The game starts as a newly formed political party has been elected to govern, promising to advocate strengthened morals for the good of the public. You are the head librarian of one of the largest libraries in your country, and so it is your responsibility to care for a vast collection of books. As the new party settles into power however, you find that they start requesting the disposal of texts deemed to be against the best interests of the nation. You must save the books from destruction any way you can. Early on, it is enough to simply hide them in the nooks and crannies of the library, but the government officials will start to require you to dispose of them while supervised. Your supervisors and censors will become more numerous and strict, and automated surveillance systems may force you to make use of stairwells and bathrooms for secrecy. The gameplay focuses on the player trying to stealthily preserve the library's collection, through the creation of hidden archives, hastily written duplicates and burned original copies, and many other methods to outsmart and outlast the increasingly tyrannical ruling party.

Image source: http://www.blunderbussmag.com/book-burning/

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

In this rhythm-stealth game you play as a groovy ghost with the power to turn invisible by dancing. Whenever there is some kind of music playing nearby, you can dance along to it, pressing buttons that scroll across the screen. As long as you press the right buttons and keep the rhythm, you will be invisible.

There will be radios and other devices around each level which you will be able to interact with to make them play music, and depending on the kind of music that is playing, you will dance differently and have different arrangement of buttons to press. Different genres of music will vary in how hard they are to dance to, and how quickly you can move while dancing to them. Unfortunately, if people are not into the music that is playing they will probably try to stop whatever is playing it. Because of this, you will benefit from trying to judge what kind of music the nearby people appreciate, and find a way of getting that music playing. If no music is playing, you will become visible and will be shooed away by any spooked out people that see you. In that situation, you'll have to quickly find a new source of music which will allow you to dance back into invisibility, fading out of view in style.

Your goal is to collect as large a collection of cool vinyl tunes as possible, for your music collection in your ghost-apartment. This will require you to sneak into record shops and dingy apartment buildings, sneaking past various kinds of people in order to collect your prize.

Image source: http://66.media.tumblr.com/d981fe02dddaf266bbb34a83dbf108ef/tumblr_mu45qvBBjQ1so7fxjo1_400.gif

This is an adventure game which focuses on perspective puzzles. In each area of the game you will explore the environment for clues, each of them giving a small amount of information about an event that unfolded there in the past which ended badly. These clues will take the form of things like audio tapes and newspaper clippings, but important information will also be conveyed through more subtle details of the environment.

As you develop an understanding of each short story, you will also need to figure out what was needed for a better outcome. In the setting of the game the clouds never change, and have strange properties, being perfectly static across time. There will be a place in each level which will make some of the clouds in the sky align into the shape of whatever the solution that story's puzzle is. This location will also usually have some particular relevance to the story, and when you find that place and interact with the clouds there, they will form the needed object and fall to the ground. Because of the static nature of the clouds, that object will also come to exist in the time of the story you have learned about, and lead to a different outcome. Once this is done, and outcome of the story changes, new clues about the new ending to the story will appear.

The levels may have multiple possible options in the clouds at various locations, each with different consequences for their levels' stories, and it will be up to the player to judge which they think is the best option. The player will have to explore thoroughly, and think carefully in each level to find the best solutions for each puzzling story.

Image source: http://www.my-art.com/sites/default/files/u26592/0001-11-illustations-color%C3%A9e-surr%C3%A9aliste-blog-deco-tableaux.jpg

Girl On Fire is a game where you play as an up and coming interstellar trader. You command a fleet of Starships, collectively known as the 'Beez' which Fly across human controlled space, selling goods that range from common Pills n Potions to expensive Truffle Butter, and even trading one of a kind items like the Mona Lisa or Marilyn Monroe's skeleton.

You have been a Champion of your trade for many years, and because of a tragic accident in the prologue of the game where a gas Fire Burns down your High School and causes it to go Up in Flames, you have a cyborg body. It is a prototype system, and you will have to frequently return to its designer in Shanghai for expensive maintenance and repairs. It will cost you, but there are advantages. You will be Young Forever, and the worst a Gun Shot can do to you is make you Buy a Heart replacement.

The gameplay will be a blend of combat and business simulation, and you will often enjoy the Freedom to choose your Favorite option between them to solve problems. For example, violence will not be your Only option when dealing with your enemies, as you could Masquerade as one of them to seed a Bed of Lies and destroy them from within, while trying to avoid detection so that they don't Pound the Alarm. They may do the same to you however, and if you aren't careful it may result in your Beez in the Trap which could make All Things Go downhill for your business.

Your finances and fame will grow as you Win Again and again, crushing the competition, and you will also be able to spend your money on accessories for your personal ship, the Beautiful Sinner, buying an Anaconda or a Grand Piano to show Your Love for your crew.

Image source: http://www.igorstshirts.com/blog/conceptships/2013/hxh/hxh_06.jpg

In Cat Café Manager you take the role of the owner of a new Cat Café. You will get to design the café, choose the cats, and grow your business. The design of the café will have to accommodate both the human customers and the resident cats, keeping both as happy as possible. When you start, you will only be able to afford very basic furnishings and a handful of cats, but as you make money you will gain access to a widening range of customisation options for your café. You will also be able to source cats from all over, from animal shelters to overseas exporters of exotic cats. The cats will develop over time, with their personalities emerging and changing as they interacting with other cats and people. Customers will also have their own preferences for cat breeds, so having a wide variety of cats will be in your best interests. Your job will be equal parts caring for cats, managing a business, and designing a nice place to sit down and relax.

Image source: http://images.mentalfloss.com/sites/default/files/styles/article_640x430/public/cat_cafe_header.jpg

This is a physics-based game where the objective is to fall over as dramatically as possible, in front of as many people as possible, without getting yourself killed. Each level will take place in an open area that you can explore freely, as you search for the optimal location. When you decide on the right place to fall over, you can press a button to collapse and let the ragdoll physics do the rest. You will also be able to run and jump, giving you more options for dramatic accidents. Points will be given based on the number of distracted bystanders, how much collateral damage is caused, and how well you minimise the resulting hospital bill. There will also be multiplayer, where you and a friend go head to head, racing to see who can get the most points. In this mode, there will be a major advantage to attracting the attention of the audience first, as bystanders are much less likely to notice the second person. Tumble your way to victory through restaurants, art galleries, and zoos.

Image source: https://ahasbeenthatneverwas.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/fallingdown.jpg?w=800

This is a driving game where you play as a taxi driver, and the goal of the game is to be as efficient as possible in the fares you collect per customer. The fare is calculated by the duration of the journey, and the distance travelled, increasing with both. This means that you should try to go as slowly as possible, while taking poor routes and possibly even trying to get lost to get the greatest fare. You will have to balance this with the attitude of your passengers however, as they will get frustrated, upset, and angry as they notice your behaviour. The game view will be first person, with the main windscreen in front, a rear view mirror where you can see the customer, and a small GPS on the side of the dashboard. This view would also make the game very appropriate for VR displays, especially combined with the slow, relaxed driving gameplay. The rear view mirror will be very important, because although the customer will complain to you if they feel the need to, their expression will also give valuable information on how much you can afford to delay. Try to do as well as possible collecting maximal fares, without receiving official complaints that could get you fired from your taxi company.

Image source: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_UKaFNtQjSNM/THmooLq3s0I/AAAAAAAACZk/S4uetZW8XkI/s1600/bogota_traffic_colombia_2.jpg

This is a game where you play as a single drop of rain in a storm. You have unlimited time, and unlimited tries to reach the target of each level. There will be a wide variety of targets to land on throughout the game, such as a particular daisy in a field, or a rat in a sewer. You will guide your raindrop down from the clouds, threading your way past birds and leaves and other obstacles on the way to your target. You can land on objects and steer yourself as you drip down the side. You can also combine with other raindrops, giving you a greater mass and impact allowing you to break through weak obstacles, or splash away as a droplet again in any direction. When you first start to fall from the sky, the game will play in real-time, but time will slow down in proportion to how close you are to other objects. This will allow you a great deal of control and precision as you fall. The game will be compatible with PC and console control schemes, and could also function as a mobile game using gyroscopic sensors for tilt-controls. The gameplay will be slightly trial-and-error oriented, as you will need to explore various possible paths to get to the more difficult targets, but you will be able to restart as a new droplet at any time.


Image source http://dontcallmebetty.tumblr.com/post/15593902885/thingsandschemes-alex-abian

This will be a freemium mobile game, available through all standard app storefronts. In this game, you play as the phone of a person who is obsessed with downloading terrible freemium games and other apps. The gameplay will be that of a 'match 3' game, as various types of apps float down from the top of the screen. By successfully matching them together, you can prove to your owner their similarity, and get them uninstalled. This doesn't stem the endless tide of terrible apps however, as the rate at which they arrive and float down the screen will constantly increase. As more and more pile up on the screen, your system resources will become strained, making it much harder to continue swapping the position of apps to match them together as the framerate and resolution decline. Popups will also appear, blocking the screen while prompting your owner to pay for premium currency. You will gain a steady supply of premium currency from your owner's automated plan, which you can use to make the apps temporarily less intrusive, but if you want to make the levels a bit easier, in-app purchases will be available for this game game for extra premium currency. If the apps reach the top of the screen, your hard drive is full and the system is so bloated that it may as well be bricked. Game over.

Image source: http://images.dailytech.com/nimage/apple_get.jpg

Itsy Bitsy is a survival game where you play as a spider trying to get by. In order to sustain yourself you'll want to find good spots to set up webs and catch flies. You'll have to be careful though, as you share your house with massive hostile creatures. Some will attack you on sight, others will trap you and throw you out of your home, and the rest will shriek and run away, attracting the attention of more monsters. What makes things more difficult is that although your eyesight is better than any other spider you know, you can still only see as far as the length of a monster limb before things start to get very blurry. You'll come to rely on clever hiding spots and shadows in order to travel unnoticed. Your webs will also be vulnerable to the wanton hatred and destruction of the monsters, and so it will pay to have a variety of webs around your house. Try to survive long enough to attract the attention of other spiders roaming through your territory, and have spider kids. If your family gets large enough, the monsters are sure to give up and get out of your house for good.

Image source: http://hejibits.com/comics/2016-08-26-spider-scorn.png

This is a game where you learn about, construct, and upgrade a golem as you travel across the open game world. Your combat ability will be minimal, but you will be able to extensively customise your golem's abilities and behaviour. You will have to construct it with care, because it will be your sole means of protection as you explore ancient ruins for arcane knowledge. These dangerous places will contain other golems which you will be able to salvage for new components to use in your own, defining its physical attributes. Your golem will also have a number of slots available for arcane runes, which imbue will it with special magical powers. All golems have a keystone, which has a master rune inscribed on it. This rune will have powerful effects which will define the overall combat style of your golem, as well as form the foundation of its personality. This personality will define which behaviours it is prone to following or rejecting, such as whether it will be a cautious defender or aggressively attack nearby threats. Master runes and keystones will be among the most valuable treasures for you to collect, and the best must be retrieved from powerful, ancient golems left over from forgotten civilisations. Explore the world, collect artefacts, and combine them to create the greatest golem the world will ever see.

There could be a multiplayer mode where people could have their golems fight against each other too.

Image source: http://conceptartworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/Leonid_Enin_01a.jpg

Math Kata is an educational 2D fighting game, focusing on local multiplayer and designed to teach mathematics by making it a core mechanic of the game. Each character will have a wide variety of attacks like any other fighting game, but in Math Kata many important attacks for each character will require the player to answer a math question that will appear next to their character. Each character will have a different play style, and their attacks will focus on a different area of arithmetic. If the player answers incorrectly or takes too long, the attack will still occur, but will be much weaker. The simple beginner characters will have questions addition and subtraction, and more advanced characters will require multiplication and division. This will require players to become as accurate and fast as possible to improve and gain an advantage over the competition. Players will also have the option when they are being hit by a combo of attacks to answer a math question of the opponent's mathematical topic. This will encourage players to play as and learn more difficult characters, and ones which relate to mathematical topics that their friends are bad at. The game will still reward traditional fighting game skill, but in order to be effective players will naturally learn their times tables. The intention of this is to make the process of practicing basic maths skills more engaging by making it an exciting, competitive activity.

Image source: http://www.gta5cheats.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/sf2_2.jpg

In this an adventure game where you play as an entity which was almost the protagonist of the game, but was replaced with a different entity late in production. However, the development team never fully removed you from the game. This allows you to skirt around the edges of the game space, manipulating the environment in subversive ways. You will encounter partially implemented areas and characters that are separated from the finished game, existing in their own world. These other entities will be fundamentally broken in various ways, subsisting off memory leaks and idle processes in order to function. It will be up to you to travel between the two worlds, deciding what to take between them for the sake of yourself, the other entities, and the game as a whole. You must be careful not to ever be visible to the View Plane that hovers eternally around the protagonist. If you are seen, then there is a chance that the game will be updated, well and truly obliterated from existence. Undertake your own story behind the scenes, interacting with the other characters off-screen to achieve your goals. As you subtly re-implement yourself and your community into the game world, you may eventually be able to secure your existence in the playable game by revealing yourselves to the world as features, instead of bugs.

Image source: http://tumblr.glitchartistscollective.com/image/137428875894

This is a physics-based 2D platform game where you play as an exceptionally lazy person trying to do chores around their very large and luxurious house before their family gets home. These jobs will include cleaning, tidying, and feeding pets, but most of the challenge will be in effectively traversing your own house. You are so easily distracted by the comforts of doing nothing that comfy furniture and warm spots near heaters and fireplaces exert a gravitational pull on you. The closer you get, the more it drains your energy until you finally curl up and take a nap. However, your energy will also slowly drain as you complete tasks, and you will recover from your nap with much more energy if you fall asleep in a comfortable place. The gameplay will have the player sprinting around their massive house, avoiding the comfy features by scaling shelves and swinging across chandeliers in order to complete as many tasks as they can, before dashing to a nice spot to have a nap and regain energy for more work. You will have a limited amount of time to get the chores done, so you must be as efficient as possible.

Image source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/raishani/2191397557/

In this 3D puzzle-platformer you play as a mouse in a lab that has been gifted super-human intelligence from an experimental serum, and it is up to you to save Earth from impending doom. The scientists who tested the revolutionary nootropic on you also happen to share their lab with some astronomers, whose notes can be seen from your cage in a shelf on the wall. You quickly realise that buried in their astrological data is evidence that a massive event threatening all life on earth is approaching, and that it is up to you to convey this to the oblivious human scientists. It will not be easy though, as your day is mostly taken up by navigating mazes and completing other puzzles designed by them to judge your intelligence. You must solve the day's tasks quickly in order to get as much time as possible at the end of each day to break out of your cage and scurry around the lab leaving clues to indicate the approaching doom to the humans so that there may be some chance to prepare and avert disaster.

Image illustrated by my sister.

This game takes place in a fantasy setting, and you play as a captain working for a trading company. It will be played from a third person perspective, and you will have to venture across treacherous oceans trying to avoid the terrifying beasts that call it home, while transporting precious magical artefacts. In order to do this you will have to plan out your path on a map, command your crew, and pay close attention to arcane instruments which indicate the presence and direction of local creatures. You will also be able to steer the ship yourself if you wish, or operate its defences as you run around your vessel. Most of the creatures that threaten your ship will be able to sense and be drawn towards the auras of its magical cargo. Knowing this, you will be able to decide what cargo to take, in order to have some degree of control over the threats you will have to face and prepare for. Although the creatures will be gargantuan and powerful, when you encounter them you will be able to fend them off with potent magical defences that you buy with the profits of your trading.

Image source: http://wallpapersonthe.net/wallpapers/b/2048x1152/2048x1152-creature_fantasy-29150.jpg

In this game you play as a renowned food critic who has just lost their sense of taste and smell in a terrible accident. Luckily, your loyal readership is unaware of the career threatening event, and so you may still be able to feign refined taste and expertise for the sake of your livelihood. In your unfortunate situation however, you will have to base your judgements on everything that isn't your experience of the food. When reviewing a restaurant, you will have to interpret the behaviour of the other patrons for an indication of the quality of the food, relying on their tastes now that yours is gone. If your reviews align with public opinion, your career may continue as if nothing ever happened, but if you misjudge what they experience and expect from you, you may find your job security evaporating. The gameplay will have the player sitting in a restaurant, ideally using with a VR headset, as they eat food that they are completely unable to taste or smell, while paying close attention to the experiences of those around them. Remember to take note every time a dish is sent back to the kitchen, and how much of any meal tends to go uneaten, and use this to infer how good the food might be. The player will then have to rate the restaurant, selecting between different possible options for specific criticisms and compliments, and then see how the public responds to your views.

Image source: https://skepchick.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Anton-Ego-Ratatouille-Chateau-Cheval-Blanc-1947-788x350.jpg

This is a game where the objective is to sing as poorly as possible, to disgust and harm your audience as much as possible. It will be a game played with a microphone that the player 'sings' into, similar to the singstar series of games, and points will be given for accurate words and rhythm. However, the player will gain points for having their pitch as far away from the accurate pitch as possible, and will gain multipliers to their score for erratically changing tune. A skilful assault on the ears of the audience will be reflected by them covering their ears, falling unconscious, or if you are doing really well, running from the building screaming. You will not be satisfied until every pair of ears in the room is bleeding. It will be easy at first to offend the patrons of the more popular karaoke bars, but as the game continues you will be required to try and harm more difficult targets. Some of the most challenging audiences will regard your singing as avante garde performance art, applauding at all but the most horrific cacophonies.

Image source: http://static1.squarespace.com/static/55973db0e4b05c12783650b0/t/5599ebbde4b0dd60321e0963/1436150745271/Microphone-on-stage.jpg?format=1500w

This will be a real-time strategy game where the two warring factions have their stronghold floating on opposite sides of a gas giant. The disk made of cloud-like rings surrounding the gas giant will function as a 2D plane which will serve as the field of battle. This is because the fighter craft are skimmers which must fly through the top layer of the rings for propulsion. They are also able to travel through the rings to the opposite side of the cloud-disk, but they are solar powered, and this area is devoid of direct sunlight. Lack of solar power will make the time that any craft can spend under the disk very limited, and they will have to resurface to regain energy. Exploiting this ability to dive under the disk will be vital in order to launch surprise attacks, retreat from battles, and to see the surprise attacks of the opponent coming. The rings of the disk will also rotate at different speeds clockwise or anti-clockwise, allowing skimmers to use them to boost their own speed to mount rapid fierce attacks. These mechanics give the game a strong focus on micromanaging small squadrons of skimmers instead of amassing a large army and having it simply clash straight against the opposing force. Maintaining territory across the ring will also provide more resources to build skimmers and upgrades, by establishing outposts on small moons embedded in the disk. The gas giant in the middle of the disk will be impassable terrain for skimmers, as they are not equipped to escape its gravity once they get caught in its atmosphere.

Image source: https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/fc/3e/85/fc3e8562970d822e4589ae6a1247d53d.jpg

In this third-person action game you play as a literal giant, living in a secluded mountain valley. You have lived here for as long as you can remember, but for some reason there have been many humans adventuring through your territory recently. They don't seem to be settlers or explorers, rather, they are adventurers trying to pick a fight with you. As one of the few remaining great mythical creatures left, you are a massive target for every glory hungry warrior. They travel from the far reaches of the globe for their chance to slay you and earn a name for themselves. You don't have any option other than defending yourself and your ancient homeland by force, but as you put down the initial raggedy bands of fighters your reputation as a legendary creature will grow. The numbers and strength of attackers will increase continually, and you will have to find ways of using the resources of the valley to eke out every advantage you can get. Thankfully, as your infamy as a great slayer of heroes grows you will also attract other endangered mythological creatures hoping to be protected by your strength in exchange for their skills. As the game progresses you will be gathering and protecting a diverse community of hunted creatures, such as griffins and dragons which will fight alongside you, as well as others like goblins, which will provide technologies to turn the tide in your favour. Do your best to survive the unending efforts of humanity to render your kind extinct.

Image source: http://jakubrozalski.artstation.com/portfolio/brothers-in-arms-meeting-with-a-warlord

You play as the Moon, and you really like the Earth and its people. A simple physics game for mobile devices which is played by using the gyroscopic sensor in the phone, the player tilts their device to control the orbit of the Moon. In order to avoid disaster, the player will need to maintain an orbit which doesn't collide with the Earth as it orbits the Sun, and avoid getting too close or too far away for the sake of geological stability and the tides. Dangerous comets may also threaten the safety of the Earth, and intercepting them will seriously mess with your orbital momentum, but you're the only one who can. Also, if you maintain a safe distance from the Earth, astronauts will come and visit you as well. It will be especially difficult to be steady enough for the visitors to successfully land and return, and blocking dangerous comets will be hard, but as you do challenges like these you will gain points that prove your love of the Earth. It's a bit sad having to be separated from the Earth forever like this, but it's worth it because how cool it is. Dang.

Image source: http://31.media.tumblr.com/04480801c6fbca837e5fb3177a570eef/tumblr_n4gcwe4iM91r5o7z4o5_500.jpg

MDS GDV110 - 'One Game a Day' Assignment

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

daily from 2016-07-19 to 2016-09-09