Theme Voting, Round 1, ideas so far
One of the ways I like to “start early” on these jams is by brainstorming over all the possible themes. Sometimes, I can find ideas that will fit multiple themes. Here’s what I’m coming up with so far:
Road trip - Obvious choice is to make a game about driving a car down the road. Too basic - Maybe a resource management game. You have to handle handing out snacks/drink, decide how much food/gas to buy at each stop, decide if you want to waste time stopping or risk the kids having an “accident” - Alternate interpretation: making people literally trip in the road. Cheating in a race? Setting Wile E. Coyote style traps? - Driving while on drugs? Idk. - A “where in the USA is Carmen San Diego” type game, where you’re tracking someone cross county and need to investigate to find out what their next path is.
Folklore - Basically any folklore tail. A game about Leprechauns comes to mind. Just type __ folklore for any culture for ideas. - Game about scary campfire stories. Bloody Mary, etc. - Game about video game related legends, like the Atari ET landfill, or trying to steal a prototype for a cancelled Sega console - Lower down I mentioned an idea for “mirror” that involved Medusa, that could work here too.
Out of order - Trying to get a snack from a broken vending machine without breaking it - Stranded in the wilderness, you need to repair a radio or vehicle to return to civilization - You’re a broken robot that has to find replacement parts for yourself - In a car with cut breaks
Echoes - Something regarding sonar. Submarine? Bats? - A game where you have to carry a duck up a mountain to prove it’s quack does/does not have an echo - A paranormal investigator who can hear ‘echos’ caused by residual haunting
Infestation - Puzzle game, Dr Mario style, but where you’re fighting pest instead of viruses - A game were you are a pest, seeking food for the rest of your colony/next - A game where you control small nano-bots that “infest” an enemies base/ship
Become the enemy - A game about being a double agent - A game where you’re a henchman trying to overthrow your supervillain boss - Zombies, vampires, werewolves, any antagonist that can literally turn you into them - Stealth game where you’re master of disguise or shapeshifter
Read the manual - A game that literally has a PDF you have to read, if only because it has copy protection - You find alien technology but the manual is written in their language, you need to translate it. Maybe a puzzle game. - You find a coded distress message written in a users manual, decipher it to liberate a slave game developer
Shelter - Shelter yourself with a shield from falling objects, use it to bash enemies that run at you from the side - trapped in the wilderness, you need to find/build shelter before freezing - the pest game from “infestation”, but with an added mechanic of hiding areas from cat or exterminator
Outnumbered - Simple action game where baddies constantly come at you - A competition to solve math questions quickly against an opponent. - a “Risk” style board game where numbers of units in a specific battle can affect odds
One tool, many purposes - platformer where a tool (ie a hammer) is used to break/fix things but also a weapon - the shield game in “shelter” could work here. Maybe the shield is also a sled when you stand on it
Clockwork - The “broken robot” idea for “out of order” might work here too - find the correct missing part in a machine to return functionality - platform inside giant machine, need to walk along gears, etc
Make connections - The double agent idea from “Become the enemy” could work, “connections” as in assets you’re investigating - Running around facility connecting wires to restore power - A game about finding/providing cell phone coverage in a spotty area - A game where you’re cupid, have to shoot the right people when they’re close to their soulmate, so people aren’t falling in love with the wrong person
Parasite - A game about being a mosquito - A stealth game about stealing coworkers food from fridge
Different every time - A game with randomly generated anything
Garden - the pest game in “infestation” could work, but your grabbing food from a garden - Plants vs zombies type?f - Gardenscapes type puzzle game?
Mirror - a fast-paced games where an enemy ‘hacker’ will invert your vertical and/or horizontal controls every few seconds. - a game involving vampires, and how mirrors expose them - a game where you’re hunting Medusa. You can look at her reflection but not her directly.
Out of bounds - A sports game with boundaries. Dodgeball, maybe. - Building off that, Sumo wrestling, or another game where you can win by forcing your enemy out of an area. - A game where the level gets smaller and smaller
I’m really digging “Folklore”, as it’s incredibly open but can still have a variety of stories we know, we’ve never heard before, or we’re hearing with a new twist.
Play it here: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/53/satellite-delivery
