Game Ideas

This is a CS 498-editable page. I want to use this page to gather ideas for the game that you'll develop in teams. See the Concepts section below. -jchung

In a group of no more than four people, you will develop a 2D game, applying software engineering principles.

Your group will design a 2D game, draw the graphics (or use free graphics content), program the inner-workings of your game in Java, test the game, and release it. Genres can include:

• Remake of a classic using a different name
• Educational game
• Your own arcade game or other original idea

Rules for the game project:

• Must not be a puzzle game, unless it contains arcade elements.
• A working 2D game must be completed by the end of the semester.

Add your game ideas below.

Fall 2011 Game Ideas

• Users construct a tower out of different materials/ beams
• Materials include, steel, wood, concrete, etc.
• The objective is to make the tower as tall as possible with as little material possible
• When the user finishes construction a random magnitude earthquake will strike
• Users will gain points for how high and long the tower survives.
• Different materials will cost more or less points/ money
• Physics engine such as box2d could be used
• Different levels/ terrain could be used to make different sized towers
• Objects such as swinging counter weights could be added to towers to stabilize, etc.

• User will help all the turtles safely get to the ocean as they hatch
• Turtles will come out of the sand and go to ocean. The user has to click on random debris and obstacles to make them disappear
• If a seagull appears in the sky the user presses a key to make the turtle retreat into his/her shell
• When a set number of turtles make it to the water the level progresses
• If a turtle hits debris it is stunned and if a seagull comes it is taken back to start by the seagull and user loses a life
• User wins once all levels are cleared and loses once all lives are lost

• The user needs to get the ball through a “hole” in the wall
• The ball can bounce off various objects, materials, and surfaces that will cause different responses to the ball
• There will be hazardous materials that will stop the ball, basically ending the objective
• The only way the ball can get through the hole is by bouncing it off of the objects
• It will be a point and shoot kind of game where the user uses the mouse and chooses the direction they want the ball to go
• They maybe more then one way to get to the hole
• The ball starts at the same stationary point on the screen
• The game will almost be a mix between http://www.gtds.net/Ball-Bounce/ and http://www.flashgamesplayer.com/Free/Unblock-me/Play.html (however you won’t be able to move the objects)
• The game will get more challenging at the levels go up with more hazardous materials and harder placement of objects to bounce off of

• It's year 3017 and humans have expanded into space.
• In this futurist side scrolling-shooter game, you are set on an adventure to search and destroy the alien race that is attempting to blow up earths moon.
• The player controls an ex-con looking to make a new life for himself/herself in the galaxy, completing odd jobs and working as an assistant manager at a fuel station outside the galaxy.
• The player is tracked down by an old friend looking for help as intel about the terrorist attack beings to run dry.
• As the story progresses players will be sent on main missions that all help gain information about the pending attack and build the story.
• The progressing levels will contain the keys and notes needed to get to the final boss and stop the attack.
• Along the way NPCs are met that can aide or hurt the mission. It is up to you to decide whose intel is useful to you or not.
• Progressing through the story will earn your character XP which will improve stats in battle and allow the player to better choose people they can trust.

• Tomato … Catch-up … I see what you did there.
• It will soon be dinner time and the veggies are on the menu!
• It is up to the Tomato family to migrate to another Fridge in order to avoid being eaten.
• Sadly the baby Tomato of the family was left behind and has to catch up to his family, or risk being on the menu.
• This game will be similar to Doodle Runner and Doodle Dash

• The player will control the Baby Tomato in avoiding obstacles (Such as Kitchen Knives and Mallets).
• The directional keys will be used to move the tomato (back, forward, jumping and to duck).
• The x-key will be used to shoot tomato paste forward in order to slide forward faster.
• The z-key will be used to summon the lettuce!
  • The Tomato baby will be able to ride the lettuce (The lettuce will give the tomato baby immunity).
  • The lettuce must be used sparingly because once it runs out of layers, it can no longer be summoned.
  • The lettuce loses a layer with each obstacle it blocks.
  • The user starts with 3 lettuce layers at the beginning of the game and gains a new layer each level.

• There will be a time limit that the user has to beat in getting back to the Tomato family.
• Higher levels will have more obstacles to avoid and less time on the clock.
• The user begins with 3 Lives. Each obstacle hit will deduct 1 life and each new level reached will add 1.
• A point system will be used, adding points as each obstacle is passed.
• Half-points are awarded if an obstacle is passed using the lettuce.
• Bonus points are added at the end of each level.

• Be a bear in the wild
• Control your bear and do bear things while leveling up particular abilities associated with being a bear
• Improve your hunting, sense of smell, gathering, fighting, sleeping, etc.
• Be many many kinds of bears from grizzly, brown, black, polar, and even a Teddy Bear. Maybe even Bear Grylles from Man Vs. Wild!
• Battle against other leveled bears in PvP combat!
• Battle against other NPC bears in the wild!
• Each bear is associated with a different environment so a grizzly and a polar bear would not be exploring the same area in the beginning!
• Grind away and improve your ablilities!
• Just be a bear and maybe improve your physical traits as well!

• It is a business simulation game; you are the owner of the Bakery House.
• Customers come here to buy different combination of cakes and breads. You want to serve as many customers as you can in a limited time.
• Click the mouse, help them with what they want, such as cookies, cakes, and beverage.
• You need to click foods quickly so that they won’t lose their patient bar; otherwise they will be angry and leave your store.
• Decorate your store and buy new machines after finishing each level. You can upgrade and get a new floor when you get enough money.
• What attracts you most in this game is that you will find out your potential ability on how fast your finger can move, and also, you will get your own designable store.

• Entertainment derived by the delicious tears of others
• Shock value rather than gameplay value
• Similar to Postal 2 or Conkers Bad Fur Day, who received critical acclaim for being offensive, not for innovative gameplay
• It is really easy to be offensive, it is hard to make a new game mechanic
• Slap it on top of a working mechanic, like tower defense, rpg, or both.

• A thrilling/strategic avoidance game that test and challenges your ability to make quick decisions.
• You control a thin rod that pivots but using the arrow keys (left&right).
• On a winding path you must survive the obstacles that come at you.
• Includes intense background effects, sounds, music etc.
• Level based game, each level becomes harder with different obstacles(shapes and what not) and increasing obstacles.
• On death, restart at a check point.
• Once finished all normal levels, an intense setting would be next.

• Top down view of a basic planet
• Create life
• Destroy life
• Control nature
• The goal is to try to evolve life as far as possible

• The main goal of the game is to elude the police.
• The map layout will be that similar to Pac-man, an over the head view.
• The police will have a scope of vision, in which you cannot get caught in, or you get arrested.
  • This is similar to that of The Classroom
• Survive to obtain points and increase your score.

• You are a lab assistant for a major biological research facility toying with the creation of humans
• One of the failed experimental blobs inside a flask coerces you to unlock the chamber in which he is stored
• In a fit of rage and jealousy for not being a real human, the little one inside the flask detaches your limbs with his powers and swallows them whole
• Your mission is to travel around a 2D platformer environment to reunite with your body parts and reassemble to take down the little one from the inside
• Your interaction with the environment depends on which body parts have been reattached, i.e. beginning as a head you can only roll around, as a head/torso you can hop around, etc.
• A level may not be 100% complete until playing through it a couple times to reach new areas once new body parts are gained
• Little does the antagonist know that when he disassembled our hero, strange powers were retained in some limbs
  1. (redacted) that acts like a hoverpack powered by methane to cross large gaps
  2. (redacted) of the future to discover locations of body parts
  3. more to be determined

• If your game is going to have subpar graphics (or no graphics at all), at least make the concept and game play interesting.
  • Humor goes a long way
  • … and make the controls responsive (spout)

• The game industry is relatively young, but there have been so many games written (and so many iterations of the same ideas).
  • It's hard to come up with something original, and doubly hard to come up with something original that people will actually want to play.
    • The people who can come up with these successful game concepts are not necessarily going to be programmers or computer scientists.

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