm going to mix things up.

At the studio I work now, people passed around a website a week ago or so that randomly generates hilarious titles for video games. I started to realize that some of the game titles it was producing would make for good challenges for here. So I began to collect a list of some of the ones I had rolled, and other people at my studio had rolled and posted, that held interesting potential for game challenges for you guys...

So here's how it's going to work this week.
I post 10 Randomly Generated Titles from that website, and you pitch 3 of them as games, fleshing out at least the basics of how the game would work.

Here's the list:
1. Professional Balloon Training
2. Romantic Sudoku Onslaught
3. Heavy Office Competition
4. Awesome Writing Fighter
5. Biblical Workout Carnage!
6. Zombie Karaoke Uncensored
7. Mary Kate and Ashley's Lowrider Spies
8. Satan's Soccer Adventure
9. Unpleasant Dentist Party
10. European Rainbow in the Desert

So pick three of those and go nuts.

Challegen 7 - Second Assault

In the last post, I detailed a real-time strategy game based on Battlestar Galactica that would give the player a feeling of paranoia. What I described outlined the basic premise of space battles and controlling the fleet, and the paranoia part came from not always knowing when the Cylons would attack.

I did make brief mention of on-foot missions, and this brought up an excellent point: trying to figure out who the Cylons are within the fleet would make for an even more paranoia-inducing experience. So for this second assault I will touch a bit more on the ships but focus more on the on-foot and NPC interactions within the game.

Starting with the ships, I have come to the realization that they should be treated more as both buildings and units at the same time. So each ship is given its own tasks that it performs within the fleet, can do research and can construct/refine resources. Meanwhile each ship has the ability to construct and/or launch smaller ships that make up the colonial fleet's attack force, resource gatherers, and political committee. For example, Galactica would have the following abilities:

• Move: Moves Galactica to the designated location.
• Attack: Attacks a Cylon fleet using main guns.
• Build: Build vessels and technologies.
  - Build Viper Fleet: Builds 1 Viper Alert Fighter.
  - Build Raptor: Builds 1 Raptor Science Vessel.
  - Build Nuke: Builds 1 Nuclear Warhead.
  - Build Blackbird: Builds 1 Blackbird Stealth Ship.
  
• Launch Nuke: Launches a Nuclear Warhead. Only available after building.
• Launch Alert Fighters: Launches Viper Fleet.
• Launch Raptor: Launch a Raptor Science Vessel.
• Research: Research abilities.
  - Enhanced DRADIS: Temporarily removes Fog of War when used.
  - Raptor Nuke: Allows a Raptor to carry a nuclear bomb to a targest destination.
  - Blackbird FTL: Allows a Blackbird Stealth Vessel to enter an FTL jump.
  
• FTL Drive: Spins up the FTL Drive for launch to predetermined destination.

There'd probably be more but that's just to get an idea. So while Galactica acts as the base of operations, it, as well as all other ships in the fleet, is fully controllable. You can move it around, use it to attack, and align it into formations with other ships.

This game would also feature a unique zoom function. Most RTSs nowadays have a function that allows you to use the mouse's scroll wheel to zoom in and out of action. This would do more than that. When you zoom in far enough, the game cuts to an overhead interior view of the ship you have zoomed in on, allowing you to see the inner workings of the ship and who is around. Your controls inside the ship are identical to how the game controls in ground-based missions. Inside the ships and on ground missions, you control individual NPCs and small NPC squads in order to complete objectives, hold off Cylon intruders, or engage in conversation. Your tasks when controlling NPC squads or individual NPCs differ, but usually they are one of the following:

• Find and capture a cylon among the crew.
• Destroy a group of cylons.
• Bring an NPC from Point A to Point B (The crew with the Arrow of Apollo on Kobol, for instance).

Individual NPCs, like ships, also have their own abilities.

• Move: Tells the select unit(s) to move.
• Attack: Tells the select unit(s) to attack another unit or area.
• Regroup: Regroups units together.

Special units, i.e. the show's main characters, would also have their own, unique abilities.

Finding a Cylon among the crew is the tricky, because before the identity of the Cylon is revealed, you cannot capture them (even if you know from the show that they are a Cylon). However, if rumors of one are reported on the ship, they can end up causing extensive damage (such as Number Five's Suicide Bombing).

Though it is the player's job to juggle both space combat and life on board the ships in the fleet, the player is never forced to do both at once. When viewing the inside of a ship, for instance, space combat goes on outside and is handled by the in-game AI. Converseley, if anything is happening on the ships and the player is in the middle of combat, the AI can be told to handle the situation. Doing this, though, is like rolling a die and hoping the outcome is positive. It is up to the player to decide which situation is more urgent. For example, if there is a Cylon with a nuke on board Galactica, that would probably require the player's attention instead of mining for Tylium, which the AI can handle on its own.

I think that about covers it. Time for a nap. =D

Challenge 7 - First Strike

There are a lot of obvious choices for this one. My first thought was a game based on M.A.S.H., though outside the hospital, which would end up being pretty self-explanatory, but I think the funny would have outdone the paranoia.

So instead I am going to do this challenge about Battlestar Galactica, especially because Tom is taking the week off and this will seriously make him jealous.

The nice thing about Battlestar Galactica is the way the Cylon attacks are set up. Sometimes the Cylons attack the humans at random, sometimes in time-based patterns, and sometimes, after FTL Jumping to a different location, the humans simply bump into the Cylon fleet and are like "Oh... crap." This is the basis for the paranoia in the game.

In the game, it is your duty to control the Colonial Fleet on its quest to find Earth. You can select the entire fleet to move it around, but other ships have other uses as well. For example, Galactica, Vipers, and to an extent Colonial 1 are used for battle, while Refinery Ships are used to process tylium mined in asteroid fields by Raptors. There would also be on-foot missions where you control individual characters from the show, like Starbuck, Helo, Boomer/Athena, Apollo, Anders, and even Bill Adama. Individual units, much like ships, also have their own abilities, but as ground missions are more focused on completing immediate objectives rather than the general survival of the fleet, their abilities are focused accordingly.

I think in order to demonstrate the paranoia that comes from trying to outrun the Cylon fleet, I should make reference to the very first episode of the first season, simply entitled "33." In this episiode, the Cylon fleet attacks every 33 minutes, and as the fleet is overpowered and underarmed at this point, they have no choice but to switch on their FTL (Faster Than Light) drives and hope for the best, at which point the clock is reset. Though the game would probably be running faster than the assumed real-time events of the show (so let's say every 3 minutes and 30 seconds instead of 33 minutes), it would still induce the same kind of fear, like "Okay I need to process this much tylium in this amount of time before the Cylons attack... crap there they are! Crap I'm under attack! Crap my ships are getting destroyed! FTL! Crap I left 3 ships behind. They're dead now. Reset the clock." The goal of that specific level would be to simply survive until the Cylons stop attacking, meanwhile tensions run high throughout the fleet from all the jumping and your tylium deposits continue to drain quickly from all the jumping. Definitely not the friendliest of beginner levels.

I feel like this works simply because, in the show, the humans are already paranoid of how powerful the Cylons are. The Cylons have destroyed their civilization. The humans are not a species, they're a gang. They have to survive and are facing near-impossible odds of doing so, yet they choose to persevere in hopes of finding Earth. Bringing these feelings of paranoia and hope into the gameplay would be key to making this a successful game.

Challenge 7: The TV Tie-in Paranoid RTS

Agh, sorry this is a bit late and a brief post... I've been rather busy.
The next challenge:

Design an RTS game about a popular TV show that makes players feel paranoia.

Temporary Hiatus

I will be taking a small break from the random game challenge this week, as I have another design challenge to complete, this time for a job offer. Since I need to devote all of my time to getting this done and done right, I will be taking a break for the next week. I shall return when I am finished, however, and hopefully employed!

Challenge 6 - First Strike

Seeing as the Palm Pre works on a card-based UI, this is less difficult than you'd think, especially with its multitasking capabilities, so I will design this strictly for the Pre.

The game is made up of different people, wedding outfits, cakes, flowers, etc. The goal is to have the most perfect deck (i.e. the most perfect wedding) evar!

Each deck comes with a bride, a groom, their respective families (one father, mother, sibling, and pet per, groom's denoted by blue bordered cards, bride's denoted by pink bordered cards). Each character has certain attributes, including:

• Likes: Little icons denoting what a character likes. You can tap the icons for a full description of what they are.
• Dislikes: Opposite of the likes. Again, tap them to see more details.
• Social Trait: Introvert or Extrovert.
• Alignment: Lawful, Neutral, Unlawful
• Salary: Amount they make per year.

The game keeps a constant calculation of how good a match the bride and groom are. This is based on every character's relationship within their own families and into the other's. You trade cards to try and improve relations within and between each family. For example, the groom may dislike the kind of cake that is currently within the deck, while the bride hates the groom's brother.

While trading away the items in your deck like cakes can be done freely, trading away people is much more difficult. For example, if there are tensions in one family between the father and mother, you can trade away one of them for a new one, however they come with new siblings and very possible hatred on the part of the bride or groom, especially if its their new step-parent.

Meanwhile, if things just are not working out between your bride and groom, you can trade them away for a new one, but they bring an entirely new family and items. Sometimes you may get things to click, sometimes not. The game is a constant back and forth of rebuilding families just to get one marriage to work.

In terms of where the Pre comes into play:

If you are not familiar with the Pre's UI, each window is referred to as a card. This game would be handled much the same way, and each card would appear as a separate window. Normally, flicking a card away closes that window. However, if you have agreed to trade a specific card with another player, when you flick that card away, it gets SMS'd over to the other player and one appears on your screen as if you were actually trading cards.

That's all for now. Must leave room for comments and the like.

Challenge 6: The Mobile Marriage Virtual CCG

Well well well, looks like it's another Monday.

It's time for another random challenge:

Design a collectable card game about marriage that is designed for mobile phones.




Hmm. You have fun with that one...

Challenge 5 - Second Assault

To recap, the game I designed in this week's First Strike was about Metallica and Copyright Infringement. It was a Facebook game that combined elements of Parking Wars and Mafia Wars while attempting to teach a lesson about what happens when you steal music. This part about the teaching is what needed work, so here it goes.

Copyright Wars

You have at your disposal a list of songs, each one worth an amount based on their in-game demand, which is in turn based on how loved the song is in the real world. For example, Enter Sandman would most likely be more sought after than St. Anger, and The Unforgiven would be worth so much more than The Unforgiven III.

You can gain songs in two different ways. One is to legitimately purchase them and the other is to steal them. Games are cheap in-game, and any song you purchase legitimately cannot be charged against you by other players. However, it still costs money, and people can still steal the tracks from you. Stealing, on the other hand, is free, and so you can rack up a big tracklist by stealing.

Every hour, your songs increase in value. If you purchased your songs, they give you a constant $15/hour. This value does not change over time. If you steal a song, however, it starts out worth $25/hour and its value increases by $15 every hour. A stolen song also comes with a note that says "Stolen From [whoever]" so if someone ever finds that you stole a song from them, they can catch you. If you are caught with a stolen song, you pay that song's value x10 to the rightful owner of the song. So on the one hand, you may build up a legitimate music collection and plan to just catch anybody who steals your songs and make your music that way. On the other hand, you could steal a lot of songs and hope to not get caught. Remember, the more lawyers you have, the better chance you have of winning if someone claims you stole their songs. Heck, you might have, but with enough legal representation, you're off the hook.

The twist: If you steal a song back, it is still a stolen song, even if it was legitimately purchased in the first place.

I'd say the main education this game has to offer is that the current copyright system is flawed. The RIAA drains regular citizens of all their money for downloading a song or two, when said songs cost 99 cents on iTunes. My attempt here was to design a game that goes to same lengths to show just how ridiculous and flawed the system is, that even legitimiately purchased songs can be stolen via file-sharing, and even people who purchase music can be persecuted.