Game Pitch

[VVL]

So, I'm at a camp for budding game designers this week. Me and my team are working on a pitch for industry professionals on our game idea, an action-platformer with a rather unique game mechanic. So, before I typed up my whole prototype pitch to you guys, I just want to know whether this falls within the bounds of forum rules first, and whether you'd be at all interested.

 

[mitsoxfan]

Just say "We're making a Tie Fighter sequel" and you should get an "A".

I find, though, that games today use 'unique game mechanics' as a crutch, specifically FPS type games. It's like they can't rely on their stories, so they have to add in something nobody else has done, even if it's a mechanic that's not necessary to the story or plot.

Take Bioshock, was the 'choices' the user made really a necessity? No. Prey and it's gravitational mechanic? Cool, yes, necessary, no. Fracture, Haze, the upcoming Wolfenstein remake, etc, etc, etc. All just a showcase for a single 'unique' mechanic.

Now, a game like Portal did it right. The mechanic was the gameplay. As long as you do it like that, then I think you are OK.

 

[Alex_P]

Just say "We're making a Tie Fighter sequel" and you should get an "A".

So, another Freespace?

-- Alex

 

[VVL]

Now, a game like Portal did it right. The mechanic was the gameplay. As long as you do it like that, then I think you are OK.

That's exactly like what we're doing. I'll give you the basic rundown of the core gameplay (keep in mind that it's a very light-hearted game) -

You are Erik von Elektroschtein, a mad scientist who, in a lab accident, had his consciousness sucked into his latest invention, the Magnetosphere. More on that later, if you want it. But the way you play is that you must assimilate your body from your environment and pieces from your enemies. We haven't really gotten combat down yet, but boss battles will be a puzzle, of course. Weak enemies can be dealt with by propelling out pieces of your body. So on, so forth.

So basically, you're this magnet-ball that creates a body from the objects in the environment. Kinda like first-person Katamari, but a bit different. And more like such.

EDIT: Also, the enemies are all robot/cyborg-type things, to keep it at a T-rating. And to take "equipment" off of their bodies.

 

[HSIAMetalKing]

I think I get a rough picture of the game in my head, and it sounds like a neat idea.

Who's your target audience? Also, what's the name of the game?

 

[VVL]

We don't have a name yet, but theoretically it'll go out on the 360, PC, and PS3. It'll be toward whatever gaming crowd misses games like Jak and Daxter or Metal Arms: Glitch in the System.

Here's a history of ol' Elektroschtein, for you to get a better idea of him. It also gives you an idea of the setting.

342 years ago, Erik was an infamous mad scientist who terrorized his corner of the world. He stayed quiet enough to keep from bothering the world council, and all their investigators came back with good reports of the area... and perhaps having left a limb behind them. Either way, he was left mostly alone to do whatever he wished, and whatever he wished, he did. However, when the world council decided to evacuate Earth, its failing resources, and its useless robots, Erik's invitation was conveniently left out of the mail. About an hour before the launch of the colony ships, Erik was tinkering with his favorite new gadget - the Discombobulatrix. When he finally made it do something, it happened to suck his consciousness out of his body and into another of his pet projects - the Magnetosphere. Suitably discombobulated, he found a way to fashion a body for himself out of some scrap metal, and then proceeded to query his computer. Doing so, he found that months ago, he had created a seemingly useless gadget that he labelled as the Recombobulator. However, as he couldn't make it do anything, he left it in the "useless gadgets" heap on the other end of his lair. And thusly he commanded the computer to deliver his unconscious body to the heap, and proceeded to make his way through his lair to the Recombobulator, learning how to control the Magnetosphere on the way. When he finally reached the Recombobulator after destroying millions of dollars of mad-scientist type technology (including his favorite cyborg minion, RoboSchtein), he decided to take a moment to rest, giving the colony ship above his junk heap just enough time to blast off. The resulting cave-in destroyed the Recombobulator, his body, and buried him in the Magnetosphere for 342 years. Over the centuries, he grew even more insane than he was, and eventually completed a theory that put all the robots to blame for his imprisonment. He fueled his anger for all those years, until eventually some Miner-Bots dug his ball up. Stunned by being released from his prison, he remained silent and still until he was brought to the trash heap, where he was dumped. He formed a powerful but fragile body from the scrap, most of it ruins of his lair, and proceeded to decimate the unsuspecting Miner-Bot encampment. From there, he proceeded on his revenge rampage against the robot-controlled Earth.

 

[VVL]

Well, hopefully this will be kept alive until tomorrow. By then, I'll write y'all a full little pitch and have some more details for you.

By the way, we call ourselves Action Squid Studios.

ACTION SQUUUUUID!

 

[Alex_P]

Now, a game like Portal did it right. The mechanic was the gameplay. As long as you do it like that, then I think you are OK.

That's exactly like what we're doing. I'll give you the basic rundown of the core gameplay (keep in mind that it's a very light-hearted game) -

You are Erik von Elektroschtein, a mad scientist who, in a lab accident, had his consciousness sucked into his latest invention, the Magnetosphere. More on that later, if you want it. But the way you play is that you must assimilate your body from your environment and pieces from your enemies. We haven't really gotten combat down yet, but boss battles will be a puzzle, of course. Weak enemies can be dealt with by propelling out pieces of your body. So on, so forth.

So basically, you're this magnet-ball that creates a body from the objects in the environment. Kinda like first-person Katamari, but a bit different. And more like such.

EDIT: Also, the enemies are all robot/cyborg-type things, to keep it at a T-rating. And to take "equipment" off of their bodies.

Switch out magnets and robots for pure, twisted flesh and you've got a brilliant horror game, too.

-- Alex

 

[Bulletinmybrain]

We don't have a name yet, but theoretically it'll go out on the 360, PC, and PS3. It'll be toward whatever gaming crowd misses games like Jak and Daxter or Metal Arms: Glitch in the System.

Here's a history of ol' Elektroschtein, for you to get a better idea of him. It also gives you an idea of the setting.

342 years ago, Erik was an infamous mad scientist who terrorized his corner of the world. He stayed quiet enough to keep from bothering the world council, and all their investigators came back with good reports of the area... and perhaps having left a limb behind them. Either way, he was left mostly alone to do whatever he wished, and whatever he wished, he did. However, when the world council decided to evacuate Earth, its failing resources, and its useless robots, Erik's invitation was conveniently left out of the mail. About an hour before the launch of the colony ships, Erik was tinkering with his favorite new gadget - the Discombobulatrix. When he finally made it do something, it happened to suck his consciousness out of his body and into another of his pet projects - the Magnetosphere. Suitably discombobulated, he found a way to fashion a body for himself out of some scrap metal, and then proceeded to query his computer. Doing so, he found that months ago, he had created a seemingly useless gadget that he labelled as the Recombobulator. However, as he couldn't make it do anything, he left it in the "useless gadgets" heap on the other end of his lair. And thusly he commanded the computer to deliver his unconscious body to the heap, and proceeded to make his way through his lair to the Recombobulator, learning how to control the Magnetosphere on the way. When he finally reached the Recombobulator after destroying millions of dollars of mad-scientist type technology (including his favorite cyborg minion, RoboSchtein), he decided to take a moment to rest, giving the colony ship above his junk heap just enough time to blast off. The resulting cave-in destroyed the Recombobulator, his body, and buried him in the Magnetosphere for 342 years. Over the centuries, he grew even more insane than he was, and eventually completed a theory that put all the robots to blame for his imprisonment. He fueled his anger for all those years, until eventually some Miner-Bots dug his ball up. Stunned by being released from his prison, he remained silent and still until he was brought to the trash heap, where he was dumped. He formed a powerful but fragile body from the scrap, most of it ruins of his lair, and proceeded to decimate the unsuspecting Miner-Bot encampment. From there, he proceeded on his revenge rampage against the robot-controlled Earth.

I miss Jak and Daxter..

 

[teknoarcanist]

I think I heard you say at some point it was first-person; IMO this would sound better as a really hectic third person action/adventure game, with some kind of procedural engine so that what you assimilate = your ability to attack. If you magnetize a lamp-post onto your hand/arm, the limb should swing slow and awkwardly. If you magnetized them onto your legs, they would be gigantic stilts.
Maybe you could unlock new basic forms along the way, ie biped, quadraped, serpent, etc, that would determine the rough shape and how nearby objects would be applied. Ball mode would be pretty much exactly like katamari, snake would lay them end-to-end, biped would make four crude limbs, etc.
Controls for something that like should be really simple and contextual, to channel the fun of the engine without being gimmicky. Each face (or shoulder) button could be a limb. Hold circle to continue magnetizing objects to your right arm. PRESS circle to attack with it. I'd enjoy a game like this a lot more without a life bar or the ability to die; getting hit would just knock objects off of you.
As far as enemies, it would be interesting if later versions (geared up especially to combat you) could assemble themselves randomly from pieces strew about; so the battle is half trying to kill them, half trying to get pieces before they do.
side note: I'd find it a lot more interesting if, instead of just pulling a gun onto the end of your arm, guns flew on as randomly as everything else. Imagine hitting the shoot button and seeing all the weapons attach to you suddenly start firing in every direction :O
And that's my 2 cents. Ideally this would play like a combination of Hulk and Katamari.

The basic concept sounds really interesting, though. I like the idea of a main character with no default body; any game that encourages free-form creativity is a win in my book.

 

[VVL]

I think I heard you say at some point it was first-person; IMO this would sound better as a really hectic third person action/adventure game, with some kind of procedural engine so that what you assimilate = your ability to attack. If you magnetize a lamp-post onto your hand/arm, the limb should swing slow and awkwardly. If you magnetized them onto your legs, they would be gigantic stilts.
Maybe you could unlock new basic forms along the way, ie biped, quadraped, serpent, etc, that would determine the rough shape and how nearby objects would be applied. Ball mode would be pretty much exactly like katamari, snake would lay them end-to-end, biped would make four crude limbs, etc.
Controls for something that like should be really simple and contextual, to channel the fun of the engine without being gimmicky. Each face (or shoulder) button could be a limb. Hold circle to continue magnetizing objects to your right arm. PRESS circle to attack with it. I'd enjoy a game like this a lot more without a life bar or the ability to die; getting hit would just knock objects off of you.
As far as enemies, it would be interesting if later versions (geared up especially to combat you) could assemble themselves randomly from pieces strew about; so the battle is half trying to kill them, half trying to get pieces before they do.
side note: I'd find it a lot more interesting if, instead of just pulling a gun onto the end of your arm, guns flew on as randomly as everything else. Imagine hitting the shoot button and seeing all the weapons attach to you suddenly start firing in every direction :O
And that's my 2 cents. Ideally this would play like a combination of Hulk and Katamari.

The basic concept sounds really interesting, though. I like the idea of a main character with no default body; any game that encourages free-form creativity is a win in my book.

We had already decided on third-person. You heard wrong. (I would put a happy emoticon here to offset the harshness, but I'm far too awesome for that) Basically, everything you said is already in the design, except for some details in movement, and only you have magnetic powers.

 

[Theo Samaritan]

|Its a pitch. That means you have to sell the idea in the first sentence. Think carefully, choose wisely.

I've won and lost work due to the first sentence of a pitch.

Example (I work in film) I opened a pitch up once with a question. VERY BAD PLAN.

Then when I had chance to pitch it again to a different company, I opened with "It is a story of how one insignificant man views the world, through his own eyes."

It's going to be shown on television as a one-off special documentary come september \o/

 

[Danny Ocean]

This reminds me of the character from a cartoon called "Ben 10" that can jump into machines and manipulate them into whatever he wants.

 

[teknoarcanist]

and only you have magnetic powers.

Yeah, I meant I picture these little robots scavenging pieces on the fly and welding them onto themselves or something.

 

[VVL]

|Its a pitch. That means you have to sell the idea in the first sentence. Think carefully, choose wisely.

I've won and lost work due to the first sentence of a pitch.

Example (I work in film) I opened a pitch up once with a question. VERY BAD PLAN.

Then when I had chance to pitch it again to a different company, I opened with "It is a story of how one insignificant man views the world, through his own eyes."

It's going to be shown on television as a one-off special documentary come september \o/

Thanks for the tip, man.

And here it comes, gamers and... gamers! The Premise! (very long and contains spoilers involving Gearhead and Smarts that the player won't know at this point in the game)

The year is 2300 A.D., and the world is ruled by the Terran Federation. Robots are expensive to build, but seen everywhere. The Earth is running out of natural resources, but the robots are the future - self-producing units, the key to replenishing the Earth's resources. But, as the Federation is finding out, the robots are a waste of time, and they have already used up too many resources. And so the Terran Federation Council decides on a shocking course - to evacuate the planet. Now, Dr. Erik von Elektroschtein is a mad scientist hidden away in his caverns in the mountain ranges of the United States. He remains under the radar of the busy Terran Federation Council, building his robots and creating his machines, all products of his insane mind. That mind, however, is also genius. His unique robots are far smarter, far more useful, and totally self-sufficient. Of course, no-one knows about him. He is on no census, and the only access to his laboratory was sealed off long ago. And so he works and works on his battle robots and especially on his pet projects - the Magnetosphere and the Discombobulatrix. He doesn't know what they do yet, but he'll find out.

Erik has two main robot helpers in his laboratory, named Smarts and Gearhead. Smarts is a loyal minion of Erik, and mostly keeps him organized enough to keep the lab running. Gearhead, however, is Erik's brute-force helper, and is also a bully. He is always trying to foment Smarts and the main computer to help him revolt against Erik. Anyway, on the morning of May 23, 2300, Erik is playing with his Magnetosphere, adding on some final touches of vanity. As he finishes that, he sets down the sphere on a platform underneath the Discombobulatrix, and getting down to really finding out what the giant, confusing machine does. While tinkering, Gearhead flips the switch to the machine as Erik climbs out. Standing under the Discombobulatrix, he leans against the platform and rests for a bit, giving the machine time to warm up - at which point his consciousness is sucked out of his body and into the Magnetosphere. His consciousness blacks out for a couple of hours until it becomes used to the complex machinery in the sphere, and Elektroschtein awakens. Here the player begins to take control.

Erik puzzles out what happened to him and eventually decides to consult his computer to supplement his memory. Apparently, a device he created some months ago, the Recombobulator, used the same basic machinery as the Discombobulatrix. It, having been unable to be activated, was left in the junk heap on the other side of his lair. He tells the computer to deliver his body there (he doesn't take this path because his magnetics would decidedly screw with the machinery) and then proceeds to find his way out of the main lab area and through the lair. Along the way, he learns how to control the Magnetosphere, how to affect his environment, how to fight, and how to access Power Terminals. Along the way, he takes a side path down into his Vault for a special piece of machinery, and there he takes a look at all of his various Combat Robo models, only one of which is in use currently - RoboSchtein. He uses the special piece from the Vault to defeat RoboSchtein and gain access to the junk heap, where he takes a moment to rest after his adventuring. As it so happens, the landing pad for the colony ship that will be evacuating the citizens of the area is just above his junk heap room, and the launch sequence caves in the room.

Elektroschtein is stuck in the rubble of his laboratory for 342 years, during which the left-behind robots label themselves the Leftovers and begin to organize the Earth once again. Also, during the years, Gearhead has plenty of time to convert poor Smarts to his way of thinking. (the main computer was ruined in the cave-in) 42 years after the Launch, the Leftovers find a protuding piece of machinery from Elektroschtein's destroyed lair. They dig up the machinery, which gives them access to the ruins of Elektroschtein's lab. The machinery immediately benefits the Leftovers, and of course this is their salvation. Over two hundred years, the main excavations take place, and many important things happen to Leftover culture. Using the artificial intelligence from Elektroschtein's main computer and the help of the two surviving robots (Gearhead and Smarts), they create the leaders of their modern world. These leaders split the world into four main factions - the Robot Society of America, the Clockwork Conglomerate, the Mechanarian Union, and the Cybernetic Society of Asia. The leader of the RSA is President Robo 3.0, who is Smarts under a new name to lead the RSA. Gearhead styles himself as Commander, and is of course always at the side of President Robo 3.0, making sure that he retains his hatred toward humankind.

The other large changes in the new world included the transformation of the environment. The Launch caused almost everything on Earth to be scattered, caved-in, destroyed, what have you. Over two-hundred and forty-two years, the plants of Earth grew over the ruins of machinery except in the areas of Leftover civilization, which are pristine, perfect, and absolutely metallic. The oceans were diluted with oil and pollution so much that they now resemble chunky seas of oil. Over the next fifty years, the Leftovers (with the help of Commander Gearhead) broke into the dusty Vault of Elektroschtein's "Combat Robo" suits. Gearhead transferred his consciousness into the "Action Squid" model, Elektroschtein's favorite design. The rest of the designs were put into use by Commander Gearhead for the RSA army.

By now, the ruins of Elektroschtein's lair were almost completely plundered - the only area that had not been broken into was the caved-in junk heap area. President Robo 3.0 allowed a small team of mining robots to remain at the site and excavate, just in case there was anything useful. After another fifty years, the unsuspecting Miner-Robos dug up the rust and dirt-encrusted Magnetosphere, with Elektroschtein's consciousness still contained inside. Over the centuries and due to some damage caused by the cave-in, Elektroschtein grew even more insane and began theorizing and thinking, and eventually coming to blame the robots for his imprisonment in both the sphere and underground. Anyway, the Magnetosphere is released from the Earth, and the player begins the true game. From here, he goes on a rampage through the camp, taking his first steps toward revenge and learning of the history of the last 342 years.

From here, Elektroschtein goes forward and lays waste to the robot world. He systemically picks apart the RSA, city by city, technology by technology, until he reaches Commander Gearhead and President Robo 3.0. The bosses of each area are close variations of the Combat Robo designs from his lab.
...(to be continued)...