Idea Seeding #2

Yesterday's brainstorm session didn't end with much, we did have a few tentative ideas but felt that they wouldn't go very far. We did agree that letting the player devolve and disassemble a world or structure would be a hook. Something in the human condition makes destruction very attractive and rewarding.

Today we decided to go with a slightly different approach; come up with a game concept and adapt it to suit the sandbox theme.

Brainstorming
Using a random word generator we picked out:
- Garden of Eden
- Overpopulation
- Happiness
- Puddle Poet

It was very tempting to conceptualise a Garden of Eden game. The risk with these games are how bored with the player get with nurturing or destroying the environment. Not to mention the political and religious connotations that come with it.

The trouble with sandbox games are the limits, every world has limits and play is bound by them. Endless possibilities are not truly endless but given the scope of the game, the player can achieve a lot. Our budget (non existent) doesn't allow us to produce a "true" sandbox game.

Planting the Idea
Following the train of thought that a sandbox has limits, I asked if we'd be happier making an interactive toy or a game. An interactive toy is the easier option and you can argue that it could be a game. It's a broad subject and has plenty of room for debate. (There's space to rant down below or at your screen if you please.)

If you can play with an object, it will not be a game unless you make it so. Developing rules, scores and goals lead to this, additional players and explosions are optional extras.

It's yet to be discussed if our current concept will just be an interactive toy, but it could become a game. Maybe.

The Concept
The initial concept was to give the player some famous artworks and let them deface or deform them. It's moved into presenting a series(no definite number) of interactive "blocks". (They need a better name but this will suffice until production)






"Blocks" are interactive images (not sure if this will include games). Each "block" has its own rules, what the player does is dependant on the block's design. The mighty mouse will be how you interact with objects, environments and what other junk is put into the "block".

Thematic Brainstorming
We also discussed the content of the "blocks", it was linking theme vs character. A character is a quick way of getting the player to emotionally project themselves onto and into the game. It doesn't fit the concept where the player (not their avatar) is interacting with the world.

Themes provide an abstract base to build lots of variations and interpretations. The difficulty lies in which one to pick.

Themes that we brewed were:
- Love (That one's for Truna)
- Grief/Loss
- Revenge
- Utopia (Dystopia's included too)
- Terror/Fear
- Trust

The winner was: Utopia

Important Details

Audience: The Jay is Games crowd
Scope: Scaleable
Platform: Flash
Team Size: 2 (for now)
Time: 7 weeks
Risks:
- proportion (too much?)
- time
- repetative action can be boring

We'll see were this leads to next time.