It's widely accepted that it's good to practice creativity, and I thought it might be a bit of fun to have a go at practising as a community with a simple challenge. You'll get to practice being imaginative, as well as the useful skill of trying to describe a game idea succinctly.

Here's the challenge:

Create an "elevator pitch" -- that is, a very basic high level description that attempts to describe the core essence of a game, no more than 1-2 paragraphs -- based on some of the #5WordIndieGame titles for hypothetical games that people have been making up for a bit of a laugh in response to a tweet from @Team17 last week. Your description should be as short as you can make it whilst still communicating the hypothetical game in as much detail as possible. Take your time and revise what you've typed a couple of times before submission, and try to cut out anything you don't need and really make every word count. Bonus points for wacky and original game concepts -- note that they don't necessarily have to be practical, as they're not actually being made!

So:

1. Click through, and look through the suggested titles.
2. Pick one that looks interesting, and write your pitch describing the game this title might go with!
3. You may optionally include one quick "napkin sketch" mock-up image to help illustrate the idea.
4. (Positive) Feedback on ideas from other members is encouraged!

If you pick the same title as someone else, try to pitch a different game that might have that title.

I'll submit one or two of my own tomorrow!

Wow, 446 views but no attempts yet? Come on guys, give it a try!

I'll get the ball rolling with a first attempt -- hopefully a first example will encourage others to jump on in.

-----

I chose @JoffCom's title: "Email Simulator: Send and Receive":

The internet is really a series of tubes and emails don't just magically appear in the inbox -- someone has to shove them into the correct tubes and sort them as they arrive!

Email Simulator: Send and Receive is a tongue-in-cheek single-screen arcade game where the player works in the email sorting office: outgoing mail must be placed into the openings of an increasingly more numerous and tangled series of tubes to reach the correct destination, whilst incoming mail must be quickly removed to the correct inbox before the tubes become clogged!

Wow, 446 views but no attempts yet? Come on guys, give it a try!

I'm working on mine, because concept and pitch contests are always fun. But, did anyone ask permission for us to use the submitted titles? What if one of the submitters objects to having someone else play with a title that is basically their original intellectual property?

But, did anyone ask permission for us to use the submitted titles?

Ok, I will try too.
I choose Tale of Sword and Taxes by Patryk Kowalik

You are an evil tax collector in a medieval rpg/sim game where you gather a group of guards and thugs. Your task is to collect taxes by traveling from village to village. It is too a tongue-in-cheek game.

You need to press the people as much as possible, on the other hand you need them in good condition to let them earn more taxes. With increasing evil reputation you will gain magic like power over the people, you need to fend off bandits, to find the hidden treasures in cellars, to see through the intrigues of lords, to plan the most effective way to visit all the villages. Your final goal is to be the most beloved tax collector by your king and the most feared by the people.

Insert Coin: The Penny Drops

(Title by Jonathan Bennetts, Concept by Mare Kuntz)

Insert Coin explores the evils of capitalism by showing how it brought about the end of the world as we know it. Taking inspiration from the 1998 game Sanitarium, this point-and-click adventure game alternates between two strikingly different settings while taking the player on a philosophical exploration of deep themes. While Sanitarium tackled the themes of delusion, betrayl, and deceptive appearances, Insert Coin: The Penny Drops explores the problems of capitalism, ambition, law, and human nature. The 'dark' setting is a post-capocalyptic future where the player is a corporate slave in a polluted and decaying city. The 'light' setting is the prehistoric past where the player is an enterprising tribesperson making clever trades to become wealthier than his/her fellow tribespeople.

Initially the past seems like just a pleasant place to daydream about while trying not to think about the intolerable existence those labeled failures and reduce to non-citizens – property - have in this 'modern world'. the player's 'real life' consists of minimal sleep, minimal food, no health care, no clean water, and what little free time he/she has is severely restricted by a multitude of burecratic laws intended for the good of the corporation rather than the good of its workers; most notably the fact that non-citizens are forbidden from reproducing. The past is a place the player can imagine 'getting ahead' in a way they have permanently failed to in real life, like the wealthy corporate officers who live in the walled community Penthouse above the smog of the city. But then the player's accomplishments in the past start showing up associated with the player's rich owners in the future. Then the player's tribe is conquered by a neighboring tribe, and the player finds him/herself enslaved in the past too, and unable to 'wake up' from this supposed daydream...

"Sheep Wars: The Mutton Awakens"

An adventure game where the player must solve story-based puzzles to help a race of super-intelligent sheep [...]

Sounds fun! I'm picturing something turn-based, with a time-limit (that can possibly be delayed if the player takes certain actions) before the game is lost due to mutton uprising!

I choose Tale of Sword and Taxes by Patryk Kowalik

You are an evil tax collector in a medieval rpg/sim game where you gather a group of guards and thugs. [...]

Ooh, I like it, there's a bit of an evil genius vibe of playing as the perhaps slightly comical villain! I really liked how you painted a picture of the game with your second paragraph! :)

Insert Coin: The Penny Drops
(Title by Jonathan Bennetts, Concept by Mare Kuntz)

Insert Coin explores the evils of capitalism by showing how it brought about the end of the world as we know it. [...]

Sounds really interesting -- and good to see someone mixing things up with a less humorous idea! Referencing a well-known older game is a great way of quickly communicating the core of the idea -- although if you hadn't been careful about also describing the game in reasonable detail it could have backfired for those who are unfamiliar with the game and left them with an unclear picture -- something for anyone else using a similar approach to keep in mind! :)

Seems like a very dark theme and setting, but along with that some fantastic opportunities for really interesting and meaningful plot and character development.

Riffing on @BroceedToCheckpoint's "How to leave your lover":

How hard can a relationship really be? An emotionally scarring take on contemporary relationship dynamics.

Gameplay takes the form of Bioware-style branching dialogue trees, wherein the player acts out a series of scenarios with their in-game partner. Each playthrough the player will be given the goal either of breaking up with their partner, or of convincing their partner not to leave. To ensure each playthrough is unique, the dialogue tree is populated by procedurally chaining together a set of pre-written scenario fragments, customised to the active player goal and the genders of both the player and non-player character.

Examples of possible scenarios include 'forgotten anniversary', 'unwanted pregnancy', 'late mortgage payment', 'caught flirting with secretary', etc. The title screen is set to Paul Simon's "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover" (assuming we can acquire the rights).

Insert Coin: The Penny Drops
(Title by Jonathan Bennetts, Concept by Mare Kuntz)

Insert Coin explores the evils of capitalism by showing how it brought about the end of the world as we know it. [...]

Sounds really interesting -- and good to see someone mixing things up with a less humorous idea! Referencing a well-known older game is a great way of quickly communicating the core of the idea -- although if you hadn't been careful about also describing the game in reasonable detail it could have backfired for those who are unfamiliar with the game and left them with an unclear picture -- something for anyone else using a similar approach to keep in mind!

Seems like a very dark theme and setting, but along with that some fantastic opportunities for really interesting and meaningful plot and character development.

Glad you thought it was interesting. It was actually kind of humorous to me - mainly the idea that anyone would make a game preaching an anti-capitalist message - but I figured if I was creating a game concept I wanted it to be something I respected, thus not something absurd. Unusually dark for me, the romance and pet collecting game fan; I was in kind of a weird mood. I started doing a second one yesterday and it was going in a dark direction too. But then I realized I didn't want to do two titles from the same person, so I picked a different one to work on today.