Damn EA sponsored Game design majors and your shit ideas

[bluemax]

So last night I found out that one of my roommates is an "Interactive Media" (Re: Game Design) major and is in the same Final Game Projects class I am in. Apparently the game ideas that will be worked on have already been decided and pitched to "Industry Professionals" (re: mostly dudes from EA and Activision). So what brilliantly awesome game projects do I have to choose from?

-RagnaROCK! A platformer for I'm assuming PS2 that uses the Guitar Hero controller. My first thought is, how easy will this game be to play with a normal controller? I hope the target platform is PS2 or 360 because at least then its for a relevant gaming platform.

-Errantry:Errantry is the medieval equivalent of a modern-day rap battle. Players compete against one another or an AI controlled opponent to tell stories to a medieval court. Players use the Wiimote to gesturally play out moments of the story they are building as they build it.

(Note this elevator pitch comes directly from their design document).

And the third game is some crap made in flash, probably a mini game.

So yeah, I really don't know which of these is going to get me the best programming experience that I can trade for a job later.

[Himu]

Pass Me Dat Cornbread - In this game your goal is to eat as much soul food before you pass out and die from a heart attack. It's an arcade game where time is everything!

[Fragamemnon]

Pass Me Dat Cornbread

White Flight Simulator 2007 would make another excellent option.

[Van Cruncheon]

this is the sort of shit "innovative" thinking that ruins games. it isn't creativity; it's just a mash-up of ideas.

[Yeti]

I don't know, a platformer using the guitar hero controller sounds kind of interesting.

[T234]

How's this for an idea: An RTS drawn on paper. Units, the environment, everything. Units are not built they're drawn on screen (not physically drawn, but that's how they're animated). The first expansion pack, called "*" lets the player create his own procedurally-animated faction from the ground up.

[bluemax]

How's this for an idea: An RTS drawn on paper. Units, the environment, everything. Units are not built they're drawn on screen (not physically drawn, but that's how they're animated). The first expansion pack, called "*" lets the player create his own procedurally-animated faction from the ground up.

I think that's been done but I'm not sure. These dudes in one class a couple years ago made this cool RTS where everything was made out of Legos. And instead of having to gather resources you collected the bricks out of your destroyed enemies. It looked pretty cool for a student made game.

this is the sort of shit "innovative" thinking that ruins games. it isn't creativity; it's just a mash-up of ideas.

Pretty much. Last years ideas were pretty shitty too. An RTS based upon cults and converting people in a mall (could've been good I guess with a better leader). And a game where you play a fish and do waggle communication or something.

The problem I've had with working with Cinema people is they still fucking think like Cinema people. They draw up amazing story boards and shit but the ideas don't work for me as a gamer.

If Ragnarock isn't on Wii I think I'm jumping on that project. I've read the design doc for the Wii game and I want no part of it.

[T234]

How is this: Burnout with guns. You play as the single most irritating cunt ever devised. The object is be killed in the most spectacular ways imaginable.

EXAMPLE: You get blasted with a spas12 and go out the 40th floor of a high-rise, landing on a city bus. The bus crashes into a tanker which blows up and takes out a truck full of industrial blasting agent, which destroys the buildings support columns and crashes the building back on top of you for double points.

[hyp]

you went to USC for a game development major?

gah, you should've gotten into their film school.  i was supposed to go, but bailed out last minute due to $$$$$$$$.

[bluemax]

Nah, I'm an engineer. I came here originally to be a rocket scientist decided I hated Fortran and switched majors.

I got into games programming as a minor, I've taken a normal CS education otherwise.

[The Fake Shemp]

QUIET DRINKY THESE ARE THE FUTURE DAVID JAFFES OF THE WORLD

[FlameOfCallandor]

Who pitched that stuff? In all my production classes the class pitched ideas for short films and then we voted on a handful to make.

[bluemax]

Okay so tonight was the "pitch to the Engineers night".

More thoughts:

1. Errantry is complete and utter shit. On my write up I put for reasons I wouldn't want to work on it: Wii mote gestures and minigames. Thankfully judging by the concerns raised by other engineers I wasn't alone on this.

2. Ragnarokk is pretty stupid too. It might be cute as a throw away mode in GH but even then I don't think more than a few people would play it. Their control scheme looked potentially bad as well.

3. As dumb as the name was P.B. Winterbottom was the shining star in a pile of shit. No gimmick controls, and relatively non stupid game play design. Its a puzzle/platformer where you manipulate time to solve puzzles. If their different time manipulation mechanics get tightened up a bit it could be the best legit game in the group.

4. A masters engineering student pitched a Superman game that was somewhat similar in nature to the Superman Returns game. Despite this it actually seemed like a better concept than EA's Superman game and something I'd rather work on than the first two games.

5. An Indian masters engineering student pitched a game based around drunk driving and I think everyone got more excited for this than anything else.

6. Another group pitched a game that they even came out and said wasn't a fucking game. It was an interactive story, blah blah blah. They talked up a lot of theoretical shit that no one will have time to implement in a semester.

I was going to pitch a clone of Star Fox for the Wii where you use the waggle wand as a flight stick but there wasn't enough time. My name for this game was Flight of the Waggles.

[brawndolicious]

there's this one comic called the black diamond which you could rip off and nobody would probably notice (this isn't what that comic is word-for-word).

it's about a highway that the government built from new york to SF that you have no laws or cops of any kind so that people could get themselves killed on it instead roads/highways.  you could make a game about getting to NY and having a bunch of obstacles.  airplanes are grounded due to terrorists and communists are on the normal roads or some shit.  it would be totally awesome.

[bluemax]

there's this one comic called the black diamond which you could rip off and nobody would probably notice (this isn't what that comic is word-for-word).

it's about a highway that the government built from new york to SF that you have no laws or cops of any kind so that people could get themselves killed on it instead roads/highways.  you could make a game about getting to NY and having a bunch of obstacles.  airplanes are grounded due to terrorists and communists are on the normal roads or some shit.  it would be totally awesome.

His big mechanic was more "you don't have a life bar (cause you're stuper man) but you can't mess up the property/let too many civilians die etc". The thing that got most people excited in the class was the X-Ray vision power.

[brawndolicious]

well put x-ray vision power on it too then.