Being the boatman of the river Styx isn't as easy as one would think.

Many have the misconception that you just flick Charon a coin, and off you go, to the land of the dead. But what they don't think about, is the river Styx itself. Often depicted as being full of the swimming souls of those yet to transcend, this could not be further from the truth. Those who can not afford the fee are destined to roam the shores of the river Styx for a century before being admitted free passage aboard Charons vessel.

Those than CAN afford it are paying top dollar for a service that is quick, efficient and pleasant. Charons vessel would have cheesy slogans on signs saying things like:

"We take pride in serving our customers safely."

"Safety, quality, professionalism."

Charon is a courier of souls, and takes his job very seriously.

You play as Charon, the fabled boatman of the river Styx, and you goal is to ferry customers across the treacherous waters of the river of the dead. The catch: It ain't easy. It's not just a big flat puddle of black water. It's a subterranean ocean teeming with terrors.

Charon pushes the boat along with a magical pole that no matter the depth can always touch the bottom. Whilst steering the vessel, you must also navigate dangerous objects, such as rocks, dilapidated buildings from by-gone eras, skeletons from huge creatures, etc.

Whilst steering, using a lamp as a light source, you must also draw your blade to take on terrible creatures who's forms are not constrained by the laws of the world of the living. Hellish depth-dwelling beings will often leap out of the river and attempt to eat your passengers. You'll have to fight them off or dodge them in order to get your cargo to safety. For each person eaten/killed you lose gold, and gold earns you gear for your vessel, and better kit for fighting demons. Barter with fallen heroes to get the gear that kept them alive as long as they did.


More submissions by ConradTurzynski for MDS GDV110 - 'One Game a Day' Assignment

Maori mythology has yet to be harnessed in a video-game, and really anywhere else. Only people who live in New Zealand seem to know any of these amazing traditional tales, and even then, the majority of people probably only know about Maui and the Sun. As a young lad, I had an awesome book, which put many of the myths into graphic novel form. I think that a game based around these myths could be very powerful, so long as it is done in a respectful, and tasteful way.

This game would revolve around a person, an artist, who lives and works in the poorer part of auckland city. Upon being drawn towards a strange jade figurine at a market under a bridge late at night, they begin to find strange passages of writing and drawing strewn about their home. Each morning there are more and more of these, and all of the writing is in Te Reo, which our protagonist can now understand for some reason.

As it turns out, the jade figurine has housed an ancient god for a very long time. This god (An invented god, maybe somehow related to Hine-nui-te-po, the goddess of death) was one of the offspring of Rangi and Papa. Alternatively, this ancient evil entity could be Maui, as he died within Hine-nui-te-po, and perhaps he became a deity of death.

Maui seeks to return to the land of the living, after being trapped within Hine-nui-te-po for eons. He uses the idol to send disgusting black creatures with the faces of tikis to our world, and it is up to you to discover the secrets behind the jade figurine, where it came form and how to destroy it (You have to return it to a lake that is presided over by an ancient Taniwha, and the returning of the stone is all about utu). You must evade the creatures, whilst making your way to the northern tip of New Zealand to where the gateway to the afterlife is, among other deeds. All of this happens in a terrorized version of modern New Zealand, and driving would be an important aspect of the game.


https://www.google.co.nz/search?q=maui&rlz=1C1ASUM_enNZ541NZ541&es_sm=93&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAWoVChMI7ZDh9LPrxwIVx92mCh0CMgrN&biw=1536&bih=764#tbm=isch&q=maui+mythology&imgrc=b_7yMzspABCn9M%3A

Metroid-Mania, Darksouls, S.T.A.L.K.E.R, GTA inspired.

This game is a really dark, gritty, sci-fi game set on a recently discovered planet. The planet is absolutely covered in alien tech, and has drawn spacers from near and far to trawl it's surface and depths to find these valuable things. There are port/colony and mining towns dotted across the fronteer, and these towns would act as player hubs. These hubs would be places where players can buy, repair, trade and sell items to eachother (There would be little to no NPCs, and they would only be robots) as well as form companies to travel together, set up mining posts (which generate passive money, and rquire defence from other players such as auto turrets and walls) and set up gangs. Gangs would be comprised of people that would, instead of earning an honest living, attack and jump other players and their mining set ups to steal their stuff. You can place bounties on enemies if you see them commit a crime, which would lead to a reward if you can catch them.

The game would feature very deep and dark caves, mines and dilapidated cities. The subterranean areas would have the best loot, but also the scariest enemies.

Character armour would be extremely varied and highly customizable, all in the 1940's space comic aesthetic.

http://www.efanzines.com/EK/eI27/Picture-19-Satellite.jpg

LCB is a small, black miniature Dachshund who lives on an idyllic section is Nor-Western Auckland. This game is built around mechanics that a small dog would have if they were a game character. Your companion is a large, black, mutt by the name of poppie, and a large portion of the game would be beating poppie I. Races around the property. She is a lot bigger, and a lot faster than you, so, like in classic racing games, you'll have to learn the lay of the land in order to find the shortcuts you'll need to win the races. You'll also have to chase rats around the inside of the house, and these would require you to learn the interiors of the house, which would be filled with valuable objects. You can drink poppies drool to quench your thirst. At the end of every night, you must do a perimeter check of the house, and repel any invaders (which could be all sorts of things).


http://imgs.photo4me.com/4055/236337_m.Jpeg

You are the barkeep to the bar in Valhalla. An Einherjar sent to be the gateway to the dead Norsemans beer. The beer is Milked from a goat, and kegged, and it's up to you divy out the beer from the relative sadety of the bar. The people being served have all died with swords in their hands, and they're thirsty and this combination often leads to forceful entry to the bar; something you can not let happen. There are two core mechanics in this game: pouring and perceiving beer, and fighting off (and sometimes killing, don't worry they just pop up again, they're already dead) feisty Norse spirits. With one hand, pour consistent and steady drafts with nice, crisp, thick head, and deliver it to the masses, with the other, clash swords with some of the greatest fighters early Europe has ever known. The bar is wide, and different beers are located Ali g it, so you'll have to move up and down the bar as you fight and pour beer.


http://res.cloudinary.com/ratebeer/image/upload/w_400,c_limit,q_80,d_brew_def.jpg/brew_8153.jpg

After playing GTA online recently, as well as Planetside 2, I've decided that the two games would birth a beautiful child. In Planetside 2 there are four different biomes on four different continents, essentially, snow, mountains, desert and swamp. Having a huge sprawling map like in GTA, split up into these four biomes would be awesome as I'm sick of waiting in lobbies for games. If you could add GTA style cities, people and vehicle driving systems to these areas, but with the Planetside Sci-fi aesthetic, I think you'd have a really interesting setting for an open world game. With an emphasis on driving and team play, and more of an emphasis on fps/3rd person combat like in Planetside (I.e, all of the customizable weapons and abilities) players would have an amazing online playground, with a unique style. The game would still feature a three faction set up, encouraging player driven sabotage, stealth and all out war between the three factions, with missions being set up by a council of players from each faction on the server.


http://i.imgur.com/ZQLXG6y.jpg

A game about slavery

With an Abe's Oddysee vibe, you play as a mega corporation who has been sent to harvest all of the materials of a new planet. Meat, stone, wood, oil, everything. The problem is, you've been sent with nothing. Aside from the rust bucket you've flown through space in, and basic supplies, you haven't got a lot to work with. The corporation has sent you on a suicide mission, essentially to either get rid of you, or to gain massive profit from their tiny investment in your mission; either way it's win/win for them. If you do succeed however, you'll have a firm standing in the company.

When you land on the planet, you notice that it's teeming with many different species of creatures, and that each one of these creatures seems to be very good at one job. You realise that by enslaving these creatures, you could utilize them to harvest the planet. This is where the game takes a Pikmin turn, except these aliens are not your friends. You enslave the loacal creatures to do your work for oyu. You'll have to contend with them being killed by other predatory aliens, and even rebellions.

http://img01.deviantart.net/9423/i/2011/252/d/a/spore_heroes_by_koshechkazlatovlaska-d49bi2a.png

This game is a side-scroller, retro 2D platformer. The premise is that you're a guy, called Module-Man! and after escaping a generic science laboratory, you go on to try to destroy the evil science and corporations that created you. You were commissioned to end the conflicts in Syria and the Middle-east, and to disable any nuclear weaponry they may have made. You are a cyborg, and you body has many compartments, and each of these compartments can be fitted with a different power supply to give your various limbs different skills and attributes. Nuclear gives your feet explosive rockets, where electric gives them a hovering magnetic tesla-style effect. Your weapons are primarily your arms, and you can do almost anything you want. You can help the Syrian rebels defeat ISIS, you can start killing Americans and flying after drones, your politics are your own to pursue as you fly around collecting technology to power yourself with.

http://img13.deviantart.net/07e5/i/2014/316/6/c/megaman_reborn_by_kofab-d865vrn.jpg

The battle of the Somme has broken out, and the Allies and Axis are clashing over a desolate no-mans-land. Surely, no one could ever call such an inhospitable place home.

Except, you, a crashed alien, has been living right in the center for weeks, while awaiting rescue. The coordinates for your retrieval have already been sent, so you aren't going to move an inch. With the Allies and the Germans attacking constantly from both sides, you'll have to fend off relentless waves of humans until your rescuers arrive. It's a good thing that human tech is so archaic in comparison to yours, however; your ship is terribly damaged, along with most of your gear. You've set up a small base/ship/bunker/perieter, and you'll have to divert power from some areas to power others. This game is a 'CoD Zombies' style survivor, except you're out in the open, have access to a large array of weapons from extremely close to extremely long range, and you have to manage a base.You have no time for these humans petty conflicts, and they all look the same to you.

http://www.respect-authority.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/bunker2.jpg

http://www.respect-authority.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/bunker2.jpg

In this game, you play as a brash young samurai, trying to control his own body, which is riddles with demons.

A lot of the game-play revolves around you trying to control your own body, as you simultaneously try to destroy your enemies. As you fight, your moves would begin to act strangely, and you would have to adjust your controls on the fly.

Once the beacon of a proud family, now you seek to control you body, which is now fighting to destroy everything you love. Key fights could involve instances in which as you fight, there is an enemy and an ally, and you must control your character in order not to kill the one you care about.

Aiming your ranged attack would also be very difficult, but once loosed, you would be able to adjust the trajectory of your weapons as they move through the air.

One piece, Samurai Champloo and Princess Mononoke are all inspirations.

http://pre10.deviantart.net/2e52/th/pre/i/2012/079/e/0/demon_samurai_by_jamesjiaxu-d4tegy5.jpg

Akin in many ways to games like Sim City and the Tycoon genre of games, 'land developer' has you at the helm of a corporate entity ushering in the new, sudden and totally unnecessary development of a massive mall complex in a really nice part of a small but rich island nation. The town has none of the infrastructure required to house it's exploding population, and so it is up to you to build houses, roads and develop the shopping centre, all while avoiding the wrath of the local inhabitants. Throw ethics out of the world Dow as you strive for maximum monetary gain at all costs. See what you can get away with for the highest score. Your ultimate goal is to complete the shopping complex whilst expending the lowest amount of time and money possible, whilst also smothering any chance of the locals to prevent production.


http://assets.sbnation.com/assets/2732241/simcity-screenshot_1280.jpg

In this game, you begin life as a humble skeleton.

You wake up deep in the center of the earth as a skeleton, because as we all know, when you die, regardless of how you lived your life, you biodegrade all the way down to the core of the earth, where you emerge as a skeleton. As your skeleton passes through the crust, and then the various layers of the earth, it picks up nutrients and is regenerated to peak physical skeleton condition, so everyone begins on a level playing field. The center of the earth is, obviously, hollow, and down here, the core teems with skeletons, all attempting to first build up to the roof of the core, and then dig their way through all the way back to the surface. The game would play a lot like Minecraft and Arc, in the sense that your primary skill is to work your arse off to recover materials in order to build structures to further your goals. The difference is that as you dig, lift, run about and build, your skeleton will build muscle. If you do a lot of heavy lifting, your skeletons legs will get swole af. If you do a lot of climbing, your skeletons hands will be huge. Depending on the materials you use, and the way you move around, your muscular structure would be different. And that would mean that depending on your muscles, you could only wear certain things, or some things more successful/effectively than other things. Your muscles would grow very slowly, so you'd want to focus on areas that support your play style.

In this game, you play as a cursed sword. The Blades one true goal is to be the greatest hero of all time. Sick and tired of being a mere tool for other adventurers, the sword want's to make a name for itself.

The swords previous owner, the current greatest hero of all time, did battle with a foul demon. In a fight that would go down in the history books, as the sword cleaved the demon in two, it passed through the demons magical heart, giving the sword sentience, and also the ability to influence those who hold it.

The sword can control its current user, and force them to go one quests and the like. If the sword decides it no longer likes the vessel it is controlling, it can will them to leave it and walk away. The sword would then influence someone else nearby to pick it up. This wouldn't always work out, as if your hero goes to a tavern, gets drunk and leaves the sword behind, chances are the barkeeps going to complain about patrons always leaving their shit lying around and grab the sword; this would mean that if the inn was suddenly attacked by bandits, you would need to use the swords abilities to take the reigns. I imagine the astonished inn-keep flying around the room, his hand glued to the swords hilt as it performs legendary ripostes, parrys and strikes, killing all of the bandits. The greater the hero you control, the more in tandem they would work with the sword, increasing your power.

Going on dangerous quests could lead to meeting better heroes. If you want to play as an evil sword, you can engage these heroes with your current hero, swap hands during the fight and kill your previous hero with your new one.

Your first hero, the guy who took you on many amazing journeys, the guy who used you to beat the demon, is you main enemy. He has gone and found himself an new, super evil, cursed sword, and is hunting you down to destroy you.

Crossbows are a man's best friend.

In this game, you play as a legendary crossbowman, and using your myriad of specially designed crossbows you must complete a series of challenges and puzzles.

You have a regular crossbow, dual small crossbows which can rapid fire, a small crossbow with a grappling hook, and you have a huge crossbow with a shield for taking out huge enemies.

You can fire crossbow bolts into walls and climb them. Using the small crossbows, you can essentially 'paint' a path up a wall with bolts and scale it.

The puzzles would be about committing to a maneuver, and whilst executing it, taking out a myriad of enemies who would prevent you from landing safely.

Many enemies would be heavily armoured, and you would need to either fire at their weak points, or take them out with a well placed big cross bow shot. The game would be in 1st person, and aim would be emphasized heavily, as well as maneuverability.

This is Assassin's Creed: Black Flag if I'd been in charge of the development team.

Firstly, it would have been a separate game, in a new series unrelated to Assassin's Creed. Slapping the AC name on a pirate game is purely for sales and marketing.

This game would simply be called 'Black Flag'.

The ship climbing, the ship battling and the combat system are all good, but scrap the lame story and cut-scenes and put more time and money into these elements and the whole game would be better.

But what this game lacks most of all is proper exploration, and proper pirate ship pursuing/chasing.

Being a pirate is all about freedom, to do what you want, when you want. Being a pirate is about being bad, and getting away with it. More of the gameplay elements would need to add to the feeling of freedom, and the feeling of being unstoppable and uncatchable. Your pirate ship would have far more customization options, and you would be able to sail at break-neck speeds.

The boarding mechanics would be richer, bloodier, and the chase would be more thrilling.

There would be far more interesting places to visit, and nowhere would be out of bounds. The islands would be teeming with life, and danger.

You would be able to hand pick your crew, and give them nicknames to be feared by.

More fun weapons and gadgets would reiterate the idea of freedom, such as a grappling hook to scale your ship quickly.

The game would be more about being a pirate, and doing pirate things, not being an Assassin shoe-horned into a pirates world.

http://www.gamehackstudios.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Assassins-Creed-IV-Black-Flag-Free-Download-Full-Version-PC-Crack-19.jpg

http://www.gamehackstudios.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Assassins-Creed-IV-Black-Flag-Free-Download-Full-Version-PC-Crack-19.jpg


In almost every medieval fantasy RPG ever made, there is at least one inn, and a sassy inkeep, who will offer you the usual services; a cheap bed for the night, a place to buy booze and most importantly (in some cases) a place to hear the local gossip.

In this game, you play as the inn-keep at an inn on the side of a very well traveled road. Adventurers from near and far stop by for your hospitality, and it is your duty to point them in the direction of a worthy cause.

Among ordering stock for your inn, talking to wanderers to learn up on the local gossip and pointing travelers on their merry way, your Inn is a constant battleground. You may not turn away guests unless you have proof of their ill deeds, such is the way of the Inkeep, the Inkeepers oath. This means that unless you can prove that shady characters who are meandering about your establishment are up to no good, chances are that there's going to be some kind of shady deal, ambush or hostage situation about to erupt.

All In-keepers train in secret in the ancient art of espionage, speech craft and combat, and it is up to you how you wish to diffuse the various situations that appear.

http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/merlin1/images/3/32/Innkeeper.png/revision/latest?cb=20120301092151



A game based around boss fights. The fights would be an amalgamation of shadow of the colossus and mega man. In shadow of the colossus, in between boss fights you race around stunning vistas on your horse. In mega man, each boss has a stage you must fight your way through first on your way to fighting the boss. I like that in mega man you have to explore boss stages to find items that will give you an edge against bosses from other areas, but I also like in shadow of colossus that since the game is about boss fights they don't pad the game with filler trash mobs. This game would be a huge world map, separated into several distinct areas. Each area would require climbing/platforming to traverse, solve puzzles, and you would be able to practice and try out new abilities against enemies and also in new puzzles. The enemies and puzzles would work as playgrounds for you to learn how to use the new skills and items you find in the game before you actually get to fighting bosses.

The art style would also be a mix of the two: A dystopian future ruled by either genetically created beasts or crazy big robots. The main character would be a robot attempting to restore order to the land.

http://orig06.deviantart.net/4a8f/f/2014/311/6/a/shadow_of_the_colossus___fan_art__by_lionsketch-d85kmae.jpg

http://orig06.deviantart.net/4a8f/f/2014/311/6/a/shadow_of_the_colossus___fan_art__by_lionsketch-d85kmae.jpg

In this game you play as an unnamed, ambiguous nomad. Your goal is a far-off light on the horizon, and your only companion is your trusty camel, Iqbal. Travel between sources of water and food, find warm places to sleep at night and during the day seek shelter from the blistering suns of an alien world. Your camel can go a lot longer than you without food and water, and can carry items for you, the most notable of which is your Abus Gun. This gun can hit targets from many kilometers away, but is too heavy for you to carry. In order to effectively use this weapon, you must move your camel to an effective vantage point. Iqbal is also equipped with deployable cover armour on either side of his body, so you are able to set up quite effective snipers nests. As well as the Abus Gun, you also have access to a Snaphaunce Rifle, which is smaller and is more successful at medium-long range. Your final weapon is a close range blade, but this is only a last-resort weapon, and if you have to use this chances are you're in a situation where either you or Iqbal is probably going to die. If Iqbal is killed, or dies of natural causes, such as disease, starvation or thirst, you must simply carry what you can and move on. Your character is a great climber, and is overall very nimble. You can use this to your advantage in order to retrieve useful items from high places, or to set up ambushes for groups of enemies or good sniping spots. The game would feature a lot of platformer style puzzles and areas to navigate. You'll often have to leave Iqbal behind, and you he'll call out if he sees strangers, alerting you to head back. He can also be used as a platform to give you a boost to certain places. The graphical style would be very simple. The game would be low-poly with high textures. The land would be very vast, and certain parts of it could be randomly generated, so simple particles and geometry would be necessary for optimization. The game would feature a lot of open desert with an overbearing sense of futility, but to break up the mundane nature of the desert there would be unique areas full of puzzles and enemies on your way to the bright light. Areas would be oasis, canyons, abandoned cities and towns, river crossings, etc. You would begin the game without the Abus gun, and without the deployable armour and the blade, and would simply have the Snaphaunce rifle, and Iqbal. The game would have heavy emphasis on exploration, and in order to find all of the games most useful items, one would need to be vigilant, thorough and not afraid of fighting against the odds. Some areas would require previous items to have been obtained in order to explore them, but the game would be completable with the equipment tha you start with. The melee combat would be stripped down version of Chivalry's combat, where you have a stamina bar, and you are able to parry, kick and slash enemies. This combat would be based primarily around timing. Your weapons and equipment would be modeled off the equipment used by the Ottoman Empire, except with sci-fi design elements. The game world would feel like a mix between Dune and Journey. Your guns would work in a similar manner, with long reload and re-firing times, instilling a 'make every shot count' mentality. The game would be overall slowly paced, with the overall feel being the most important thing. Breaking the game up with puzzle-based combat and discovery would create peaks and falls in the pace of the game.A few seconds agoThis game is a board game based on the mythology of king Minos of Greece's labyrinth. The game is played by four players, one of whom is the Minotaur. This players has the ability to spin the circular maze game board, rearranging where all of the other players are. This is his best ability, but he has many other less powerful ones as well, which he utilizes by drawing cards. The other three players are trying to escape the maze. The cards they draw hinder each other and the Minotaur. The Minotaur wins if he kills all of the other players. The other players win if they escape the maze, so only one of the three can escape. The players can not kill each other, only hamper and slow each other down. The cards would all be items from Greek mythology, and would teach the player about this important mythology.




http://mythortruth.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Minotaur1.jpg

This game is all about freedom. The games core mechanics, which would be exploration and which would be combat oriented, would be all about freedom. The overarching story would be all about freedom as well. The story would be a reiteration of the New Zealand wars and the treaty of waitangi, but in a sci-fi setting, so as to make it more subtle. You would play as a character who would be important in all of the events in the story. The aim of this game is to create an awareness of these events that isn't effected by modern media. To tell this story in a safe, fair and un-argumentative environment is the ultimate goal. To reinforce the idea of freedom, the main gameplay elements and mechanics would all center around being as open and controlled by the player as possible. You would begin the game with very simple and limited abilities that would over time become more powerful and more useful as the story progressed. This would be against the backdrop of the tragic events of the New Zealand wars.

In the end, everything that the player does will lead to his people becoming but a shadow of their former selves.


Braveheart Jc Freedom


http://www.fansshare.com/gallery/photos/12147695/braveheart-jc-freedom/?loadimage

in this game you play as a professional swordsman from a medieval period (most likely Europe, specifically Italy, Germany, France or Britain). The game would be a side scroller, and would be a more modern take on games like mega man, castlevania and metroid. The story would be important, but I currently do not have one. The reason you are a woman-at-arms, is because more traditional Knights are rich and well born, and I prefer a more human character. You play as a woman mastering her trade, and in the same vein as megaman seek to become more powerful through the accumulation of better gear and skill. Being a women in the Middle Ages would have been really shit, and deciding to be a warrior for hire would have been an extremely difficult life to live. You seek to prove a point, and this characters inspiration was Brienne of Tarth, from Game of Thrones. The combat would be extremely simple, based on timing and would be almost entirely melee oriented. You would earn new equipment as you went, such as ranged weapons and these would feel like amazing rewards and would have real value. The game would be extremely gory, and quite realistic, to really get across the brutal, gritty world this character lives in.

http://thumbs.dreamstime.com/x/woman-warrior-sword-26321073.jpg



Customise your car with a massive amount of options, right from the get go. Choose all of the parts from the ground up, weighing up top speed, acceleration, weight, etc. Once your car customisation is complete, hit 'Race'.


You are launched onto a randomly generated track. The track never repeats. You can never learn the road. The sequences of track are always random. As you race, you can complete objectives, such as beating your top speed, updating your total kms travelled, and how many racers you've overtaken and beaten in races. As you race, you'll come across other players as their roads intersect yours. The game will be programmed to automatically aim the randomly generated road sections towards other nearby players. Once you and other players (up to 8) join your tracks together, the road is increased by said amount of tracks. The game would then give you a distance goal, and whoever is in first at the end of the designated strip would win the most rewards. This game is all about winning races against random people all over the world. Depending on you rank (which would level up as you went) you would be aimed towards players of a similar level.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b8/Desert_road_UAE.JPG/1280px-Desert_road_UAE.JPG

MDS GDV110 - 'One Game a Day' Assignment

Media Design School's GDV110 students come up with a game idea a day.

daily from 2015-07-21 to 2015-09-11