Competition 22: Genre Benders!

[dislekcia]

Comp 22: Genre Benders!

Stop. Sit down. Clear your mind.

Let your preconceptions about games fade. Cast them into a pool before you, watching the ripples die down to nothing.

Breathe.

Now imagine Grand Theft Auto as a text-adventure. Starcraft as an puzzle-platformer. Ultima as a turn-based strategy. Perhaps even Zork as a card game. Breathe. Let those ideas bubble, sulfurous, in your pool. What else comes to the surface?

Your challenge is to take a game you know and re-generate it in a different genre. Of course, this happens with successful licenses all the time - Various video games have been turned into board games or rethunk to work on mobile devices, but what if you go one step further and actively flirt with the ridiculous?

Turn Pong into a boardgame. Try to figure out how that might work. Toy with odd, obscure genres and games that feel like they truly "couldn't be anything else". Often it's exactly that kind of creative tomfoolery that results in the innovations that drive the industry. How do you solve the problems that crop up when turning Tetris into an alternate reality game?

Not only do you have to be creative, but you have to understand the game you're starting from inherently. That's never a bad thing... One word of warning though: Just because you're taking existing games and transplanting them into new genres they've never dreamed about being in, doesn't mean that you can steal their IP. Fair use is fair use, but stealing artwork is never ok. Plus, if the original IP holder has a problem with your work (most won't, but some might) step away gracefully. Other than that, have fun! I'm really excited to see what this concept produces!

Re-imagine a game you know and love in as alien a genre as possible.

Rules:

• Competition starts on June 1st 2009, 01-06-2009.
• Deadline for entries is July 1st 2009, 01-07-2009.
• The use of copyrighted material will not be tolerated. Do not steal!
• Use whichever language, tool or development system you are comfortable in. Downloading and using Game Maker is recommended for beginners and for prototyping. - If you make a board or card game, give us something to print out, cut up and play! (you can assume that we have dice)
• Ask for help when you get stuck.
• Your game must contain all files needed for it to run and should not require other bulky systems to be downloaded or installed, exceptions are browser plugins like Flash and self-contained dlls distributed with the game).
• Your final entry must include a readme.txt that EXPLAINS THE CONTROLS, RULES and any other information you want to get across to your users.
• Competition is open to entry for South African citizens, current residents of South Africa and South African passport holders.
• The judges' decision is final and no negotiation will be entered into. All risk or liability in case of copyright infringement or other legal issue resides with the entrant, Game.Dev and NAG take no responsibility for entered games.

Entering:
To enter the competition, start a thread titled "22: <NameOfOriginalGame> as a <NewGenre>" (Example, "22: Pong as a boardgame") and post your design ideas and game releases there. As you release files, edit your first post to point to the most recent versions available.

Other people WILL reply to your post with their feedback and ideas, it's a fact that games that allow forumites to give their feedback do better in competitions. Please report any offensive comments to me for moderation. Consider releasing your source code, it helps us pinpoint problems that you might be having and benefits the community as a whole.

You may enter multiple games if you wish and can handle the workload.

Advice:
Be as odd and alien as you can. The Pong as a board game example was designed to make you go "What, how?" try to answer that question. The more interesting the game's disconnects with a certain genre, the more you'll learn about playability and mechanics.

Seriously, go wild. Pitch a bunch of ideas and see what you could turn into something fun, often the fun is of the "I can't believe we're doing this" variety.

Read up on german boardgames, accessibility in games and try to think about different ways that you can express what a game is trying to do by understanding its fundamental principles: Tetris is about position, so if we can track position on phones reasonably accurately via GPS, why not assign different phones a specific piece and let them control that piece by moving around in a space. Maybe the level locks up, maybe it doesn't. But it'd be fun to mill about with a bunch of other people all playing Tetris pieces... Just hope you get the L-shaped block. It's the best.

...

Good luck and enjoy the competition. I'm hoping that it's as much fun to make a genre-bending game as it is to come up with the wackiest examples possible :)

[Fengol]

So we don't have to make a boardgame for PC? It can be a "pen and paper" boardgame?

My immediate thought is <Chromehounds> as a <CCG> where you build a deck of mech components you can deploy and shoot off your enemy. You can also have environment or strategy cards which change up the initiative of players or reward victory points

[DukeOFprunes]

There's no greater joy than crashing two Lego cars together and rebuilding them both into an awesome single mutant Lego car. Looking forward to try and smash some games together too.

[Squid]

Awesome idea. With a vac coming up, I may be tempted.

[EDIT]I'm thinking TF2 as turn based strategy

[The Dash]

I am very tempted, one problem, im writing exams and will only have about a week to do this in :/

[Gazza_N]

I hate you. Now I won't be able to sleep, what with my mind churning as it tries all the possible combinations out. :<

[Aval4nche]

Ah my mind is running wild. Maybe Snake as a JRPG! lol.

[Tr00jg]

Its been too long! I might actually do this. I will have to see how it fits in. I'm doing website contract work this holiday. My mind is running wild already! :D

[edg3]

Im assuming the opposite effect of "game to card/board game" is fair play? :P

[dislekcia]

Originally Posted by DukeOFprunes

There's no greater joy than crashing two Lego cars together and rebuilding them both into an awesome single mutant Lego car. Looking forward to try and smash some games together too.

With 16 wheels and space for your sister's hamster! Even if all you do is lob random ideas for combined games/genres it'd be cool. (Fun too, makes for a great party game)

Originally Posted by Squid

Awesome idea. With a vac coming up, I may be tempted. [EDIT]I'm thinking TF2 as turn based strategy

Please please please make calling hax a gameplay mechanic! Maybe like liar-dice: "I've got 3 pyros and a scout and I'm capping your intel" "Hax!" *checks* "Hahaha! Go scout :)"

Originally Posted by The Dash

I am very tempted, one problem, im writing exams and will only have about a week to do this in :/

Do a board or card game. Those are much less buggy than PC games. At least, they are most of the time ;)

Originally Posted by Gazza_N

I hate you. Now I won't be able to sleep, what with my mind churning as it tries all the possible combinations out. :<

Mwahahahaha!

Originally Posted by Aval4nche

Ah my mind is running wild. Maybe Snake as a JRPG! lol.

Hah! Sweet idea :) Would you be able to pick up fruits of +3 to epic hair?

Originally Posted by Tr00jg

Its been too long! I might actually do this. I will have to see how it fits in. I'm doing website contract work this holiday. My mind is running wild already! :D

More MWAHAHAHAHA!

[dislekcia]

Originally Posted by edg3

Im assuming the opposite effect of "game to card/board game" is fair play? :P

Sure, as long as the genre changes. Remaking a card-game with drawing and all that on PC is bit of a waste of potential :)

[glCoolHandf]

This is a good one, could provide some nostalgia with a laugh … or even take the mickey out of a classic!

[Gazza_N]

Just one question - how closely do we need to stick to the original game? How much freedom do we have to mix things up regarding core mechanics, etc? Is it enough to transpose recognizable themes and concepts into a new genre, or should we pay more attention to translating core mechanics across (ie. Finding card analogues to existing game situations, like Fengol is doing)? And to what level of detail? Will not having the exact same unit balance as the original, for example, count against us?

[DukeOFprunes]

Originally Posted by Gazza_N

Just one question - how closely do we need to stick to the original game? How much freedom do we have to mix things up regarding core mechanics, etc? Is it enough to transpose recognizable themes and concepts into a new genre, or should we pay more attention to translating core mechanics across (ie. Finding card analogues to existing game situations, like Fengol is doing)? And to what level of detail? Will not having the exact same unit balance as the original, for example, count against us?

As an example: I'd say don't just make a jumping platformer with Half-Life graphics, because that's still no more than a just a jumping platformer.

However, a jumping platformer with emphasis on the gravity gun mechanic would be pretty good place to start.

[Bonezmann]

HOORAY! Awesome, my mind is dancing with ideas!

as soon as I read the "pong to board game" an idea immediately jumped into my head. Will do some brainstorming and definitely come up with an entry. :)

edit: If anyone is looking for an idea,(as I won't be using it) how about Mirror's Edge as an "sim management" game like theme hospital. ;)

[dislekcia]

Originally Posted by Gazza_N

Just one question - how closely do we need to stick to the original game? How much freedom do we have to mix things up regarding core mechanics, etc? Is it enough to transpose recognizable themes and concepts into a new genre, or should we pay more attention to translating core mechanics across (ie. Finding card analogues to existing game situations, like Fengol is doing)? And to what level of detail? Will not having the exact same unit balance as the original, for example, count against us?

Like DoP said, you want to keep what made the original game unique while at the same time completely changing your core play mechanics.

The game should be recognisably a re-imagining of the core ideas that created it's "original". The general guideline is if the graphics were different, it should still strongly evoke the "original" game.

[Gazza_N]

A Gears JRPG is no-go then. :(

Back to thinkings!

[Fengol]

A Gears JRPG could definitely work (plus you can quickly build it in RPG Maker XP), it's all about grinding the horde (and you already have defined list of enemies), novel areas (like the worm in GoW2) and you have a range of characters you can select for your party and they can specialize in an already defined list of weapons. Executions are your special abilities and you have bosses.

What more do you want? When can I play the first beta?

[Aval4nche]

Hee Hee! I have an idea. It has something to do with Vaults, something to do with two-headed cows and just a little bit to do with Sim City.

[Gazza_N]

Originally Posted by Fengol

A Gears JRPG could definitely work (plus you can quickly build it in RPG Maker XP), it's all about grinding the horde (and you already have defined list of enemies), novel areas (like the worm in GoW2) and you have a range of characters you can select for your party and they can specialize in an already defined list of weapons. Executions are your special abilities and you have bosses.

No cover system. No way to duplicate weapon functionality precisely enough. And most of all, I have no way to make it different from any other JRPG. It'd be Pokemon or FF with a Gears skin, which is streng verboten.

That, and I'd want to inject parody elements in. We can do parody to an extent, right?