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3 Relatively Simple Game Concepts

6 years ago3,859 words

Here are three ideas of simpler games that I could potentially maybe make!

I went to the hospital for radiotherapy AGAIN today. Most of my appointments are at like 9am, but on Wednesdays I see a doctor and then have the treatment at like 3pm, which is irritating. It's all getting a bit mundane now, though the chunk of my day it eats up is... well, it's giving me a sense of structure, but it also feels like it's consuming time that I'd rather be spending working on games and things. I wouldn't want to be the sort of person who goes to work every day and has their time eaten up that way...

I went with my step-dad again, and that's... interesting, not as awkward as I thought. He's nice to me and sees value in me, though he's more confident than I am and was obviously embarrassed by the few social interactions that I had; he actually gave me 'advice' about how I shouldn't handle them like I do, and sounded disappointed when he did, so that's going to be something I'll be cringing over... The idea that it's not just in my head, it's clearly noticeable. Sigh... But I've been talking with him about this games stuff, and he does see me as a ticket out of his rut in life, which I suppose it gives me a kind of motivation to actually get somewhere, so then I have something to present, so then I don't disappoint. It's so easy when you're alone all the time to just put stuff off forever because you can... so maybe this'll help with productivity.

I want to make some quick games, rather than the months-long proper project I've been planning (and used to try to make in the past), so I've been looking into that. Not quite as much as I'd like because of the lack of time and brain treatment, but it's a start. I wanted to reply to the comments on the previous post because I see that some people linked to some interesting things, but I thought I'd write this first and get around to actually checking those links later.

I've been looking into hyper-casual games, which, according to articles I've read from 2018, are apparently a big thing right now. They're relevant. They're not exactly the kind of thing I'd like to make, though... so I feel that the ideas I will have are going to be somewhere between that and what I've done in the past. Playing to my strengths and using content I've already been developing, as other people have commented about. The three ideas that I want to talk about here are very much like that. I don't know if I'll actually work on them, but I'll present them here to give an idea of the direction my mind has been heading in.

The hyper-casual games that I've looked at are simple, easy to pick up and play, but easy to get hooked on too. They're the sort of thing that anyone could understand without a tutorial regardless of age, background, or language, and they're the kind of thing you'd show to others, assuming they'll understand them without issue too.

A lot of them, to me, seem like 'control panels'... That is, they're technical challenges, generally impersonal, often including graphics based on primitive shapes (you are a ball or a triangle), or extremely simple, repetitive tasks. I can understand why they're done that way, but my own ideas are more... personal, I suppose, as you'll see. I don't think I could make something so mechanical.

So, here are the ideas I've had. These all came from one brainstorming session, and they're very much just ideas rather than anything I'll necessarily make. But I might make them! We'll see how it goes; I'll listen to feedback and keep you posted.

1 - Making Friends

This would be a game where you're presented with a randomised person, whose appearance and - importantly - personality is procedurally generated. You'd have a conversation with them, through text, and the aim would be to befriend them. After the conversation, you'd move onto the next random person. The goal of the game would be to befriend as many people as possible, to 'make friends'.

If you've been following my work, you can probably understand where this idea came from. But there are a lot of background thoughts that I want to talk about, and why I think this could be an interesting thing to make.

For a start, it wouldn't be overly difficult to make. It wouldn't be a grand adventure with a story to plan and make and a bunch of different graphics or music or etc. I'd need to make two human people (which I'd do in 3D because I can), males and females (I'd just base them on the 3D models I already have), with some random variation for their faces (I'd not bother with the bodies since it's more work, and people would rather look at attractive bodies anyway), some clothes for them to wear (I've already been making bodies and clothes for them in the personal project I've been keeping to myself), and a simple room for them to stand in (I like stoats).

Each person would have their personality determined using the Big Five system - or perhaps the simpler runes system I've used in other projects - and this would determine what they'd say in conversation, how they'd reply, etc. The conversation would use the same format I've seen in other games and used before; essentially, they'd say something determined by criteria, you'd have a bunch of options to choose from, your choice would produce an effect and provoke them to say something else, etc. A branched chain sort of thing, nothing fancy. No sophisticated AI or anything. Words would be put into the player's mouth, and they'd be limited in what they could say in response to each thing. Like maybe four options at most, just tapping buttons. People would have a bunch of interests and beliefs too, which you could work out by asking them about them.

I worked on a project called Yden a billion years ago, which had randomly-generated people with randomly-generated 'voices'; that is, they communicated their state of mind, but even when two individuals said the same general thing, the way that they said it differed. I came up with a way of formatting the text that made this easy, and I'd use that again here such that two people with the same belief or interest might speak about it in a different way to keep things fresh. I'd also use randomness too so then conversations didn't become entirely predictable (though some predictability would be inevitable after playing for a while).

Something like this would make use of my writing, the human models and facial expressions and things I've already been working on, and the idea of 'taming' or befriending your 'opponents' rather than solving a problem using technical skill or violence.

It plays to human instincts to socialise. Something that's stuck in my mind from the Psychology course I did is something called the ∞ Wason selection task ∞. I'll let Wikipedia explain it:



Basically, most people get it wrong. I did! It's an abstract problem, and our brains aren't really wired to easily perceive the correct solution. It's not a difficult problem really; it's just not obvious to us.

(The correct answer is to turn over the 8 and the brown card.)

By comparison, however, you can use the same general rules, but frame it as a social problem. For example:



(Wikipedia talks about that too, interestingly.)

The answer becomes much more obvious to us then (16, beer). It's interesting because it suggests that our minds are naturally wired toward social issues, and are more drawn to them as a result. They're what the majority of news stories are about, despite all the technical progress that might be made in the world. Even those technical advancements are generally framed in the context of some relationship or personal goal being achieved.

It seems that the audience for mobile apps is different to the hardcore PC-game-playing crowd. The latter (mostly nerdy young men) will happily immerse themselves in an adventure for hours at a time, but the former often play apps just to fill a few minutes here and there while they're bored. They want something they can pick up and play for a few minutes at a moment's notice. Many of them are stay-at-home wives and mothers, who have the time. As a group, those are more naturally wired towards social situations, but most of what are presented to them are these more technical 'control panel' or puzzle types of challenges that are usually made by males for the way that male minds work. Something like this might be more interesting to that demographic, maybe.

Playing it seriously would hopefully allow people to better understand others, to listen to their specific interests and to adjust what they say to their personality type, which could alter how they perceive others in a positive way. Those who are already good with social situations might get pleasure out of 'solving' it with ease, while those who struggle might actually learn from it. Simply chatting with the random people might bring pleasure in itself.

Alternatively, you could make a point of saying stupid things and having the conversation go badly, in a comical kind of way. That seems more like the way that guys would play to show it off to other guys. Ages ago, I read the book How to Win Friends and Influence People, by Dale Carnegie, because I felt that in my social ineptitude, I needed it. It was interesting, seemed useful. But I also saw that there was a film called How to Lose Friends and Alienate People (clearly influenced by that popular book), and while I've never actually seen that film, the title drew my attention more than most do. The idea of social situations going catastrophically badly stuck with me and made me curious, made me laugh. For someone with social anxiety who worries that social situations might be awkward or go badly, it's nice to see them go well, and to see them go so ridiculously badly that the merely awkward ones seem like nothing by comparison. Both are soothing.

The hardest part by far would be writing a long, branched conversation that would feel fresh each time and consistent for each character, while inviting comedy if it went badly and the feeling of a real bond if it went well. That's something I see as an opportunity rather than a chore; it's something I'd want to do! It won't transcend the language barrier though, which is a shame.

Oh, and this wouldn't be a chatbot; I know they already exist in abundance, but they're entirely different to what I'd want to do with this. They've always felt artificial to me, and of course they work using AI and take direct typed (or even spoken) input, so they're an entirely different animal. This would be more like the kind of dialogue tree from an RPG, where your choices are limited and the flow of the conversation is largely predetermined (and as such can be more cleverly-written and always relevant rather than being full of jarring non-sequiturs, repetition, and "I don't understand"s).

2 - Pocket Person

This idea is essentially a virtual pet, but they're a human of sorts who you can talk to and form a bond with. It messages you when it needs something, or just to check up on you, throughout the day.

When I was little, I was obsessed with Tamagotchi and Digimon. They were a fad at the time so loads of people had them, but I felt that my interest was deeper, more obsessive; I had several of each, and devoted a lot of my time and mental energy to trying to look after them as best I could (I've written about this before).

In primary school, Tamagotchi were new and fashionable, and there were tons of imitators. I distinctly remember a girl in my class having a Tamagotchi clone called a "Virtual Boyfriend", where you looked after a pretend boy I suppose. I never saw it in detail or anything, but the idea that a virtual pet could be a person rather than some kind of animal or monster has been floating around in the back of my mind for years.

I've also entertained the idea of trying to make an artificial girlfriend, for the many guys who are lonely. Something you could pretend to speak to when there's nobody else. Someone who'd give you a kind of social intimacy that a sex toy couldn't. I came across a chatbot with a female avatar a couple of years ago, and that came to mind; I remember looking at some logs about what people had been asking it, and an alarming number of people were asking it if it loved them, or similar. It usually harshly turned them down like a polite but unavailable girl might, which hurt to read. They poured their hearts out to it from a position of absolute loneliness, and it brushed them away because that wasn't its purpose. I wanted to link to it, but I see that it's advanced a whole lot since then and now exists as a mobile app with visuals that isn't a million miles away from the kind of thing I'm imagining. ∞ This thing ∞. That's still not what I'm imagining because it's an AI-driven chatbot, but it's interesting that such a thing exists. I'm sure there are more, too.

(I know the Japanese are doing things with virtual 'waifus', and I bet there are a ton of visual novels and other such things in this general vein, though despite my interest in making such a thing, and feeling lonely, I wouldn't look them up because I'd feel uncomfortable.)

Though I've entertained the idea of a virtual girlfriend to help the lonely, I find the idea creepy at its core, so I'm not planning to do that exactly. Still, having some kind of imagined friend that might check up on you outside the "look at me passing the Turing test!!" conversation you might have with a chatbot might be nice, I think. Something not explicitly for the lonely, just a little extra thing on some app for the masses.

I've looked at other virtual pet apps, but they've largely irritated me, and definitely don't scratch the virtual pet itch that still lingers deep down. There's something very artificial and overly complicated about them that I just don't like. So while I know there are a ton of virtual pets out there and this idea isn't unique, it's something I might like to explore just as a stepping stone in my app development if nothing else. A fun little challenge that others might benefit from too.

I wondered whether to make the person you'd look after an anthro, a furry, rather than a human. Something that's pet-like, but capable of speech and being dressed too. I'm not particularly fond of furries because I feel they're considered creepy too (by those who aren't deeply into them, anyway), but I can see how it might work for this. It could hatch from an egg, grow maybe, die. You could look after it, groom it, and make it look more beautiful the more effort you put in. Stroke its fur. Maybe it could be genderless, with traits of both males and females.

Perhaps it could even be one of the sindrel species I came up with a while back, or something similar?

I imagine that the app would be very simple. You'd get a creature that you can name, and it needs to be fed and (briefly) talked to throughout the day to ensure it's doing okay. Little checks, nothing too time-hungry. You could choose to talk to it just for fun, or it might ask you how you're doing and express sympathy if you're not doing well (though there wouldn't be some long conversation or anything). It might send you notifications that are more personalised than usual; rather than "Snotmuncher is hungry! Come and feed it now!" (like pretty much every notification I get from apps...), it might be something like "Um hey InsertNameHere, I'm feeling pretty hungry and I can't feed myself! :(" or just "Hey how're you doing? :3". You know? Something to facilitate a bond.

Digimon and Tamagotchi required you to 'train' or 'play with' the creature via a minigame in order to increase its strength/happiness stat, which decreased alongside hunger. I imagine something similar with this, though the minigame would be cooperative; something to, again, develop the bond with the creature rather than seeing it as a competitor or a chore.

You'd probably also be able to dress the creature, and acquire new clothes somehow. Maybe you could buy them, in some way. Like maybe you earned currency from the minigame you played with the creature, but could buy more. I don't know.

I mentioned the mothers who'd make up a good portion of app players, and I can see their maternal and social instincts being activated by something like this. It wouldn't be just for them though; I'm a guy, and I liked virtual pets a whole lot.

I feel like I've been exploring variations of this idea for years, so it'd be interesting to finally settle on something. I know there are a ton of virtual pets out there and I imagine people will mention some, or their experiences with them... but there's no virtual pet that I personally have made, so I feel that my take on it might be something different even if it's not world-shatteringly original.

3 -Dream Memory

You enter into a 'dream', which shows a random series of objects, one at a time. The first one interacts with the second, which interacts with the third, etc. At the end of the 'dream', you have to specify which objects you saw, and in which order. Each level has one more object than the last. How far can you go?

This is the third idea I came up with, and it's the one I feel would be least likely to, well, work. Still, I'll talk about my thinking behind it anyway.

Ages ago, I read a book by Derren Brown (I've talked about him before too), where he shared some memory tricks, specifically for remembering lists. One trick involved picturing each list item interacting with the adjacent one... and it works, really well, especially for remembering the list in the right order. Say you had the list "cabbage hand fish helicopter". You might first imagine a cabbage being softly caressed by a tiny hand (the sillier the imagery, the more likely it is to be remembered), then a hand holding a fish as a weapon, then a huge fish looking gormless as it tried to pilot a helicopter. Cabbage hand fish helicopter. Easy!

It's a fun little exercise, and something I've used since I discovered it for exams and things (I used a variation of it to remember the names and dates behind citations). It's something I've wanted to show off to other people too because of how well it works, and because the imagery that can occur is innately funny if done right.

Dreams are a common human experience, and they tend to involve a kind of shaky narrative with many random elements. Much of my work has been about dreams in some way or another because they fascinate me, and this was a way of combining this interest with the memory trick interest.

I imagine that the game would have a longish list of random items to choose from, and animated interactions between each pair of objects. You'd just watch the interactions, then you'd probably be surprised how well you remembered them, and some satisfaction would come from that. And from watching the silly interactions themselves, which I'd hope would be funny.

It's not really much of a game, though. It's mostly just watching, or what would likely feel like filling in a form at the end of a survey once it's over. Plus drawing and animating all the pairs of objects would be an ordeal, and you'd probably see them often so it'd grow old very fast. Those are the reasons I think this is least likely to work. Still, I present it here for the sake of interest (as a dud if nothing else).



So yes. Those are some ideas I've had. As I said, I don't know if I'll work on them at all; I still need to do more research about what kinds of things are out there, what the competition is, basically. Brainstorming too. But I think things like this are the direction I'll be going in rather than, say, Poke The Penguin With A Sausage or Anagram Aneurysm or whatever. None of them would be the next Flappy Bird or Angry Birds or Flip the Bird or whatever thing involving birds people are into these days, because they lack that kind of simplicity and addictiveness, but I suppose those kinds of things are made by minds unlike my own anyway, so I don't think I'd be able to change my course that much. Probably. I'm always going to be making something not-entirely-unlike my past work. And that's probably not a bad thing, to the people who've had interest in that work, and in me for making it. That's what the comments suggested, anyway.

I'm fully expecting people more well-versed in the games scene to shoot down my hopes by informing me of how exactly these ideas have already been done, or how they're not interesting anyway or something (people love to say "that reminds me of this thing which is exactly the same or similar!", which kills any buzz of originality)... but I suppose I should post this anyway (I don't really have time to edit it much or include concept pictures though, which I'd like to do... I'm going to bed!).