GameIdeas.org

A little change of pace this time: since I’m not going through those ideas day by day, I thought it didn’t really make sense to announce the theme of the challenge separately from the result. So, here’s the theme and platform (both randomly selected, as always) and the resulting game idea, in one single post.

• Theme: Edison and Tesla
• Platform: PSP

Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison are two of the most famous scientists and inventors of the end of the 19th century. They’re known not only for their inventions — among them the radio and the light bulb — but also for their intense rivalry. For years they were involved in what has been called the War of Currents.
Their genius and this rivalry made them popular characters in retro science-fiction (also called steampunk) — you might have seen them in the movie The Prestige, for a recent example. As far as I know, their rivalry has never been made into a game, so I thought it would be a fun theme to use.

So, what do you get when you mix 19th century inventors, video games and a total disdain for historical accuracy? The obvious:

Giant Steampunk Robot Battles!

This game will be a fighting game involving 3 stories-high machines of iron, steam and electricity duking it out in the city and country-side. But with a twist — two twists, in fact.

You see, while those robots are controlled by radio, the processor driving them is very slow. These mechanical processors, an evolution over Babbage’s work, take some time transforming commands into action. As such, drivers must anticipate what’s going to happen and order actions on what they anticipate will be the right move. The nice thing is, these iron giants move slowly, making it easier to choose the right moves.

While the game will look like a typical 3D fighting game, with robots on either side of the screen facing each other, the way to control the robots will be different than usual. Indeed, because of your robot’s slow processor, you’ll choose 3 moves in advance what you want it to do. Because of this, you’ll have to anticipate your opponent’s moves and make sure your own moves are hard to anticipate.

For example, starting the fight you could enter the following commands: go forward, punch high, low circular-kick. As soon as the first command, go forward, is executed, you could enter a new command in the “buffer”. Failure to do so would mean the robot stays idle for a little while. While you input those commands, your opponent could input the following: sidestep, activate an electricity cannon and block high. Since he side-stepped, he’d dodge the punch you ordered and hit you with the canon, but get hit with the low kick since he blocked at the wrong height.

This method of control transforms the fight into a battle of wits rather than reflexes. Rather appropriate for a game about inventors, I think.

Something else appropriate for a game about inventors, and the second twist I mentioned earlier, is the part where you build your robot. Between each fight, you’ll spend some time on R&D, trying to improve your fighter: making it faster, sturdier, stronger and giving it more moves.

Each robot will have an electricity gauge. Each move, aside from blocking or doing nothing, will take a certain amount of electricity. Simple moves, like punching, will require little electricity while powerful attacks, like electrocuting your opponent in an electric arc, will require a lot. As such, you must manage how much current you have left throughout the combat.

Since each player will favor certain types of technology, everybody will have his own custom robot. This will make multiplayer an always changing experience, where you have to adapt to everybody’s tactics. The nice thing about the slower pace of battle is that it works well with lag. Even if your commands get stuck in the tubes of the internet for a few seconds, the game can go on since you’re entering your commands in advance.

Conclusion

I have no idea whether this game would work, to be perfectly honest. I think it could, but it’d require a prototype to test out. The “choose your moves in advance” mechanics worked well in the RoboRally board game, but it’s unclear whether it would work in a fighting game. It would be fun to try, though — I really think “Giant Steampunk Robot Battles” is an awesome idea for a game.

Talking about fighting steampunk robots, check out A Gentleman’s Duel. It’s a short 3D animation movie that’s part of the inspiration for this game.

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