Game Brainstorming

Idea 1:

The first idea that I came up with was an 80s Miami Vice-style inspired car game where the player controls a car from a 3^rd person or top-down view, as they are being chased by police, or chasing bad guys, through Miami or another sunny location, depending on how difficult it will be to render a city.

I want the player to be able to choose from several different 80s cars like the iconic white Ferrari Testarossa from Miami Vice, or the Dodge Charger from the Dukes of Hazard.

I would like to have the home screen and the loading screens complete with 80s neon lights and synth-wave music.

 

It will be similar to Subway Surfer in the mechanics, being able to move side to side to dodge oncoming cars and obstacles. I’m not sure if the car should be stationary and on a sort of treadmill or if the car should be moving through the space, so that’s something I’ll have to look into.

Subway Surfers screenshot 

 

The player would fail the game if they crashed into any of the obstacles, I think that only giving the player one life will make the game more challenging too, as opposed to Subway Surfers when the player hits a barrier they don’t instantly fail, the chasing security guard will appear ag the bottom of the screen to let you know if you fail again, you get caught. But I feel in a game with a car if you crash head-on with another car, there shouldn’t be any do-overs, you should just fail instantly. 

 

I also want there to be a scoring system depending on how long you last, this will get harder and harder as the longer you go the faster the car will go.

 

This is a link to a discussion on a message forum talking about this exact type of game. 

 

 

Idea 2: 

The second idea I had was a momentum-based type of side scroller that is similar to Bike Race for mobile. The basic mechanics of the game are that you control the player's bike with the rider on the top being your weak point, if he hits any of the level you will fail. The player’s goal is to try and make it through jumps, loop-de-loops, and anything else that is designed to flip the bike over and make it to the finish line safely. 

On mobile, the player can control the tilt and the rotation of the bike with the tilt of their phone so that you don’t hit the rider on top and fail, if I can remember correctly, obviously this isn’t possible on a desktop so I can implement a tilt action by using the left or right keys.

 

I think this basic idea of having to balance your character so that they don’t hit their weak point or fall over can go in a few ways, but the idea I have involves a sentient kettle that must make it to the cup to fill it with tea, so it can’t fall over or spill the tea, so the player has to balance it while you move it forward. The level will be infinite so there won’t be a finish. 

The kitchen will be an infinite side scroller with obstacles that the kettle must jump over, duck under, climb and dodge.

 

I could even do it so the kettle is running away from a person trying to drink the tea and if the kettle hits something or spills over then the game ends.

 

I found this YouTube tutorial of a person creating a similar type of game that is like Hill Climb Race for mobile that uses a similar idea of balance. 

 

Idea 3: 

Not sure if anyone has ever made this game because I couldn’t find it online, as it's very location-specific, Kerbs or paths (it’s not called paths). For anyone not familiar, two players stand on opposite sides of a road and have to stand on the edge of the path and try and throw a ball to hit the other players’ kerb. 

There are no set of rules apart from stay on your kerb, but the scoring system was very loose depending on who you asked, so I would have to come up with specific values for different trick shots.

Two of the most common score types though were behind your back, and over a car, which were the big scorers, so I’d have to create a car to drive through the players at a random time and allow one of the players the chance to throw it over.

The other being behind the back, I would have to create a turning motion and then a throw which would send the ball backward, or even leave the throwing motion the exact same and just face the player model the opposite way.

 

I’m not sure how the throwing mechanic would work, maybe similar to a basketball game, you could also throw with one hand, which would make it harder so I could make the one-handed throw less accurate somehow.

 

The ball would need to be bouncy so it would actually look like a ball so maybe I try and make a bounce mechanic. 

 

The level design would just be a road with a path on each side which the players stand on, with a row of houses behind each player. 

 

I found this article that walks through a basketball game which could be useful for the ball and throw mechanics. 

 

 

Idea 4: 

The final idea I have for a game is a bit more unrealistic to create in my first year, but I think it’s a cool idea anyway.

A first-person horror version of Pac-Man. The player is trapped in a maze with the ghosts just like in Pac-Man but instead of the ghosts being little pixels, they’re terrifying.

The maze instead of being a sci-fi neon maze could be more grounded, maybe a hedge maze-like in the Shining could be cool, or maybe just a cellar or a house like the Blaire Witch. The possibilities of horror references are endless here.

 

There could be coins or something that the player collects like in Pac-Man or there could just be a timer to see how long the player lasts as the monsters get faster and faster. There could be temporary power-ups too like the original l so the player can fight back against the monster, maybe finding an axe or a gun on the ground that only lasts so long while the monsters run away from you. Or the player could use this weapon and it only slows down the monsters, which would make it scarier as they’re invulnerable, and also make it easier to design as I won’t have to make a death animation.

 

I’d like the monsters to have a killing animation when they catch the player too, like in Alien Isolation, where the death animations are several seconds long and let the player watch the Xenomorph kill them before the game over screen. I think this would be a really interesting concept if done correctly.

 

Someone already created a first-person version of the original Pac-Man here.