[UFEC] game concepts thread
Figured I should kick of the contest by throwing a couple of ideas out there - feel free to borrow/adapt as you see fit, and add your own...
#1: Zombie Defence
2D top-down side-scroller, or 3D third-person shooter
The protagonist is a lone survivor of a zombie apocalypse. The zombies if the area multiply rapidly if unchecked [proliferation], and become faster/stronger/deadlier over time [evolution]. The protagonist is not strong enough to face the zombies directly, but has the ability to spread long-lasting fire across the ground [fire], which can be used to trap and kill the zombies (who will mindlessly walk through it). Unfortunately for our protagonist, there are shifting pools of water [water], which prevent him from placing fire, and put out fires he has previously placed.
#2: Prevolution
2D puzzle game
Game takes place on a board consistign of many cells (can be square/hex/whatever). A large number of cells contain either ice [water], or lava [fire]. Each player or AI controls a colony of bacteria, attempting to survive in this arena. However, the player is only able to directly influence the 'queen' organism, at the center of the colony. The player loses if their queen is killed, and wins by eliminating all enemy queens.
Play is turn based, and each turn the player may either breed, mutate or move. Breeding causes the queen to give birth to a number of bacteria, which occupy the cells immediately surrounding the queen, and push earlier generations outwards [proliferation]. Mutation adds a player-chosen trait (from a tree of possible traits) to all future generations [evolution]. Moving allows the queen to move one cell in any direction, switching places with any bacteria that may already occupy the cell.
Traits can affect the combat abilities of bacteria (combat occurs when the edge of your colony collides with the edge of another colony), the ability of the bacteria to themselves multiply (faster colony growth), or their ability to withstand ice/lava. High-level defensive and offensive traits require the colony to have access to (and consume) quantities of ice and lava respectively.
[Edited by - swiftcoder on November 4, 2009 12:48:55 PM]
Action game.
You wake up in complete darkness, cold, hungry and suffering from some ailment (Pneumonia,amnesia,etc). You have nothing but a cigarette lighter, a few cartons of smokes and a half drunk bottle of Scotch which you cant seem to find. You are locked inside an icy catacomb/maze with some alien.
The first encounter you are able to knock it off a cliff. Every time you "kill it" it only comes back stronger, evolving, multiplying. You have to find your way out of the Cavern before your crew "blows it" (your crew is going to blow up the cave unless you get out in 3 days). Not only that you have to find components to build your makeshift flamethrower to finally kill it.
###
Initially the monster can only see via "sound waves" (think Arkham Asylum with Killer Croc). So you have to lure him to a large cliff where it mindlessly goes off.
[Edited by - Aiursrage on October 31, 2009 5:38:19 PM]
You wake up in complete darkness, cold, hungry and suffering from some ailment (Pneumonia,amnesia,etc). You have nothing but a cigarette lighter, a few cartons of smokes and a half drunk bottle of Scotch which you cant seem to find. You are locked inside an icy catacomb/maze with some alien.
The first encounter you are able to knock it off a cliff. Every time you "kill it" it only comes back stronger, evolving, multiplying. You have to find your way out of the Cavern before your crew "blows it" (your crew is going to blow up the cave unless you get out in 3 days). Not only that you have to find components to build your makeshift flamethrower to finally kill it.
###
Initially the monster can only see via "sound waves" (think Arkham Asylum with Killer Croc). So you have to lure him to a large cliff where it mindlessly goes off.
[Edited by - Aiursrage on October 31, 2009 5:38:19 PM]
@Aiursrage I like!
Now for something completely different (although based on the same concept as Prevolution)...
#3: The Eden Project
2D/3D RTS
Game is set in a hostile environment (post-apocalypse/colony world/etc.). Players must gather resources in the form of Biomass farmed/harvested from the oceans [water], and heat/energy extracted from volcanic magma [fire]. Each resource is fraught with danger, as the oceans suffer from storms that can destroy coatstal installations, and volcanic eruptions can destroy buildings/units around magma wells.
Unlike a typicall RTS, there is only a single unit type. Production Centres spawn units continually [proliferation] (provided resources are available), and units have a finite lifetime, which functions as a unit cap. At regular intervals, the players can choose to evolve their unit blueprint at each production center [evolution]. Evolution affects all future units spawned at that production center, and is irreversible.
The 'evolution tree' replaces the concept of a 'tech tree', but is more of a lattice than a tree - paths split and merge, and eventually loop around to the beginning, allowing stages of evolution to be repeated in the future. Evolutionary changes are gradual, so that it may requiry several evolutions to reach a desired stage. Each stage has weaknesses as well as strengths, so that you can never achieve the 'perfect' stage. Instead, the players must constantly evolve their units in an attempt to counter their opponent's evolutions.
Now for something completely different (although based on the same concept as Prevolution)...
#3: The Eden Project
2D/3D RTS
Game is set in a hostile environment (post-apocalypse/colony world/etc.). Players must gather resources in the form of Biomass farmed/harvested from the oceans [water], and heat/energy extracted from volcanic magma [fire]. Each resource is fraught with danger, as the oceans suffer from storms that can destroy coatstal installations, and volcanic eruptions can destroy buildings/units around magma wells.
Unlike a typicall RTS, there is only a single unit type. Production Centres spawn units continually [proliferation] (provided resources are available), and units have a finite lifetime, which functions as a unit cap. At regular intervals, the players can choose to evolve their unit blueprint at each production center [evolution]. Evolution affects all future units spawned at that production center, and is irreversible.
The 'evolution tree' replaces the concept of a 'tech tree', but is more of a lattice than a tree - paths split and merge, and eventually loop around to the beginning, allowing stages of evolution to be repeated in the future. Evolutionary changes are gradual, so that it may requiry several evolutions to reach a desired stage. Each stage has weaknesses as well as strengths, so that you can never achieve the 'perfect' stage. Instead, the players must constantly evolve their units in an attempt to counter their opponent's evolutions.
Fire and Ice - the evolutionary Arms Race
You have two gods, one an adept of fire the other ice. Each time one wins they will evolve a new technique and become stronger, you of course always playing the low man.
Round1:
You play as Ice who only has a golf club
Fire has developed the ability to shoot fireballs.
You will only have your golf club and will swing it at the right time to hit it back at Fire
Round2:
You play as Fire who has the ability to shoot fireballs.
Ice has the ability to use an ice shield that allows him to reflect fireballs back at you.
To win you have to make Ice waste his mana by using the environment to push a rock on him, have him drain his mana than blast him with the fireball.
Round3
You play as Ice who has the ice shield
Fire has the ability to shoot fireballs and now the ability to heat the areas of the arena.
At this point in the game its time to add the proliferation comes into effect. The Ice god will now have minions which will at this point be the golf club wielding level1 adepts.
Dodge the fireballs, make Fire heat up certain areas titled "fragile ice". Now you need to have him melt holes in the arena (one close to where you are another where he is), than you can dive underwater and popup behind him and blast him.
It goes on like this...
####
Joe the fireman vs the Anarchist Burner Cult
You play as Joe the fireman/sheriff. It seems that the ABC (anarchist burner cult) is back and once threatening to burn down "the town".
Camera: Top down down
Gameplay:
Initally the game is a simple beat em up. You will also have to use fire-hydrants to put out fires.
Later on the game evolves. The ABC start blowing up the hydrants, so now you have to start carrying around fire-extinguishers.
The bigger the extinguishers the slower you move but the more water you can carry. More and more ABC members start arriving on the scene and you simply can not carry around the big tank, you will have to use a smaller tank.
There will also be a progression where the ABC start using different fires, such as chemical (meaning you need a different extinguisher).
###
This one is really cheesy
Hells just frozen over-- a fun educational game?
The game literary takes place in hell. There will be various math questions (you guessed its "multiplication"), every time you get the question right a part of hell will "freeze over". When its all frozen over you win, get too many wrong and you lose. Goes through all the times tables from 2..10.
[Edited by - Aiursrage on November 1, 2009 1:47:11 PM]
You have two gods, one an adept of fire the other ice. Each time one wins they will evolve a new technique and become stronger, you of course always playing the low man.
Round1:
You play as Ice who only has a golf club
Fire has developed the ability to shoot fireballs.
You will only have your golf club and will swing it at the right time to hit it back at Fire
Round2:
You play as Fire who has the ability to shoot fireballs.
Ice has the ability to use an ice shield that allows him to reflect fireballs back at you.
To win you have to make Ice waste his mana by using the environment to push a rock on him, have him drain his mana than blast him with the fireball.
Round3
You play as Ice who has the ice shield
Fire has the ability to shoot fireballs and now the ability to heat the areas of the arena.
At this point in the game its time to add the proliferation comes into effect. The Ice god will now have minions which will at this point be the golf club wielding level1 adepts.
Dodge the fireballs, make Fire heat up certain areas titled "fragile ice". Now you need to have him melt holes in the arena (one close to where you are another where he is), than you can dive underwater and popup behind him and blast him.
It goes on like this...
####
Joe the fireman vs the Anarchist Burner Cult
You play as Joe the fireman/sheriff. It seems that the ABC (anarchist burner cult) is back and once threatening to burn down "the town".
Camera: Top down down
Gameplay:
Initally the game is a simple beat em up. You will also have to use fire-hydrants to put out fires.
Later on the game evolves. The ABC start blowing up the hydrants, so now you have to start carrying around fire-extinguishers.
The bigger the extinguishers the slower you move but the more water you can carry. More and more ABC members start arriving on the scene and you simply can not carry around the big tank, you will have to use a smaller tank.
There will also be a progression where the ABC start using different fires, such as chemical (meaning you need a different extinguisher).
###
This one is really cheesy
Hells just frozen over-- a fun educational game?
The game literary takes place in hell. There will be various math questions (you guessed its "multiplication"), every time you get the question right a part of hell will "freeze over". When its all frozen over you win, get too many wrong and you lose. Goes through all the times tables from 2..10.
[Edited by - Aiursrage on November 1, 2009 1:47:11 PM]
Take care!
Some of the games proposed here would not necessarily qualify!
By "Some" I mean Joe the Fireman and ABC where I cannot see any Proliferation nor Evolution. (Proliferation as fighting more and more enemies does not count; Proliferation as having a fire-extinguisher with description "This is based on rapid proliferation of organisms" does not qualify either. It's the same like the previous contest's "Every metal has crystallic structure so it's sufficient to have metal in the game and I have crystals implemented." No.
The second, Hell Frozen Over, is funny, but Proliferation and Evolution are still not implemented.
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But if I guess correctly, Aiursage just gives sketches of the games so you'd have to put in the remaining elements your self.
Some of the games proposed here would not necessarily qualify!
By "Some" I mean Joe the Fireman and ABC where I cannot see any Proliferation nor Evolution. (Proliferation as fighting more and more enemies does not count; Proliferation as having a fire-extinguisher with description "This is based on rapid proliferation of organisms" does not qualify either. It's the same like the previous contest's "Every metal has crystallic structure so it's sufficient to have metal in the game and I have crystals implemented." No.
The second, Hell Frozen Over, is funny, but Proliferation and Evolution are still not implemented.
-----
But if I guess correctly, Aiursage just gives sketches of the games so you'd have to put in the remaining elements your self.
Quote:Original post by LesanProliferation is implemented as a wordplay: proliferation == multiplication. Evolution is implemented as the difficulty of the times tables increases as you progress.
The second, Hell Frozen Over, is funny, but Proliferation and Evolution are still not implemented.
I am not sure how well they would score as is, but the elements are there [smile]
Quote:Original post by Lesan
Take care!
Some of the games proposed here would not necessarily qualify!
By "Some" I mean Joe the Fireman and ABC where I cannot see any Proliferation nor Evolution. (Proliferation as fighting more and more enemies does not count; Proliferation as having a fire-extinguisher with description "This is based on rapid proliferation of organisms" does not qualify either. It's the same like the previous contest's "Every metal has crystallic structure so it's sufficient to have metal in the game and I have crystals implemented." No.
I thought evolution would be satisfied by the fire-extinguisher. You had to upgrade to fit the needs.
For example:
You wouldnt be able to keep up with the ABC if you were lugging around the big water-tank so you would have to upgrade it (to have a smaller tank/maybe a lighter tank).
Later on the ABC would be setting different types of fires (chemical, etc -- which couldnt be put out with water) so again you would have to upgrade your extinguisher.
The fact that there would be more ABC members should satisfy Proliferation. The enemies are increasing at a rapid rate, the fires are also increasing at a rapid rate.
Quote:
To increase or spread at a rapid rate: fears that nuclear weapons might proliferate.
####
Quote:
The second, Hell Frozen Over, is funny, but Proliferation and Evolution are still not implemented.
I would argue they are. Though I would grant it would be a "weak reference".
Quote:
To grow or multiply by rapidly producing new tissue, parts, cells, or offspring.
Every time you got an "answer" correct part of hell, a "hell-cell" would freeze over.
The "Evolution" would be progressively more challenging multiplications. The first level you would start with multiples of two. The second one would be 3 time tables, continuing in this fashion.
The enemies do not proliferate in a "natural" way.
To satisfy "proliferation" in a natural way, you would need, in the Fireman game, the ABC members to multiply themselves, by breeding, it would not be sufficient to simply "add them on screen". And in the Hell Frozen Over game, for the ice to proliferate naturally, the hellcells that freeze would have to be adjacent to an already existing ice cell.
Now, the natural proliferation is not the only way to interpret proliferation.
The other type is: "This does spread or multiply rapidly but as itself, it's not the source of the spread by itself" An example of this is nuclear proliferation.
I'm not sure whether that should qualify. What say you?
To satisfy "proliferation" in a natural way, you would need, in the Fireman game, the ABC members to multiply themselves, by breeding, it would not be sufficient to simply "add them on screen". And in the Hell Frozen Over game, for the ice to proliferate naturally, the hellcells that freeze would have to be adjacent to an already existing ice cell.
Now, the natural proliferation is not the only way to interpret proliferation.
The other type is: "This does spread or multiply rapidly but as itself, it's not the source of the spread by itself" An example of this is nuclear proliferation.
I'm not sure whether that should qualify. What say you?
Actually, i feel that proliferation and evolution should be taken as abstractly as possible. Otherwise, every game will have to have units that simply multiply in number. The word proliferation literally means the process of "giving life to" something, so I feel that anything which features this concept as an integral part of gameplay should count. Whether that's zombies that multiply into a horde or a queen ant who when given different types of food gives birth to different types of offspring should be irrelevant, as both feature the life-giving concept. The same goes for evolution; it shouldn't just be species A turns into species B, which in turn gives rise to species C... It should simply be an unfolding path, or life-line. If a game goes from having side-scroller beat'em up gameplay to real-time-strategy, that should count. I even think an evolving story-line should count, if executed well enough.
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