See linked picture below:

I thought a game involving a river journey would work very nicely with the flowing lines and soft colours in this style of art.

They player plays as a fisherman travelling down the local network of rivers on his bamboo raft. As the player moves along the river, the path behind fades into mist and the path in front gradually appears like it is being drawn with brush strokes.

There are small schools of fish in the water and the player’s goal is catch as many as possible before the day ends. The player is accompanied by his trained cormorants which help him catch the fish.

The player can only do a few actions. Navigate around ont he river (to find schools of fish). Release the cormorants (in order to catch fish). Call the cormorants back (in order to move to a different location).

A few possible challenges:

- Once you disturb the fish they run away, so to get the best catch you should position yourself in a way to corner the fish against the river banks and herd they with your cormorants.

- Currents, river reeds, other natural features can also make a difference to one’s strategies. (E.g. Reeds slow your cormorants down and offer hiding places to fish, so it’s best to herd fish into the open before releasing the birds to catch them).

- River demons occasionally appear. They may steal your fish and harm your cormorants or may be benevolent and will direct you to good fishing areas.

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Mountains and rivers

I’m imagining this as an iPhone or DS game. (Or some other platform that would let the player draw easily.)

The player starts off as an entry level artist. The object of the game is ultimately to rise up the ranks of squiggle art society!

You do this by gaining reputation points:

- For producing squiggles that other artists can complete.

- For turning the squiggles of others into works of art.

- For reviewing/rating the squiggles and art of others.

- For getting good reviews on your squiggles or your completed art.

As you gain points you can then use them to:

- Buy better tools to work with. (You start off with pencil’s and erasor. You can potentially buy anything from air brushes to stamps to digital filters).

- Obtain backgrounds and items to decorate your personal profile page.

- Obtain various titles for yourself (“Apprentice graffiti artist”, “procrastinator extraodinaire”)

There are a number of things related to self expressiong that may be enjoyable for a player:

- Building up your collection of squiggles and completed works which contributes your personal profile.

- Choosing what tools you want to invest in so that you can establish your own style.

- Commenting and rating the works of others builds your reputation as a squiggle art critic. (So if they are artists themselves they can still participate)

- Many of the titles, tools, etc. encourage a culture of humour within the game (so those who are insecure about their artistic abilities can feel  more comfortable).

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The main appeal seems to be the discovery element of the game and so the replayability really just depends on how many novel paths there are… (Note, if the content is only slightly different for each action then the player will get bored very quickly…)

These games really depend on having good quality content and the other mechanics seem to be so simple that they blur the line between being a game and a piece of art.

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Doesn’t follow the story particularly closely but hopefully the theme/fantasy is there. You’re a pig building your house (or a fortress! In my mind it looks somewhat like tetris but with the opposite objective…)

You take materials from your surrounding area and push them towards your building. You can vary the structure you build, certain formations will be more stable than others. The materials available also vary. Straw is most abundant, followed by sticks then bricks which are rarer. Straw is also the most flimsy building material while bricks are the sturdiest.

Once in a while the wolf comes along and you have to run into your house to hide. The wolf will huff and puff to blow the house down. Parts of your house will be damaged depending on how stable it is. If the house is still standing after the attack the wolf will go away for a while. You survive to see another day and return to reinforcing your castle.

As time progresses, the wolf gets stronger and perhaps gets some friends. (Possibly there could be cameo appearances by other fairytale characters like little Red Riding Hood and her wolf. If your house is big enough Red will run into your house to hide and then there will be two wolves after you from then on!)

The game ends when the wolf blows your house down and eats you and your friends

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Facebook bidding game. All players start off with a certain number of bidding points.

Owner – Is in possession of something of value (in this case, a good piece of gossip or an incriminating photo). They put a tantalizing blurb of what they have to offer on the facebook game.

Bidders – can use their points to place a bid on the item. They are blind to what other players are bidding but they can see how many other people have made a bid and can also psych each other out on a msg board.

Once satisfied with an offer, the owner will release the information (only) to the winning bidder and in return they will receive the points. The owner can then use these acquired points to make bids on the items that other players have posted up on the game.

I’m thinking this might be a fun way for friends to keep in touch with each other… Can be played asynchronously over several days if necessary. It also encourages those friends that never tell you anything to participate… If you don’t give up some gossip then you don’t get any in return…

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Each player has a little piece of the picture and must speculate on what the rest of the picture is like based on what is revealed by the other players. The interesting part is the variety of ways information can be conveyed between players.

Any player can convey the truth or a lie. They can do this explicity and directly or use reverse psychology. Much of the communication is also non-verbal. Facial expressions and personal idiosyncrasies can significantly alter the outcome of a game. Hence, there is plenty of opportunity for misinterperetation and the resulting uncertainty is a great contributor to the drama aesthetic that is so central to the game.

The role playing factor also adds an enjoyable fantasy element to the game. Being a social deviant is not usually something one can get away too frequently in daily life. Here they get a chance to go all out and play the part.

Strategy

The disparate roles of citizen, mafia, policeman, etc. allow certain assumptions to be made about their expected behaviour. After that it’s usually a matter of figuring out how many layers of false clues a player has put into their behaviour. Obviously this is no easy task, but it would presumably be less difficult when you’re playing with people you know well.

Mafia online

The lack of non-verbal cues may be a problem. It makes it quite hard to be subtle. Also the delayed timing allows one more time to decide on how to present onerself. This can make deceiving others much easier (maybe this will upset the balance). Another problem is that online group conversations are difficult to monitor and can get very confusing.

Perhaps to make it easier to follow an online group discussion you could have an avatar for each of the players and underneath each avatar is a conversation area. You accuse/interrogate other people in each of their conversation areas and defend yourself in your own.

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The statement “if some aspect of your vision is incompatible with entertaining the player, you should modify or eliminate it.” seems questionable. This is mainly because it is quite difficult to know for sure if an aspect of your vision is incompatible with entertaining the player.

Simply asking a player for feedback and taking on their every suggestion word for word will not necessarily give you the best result. I think ultimately the designer must sift through the play test results and/or feedback and from that decide what and how problems should be solved. This is to help the game maintain its focus and integrity as a whole rather than becoming a mish-mash of suggestions pieced together to please the player.

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You start off by making a simple boat out of paper and test it on the water.

The game progresses in levels. In each level you compete against other boats to see how fast yours travels or how long it can last in rough waters. As you progress through the game the waters start getting rougher and extra challenges are added (such as being required to carry a load). The game will advance until your boat fails the test and sinks. Then you are sent back to the beginning to modify your boat.

Modifcations involve choosing a different shapes, materials, novelty parts, etc. You can gain new materials/shapes/parts by winning competitions. (The materials will react in a fairly realistic way with the water in terms of buoyancy and sturdiness).

The fun of the game would mainly come from the fun of testing out your modifications and watching your creation try to keep afloat in turbulent water.

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All players upload interesting photos that they’ve taken recently of themselves, their families or other things of common interest. Note, they can’t access each others photos traight away. Each uploaded photo is turned into a jigsaw puzzle.

The main task in the game involves solving these jigsaw puzzles. Once a jigsaw has been successfully pieced together, the photo is then added to the game’s gallery of solved puzzles and can then be downloaded/printed etc. (effectively the reward for solving the puzzle is obtaining a complete photo of their loved ones).

The rationale behind the simplicity of the game is that a lot of mum’s are often quite overworked and stressed out. They like to unwind at the end of a day (or during a tea break) with something immersive but not too challenging. A lot of mums are also interested in keeping up with what’s going on with friends and family (especially those who live interstate or overseas). Combining photo sharing with a mild relaxing puzzle game might be something that many mum’s will enjoy.

Oops… Forgot the link Original Link