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Game Ideas (Brainstorm) Sticky

A topic by HonestDan created Jul 07, 2022 Views: 400 Replies: 11
Viewing posts 1 to 7
HostSubmitted

Hey all! Thanks for registering interest in the Pacifist jam, I appreciate it!

How are peoples ideas coming along for jam games that would avoid violence / combat / physical confrontation?

I'm still really not sure which direction to go! Feel free to share some thoughts here, but avoid giving too detailed an idea if you've got a plan in mind!

Submitted

Submitted(+1)

A non-violent mechanism that still operates mostly like traditional combat:

Dance-off!

You perform a Hip-Hop move!

Yer opponent appears unaffected!

Yer opponent uses a Tap Dance move!

Critical success!

You lose 2 confidence!

HostSubmitted

SHINEY SECRETS!

Dance off sounds great, especially when your games are usually text-based! I expect avid descriptions of the rhythmic movements!

Submitted

I think there are a lot of classic game systems that express numbers as combat, where it really could be anything else and still have the same type of gameplay. I've just started thinking about it, but I think I'll most likely go for some classic concept but transform it to not be about violence.

Might have another go at one of my favourites, tower defense, the genre itself really boils down to space/path management and number synergies.

HostSubmitted

yeah I think it will be interesting to see "can you still have tower defence gameplay without the towers and enemies to kill". for example, you could design a mall layout to try distract shoppers to stop them all bottle necking at the car park exit or something :D

Submitted (1 edit)

Haha, a marketplace was actually one of the things I was considering!

With both layout design to force a long walk, but also placing goods with synergies or sales. Maybe certain goods work better further along the park or just at the checkout, and some things like a sign or suggested recipe can make a customer walk backwards for a bit.

The endgame could be to make as much in sales as possible, with the classic "enemy health" being represented by a customers wallet / budget instead, and the goal being both to maximize total revenue as well as try to have no customers go through the store without buying anything.

It's probably the theme I like the most so far, other ones were traffic/shipping-based, but I like the sillyness of the store one :D
Though just reading through my description above I can already see the scope creep!

(+1)

https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedesign/comments/tjagrj/peaceful_tower_defence/

Submitted(+1)

Some nice discussion in there, thanks!
I've gone ahead and started on my basic idea, so might flesh it out with some stuff from there.

Submitted

had a good chat with my brother about it last night and setup a pureref file today for it. when it comes to what we're making that's actually very simple, we're keeping to our strengths and refining our toolkits.

what matters most is the why. my fantasy when it comes to making games is to help people feel what they need to feel. i believe we can achieve that; pacifism helps a lot as a limit. 

HostSubmitted

Glad to hear! Looking forward to what you both come up with! 

HostSubmitted

Okay its dawning on me that the jam starts in 2 days and I've still no idea what to make. This post is me putting 5 mins aside to think of small-scope pacifist-friendly games.

- Crufts on Stream: a dog show where chat get to enter their pet into competitions, such as racing, agility and beauty contests. Reason: This could be re-used for AHA2's pets, its been 3 years since I promised pets...!

- A triangle tile based puzzle game, about connecting coloured edges to gain territory / bonuses. Had this glimmer of an idea before, can't recall how the game would work though so needs more thinking. Reason: Tile based puzzle games are interesting to me and could be an interesting project to explore basic multiplayer.

- Uhhhhh need more idea...