games journal
commentary
I have a larger moleskin called my games journal, and it's been a huge outlet for me. I don't think i quite get to paper prototyping in there, but it captures ideas as they happen - as a tool for thought as any.
I've nearly filled it, and when it's done, I'll capture whatever the heck was in there and see if we can't make a big maze to get lost in up here.
Maybe a #gamesJournal is how #gamedevs do #speedruns?
> As a clojure programmer, it really bugs me - does ^ this `?` count in the hashtag/keyword, or are we still neanderthals?
First stop for by-hand game ideas capture, most often done while vegging or otherwise getting away from a computer.
---
One of my favorite things to show to people
notebook 1
120 pages
> 1. Metroidvania Brainstorm
> 2. Room Entrance/Exit
> 3. Energy Vampire - Goomba with Energy Aura - Ghost Platform
> 4. Miyazaki 3 greenheads, foot lamp, piggy friends, which of these pigs are your mother + father?
spirited away pigs
> 5. Platform Swoop Scoop - Platforms can be collected, can give powers
> 6. Ghosts Jam ideas - Bananas Drop when you fire. Shops to SELL OUT at.
Collect and sell ghosts to shop owners?
Shop owner as a camoflauge.
> 7. Fishy Metroidvania - golden laser power platform
> 8. Harvest Ludum Dare Brainstorm
> 9. Moon Heist - Luna Tix - metroidvania level outline
> 10. Harvest Brainstorm (cont) - boomerang the seeds
> 11. Fishy Metroidvania Maze - colored walls, switches, doors. Sliding/Generated Pixel shape?
> 12. Metroidvania level sketch - guards, ids, security cams, "Muck Rackers"
> 13. metroidvania level outline - cells, guards, shop
> 14. Death Star Outline - zoo, core, yee olde throne, droid valley, waves, ice cream shoppe
> 15. level sketch - Blood money guard, elevator, ball pit, rock paper scissors choices via arrow
> 16. harvest brainstorm - Harvest Bots - harvest race - harvest of war
> 17. Monochromatic doors and enemies. harvest runner rooms.
> 18. runner day cycle. Volcano, Snow, Gilded Kingdom, Purple Stone, Spaceship, Grassy Cave, Metal + Wood
> 19. Metroidvania level outline
> 21. Metroidvania / platformer level ' rooms '
> 22. Moon and seek. light speed skipping. hidden in plain sight pvp ai. skipping between moons.
> 23. what's better than coins? Smug authority figure. Toe Jam and earl elevator genre hopping.
> 24. BOTW crafting, item condensing, rock paper scissors vs shop keepers
> 25. Feels-like-spiderman, spider-hulk, wrecking ball
> 26. A Bug's Life, ride a falling leaf
> 27. Thief Guard, combo combat system , antz and behavior trees
> 28. Protomoon story board - 7 scenes
> 29. Data-driven game design, alternate/authentic rewards (art/writing > High scores)
> 31. B to jump, hold, climb, dash. Squishy guy
> 33. info laser - boomerang (laser) info?
> 34. moon escape - disguise and detection system - traps
> 35. micro metroidvania map - city block and subway, news van (april oneal, groundhog day)
> 36. moon escape opening storyboard: lunchroom, solitary, escape prison block, through the door
> 37. moon escape 3 acts: escape cell, escape block, Mr. E
> 38. moon escape level sketch - cells, stacks, rotating platforms - wheels, buddy bunks
> 39. moon escape level sketch - cells, stacks
> 40. moon escape level sketch
> 41. moon escape level sketch - Library, chief hat, guards
> 42. Big Pixel Dudes
> 43. radial menu ideas. timers and response metrics
> 44. moon escape - hat shirt shoes sign
> 45. Bouncer judging your disguises
> 46. Apartment dimensions
> 47. moon escape transition/direction/flow storyboard outline
> 48. moon escape arc/concept art - alternate skin ( mansion )
> 49. Nada Gran Masta - overherd, chefherd
> 50. Beat em up 2 - storyboard - brobot and sisbot. beu 3 - clean up the city, but when offline, gangs rebuild
> 51. Definition of Done
> 52. Shirt
> 53.
> 54. Beat em up - open world subway map - pig dude 's thunderdome, fat tony 's restaurant
> 55. beatemup dialogue and combat system
> 56. dialogue unlocks, building up sentences, phrase combos, some villains require specific sentences
> 58. Snake brainstorm
> 59. The Outfit - outline
> 60. Tactical beat em up, ai autopilot, basic prospect park map, systems vs narrative, emergent gameplay
> 61. restraining bolt - steering an AI - top hat plug
> 63. Beat em up stories - thugboo, some suit's son, kung fu
> 65. beehive - phishing in games - goap and ink - rock paper goats
> 66.
> 67. GOAP - astart - behavior trees
> 69. Platformer Puzzle outline w/ wood, fire, and too much overwriting
> 70.
> 71. Gnarvana - sticky critter goombas
> 72. lil were riding wolf
> 73. lwrw - rough storyboard
> 74. Health UI, brain attack, player clone chase/trail - rewind s
> 75. Maze-chase outline
> 76. volcanic dungeon suvival - cosmos
> 77. wee-poleon, terror of little Europe, dude soldiers, hide in barrel/bush
> 78.
> 79. perpetual beat em up, silhouetted viewers, design your own character
> 80. pluggs mcgee - climber, hitching a ride, scoop and plug, bucket hops, ramp + jump
> 81. pluggs mcgee - disguise and sneak, an AI coming of age story, bucket of bolts, grapple
> 82. pluggs mcgee - guard reactions, death by..., plug count-based skills, 3 part outline
> 83. pluggs mcgee - state machine outline - intro - pluggs at sea - movement
> 84. pluggs mcgee - factory sketch - storage, maze, office, victory/escape
> 85. pluggs mcgee - part 4 - pluggs dialog - animations list - brainstem
> 86. MABTBN - maze / mario kart, " laps " should be solvable
> 87. GOAP "directive" - conversation based micro metroidvania - teeth?
> 88. Apartment topdown sketch
> 89. pirate survival game - subway ant farm - energy loss talking game (introvert)
> 90.
> 92. true classics - dungeon crawler outline - tetris dungeon
> 93. dino -potential game clones - game genre list w/ examples
> 94.
> 95. lost woods style next room generation - rooms api
> 96.
> 97. Leaf-catching platformer - infinite runner - leaf party
> 98. beat em up survival game idea - 1 life per fighter, swappable fighter party system
> 99. super elevator level - elevator party
> 101. rooms api details
> 102. rooms - ghosts as gradual ui, debug bot, run w/ a buddy
> 103. rooms - a christmas carol, ghosts that drop bananas
> 104. dropping banana peels - traps as garbage, inventory overflows, item ui, laps as make-a-move moments
> 106. lemmings - a robot in a box on wheels - for the leaf game. level layout
> 108. morning noon evening night runner room idea
> 109. bond runner - moneypenny - M - Q - MP rooms
> 110. share that GAMES JOURNAL
> 111. parallax layers - hiccuping out of control - blog home page
> 112. pluggs mcgee - rooms factory map/menu - multi human host pluggs dialog
> 113. runner stack sketch
> 114.
> 115. runner happy accident sketch
> 116. botw - pause menu inventory ui
> 117. botw - stables sketch - malli schema - soundcheck - horse parking - etc
> 118-120. Index
Backlinks
A Dino game.
---
- dupe: Beat Em Up City
- related: perpetual beatemup
- perhaps a dupe: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Beat Em Up
- builds on: Super Elevator Level (dino game)
Open world -ish... i probably just mean non-linear. Explore as you will! Travel requires subway tokens, which you can buy at delis.
Realizing indexes are super useful summaries, and worth creating by hand.
The games journal index was fun and cathartic to write out in those last few pages. Now i'm digitizing that to see what the mind garden makes of it.
A Dino game.
---
It's always a little surprise to me what notes exist already, and which don't.
This one did not, but has a big presence in my games journal.
---
Pluggs is a rusty bucket of wires, and he needs to escape the factory. He uses his plugs to control other devices, including humans.
Pluggs needs to avoid being detected. He can only control so many humans at once!