2007 PGD Annual: Gameplay Themes

[WILL]

Hey guys,

Some of you might be thinking its about time to start thinking towards the next PGD Annual... it is about 3 and a half months away afterall, right? Well, this isn't any kind of official announcement or horn blowing, but it is my way of drawing ideas of what you guys would feel like doing as far as a gameplay theme for the next competition.


2005 PGD Dogfight Competition: Arena-style, Player vs. Player
2006 PGD Annual 'The Big Boss' Competition: Levels and Bosses
2007 PGD Annual Competition:


Now, just forgetting about the format and scoring for now, lets just ponder some ideas for gameplay. What would make a good theme for this year? Obviously something that is practical for the indie developer, but something that will be fun and not too long too do.


Stuff that I can think of off the top of my head right now are;

:idea: Player perspective (3rd person, 1st person, etc)
:idea: Interactive 3rd party characters (NPCs, computer controlled players)
:idea: Storytelling (Game must tell a story in some way...?)
:idea: Item gathering (game based around gathering cards, gems, relics, weapons, technology, etc...)
:idea: puzzles & problem solving (there must be some kind of complex test or puzzle designed into the gameplay)


Well thats all I've got for now. Might aswell leave something for you guys to come up with huh?

So what do you guys think? What would be fun and interesting for you?

[NecroDOME]

Player perspective (3rd person, 1st person, etc)

This would be a 3D game right? I think this would be a no-no cause not everyone has a 3D engine.

Interactive 3rd party characters / Storytelling / puzzles & problem solving

Sounds interesting

Item gathering

Yeah, you could make a RTS with it (gather resources, build tank or whatever)

My idea was some sort of race. Start from point A and be the first one the reatch point B (or goal B).

[Sascha Willems]

Although I dunno if I can participate in the 2007 compo, I'd at least try to help finding a theme for it :

My spontaneous idea was something like a multi-genre-in-one-theme for the 2007 compo :
Different kind of gameplay types are given (something like a genre-pool) and you'll have to at least choose three (or more) of them and combine them in your game.

To make it more concrete here is an example of what I mean :
You choose e.g. realtime-strategy, role-playing and first-person-action and then you'd have two choises of combining them :

• Choice 1 :Use them all at once in a way like "Dungeon Keeper" did
  - You build a base and units and mange them (RTS-Part)
  - You can change the stats of your units, like the heroes in Warcraft 3 (RPG-Part)
  - And last-but-not-least you can "jump" into your units and move them around and attack like in an ego-shooter (something you could also do in "Dungeon Keeper")
• Choice 2 : Split them into parts, e.g. different levels
  Level 1 is RTS, Level 2 is an RPG-Part, or each level combines some of the chosen genres at once.

I know that this sounds somewhat different, but if the genre-pool would be big enough, this could make up for some interesting cross-genre-games. Just think outside the box, e.g. a combination of a jump'n'run with some roleplaying-elements (just imagine sonic with different skills and stats ) and beyond. Or even something wiked like a Beat'em'up combined with realtime-strategy, where you don't build and command usual units (tanks, soldiers) but instead fighters that then fight each other with the player being able to control the fights like Streetfigher or Double Dragon.

And here is a list of some genres that should be in the genre-pool to choose from (with an example) :

• Realtime strategy (Command & Conquer, Warcraft 3)
• Roleplaying (Baldur's Gate, Gothic)
• Jump'n'Run (Sonic, Mario)
• Shoot'em'Up (R-Type, Salamander)
• Beat'em'Up (Streets of Rage)
• Fighting games (Streetfigher, Mortal Kombat)
• Simulation (Pro Evolution Soccer, Flight Simulator, Falcon)
• Roundbased strategy (Panzer General)
• Puzzle games (Tetris)
• Adventure (Monkey Island, Sam'n'Max)
  ...and so on...

Maybe the whole idea sounds a bit overwhelming, but hopefully it would spawn some wicked combinations of genres that have never been done before, so this could be interesting and rewarding in the end.

[NecroDOME]

I remember jazz jack rabit had a 2 genes. Jump 'n' run and race (in sort of 3D)

[jdarling]

I thought that my old thread: http://www.pascalgamedevelopment.com...399&highlight= brought up some good ideas. I'm not about to try and copy/paste them all, but it might be worth re-looking at it a bit .

[WILL]

Jeremy: Yeah, there was some good ideas in there, but it was mostly related to the format of the competition than theme. We are just focusing on what themes you guys are interested in for this year. Format is a topic for another time.

Though casual games is something we can consider aswell. I personally feel that it might make for a great side-competition. But it would probably have to match the main competition' theme too. Just a scaled down version.


NecroDOME: As for the item collecting idea. A simple RTS wasn't so much what I had in mind for that one... I was thinking more along the lines of 'special items' that you have to collect or gather as a part of the game's whole premise. If you incorporate that into the RTS though, that might work under the idea. But it doesn't have to be an RTS of course, it can be a beat/shoot-em-up, platform game, first person, etc...


I like Sascha's idea. Combine at least 2 or more genres as your entry. I'm just thinking how cool that RTS/martial arts action game would be. You train matial artists with moves fighting styles and they fight for your kingdom/empire in either one-on-one against other opponents or in a arena style.


Keep the ideas comin' guys.