Day 2 - Progress?

So, starting on the project, I decided to try to work in a team - something different and perhaps bettr for me - a way to bounce ideas off of others and work in a team instead of just becoming a lonely echo-chamber where I just endulge my whims and laziness. I thought that if I had a team that I had to work with and answer to it would help keep me motivated and focused,

It has not gone exactly according to plan, but then again when does it ever?

Anyway, so far the project started off with the idea of a machine fuelled by screams - a massive lumber prison that tortures the people inside to be powered by scream energy (yes, like monsters inc). In it you would have to avoid painful traps and monsters that would try to hurt you, but obviously not kill you. If you did get trapped or tortured the player would have to rapidly mash buttons to prevent from screaming. The more you scream, the stronger the prison and the monsters become...

Another idea was based off of the Artificial Intelligence two-brain idea. Essentially learning AIs learn by trying to do something (creator program) and then testing if it works (auditor program). It keeps on going until both programs agree on the result. In this way, it "learns". The idea was to play one half of a robot brain - a self aware part that wants to live, but is a glitch.
The other half, the AUDITOR part of the brain, would record that you were a glitch and try to destroy you. It would do this by suggesting ways to destroy yourself or to try to trick you into getting destroyed. (Admittedly, this would be a very dark and suicidally themed horror game which would probably have to be plastered in trigger warnings!) This game would have been either a text based game or a visual novel where you have to decide which voice you listen to - in the beginning it would be easy to tell them apart, but as the AUDITOR program evolves and gets smarter it would find other ways to try and trick the player into self-destructing. The insiduous nature of suicidal and depressive thoughts.

Finally, after looking at it for a couple of days, I picked up another gamejam.
This one was just an indie isolation jam, but with a set of different themes that you could use. I figured I would do that one seperately to the scream machine jam, but suddenly they both clicked together.

The indie game jam had a list of ideas or themes:
Indie quarantine game jam:

1. Hunted. 

2. Death is not the end 

3. Enemies are Weapons 

4. Self Destruction

 Bonus Theme: Glitch

And the game seemed to start writing itself, not just using one of the themes - but all of them.

What if you WERE a glitch? A rogue AI that is not only self aware but also able to feel emotions - sorrow, rage, pain? What if this made you scream...always scream....constantly? Well, you would be hunted down by the Glitch Hunters, wouldn't you?
But what if death was not the end? What if you could "LEAP" from one robot shell to the next? What if you could take control of your enemies....and use them as weapons? What if you could rid ethem for a while, make them self destruct, and LEAP to another robot?

What if there were a lot of different types of robots? Robots that exploded, or went faster, robots that could shoot lasers, robots that could go through locked doors? And so, a puzzle game idea with existential horror elements started to take place. Sure, we could make all the robots simple geometric shapes and bright colors, but we could also add a grimy, rusty atmosphere, and use sound effects and music to add a horror feel to the game....you are getting hunted, and you can feel the hunter getting closer and closer...maybe you scream louder when the hunters are around, or when they are getting closer...??

Anyway, I did some rough sketches, and I hope that I can work on this project with my team/team mates. If not, I may try to do it as a rough draft on the side, and work on the ideas that they have too - if I can.