Game Ideas

This week, we have to form ideas for a game that our group may develop in the future. Below are my personal ideas for projects I would be interested in pursuing during the semester.

Idea 1: Time Looping Turn Based Strategy 

My first idea is for an isometric turn based strategy game (comparable to XCOM) with a time loop/cloning mechanic. Instead of XCOM where you play as a squad of people, my idea would have you start each level with just one unit to control that would be able to reset itself to where it was during the last turn and leave behind a clone to keep enemies distracted. This mechanic could slowly upgrade through each level, allowing more abilities for the player character, such as being able to leave behind multiple clones per level, self destruct clones for a large AoE attack, or to teleport and swap places with your clones.

While the mechanics may be hard to conceptualise, I believe this game would be suited for older audiences who enjoy strategy games with dynamic gameplay. My previously mentioned inspiration for this game, XCOM, encourages strategy and experimentation through a varied roster of abilities between your squad members, and the few mechanics I have suggested could be used to encourage similar experimentation. A reasonable goal for the prototype would be a few functional levels and core mechanics/abilities for the player to use, with an emphasis on AI for enemies that the player could trick and manipulate through their abilities. 

Idea 2: Destructible Environment Game

I admit that this idea is ridiculous and way too large in scope, however I can't help but pitch it anyway. I love chaotic games like Katamari Damacy where you try to cause as much mayhem within as short a time as possible, and had an idea that heavily featured props and environments that were able to be heavily destroyed. In this game the player would be given different tools to deal as much damage as possible in a level densely populated with buildings and objects. By using the tools given to you, you (and potential some friends in a multiplayer gamemodes) would blow props into thousands of pieces within a short time limit, trying to reach a minimum score depending on how much damage you inflict. Imagine mischievous raccoons sliding down streets on bin lids like skateboards (I honestly just really want to replicate Shield Surfing from Breath of the Wild), blowing buildings into pieces with potato guns and terrorising human civilians. 

While I think this idea is honestly a little stupid, I would genuinely be interested in experimenting with a environmental destruction mechanic, and a prototype of such a game could reasonably be achieved if there was a focus on exploring a small set of mechanics and a basic, small, yet dense level. The audience for the game would perhaps be a younger audience, and more generally be for people who enjoy short, exciting bursts of gameplay where they can have a fun time causing as much mayhem as possible with their friends.