Game Brainstorm

Game Idea 1

In one of the first blog posts that I posted I spoke about how I am not much of a gamer. I used to play them when I was younger but it would always be WWE or Grand Theft Auto. I also used to play the Nintendo Wii. When I was thinking about game ideas I had to take into consideration that at this point I don't have a lot of skills. I start thinking about the games I liked as a kid and remembered that I used to love playing golf or bowling. So instead of just playing bowling in a usual alley, why couldn't I do both? So my first idea is to have the player being able to play a game of bowling on a golf course. I will include the usual layout of a golf course - Tee, Fairway, Green, Rough and Hazards. I will also have Golf Caddies and Spectators to make it feel like a real golf tournament. For my research into this idea I went to YouTube to find videos of the gameplay of both Golf and Bowling on the Nintendo Wii. This video for the golf gameplay is 11 minutes long so don't waste your time and watch the whole thing, but if you've never seen gameplay before give it a quick watch and you'll get the idea. The video can be found here. The next video is gameplay of bowling and again it's 11 minutes so only watch a bit! The video can be found here. I used to play Wii Sport with my brothers all the time and hearing the Wii Sport Theme Tune for the time time in years brought back so many memories of arguing over who was better at Yoga. If you haven't heard that here it is on loop for 10 hours. After hearing the theme tune I also think I would like to include some sort of sound in my game, even if it's just the noise of spectators clapping in the background or the wind on the golf course.

Game Idea 2

As part of this weeks task we had to read an academic paper and here is my blog post in which I spoke about it. In this paper one of the interviewees spoke about how looking around during everyday life is an easy thing you can do that may spark inspiration for ideas. After reading this I thought I would try out this tip and see what I could come up with. I was walking around Dublin City Centre and almost every shop had one thing in common - Halloween Decorations. I thought about a few different things that I could possibly do including having a kid cycling his bike knocking into different figures like Ghosts and Witches that were terrorising him or a kid racing to pick up as many sweets as they could in a set amount of time but was unsure how I could set up either of these in a good way. When thinking of ideas I did a brainstorm of different words I thought of when I heard the word Halloween. I thought of Horror Movies, Pumpkins, Monsters and Farmaphobia. If you have never heard of it here is a video of what Farmaphobia is all about. I have been to it about 4 times and my favourite part every time is when you have to walk through a cornfield in the pitch dark. I wanted to incorporate a cornfield into my game so I decided that is where my scene would be set. In the cornfield there will be Pumpkins, Sweets and Ghosts but the aim of the game is to pick up as many Pumpkins and Sweets as possible but to avoid the Ghosts - if you hit into one of them the game ends. I would like to have it set at dusk with an orange sky in the background. I also think it would add to the gameplay to have an eerie soundtrack. 

Game idea 3

When coming up with a third idea I started to think about different ways games can be played - when I think about games my mind jumps straight to the obvious ones like PS4, Xbox, Nintendo Switch. So I thought about games I played when I first start using an iPod Touch and iPhone and the first game that came to my mind was Temple Run. I remember being in 2nd year of secondary school when it first came out and it was all anybody was playing (I even got my phone taken off me during a class because I was playing it). I loved the fast pace in the game and the different obstacles you faced. If you don't know the game I will post a video to the gameplay here. For my game I want to take inspiration from the fast pace of Temple Run but instead have it set on a river. I will have a boat sailing down the river and the aim of the game is for the boat to collect as many packages as it can, in the boats way will be many different obstacles like falling trees, large rocks and other boats. One of my favourite childhood movies is Tarzan and I remember when I was younger the first games console my parents bought for me and my brother was the Playstation 1 and Tarzan was one of the games we got with it. I want to take some inspiration from that and have my setting as a jungle like theme and have the river running through it.  The sounds I think I would use would be the noise of monkeys and other animals in the background. Like most of the videos I have used this one is also long so just skip through it to give yourself an idea of what I mean. 

Game Idea 4

It took me a while to come up with a fourth and final idea but I got there in the end. Like in the second part of this blog I took inspiration from the interviewee in Annakaisa Kultimas paper who said to look around during everyday life. I said 1 thing most shops had in common was Halloween but another thing was the health and safety procedures in place due to the pandemic. One way systems, mandatory mask use and social distancing is one thing we all have gotten used to at this stage so I thought about different ways that I could bring these into a game. At the start of the pandemic when it first became serious there was a time when essentials were being stock piled and it was difficult in supermarkets to get daily essentials like Toilet Roll. I read this article by Sky News on the subject. When I was younger I have memories of going to my grannys house after school and watching reruns of The Price is Right and Supermarket Sweep with her. Here is an episode of Supermarket Sweep and if you ask me it's peak 90's game show. So my idea was to combine the idea of the pandemic and Supermarket Sweep, random I know but I think it could actually work out well. The idea would be to race around a supermarket down all the different aisles picking up essentials along your way etc. face masks, toilet roll, bread. You have a set amount of time to find all the items and if you don't you lose the game. I'm worried it may be a little too complex for the skills I will have by the time I'm going to be making the game so if it is, hopefully I can come up with a way to make it a bit more simple. 

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