What theme did you all vote
To "tower" over all other things. Tower as a noun meaning a tall building, structure, or monument. The verb form would mean the state of being taller than something, or greater than something.
An adult towers over a small child. A skyscraper towers over a restaurant. A celebrity's fame could tower in comparison to an average person. A tall stack of paper money (dollar bills) could tower over a small pile of coins.
It's more about the height of a thing, and the feeling of it making something else feel small either emotionally or physically.
Well... Categorically, the Burj Khalifa is the tallest structure in the entire world. Mount Everest is the tallest mountain.
You can't take the theme as 100% literal, or you'll put limits on your own imagination. "All else" is an intentionally vague concept. "All else" of what? All other trees? All other monsters? All other houses of cards?
Perhaps you could make a game about a giant towering above all that surrounds it, crushing things beneath his feet. Or two players racing to make the tallest structure. Or fighting your way up a monolithic tower in a fantasy RPG. The possibilities are broad here.
" Or two players racing to make the tallest structure"
I like that one.
But, I mean, any game that is not about mount everest is not following the theme, because mount everest towers higher than all other objects on earth. And then you can argue that the sun is towering higher above mount everest, and another galaxy is towering higher above than the sun, and it goes on and on.
And then if you want to be logically coherent you could only argue that the only theoretical thing that is above all else and the entire universe, is god. So any game that isn't about god does not follow the theme.
Every game that isn't about god will deserve a theme rating of 1 star lol.
If they would have wanted to keep it vague, they should have said 'towering above', 'towering upwards', 'towering higher' , or even 'towering high up above', etc. but they didn't.
'above all else' is such an unfortunate choice of words. It's so absolute.
I have to purposefully pretend the theme is just 'towering' in order to not limit my imagination.
But I get what you mean and I like your ideas.
Anyways, your animated wizard profile looks cool.
Thanks! I made him myself 😁
I wouldn't necessarily use "towering" when describing God or the sun in normal conversation, though I get what you're getting at.
I think the key thing to bear in mind is that unless you're VSauce's Michael, I don't think you need to conceptualize "All Else" as literally "Everything in all of existence other than this one thing". It'd probably help to append "...that surrounds it" to the theme phrase just to make the concept manageable. "Towering over all else that surrounds it"
Google some images of the Burj Kalifa, or the Duomo in Florence Italy, or a fire watch tower, and you'll get some ideas of the relative scale I'm thinking of. For a week's long jam, I don't think the theme needs to be cosmic in scope.
"that unless you're VSauce's Michael"...
Wait... How do you know? Who told you my identity?? 😅
So I really like the imagery references you're giving. Florence duomo gives me nice inspiration, but more so about the store line, not so much a game that's based on above all else.
But in any case that theme did not get picked, fortunately lol. Makes it easier.
I appreciate all the references and examples you gave.
Cool, so you do pixel art animation?
Happy to help!
I do pixel art occasionally, but sadly not all that often. My IT job doesn't leave me much time in the day for adulting, recuperation, dinner, AND hobby time in the evenings.
I actually haven't gotten anything done today because I'm stuggling to come up with my own game for this theme. 😅
Any brilliant ideas? The best one I came up with was really a Baldy's Basics type "horror" game. I've never really done a horror game before, but at least I know a bit about what it looks like...
Yes, the wizard turned out cool!
I have an idea for the game I want to create, something fun and catchy, and I will have to learn to use a new game mechanic, that I want to use for a different game I had planned to create as well.
But I will have to keep the idea a trade secret until I publish the game. ^^
Isn't 'Baldy's basic' kind of a lonely game? Just from the few images I've seen...
Maybe make a horror game where the main character is haunted by voices and spirits that follow him/her everywhere around and never leave them alone.
Or you make the horror game where you have to watch a museum or an old castle and be the night guard. You're supposed to be alone all night, but during the night you gradually find out and realize: you're not alone! 👹👻
Or you make a deep philosophical game: talk about an issue that many people deal with but are too ashamed to talk about:
like depression, addictive behaviors or something. With the end message: you're not alone with it.
Or you make a multiplayer game.
Or you make a fighter game, where you have to build out your team and add new fighters, because alone you cannot win against your enemies.
Or you make a game where you need to trade with others and make deals to advance, or help each other out, in order to win. So that alone you cannot win.
Maybe something like that...
The night guard concept you mentioned is essentially the idea of Baldy's basics. (Just the first example I thought of, I don't know if there's a better example out there) You need to move around a building to accomplish a goal, while an AI patrols the halls and you need to avoid it in order to complete the game. I'm still spinning my wheels a bit, mostly because this theme isn't really sparking my interest, but I'm hoping to come out at the end of this week with SOMETHING.
It's important to note that "towering above all else" is also a common metaphor. It can be a tall object, or it can mean that it is particularly significant. For example, at the height of their success, The Beatles towered over all other artists.
If you could use a metaphor to describe something as being high or a tower, then it can also fit with the theme.
