Results from the HERO MACHINE

Csípőprotézis is Hungarian for hip replacement and the name of our hero who has so much personality that he's toned down the clothes to soften his impact. Csípőprotézis exudes extroversion far beyond necessity. Thus he must tone it down because he has the unfortunate occupation of process server. He is well known in the business district as the delivery chariot of horrible news---'You have been sued'. 

His eyeglasses reduce the landscape to a single tone range, the only thing that remains in it's original color palette is the client. Help avoid Csípőprotézis from getting distracted. Csípőprotézis loves small talk, loves to drag on and on about nothing in particular. He loves to talk to people like they've known each other for years.....All the while the client will notice him and make a run for it.

 

Stanovené is Slovak for specified, our faceless heroine. Through a series of carefully chosen masks she will attempt to communicate. The player chooses masks, all of which are abstractions or have strange emotive imagery painted onto them. Stanovené appears to be a street performer, but is actually on an extended and now unwanted vacation. She has completely lost her face. It's so absurd that everyone thinks it's an act. It doesn't help that she's in Venice either. She is trying to communicate this problem to others, with great difficulty.

 

This is the team jersey for the Department of Disruption. They hate sports and they abhor stadium architecture. Their only form of organization is in the disruption of team sports. Each member of the team will enter a sports event, dressed as if they belong there hence the uniform. Each team member independently forms disruption strategies. 

For example, one may enter the locker rooms and kidnap key players, hide them away, and then dress up in their uniforms, wear their jewelry, even reenact pregame superstitions. Then go out onto the play field and stop the game from progressing forward until they are eventually chased out by security. Another may enter the bleachers and constantly change seats, fidget, annoy, and ask concessions workers to serve them from unreasonable distances. 

Crippling Fines

Rapid Prototyping

OUTSIDE

 

INSIDE

ACT ONE:

You are on your merry way to Boston city hall to pay up for enormous fines regarding parking tickets, minor infractions, other behaviors you're being charged for. You're kind of a sensational person but that's only because you think life is a bit absurd, and you just can't get away with shit. Angry and irrational, you're cursing, spilling coffee, snapping at people, while walking up gratuitous stairwells to the main entrance. Breath a sigh...

You walk into the building--inside is a convoluted geometric nightmare. Not only are there multiple departments with similar names, but they are physically demanding to get to. Adding insult to injury, the space inside the building is obviously larger then the building outside. A clear distortion of reality, which really unnerves you.

ACT TWO:
The goal of the game is to pay these stupid fines. But every office has the same words in their names mixed around with different suffixes thrown in. On top of that, they give you forms which are incomprehensible and send you back and forth through the obstacle course of stairs, corridors, ambiguous offices, not to mention the many departments.

Attempt to achieve this insurmountable task before your temper goes, otherwise you'll be politely ordered to calm down and start the filing process over because you have caused a disruption, and that is unfair to the other people in line. Who aren't there. I'm being serious. A little bureaucratic humor mixed in with adventure and plat-former elements. It's like Mario except he's been fined for plumbing without a license.

I say this game should be made for children. Have posters inside:

"Tooth fairy stipends, (Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanza/Eid-anything) presents are income, add to item 11 or be audited."

THE FUTURE

FIRST: listen to this
Iannis Xenakis' - Syrmos

THEN: Take a look at this
A proposal for a game featuring artwork by Lebbeus Woods

More Details:

1) Write a high concept statement: a few sentences that give a general flavor of the game. You can make references to other games, movies, book, or any other media if your game contains similar characters actions or ideas

The game is sim city in hell. You are the urban planner or rather dictator of an overworked FEMA. You are tasked with managing a basket case of a city which is subjected to environmental disasters, war, and unmitigated population and resource swings.

2) What is the player’s role? Is the player pretending to be someone or something, and if so what? Is there more than one? How does the player’s role help to define the gameplay?

The player’s role is to continually rebuild structures and reestablish infrastructure/vital services. The player is givin map data and statistics about current “events” which will give indications about where building need to be built (or not built) where services are vitally needed, etc.

3) Does the game have an avatar or other key character? Describe him/her/it

The game is more of a topdown RTS kind of view. You direct, but you are not visible as an actor.

4) What is the nature of the gameplay, in general terms? What kinds of challenges will the player face? What kinds of actions will the player take to overcome them?
.
The gameplay will move in two phases:

“Relative Calm”
Is a time for resource allocation, analyzing data on the conditions of surroundings (weather patterns, enemies--ala other cities in similar situations...) building the necessarry structures to move out of the way of impending doom.

“Chaos”
Is when a disaster happens. This is the time when you direct the actions that are necessarry to mitigate the damage: Population losses, resource losses, structure lossess, etc. Different disasters will have different implications for the current location- hence you are essentially always on the move.

5) What is the player’s interaction model? Omnipresent? Through an avatar? Something else? Some combination?

Player is omnipresent

6) What is the game’s primary camera model? How will the player view the game’s world on the screen? Will there be more than one perspective?

The game is top down with a good view of the larger picture, and allows for zooming in on the details.


7) Does the game fall into an existing genre? If so, which one?

This would fall in-between RTS and simulator


8) Is the game competitive, cooperative, team-based or single player? If multiple players are allowed are they using the same machine with separate controls or different machines over a network?

The game could work as either single player or multiplayer.
In multiplayer mode: Both will be in control of the same city but as different departments who are squabbling over control. Depending on circumstances players may have to cooperate or sabotage each other.

9) Why would anyone want to play this game? Who is the game’s target audience? What characteristics distinguish them from the mass of players in general?

People who would enjoy it probably have a dark sense of humour.

10) What machine or machines is the game intended to run on? Can it make use of or will it require any particular hardware such as dance mats or a camera?

I see this as a more intense experience, close to a screen with the good speakers or headphones.

11) What is the game’s setting? Where does it take place?

In the future, not specifically earth, but indicative of impending real world issues: climate change, resource wars, overpopulation.

12) Will the game be broken into levels? What might be the victory condition for a typical level?

The game will be one continuous map where all events take place. Victory conditions are to reach higher ground and stabalizing conditions for your city.

13) Does the game have a narrative or story as it goes along? Summarize the plot in a sentence or two.

Climate change, causing natural disasters, causing resource wars, causing trouble.

Spiderman

This is a pinball machine that was actually manufactured.

Mechanisms:

Sonic Spinball 

This is an example of a very basic pinball type game that was a mini-game inside of Sonic Spinball. Very simple: There are four targets. In the middle of the playfield a character moves in a linear fashion from one left to right. When the ball hits the character it bounces back in the opposite direction.