New game idea: "the nightmare"

"The Nightmare" - a idea i came up with at 2 in the morning 

•  first person/possibly changing puzzle game that focuses around the mystery of figuring out whats going on in a nightmare/very much surreal environment


• possibly to figure out the sins of the past?
• figuring deep personal conflict?
• battling with personal emotion and understanding?
• existential crisis?
• grasping the death of someone/personal loss?
• no hidden meaning and let the player impose there own meaning?
• Inspired by
• silent hill
• eternal darkness; sanity's requiem


• portal/half life games
• amnesia games?
• the Stanley parable
• anti-chamber
• among the sleep
• jim hensons labrynth 
• i have no mouth yet i must scream
• personal insomnia

•  game-play elements include:

• change in controls from level to level but still in a way thats fair
• used to simulate lack of control/understanding and complexity of/in a nightmare
• adds a unique challenge to the player as they have to figure out how to act accordingly the changed environment

• purposefully semi-wonky physics
• is probably easier to program
• makes simple task harder than they are again adding to the surrealism

• graphics change throughout the game
• following the same trail as the controls, the changing graphics would change and be used to simulate a changing look and feel of how things are and they constant inconsistency of a nightmare
• adds a unique style that would hopefully stand out
• possible logo or symbol showing up in all different styles?

• changing views/camera angle
• again in similar purpose the the graphics and the controls this would add both challenge and complexity to the game as the player has to adjust and learn the changing rules

• purposeful "breaks" , "crashes", "freezes" , "glitches" and 4th wall breaking puzzles
• makes the player think outside the box and scares/shocks them into thinking that its over when really its just another piece of the puzzle
• see metal gear solid games and eternal darkness

• Art Style



• besides for the fact of the graphics changing throughout the game , i honestly have no idea what the main style should be. 

Currently all i have is what i have written down here but hopefully upon the full or semi-full completion of "The Radical Rider" i can work on this in the hopes of making it or at least a first draft game before i go to college in the fall.

Escape Reality Log #12

Date:3/2/16
Time Started: 4:20 pm

Time Ended: 4:40 pm

Game Title: "Escape Reality"


Software using to make game: Game Maker Studio

• I have completed the first version of the game and im waiting for my overall grade for it
• some criticism and comments from people about the game indicate that i should make the game a bit easier to navigate and overall make it easier to play.
• for now i am done working on this game and am going to move forward onto other projects specifically the top down shooter (now called "The Radical Rider") and my unnamed "ordinary" rpg 

Escape Reality Log #11

Date: 2/20/2016 - 2/25/2016
Time Started: 9:30 am 2/20/16 
(every now and then breaks where taken to sleep , eat,  prevent going insane, and on other projects.)
Time Ended: 12:30 pm 2/25/16

Game Title: "Escape Reality"


Software using to make game: Game Maker Studio

• fully completed first room and menu.
• has and uses multiple variables to change the environment as the player interacts with different things
• made a system for traveling between views fairly smoothly 
• made a fully animated intro 
• am about 70% done with second room
• only need to make computer and what happens when the player interacts with it,
• arguments and variables needed for more interactivity with objects
• after a few puzzles and exploration i am going to put future updates of this program on the back burner while i learn more in the game design field and life in general and then come back to the game when the time is right.

Escape Reality Log #10

Date: 2/12/2016

Time Started: 3:50 pm

Time Ended: 7:30 pm

Game Title: "Escape Reality"


Software using to make game: Game Maker Studio

• started making a lot of the assets to use in the game 
• started setting up the different rooms the player goes in to and interacts with objects in

Escape Reality Log #9

Date: 2/12/2016

Time Started: 12:30 pm

Time Ended: 1:25 pm

Game Title: "Escape Reality"

Software using to make game: Game Maker Studio

• so it turns out that i need 15 hours of PROGRAMMING for my RAP project not 15 hours spent working on it so it honestly seems like all ive done before is for pretty much nothing.
• on the plus side i did make some more assets to the game and what i need to do now is focus and spend the time to actually fully build the rest of the game and all of its rooms.
• i will continue to work on this game with the intention of finishing it and turning it in for whatever its worth and then continue to make the game better with each iteration

Game Developer Journal Entry #2

Mind mapping of games

• ordinary rpg?
• the reach?
• escape reality (redo?)
• the side walk cipher?
• unnamed top down shooter game

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

one of these days i am going to scan in the mind maps and note pages for all games i have logged in a idea book that has a majority of all ideas listed here in it.

Game Developers Journal Entry #1

-Potential Game Ideas-

The Radical Rider (edited 3/2/16)

• parodies/satirizes 1970's-1990's TV, Movies, and Music with various modern references as well
• main character is a robot with awesome hair
• multiple different levels focused around odd mixes of different genres
• pixelated style 
• game progressively gets faster

a few examples of concept art

Unnamed unique steam-punk/fantasy/western RPG

• uses unique way of player leveling up called "CELS" (Class Evolution Logic System)
• huge overworld
• possibly a hack-n-slash / beat-em-up ?
• dark fantasy elements 
• possibly pixelated ?
• inspired by
• Borderlands
• Bioshock
• Led Zeppelin
• Cowboy Bebop
• Undertale
• Final Fantasy
• earthbound
• final fantasy/earthbound similar combat system

 "Mouserhella"

• humorous maze / rouge-like game about a mouse/lab rat whos in hell and goes to save/join his girlfriend whos in heaven
• similar to dantes inferno .... only funny and with mice/lab rats
• gameplay gets progressively more frustrating as game goes on
• slightly (very ) inappropriate story endings

"The Reach"

• platformer where the play has to control the main characters arms along with basic movement in order to solve a variety of physics puzzles 
• art style simple but similar to films like Metropolis, 1984, and The Wall

Unnamed space western rts/tower defense game

• uses a card based system of getting units and placing towers while other units work around or with whatever cards the player chooses.
• inspired by 
• Magic the gathering
• robocalypse
• command and conquer
• advanced wars
• hearthstone?
• game is a mix of tower defense elements and rts elements

"The Sidewalk Cipher" (name work in progress)

• point and click adventure game that focuses on 4 different stories of different characters whos goal is to solve different codes to find/achieve a great prize
•  character ideas?
• private eye
• paranoid investigator
• computer hacker
• archaeologist/ Indiana Jones type of character
• focuses mostly on non-computer based decoding and linguistics
• similar to telltale games adventure games and Tim schafer games

unnamed "ordinary" old style rpg/ "Unextraordinary" (edited 3/2/16)

• game about a series of days in an ordinary characters perspective 
• wouldn't have and would parody classic rpg elements and tropes
• everything is average?....
• inspired by
• haruhi suziyama books (main character would be similar to kyon)
• punk music? 
• final fantasy
• earthbound
• character might be average at first but then become extraordinary 
• Might base the game off of a comic series im working on called "Unextraordinary" which follows a similar premise.

unnamed medieval/fantasy rpg comedy (new idea added 2/13/16)

• like the princess bride only a video game
• subtly makes fun of fantasy/medieval games but still has a solid story and interesting charachters
• fourth wall breaks?

Escape Reality Log # 8

Date: 1/29/2016

Time Started: 6:50 pm

Time Ended: 10:25 pm

Game Title: "Escape Reality"

Software using to make game: Game Maker Studio

• made a animated intro and re-designed the menu so that the style  is more along the lines of the style and look i want 
• Started working on creating the actual room that the player interacts in
• made various assets for the game along with a working menu and the start of the rooms in the game

Escape Reality Log #7

(was originally typed in Microsoft word due to lack of internet)

Escape Reality log #7

1/27/16

Time started: 7:15

time ended: 10:00

software used: Game maker studio

·         Started making 2D version of the game by making test buttons and testing different built in game maker functions

·         Successfully got basic buttons working, am going to try to work on timing, animations and more detailing to the game

·         Have buttons changing look when they are pressed and successfully working still.

·         Learned how to create and use alarms so that they are similar to javas sleep() function.

Escape Reality Log #6

Date: 1/22/2016

Time Started: 8:30 pm

Time Ended: 10:00 pm

Game Title: "Escape Reality"

Software using to make game: Game Maker Studio

• Figured out how to fix the problem with being unable to modify code by uninstalling the program, deleting the previously saved preferences in regedit, and reinstalling the program. no problems noticed.
• found fixed versions of the code i was previously using and used the fixed code.
• i still can not seem to get the 3d walls to work so starting tomorrow i am going to simplify my project into what i said previously as a 2d-pseudo 3d point and click adventure
• 
  

Escape Reality Log #5

Date: 1/14/2016

Time Started: 7:30 pm

Time Ended: 9:30 pm

Game Title: "Escape Reality"

Software using to make game: Game Maker Studio

- Returned to working on game in game maker in 3d with some new knowledge and a updated source for assitance on creation. 
- if i really can not create the game then i decided im going to make it psudo-2d similar to old point and click games and with a first person perspective

-constantly keep comign up with odd problem of whenever i try to open a action in a objects event box the window doesn't show any where on screen up but the windows tab says that the action window is open.

-due to game maker studio's errors i took a brief break and decided to learn how to make a top-down scrolling shooter game to see if perhaps the error is on my end and not the software's.

• silliness is abundant with odd scrolling things that have not been finished
• progress going along at a fairly decent rate with no errors

Escape Reality log #4

Date: 1/6/2016

Time Started: 4:45 pm

Time Ended: 6:35 pm

Game Title: "Escape Reality"

Software using to make game: Game Maker Studio

• continued reading PDF tutorial and following its lead in creating a fps. 
• still had trouble figuring out how to change the direction of the player so i requested assistance from my friend Jonathan McMeans (a junior in Computer Science at wright state university) 
• figured out how to fix the player movement so that it works for up , down, left, and right
• need to figure out how to fix  broken textures, make it so the player can look with the mouse, add items that the player can interact with, and add triggered events.