Media Cultures 1

Single player – for high score / score boards / longest time

Multiplayer – to beat others (for a score) – mmr? Free for all, team based? Choice in the match or auto-assigned?

Dice Based – Luck/ Pure chance when rng

Control based – Avoiding obstacles, landing blocks, more skill than chance powerups

Platformer – Traditional Level System limit novelty, unless they aren’t one after the other such as difficulty settings

Character/Avatar customization – Play to peoples vanity, perhaps defeating other players/NPCs grants spendable currency that can differentiate people.

Achievements -

Grid Based – Limited to a grid, bejeweled, tetris

Idea1- Player/Players exist on screen to avoid, several levels/sets of bars coming from either side of the screen (top down view), players can block the bars from crushing them temporarily with blocks and have to survive as long as possible, 2p, can push others to their death and steal their blocks for a medium bonus or coop to endure. Small powerups assist in surviving

Idea2 – 2 Block bars pushing against one another like an arm wrestle. Either spamming spacebar or perhaps quick letter recognition (Press “H”, Press “Z”) can push against enemy player. Powerups can help but can only be picked up by dropping position and if the enemy forces at the right time they can steal the powerup. Powerups increase the power of the actions performed to push the player by a multiplier

Idea3 – The player has a “seed” that can be transformed into a “beanstalk”-like ladder and back. 2 screens across. Player must try and climb as high as possible with only limited seeds and resources. Must avoid creatures that can knock character down and destroy seeds. Many ways the seeds can be used and transported. Score is height achieved. Heart of Darkness inspired.

Idea4 – The player must traverse an environment with varying levels of terrain and avoid being swooped. Simple walk, crouch, sprint functions. Maybe player can pick up rocks to distract the vultures/creature. Safe areas get less and less frequent as the player progresses. Heart of Darkness inspired.

Idea5 – Players are set on a grid with a loose maze. With a roll of the dice players must attempt to block each other in, defeating them when their avatar is completely surrounded. Players can also move each turn, moving more if they choose to sacrifice blocks. Turn based. Simple powerups may help. Random matchmaking. Can play bigger games (5 players etc.) but it would have to be FFA.

Idea6 – The player is placed at the entrance to several tunnels during a cave-in and must clear the debris from the entrances to help his fellow miners escape. More miners escape, higher score. More than 3 miners build up at a blocked entrance, the entire tunnel collapses, losing score upkeep and causing the miners to move much faster (meaning if a when the entrance blocks off it becomes extremely difficult to save the tunnel). Picks can break (How very Minecraftian) and need to be collected at strategic times to prevent further cave-ins. Maybe 2p?

Idea7 –Player has to traverse the top of a castle undetected as many times as possible. Each time they get from one side to the other a bonus is granted but difficulty increases. On the other side (enemy castle) enemy guards patrol. The player must use the “merlons” of the castle wall to sneak across when they aren’t looking.

Idea8 – 1v1 Castle defense game. Players can send waves of troops, set up siege weapons and other defenses against each other. Powerups and bonuses spawn however can only be picked up by the player’s king, the enemies target. Customizable castle. Vanity upgrades available to consistent players

Idea9 – There are 2 screens side by side (2 player) and balloons appear on either screen with letters on them. Pressing the corresponding letter repeatedly will tap the balloon up, losing a balloon results in negative score, pressing the letter corresponding to the opponents balloon will smack it downward. Either player can pop a balloon and take bonus points by entering in a 5+ letter word starting with the numeral on the balloon

Idea10 – A ball machine aims to fire a ball at an angle with a power indicator, the player must try and accurately guess where the ball will lands, maybe drawing a trajectory of the ball and where ever it lines up with the fired ball points are granted, as time passes the “guessing area” decreases.

Idea11 – Cliché-alert. Zombie survival similar to BlackOps Minigame cross with tower defense, Players start off surrounded by zombies in a medium size room, gradually earning better weapons, defenses and means of surviving at the same time the zombies bolster their numbers. Using barricades, players can funnel the flow of zombies and lay traps and charges between waves, earning money to reinforce doors and they must try and survive as long as possible. Eventually they progress upwards to the floor above them, however they can still move freely allowing players to alternate between floors.

Idea 12 – Still on the zombie thing, A Lemmings-like horde of zombies is headed toward your town and the player must use a plethora of tools to stop any zombies from making it there, you can lay traps and pitfalls with land editing powers

Idea 13 – 2p Knight Joust. Players can fully customize every aspect of their knight/horse and joust other players online, the jousting itself is largely down to timing and skill, when to lunge forward, when to bring up your shield, and different equipment set-ups have different counters.

Idea 14 – Players fight waves of creeps on inverted sides of the screen, one white, one black. Killing creeps gives experience, levels and there’s a chance that they’ll drop gear or power-ups, however at any given time, the enemy player can swap onto the players screen and “grief” him, stealing his items, granting bonus exp and score and delaying the player’s level progression. The first one to kill their opponent 5 times is declared the winner

Idea 15 – Similar to Pacman, the player must attempt to catch their opponent in a maze while they are assigned as the “Beast”, Speed, score bonuses and rare ghost powerups appear, favouring the pursued player, however at any given time the roles can switch and the hunter becomes the hunted. Best of 3. Long survival times are displayed on an online score board.

Idea 16 – With limited explosives (of various different types), the player must attempt to bring down different varieties of buildings, made up of different materials, They can also use materials to set up the explosion or to create shelter as dying to the explosion hinders player score.

Idea 17 – Player/Players has access to both fire and ice spells and are standing in the middle of a frozen lake. The player must survive as long as possible against waves of enemies. Co-op. Friendly fire possible.

Idea 18 – The player acts as a barista making coffee and other beverages for npcs as fast as possible, multitasking will be the main focus of the game with small minigame actions for each part of the process (eg. Constantly tapping “g” to grind the beans, while watching that the milk doesn’t over heat, while trying to get their orders right). Single player, again it will get harder and harder and eventually overwhelm so the objective is to last as long as possible.

Idea 19 – The player has to sneak between areas of light and darkness under varying circumstances to avoid enemy guards, patrols and spotlights. Single Player. Sprint, Tiptoe, crouch functions. Random guard encounters and there are several ways of eluding and hiding from them. Score bonuses depending on the manner of concealment and points are taken from the player for getting caught.

Idea 20 – Similarly to minesweeper and battleship the players positions are unknown to each other and using bombs must try and eliminate their opponent. There are score bonuses and pickups, viewable and obtainable by both players. Players can move each turn and sacrifice an attack for further movement, successive pickups unlock short term rewards (such as a hint as to where the enemy is) and score can also be sacrificed to purchase weapons such as nukes and mines. 2p, perhaps co-op 2v2

Idea 21 - The Player must last as long as possible whilst avoiding obstacles and trying to get the highest score he/she can. However the more score pickups you get (alcoholic beverages) the drunker you become, making it harder to avoid the obstacles, which take the player’s score away upon contact. Drunkenness blurs the screen gradually and makes the controls stickier, giving you less reaction speed, giving the player a choice to either try and continue avoiding the obstacles and gain less score over a longer time or attempt to play with stupid controls.

Idea 22 – 2 players can either fight or cooperate to get a high score by attempting to direct a beam of light to their point using mirrors. There are several different types of mirrors and in most cases it is possible to split the beam and both achieve victory, however greedier players can steal it for themselves and gain additional points. Mirrors can be turned and broken (with a score repercussion) by either player, which forces players that hope to steal the beam to think several steps ahead to outwit their opponent.

Idea 23 – Players attempt to mine minerals and ore from beneath the earth’s surface without disturbing the land. Precious materials spawn regularly (some rarely) and the players (possibly multiplayer) race to beat each others score. Though this seems to be a theme in my ideas, players can sabotage others and cause cave-ins, killing the player causing a short respawn (loss of a life) and causing the player to lose their last 5 materials acquired. Players can also sacrifice score to get better equipment or further lives.

Idea 24 – The player attempts to combine alchemical ingredients together to sell for money (score). Some ingredients have unknown attributes and many are volatile, further research can be bought which reveals more attributes about each component and some ingredients can be bought or traded with other players. There is a cooldown restore on many of the basic components and there are hundreds of possible combinations. Blunders can cause a loss in score or a loss of ingredients.

Idea 25 – Player/Players pursue a moving target (perhaps an ice-cream truck) over the rooftops or street, attempting to stay in range. The closer you are to the target, the higher the score multiplier and there is a small minigame for each parkouree aspect. It is also their objective to beat the other player’s score by adding obstacles in their path. Going off-screen results in loss of points/life.

Refinement

Idea2 – 2 Block bars pushing against one another like an arm wrestle. Either spamming spacebar or perhaps quick letter recognition (Press “H”, Press “Z”) can push against enemy player. Powerups can help but can only be picked up by dropping position and if the enemy forces at the right time they can steal the powerup. Powerups increase the power of the actions performed to push the player by a multiplier

Could be a single player game where the player is fighting to push against closing walls (NPC) or a multiplayer game 1v1, 2v2, etc.

Random Matchmaking over Facebook, option for friends only. Co-op either 2 bars or both help with a single bar. Winners can gain achievements and in-game currency used to buy custom bar textures, avatars, etc.

Possible power-ups:

- Double power for a brief time

- Random letters (one per push) for a brief time

- Notched bar, can’t slip past a certain point (temporary)

- Blurs enemy push key slightly for a short time

There would be a countdown and then both people would begin to mash the assigned key, which would change periodically every 5-10 seconds. To assure that an “even match” doesn’t last forever there could be some sort of temporary time where the letters change each 2 seconds every minute for 10 seconds perhaps. Helps with touch typing? Educational purposes? Perhaps it isn’t a single button but a repetition of several buttons (ie. Press “A”, “S”, “D”, “A”…etc.) that changes less frequently

Could be a tug-of-war setup or a simple arm wrestle, however a bar-to-bar push seems easier to understand visually.

Idea 13 – 2p Knight Joust. Players can fully customize every aspect of their knight/horse and joust other players online, the jousting itself is largely down to timing and skill, when to lunge forward, when to bring up your shield, and different equipment set-ups have different counters.

Players verse each other in Jousting (matchmaking, random/friend matchups), having the option to choose which weapons, armor, protection and horse to choose (all of which can be bought with in-game currency and fully customized) Different setups have different counters.

Players can upload images and colour schemes to further customize shields and armor.

The game begins after a count down and the player can use SPACE to move forward and CTRL to swing, ALT to dodge and SHIFT to shield, depending on when and how they use these abilities can completely change the outcome.

Online, regional and friend scoreboards, maybe an app can be used to update scores, etc. on the go.

Game focuses on strategy, player vanity and character customization. Could be translated in many ways, ie. Samurais charging at each other, etc.

Idea5 – Players are set on a grid with a loose maze. With a roll of the dice players must attempt to block each other in, defeating them when their avatar is completely surrounded. Players can also move each turn, moving more if they choose to sacrifice blocks. Turn based. Simple powerups may help. Random matchmaking. Can play bigger games (5 players etc.) but it would have to be FFA.

Square grid takes 8 to surround, Hex/Circle grid takes 6 – varying levels of difficulty. The grid “maze” also needs to be well thought through otherwise players can too easily block off half the grid with its assistance and reduce their room.

Assuming it’s a dice (chance) based game, rolling a d6 gives a chance of nearly being able to surround their enemy entirely, but not quite, so it seems the most suitable. Setting the player movement per round to 3. Players can move more at the cost of blocks.