Author Topic: Ideas for quick games to design  (Read 31500 times)

clockworkjoe

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Ideas for quick games to design
« on: January 11, 2015, 11:21:59 PM »
So, I've worked on Ruin a lot but it's nowhere near done. That's fine, it's a long term project. However, I want to make games and I have 3 ideas I could start on after I finish up Boiling Point. What would you guys be most interested in?

1. Players are trapped in a shared TV universe powered by the emotions of the audience in reality. As an audience member you are aware of tropes and have your own emotions, so you can generate trope effects. However, those eat away at your free will. Lose all your free will and you become trapped as a TV character forever. A gumshoe system reskin, where emotions are investigative skills, sanity becomes free will, and so forth. You ultimately want to escape to reality, although some believe you can become a god by straddling the world of the audience and the world of the screen.

2. A down and dirty mashup of horror/investigative games with the spirit of dungeon crawling games. You fight cults and investigate monsters, not to save the world, but to get rich and gain powerful magic items. Characters are extremely vulnerable so roll a stack of ninjas and professors. Metagame knowledge can be passed on to new characters by writing journals.

3. A card game version of Killsplosion - build up combos to blow up or outshoot your rivals to get the mcguffin and look more badass doing it.

Review Cultist

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Re: Ideas for quick games to design
« Reply #1 on: January 11, 2015, 11:49:28 PM »
I'm always intrigued by the concepts suggested with the 1st idea. The whole media meta reality and fiction mixes with reality kind of subject (the kind of thing you'd see in say, a certain recent infomercial satire and the like).

That and I'm curious to see this take on gumshoe.

My vote's idea #1.
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trinite

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Re: Ideas for quick games to design
« Reply #2 on: January 12, 2015, 11:34:59 AM »
Ideas #1 and #3 sound super cool.

For #1: In addition to Too Many Cooks, there are other potential sources of inspiration you could look into. What comes to my
mind is a particular episode of Supernatural where the characters get stuck in a bunch of TV shows: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1511910/

There's also this old John Ritter movie, which I haven't seen: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105466/
Oh, hey, I found the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Bs2icpiR1s

#3 sounds like a really cool game idea too. I don't have much insight about card games, but I like to play them.
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Tadanori Oyama

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Re: Ideas for quick games to design
« Reply #3 on: January 12, 2015, 12:54:56 PM »
Absolutely behind idea #2. Playing slimy self-centered adventures is the best.

D6xD6 - Chris

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Re: Ideas for quick games to design
« Reply #4 on: January 12, 2015, 07:43:38 PM »
#3 gets my vote.  A deckbuilder - style game with badass/style points is an instant win

Gorkamorka

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Re: Ideas for quick games to design
« Reply #5 on: January 13, 2015, 03:11:00 AM »
3. A card game version of Killsplosion - build up combos to blow up or outshoot your rivals to get the mcguffin and look more badass doing it.

This one sounds like most fun.  But at the same time it sounds like the most costly one to get to market.
Gorkamorka (Fridrik)

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Re: Ideas for quick games to design
« Reply #6 on: January 13, 2015, 07:25:23 AM »
3. A card game version of Killsplosion - build up combos to blow up or outshoot your rivals to get the mcguffin and look more badass doing it.

This one sounds like most fun.  But at the same time it sounds like the most costly one to get to market.

DriveThruCards offers affordable print-on-demand services.  A small Kickstarter to pay for the art and initial print-run for backers would be plenty sufficient.

Gorkamorka

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Re: Ideas for quick games to design
« Reply #7 on: January 13, 2015, 08:15:15 AM »
3. A card game version of Killsplosion - build up combos to blow up or outshoot your rivals to get the mcguffin and look more badass doing it.

This one sounds like most fun.  But at the same time it sounds like the most costly one to get to market.

DriveThruCards offers affordable print-on-demand services.  A small Kickstarter to pay for the art and initial print-run for backers would be plenty sufficient.

Yes. 

But how many of RPPR sales at the moment are PDFs?  and how many of those would not be willing to pay for non electronic material (Because it's more expensive)
Also many of those PDF people are live overseas?  How many of those people would want to pay for shipping and import taxes?

These are questions I would be asking myself if I was doing the math on this.

But I like the idea of Killsplosion card game.  It sounds like an excellent "mess with your buddy" game.
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Re: Ideas for quick games to design
« Reply #8 on: January 13, 2015, 08:49:58 AM »
True.  There is always the option of Print and Play, but I have no idea how popular those are.

Tim

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Re: Ideas for quick games to design
« Reply #9 on: January 13, 2015, 01:54:43 PM »
From my very outsider to the game industry vantage point I suspect it matters what your end goal is.

If you are looking for a prestige project that not many people will actually play but that could show off some interesting game design ideas/concepts I think that is item 1. I personally like this idea the most but not sure how large an audience it is.

If you are looking for a game that could appeal to more of the general RPG players I think you go for option 2. I am not saying the game will be simple but the one line pitch makes me think it would be more accessible than option 1.

If you are looking for something that could have a chance to be commercially viable on a larger scale then you go for item 3. There is certainly a market for screw your neighbor card games with cute/fun art outside the RPG world. Of course it is not a slam dunk, you need a good game (well maybe not - I think Munchkin is not a great game but it prints money because it is cute) and more than a little luck but it could have a larger audience and maybe put a few dollars into your pocket and who knows if your game is good and you are very lucky maybe more than a few dollars. Could also be interesting from a resume standpoint to get experience in making a card game.

Anyway as stated I personally like option 1 the best.

Twisting H

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Re: Ideas for quick games to design
« Reply #10 on: January 13, 2015, 05:02:39 PM »
1) What is Ruin?

2) #2 interests me the most.  You could run with a Conan setting or mildly tongue and cheek modern day or full on Call of Cthulhu Munchkin.  It would be interesting if you had some sort of sanity mechanic as well as health, basically two resources you have to balance but I'm just spitballing. I do like the "picking up from where you left off" legacy mechanic you are suggesting with the metagame journals.  It feels like a roguelike and I love those.

The idea (#2) very loosely reminds me of the roguelike Occult Chronicles. Programmed by the same guy (one man team) who created the excellent Armageddon Empires.   

http://www.crypticcomet.com/games/OC/Occult_Chronicles.html

It would also be interesting if the team that writes the metagame journal suffers from an insanity that dictates how the metagame journal is deciphered by a subsequent team.  For example your team 1 professor suffers from paranoia and writes a metagame journal just before being eaten.  Team 2 must solve a paranoia puzzle (or make skill check X) to obtain the metagame data from the journal.  And naturally there would be a different skill check or gimmick or puzzle to solve for paranoia, schizophrenia, delusions, etc.

3) Why not Fight Promoter?  >:(    I want you and Caleb to write a program where you scream into a microphone and your success as a Fight Promoter is measured by how much you sound like MachoMan Randy Savage or Hulk Hogan.  Compare those waveforms, brother. Aaron can be Paul Bearer and Tom the Undertaker.

clockworkjoe

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Re: Ideas for quick games to design
« Reply #11 on: January 13, 2015, 05:34:06 PM »
Ruin is the architectural horror gumshoe engine rpg I plan to make.

The back story of game idea #2 would be roughly "Cthulhu woke up. Everyone who made their sanity check pulled together and kept civilization together, somehow. The survivors all have hypergraphia though, so everyone keeps a journal. Now, mythos threats are a way to make lots of money and power. High level investigators ram a boat into Cthulhu every hour of every day to keep him in check. You go to the bar to find a job from old professors in the corner and then go to the general store and buy tommy guns and dynamite. Complete the job to get paid and maybe a chance to level up. Die and someone else will find your journal and pick up where you left off."

Classes:

Detective - rogue
Soldier - fighter
Reporter - bard
Dilettante - wizard
Priest - cleric
Tribal Fisherman - ranger
Hitman - Assassin

D6xD6 - Chris

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Re: Ideas for quick games to design
« Reply #12 on: January 13, 2015, 09:02:40 PM »
I like the Dark Souls-style "save point" element of finding the character journals.  Although it would be badass if the players had to FIGHT the corpse/spirit of their former selves to prove their worth in continuing the fight against Cuchulu, THEN they get the journal.  BUT, if they fail in combat to their former self, then they have TWO corpse monsters they must fight the next time, and so on.  Alternatively, they can skip trying to obtain the journal, and wander aimlessly lost and confused being attacked by things.

« Last Edit: January 13, 2015, 09:09:41 PM by PaulyMuttonchops »

Twisting H

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Re: Ideas for quick games to design
« Reply #13 on: January 13, 2015, 11:12:11 PM »
I like #2 but I am also a Cthulhu fan so I am in your target demographic.  I like the idea because as a GM who hasn't looked over the lightning gun and mi-go living armor in the Call of Cthulhu main book and said "these are really cool pieces of technology, it would be neat to play with them" but you can't give them out willy nilly in a Lovecraftian purist (or even shotguns and dynamite) Cthulhu game.

So you are shooting for a humor-pulp game that is basically Base Raiders and a sprinkling of Red Market's apocalypse-economics on top in the Cthulhu world.  Lovecraft would spin in his grave. Sounds cool.  Maybe even compare with the (excellent and too short) Day After Ragnarok.

Also I am thinking of rail guns with Shining Trapezohedron sliver ammunition.

Ruin is the architectural horror gumshoe engine rpg I plan to make.

The back story of game idea #2 would be roughly "Cthulhu woke up. Everyone who made their sanity check pulled together and kept civilization together, somehow. The survivors all have hypergraphia
though, so everyone keeps a journal.

I laughed. That is terrible, but it makes a kind of sense. I think its a LITTLE corny unless you justify it further, like alienists in the setting have noticed that hypergraphia is the last stage of insanity before heartattack/being eaten by a grue.

Now, mythos threats are a way to make lots of money and power. High level investigators ram a boat into Cthulhu every hour of every day to keep him in check.

Cool. I imagine Cthulhu Splat (patent pending) tours of cruse ships (piloted and voiced by the Payton drunk ferryman from the Dream Factory) taking war tourist gawkers by R'lyeh every hour on the hour. Don't forget your Deep One merchandise from the squamous bulging eyes fellow at the kiosk!  Now instead of trying to fit into society, Deep One hybrids spend their human years as salesmen or celebrity entertainers before they take to the water.  I am envisioning a Deep One Kim Kardashian but perhaps those butt pics are too terrifying.  Also they are banned from Olympic swimming.

If Cthulhu is being kept in check then I imagine R'lyeh itself is an eternal battle ground with boatloads of adventurers arriving continuously like Einherjar.  Perhaps with every "death" of Cthulhu parts or all of R'lyeh sinks and the adventurers have to scramble back to their boats with as much loot as they can carry. Every time Cthulhu reforms, R'lyeh rises again, fresh with Star Spawn and Deep Ones.  It is touted that one Christmas the adventures and Star Spawn played a game of soccer on an unusual cease fire.  Cthulhu's Cephalopods (registered by FIFA) were disqualified for non-Euclidean penalty kicks.

You go to the bar to find a job from old professors in the corner and then go to the general store and buy tommy guns and dynamite. Complete the job to get paid and maybe a chance to level up. Die and someone else will find your journal and pick up where you left off."

Classes:

Detective - rogue
Soldier - fighter
Reporter - bard
Dilettante - wizard
Priest - cleric
Tribal Fisherman - ranger
Hitman - Assassin

Tribal Fisherman better have Favored Enemy : Deep One  >:(

I'd argue that Reporter fits better as wizard since they will be writing down everything with hypergraphia.

I like the Dark Souls-style "save point" element of finding the character journals. 

This is a good comparison and maybe a good advertising point?  Like DarkSouls, my game is.... Buy my book!

Tim

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Re: Ideas for quick games to design
« Reply #14 on: January 14, 2015, 02:27:32 PM »
Ruin is the architectural horror gumshoe engine rpg I plan to make.


Will Operate Heavy Machinery be an Investigative Skill in this gunshoe variant?

Player: "I spend one point in Operate Heavy Machinery"
GM: "The Bulldozer is a Caterpillar Model #2309 which was only sold in Europe so seeing it here in South America is certainly unusual. Also they are not normally covered in the blood of creatures from beyond time and space but that is sort of an aside."