Challenge 5 - First Strike

Good god. Well, here goes.

This game is about Metallica and teaches kids about Copyright Infringement and and Digital Piracy. You start the game with a set amount of money and a handful of songs. The more songs you have, the more money you earn per hour. However, you can visit other people's accounts to steal songs from them, and thus they earn less money.

As of right now, on iTunes, there are 150 songs by Metallica, so I see this acting as a sorta kinda trading game, only instead of trading, you are stealing. If you catch someone stealing and can name which songs they stole from you, you earn back your songs and a huge chunk of money from them. In the game, you act as one of Metallica's lawyers, and you can add other lawyers via friends joining you and in-game variables that act as lawyers that can be paid for. If you have enough lawyers, you can prevent some people from stealing your songs, but not all, much like Mafia Wars' battle system.

Though this game is not directly educational, it would demonstrate the approach that certain bands and the RIAA take toward music piracy, and how the consequences outweigh the crime.

Challenge 5: The Edu-Rock Facebook App

Because both Thomas and Dan went pretty in depth with their submissions to last week's challenge and (due to my late posting of the challenge) they had less time to work on it (and hey it's already the next Monday) -- It's been decided that their 1 submission is fine enough.

So it's time for this week's challenge!

Design an Educational game about a famous rock band that is designed as a Facebook application.


You can pick whichever band you like, but remember the game has to be educational, so it has to teach something valuable.
Ideally something typically valued in traditional education, like math or reading skills, but I'm open to whatever you come up with.

Challenge 4: First Glance

Ok, here goes.

iPhone+ARG+Freestyle Rap.

The game is distributed via an app on the iPhone. The app allows players to register as 1 of 2 categories, each with individual scoring methods and routes to "winning," as much as you can win an ARG.

The first category is your Rappers. Rappers gain rank in two ways. The first, and most important is by winning rap battles. Any rapper of a certain level can challenge another rapper of equivalent level to a rap battle. These take place over the iPhone, via the phone using the app. As the two rappers face off, they use a beat from a pre-made selection that is built into the app, which plays over each rappers phone as he lays down his rhymes, or with a third party beatbox player, which will be explained later. The battle is then recorded and uploaded to a server, where player in the third category, the fans, can listen to them and vote for who they think won the battle. After an amount of time, the winner is decided by the most votes. The winning rapper then gains cred (basically Rapper XP) until they rank up, allowing them to challenge higher level rappers, and continue to climb the ladder.

The other way that rappers can gain cred is to have a following. Followers act as a multiplier for the amount of cred that they gain each time they win a battle. That way, a rapper with a huge following (such as if Snoop Dog or Busta Rhymes joined the game) would not have to spend much time challenging the lower level rappers to climb towards the top where they belong.

Listeners are another type of user for the app. Listeners gan respect (Listener XP) when the rappers they follow do well, as well as gaining a little respect each time they vote on a battle they have listened to. Listeners can only follow 5 rappers at a time though, so they have to choose carefully who they want to follow. In addition, each time a rapper they are following ranks up, they respect they recieve from that rapper gets a multiplier. That multiplier is lost if they stop following and then return later, encouraging them to choose very carefully who they follow.


This needs a bit more thought, and someone who can program for the iPhone, but I like the basic idea a lot.

Challenge 4 - First Strike

Oh man. Here goes nothing.

This game is about a freestyle rap artist friend of yours who has been murdered. In order to find their murderer and expose them, you enter the underground world of freestyle rap competitions, only to become engrossed in its workings. As you start to win battles against real-world opponents, you get offers in the game from recording companies and sponsors in order to gain money and notoriety. In-Game Money would allow you to purchase beats from the online game store as well as songs uploaded by other players, bribe in-game characters, and could once in a while be worth special offers for real-world stores. Notoriety determines how much money you are worth to defeat in a rap-battle. The more battles you win, the higher your notoriety goes. Higher notoriety earns you more in-game offers from recording companies and would let you into upper-class real world parties based on players of the ARG. So, for example, a club could be rented out for the night and players would have to present the bouncer with their in-game profile on their iPhone/Pre to prove how high up in the game they are, and only people with a high enough notoriety would be let in.

Since ARGs often require some kind of real-world interaction and not just snooping around on the internet, the idea behind this is that you'd actually have to partake in real-world, freestyle rap battles. The game comes pre-installed with beats to rap over. The game automatically detects when you are finished rapping and enters Applause-O-Meter mode, during which the beat continues but neither you nor your opponent may rap for 5 seconds. During those 5 seconds of Applause-O-Meter, the game detects how high the decibel level gets from the applause in the room and scores you accordingly. The louder the applause, the better you did. In the battle screen, the game allows players to login to their accounts on a single iPhone/Pre and displays their name when it is their turn to rap. Alternatively, players can fight in the "Simple Battle" mode, in which they login, and the DJ is responsible for simply pressing the name of whoever won. This mode works on more of an honor system on the DJ's part, but it allows for DJ's to use their own beats and not the ones that come with the game and more leniency in applause time.

When not battling, players manage their career and continue to search for who murdered their friend. Players can manage their contracts with the in-game recording companies, can record and upload songs to the game's store using the in-game beats which players can purchase using the game's money, read through the story and fictionalized criminal records of NPCs in order to solve the mystery. The game also gives players invitations to real-world parties when one pops up and allows them establish a crew based on their phone's contacts and other players' user-names. A bigger crew means higher notoriety.

The appeal of this game is the real-world interaction. To play this game you must participate in real-world rap battles, as this is the fastest way to earn money and notoriety. If you want, you can just read through the story and play it as a basic ARG, but certain parts that reveal more info will require you to have a certain amount of notoriety, and unlike in-game money, this is something you cannot buy with a credit card. In a way, you are writing your own story while solving another one, and even when the pre-written story is solved, your story continues. Even if your story starts as an alternate reality, it is possible that if you really become good enough, it may not be so alternate after a while. This is a game that because of its non-violent PvP, ego-boosting applause-o-meter, and real-world events could become really immersive.

Challenge 4: The iRap ARG

Sorry I couldn't get a new challenge up on Monday.
Here's your new challenge:

Design an ARG about freestyle rap battles that is played on the iPhone.


I guess because it's an ARG, it doesn't have to be played entirely on the iPhone, but at least predominantly.

Enjoy!

Challenge 3: Second Look

Since the last time I posted, I have been informed that what Brian meant was a one-Switch game, where everything is controlled via a single switch of some type, for accessibility purposes. Not a one Button game, like on an atari, which has a joystick. Oops.

I have a fix for this, but it is one that will have to wait for the morning. Goodnight.

Challenge 3 - Second Assault

As I typed my previous post on my Palm Pre and at the last minute to do so, I was not able to go into very much detail about the Hacker SHMUP. Comments on last week's posts also demanded more narrative, so I am going to attempt to integrate that as well.

You play as a soldier in the very first Cyber War. Not nearly as fancy as anything like TRON, this war instead involves hacking into enemy country mainframes and shutting down major power grids, spreading viruses into the private sector, and so forth. The ultimate goal is to leave the enemy country totally defenseless for Defcon 0.

This is where I alter my post from last week. Instead of shooting bandwidth beams that just make things go boom, bandwidth actually slows your enemies down, forcing them to take routes around the bandwidth to you. Instead of you being able to deflect viruses and whatnot, you always have a specific virus installed that you can pass along to enemies by crashing into them. However, if those enemies grab the corresponding anti-virus software, they become immune. You can change your virus by flying over different ones (each represented by a color) but if you grab an anti-virus software by accident, you can no longer use that virus for the level. You can also stack viruses and the more viruses you have, the more damage you cause.

If you flood an enemy with too much bandwidth, they'll stop dead in their tracks, at which point they can be killed with more bandwidth or can be hacked. Only bigger enemies can be hacked, which is performed by colliding with them and firing bandwidth before your viruses destroy them. When you hack a bigger enemy, you gain a Password Fragment. When you have a full password, at which point a boss appears, and must be hacked for the second level password to shut down the level.

Each country is made up several levels, which of course opens up the possibility for DLC and maybe even cooperative online play. Each computer you can hack is shown in an overworld, with the difficulty to hack each one denoted. When you beat a level, you earn points toward approaching Defcon 0. Private and Commercial Sector computers are easy, Defensive Networks and Mainframes are more difficult. However, you approach Defcon 0 faster by taking down Defensive Networks and Mainframes. After you hit Defcon 0, you can click a red LAUNCH button, ending your operations in that country thanks to its nuclear destruction. If you wish, however, you can play through all the levels to clear the country. You do not have to press LAUNCH until you feel you are ready to do so. When you press LAUNCH, the success of the launch is calculated based on how many levels you beat and how long it took you to beat them. The more levels beat and the faster the time, the higher your grade.

I see this game working with Achievements too, like clearing a country of all levels, or clearing a level in under a minute, etc. There's a lot you could do, but you get the point.

Challenge 3 - First Strike

I am writing this on my palm pre. How awesome is that?

So my idea is this. You play a hacker in a green vector cyber space. With the one button, you can do two things. If you press it, you can fire off bandwidth beams to damage opponents. The beam can also be modified with different viruses which cause damage over time, slow you down, etc. If you hold the fire button, you project a firewall which deflects beams. If you have a specific virus, the firewall will deflect the one you have if an enemy shoots you with it, but other ones will pass through and infect you.

Challenge 3 : First Glance

Ok. One Button SHMUP about computer hackers.

This should be easy.

.........

ok, got it. That took way too long.

As the code scrolls down from the top of the screen, you pilot your cursor and try to input pieces of code into the line that will maintain functionality, but help to give you access to the program. Little changes that over the course of a level, each of which is a server, that add up to give you access via a backdoor.

The only button is to fire, with one analog stick that allows the cursor movement.

Beware however, there are anti-spyware and anti-virus programs that will seek and destroy your pirate code, so you have to be quick and find the correct places for your input b4 they lock down the files in quarantine.

Just a first glance. I'll think about it more this week and put something more up later.

Challenge 3: The 1-Button Hacker SHMUP

I'm glad that you both said you'd like to develop your final results to the 2nd challenge as a real game. That's awesome, and I'd encourage you to do so.

In the meantime, it's Monday now, and so it is time for a new challenge.

I hit F9 for the random re-roll and what came up was the following:

Design a SHMUP about computer hackers that uses only 1 button.



That one doesn't sound too difficult, but it sounded fun so I went with it anyway.

Have at it, boys!

Challenge 2 : Second Look

Ok, I was happy with my earlier idea (players playing wolves in a nature show) but spent the rest of the week watching the discovery channel. They have been seriously pushing the show "Life after People" this week, and so that got me thinking...

The tabletop takes place in the ruins of a post-human earth. Each character is a wolf in a pack, with a designated leader, decided in advance. The pack is trying to secure hunting grounds, or kill a rival pack, or clear an area of previously domesticated dogs, or whatever. That is for the GM to decide. But as the pack progresses, each player can upgrade their wolf (more hp, better attacks, etc.) and can also gain new specialized skills, like enhanced smell, or hearing, better darkvision, or, at a high enough level, the ability to use the left-behind human tools.

The game would naturally advertise for the discovery channel, and for the show. Players who have watched the show would know about specific dangers that exist when people just disappear, and would have ideas about where they could find preserved human food. Yes, it encourages a bit of meta-gaming, but players will always meta to some extent, so why not use it to boost ratings? Other products could be advertised in the game as well. The source books could list specific locations and attractions (advertising for cities/tourism), or specific products useful to the pack.


I think I might start working on this, minus the advergaming aspect. This sounds like a lot of fun.

Challenge 2: Second Assault

My major issue with the first strike on this challenge was that it did not address the "tabletop" aspect of the game enough. It sounded more like a Twisted Metal style racing game than a tabletop RPG. So in this Second Assault I intend to fix that.

As you know, the original challenge was: Design a tabletop RPG game about wolves that also advertises a product.

What I like about this take on the challenge (remember: badass anthropamorphic wolves in a NASCAR-like organization out to collect sponsorships and blow up caribou) is that it sweats IP. I see each player as starting out with some kind of toy car. Maybe you could sell big boxes of "Junkyard Scraps" so to speak, which would be like booster decks, filled with all sorts of different pieces you could put onto your car. So in a way your toy car would be like your character sheet.

So you build up your toy car with all sorts of guns and armor plating and such. How then do you get the hunts going? I would say the game comes with a few different terrain mats, each laid out in hex-grid format that the cars can drive around on. You would roll dice to move and perform actions like shoot your guns and do stunts like flying off of mountains and finding out whether your car lands upright or flips over. You could even have terrains that are just race tracks for players to race through, or terrains specifically designed for different game modes.

At the beginning of each race, you are given the opportunity to earn different sponsorships by completing different tasks. For example, Pepsi may offer you $10,000 for being the last surviving racer, while PenzOil may offer you $20,000 for never firing a shot and being in the top 5 racers. Each car can hold a different number of Sponsorship Stickers, and each sticker has a corresponding card with what you must do to earn the sponsorship money per round. Some sponsors offer one amount, while others offer different amounts depending on what you do. In order to maintain a sponsorship, you must meet at least one of their requirements per race. Bonuses for completing multiple requirements could also exist.

Once this game got popular enough, you could expand it into different formats like Twisted Metal style racing games, a cartoon series, a live action movie based on the cartoon, comic books, etc. As I said, it sweats IP.

Crap I may have to prototype this.

Later Introduction

Now that my flu has finally settled I can give my introduction. I am Dan, another recent graduate of the Savannah College of Art and Design and good friends with the two other guys on this blog, Brian and Thomas. Right now I am an independent game developer, meaning I am unemployed and happy about it.

My hope for this blog is we spur some creativity in the game development scene. It'd be great to see someone reinterpret these challenges in their own way.

Late introduction

I just realized I never mentioned my name, and my account doesn't display it!

I'm Thomas Whitener, a recent graduate of the Savannah College of Art and Design. As a friend recently put it, I want to make games for money when I grow up. For now, I just make them for fun.

I hope all who read this blog enjoy the reading as much as we enjoy the making.

Later!

Challenge 2 : First Strike

Glad to be here everyone.

So seeing as I am a bit sick and delirious from the drugs, I'm thinking I'll throw out something completely wacky... and AWESOME! The idea here is that you play a bunch of anthropomorphic wolves (not werewolves mind you, we're talking like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles kind of stuff) who are all racers in a NASCAR-like organization, only their cars are much more "Transformers Beast Wars" than regular cars. Your leveling is not so much for your character but for your car: engine, wheels, tires, shocks, suspension, whatever. The goal in between races (battles, so to speak) is to collect sponsorships from in-game advertisers (these can be real companies, like Purina considering the subject matter, or not, you did not specify that it had to be a real product, Brian). The more sponsors you have, the more money you can collect per race.

The twist, however, is that for each race you are not so much racing each other, but racing a "prey." The goal of the race is to chase down the prey and destroy it using weapons you attach to the car. Some prey fight back, which would require some amount of teamwork on the part of the players, others are defenseless but fast making for much more competitive races.

See you at Second Assault.

New Author! Dan Silverstein!

Ok, so, this week it is my pleasure to introduce Dan Silverstein, our new author. We will both be producing new games based on the challenges Brian puts out, and then each week, you, the people, will get to exercise your democratic rights and choose the winner of our design challenge metagame!

Dan will be sticking to the same schedule that I do (or that I try to...), and so here we go!

Challenge 2 : First Glance

Ok, first glance idea for an advergame tabletop RPG about wolves.

Hmm. First idea is a game based on a Discovery Channel show. The show would need to be developed around a pack of wolves, and it documents their lives. The tabletop game tie-in for the show would be where each player takes control of one of the wolves in the pack and is able to act out their lives while the GM (or you could call him the Executive Producer, heh) gives them challenges and dangers to overcome in their struggle for survival.

This is a challenge because tabletop RPGs are not really suited to advergaming as the market stands now, and I don't see it really becoming one any time soon.

Challenge 2: Wolf-Centric Advergaming Tabletop RPG

Well It took quite a few re-rolls before I found something I liked, but here you are for your next randomly-generated challenge:

Design a tabletop RPG game about wolves that also advertises a product.



And for a real challenge, try to make the product advertised something that is not at all wolf-related.

Challenge 1 : Second Look

So, Brian and I graduated last weekend, so we decided to take the week off. Since I started this challenge however, it should get finished.

The Challenge: Produce a Space exploration RPG that provides exercise.

Ok, so the game I've come up with doesn't completely satisfy the requirements, but I think it is a good enough idea that it should be let out.

The idea is for a Augmented Alternate Reality Game. With the recent advances in Augmented reality technology, the time is rapidly approaching when we will be able to have a wearable computer interface that is able to augment our vision to show us things that are not actually there. These could be used in conjunction with the typical trappings of alternate reality games in order to give a more immersive experience. Imagine walking down a street in a major city, and through the glasses seeing an actor standing on a corner with a glowing yellow exclamation point above his head. The actor could be real, marked with an RFID chip on his person, and the computer in your pocket overlays the image of the luminescent punctuation in order to mark him out from the rest of the crowd.

Obvious copyright infringement aside, Game Masters could use this technology to leave clues around the real world play-space that players would be able to find and add to a digital inventory, while the rest of the world would never know it is there, eliminating the problem of having your game pieces removed by the masses or by cops who think you are trying to blow something up. The story possibilities are endless, and could easily be applied to an RPG about space exploration, while the very nature of the game encourages exercise, since sitting on the couch will rarely get a player anywhere.