Author's Note: This game is inspired by a new piece of technology that came out recently, the Wii-U. It's also, I believe, subconsiously inspired by ZombiU, as well as Rayman Origins.
Story:
Your typical post-apocalypse story: Peaceful place, darkness takes over said place, a group of young teens sets out to rebuild the land and defeat the source. (Honestly, this game is not dependent on the story.)
Gameplay:
A platformer meant for more than one player, with a few key differences.
One player plays as the inventory keeper. He/she will keep all of the items collected in a Resident Evil style fashion, meaning that some items will take up more grid space than others. If this player dies, part of the inventory is lost. If every player dies, part of the inventory is lost as well.
One character fighting a dark being. Note the gamepad, which shows the inventory.
The inventory comes in handy for two things: Revival of Characters and building the village. After each stage, you head back to the village and build inns, hospitals and other buildings, for the purposes of improving your character's weapons, reviving characters, etc. If a character dies, they will not respawn until you sacrifice an item from the inventory at a graveyard. If every character dies, they will all respawn at the village (with part of their inventory removed, as stated.)
After each visit to the village, you are given a map piece to chart your course to the castle. You can place the piece to a connecting roadway to enter a level. If the path ever splits into two, you have the chance to receive a special dead-end piece. Completing a dead-end level is optional, but it will give you special items if completed.
Author's note: Sorry for being so late this time around! This idea is inspired by the original Toejam and Earl game.
Story:
A foreign exchange student has come from another world to take classes inside of your computer. He's decided to crash inside of your monitor for a little while until he's gotten all his assignments done. The only problem is that he doesn't have the materials he needs to get all of them done.
Joe, the exchange student, inside of the Monitor.
You'll need to guide him through space and time to get them, ranging from a rare dinosaur egg for Culinary, to a Rosetta Stone for World Language.
Gameplay:
A mixture between a social RPG and a live-action roguelike. Inside of dungeons, you guide Joe around using the mouse. Depending on his current mood, he'll follow your move. Joe's mood can change according to how you're guiding him. If you have him take too much damage, he can become resistant to following you and go on his own path. If you accidentally hurt something friendly, he'll begin to cry and his movement will slow down, etc, etc. Joe, while a friendly person, can also fight with a click of the right mouse button. Your aim in each floor is to go up a floor using the stairs, until you find what you're looking for.
His mood is also impacted by what happens inside of the Monitor, outside of dungeons. Joe is a frequent TV watcher, so during free time, you can choose what programs he watches, ranging from soap operas to action flicks. Joe is also a frequent water drinker, so you must keep a steady supply of it from dungeons in the Monitor. Joe can also read from his assigned textbooks to learn skills to use in dungeons later on. If you don't want to play a dungeon right away, you can always listen to Joe's many non-sequiturs and funny observations of life.
Hey guys! Sorry to post late, Hurricane Sandy knocked out my Internet. I'm currently posting on my iPad at my Nana's house, so I'm afraid there's no pictures today. This idea is inspired by "weird RPGs", like Earthbound or Contact. Story:
You're an average business man on the way to the top floor of your office building. However, something weird has happened to your office today. An alien spaceship has crashed on the top of the building, and all it's inhabitants have decided to spread to all the floors. Your mission is to get to the top and defeat all the aliens you can.
Gameplay:
A first person RPG that has you walking around on each floor of the building in search of the next elevator up to the next floor.
Battles occur when the player gets close to an enemy. You and your party all take a particular "stance", either Offense, Defense, Heal or Magic, and their attack set is modeled after that stance. Stances are decided when you first get a party member. You can later change these stances at computers on different floors for a fee.
You can talk with party members each time you get into an elevator. You can choose which ones you want to go with you, as well as engage in small talk to upgrade certain stats.
Tagline: "Sibling Rivalry at its Finest." Story:
A precious family heirloom has been stolen, and is about to be sold on the black market for a potential fortune! As one of the two siblings of the family, your mission is to follow the trail to the treasure with your family mate... While simultaneously sabotaging his every move.
The Siblings, Players 1 and 2.
Gameplay:
A beat 'em up that is both cooperative and versus. Everything you do, pick up or defeat earns you gold. If your teammate is K.O.'d and you have enough gold to bring him back, it will automatically be deducted from YOUR score and he will be brought back into play. This encourages you to keep your teammate alive, a cooperative aspect.
Gold is tallied up at the end of each level to decide a winner for that level. It's also later tallied up at the end of the game and counts as a level score. The winner is the one who won the majority of the levels, which makes it a versus game.
Author's Note: This game is based on two things, the Playstation era of games and that I've noticed my ideas taking a turn for the gloomy.Don't be fooled by the title, it's supposed to be a more "happy-go-lucky" sort of experience.
Story:
You're Space Captain James Carmen, on a mission to stop "The Darkness" on the edge of the universe with your crew. However, on the way, you have to stop for refueling every so often. This requires interaction with whatever alien lifeforms are on the planet. Not every planet will be willing to give in so easily. Be prepared for battles, both mentally, and physically, as you go on your Long Journey to Darkness...
Captain Carmen, the main character.
Gameplay:
An RPG with 3D backgrounds and 2D characters overlapped on it. You can explore the world around you, solve puzzles and fight enemies.
An example of the overworld.
During Battle, instead of standing completely still during battle, you can jump around to 4 predetermined spots using the D-pad. If an enemy does an attack, you might be able to avoid it before it hits you. You can also swat whatever is coming at you in case something goes above your jump height. Sometimes, you can both jump and swat while in the air for an Ultra-Volley, which does great amounts of damage to your enemy.
The battle system. Note the d-pad buttons on the ground.
Another element of this d-pad movement is incorporated into status ailments. Becoming dizzy reverses d-pad movement. Becoming paralyzed will make you stay in the last spot you were on until it wears off.
Eventually, you'll get partners who also use the d-pad. Think of it like coordinating two pong paddles at the same time with only one joystick. This allows you to things like juggle projectiles with your partner for Volley-Combos, which, if used in tandem with the Ultra-Volley, can do incredible damage to your foe.
Author's Note: This is a redesigned versionof the blog's first ever post, Zomb-like. It is also heavily inspired by the Sega Genesis and how many unique game designers tried to push the boundaries of the system. Story:
A corporation makes a zombie virus in order to terrorize a town and extort labor from its citizens. When Jake, an average teen, at least in this town, decides to break the rules, his father gets put into their testing facilities. Jake, angry as ever, decides to go on a mission to save his father, and while he's at it, destroy the company. Can he save him before he's turned into an ultra powerful killing machine?
Gameplay:
Much like Zomb-like, The Corporation That Kills is a subgenre of Role-Playing Game known as a Roguelike or Dungeon Crawl, in which every aspect of gameplay takes place on the map and everything moves to your movement. Unlike most roguelikes, however, tCTK uses a "fake 3D" display to show the onscreen actions and enemies, though a map is displayed to the side if the player wishes to use it. The Legend of the Mystical Ninja has a maze minigame similar to this approach, which is displayed in the video below.
Turns consist of either movement forward or attacking using either your gun, which uses special points but deals more damage, or your fists. Turning around will not use up a turn. After each turn, your enemies take a turn in a similar fashion.
The game is split into different dungeons, each more complex than the last. Each dungeon you complete gets you closer to your target: the testing facilities.
You have party members which travel along with you. One of the first party members you receive is Jonas, Jake's younger, depressed brother. You can take only one party member with you at a time, however. Completing side quests found within dungeons can give you more party members or rare items.
Items can be acquired and either equipped or used in a separate screen. Some items such as food or potions can be used to heal yourself or characters in your party or replenish energy, while others can be used as different weapons that can affect different stats, such as crossbows or baseball bats.
Energy is a core mechanic of the game, and in many roguelikes, and is seen on the items screen. Without Energy Points, your character can die within a dungeon. Energy can be replenished through food items or potions.
There are status ailments, such as paralysis, which prevents the player
or enemy from moving, poison, which takes away life, and dizziness,
which both makes your character move in weird directions and causes the
screen to become "rainbowified".
Story:
A world full of color faces a threat to the very thing it's known for: its bright, vibrant palette of wondrous colors.
A group of scientists were eager to create an object that could switch its colors at will, an ability nothing in their universe could do until now. They create Huebot Alpha, a robot that can switch to any color known to man. Unfortunately, this would be its downfall. One day, thanks to a nasty glitch, Alpha switches to Gray and is unable to switch out. Angrily, he starts to use his color changing abilities to turn everything around him gray; if he can't be colorful, no one can.
The scientist behind Alpha make Huebot 2, who can only switch to two separate colors. "Chroma", as the scientists call him, is now on a quest to return the 7 different towns around him back to their original colors, as well as defeat Alpha in the Mono-zone. Will he succeed, or is he bound to be another victim of this senseless color-bleaching?
Gameplay:
Gameplay is similar to Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga. On the overworld, you use the different abilities of your two different colors, Red and Green, to solve puzzles in the different towns. Red has the ability to punch through hard objects such as boulders, and Green has the ability to shoot less powerful lasers at distant objects using his gun. You can jump using either ability.
Chroma shown in his two separate colors, Red and Green.
During battle, you can use your laser or your punch regardless of which form you're in. Punches are preformed three at a time, Left, Right, then an Uppercut, by pressing the A button three times in a rhythmic succession. For the laser gun, you hold the A button and then release it when it gets towards the top of a bar. (Later upgrades to your laser will allow you to fill up multiple bars before attacking.)
Enemies will come towards you after your turn. You have two different ways to defend: The block or the jump. Sometimes you will want to block and not jump, other times you must jump and not block. Most times, you will have to mix and match both. You will not take damage if you do it right!
Your different forms actually play like two separate characters, with both having different stats. Red is focused more towards Health and Attack, while Green is focused towards Defense and Speed. You can switch to either during battle before you attack.
Some enemies will be certain colors. Most of the time they are gray, but other times they will be colors such as Green or Red. If you want to deal more damage to an enemy, you should be the color opposite them. (Ex. Green would do more damage to Red enemies.) Later on, you'll get partners of different colors with different attacks, and different special moves you can perform with them.
Story:
Deep space, 2222.
You're a mechanic on board a ship known as Time's Tower... A ship you know absolutely nothing about. For example, why are they so deep in space? What are they carrying on board that's so important? Why is it called Time's Tower? As you walk around the ship wondering these questions, a mysterious object hits the ship and causes it to crash-land on a nearby planet.
You wake up in the harsh, dry desert, with nothing in sight but a huge sandstone building. You walk in to find a ghost before your eyes. Are you seeing things? Apparently not, because this phantom isn't going away. In fact, he wants to join your team. He claims he is a "learner spirit", that is, he can learn abilities from other ghosts. You and your new friend now look for the sunken ship and the rest of the crew on the planet.
The mechanic alongside the Learner Spirit.
Meanwhile, strange humanoid like creatures are trying to get a hold of the crew and whatever was inside Time's Tower. It turns out in the end that Time's Tower is a holding facility for a time traveler spirit, kept in space to prevent anybody from reaching it, including enemy governments. The mysterious object that hit the ship was a missile from an enemy ship. When the crew tries to get away with the spirit, their captain is shot and killed. The learner spirit finally learns his last ability... Time Travel. You and the crew go back in time and manage to stop the missile that crashed the ship from ever being launched. Time reverts itself to an alternate timeline, in which your crew never learns the secrets of Time's Tower.
A final shot of the planet's surface is shown. A kid is seen sleeping within the sandstone structure you entered at the beginning of the game. That kid was your learner spirit. Gameplay:
The game is a platformer with backtracking (a metroidvania). As you fight bosses in the game (spirits), your learner spirit gains new abilities to help you get into places you couldn't get into before. Your goal is to collect pieces of the ship and find all of the crew members so you can pilot a make-shift ship back into space.
Story:
Have you ever had a day where you feel you're misplaced? A day where you feel like you're in the entirely wrong universe? That's how Detective Jones feels everyday of his new life. A cold, hard-boiled detective, set in a fantasy world of heroes and demons, Detective Jones hasn't worked on any case since he arrived... Until one day, he learns about a string of murders that aren't committed by the demons. Nobody besides Detective Jones has investigation skills in this world, so it's up to him to solve it. Can Detective Jones really fit into this world, or is he just bound to flounder in the land of magic for the rest of his life?
Gameplay:
The gameplay is a mix between an RPG and a point-and-click adventure. Inside of investigation rooms, you can look around and find items, either for battles or puzzles. These segments progress you into the story, and can also unlock new areas and give you partners to fight enemies with.
An investigation room. This one is outside of Jone's office.
There are certain pathways to get to other investigation rooms known as fighting rooms. These rooms contain enemies to fight, so you can level up and fight better enemies later on. During fighting segments, you can investigate items and enemies to learn about their traits or possibly how to beat them, at the cost of a turn. You can use your entire inventory during battle to fight enemies, sometimes yielding interesting results.
Story:
This game tells the tale of two shipping companies: The Oak City Shipping Co. and the Global Shipping Industries. Naturally, they're enemies. You play as Roderick, a newbie who pilots the airplane known as the Nimbus 9. You're up against Bobby, a hotshot pilot who works for the GSI, which also happens to currently be the world's biggest shipping company. You have two jobs: Deliver your packages and eliminate the competition.
Roderick with the Nimbus 9.
Gameplay: A shoot'emup where you pilot the already mentioned Nimbus 9. You shoot enemies flying though the sky and pick up packages that can drop from them. Packages are considered the health of your plane: The more you collect, the more hits you can take before your plane goes down. Packages also count towards your score at the end of each level.
Story: A corporation has created a zombie virus to terrorize citizens of a small town and extort money from them. Jake, an average teen in this small town, gets his father killed after not obeying the rules. He's fed up with all of this. He plans to stop this once and for all.
Jake, the protagonist, depicted with signature weapon, the Shotgun.
Gameplay: The gameplay is similar to something called a Roguelike. In this genre of game, you walk on a map and explore dungeons in a turn-like fashion. When you take a turn, your enemy also takes a turn. Combat occurs completely on the map, also, and not in a separate combat system like in a typical RPG. Wikipedia has the complete definition here.
In this game, you play as Jake, walking around in either buildings, forests or cities. You have a gun with limited ammo that can shoot powerful blasts. If you run out of ammo, you resort to a less powerful punch attack. You can pick up more ammo of course, but you can only carry so much.
You would have teammates as well that could have different powers and weapons. Jake's younger, depressed brother would be your first teammate, and you could pick up other optional teammates later in the story.
Jake's brother, Jonas. He joins you at the very beginning of the game.
You can level up to increase your stats, but you could also equip different weapons to change stats as well. If you'd rather have a more powerful punch than your gun, you can equip brass knuckles, for example.
Updated 9/2/2012 - Jake and Jonas concept art added.
