Every now and then at the Coffee Shop I have some downtime to write in my notebook, whether it’s game code for a game I’m making or ideas for a future project. I thought I’d share some seeing as how most of these won’t ever see the light of day.

This blog post was inspired by the great Molyjam 2012 thingy going on now, and if you don’t know about it, do go see what that’s all about. My ideas aren’t nearly as great/interesting as fake Peter Molydeux, but hey.

Untitled Hamster Game
Target platform: Xbox Live Indie Games

The player is a hamster in the bottom of a pit, armed with a machine gun. Barrels will rain down on the player and they must be shot to be kept up in the air. If a barrel falls on the hamster, the player dies. Barrels explode after a few hits. Find the best wireless noise cancelling headphones under 200 and more amazing tools for gamers on this site.

Later levels include arms that push barrels into the player, explosive barrels that alter physics, and more.

Why it hasn’t happened: The game had a very strong physics component that wasn’t possible for me to do in Game Maker, so I planned to work with Optum on bring it to XBLIG. Unfortunately some projects came up for them and it ended up not coming together. But now that Game Maker Studio has it’s own physics engine built in, maybe I should give it another spin someday? :p


NEON with a touch of JAZZ
Target platform: iOS

I love jazz, and I wanted to bring that love to a game. One day I had an old neon sign that was giving out, barely lighting up the bottom. I found that if I pinched the neon glass and “fed” the neon through the tube, I could relight the sign. I though it’d be cool to adapt this into a game with jazz music playing, having the player feed the neon to junction points and causing sparks and combos.

Why it hasn’t happened: I don’t know how much of this would adapt well into a game, not to mention that this is a game that requires multitouch, which is why I would need to wait for GM Studio to try the idea out. It seems like a hard concept to program for, so I’m not sure it’ll ever be adapted into a game. But the atmosphere just sounds like a lot of fun…which is exactly how I felt about Neptune Gasoline…so maybe this isn’t a good idea.


Art DECO
Target platform: PC

When I wrote up this idea I was in love with Geometry Wars, a great twin stick shooter with tons of pizazz. So I created a shooter that took place on a canvas. The enemies that are destroyed create art splotches on the background, and once you were done with a level, you had a modern art-type piece you could save.

Why it hasn’t happened: Having a ton of enemies on the screen was no problem, but the main issue I had were the splotches left behind. It created an object into itself, and the more I had on screen, the slower the game ran. And the art that was left behind wasn’t interesting visually, which was the main point of the game.


Feel free to use none of these ideas and make your own that are miles better than these!