Games Begging for a Remake

Here's a short list of games begging for remakes or sequels. Although I ain't really familiar with the most recent gaming trends and brands (read: Rock Band), I'm sure some of the kids out there would appreciate some of the earlier Nintendo classics such as Bionic Commando, but aged graphics and controls sometimes make it hard to get involved into a game, no matter how amazing the game originally seemed.

I'd really love it if more game companies did exact remakes of older games, but with enhanced graphics and sounds. In other words, the exact same controls, gameplay and physics but with the high definition experience - the way they did it with Bionic Commando: Rearmed.

Carmageddon


One of my favorite gaming brands, the Carmageddon games had a ton of character. From awarding the player extra points for slamming sideways into pedestrians, to pitting dune buggeys against mine sweeping tanks in multiplayer mode, to leaving trails of blood, Carmageddon was a no-holds-barred gaming experience and a definite influence on the Grand Theft Auto series, among others. It was even banned in certain countries, where pedestrians were replaced by mutants, zombies and aliens bleeding green.

If a remake was done, it would be a sick, demented cross between GTA4, Burnout Paradise and Death Race 2,000 where, in addition to being able to squash pedestrians and other lifeforms repetitively for extra bonus combo points, the whole thing would happen at blinding speeds and you'd be allowed to get out of your vehicle with a rocket launcher to blow up a building, which would collapse and crush your opponents' cars and innocent, harmless pedestrians.

Chrono Trigger


After almost 15 years, Chrono Trigger for the SNES is still remembered as one of the most innovative RPG's and one of the most respected and influential SquareSoft games. The storyline was out of this world and, similar to Final Fantasy 4, started as a relatively traditional RPG but went onto various sci-fi themes such as time travel, space aliens and a futuristic apocalypse. There was a sequel called Chrono Cross on the PlayStation.

With today's graphics, sound and online multiplayer possibilities, a remake of Chrono Trigger would be breath-taking. One could play the single-player storyline (the original on the SNES took at least 20 to 30 hours to complete) but could also go online with a customized avatar and play with other players in team vs. team combat where, similarly to the single-player gameplay, the key to winning matches would be by performing offensive or defensive combos with your teammates, combining melee and range combat with elemental magic spells.

Mutant League Hockey


A poorly known brand, Electronic Arts' Mutant League sports games used their Madden Football and NHL Hockey engines but replaced the players with various robots, zombies and monsters. The field or ice rink was also littered with chasms and booby traps, reminescent of Games Workshop's old Blood Bowl board game.

One can only imagine what kind of mayhem a game like Mutant League Hockey would bring to Xbox Live today. Imagine being able to design your own monstrous mutant hockey players, using a tool similar to the recently-released Spore Creature Creator. Add a tentacle here, a spiked tail there, give your player a spiked flail or a double-edged battle axe, create your own team jersey, colors and logo, then head online with your team of goons to play against other players.

MMO Class Ideas

Here's a bunch of ideas for classes for an MMO. Inspiration comes from everywhere and anywhere as I try to create original classes which could be fun to play. The reason I'm posting this one is MMOs seem to be stuck in a loop when it comes to class types and are generally unwilling to take chances or to denigrate types of players. After all, it is easier to get into a game if the classes available are similar to the ones we've played before in other games.

So, no healer, no tank, no rogue class, no pure caster. Welcome to Hybrid Land. :)

The Runeblade

Not a magic user per se but capable of storing magical energies in a special runic blade, the Runeblade are dreadful to pure casters. By placing the blade into the path of an incoming fire ball, ice shard or lightning bolt, the Runeblade then stores the magical energy to add magical damage to their blows or throws it back to their enemies. The elemental magic stored into the blade can also be used to nullify additional incoming attacks of an opposing element (i.e. Fire cancels Ice).

Used mostly as secondary tank, the Runeblade wears heavy armor and is capable of withstanding more magical damage than other classes. Some Runeblades even develop the capacity of wielding their own magics, as residual magical energies from their blade eventually accumulates into their bodies.

The Sagittarian

Capable of extraordinary telekinetic powers, the Sagittarian archers use a single arrow which they throw at the enemy, then recall back like a boomerang. They can control the arrow in mid-flight to hit their targets, or hit their targets many times in one shot. Some Sagittarian archers are even known to teleport their magic arrow through walls or across vast distances back to them.

Each Sagittarian archer crafts his magical arrow and uses it for several years until broken or lost. It is even believed that the Sagittarian and his arrow develop an unbreakable bond, as the magically infused arrow develops a personality. After death, Sagittarians are buried with their trusty magical arrow, as any other way would be a great dishonor.

The Stargazer

Stargazers utilize the alignments of celestial spheres, stars and weather patterns against their enemies. By fetching and channelling the magical energies of a star or planet and re-directing it to their enemies, they act as a sort of reflecting mirror. Their spells are usually more potent if their enemies are placed between the desired celestial phenomenon and the casting Stargazer.

Different stars and planets have different powers. Ares, the planet associated with war, inflicts wounds to the enemy and boost the caster's bloodlust. Turan, the star associated with love and compassion, will revive a fallen ally or otherwise boost their morale and vitality. Stargazers can also predict the future to a certain extent, therefore giving them an edge in battle. They thus make excellent commanders.

The Naturalist

Naturalists have an innate bond with Nature. As they protect the woods, the fauna and the cycles of nature, they are also protected by the woods and the elements. Most MMOs have featured classes such as Druids, Foresters and Shamans which were based on the concept, but the Naturalist would play based on a Karmic equilibrium of helping nature and getting helped equally in return.

By planting trees and seeds, healing injured animals or cleaning the waters of a stream, the Naturalist's natural Karma would increase, thus ensuring that, in times of desperate need, Nature would return the favor. Naturalists would have a full range of healing spells, buffs and offensive spells, but in addition, as their Karma increased, they could summon swarms of animals, charm a pet wolf or animate a flesh-eating tree to defend them. Naturalists would fare much better in wooded areas, as there would more surrounding Nature to fend off their enemies and protect them.

Cyclopean: an MMO with depth, Part 2

A key element to make this game work is unpredictability. As an MMO player, I always thought it shocking that players could go on a website and know exactly what to do and where to go to complete a quest, level faster and get the best gear. The goal of any MMORPG should be adventure, and these adventures should be highly entertaining and fun. And yet, it's extremely frustrating sometimes to search for hours to complete a quest. Some MMO addons even offer full ingame support to search, complete and turn in quests.


One solution is to allow players to generate their own content. Games like Neverwinter Nights allowed the players to build dungeons, keeps and even entire areas for other players to explore. One problem that would sometimes arise, such as in Ultima Online or Shadowbane, is the time and effort involved in building stuff that could be destroyed overnight. Those were hardcore games.

Cyclopean is a game which would allow players to build whatever they liked without fearing the sudden destruction of their creations. And of course, their creations would become things of adventure and exploration for other players. Building things would be extremely easy:

• Choosing a spot - Before building, players would have to choose a spot. These spots would be totally free but of course only available to one player, on a first-come-first-serve basis. These spots can be any surface in the outside world, underwater or underground. An abandoned spot can also be claimed by a player (more on this below).
  
• Basic layout - Once a spot has been chosen by the player, they would use an editor to create a dungeon, a mineshaft, a cave or whatever they wanted using easy to use tilesets. The basic layout, such as walls, stairways and tunnels would be indestructible.
  
• Populating - Once the basic layout of their hideout has been designed, players could then populate it with monsters, booby traps, interactive elements such as doors and switches, and of course treasure. These elements would be destructible.
  
• Introduction - Finally, once the player's hideout - or property, or castle, or snake pit - is ready, it is opened up to the player community. Since it is visible to them while being under construction (it may take many days or weeks until it is ready), it might get stormed if a formal date and time had been announced beforehand.

Maintaining, Upgrading, Repairing

Using a modular engine for dungeon-building, every cubic module in a player-built structure would be made of various materials - some salvageable, some available from merchants - of various quality and would require various time frames to build. Sometimes, building something would require the participation of dozens of players - crafters, gatherers, monster herders, archeologists, advisors, etc.

Players would need to maintain their property, as adventurers, monsters, the elements and time would damage it. After a week or two, creatures would inflitrate and damage walls and spread their waste around. Players would break in, loot treasures and kill the assigned NPC guards and monsters.

Repairing and upgrading is done using the building editor. For any action, NPCs would be dispatched to actually do the work in real time. Therefore, if players were actually visiting the property, they would have to deal with these NPCs, peacefully or otherwise. The player could also visit the property as an adventurer and do the work himself, surrounded by hired NPC guards, player mercenaries or guildies.

Cyclopean: an MMO with depth, Part 1

Here's an idea for an MMO in which the game world is actually interactive and dynamic. To anyone who's played an MMO, you'll know that rare are the ones which allow players to directly interact with it. You'll be able to build a house or a castle on a hill, but won't be able to carve a trench into that hill or grow crops on it.

This could be possible by adding layers upon an underlying, unmoveable game world on a gigantic, worldwide grid. On the X and Y axis tiles, the players can move along as in any other, traditional MMO. But on the Z axis, the players can actually dig their way down to the lower layers.


The top-most layer offers the classic MMO experience - questing, exploring, killing mobs - but, along with the usual crafting skills, they are offered an original one: archeology. The higher the archeology skill, the faster a player can "dig" shafts and tunnels into the underground. And, as archeologists dig their way down, they discover many different things:

• Treasures - As time goes by, many adventurers and creatures bury their treasures and often die or forget about them.
• Caverns - Underground networks of caves and faults filled with monsters, rare minerals and other salvageable things.
• Abandoned mines - A vast network of underground mines, long abandoned, can be discovered. Monsters have long since established bases there.
• Cyclopean ruins - And finally, within the bowels of the world are scattered ancient ruins of a long vanished advanced civilization. The best and rarest items can be found there, along with priceless records and relics, providing the adventurer can survive exploring the ruins and bring them back.

Sometimes, archeologic "hot spots" will require expert archeologists to bring along a host of mercenary bodyguards.

Exploring a new world, again and again

To ensure that the game stays exciting, the game world changes dynamically over time and from one server to the next:

• Cities, towns and monsters - Their locations change from one server to the next. Also, if they are "popular" - i.e. if a city is visited by lots of players, or if a specific monster camp is being farmer by lots of players - they grow stronger. Cities will grow, NPC merchants selling better goods and guards becoming more powerful, and monster will defend themselves more desperately.
  
• Underground features - Caves, mines and underground ruins are also placed at different spots from one server to the next and have completely different layouts, being modular; one expert explorer on one server becomes a novice on another.
• Regrowth - As holes are dug by the players and abandoned, they eventually fill up again over time and vegetation grows back to assume their original state.
• Player-generated features - And of course, players are able to build their own cities, mines and dungeons. This will be the subject of my next post, in a few days...

Stay tuned... :)

Invader from Zorch!

A few months ago I had an interview at a game company in Montreal. One of the things I had to do for that interview was to come up with a two-pager presentation for an original game idea, with a description of the gameplay, the storyline, the main characters, main inspirations and a complete level designed. The concept had to be original, and I could do anything I wanted. Fun times, indeed. Here's what came out:

Name of the game: Invader from Zorch

Inspirations: Rampage, Mars Attacks, Carmageddon, psychobilly band The Meteors

Description: The Zorch invader has arrived! Part the Hulk, part Juggernaut, the Zorch invader is all about destruction and chaos. Pummelling buildings, smashing cars, surviving wave after wave of military strikes, the Zorch invader appears to be invulnerable.

Main Character: Scientists have studied the scrambled footage of the rampaging Zorch invader and are unable to explain its motives, origins and why it’s wearing what appear to be a black leather jacket, blue jeans and combat boots, even though it apparently came from interstellar space. One thing they do know, however, is that nothing appears to stop the 20 feet high, green-skinned, ape-faced creature from reaching its unknown goals.



Storyline: The creature, which hails from the alien world of Zorch, has come to Earth crashing in what appears to be a hollowed-out meteor which was likely used as transportation. Scientists have been studying the crash site for evidence concerning its origins and motives. All they found was a license plate that reads “ZORCH” and some molecularly indestructible pocket lint. The license plate itself is made of an unkown and indestructible alloy, which might explain why the Zorch invader is itself unstoppable.

Since the day the creature has arrived on Earth, it has leveled entire cities, caused trillions of dollars in damages, and survived an entire spectrum of earthly warfare – from napalm to guided missiles to nuclear bombs – none of which have caused it to even flinch! Scientists have worked double shifts in trying to figure out a weakness, but to no avail.

Amidst all the destruction and chaos, however, there have been no casualties. The Zorch invader seems to be utterly uninterested in our species. Scientists are awaiting more data…

Unknown to mankind, the Zorch invader’s true objective is to simply collect stuff he left on Earth when he was last here, 65 million years ago (he is also immortal and billions of years old). These artifacts are: his collection of 8-track tapes, his coffin-shaped double-bass, his axe-guitar, and his many weapons and gear such as his Jump Boots, Spiked Shoulderpads and Brass Knuckles. His final artifact is an escape pod which will fly him all the way back to Zorch to get to the concert on time. These artifacts can be found in various places such as in Top Secret military bases, in holy temples and shrines, or deep within the Earth’s strata.


This level was designed for the test but a ton of fun levels would be designed, in such places as the bottom of the ocean (gotta get across, somehow!), hopping across the Himalayas or in the center of a nuclear explosion.

The point of the game was to experience what it is to play an indestructible character, and the challenge was to figure out a way to keep it fun throughout. Mechanisms such as time limits are interesting but annoying. I was thinking of opting more for combo bonuses, hidden areas, achievements and tons of humorous feedback.

The game was to be highly humorous and graphic, but with no gratuitous violence. No blood, no injuries, no casualties; just massive destruction of inanimate things. The tongue-in-cheek tone of the game would even be accompanied by a wicked rockabilly soundtrack from the Meteors, the Stray Cats and the Cramps.

Robot Grinder

We've all watched those fighting robots television shows, years ago. Usually, these fights pitted teams of engineers from different universities in arena matches against each other to see whose robot was the fiercest. The most popular shows were Battlebots and Robot Wars.

Here's an idea I pitched to my old employer, Airborne Mobile, for a fun, online cell phone game. The idea is to let the user create and customize his own robots and challenge other players asynchronously. The game has 3 easy steps:

• Build, Repair & Upgrade: Using an assortment of spare parts ranging from wheels, chassis, treads, arms, and weapons such as chainsaws, spikes and hammers, build, the player repairs and upgrades his army of robots. To ensure maximum replayability, all the different parts also exist in various different materials, from maleable copper to iron to durable titanium. Alternatively, robots could come in a limited amount of pre-designed templates, and the player could upgrade them individually, as shown below.
  

• Organize: Everytime the player builds, repairs, upgrades or buys a robot, he organizes them into squads. The typical squad has its strongest robots in front and weakest robots in the back. Each robot operates automatically and can be scripted by the player. An example for a script could be, everytime a robot is near an enemy robot, he smacks it with its hammer; if not, he moves in a random direction in search of an enemy robot. To avoid having a never-ending fight, there could be a turn limit.
  

• Challenge: Using an online match-making engine, the player is then offered a list of potential candidates to challenge. Once an opponent is chosen by the player, a challenge can be issued.
  

The fights do not take place in real time but rather asynchronously. The player who issues the challenge receives the fight's results immediately, whereas the other player only receives the results whenever he logs into the game. The result of the fight could also be sent via SMS message or email for an immediate response or a rematch. Whenever a player leaves the application, he can flag himself up for incoming challenges.

Each fight is crunched by a server, which sends the results to both players. The fights can also be replayed by the players so that they can tweak their robot setups accordingly for future challenges. Each fight is fought on a grid and each robot's actions logged, so the fights can be replayed using a standard, DVD-style interface (Rewind, Pause, Play, Fast-Forward).


These fights can be organized in tournaments and daily rankings, with the weekly winners receiving special prizes. The player can also practice against NPC robot armies to tweak his robot armies to perfection before challenging real players. The end result would be a highly addictive game, since players would have to log often to manage, maintain and upgrade their robots and issue challenges for a chance to win big prices and have their names in the weekly winners lists.