Topic

less real world

I think the best ideas for a game like glitch are ones that are less "real world" and more "that's ridiculous in the real world, but would be SO COOL!" For instance, flying with a jet pack is on the right track, but what if you earned a skill where you could just fly? Grow wings and up you go. A little bird body with one of our current big avatar heads flying around would be pretty funny. Maybe there's a ball of water in the sky, grow wings to fly up to it, grow a blowhole and swim through the floating water. That's nowhere close to taking things as far as they could go. Cooking is nice, but DOOD! You can grow ostrich legs and run fast like in roadrunner cartoons!

That's often what I think when I see ideas, "too real world." Some things will have to be on the mundane side such as basic skills, but the rest needs to be exciting, imaginative, something to draw players forward instead of "I'm bored. I quit." Encouraging cooperation is good, too, as covered elsewhere. It also helps if the idea isn't too hard to program/animate.

Posted 3 years ago by Tingly Claus Subscriber! | Permalink

Replies

  • agree agree agree. if you want to make virtual sushi, there are plenty of places to do that already.
    Posted 3 years ago by Nanookie Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Two more thumbs-up.
    Posted 3 years ago by Eleanor Rigby Subscriber! | Permalink
  • personally, i'd rather have a jetpack than grow wings and fly, but that's just me. i don't consider jetpacks to be mundane, and don't really want the entire game to be an exercise in psychedelia.

    that said, clearly the game is too "real world" and a bit mundane. the virtual sushi comment is spot on, because that sort of thing is commonplace on the web these days and doesn't fully take advantage of glitch's visual and kinetic possibilities.

    i started a thread a while back called "Epic/Cinematic/Intense" which covers some of this ground: alpha.glitch.com/forum/gene...
    Posted 3 years ago by striatic Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Excellent rewording. ;) I tried to mix in your thread which this builds upon, but there are different ways that things can be epic and my brain wanted sleep instead of thought.
    Posted 3 years ago by Tingly Claus Subscriber! | Permalink
  • the previous thread mostly talks about techniques for presenting the world and items and activities in it in an epic way, whereas this thread seems more about making the world itself and the items an activities in it more epic regardless of presentation style.

    glitch could use both.

    tho i know there are more "less real world" things waiting in the wings already - like the "Fire Bog": glitch.com/downloads/2010-0...

    and more Epic with a capital E stuff too, tho more grounded in reality, like "The Docks": glitch.com/downloads/2010-0...
    Posted 3 years ago by striatic Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I don't know....even if Glitch generated the most nth dimensional, psychedelic sushi-making skill possible, the experience for the player is still that of consumption--in other words, I the player, am consuming your new and radical conception of virtual sushi. And while the development tools being used and the open API mean there will be an inexhaustible supply of mind blowingly "new" quests, skills and such to devour, it still makes me feel more like a pac-man than I want to. I think the social aspect of most mmorpg's mitigates this to a large extent, but it doesn't go far enough to make Glitch different, really different.

    I think what would make this game less "real world" are very small ways that let users supply their own content--really tiny though. Let developers and such be able to create entire quests or iPhone apps or whatever, but players like me who don't code need really small but significant ways to put our mark on the game--even if temporary ones.

    The best example I can come up with for this is that cat that is missing its face in Animal Crossing. At some point in the game, this cat comes up to you and it has a blank face and you get to draw a new face for it (using your stylus). If you open your game via wifi, you might get a cat with some strange face drawn by someone else, which you have to improve upon or change. It's totally random and eerie and great, but it also up-ends your sense of the game experience as one in which you are moving about in a very detailed, but bounded, universe.
    Posted 3 years ago by Nanookie Subscriber! | Permalink