I just realized that the last idea was pretty much ouendan with an adventure mode.

-_- sadness. Oh well, on to the next idea.

The traveling minstrel game

Hey eeeeeeeeveryone (confirmed 2 of you) that read this blog, i thought alot about the whole rhythm in games thing and after talkin with people on NEOGAF, about it and reading a post in another persons blog http://ofb.net/~andrewc/serenepia/index.cgi/games/rhythm.arc I still couldnt come to a conclusion.

I THINK that the pace of a game or the rhythm is determined by the frequency of the rewards, things from defeating a small enemy to clearing a level, to perfectly taking a turn.

but thats just what i think maybe im wrong.

anyway on to today's game

The Traveling Minstrel

Okay so for this game i thought of two different methods. One simple and One a little more, mmmmm, complex. I'll start with the complex one

Basic gameplay goal: Influence people with music.

Gameplay modes: Guitar mode- hit the notes accurately in time with the music.
Adventure mode- find places and people who need cheering up.

As the game has a free roaming aspect you can sort of choose your own path and what you do will in the end influence what scenarios you can access during your adventure. Depending on how well you play and how difficult the song is(you can choose before the scenario starts), different scenarios will open up.

The other version of the game takes out the adventure mode and the multiple branches and turns the game into a linear single storydriven parappa clone.

Feel the beat of the rhythm of the game

Do games have a rhythm?

I think they do!

I was thinking about rez and lumines the other day and how they are two fairly different takes on using music to control the flow of the game. In rez there is a beat but the music is affected by your actions in a free manner, you are not constrained to the beat. Its sort of like video game jazz (i know, i know). Then you look at lumines and it really pins down this concept of games having a rhythm. In fact it absolutely forces it. The point being, most people classify these two games as rhythm games (or rhythm puzzle\shooters) but, are they really rhythm games or is mizuguchi just highlighting somtehing that was already there?

When i think back to games like Sega rally for the saturn, or NiGHTS, or Katamari damacy, its always "man the soundtracks really made those games" and back on my live journal i wrote a thing about how i think sound is super awesome and totally imporant and blah blah blah. Thinking more about sound in games I started to wonder why sound, or music has such an impact in the enjoyment of a game (atleast for me). So i looked back to rez, i looked at lumines and i was like, hey! ive got a crazy idea!

Maybe games and music have more in common than i thought?

The asshole game

I'm eagerly anticipating the arrival of oblivion for my 360 and i started a thread on gaf asking what exactly could I do in the game. I asked mostly questions about being a dickhead and I realized this would make a hilariously fun game.

Objective: Be the most hated person on the planet
Gameplay mechanics: The first part of becoming the biggest asshole on the planet is to have an idea. "How can i ruin everyones good time" To accomplish this the game will have to be made so the user can grab anything at any angle (thats humanly possible) be able to throw things, hit things with other things and when you step on something it has to react as if you were stepping on it in real life. In essence this would be a real good game for the havok engine.

The level progression would work on the scale of fun ruining. You start out with little things like running over someones picnic, waking random people up in the middle of the night by jumping on their bed and so on, really the world will be built huge and as designer ill give you access to every and any place you see. Think of yourself as a ghost in the world. Like in morrowind and other games people will follow normal routines and all that jazz and its your job to just completely piss off people. You gain rank by pissing off a high number of people in creative ways.

Think tony hawks combo system combined with things like "tresspassing, property damage" and a multiplyer tied to the sheer audacity.

Moving around in the game will be in the form of walking and vehicle driving. Vehicles including really loud cars, monster trucks air planes and so on.

This game doesnt really need a story, actually here ill give it one.

Story: Youre girlfriend cheated on you and you just feel so pissed off that you turn into this mega asshole. The bigger the asshole you are the sooner you forget about that bitch!

The pay off: everyone on the internet can be an asshole cause no ones going to do anything about it. So in this game i give the player an outlet to do it in a pseudo real life world. The pay off is just knowing that youre the only person having a good time (hopefully)

I keep getting sick

Since ive arrived in Japan, I cant help but get sick. So today I was kind of brainstorming how could i make this into a game? I thought, you know escaping virii and bacteria kind of reminds me of a survival horror game. I mean obviously youre running away from something scary and stuff, but then i thought, well in order for this to work id have to have some big story and puzzles and blah blah blah blah. So that wont work. Which led me to this concept.


Premise: You just move into a new apartment and you find that you keep getting sick. In order to stay healthy you have to inspect your house for germs and visit the doctor regularly. On top of this you have to live your life as a normal person.

Gameplay: Similar to shenmue in the respect that alot of your time will be spent inspecting things and living a "normal" life. Perhaps your character starts to feel a little sick, his throat hurts or something, you guide your character around looking for stuff that could be infecting you.

Actually, this doesnt sound fun at all. I guess if you hate it in real life it probably wont make that much of a game. So how could you make protecting yourself from sickness fun?

Maybe we could change the story to the main character was a normal guy but then he got infected with a virus that nearly crippled him. After surviving the virus he vows to defeat germs and bacteria before they can kill anyone else. So he invents this all purpose sick smasher spray. And the game begins when you don your sick smasher suit for the first time and take to the streets with your sick smasher spray. The spray isnt just any normal spray though the mist when it comes into contact with germs it turns into a living being that you can control and you can use the being to uh...rampage the streets and get points and combos and yeah thats pretty stupid too.

You know, Dr. mario wasnt a bad idea. It has nothing to do with getting sick though. I think the guy was just obsessed with color coding his medication.(miyamoto?)

I'm at a lost, maybe i need to think about that first idea again. It just needs a little something extra to keep it from being a bore fest. Maybe i need a better story. "a writer on vacation in a really big house" or "a guy bored in japan" hmmmm

How about this. "a guy just moves in to a new town and is all alone". Atleast that would be the starting premise. Instead of the game being about avoiding sickness it could be an RPG about learning to live in a new city. As the story progresses you get friends, your sickness goes away and life becomes good. Then it gets bad again, but then it gets good again and the game ends. I dont know what you could do with the battle system though. I keep going to the classic turn based style but i dont see where that would fit at all. Perhaps instead of battles this game should rely heavy on conversation trees. You could treat every encounter as if it were a battle.

The space between this paragraph and the last paragraph used to be a big thing about how these conversation battles would work but then i realized my idea just turned into abioware game and i wasnt happy with that. So i give up on the conversation battles.

I'm stumped. What could I do to make this game fun in its current state? I dont want to add any fantasy elements or grand story. no saving the world or anything, i just want to make friends.

I guess i shouldnt make making friends the key gameplay element. That should be the result of the things i do in the game.

But what should i do? What kind of gameplay would suit this storyline and still be fun and not derivitive?

Anyway ill think more, in the meantime if anyone is reading id appreciate some ideas.