The Blog of Pyron

Comic - Fight Night

2008-10-21T14:14:00.003-04:00

I decided to try my hand at making a short comic. Take a look:

New Game Idea - Zombie Hunter

2008-10-07T14:07:00.002-04:00

So, unlike the previous games I have been posting, I thought I would take a swing at an Alternate Reality Game (or ARG for short).

Premise
In this world, there are three types of people - Zombies, Hunters, and Humans. They all live together in the world, but they can't tell who is who. The Hunters are trying to get the Zombies, the Zombies are trying to get the Humans, and the Humans are trying to become Hunters.

Setup
3+ players, each wearing a strip of red tape on on of their shoes to indicate they are playing. 1 player starts out as a Zombie, 1 player starts out as a Hunter, and the rest are Humans.

Gameplay
Since no one can tell each other apart, players must confront each other (recognizable thanks to the red tape). When two players confront each other, a modified game of Paper-Scissors-Rock (PSR) occurs. Instead of the original three hand signs, Zombie Hunter uses the following three for game play:

'Gun' (two fingers out, thumb down, other hand hold the bottom of the first hand) - This is the sign of the Hunter

'Claws' (both hands out in the form of a grab) - This is the sign of the Zombie

'Fists' (both hands in the form of fists, meeting in front of the chest) - This is the sign of the Human

Similar to PSR, the structure for wining is as follows:

Gun beats Claws, but loses to Fists

Claws beats Fists, but loses to Gun

Fists beats Gun, but loses to Claws

To explain this a little better, if a Hunter beats a Zombie, the Zombie becomes Human again. If a Zombie beats a Human, the Human becomes a Zombie. If a Human beats a Hunter, then that Human becomes a Hunter.

Game play typically lasts a day. At the end of the day, players tally up how many Zombies, Humans, and Hunters there are. If there are no Humans left, the Zombies win. If there are no Zombies left, the Hunters win. If there are no Hunters left, the Humans win. If one group hasn't been eliminated completely yet, then the group with the most players wins.

Copyright © 2008 Aaron Kahn

New Game Idea - Operation Procreate

2008-09-30T14:06:00.004-04:00

Working Title
Operation Procreate

Genre
Marathon - racing and puzzle solving

Players
2+

Premise
In a distant area of space, there exists a small planet called Ovaria that is home to the extremely rare mineral Chromox. This mineral is used throughout the galaxy to make new beings, for every species in the galaxy uses Chromox in their gene splicing and genetic manipulation techniques. After selecting their species, players must race through an asteroid field to Ovaria, take a drop ship down to the planet's surface, and then build a refinery to harvest the all important Chromax first.

Features

Race against your opponents to gather the resources first as you maneuver through three challenging terrains

Customize your ships and refineries with the resources you get to give you the edge each race

New Game Idea - DreamCatcher

2008-09-23T14:39:00.003-04:00

Working Title
DreamCatcher

Genre
Time Killer

Number of Players
1+

Premise
In the world of Dreamz, a large hole has suddenly appeared in the sky. As a DreamCatcher, it is your goal to help keep all of the Dreamz within the world and not floating out into space.

Features

Control a DreamCatcher and catch the escaping Dreamz by capturing them in your net

The speed of the escaping Dreamz is as fast as you want them

Capture more Dreamz to move up to the next level. Levels can get more challenging, so players have the option of staying where they are or moving up

Multiple players can play at the same time, and either compete against each other or work together, but it's completely optional

IU Memories Pitch

2008-09-23T14:38:00.001-04:00

Someone came to me with the idea to take people's stories from IU and collect them in a digital format. While the idea wasn't very interesting to me, the possibilities of the interface were. The way I see the interface being set up is as follows. Similar to google maps, there is a very detailed map of IU's campus, complete with roads, buildings, and walking paths. From here, each area will be subdivided. For example, let's look at the Forest dormitory. If a user were to click on the image of Forest, they would see a list of stories that had to do with Forest in general, and then a division of the floors. Since we're using Forest, we could click on one of the towers there (there are two - A and B), and then click on floor 3 to see stories about living on the 3rd floor of the B tower. There would also be links going from one of those stories to all of the different locations that are mentioned in the story. Suppose the story was about a Computer Science major who lived on Forest B-3 - there would be links from the Forest->B->3 to Lindley Hall->LH035.

Copyright © 2008 Aaron Kahn

New Game Idea - Kiss & Kill

2008-09-16T14:21:00.003-04:00

Working Title
Kiss & Kill

Genre
3rd Person Shooter w/ Comic Mischief

Number of Players
1-4

Premise
After falling into an ancient portal, 4 people (hence forth known as Red, Blue, Green, and Pink) find themselves in a dark and mystical place filled with demons and creatures that have never been seen before. However, the real problem is that the demons are out for human blood. They will stun first by blowing a kiss, and then come in for the kill by sucking out the soul of the victim. The 4 brave souls must make their way through this hellhole and find a way back to their own place before they succumb to the dreaded "kiss of death".

Features

Multiplayer Support - fight with your friends against the demon hordes

Make your way through over 20 levels of demon onslaughts to find the portal back home

Experience a rich storyline, full of comic mischief and sarcasm that will have you cracking up for days

New Game Idea - PathX

2008-09-11T13:51:00.005-04:00

Working Title
PathX

Genre
Card Game, but easily adaptable to a computer

Number of Players
1+

Concept
This game is intended to be a simple card game, played with 1 deck of standard playing cards per player.

Setup
Each player will have a draw deck (the entire deck of playing cards, minus all face cards). From their deck, they will draw 5 cards to start the game.

Gameplay
Players will each have a deck of cards, and their goal is to make it to the center squares by creating a path. A path is created by placing tiles down from the player's start position to the goal. The number of tiles a player can place down, and in what direction, are determined by the numerical value (1-10) and the suit of the card. The directional rules are as follows:

Hearts - Up direction only

Spades - Down direction only

Diamonds - Right direction only

Clubs - Left direction only

On each turn, a player can use one of the cards to create X amount of tiles in Y direction. Players don't have to play a card on their turn if they don't want to or are unable to, but will draw a new card each time. The first player to get to the goal first is the winner.

Expansions
To make the game more challenging, there are several additional rules that can be used:

Place obstacles on the map that prohibit certain paths from being made

Use the face cards (Jack, Queen, King) to disrupt other player's paths. The rules for these cards are as follows:
- Jacks can break 1 tile, causing a minor disruption in the path.
- Queens can break 1 line of tiles, in any direction.
- Kings can break all paths in either the vertical or horizontal directions.
- Additionally, Jacks and Queens can be recycled back into the draw deck (like the rest of the cards after playing them), but Kings are single use only.

Place restrictions as to what cards can be played. For example, for a faster game, use only cards 8-10. For a longer game, only use cards 1-3.

New Game Idea - ClownCar

2008-09-09T14:38:00.004-04:00

Working Title
ClownCar

Genre
Puzzle solving

Premise
When the Demon Circus is all done for the night, all of the clowns must get back into the car so they can drive home and rest up for the next show.

Features

After each night, the circus becomes more successful. This means gaining more clowns, which makes it harder to fit all of them into the cars available. This is how the game becomes more challenging at each level.

Multiplayer support - distract your friends from loading up their car first so you can beat them home.

Content

This game will have a lot of similar elements to Tetris. To clarify, it will be how the clowns are positioned. You will be able to bend the clowns into roughly 10 shapes in order to fit them in the car.

The shape of the clowns may vary on different levels, so smaller clowns may appear early on in the game, while larger clowns appear later on. This also makes the game more challenging because it's easier to fit a bunch of smaller clowns in the a big car, but not as easy to fit a bunch of larger clowns in a smaller car.

The faster you are able to complete a level may determine how successful the circus was. If you finish with more time, the clowns are better rested for the next show. This means that the circus could make more money at the next show, which would allow them to buy a bigger car. The converse is also true.

Possible extension of concept: After loading the car, the player must control the car and maneuver it through a maze, and then unload the car. This might make the game more challenging, but some might like for the Taxi-like style.

New Game Idea - The Puppeteer: Master of Puppets

2008-09-04T01:35:00.004-04:00

Working Title
The Puppeteer: Master of Puppets

Genre
RPG with multiplayer support

Premise
Working alone in his workshop, the fabled puppeteer Arthur is visited by a monstrous creature named Zargaroth. Zargaroth steals all of the puppeteer’s puppets to create a massive army of warriors to take over the world. Zargaroth was clumsy though – as he was escaping with Arthur’s puppets, he kept dropping them as he went. The puppets broke and were scattered across the world. Zargaroth ended up dropping 100 puppets out of the 1000 that he stole.

Unknown to Zargaroth, Arthur was left with one sole intact puppet – a special puppet that Arthur was working on in secret. This particular puppet was created from an extremely old and magical wood, and was brought to life by an ancient incantation. Named Spike, this sole puppet is Arthur’s only hope of rescuing his stolen puppets and stopping Zargaroth from destroying the world.

Features

Control both Arthur and Spike simultaneously and separately as you navigate them through a vast environment containing vicious monsters, nasty obstacles, and mind-blowing puzzles.

Customize Arthur and Spike as much as you want – the more puppet parts you recover, the stronger Arthur and Spike get.

Multiplayer support – work with your friends in Co-Op mode to save the world, or battle them in Versus mode.

Content

100 puppets have been broken and scattered throughout the world. As Arthur journeys through the world, he must recover the broken puppet parts with Spike’s help.

The puppet pieces can be used to improve Spike and Arthur’s abilities,
stats, and skills.

As progress through the game is made, the parts will become harder and
harder to obtain. The main goal is to have harder challenges to players as
the game progresses, so new players can jump right in but old players do
not get bored.

When certain pieces are recovered, Arthur can remake a puppet. This
puppet then becomes a usable character. This will help to make the
challenges even harder as the game progresses.

Guarding these puppet pieces are the evil foot soldiers of Zargaroth – a despicable seemingly endless army of goblins, ghouls, gremlins, and other demonic creatures.

Though Spike has been brought to life, he can connect to and disconnect from the puppet strings. Arthur can maneuver him (and vice versa) through obstacles. In order to get through obstacles, this idea of cooperation is essential.

When controlling more than one character, a method similar to Legend of Zelda: 4 Swords will be used. The character that is not being actively controlled will be waiting defensively

Welcome

2008-09-03T19:26:00.003-04:00

Hello. My name is Aaron. I am currently working on an internship with FlatRedBall, helping to make improvements to the tool kits and the engine itself. My main backgrounds lie in programming and animation, but I'm also trying my hand in game design. I will be using this space to highlight games, animations, 3D modeling, and programs that I'm working on for FlatRedBall and other opportunities.

Besides working with FlatRedBall, I am also currently working on a custom map for Unreal Tournament 3 with some friends back home in Chicago. Upon its completion, I'll post some screenshots and links here as well.

Additionally, I'm working on a game right now that based off an old simple game, but combines a 2D fighting element to it. I'll be posting screenshots as well as more progress is made.

Oh - and before I forget, I created a small demo with the FlatRedBall game engine for the internship. Once the game has been posted to the FlatRedBall site, I will post links here as well.

Thanks.

-A