Hey folks,
Lately I have been missing comedic games of old. The old classics like the Monkey Island series, Full Throttle, Sam and Max, Day of the Tentacle and Grim Fandango. Remember those? They were all great games with really spot on smart humor that actually had good gameplay to back it up. Those sorts of games aren't really around much anymore and the ones that are are either on the underground gaming networks or lack good gameplay which means it won't get played.
But with those games in mind, I recently started to work on a game design in my head that is sort of a throw back to those old type of humor games.
The general plot for the story is sort of the classic space exploration one. A small crew of about 5 explorers are sent out to space to check out a new anomaly in space that is in the shape of a triangle and appeared all of a sudden near the moon. Earth started getting weird unintelligible from the anomaly and now the crew was sent to check it out.
The crew would be the sort of stereotypical lot of people. The sort of badass captain everyone looks up to, the hot analyst who is a flirt, the know it all doctor and the war veteran hard as nails weapons expert. Lastly rounding the crew off would be the main character, Thaddius Guy, who is in charge of Operations.
Now not to get into to many details, the crew flies out to this anomaly to see what it is. As they get closer to the giant triangular thing, they notice they are getting pulled in by the anomaly and that they can't slow down. Next thing you know, everything goes black and Guy wakes up on the ship which is now all torn up after having crashed into the anomaly. As he collects his thoughts, he realizes he is alone on the ship.
Once Guy gets out of the ship, he realizes he is on land and now staring out a huge massive entrance way. Imagine an old Greek entrance way that look massive and epic with huge columns and you get the idea. As he gets closer to the entrance, a giant beam comes flying out and scans him and then disappears back intot he darkness. Dazed and scared, Guy looks up at the entrance way again and all of a sudden some bright lights start to flash and he sees something he thought he would never see in space. In giant neon lights and in English, he sees a new sign saying:
Welcome to the Universal Labyrinth!
Fun for the whole family!
Fun for the whole family!
Yes, ladies and gentleman, this giant space anomaly is actually a tourist trap!
The anomaly was built thousands of years ago by a alien race who wanted more people to come visit their solar system but had nothing to offer since all the planets in their system smelled weird and didn't have complimentary pillow mints to offer to guests. So they built this giant tourist trap in space to attract more people and now poor Guy is forced to figure his way through the Labyrinth to find out where the rest of the crew went, how he is gonna get back home and why the Labyrinth is now abandoned.
Since I haven't really thought everything through for the game yet, here are just a few little things that would be thrown in for some fun and laughs.
- A universal freakshow
-The main hub of the Labyrinth is the souviner shop
-The food at the food stands has evolved over time and are waging wars with each other
-The main person to be on the lookout for is the Labyrinth's "minotaur" , since now that someone is in the Labyrinth, he has to go back to work and is very unhappy about that.
-A complaints line that Guy must get to the front of but still has some very lively aliens.
Like I said, this is still just a idea bouncing around in my head. Most of this stuff can be taken out or changed of course. Just the main idea behind it all is what I really want to keep. That aliens created a giant tourist trap in order to get other life forms to come visit them. Imagine Halo mixed with Futurama and Monty Python would be the best way to describe it. Very Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy but with a more American with then British since that doesn't always go over so well here.
I just really like the idea of doing a epic space comedy since so many games lately that deal with space are either to serious or turn everything into a giant war. So I think its time we get a little bit of comedy in space and see what happens.
As for gameplay, that would be the tricky part. Personally I think going with a third person perspective would be the best. This way the player can see everything that is going on around him. The gameplay itself would be more adventure type gameplay where there are mainly puzzles the player has to get through with a bit of action as well thrown in for good measure. Its more likely using your hands and brain to figure things out then just running around shooting everything. The puzzles wouldn't be insanely hard and most would actually be a bit humorous to keep the player going and wanting to finish the puzzle. Stuff like having to figure out how to get to the front of the Complaints Line and finding a lost "child" to hiding from the "minotaur" and helping stop the great "Concession Stand Civil War"There wouldn't be a lot of back tracking in the game and different parts of the Labyrinth would have different themes as well.
There of course would be a slew off oddball characters in the Labyrinth ranging from the weird by helpful Universal Freakshow aliens to the out of his mind Souviner Shop caretaker who has gone nuts from staring at snow globes to long.
Basically I want the game to be a totally odd experience, but all the while a really funny one. With as many serious games we have out now a days, I think a bit of humor is needed now and then and thats why I came up with this game idea. Its nothing ground breaking of course, but I don't think a game needs to be groundbreaking to be good.
Anyway, thats it for now. Just something I wanted to get out of my brain and see written down on here.
-P. Knight
The anomaly was built thousands of years ago by a alien race who wanted more people to come visit their solar system but had nothing to offer since all the planets in their system smelled weird and didn't have complimentary pillow mints to offer to guests. So they built this giant tourist trap in space to attract more people and now poor Guy is forced to figure his way through the Labyrinth to find out where the rest of the crew went, how he is gonna get back home and why the Labyrinth is now abandoned.
Since I haven't really thought everything through for the game yet, here are just a few little things that would be thrown in for some fun and laughs.
- A universal freakshow
-The main hub of the Labyrinth is the souviner shop
-The food at the food stands has evolved over time and are waging wars with each other
-The main person to be on the lookout for is the Labyrinth's "minotaur" , since now that someone is in the Labyrinth, he has to go back to work and is very unhappy about that.
-A complaints line that Guy must get to the front of but still has some very lively aliens.
Like I said, this is still just a idea bouncing around in my head. Most of this stuff can be taken out or changed of course. Just the main idea behind it all is what I really want to keep. That aliens created a giant tourist trap in order to get other life forms to come visit them. Imagine Halo mixed with Futurama and Monty Python would be the best way to describe it. Very Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy but with a more American with then British since that doesn't always go over so well here.
I just really like the idea of doing a epic space comedy since so many games lately that deal with space are either to serious or turn everything into a giant war. So I think its time we get a little bit of comedy in space and see what happens.
As for gameplay, that would be the tricky part. Personally I think going with a third person perspective would be the best. This way the player can see everything that is going on around him. The gameplay itself would be more adventure type gameplay where there are mainly puzzles the player has to get through with a bit of action as well thrown in for good measure. Its more likely using your hands and brain to figure things out then just running around shooting everything. The puzzles wouldn't be insanely hard and most would actually be a bit humorous to keep the player going and wanting to finish the puzzle. Stuff like having to figure out how to get to the front of the Complaints Line and finding a lost "child" to hiding from the "minotaur" and helping stop the great "Concession Stand Civil War"There wouldn't be a lot of back tracking in the game and different parts of the Labyrinth would have different themes as well.
There of course would be a slew off oddball characters in the Labyrinth ranging from the weird by helpful Universal Freakshow aliens to the out of his mind Souviner Shop caretaker who has gone nuts from staring at snow globes to long.
Basically I want the game to be a totally odd experience, but all the while a really funny one. With as many serious games we have out now a days, I think a bit of humor is needed now and then and thats why I came up with this game idea. Its nothing ground breaking of course, but I don't think a game needs to be groundbreaking to be good.
Anyway, thats it for now. Just something I wanted to get out of my brain and see written down on here.
-P. Knight
No comments:
Post a Comment