Genres in reverse
by Mark Storer · in Game Design and Creative Issues · 03/12/2006 (2:33 pm) · 4 replies
There have been a couple good games out there that took a typical genre and turned it upside down.
Dungeon Keeper: You build the dungeon and the 'heroes' try to break in and steal your treasure.
Evil Genuis: Same general idea, but 60s spy movies (James Bond & Austin Powers in equal measure) instead of fantasy RPGs. It had larger goals outside 'build your base and defeat the attacking heroes'... all kinds of plotting and scheming out in the world.
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What other typical games can you turn upside down like that?
Side-scrolling shooter? Build fleets of little ships,fixed defenses, and upgrade yourself (the boss) to thwart the 'hero' in their attempt to save their punny little world (or whatever). A fun addition might be to make this networkable and allow players to assault one anothers' base/cave/mothership/thingy. Sounds like a job for TORQUE... although the custom base building would be tricky.
Side-scrolling beat-em-ups would all be Very Similar. Kung Fu, Bad Dudes, Double Dragon, TMNT. Build more and better Dojos to train your hordes of feebes with which to bury Bruce Lee (or Bruce Leroy). They're not so big on traps in that genre... (come to think of it, Kung Fu had quite a few).
Space Invaders/Galaga/Gyruss/Tempest/Robotron/etc would be very similar.
Gauntlet! Woo hoo... only now you're making Dungeon Keeper again.
Missle command? Eh... hey. Purchase various rounds (dumbfire, side-wider-y, MIRV, etc), buy up your rate of fire, and make it networkable again. One player can be the defender, the other the attacker. You'd have to make the defender upgradable as well... and then you're kinda playing RAMPART, or Scorched Earth/worms/etc. You could have them take turns attacking/defending.
Pac Man? Not really, no. Not gonna work out with Asteroids or Centipede either. Defender? Could be.
BattleZone? Could work.
--Mark
Dungeon Keeper: You build the dungeon and the 'heroes' try to break in and steal your treasure.
Evil Genuis: Same general idea, but 60s spy movies (James Bond & Austin Powers in equal measure) instead of fantasy RPGs. It had larger goals outside 'build your base and defeat the attacking heroes'... all kinds of plotting and scheming out in the world.
-----
What other typical games can you turn upside down like that?
Side-scrolling shooter? Build fleets of little ships,fixed defenses, and upgrade yourself (the boss) to thwart the 'hero' in their attempt to save their punny little world (or whatever). A fun addition might be to make this networkable and allow players to assault one anothers' base/cave/mothership/thingy. Sounds like a job for TORQUE... although the custom base building would be tricky.
Side-scrolling beat-em-ups would all be Very Similar. Kung Fu, Bad Dudes, Double Dragon, TMNT. Build more and better Dojos to train your hordes of feebes with which to bury Bruce Lee (or Bruce Leroy). They're not so big on traps in that genre... (come to think of it, Kung Fu had quite a few).
Space Invaders/Galaga/Gyruss/Tempest/Robotron/etc would be very similar.
Gauntlet! Woo hoo... only now you're making Dungeon Keeper again.
Missle command? Eh... hey. Purchase various rounds (dumbfire, side-wider-y, MIRV, etc), buy up your rate of fire, and make it networkable again. One player can be the defender, the other the attacker. You'd have to make the defender upgradable as well... and then you're kinda playing RAMPART, or Scorched Earth/worms/etc. You could have them take turns attacking/defending.
Pac Man? Not really, no. Not gonna work out with Asteroids or Centipede either. Defender? Could be.
BattleZone? Could work.
--Mark
#2
I like this idea a *lot* =D
03/13/2006 (3:47 pm)
Quote:
Side-scrolling shooter? Build fleets of little ships,fixed defenses, and upgrade yourself (the boss) to thwart the 'hero' in their attempt to save their punny little world (or whatever). A fun addition might be to make this networkable and allow players to assault one anothers' base/cave/mothership/thingy. Sounds like a job for TORQUE... although the custom base building would be tricky.
I like this idea a *lot* =D
#3
A sidescroller like that would make a great T2D (err.. TGB) game... No custom base issues there. Moving buildings around in Torque isn't easy... Aren't they parsed out into the worlds BSP tree? Great for collisions, not so great for customization. But that problem's been solved around here a few times I believe.
Genre conventions:
Progressively tougher defenders
Boss monster at the end
Powerups
Waves of defending ships
The attacker is nimble with heavy firepower, but none to durable.
The Fun Factor: Sitting back and watching someone fight their way through your base doesn't sound like a good time. An RTS?
TA style building, with 'energy' as your only resource: There's no limit on how much total energy is available, but you only create it at a certain rate.
So lets see. You'd need some mechanism to prevent people from placing all their defences and ships and such in one place, building a nigh-invulnerable (like The Tick!) defense. Some kind of power distribution limits ought to cover that one. There's only X amount of power available in a given area to supply all your units there, and that amount gets lower the farther you are from the generator/boss/player.
The player/boss should only be able to build a very limited set of units on their own... I'm thinking a construction unit and the player's own weapons & defenses (bullet sprayers and beams and moving barriers and so on).
Peon ships should be dirt cheap... and quite disposable. Selecting formations and movement paths is something the player should be able to do on the fly... give them something to do during an assault.
Dropping powerups... hmm. Adding a droppable powerup to a ship or building should make that unit cheaper. A tough bullet-spraying ship is going to cost you, unless it coughs up some goodies when it goes. Call it improperly shielded (or self-destructed) technology that the enemy can capture and use... whatever backstory excuse you need to stick to genre canon.
The assault: A bullet dodging AI should be possible. I suppose you chould cheat a bit and give the attacking ship some durability (though that really doesn't follow the genre)... or send multiple ships. I can recall at least one coin-op game that let two people play in a co-op mode. Hardly traditional though. Sending waves of attacking ships just wouldn't be right.
I have the sudden urge to go buy TGB... but I've still got that other game languishing on my HD (see profile), begging for some attention. Hmph.
--Mark
03/13/2006 (10:01 pm)
I've had that idea rattling around in my head for a while now. Shortly after Dungeon Keeper came out IIRC.A sidescroller like that would make a great T2D (err.. TGB) game... No custom base issues there. Moving buildings around in Torque isn't easy... Aren't they parsed out into the worlds BSP tree? Great for collisions, not so great for customization. But that problem's been solved around here a few times I believe.
Genre conventions:
Progressively tougher defenders
Boss monster at the end
Powerups
Waves of defending ships
The attacker is nimble with heavy firepower, but none to durable.
The Fun Factor: Sitting back and watching someone fight their way through your base doesn't sound like a good time. An RTS?
TA style building, with 'energy' as your only resource: There's no limit on how much total energy is available, but you only create it at a certain rate.
So lets see. You'd need some mechanism to prevent people from placing all their defences and ships and such in one place, building a nigh-invulnerable (like The Tick!) defense. Some kind of power distribution limits ought to cover that one. There's only X amount of power available in a given area to supply all your units there, and that amount gets lower the farther you are from the generator/boss/player.
The player/boss should only be able to build a very limited set of units on their own... I'm thinking a construction unit and the player's own weapons & defenses (bullet sprayers and beams and moving barriers and so on).
Peon ships should be dirt cheap... and quite disposable. Selecting formations and movement paths is something the player should be able to do on the fly... give them something to do during an assault.
Dropping powerups... hmm. Adding a droppable powerup to a ship or building should make that unit cheaper. A tough bullet-spraying ship is going to cost you, unless it coughs up some goodies when it goes. Call it improperly shielded (or self-destructed) technology that the enemy can capture and use... whatever backstory excuse you need to stick to genre canon.
The assault: A bullet dodging AI should be possible. I suppose you chould cheat a bit and give the attacking ship some durability (though that really doesn't follow the genre)... or send multiple ships. I can recall at least one coin-op game that let two people play in a co-op mode. Hardly traditional though. Sending waves of attacking ships just wouldn't be right.
I have the sudden urge to go buy TGB... but I've still got that other game languishing on my HD (see profile), begging for some attention. Hmph.
--Mark
#4
So here's the idea. Each person starts out with a ship and a level and a certain amount of money. They can buy better weapons and defenses with the cash, or they can upgrade their ships. When you log into a server, it gives you a list of available levels you can fly, all of them created by other users. If you fly a mission and fail, the owner gets a cash bonus, and if you fly a mission and succeed, you get a cash bonus.
So there are two ways to make money, as a pilot or as a defender. You can spend the money on better level defenses or on upgrading your ship. For the defenders I think it would be cool if all the attempts on their levels were recorded as well, so that they could see where the holes in their defenses were.
03/17/2006 (12:30 pm)
I actually had an idea exactly like that, only one step beyond it. Sort of a MMOSSS (Massively Multiplayer Side Scrolling Shooter). Though not really massive. It's just that I'm pretty sure you need the MMO before anyone even notices your game these days.So here's the idea. Each person starts out with a ship and a level and a certain amount of money. They can buy better weapons and defenses with the cash, or they can upgrade their ships. When you log into a server, it gives you a list of available levels you can fly, all of them created by other users. If you fly a mission and fail, the owner gets a cash bonus, and if you fly a mission and succeed, you get a cash bonus.
So there are two ways to make money, as a pilot or as a defender. You can spend the money on better level defenses or on upgrading your ship. For the defenders I think it would be cool if all the attempts on their levels were recorded as well, so that they could see where the holes in their defenses were.
Torque Owner Jared Coliadis