Game Concepts

Here are a few of my concepts for the major project in KIT207. Neither of them have any names as of this moment but I think they could make for some pretty cool projects.

Idea 1

Genre: beat em up

I've had this idea of a 3d beat em up set in a bleak white dystopian city (going for conformity vibes where everyone is just following orders) with some kind of painting system that'll colour the city (red cause you're beating enforcement officers up) and here's a WIP pitch for it: Spending your days doing the same routine, constantly watched by those above you, never stepping out of the lines that they drew up… is that any way to live? Paint your bleak reality red as you punch your way through waves of enforcers trying to keep you down. Don’t conform, make your way out, break the system. 

The game would probably be level based as you explore different parts of the dystopian city and discover different enforcer enemies trying to stop you from progressing.

Main mechanics could be as simple as blocking and punching. This could be expanded to other mechanics such as parrying with correct timing and picking up objects within the environment to use as weapons.

The loop would be something similar to: spawn in as basic dude blending in with the crowd -> player takes control and hits someone to start (patrolling enforcer maybe?) -> exits to the section of the city (level) the player is in light up and enforcers start spawning in waves -> player knocks them all out -> boss??? (maybe a later addition) -> some visual queue to let the player know they can take an exit (or an extraction point as enforcers keep spawning??? maybe another addition).

Graphics: probably low poly kinda like Superhot (which also has the bleak white environment too now that I think about it)

I think that this would make a great project as at its core, its a fairly basic concept for a game gameplay wise meaning there isn't too much ground work to get something playable working (done basically everything in self studies already) but has great potential for any kind of expansion we'd want. Examples are: have sections of the city that look different (industrial, urban, etc.), the ability to pick up weapons, more unique enemies, bosses as either special levels or end of level events as just a few ideas. This concept also fits really well with the theme of "break the system" in a less literal sense as you're breaking free from the cycle you're stuck in.

An example of some cool artistic stuff that can contrast the bleakness of the rest of the game (thanks for the idea Jake) is a "finisher" animation the player could get on finishing the last enemy in an area that makes an effect similar to this:  https://youtu.be/eiDwGoC42eQ?t=62 but in 3D. 

Idea 2

Genre: puzzle

My other idea of a project we could do is a puzzle game using old flash games such as "There Is No Game" or "Achievement Unlocked" with their thinking out of the box solutions. The general concept of these games is to have either 1 single level that the player gradually finds new locations/pages/scenes to  that helps them go back and complete other things or multiple levels both solved by doing seemingly random or stupid tasks by clicking on/finding/reaching an objective that triggers unexpected things to happen. This idea is a lot more broad but that's mainly cause there's a lot of room for creativity here. 

This could either be in 2d or 3d (although 2d might make it a lot easier to make creative solutions or could be a mix of both).

The main plot of the game would be something like: the player is stuck in a simulation and an AI is running tests on them but the player doesn't follow what the AI has planned and ends up breaking things in dumb/weird ways like ending up off screen or in the foreground of the game somehow or finding alternate exits.

As I said it's a bit more vague but its less about the actual scenario and more about the idea surrounding it as there are so many opportunities for stupid and creative ways you can hint the player towards completing stuff. One Idea I had was to randomly stick a rope at the top of the screen (as UI) one level with no explanation, whether this be 2d or 3d, and make it so that pulling it makes an object fall from the sky that helps the player finish that particular level.

This game could be a really fun and easy (especially if done in 2d) project and fits the "break the system" theme well. The only thing is that the AI would have to have dialogue which requires a dialogue system but I kind of have one I made for KIT109.