Grabber: Put on a show where you and your friends are the stars.
Platform: Wii
Selling Points: A charming cooperative game that makes use of new control schemes only possible on the Nintendo Wii.
The Wii's Connect24 allows for players to play online together.
Game
Play: Gameplay changes depending on the type of performance the player is giving. For acrobats, players twirl and move the Remote like they'd want to see the acrobats flip through the air. Players time the movements of the circus star they control so the stars grab each other, flip each other around and perform increasingly spectacular moves.
For players whose timing and coordination is considerably less precise, consider the role of the clown where the audience laughs harder with every slip, fumble or otherwise screw up. Mistakes are forgiven, even encouraged. Be spontanious, fool around and be suprised with the results.
Fun
Factor: The acrobats poses the challenge of working with a partern with mechanical precision while the clowns still offer a whimsical good time especially when players' timing is less than perfect. There are 2 distinct roads to a putting on a great show.
Apple Computer has been pretty good at creating minimalist yet effective user interfaces. They've posted a very handy guide on their developer site.
Rant: Gads, I think I'm losing it with these Design of the Week ideas. While I confident in my ability to articulate ideas now, is it just me or have my ideas this last month or so really gone down the drain?
A lot of these ideas seem like simulations of things no one else has cared to do or activities(which is something I swore I didn't want to post.) I wonder if other designers out there have felt like the quality of their work at times has slipped?
Another rant-worthy thing: The Real Price of Virtual Gold on MTV. I have a design for an MMO and it's sad, someone actually told me it needs money sinks like World of Warcraft. I live on the west coast. I've seen some massive sink holes. Needing something with such a horrible association feels retarded. Dear Sonic Team. I do love how you've designed Phantasy Star Universe to not have a lot of the idiotic crap I hear people ranting about in MMOs. Love, me.
Grabber: Set sail for a high tech treasure diving adventure!
Platform: Wii
Selling Points: Whimsical first person action that takes advantage of the Wii's motion sensing capabilities as well as the Wii Remote's vibration.
The Wii's Connect24 and Microtransaction systems allow for expanadbility, selling new areas to explore on the cheap.
Game
Play: The game is divided up into 3 major phases. One is pin pointing a wreck. Sail around the world, send out deep sea scanning probes to look for wrecks. The next phase would be to take pick the right equipment and go in. Dive down yourself if for wrecks up to 100 feet deep but beyond that, control a robot to do the work for you. The final phase is extracting your treasures! Do so carefully manipuating the environment with the Wii controllers in order to keep the treasures in tact.
Fun
Factor: Exploring, discovering treasure underwater is thrilling and interesting. A lot of people dream of uncovering a sunken Pirate's booty or a piece of the Titanic.
I just drove 80 miles from my friend's house using the interstates and from them, I spawned this:
Grabber: Get moving! You've got to keep up the infrastructure so the people of Virtualville can get to where they want to go.
Platform: Nintendo DS
Selling Points: Traffic Mandess features simple game play in a context that many people will understand: traffic! I'm sure many people stuck in traffic have wondered: what IDIOT designed the roads these way?! This game gives players the chance to show they can do better.
This action oriented RTS/Sim gives players a simple interface and mechanic to juggle a number of competing resources.
Game
Play: The touch screen becomes a map with regular streets and players create highways by drawing them with their stylus. Areas congested with traffic turn red to yellow to green as traffic moves faster. By connecting populated, congested spots with highways, players can decrease the traffic.
Lines slowly fade away so players must make sure to maintain their highways as they draw new ones.
The length of the line matters, as the longer it is, the more money it costs to build. When lines intersect, players can choose a number of options to resolve the crossing such as overpasses, etc.
Fun Factor: Classic case of "easy to learn, difficult to master." The mechanics(drawing lines on a map, maintaining budget) are easy enough and require minimal(if any) teaching.
Grabber: Vote for me! Vote for me! Ride the campaigning roller coaster from the school board to the White House!
Platform: PC
Selling Points: Who said RTS games are all about moving little groups of soldiers around? Top Office is part strategy, part sim, and bset of all, every choice players makes changes can come back to them during game play.
The game is based off a premise that most everyone(at least in America) is familiar with. Players play through both campaigns and offices, keeping the game fresh.
Top Office is conducive to a wide variety of ambitions, strategies and styles.
Game Play: Create an avatar and start by running for local, city offices and work you way to a state senator or even govorner. Pick your route to the White House, each with its own pros and cons. The game alternates between Campaign and Official modes
* Campaign Mode: During this time, players must do what they can do to get votes. Raise money, watch the polls, seek endorsements, endorse others to keep your name in the spot light, create ads for various media, you can even drive around shouting to passers by to vote for you.
* Official Mode: After getting elected to office, players play through a series of quick activities simulating the duties of their office such as voting on legislation, discussing issues with NPC co-legislators. The game will record the results of these activities. Players can use them to show they're "tough on crime" or tout their playform in general.
Fun Factor: Top Office lets players be true to their own values or enjoy pretending to be something entirely different.
Players can play the game as clean or as dirty as they please and everything in between.
RTS players gain a lot of pleasure effectively finding ways to manage their resources and see the positive effects of that management in the game.
Notes: If I can, I'd love to let players share the campaign ads they make with their friends.
Opinion: Is Photorealism In Games The Right Direction?
Yeah, I realize this is an Opinion piece, but this time the messenger does matter when coupled with the message.
I don't think any of the games I've really enjoyed have vary many "photorealistic" properties. Sure, you can see each and every stitch in the Queen of Ice's skimpy oufit in Enchanted Arms, but then, it's a skimpy outfit on a freaky magical ice lady that just wouldn't make sense in reality.
Betting on making something incredibly real is a big gamble in games. If your uber realisim breaks in the slightest bit, everything will fall apart. The world is not only non-believable any more, but this one break will frustrate the player and haunt the makers.
Let's put it this way:
Photo Realistic Okami.
BLEAGH....
