First Game Pitches and the Voting Process

This is a place for us to review all of the game pitches and discuss how the voting process will be handled. Backstabbing and Underhanded Deals allowed.

Alan Zatkow Pitch 1:

So my first pitch is for an original super hero based game, which is mission based and utilizes a turn-based combat system similar to the style used in X-Com. So you start with one super hero and you build your roster as you go through the adventures. The game environment is pretty bad, because the super villains have won, and taken over the Earth. To that end they have slaughtered most of the existing super heroes that fought them, and you are on the run in the opening sequence.

There is going to be a heavy focus on story in this game, as each section of the map will be controlled by different evil factions. We can literally do anything in each section, so they can and should have a different feel to them. We are really only limited by our creativity and imagination. While in terms of scope, it would be prudent to focus the Demo on just one section, I believe that a released version should have 3 or 4, and that the player can have the ability to advance in all of them simultaneously, needing to move back and forth between them to build the roster and the home base to have a better shot at advancing in each sector.

Doing this game well can set us up in a number of ways, especially if we decide to go the route later of approaching Marvel and/or DC to gain access to their license to do a similar game for them, which I believe would be an endless cash cow for us. I also believe that the game(s) never need to have an ending, as we can charge $5 per month for access, gain additional money by enticing real corporations to be included in the game environment, and continue to build the current existing sectors and add new ones, constantly expanding the game, and thus not being fully reliant on single game sales.

Alan Zatkow Pitch 2:

My second pitch is for a turn-based Gladiator game set in outer space. It will be a fun game with a sense of humor that should remind players of good ol' Star Control in terms of tone. You play as a guy who is in massive debt to an organized crime syndicate, and they are going to break both your legs and maybe toss you off a roof. But through the cut-scene dialogue, it is decided that it would be hilarious to watch you die horribly as a competitor in the Games. The syndicate sets its own "school" up to compete, and laugh hilariously as you have to survive. But when you do and there are quality payouts, they decide to expand the roster.

The story twist is that you and your new teammates then secretly successfully kill the high ranking members of the syndicate, and then use the school to save other gladiators by crushing the other schools out there and taking their gladiators for your own, patching them up and creating a secret society of gladiators whose goal it is to actually end the Games all together and then escape (which can lead to a space exploration game or even a planetary survival game using the same characters later!)

The game will play like a modern version of Gladius. For those who never played it, it is turn-based strategy combat with different gladiators that have different types of weapons and skill sets depending on the type of gladiator they are. Given this is in outer space and not in ancient Rome, we would not be as constrained by that game in terms of character types. But, we likely should have character classes like Tanks, Melee specialists, Ranged, Spellcasters, etc. etc. which we can create and expand as we can within the proper scope.

As potential additions, I would love to add a base-building element where you can buy major advancements that would allow you to save your gladiators from dying like cryogenic pods, regeneration machines, and even cloning machines. It was also proposed by other members during the pitch meeting that we can add cybernetics as another layer so if your characters are injured, you can replace destroyed organic body parts with cybernetic upgrades. We would also have weapon and armor upgrades and potentially powerful artifacts (The kind that show up in all of our games as part of our unified universe) to play with as well.

If it is within the scope and accomplishable, I would also love to do side missions that allow gladiators to solve personal quests and to find Masters who can teach you new fighting skills and special moves. Also, on the pipe dream list of features is a Combo-Creation Mode where you can take any of your gladiators and create a special move for them to use when in combat together.

As we can always continue to build new planets, battle scenario types and schools to explore, this game has unlimited growth potential.

Shawn's Pitch:

It’s a sci-fi beat’em co-op up game (think Marvel: Ultimate Alliance). The players control 1 of 6 possible characters that generally fit an archetype: tank, melee dps, range single target dps, range AoE dps, support (hybrid), and healer. The characters will have a gauge to fill that allows them to call down their mech suit (the two “forms” will now be called pilot and mech). I’m not sure if I want the mech suits to be called at anytime and base the duration and/or power on the gauge level or that they must be maxed and forego that complication.

The player will fill their gauge by performing their archetypal role (tank receives damage, dps deals damage, support deals damage, and healer heals damage) and then to a lesser amount by performing a secondary role/action (tank deals damage, melee dps receives damage, support heals, etc). Once the mech is called, the gauge begins decreasing over time. The mech will enhance the pilot’s capabilities further and have some differences in exactly how they play.

The pilots will gain currency while defeating the enemies and bosses. This currency can be used to replace and upgrade parts of their pilot suits and mechs. Each pilot will hold their own earned amount of currency so it won’t be pooled and used by all pilots. The players can then make loadouts for their favorite character for quick and easy access. Also, depending on the weapons and load out, a pilot and their mech can have slightly different roles that they perform and even go outside the constraints of their archetype a little bit (ie. the tank type character can become more bruiser like by sacrificing some defense/HP for more attack power/speed).

While this idea is mainly for a couch co-op game, if there are less than 4 players, the missing players will be filled with AI. An online multiplayer option may be possible as well.

Shawn's Pitch 1.5:

I thought of this as a quick project to try to begin bringing in revenue and not meant to be the primary project:

A mobile tower defense game set in a cyber punk world where the player plays as a techno-mage with a "magic" gauntlet that can attack with fire, ice, and lightning. The gameplay would be like typical tower defense games where the enemy will attack in waves and follow a path that is lined with spaces that the player can set up their defenses. If the enemies make it to the end, they attack the gates with whatever attack they are designed to have. If the gates fall, the player looses and starts the level over. The defenses available to the player would be technological in type (laser turrets, flame throwers, etc.) with a few exceptions. The player advances to the next level when all rounds (which each consists of several waves) are complete.

The main difference will be that the player will play an active role in the defense. When the round begins, the player selects a pedestal and goes to a first person view at that location. A virtual joystick will allow the player to control where they aim and an attack button will allow the player to cast a "spell." The player can switch between the three available elemental types with buttons near the right hand side of the screen (near the attack button). Each element type will have their strengths and weaknesses and some enemies will have a weakness or resistance to an element type, physical, and/or "magic." When attention is needed at a different location, the player can touch the minimap, which will enlarge, and select a different location to teleport to.

At the beginning of each round the player can place or destroy defenses, upgrade those defenses, repair damages to the gate, and permanently upgrade the elements of their gauntlet. With the minimap open; the player can destroy current defenses or place down and/or upgrade defenses that they couldn't afford before the round began.

I was also thinking of adding in a "boss" at the end of the round or level that would act differently, have higher stats, etc.

For this project, I would only need the art assets from our artists that can provide them. I shouldn't need any additional help on the programming side but if someone could lend a hand, we'd be able to get it done even faster.

I think that's an interesting concept. I would like to wait so we can ensure we incorporate aspects from our "unified universe" concept, which I believe is really important to the long-term success of the company. I plan to build a website in Wix for us next week and get started on some of the concepts for the universe I am considering, and of course which the entire team can collaborate on, which should be great fun.

But the world-building construct is something I am very keyed in on as my own primary duty for now, creatively, for the company. And even a fast project like this might find itself within the realm of that business model, moving forward.

"Hello, I’m Maytee Tippaart and I’d like to tell you about my pitch. My game is a hybrid of turn based strategy like Fire Emblem, Disgaea, XCOM: Enemy Unknown and card battling like Yu-Gi-Oh!, Magic the Gathering and Pokémon TCG. This results in a unique experience where you must balance positioning and strategy to win. There will be player versus player modes including a 4 v 4 mode and a single player mode that’d teach players how to play and provide a story. The overall theme is time travel and will feature characters across different eras in this fictional universe."

"Each character has a role and defined playstyle so there will be something for everyone. Then, the player will need to choose 4 characters to create their team composition while considering the 4 classes these characters are assigned: Warriors, Sentinels, Assassins and Supports. Warriors are your frontline attackers, Sentinels protect the backline, Assassins cripple and weaken enemies and Supports reinforce your units."

My game bears resemblance to Konami's Yu-Gi-Oh! Duelist of the Roses on the Playstation 2. In it you move Monster cards along a grid that can attack your opponent's monsters while powering them up with Spell and Trap cards.



Screenshot from Duelist of the Roses

Backstory: In the distant future, mankind has discovered time travel. The group responsible for this breakthrough was a group of scientists calling themselves Epoch. Working with the US government, they became a branch of the military’s science division specializing in research. Using their machine, they’d send agents throughout time to uncover secrets and artifacts lost from history. However, several anti-Epoch groups rose up to question this. The largest of these groups was the People’s Alliance to Safeguard Time or P.A.S.T. They claimed Epoch was conspiring with the US government to alter the timeline. As tensions escalated Epoch was in the cross-hairs of the media being labeled as time saboteurs. The Director of Epoch ultimately had one plan albeit controversial: to prevent the formation of P.A.S.T by altering certain events. Unbeknownst to the Director, a spy working with P.A.S.T overheard and informed his client. The following night, a group of P.A.S.T members lead by Kairos, a high-ranking leader, launched an attack on Epoch HQ. They breached the building armed with weapons and left no survivors. Once they reached the time chamber, Kairos revealed his true motives. He was leading a small, radical group known as Dark P.A.S.T that had their own agenda. After acquiring the time machine and killing the remaining P.A.S.T members, Kairos and his followers successfully opened a portal and stepped through.

Chris P's  1st pitch:

You play as a descendant of the Salem witches, who has just discovered her lineage.  Her plane crashes in the Bermuda triangle, where she meets her descendants. It turns out that the children that accused the women of the village, were in fact the witches themselves, and all of the women they had burnt at the stake were women who were getting close to discovering their secret. The Judges and various other high status members of the village are the leaders of the cult/coven. I still haven’t worked out what their ultimate evil goal would be. As the player progresses through the game, they will gain more and more magic spells that come in the form of either attacks, heals or even mobility skills.

The game would be a 2D/2.5D platformer with Megaman-esque platforming, with combat closer to a fighting game with combos. Combat would be close to Dust or Guacamelee. Ultimately, I was imagining a MetroidVania type game with a more combo-centric combat system. Certain magic spells can be changed to wither be a big combo ender dealing huge damage, or as a combo extender which deals less damage itself, but can lead to bigger damage if the player has the skill to follow it up.

The game could put a big emphasis on big combos. By doing this, we could create a sort of mini competition where players would record their game and compete for the highest combo count or damage. We could even create an endless dungeon type extra mode for players to just fight for as long as they can.

The location would be the Bermuda triangle, so the environments could be as varied as we like because, ya know, it’s the Bermuda Triangle.

Chris P's 2nd Pitch

The game is inspired by the Fairy Tail World/Lore

The player would play as a mage in a 3D environment. Once the player rwaches the beginning island, they will be quickly exposed to the rift in the land caused by 2 large warring factions. Within each of these large factions are smaller factions that all think they have the best way for their side to achieve victory. The player is essentially a free agent able to work for any of the large or small factions, but as their reputation grows, they will start to lose jobs from certain factions that have opposing views to the factions you actively help. Think of the way that Armored Core worked.

The main hook of the game is the ability to customize your magic spells to be what you want Just like you would train yourself in a hypothetical fantasy world with magic in it.. Want a giant ice shield to surround you? Spec out the ice shield ability to do that. Want a homing fireball? Add the homing ability to that skill. I imagine it as a balance of stats. For example, if you make a huge ice shield; by stretching it so thin, you would reduce the effectiveness of it, unless you put some points into the ice density. The increase in both size and density would either affect the mana cost of the spell or the charge time or both, depending on how we decide to do the math behind the scenes. There is of course going to be melee and weapon combat what good action game wouldn't have that?

The art style would be anime/stylized

CardBound
OK. Well think war meets rock paper scissors. The original concept was for mobile so very bare bones but we could scale up a but and make something better than what I planned.

The back story is three races exist. Beasts, machines and disavowed. Disavowed are humans that refused to become machine. Machines rose up and conquered all they could. And Beasts are the Beasts of the world fighting for their home. Story can obviously be built up by Alan. Per character, race and overall story.

The gameplay is simple. Choose the winning card type. Suppose your deck contains 10 cards. 5 cards are chosen by you 5 by destiny from what you own at random. Each race succeeds over another race. Each race also has a card that can beat it's opposing race and itself. So let's play it like this.

1 beats 2 beats 3 beats 1.
However there is a card in each class that works backwards. One that can counter itself. And one that wins. The idea behind the game is strategy.
So play out your deck of 10 cards. The winner of the most rounds loses 2 cards from their deck at random and the decks are reshuffled and the match continues. The goal is to be last player standing. Lose all your cards in your deck and you lose. So there would be a strategy to gameplay. It would be simple and elegant yet it would be exciting and frustrating.

I already have a very basic demo in unity made but I am not opposed to a bit of redesign and changes to scope out the game. Or engine change.

Plus side too. All current assets were made by Gerrett and he's on our team so everything is usable.

Just needs compilation and some building. Fixing the scripts a bit. And obviously more art assets as we only ever made enough to test the game. So one from each race at the time.

Disarray Flames--A fantasy and horror-themed, 3rd-person hack & slash in the style of games like Devil May Cry, and with updated aesthetics inspired by the Nightmare Creatures series. Taking place in 1888, the story centers around the unseen serial killer of the Whitechapel district killer of London, Jack the Ripper. Murders of the prostitutes in the district range from a simple slash to the throat, to being completely disemboweled of their organs. Many people living the district claim to have witnessed these events, while some have developed many theories of the killer after a strange letter, claiming to be Jack himself, was discovered by the public. The most popular theory among the district is the notion of the killer having multiple accomplices.

Is he the town doctor? A sick man who lost his mind a long time ago? Or a demon drunk of the blood of the sinful?

Motivated by the merciless death of your childhood friend who chose the wrong path in life, you do your own investigating and interrogating among the town's people, and eventually encounter the unearthly grunts that run amok under their master. You battle your way through each sadistic entity from rooftop to street alley, until you hold the head of the demon, finally calming the dancing of the lanterns' flames, caught in the wicked presence surrounding them throughout the district.

Shell of Men--

Premise:
A 1980s cyberpunk-themed RPG, in which you create a team of cyborg policemen/enforcers , that are part of a larger police force where your missions come from. You and your squad are “volunteers” under transformation as cybernetic machines to combat the rebels on the street that are illegally acquiring the same cybernetic technology you and your teammates are made of. The simple controls/mechanics of the game allow you to switch from first-person to third-person, such as in Fallout 3. The controls are also standard, allowing you to switch the weapons you earn when upgrading your cyborg, and make quick decisions. Levels/areas/stages in the game are branching linear, meaning you may carry out the mission however you want to when patrolling the chaotic city. The aesthetics of the game reflect the atmosphere of any 80s-styled cyborg movie, such as the original Robocop. Neon-lit or brightly colored environments consisting of broken shop signs, advertisements, beer signs still standing, etc. What sets it apart from other games of the same genre is that it's more of a serious in-tone homage to the 80s, cyber-themed action style instead of being just a tongue-and-cheek parody like most seem to aim for.

Synopsis:
You and the rest of the trainees were tossed aside from lack of direction and not following orders, then sent to laboratories to find use for you and your team mates in a cooperative manner. If you wander too far away from the area of mission, you will be shocked into submission through the attachments on what’s left of your body. Your goal is to pay off your debt to society in order to regain your body back to its original state, and determine the source of the criminal activity in order to regain biological freedom. The Chief may seem like he is buddy-to-buddy with you in your missions/time of need, but there is more to him than your optics can identify.

Game World:
After several years of terrorist attacks, savage war, and controversial technological advancements in cybernetics, the United States government restricted liberties among the people to protect the nation. During these times, suspension of habeas corpus was in effect along with unrestricted search and seizure. Civilians were arrested for political reasons more than actually committing crimes, even held at high sentences over minor offenses, or no offenses at all. Rumors and theories of corrupted officials and politicians planning to solidify their power by taking control of the country, banking corporations, and preventing citizens from doing anything that would threaten them, spread quickly throughout the country. As an overall result, numerous groups of citizens started a rebellion on the streets nationwide.