Challenge 10: The Frankengame

This challenge is inspired by a comment made by a game designer I know.
I forgot where he originally posted the idea, otherwise I'd link to it.

Anyway, your challenge is this:
Design a game out of the left over bits you didn't use in other games you made.

As the submissions here are largely thought experiments and not final games that could actually utilize unused art assets, I will modify what I'm asking for a little bit:

Design a game out of game mechanics you devised, but which were ultimately cut from the final design, in at least 2 different games you've worked on in the past.

(But hey, if you want to actually go out and do a digital game using old unused art assets that's fine too!)

Challenge 9: The Classic Game Character Swap

Note: Decided the office-crab challenge was so fun I had officially made it last week's challenge. Congrats to Dan for actually winning the prize! This challenge has been bumped up to be for this week now. :)

Last challenge went so awesomely, we're going to continue mixing things up.

This next challenge is a bit more... out there:

Rom Check Fail is an interesting little indie game you should go check out right now. Basically, the game mixes together classic video games-- one second you might be the ship from Asteroids, flying around in the Pac-man maze, shooting at Goombas from Super Mario Bros, and suddenly the game flips again and now you're Link, trying to battle the space invaders in the Mushroom kingdom.

The game keeps taking various game characters and their associated mechanics and putting them into different contexts.


So, your challenge this week is to create another similar pairing not already in Rom Check Fail-- in other words put the player character from classic game A into classic game B.

What would Super Mario Bros. be like if the Bionic Commando had to rescue the princess instead, with his lack of jumping ability but his special grappling hook arm? What if the square from Adventure had to defeat the Sinistar? (I'd imagine he'd be pretty screwed, is what... )

Unlike Rom Check Fail which pairs mechanics randomly, you are actively designing a pairing-- challenge yourselves to make a combination that's fun, and maybe even better than the original mechanics.

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.

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.

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: 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: 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: 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: 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: Exercise Producing Space Exploration RPG

It's after midnight, so it's technically Monday.
Time for the first challenge!

The random game challenge generator's first offering was:

'Design an RPG game about space exploration, and provides exercise.'


Sounds good enough for a first challenge. Have at it!