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[michaelplzno]

I was sitting in the bath pondering my impotent rage at the grand scale of how utterly hopeless my career is and I decided, why fight it? I'm just gonna make some games that are about expressing my warped deranged feelings that may or may not be legitimate and may or may not be pleasing to powerful people who are "good at networking"

I want to make a game about towers. That is, you help build them at the request of asshole middle managers who really want to turn you into a cog in a bigger machine. I was thinking of using some sort of tetris like game mechanic where you are just stacking stuff, maybe something with physics like Tower of Goo or something.

But as you build towers you get called into the boss's office and they give you little bits of text about being a good employee and how you gotta network, and "best practices" about how to do your job as a tower builder.

Once you build enough of the tower, at some point a big logo with someone else's name gets dumped on top and the tower is complete.

There is some kind of system to get more tower building jobs, like networking. I'm still a bit at a loss for details here, but you can get a new tower to work on by approaching people in suits who are themselves shaped like tetris pieces and answering dumb questions like "how would you move mt fuji" and other stupid interview questions that are just made to make you feel like you are inferior.

Every time you build a new tower your avatar is more shaped like a tetris piece. But if you talk to non tetris pieces you can make friends with animals and weirdos and actually interesting people who say much more interesting things than the tower bosses.

So the player has a choice, build towers and get more tower jobs, or talk to the weirdo animal people who tell interesting stories and follow you around and are cool.

Then in the final bit, if you talk to enough animal people, they fly around with you and throw poop at the towers. Or if you build enough towers, you turn into a tetris piece and get placed in a tower somewhere and get a high score for how good at building you are.

I don't know, its still just an idea.


Edit: 1/20/23

Xanadu is the biggest game idea I ever had, a fever dream of a madman, a game destined to never be finished. The concept is simple: Can you design a prison you would never want to escape from? Its a utopia simulation, a world of pleasure without pain. A world where you are always rewarded for doing what you want.

[michaelplzno]

I was just thinking of this, the lure of the tower, can you fight all the bad guys and get to the top?

[michaelplzno]

I just love how arbitrary the hierarchical nature of a tower is. If you are on a higher floor you are just better than everyone else.

[michaelplzno]

Another good one.

[michaelplzno]

Towering Inferno

Power Tower

Rascacielo

[michaelplzno]

Here's a good "Confrontation with the boss" scene:





I don't know if I will ever experience the true ideal of a warrior.

[michaelplzno]

I've always wanted to do a game in my own art style but I've never realized it:

[michaelplzno]

Is it just me or are people getting really fast at stealing my ideas: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2064650/Tower_of_Fantasy/

[16comma7inPx]

Is it just me or are people ... stealing my ideas...

According to the Bible, in order to prevent "this", God divided human communities by language. Since they "all" learn english now, they team up again, to spill your coke today. And wait for AI generated "indie" games, it will come. There is plenty of similar themes in games from the past, as well - get on top of mystical tower, or get down. But characters in Tetris pieces are good point to hold, in this context - unique. Process of building made them into building blocks, so they may become part of tower itself. Consumed by process. One netfriend had also towering concept - roguelike postapo skyscraper, but frankly never realize it, or didn't show me.

You can invest your bitter feelings into creative process only as much, as you can stand. It is inspiration, but not motivation. Turn them into pavement, by which your pyramidal code arise, by workings of IT self-enslavement. But what others had build should never be a boulder in your path. Even beautiful menhir can have a crack, search for those to compare with. Tower seem to symbolize hierarchy and order, but itself does not have a purpose. Tower is task itself, something big, proud and inhuman. To large to understand, but even as a ruble, a monument. There are three things you must ask yourself, though.

So, what is scope you wish for, against how many man-hours you can spend? Will it be in marshmallow-rainbow style or else? And last, utterly important - "What are the verbs?" (all -possible- means of player interaction)

Warped and deranged shall rearrange.

[michaelplzno]

just to be clear, the tower rpg comparison was mostly a joke. If people are stealing my ideas they do it so well that I can't figure it out.



I'm mostly getting over my bitterness too. Most of the people who are trash are just done with making games anyway.

In real life, I love building towers and then knocking them over. I'm not so sure making an expression of bitterness is a good idea. And towers are cool, they can be inspirational: look at how high we can get.

Also in my dreams I always jump off of high ledges because I never hit the ground.

[michaelplzno]

I used to play sim tower so much, that game was great. All about building enough elevators.

[KorbohneD]

I would say, go for it.

[mobilelast]

How about making a game about towers that only the builder can destroy?

The player must first build a sturdy tower that withstands everything from weather to bombardment and invasion. But once the tower has proven to be good enough, the very same player has to demolish the structure as fast as possible.

So the tower must simultaneously be a great challenge to invaders, but contain carefully placed weaknesses, a kind of security backdoors, to bring it down in a controlled manner.

[michaelplzno]

hmm like building a lock

[ANGELB3AR]

Your deranged feelings are legitimate    Can't wait to see what you make of this

[michaelplzno]

Thanks for the friendly support everyone. 

I'm thinking about how the animal people tear down the towers:



Like the taller the towers get the more people rebel? More and more people rise up in anger when the tower system gets unfair?

[mobilelast]

hmm like building a lock

Kind of. A fortress that only one key can open.

They key could be a sound that resonates in specific parts of the tower to make it collapse. Like the Walls of Jericho or Horn of Winter in the Song of Ice and Fire. Or the player could be a psychiatrist opening defenses of a troubled mind…

[michaelplzno]

hmm

[michaelplzno]

idk if I can code this, maybe I'll get someone to boss around?

[Ramos]

Your concept fits this movie like a glove:







Maybe it will inspire you ... or not, you are hard to predict