Brainstorming quick pixel-based game ideas

Next week at the Global Game Jam, if it happens to fit with the theme and other folks I want to work with are into it, I was thinking I might like to build a game based on my PixelSurface asset. This will serve as good QA for that code, and maybe inspire other people to do something cool with it.

The problem is, though I have lots of ideas for epic games that would take years of work to build, I rather suck at coming up with small game ideas that could be built in a couple of days.

So, I’m throwing it out to the clever & creative folks here, hoping we can riff off of each other’s ideas and generate something that might (if stars align) work out for next week.

Here are some to get the ball rolling:

  • Dig Dug clone: dig tunnels and inflate monsters. Unoriginal, but fun.
  • Worms clone: guide a heavily-armed annelid army to wreak destruction on the other team (and the environment). Also unoriginal but fun.
  • Anthill: a sim game focused on a side view of an ant nest. Like just the underground part of SimAnt. Could also be done with naked mole-rats, though I shudder to think what people searching for that might stumble upon instead.
  • Sandbox-ish puzzle game: lots of different kinds of pixels that interact in interesting ways: dirt + water = mud, water + seed = plant, plants grow when exposed to sun, etc. Then define some goal, and let the player use these tools to achieve it.
  • Sandbox-ish action game: as above, but instead of a puzzler, it’s a platformer. So you have an avatar that runs/jumps around the level, but he can also interact with these different kinds of pixels in the environment in various ways… starting to not sound so “small” though.
  • Ice Queen: play a character who is totally not Elsa but who has snow/ice powers; by clicking and dragging on the game field, you cause snow/ice to appear, which then falls, flows, and freezes as these things should. Use these powers to… um… somebody help me out here.
  • Sand Castle TD: you construct walls and towers (EDIT: and trenches!) of sand, and try to defend against an onslaught of crabs and the ocean waves at the same time. Not sure if this should be top-down or side view.
  • Snarf & Barf: your avatar can eat pixels from the environment, and then regurgitate them elsewhere, thus changing the landscape (while holding the total number of pixels roughly constant). Not sure what the point would be, but doesn’t the premise sound fun?
  • Paint Battle: sort of a 2D version of Splatoon? Run around in an arena painting floors & walls your color; you can hide or zoom quickly through your color, but get bogged down in opponent colors.
  • Circuit Bugs: you live in a Tron-like world where you have to stay on the circuit paths… or maybe you can make new paths, but the bugs/glitches/whatever (enemies) stay on the paths, and pursue you. Perhaps by changing the paths, you can direct the bugs into the garbage collector?

OK, I’m spent for the moment. Can anybody improve on these ideas?

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  • Lemmings clone
  • Can’t remember the name but it was a randomly generated landscape with 2 players in a fixed turret somewhere apart from each other. They took it in turns angling their gun & setting the velocity & then shooting. The landscape was destructible so big chunks of land disappeared each shot, & you just had to try & kill the enemy.
  • Taking circuit bugs idea, sort of like a tower defence but the things coming are a mix of friendly & enemy, or perhaps just different colours you need to sort, & you need to program the computer circuit to open & close gates to direct each object to the right location without them hitting each other.
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Scorched Earth.

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Well done. Either you have a good memory or your google skills surpass mine by a large margin :slight_smile:

It was one of my favorite games from my days in the DOS era. :stuck_out_tongue:

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Of course! How could I forget this classic puzzler? One of my favorites back in the day. I wonder how to put a new spin on it, though?

Oh yeah, the whole genre of artillery games! I never played this particular one, but I certainly played others like it. Good idea. (And thank you @Ryiah for the assist.)

Right… a sorting mechanic, that’s an interesting idea. I have always loved the idea of a video game based on cellular automata, perhaps one like Wireworld. But actually making this work as a game has eluded me.

Lemmings - maybe there is one specific character that has to reach a goal, a safe area to redirect the others, & a maximum # of deaths? So instead of getting a set # all to the same end you need to sort them as well?

Sorting game could possibly be educational? Something about the human body directing cells around the circulatory system?

Or sorting plant nutrients to fight disease & direct growth in specific areas of the plant to maintain balance (roots:leaves/canopy), structural strength (maybe some branches need thickening to prevent stress & breakage), nutrient search (root reach, also providing structural strength & stability to the plant), sunlight levels (maintaining energy input to keep things moving, perhaps big canopy ( plant size is increased speed of cellular activity but you end up with runaway growth causing structural weakness?).

Maybe that’s a bit much for 48hrs?

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To put your system through the wringer, how about people in destructible armor so that they now have to deal with defending using whatever they have left.

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& they can spend time picking up & putting armour back on that was dropped (so they could end up with mismatched armour) but it takes time & leaves them vulnerable. 4 person/single screen multiplayer, points are awarded for each piece of armour they are wearing when the time is up & ratio’d based on how many matching pieces they are wearing multiplied by the number of pieces they knock off other players with a modifier for the number of players they hit (to incentivise them to attack each other as much as possible instead of hiding until the end of the battle).

Thanks guys, those are some fun ideas! The destructible-armor thing sounds vaguely familiar… a quick Google search didn’t turn up whatever is desperately trying to claw its way to the surface of my mind, but I did discover that apparently destructible clothing is a thing.

Here’s something that started to gel while I was out running errands just now: Goblin Pit, an action sim game. You control a small tribe of goblins as they dig into the side of a mountain. Rather than a long epic sim game, this would be quick: each level is 12 months of game time, 6 minutes of real time. If you survive, you go on to the next level (maybe taking one of your goblins along with you, and otherwise starting out with a new handful of random goblins). Goblins are ornery folk that prefer drinking and sleeping to working, but will grudgingly follow orders to dig, chop, plant, harvest, and make new goblins (which mature in 3 months, thus you could get in about 4 generations in a level). Hazards to your goblins would include fire, cave-ins, monsters (both from outside and from any dark caves you stumble upon), hunger, and thirst. Your goblins could also turn on each other if things start to get desperate. If all of your goblins die before the end of the level, it’s game over, and each level gets progressively harder (due to harsher climate, more monsters, earthquakes, etc.). Beyond pure survival, you would also be scoring points based on births, digging up gems, and how many goblins you have at the end of each level.

Um, yeah… a bit ambitious for a 48-hour GGJ, I know. But sounds like fun, don’t you think?

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Sounds good. Hopefully the monsters are the proven worst monsters of all… us. :slight_smile:

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I feel like naked mole rats need more exploration.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3WdTXS1xd0

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