My Gamestorm Ideas

This post is to share my ideas of potential game ideas I have thought up for my project and to help narrow down which one I will choose to develop on.

1. Horror

The Easter Ripper from Murder House by Puppet Combo on Twitter.com

For my first game idea I thought horror would be a good option for simple yet intriguing gameplay as it doesn't require complicated mechanics to make a good horror game. My immediate thought for inspiration related to this was the multitude of horror games created by the 80's style Triple-B horror game developer, Puppet Combo. There graphics and gameplay mechanics are simple yet the care put into the setting and atmosphere of the games help immerse you in the world, whether it be running through the mall trying desperately to evade the Easter Ripper in Murder House, or sneaking through a dark and decrepit neighbourhood trying to get home without being kidnapped like in The Night Ripper.

Using this study, Horror Game Design - what instills fear in the player?, by Tobias Arnell and Nikola Stojanovic, discussing what game design, lack of visuals, and patterns in horror games have in terms of effects on it's players, which will help me be able to achieve a much better atmosphere and a greater horror effect within my game. Playing some of Puppet Combo's games and drawing some inspiration from their games visual settings, camera angles, and game mechanics should help to give the player a sense of helplessness and make them feel weak in a sense compared to the antagonist. If not I may try do it from the perspective of the killer themselves in which you must try kill the targets within a limit before the cops arrive and you are arrested. I'm not sure entirely if I will be able to fully achieve some of these ideas as I need to see where future tutorials lead but for now this game idea has potential to actually get made as it's mechanics don't seem to be difficult to create.

2. Platformer

Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania from nintendo.co.uk

My second idea comes from Super Monkey Ball, a popular platformer series in which you just roll around a monkey in a ball, and try keep yourself on the platforms until you reach the end within the time limit. One of my main reasons for selecting this besides being fun is because it's a really simple concept. I was reminded of it after doing Unity Tutorial 01,  as all that was required was movement and interaction with the environment, and that's basically all that is required in Super Monkey Ball.

For the game I plan to use this template, Develop a Monkey Ball Inspired Game with Unity, made by code.tutsplus.com on how to make a monkey ball inspired game, which will give me a step-by-step outline on how to go about creating a game similar to it. This game concept doesn't seem that challenging to create honestly, and seems quite enjoyable learning how to make a fair yet challenging platformer and being able to have fun making levels as easy as just rolling forward, to as hard as having to roll across moving platforms and maintaining high speeds. As fun as this idea sounds I'm not sure whether to go with it or not as it seems too simple to the point it requires minimal effort. If I do go with this idea I will have to expand on the concept and gameplay ideas much deeper.

3. Fighter 

Paint The Town Red from HowLongToBeat.com

With guidance from this walkthrough, I wanna make a fighting game! A practical guide for beginners (part I), by indiewatch.net, I hope to create a 3D fighter game in the style of Paint The Town Red, which is a 3D level based fighter in which you can roam around the level before beginning the fight, or the later iterations in the Street Fighter series where it's 3D but with a 2D camera angle. The guide goes through the necessities needed for these types of games with future articles in this guide discussing how to make the process easier with creating the characters and such.

Street Fighter V from The Guardian Nigeria

I think of the two the Street Fighter route sounds like the most achievable with minimal complications and less stress along the way. While Paint The Town Red sounds fun, the Street Fighter allows for more flexibility allowing me to focus more on the gameplay, characters, and fighting moves over the simple 2D background.

Gang Beasts from g2a.com

Gang Beasts also seems like a fun idea and challenge to create a game similar in theme to. Simplistic gameplay and mechanics with the main work being focused on the levels and the diversity of such. It sounds like a really fun and unique challenge to try and take up though I do worry I may not be able to achieve the same kind of fun in simplicity as the game itself. This genre allows for such diverse games so it is tempting to try it out but it's so wide in term of opportunities that it's a little overwhelming. I'll have to get a more concrete idea on which specific fighter I'd like to create before I'd be happy to move on.

4. Shooter

Saints Row 2 from alchetron.com

Saints Row 2 is one of favourite shooters and I'm more than interested in trying to create something like it but more so in a contained area instead of open world. Following this tutorial by Jason Weimann, HowTo: Build a 3rd person shooter in Unity - part 1. With the help of it I hope to achieve a fun gameplay with tight controls, where the player has to run through a building level by level, fighting enemies until they reach the boss at the top who they must kill to win. I think this idea would be fun to try as I could try to implement things such as cover systems or other guns for a little more advanced and interactive gameplay. Learning how to reload and how gunplay works while building will definitely be something interesting to learn the complexity behind and how all of it works together with the gameplay and movement, as well as creating enemies for the player to have a shootout with and making them function properly with the environment.