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Daily Brainstorm 10/18

Feathers

This is a quick post about the daily brainstorming I do each day. I spend 20 minutes each day during the week creating as many interesting designs as I can, fleshing out any details that draw my attention. I use a random word generator to provide a word that I’ll use as a theme, either in terms of story or gameplay mechanics. The theme for this session was “feather”.
Main Ideas From This Session
These are my attempt to summarize the various designs I had during this session at varying levels of completeness and detail.
  1. A modern retelling of Icarus set in the modern day. Icarus dies as per the original story, but finds himself reincarnated into the modern day where the other Greek personalities have continued to live, albeit with changes to fit the times. Although they have externally changed, the Greek gods remain notoriously flawed, and Icarus, having suffered for his vanity and been reborn, is in a unique position to offer insight and help. Gameplay: Visual novel (see Eliza for reference). Relation to theme: Icarus seems to be a strong tie from Greek mythology to a literal feather.
  2. Icarus in the underworld during some kind of crisis or end-times scenario. The premise would be a platformer where Icarus is trying to gather the feathers to his wings so he can fly around and save the day or whatever. Gameplay: Puzzle platformer. Relation to theme: Icarus seems to be a strong tie from Greek mythology to a literal feather.
  3. Another, better stab at what Pokemon Arceus(?), or whatever the open world version of Pokemon was. I feel like the existing games fail to capture the fantasy of being in a version of nature that is truly alive with the idea of an ecosystem built around Pokemon. This design would need to really focus on the open world and ensuring it’s populated with meaningful events, like a Gyarados breaching the water or a bunch of Metapods hatching into Butterfree. Gameplay: Open-world RPG. Relation to theme: Feathers made me think of bird watching, fishing, and nature which made me think of Pokemon.
  4. A shmup featuring an organization of crack pilots named The Feathers. The setting could be pretty much anything. If sci-fi, they would be space jockeys. If fantasy, they would be dragon riders. If modern day, would be just normal pilots. In terms of narrative, could drop the player in as the new person on the team, and would be their story of coming to find a place of belonging within this legendary organization. Of course, there should probably be some kind of crisis that results in all or most of the other Feathers being killed to up the drama. Gameplay: A shmup, potentially incorporate roguelite elements? (See Jamestown for reference). Relation to theme: Feathers could be the name of an organization.
  5. An RPG or management type game where you’re part of a fantasy rescue organization that bails out reckless adventurers like park rangers. Mostly because I feel like most fantasy setting type games always cast you as the main hero, and that telling stories from alternative angles is also interesting. There have been other item shop management type games in the past. Could also be something like the Fuel Rats from EVE Online, running out essential items to help stranded adventurers. Gameplay: RPG or a management game. Relation to theme: Feathers make me think of monsters and monster hunters (adventurers). Also, feathers make me think of phoenix down.
Raw Stream of Consciousness
This is a (slightly) cleaned up set of notes of my stream of consciousness that led to these designs. I recorded and transcribed my brainstorming session and then spent some time cleaning up my thoughts into complete sentences to make it easier to digest. Proceed at your own peril.
  • Thinking about all the things that a feather symbolizes leads me directly to think of Icarus because of the metal feathers attached via wax to his wings.
    • He’s the apprentice of Daedalus, the master craftsman. Daedalus warns Icarus not to fly too high, which Icarus of course proceeds to do.
    • Eventually, he flies too close to Helios, the sun, causing the wax to melt. Loses his feathers and eventually falls to his death for his vanity.
    • Thematically speaking, it’s a story of being too ambitious and not listening to his elders and getting burned for it.
      • Could potentially explore themes involving the teacher and the student/ mentor and the greenhorn tropes.
        • Recently used this narrative theme for a Game Jam.
        • Also not so sure how strongly related to theme of feathers now.
        • Isn’t Chiron a stronger archetype of a teacher in Greek mythology?
    • In terms of setting, I kind of feel like Icarus points toward a sci-fi theme. Icarus seems like the of type of name you’d give a plane or a mecha or something.
      • I feel like I’ve seen a name like that before applied to a spaceship.
      • Why would you ever want to name something that flies after Icarus? He dies in the end. Do you want your plane/vessel to crash?
      • I really hope NASA has never named one of their space probes Icarus.
    • Narrative could be some sort of reincarnation type narrative for Icarus or an alternate retelling of the well-known story.
      • The idea of retelling familiar stories but with an alternative twist is interesting. 
      • A potential story could be that Icarus fell into the ocean and everyone thought he had died. Well, surprise, he’s still alive.
      • You could even go for a more modern incarnation of Greek myths. I feel like Greek myths are really great for their stories, but that their settings aren’t as impactful from a visuals and gameplay perspective. Plus the world building can wind up being predictable.
      • I think even character design for straight Greek mythological themes can be tough since most people don’t have a deep knowledge of classical Greek mythology. For example, Theseus in Hades seemed kind of generic to me. He seemed just like a generic Athenian youth like that could have just as easily been Apollo.
      • The core message of such a story would be the idea of making mistakes, and still getting back up and trying to live your life/do good/help others/deal with the consequences/whatever.
      • This could possibly be presented well as a visual novel style game like Eliza. Could be a more atmospheric game about the classic Greek personalities living in the modern day and are just trying to navigate their lives. Similar to The Wolf Among Us?
      • I feel like there’s definitely some chance for a strong narrative here, since Greek gods have extremely human flaws and and vices making them highly relatable. In a modern re-incarnation setting, you’d have these beings whose essences span all this time and haven’t managed to change our outgrow their issues.
      • The times may have changed, they may take different forms, and their power may have changed or waned, but they’ll still have their problems.
      • For example, Hades, he’s always been, the god of the dead, but with the rise of the popularity of Christianity, he could start being re-interpreted as Satan.
      • Everyone keeps characterizing him as a bad guy, and being gloomy and isolationist, he actually starts to believe him and gets super depressed.
    • Could run with a platformer idea.
      • Narrative could be like an end of times type scenario. 
      • Icarus finds himself alive in the underworld and needs to undergo a linear quest. He would be trying to gather the feathers as collectibles to rebuild his wings and escape the under world/save the day or something.
  • Different interpretation of the theme could be bird watching.
    • I feel like the experience of bird watching is similar to fishing? Never been my self. But basically, I feel like the experience is being in the peaceful, relative solitude of nature, waiting patiently for some kind of occurrence or particular bird to show up. 
    • The issue is that fishing has a clear man vs. nature conflict built into it that isn’t really present in bird watching I think. The major commonality is the notion of being in nature and exercising patience.
    • A literal implementation of this theme would be a bird watching game where you basically point and click/where’s Waldo for birds in a scene.
    • On some level, I feel like this is actually kind of similar to Pokemon, since you set out into the wilderness looking for a specific Pokemon, and sometimes you find it and sometimes you don’t. Just like looking for a particular bird.
      • I feel like there’s some real potential in the Pokemon IP to actually capture this essence of bird watching. The combination of looking for something and being present in nature.
      • They tried to do this in the Arceus(?) game, but it seemed like they did a really poor job of constructing the world and thereby capturing the essence of nature.
      • The whole goal I feel like should have been trying do a better job of selling the fantasy of living alongside Pokemon as part of a living eco system.
      • Events like seeing a Gyarados breach the water or a bunch of Metapods hatching into Butterfree are like the things that would really make an open world Pokemon game special.
      • I also think that it would be difficult to realize a design like this as a Pokemon knockoff/alternative. I feel like the only other major IP that has competed with Pokemon is Digimon, but Digimon had some key differentiators. Specifically, the Digimon are all anthropomorphized and are combined with a more sci-fi setting.
  • Feathers also imply the idea of flight. Possibly a theme based around a faction or mercenary team of crack pilots named The Feathers. The setting could honestly be almost anything. Modern day would be real pilots, sci-fi would be space pilots, fantasy would be dragon riders.
    • In terms of narrative, could possibly drop the player in as the new person in the super cool pilot club. Makes it easier to introduce progression and narrative exposition.
    • I feel like most games don’t necessarily drop you in to play a character that’s already in full swing like the captain of the squad or something.
    • In games that do this, I feel like there’s generally this dynamic of a loyal retainer that’s like acting like Clippy and telling you how to do everything. Something like that would pretty much never happen in real life. I hope.
    • In terms of gameplay, could be looking at something like a shmup? The Feathers could be a small team of like 4 that are all very strong, distinctive personalities with noticeably different gameplay. Has anyone done a shmup roguelike?
    • I’m actually thinking about the shmup Jamestown as a reference for gameplay and art style.
    • Making feathers a centerpiece of the narrative of this design would probably have to be focused on The Feathers as an organization and the MCs relationship with it. 
    • As a reference, I feel like all of my positive relationships with different organizations has been feeling like I’m in the right place, working for a just cause, doing the right thing. There’s potential for a compelling story of supporting an unjust cause you believe is just.
    • You could also build a story of the hero’s journey into belonging to a group and cause that’s more meaningful. It’s like a decent narrative.
  • Feathers also make you think of monsters in a fantasy setting. An interesting spin on a fantasy RPG would be playing the part of a group that somehow supports or cleans up after the adventurers. Similar things have been done with item shop management games.
    • The Player could be like the equivalent of a park ranger, just making sure adventurers don’t get too beaten up.
    • The Player could also be like the Fuel Rats from EVE Online, coming in for the rescue for adventurers, bringing the Phoenix down (which also evokes an image of a feather). This connection seems a little shaky.
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