“My basic goal in voting was, if I could think of many games with that theme right off the bat, then vote down.” – anonymous chatter

There aren’t many, but there are a few villainous games. Quick rundown on what’s been done in the Canon of Villainous Gamery:

• Dungeon Keeper – construct a dungeon that can sustain the spelunkery of know-nothing do-gooders (also, see: Overlord)
• Ghost Master – haunt a house, creep out the inhabitants
• Bioware games – Choose the jerk choice and earn evil points, perchance to shoot force lightning or earn Assassin’s Guild faction points
• Evil Genius – Sierra’s quirky mastermind simulator. Play Dr. Evil.
• Tropico – City building as a dictator
• Syndicate/Syndicate Wars – The carry out the missions of amoral agents, as assigned by evil corporations
• Jaws Unleashed – Play as Jaws.
• Command and Conquer NOD disc: RTS from Kane’s point of view.

Some of these are twists on standard genres–and the villainy is in the premise–while others have you doing uniquely villainous thing.

I think our challenge is to think of games with villainy in their bones. Pong could be a villainous game if victory ends with a Mortal Kombat fatality…but that’s too easy. Can we make a game where we empathize with the good guys even as we smite them to reach the next level?

Let’s see if I can top last LD’s effort, my evolving music beat game Evophonia.