Game Brainstorm

In Week 2, I will be brainstorming a few ideas for a simple video game I will create in Unity. Here are some potential ideas I will explore. Next week I will choose one of them to be developed into a game.

1. "The Floor is Lava"

I would like to try make a game where you jump from platform to platform and not being able to fall through them (or you die). My inspiration for this is the Mario games which are often known for this.

The objective is often to clear the level while collecting coins and avoiding falling in between platforms which means certain death. This sort of game is interesting to me because I think if you stuck with simple things in Unity, you could make a fun, interactive game like this. Making a game like this for my project definitely wouldn't need 10 developers and could turn out to be very engaging. 

I have played many games like this in past, including many of the Mario games that have this mechanic implemented. I always found it to be fun and intensive, while remaining somewhat simple. While making this game I'd love to learn about "jump"mechanics maybe. I could practice adding objects like in one of the Unity tutorials I watched, such as the gems and could maybe put in some floating coins to collect. I'm not sure if I'd want to make this kind of game 2D or 3D. Here is an article of some famous Mario games I'd like to take inspiration from.

2.Timed Run 

Another idea I have for a game is one that utilises the floating gems from the 3rd Unity tutorial. My idea for it would be to set up many of these gems on a map and have a timer in which you have run and collect all of them before the timer runs out. I think this is a very generic structure for a game and I don't really have any specific game that I take inspiration from for this other than seeing this mechanic in many games I have previously played in the past. It is often used as a minigame sidequest away from the main story. I think this would be very interesting as it's so simple but fun.

Although this seems very basic I think I'd like to make it more fun and "strategic" by adding obstacles to the terrain, like having to maybe jump or run around things like rocks and hills.

For this game I'd like to learn more about terrain and setting it up. I really liked the explanations about creating terrain in the second unity tutorial and I think it would be fun to use those mechanics to set up some cool landscapes, and maybe even non natural ones, such as making it be set in a building or even some place like a city and I could try and create some skyscrapers. 

A game that does something similar to this is "Temple Run" which is available for mobile. You run and collect coins except there's no timer for collecting them and they're more of a side quest to beating your distance score, however, the layout is something similar to what I'd want. I'd like to experiment more with floating objects and maybe put different types in the game, all of them giving different points if possible, so giving each of them higher and lower values.

 

Temple Run uses a similar mechanic.

3. Labyrinth

My next idea is to create a type of maze game, where you run around a try to escape a labyrinth. I really like this idea because it sounds very fun to create and to playtest, making the walls and obstacles then trying it out to see how easy or hard it is to escape and see if I left any physical gaps that I need to fill. Again, this is quite generic so I do not have a specific game that made me think of this. This is another type of game that is scene as a minigame in several games to do as a sidequest. I always found these interesting to play as there can be some element of strategy to them when you try to escape the maze.

I think a challenge for creating this sort of game would be to make it fun without being frustrating. I have played many of these maze minigames in the past and the more difficult levels can get especially frustrating and crossed the line from being challenging to just being quite annoying to try and finish. I wouldn't want to make it too easy though.

Screenshot from this tutorial video talking about a labyrinth escape game. 

This ideally what I'd be going for, although I'd definitely want to make the area a bit more interesting than just hedges and maybe I could try to add different objects so the scenery isn't so plain, maybe having it take place in a forest or city type area.

I could even try and make a 2D maze game although I feel like this would be a lot less fun and engaging than a 3D maze as it feels less immersive. The controls would be pretty simple I think, arrow keys or WASD keys to walk around.

4. Escape Game

Another idea I have is to make a game with a little bit of a horror element to it. My idea is to have it set in the dark, in an area like a forest or a dark city and either be chased by a monster of some sort or try not to run into it. The game that primarily influences this idea is Slenderman, a simply made game where you need to run around collecting 8 pages while trying to avoid the creature known as the "slenderman". Running into him and coming to close will result in a game over. This game, while looking very simple, the trees and grass look very basic, it makes it very immersive by taking place in the dark and being first person, while the user runs around with a flashlight being the only source of light, all while being scared of running into slenderman.

Art of the Slenderman game.

I think this would be a very fun game to make, not only because it sounds exciting to play, but could be very enjoyable and immersive, while not needing to make amazing graphics. I personally love horror and survival games and this one could be a great learning experience to create.

A challenge for me while creating this would be the implementation of another "character" besides the user. I'd want it to be first person, and then make a fantasy creature or monster. I think I could try and keep it simple, like slenderman as he's mainly just a shadowy figure while still being scary, although I wouln't want to copy that game completely. It would be much more interesting coming up with something different. Here is some Slenderman gameplay that showcases just how simple the environment is while still keeping you on the edge of your seat.

These are the main ideas I have for creating a game with Unity, in the next week or so I will take one of them and start to develop it into a real game.