Lost Again

On hidsight finishing my dissertation and making a Game Chef entry all during the same month does not equal solid planning. So I’ll have to forfeit the one month deadline too.

This does not mean that I will forfeit the whole challenge, no no. There is still the one year deadline to go. Although I have to say that at this point the one year deadline seems a bit unwieldy to me; I would still benefit from a more rapid delivery cycle at this point. Like the one we had in September .

I think I’ll go for the one month milestone

Choices, choices. There have been some not so tough choices to make about how to use my time lately and unfortunately my Game Chef cooking time has suffered as a result.

There are ideas marinating in my head but no time as of yet to write them down. However, I’ve decided to sticking with this. I’ll have at least the last week of September to focus more on my game.

I’ll leave everyone with a list of features my game will have:

• One session storylines that span one race
• Each session starts with the beginning of the race and ends with the podium scene
• flashback scenes amidst the racing action to provide context, deepen relationships between the racers (and provide for intrigue)
• flashback scenes provide mechanical consequences to the events of the race
• racing mechanics (driving, shooting) are fuelled with the novel dice-rolling for accuracy mechanic (which I’ll name caltrops)
• The caltrops mechanic provides wacky, unexpected results and twists to the action

This Kind of Racing Action It Will Provide

One made-up example of what kind of play I want my racing game to produce.

Boomer is falling behind HaXor666 who is starting his second to final lap and about to cruise on to the win in the Taipei Datun Volcano Grand Prix.

Boomer still has one batch of Incinerator heat-seeking micro-missiles left. Although within the rules, targeting other racer’s car with these is considered bad sportsmanship and winning by sheer force (and money) rather than by skill.

Does Boomer launch those missiles?

Let’s up the stakes a bit more:

Boomer is an also-ran driver on his last championship circuit. This is probably one of his last chances to win a race.

HaXor666 is Boomer’s protege in the same racing team. The bond between them is solid; Boomer has been showing HaXor666 the ropes for close to 5 years now.

The effect of these missiles is unpredictable. Boomer has to fire all of his missiles to be sure of preventing HaXor666 from winning, but he can accidentally cause much more damage that way too.

What does Boomer do? Why?

I have parts of the game structure figured out, but I’m gonna stop and write a few of these before going on to gain a better focus into things.

Episode Format

Wow. The poll is split in the middle. I’m still thinking racing (the kind of Mad Max / Car Wars -esque racing with machine guns, missiles and mines) over space ships. But I might change my mind any moment, you’ll never know.

What I’m thinking is one big race (or battle ) per session. A strong episode format consisting of:

• an Intro (what do we race for),
• Build-Up (where schemes are made and bets are laid),
• Race (where winners and losers emerge) and
• Epilogue (where we explore what this meant for the characters).

BTW, I think racing as a theme makes me eligible for the Lombardi trophy. Most of the others I think I will forgo.

Idea Brainstorm

So I’ve based my Game Chef entry on a wacky mechanic idea which involves throwing dice for accuracy. Now there’s only the rest to take care of.

Two themes I’ve thought about are racing (the Car Wars kind) and gigantic space ship battles. I guess I couldn’t go wrong with either. Both of them also fit in well with the intrigue theme, I think: There’s the adrenaline-inducing action inherent in both of the themes, but when you mix cheap shots, betrayal, sabotage and so on, you have more depth.

Now the question is which one to choose. Which of those themes would fit better with the idea of throwing handfuls of dice for accuracy?

Let’s try a poll:

Hello world!

So, the Game Chef 2009 is here. And so am I, it seems.

There was a moment of hesitation before starting this blog. You see, I just completed my entry for my own game creation challenge last night.

But hey, that was a fitting warm-up for the annual Game Chef. This is the first actual Game Chef I’ve taken part in, although I was a participant of the Little Game Chef last Spring.

I already have this wicked idea for a tactile dice mechanic including the fleur-de-lis (and maybe something else too) so I think I’m kinda set. One week, two weeks, a month, I don’t really know yet. Gotta figure out the optimal life/chef ratio in the following days.

Anyway, soon I’ll have a kick ass entertaining game to offer. That is my goal, entertainment, for this one. I’ve done enough of the artsy fartsy innovative or experimental stuff this year (To Elysion (pdf) and the recent At the Station (to be publicised soon)).