The Gamer's Quarter

david · . Joined: 03 Mar 2005 Posts: 170 Location: b, md

So I had this idea I would start a series of totally free-associative, spontaneous game screen mock-ups. The image might come first, and later prompt an explanation, or the image could follow from a concept or simply be a response to something I've read, heard, seen or played. Maybe, if I keep it up, I will start to blog it. But it's too early to say ...

For starters, I thought I'd post the couple things I'd already drawn, and welcome interpretations from the TGQ community. Please feel free to post your own mock-ups, or provide "inspirational" poetry. Design documents are too left-brain for this thing.

Neither of these are finished, but I don't know for sure if I'm going to bother revising them, rather than move on to something new. I might post updates later on, but really, it's in the spirit of this exercise to show work-in-progress.

Feel free to ignore these and post your own images or concepts. Some response (not just to these, but to anything anyone presents) would definitely help stimulate the creative back-and-forth, though.

So like, what do you think is happening in these? What are they about? Propose a title or two.

00101:

00102:

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parkbench · . Joined: 02 Jul 2007 Posts: 145

Beautiful. The second definitely evokes some kind of Ico-like feeling in me; I would want a slightly free exploratory environment to roam around in these ruins and interact with the environment, maybe almost like Myst.

Intentionally Wrong · Posted: Fri Dec 07, 2007 3:51 pm Post subject:

There's an interesting contrast between the figure and the environment in the fist image. The red implies lava or some other hostile environment, yet the figure's clothing does not suggest regular dwelling in this environment. It's the sort of abstract, representational pairing that you see in games like Mario, of course. The landscape in the background is a deep blue, which suggests darkness or ice, but either way it's very much reminiscent of the typically overused videogame level archetypes. I almost expect to see iconic collectibles spinning suspended in the darkness out there somewhere.

helicopterp · . Joined: 13 May 2006 Posts: 1435 Location: Philadelphia

The first image: A 2d game. Single Screen. Something where the character automatically steps, but the player controls the direction and length of each step in response to environmental hazards, the ultimate goal being a particular position on each screen.

The second: A game of architecture v. environment. Vs. Multiplayer. One player controls construction of buildings--a castle theme could be fun because of the diversity of structures--as well as architectural additions to bolster their stability. The second player controls the landscape, which he attempts to alter in such a way that it will disrupt and destroy the first player's construction attempts. Gaps, cliffs, moraines, rifts. Bridges, battlements, wall-kways. Lots of structural variations on those themes. There must be a limit on moves for each player--both number and kind. Each game has a pre-ordained time limit. The landscaper wins if all of the builder's buildings are destroyed. It should be 3d, with each player having ultimate control over the camera. That way, it also becomes an exercise in negotiating perspective, and in forcing your opponent to constantly shift camera angles while manipulating the buildings or landforms.
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david · . Joined: 03 Mar 2005 Posts: 170 Location: b, md

Cool ideas! I especially like the one about architecture v. landscape. Makes me want to draw... if I have time.
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kirkjerk · . Joined: 12 Apr 2006 Posts: 1227

These both have an interesting sense of upward movement.

I kind of read them as different levels of the same game...
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parkbench · . Joined: 02 Jul 2007 Posts: 145

Building off of the landscape/architecture concept, I think it would be cool if you kind of pitted it as man vs. nature, or rather, sprawl vs. nature. so you'd have two completely different playstyles; the "architectural" style based upon creating a sprawling, efficient ecumenopolis and the "natural" style based upon creating beautiful, organic environments. i'm not sure what the incentive would be for either--points, or maybe just a more fluid game experience--but i'm sure someone could work that out :p

i also think that dynamic gameplay would emerge if the two "sides" started out on different ends of a map, and converged at different parts. So at first you're just in your own world, as nature throwing up mountains and streams and hills and curvature and what have you, and on the other you're methodically building up an empire of design and what not, until you get to convergent sectors, where maybe "nature" tries to start growing a mountain beneath your city streets, or "architecture" starts trying to build a dam over your river. the fun part would be both sides trying to mitigate these setbacks.

neat.

sediment · Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2007 2:04 am Post subject:

i get a weird double-impression, looking at the second image: at the same time i see it as a structure on a cliff, poised on the verge of collapse with maybe a waterfall and maybe a crystalline cyan sky in the background, and then i also see it as a civilisation being consumed by an encroaching glacier. i personally find the latter impression more intriguing!

the most interesting thing about the first image, to me, is the backdrop - it's vague in an enticing way, and the details that i can see sort of help to construct those i can't.
i also get the idea that our snowball-fisted protagonist is creating the ice cubes that are helping him traverse the lava flow. for some reason, i think he's some sort of element-shifting character... like he can adapt to various situations by reorienting his colour palette (and thus, his abilities) to directly contrast his environment. puzzle/adventure stuff!
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Lackey · . Joined: 11 Jul 2005 Posts: 1107 Location: Canada

This looks like fun! Here are two of my drawings:

They're little.
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Harveyjames · the meteor kid Joined: 06 Jul 2006 Posts: 3636

Whoa, that second one is ace. It reminds me of a dream a had where I was driven a car around on a beach where a Lord of the Rings-style battle was raging, trying to avoid all the different people and beasts. Eventually night fell and I remember there was a giant elephant in the middle of the battle running around on fire. It was amazing.

D-A-I-S · . Joined: 26 Nov 2006 Posts: 123

my interpretations

in 00101, the player character is atop a tall structure of some sort which has liquid flowing off it, and is looking across an expanse towards a similar structure in the background. This is clearly a future destination. To me, this screen says nothing about how the game plays and everything about how the narrative is presented.

00102 reminds me of the castle in Prince of Persia: Sands of Time. If I recall correctly, we never get a clear shot of the castle as a whole, but it seems to have unusual and impractical architecture that fascinated me and made me wish I could see more of it when I plunged to my death. Reference also the footage out there of Dead Phoenix (that canceled Capcom Gamecube exclusive) and the way it has a huge castle that flight should logically allow you to access from any angle you wish.

From a memory to a concept: a traditional PC adventure game that plays on the nature of static screens by having each one be "interrupted" in some way, like this one seems to be on the lower left side. Reference the multiple stories in the second volume of DC's Doom Patrol which feature objects disappearing from the world.

I don't have anything for Lackey's first image, although it reminds me of Robot Bil.

The second image, though....I can easily tell what I want to do with that. The person riding in the car - actually, let's make it a nuclear family - is driving down the road during a trip with the lights of a city in the distance. There is no one else on the road, and it's very dark.

Suddenly, that creature appears, and the father/mother/legal guardian slams on the brakes and barely avoids plowing into the thing, which is acting as if has just woken from sleep. The family freaks out and piles out of the car to look at the docile and curious creature. As they get brave enough to go near it/touch it, they....pass out? There's a flash of light?

Somehow, they are somewhere else, a land of green fields and perhaps even blue skies. Their car is gone, but the creature remains with them. And now they are in a new world, with their only guide being this apparently only mildly intelligent animal. But they bond with that animal, and with each other, as they try and find out where they are....and if they really want to go back.

(and so we don't get too starry-eyed.....reference combo: grunty from .hack universe, colossi from SOTC, aggro from SOTC)

I wish I could draw so I could contribute more to this topic.

Harveyjames · the meteor kid Joined: 06 Jul 2006 Posts: 3636

I was thinking of a Hedgehog In The Fog sort of thing, where you drive around trying to get somewhere, unable to see anything save perhaps the cold twilight over the black treetops, and whatever your car headlights can illuminate ten feet in front of you. On your journey you get brief, terrifying snatches of things you can't explain.

sediment · Posted: Wed Dec 12, 2007 12:41 pm Post subject:

Lackey's first image strongly evokes sort of a Scudd/tin man/DBZ combo feel. Like maybe it's a pinocchio-esque story, and our plastic hero ventures into the world to get his wish granted and become a Real Boy. At least, that's what I got.

Lackey's second reminds me a lot of one specific scene in Grim Fandango... but more than that it's like something you'd find in The Mist. The creature doesn't look violent, though - just confused, and maybe a little sad. I roll for diplomacy.
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