Znirk wrote:
cheese obsessive wrote:
Only thing in these articles I disagree with is "good ideas are a dime a dozen" [...] I can't think of too many games that blow me away with their ideas and concepts. [...] some are "hey that was cool for like an hour, now I'm bored"
"Cool for an hour" sounds like the best-case result if you're making a game from one good idea. It beats being world-famous for fifteen minutes in my book.
To be fair here, I expect many "good ideas for a game" that are floating around the planet's brains are not actually about the actual game aspect as such. Maybe the more secretive ones are, but the ones you get to hear tend to run along the lines of "Wouldn't it be cool to have a game set in such and such an environment?" or "... with a storyline that runs thusish?", neither of which necessarily gives you a good game, or in fact any game.
Then there's "... which combines this and that kind of gameplay?". Maybe it would be cool, but it's sort of inherently derivative and has a good chance of playing worse than either of the "purer" games it robs.
I think if you have one "
good idea"
for a game and run with it in as many directions as you can, you will have yourself a game that lasts way more than an hour. (I think Braid is the perfect example of this...simple concept, and yet I never got bored, and I'm sure if someone cranked out 400 more levels for it, it still wouldn't get boring) Too many games don't take a simple idea far enough for me.
My goal with this game is to relate as much as the story as I possibly can into the game play, and vice versa. Every aspect of gameplay isn't going to be arbitrary, it's all going to make sense in the context of the story and for me personally, those are the best video games out there. None of this "
CUT TO NEW SCREEN AND TAKE TURNS FIGHTING"
business, that makes no sense.
And here's the intro cutscene...I know video games aren't written like novels, but that's the easiest way for us to write it, it's probably not going to be like this in game.
Also it smells a little bit like "
Portal"
at the beginning, but this story gets far deeper than that, don't worry.
Click here to view the secret text
דSo yeah.........talking about............able........some sort.........perception..........practiced meditation...”
I continued to stare down at my cup of Bacca while Brian droned on about something I didn't quite care about, at least not right now, despite being an anthropologist. I had been studying different cultures and their developments for nearly ten years now, engrossing myself with different peoples and their histories, but I could only devote so much time to research. A long day lay behind me, filled with energy-draining seminars and grading tests in between. But now it was Friday afternoon and the school week was over, so I was getting ready to unwind for the next couple days. My mind was already gearing toward getting take-out and sleeping in, but Friday afternoon also meant going to the local bar to grab a drink with Brian. Brian was a grad student who was currently writing some thesis and couldn't shut up about it. Normally I would've expressed some entertainment in his ramblings, but today I simply couldn't engage myself. I suppose I was being a bit rude by only replying with vague enough statements to keep a conversation barely alive. I didn't really care though, so here I was sipping at my Bacca and picking out parts of speech from Brian and around the bar. A particularly loud and close-by man began to speak.
“Did you hear about that building on Newbury Street? The one that just showed up?”
No, I didn't, I thought.
“Ha, what are you talking about?” whomever he was talking to responded.
“Seriously, a building appeared on Newbury Street. It wasn't there yesterday.”
“Like what, it was built overnight without anybody noticing?”
“Something like that, I dunno.”
“That's ridiculous. How can a building go up so quickly without anybody seeing, or even hearing it?”
“I really don't know, but it's strange and it's freaking me out.”
“I'll have to go see it.”
Newbury Street is on my way home. I'll have to go see it as well.
“Hey listen,” I said, somewhat interrupting Brian, “I'm feeling pretty tired so I think I'm gonna head home early. Are you cool if I get out of here?”
“Oh yeah sure, that's fine,” he replied unenthusiastically and with a bit of disappointment.
“We'll keep this going next week, don't worry.”
“Okay,” he said with a reassured smile.
I stood up and left some change for my still-half-full drink, then put my jacket on and walked out into the street. I headed toward home at a more brisk pace than usual. Once I was nearing Newbury Street, I began to hear a lot of commotion. I hurried my legs to the corner, rounded it, and spotted a large group of people outside a building that I certainly didn't recognize. Once I neared the crowd, I could see the building was like a small cottage, except shady and crooked looking, and made of dark everything—dark paint, dark wood, dark siding, dark roofing, it was all just dark and eerie. The roof was caved in slightly as if it had experienced some heavy rain damage. The paint was peeling and the the wood looked rotten. Strangely enough, the building looked like it had been there for years. I knew it hadn't though, and so did everybody else. I walked up to a crowd member.
“So what's going on here?” I asked, “This building wasn't here before.”
“Ha, if you think that's weird, wait until you go inside,” he said. “You might want to hurry up though, I think the police and some news crews are on the way. They'll probably rope it off once they get here.”
My curiosity bested me and I made my way into the building without much hesitation. Through the front door was just a small room, a room with two doors, and a few people looking flustered and confused. I approached another person.
“What's with this?” I asked.
“Go through that door and find out for yourself,” he said rapidly, pointing to the door on the left, and then he turned quickly to leave. He evidently didn't like what was going on.
I began to make my way toward the door when somebody else went up to it. I watched her, nervously turning the handle, and then pulling the door open. When she did, the door on the right opened inward.
Was that some sort of trick? Holy shit I can see her through the other door!
She walked forward and then came back into the room through the door on the right. Not like she walked around and came back in through the other door, no, she exited the door on the right the moment she entered the door on the left. It was instantaneous. She shrieked.
“Alright, everybody out, now!” I turned around and there were several police officers making their way into the room. They began to force everybody out, quickly and without kindness. I was ushered out of the building and into the street, and then I watched them string up yellow police tape. We were all strongly encouraged to go home.
Later that night, the strange building was all over the news. Every local news station was reporting on it and eventually were able, with some sort of permission, to demonstrate the weird happenings on television. They had a volunteer enter the door on the left and the entire city watched him exit the door on the right. It wasn't long after that moment when government officials began showing up and closing the place off for good. This was clearly a big deal.
I was woken in the middle of the night by chaotic sounds. People were screaming, sirens were wailing, and I looked outside to see people running, either coming away from or going toward Newbury Street. I turned on the TV to see if anything new was being reported about the building. Again, reporters all over covering the newest story, except now the building was gone. Not only that, but in place of it stood a stone monolith, tall and covered in moss, and on it was engraved “By the power of God.” Underneath this was a symbol, a symbol that probably didn't mean much to anybody, except for me. I had seen the figure before in my line of work. Almost the mark for infinity, but with a single twist in the arc. Researchers named it the Hyre and it's been in ancient sculptures, paintings, and drawings, used so much in the past to denote great and overwhelming power.
“By the power of God” and a Hyre, I thought, there's some incredible force at work.
Let me know what you think of it, I could post more story if anyone]s just DYING to hear more.
But I'm sorry for posting it.
