Hey all, Well earlier today I came across this page through another post in the lounge. A page that allows you to draw simultaneously with other users. It's pretty fun for 5 or 10 minutes or so. Now I'm sure there's potential for a multiplayer game based around drawing... in my mind it has a feeling of potential similar to ragdoll masters and the like, elegantly simple yet great fun. The first thing that came to my mind was an idea for a game based solely on a single screen where players must guide a ball of some kind using their pen, the lines drawn forming a surface that the ball can roll up and down or bounce off. I could see other elements such as an eraser and powerups that may wipe out part of a drawing in an explosion. What I can't quite envisage yet is how to turn the concept into a proper game. I think that if the ball were allowed to drop and came to rest at the bottom of the screen, how do we get the ball falling again and back into play. I can only think of either having the ball fall through the bottom of the screen and appear at the top again, or have it continually bounce around in pong style, but this feels somewhat artificial. I can also see the system being easily abused by a player either continually blocking the opponent in a circle, or continually erasing their way through to their objective.... which would be somewhat dull. Having said that, I'm not confident my initial thoughts of an objective are condusive to a good game, my initial thought being that each player has to guide a ball, or balls to a certain target to score points. Perhaps another objective would work better?? So anyhoo, there's my skeleton of an idea... I'd love for us to throw some ideas around and see if anyone else can improve on the design, or completely rehash it if needs be, I'm not really attached to my idea but more interested in playing with the concept of a game based around simple drawing... I'm just certain there is potential there and wouldn't want to miss out on it! Cheers, Steve

Off the top of my head... How about a Lemmings style game? Lets say you have one character that is continuously walking forwards through the level, and player must draw in ramps, bridges, ladders etc. for him to make it to the end. When the character has two different paths he can take, the player can draw in arrows to tell him which way to go. You could even have a see-saw thing where the player must draw a big rock in the sky at the right moment, so that it falls and catapaults the character over a brick wall or something. The possibilities are endless xD

I think there are a few games like this for the DS. One with Kirby I remember and a couple others.

tj963

I had actually considered a Lemmings style game several times in my pondering. It's not quite what I'm really aiming for though, as the idea would get complex very quickly if we have to start using advanced shape recognition (to determine if user has drawn an arrow, a rock or a ramp, etc). I think what really intrigues me here is the possibility presented by a game that is shaped by the player on the fly where a quick strategic flick of the mouse cursor could change the pace and strategy of the game and the player must adapt their drawing style to counter opponents moves. Thus the multiplayer aspect is also crucial as the basis of my idea as it is not the drawing itself that I think makes for a good game mechanic but the interaction between 2 or more people drawing at the same time (hence the inspiration by the link posted).

On the other hand, I'm still open to discussion of alternative ideas, so don't hold back from adding any further ideas based on the lemmings style game. I do like the idea of having to draw something meaningful too, like the rock for the see-saw. I'm a little undecided as to whether the game would be better based around proper meaningful drawing, or whether something scribbly (like my original idea) would work better.

Cheers,

Steve

I'm pretty sure we had a thread where could do something very similar to what the OP is talking about. But it was actual drawing. I forget who made it or what it was called [sad]. those were good times.

Damn... i just took a look at a video of that Kirby Canvas Curse game and it is like they read my mind O__o!

Well, i still think more could be done with the idea though as the Kirby game seems a bit more platformer-ish than I really had in mind :P

An idea to help restrain drawing so it doesn't get out of hand would be a certain amount of ink/chalk/graphite/whatever. It can recharge over time (or can be acquired through other more manual means), but a person can't simply draw as fast/as much as they want, with as big of a brush (if brush size is allowed) as they want, because they'll quickly run out of drawing material. Although certain bonuses might allow infinite ink for a short period of time, or something, allowing them to go on a rampage briefly.

Quote:

Original post by tj963 I think there are a few games like this for the DS. One with Kirby I remember and a couple others.

Yes, Kirby Canvas Curse does a similar thing very well. However, a lot of the appeal that the Kirby control scheme has is due to the touchscreen and stylus (it wouldn't be nearly as fun or easy to control if the mouse was used). I do like the idea of bringing it a certain lemming's or worm's quality, though, and I think that the control scheme could work well if it doesn't rely entirely on drawing motions.

Let's say you have a two-player game.

The goal is for player one to bring a ball in a hole in a limited time. To do so, he can use his "pen" to create explosions under the ball to move it.

The goal for player two is to recover one or more object(s) in the level, while making it impossible for player to accomplish his own goal. Player two is playing with a sort of "snake" figure, which can be used to make the ball bounce off of it, but that he has to move around the level without touching the walls or itself, in the old "snake" game fashion.

Or maybe you can try playing that old Tron game, with two speeders in a closed arena, but with drawings this time? Try playing that with two pens, and that's one hell of a nervous breakdown you're facing...

Quote:

Original post by Alpha_ProgDes I'm pretty sure we had a thread where could do something very similar to what the OP is talking about. But it was actual drawing. I forget who made it or what it was called [sad]. those were good times.

smart_idiot's multi-user paint program