Game Idea

Will Bowen

1/25/13                                            Game Idea

The game I am going to design is a top-down perspective action RPG. The protagonist of the game will be a child. The flow of the game will be traveling through a world map, entering towns to gather information, and entering “dungeons” to gather new items. It will be set in modern times and the “dungeons” will be a product of the child’s imagination. The basic gameplay will revolve around the child’s power of imagination, which can be upgraded through leveling up and finding specific items. As new imaginary skills are learned new areas will become accessible. The child will gain the ability of switching from the real world to the imaginary world. For example: In the real world the child might find a fork. They can then switch to the imaginary world and the fork will become a skeleton key allowing them to pass through a previously blocked door. Enemies and abilities will also change between the two worlds. A squirrel becomes a rabid wolf and a normal punch becomes a Haduken… Or something like that.

It is still just a rough idea but basically it is an action adventure RPG type game that revolves around imagination and exploration of two very different worlds.

I, Videogame Survey

1. Videogames emerged from the culture of the "Cold War" - what does Henry Jenkins from MIT compare the period to in terms of a famous board game?

Battleship because its a war simulation

2. Who was the inventor of the first Video game according to the documentary?

What was the name of the game?

William Higginbotham 1958

Tennis for Two for oscilloscope

3. Steve Russell is credited with the first true computer-based videogame (in terms of its use with the PDP100 mainframe computer) with SPACEWAR - what popular science fiction book series also influenced him?

Lensman by Scott Smith

4. What innovation did Steve Russell's SPACEWAR introduce in terms of input hardware?

Joystick-1961

5. When the USA was aflame with internal conflict in the 1960s and 1970s, what new home entertainment system let consumers finally control what was being seen on the home television?

Who was its inventor/developer?

Ralph Baer created the Magnavox Odyssey aka APB

6. PONG emerged out of the counterculture spirit of the early 1970s - its natural home was what type of entertainment setting?

Who does Nolan Bushnell say were generally best at playing the game?

The bar is its natural setting and Women are generally the best at it.

7. "Space Invaders" emerged in the late 1970s as the first game from Japan.

How did the production team intensify the emotion of the game via the use of the four-note in-game theme?

The more invaders you hit the faster the tempo of the notes gets.

8. Steve Moulder reflects that the first arcade games tended to result in the player's defeat and that 'defeatism' in turn reflected the view by the designers that war itself is defeatist. Has this view changed since that time? Do today's latest games still convey this sense? Why? Why not? (use your own words)

Games don't really convey this sense anymore. Games usually have a final goal and multiple objectives that often lead to achievements, trophies or similar things.

9. Have you ever played any of the games shown in this the first episode of "I, Videogame"? What was your memory of playing it? Where were you, when was it?

I played a table cabinet version of pac-man in my grandfathers living room years ago. I've played pong and space invaders many times in different arcades and remakes on different systems.