For the last ten days now The Escapist has been running a feature on independent developers called the Indie Developers Showcase. The creators of World of Goo and Samorost have both been interviewed and the insight they and others have provided into their games and the industry as a whole is enlightening and entertaining. You can catch up on what you've missed here:
To wrap the whole thing up the final question they asked of all their interviewees was to create a game concept based on a simple premise: "You are a passenger on an airplane." The answers range from the humorous to the mundane and even get into "I hope that was an attempt at humor" territory a bit (World of Goo creator suggests making a match-3 game out of it, to which I reacted by spitting). Here are a couple of my personal favorites:
"Okay, there's a villain who wants to blow up the plane ... if he
doesn't get some small plastic car that is in the possession of a
little boy - but he refuses to give it to him. You must communicate
with the passengers, solve some puzzles and barter things among them to
finally get all the things the boy demands in exchange for the car. "At the end it won't work anyway, but luckily the villain's dynamite was only fake. Hmm ... it doesn't sound very funny." (ed. note: If only more developers thought like this) "The plane is hit by a large EMP blast, splits in two and lands on
an uncharted tropical island. You survive with a few of the more
interesting passengers and spend the next five years becoming involved
in more and more ludicrous plots." (ed. note: I would rather have someone crush walnuts between my testicles than play a game inspired by a McG property, but especially Lost) --- And my personal favorite: ---
"You, as the unlikely hero, have only one resource at your
fingertips: airline food. By serving exquisitely crafted 1st class
meals to the panicked passengers, you can steadily fatten them up,
thereby causing the plane to tilt where the weight is most focused. If
you feed people at the front of the plane, the nose will point
downwards and you'll lose altitude. If you balance this out by feeding
people at the back of the plane, you can bring the nose back up to gain
altitude. "After a while, your passengers will start getting so fat that the
plane will lose height regardless of which way it is pointing. By
serving them food from economy class you cause them to be steadily sick
out of the window (you can do that in the future, or something) thus
relieving them of any weight they may have gained. This will make the
plane much lighter, but be aware that your puking passengers and anyone
near them may not feel like eating again for quite a while. "By using these tools to tip the plane down, up, left, or right, you
can guide it through a number of obstacles (small focused
thunderstorms, flocks of birds, mountains, etc) until you reach your
destination and land safely." "Along the way, if you're quick enough, you can guide the plane to
pick up military food drops which will give you special abilities.
Light and fluffy soufflés will allow you to shift the weight of the
plane and gain altitude, while a thick and stodgy black pudding will
add so much density to your passengers that they will actually collapse
in on themselves, causing a wormhole to open up and transport you
forward a few hundred miles." "Extra points for aerobatics and vomiting over highly populated areas." --- I don't know about you, but I would buy that in a heartbeat. -Unfather
"You're a passenger on an airplane, flying at high altitude. The
emergency lights flash on and an announcement explains that all rudder
control has been lost. The engines are still working, which is why the
plane's still up in the air, but without any way to change course,
you're all as good as doomed.
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