Interestingly a friend sent me a link to this game over AIM a little bit before I saw this thread. Word on the internet spreads fast I see.
The game itself is an amazingly awesome concept (if not just for its novelty). Unfortunately it is very short and the puzzles are very easy. I would love to see an expansion on this wherein each floor had its own unique puzzle (instead of really only having 3-4 puzzles and a bunch of filler floors where you simply click the stairs as fast as possible).
Not in this form. I was about to be sick of it right when I beat it. Any more I would have hated it.
The game just needs a new lick of paint and some more complicated puzzles. It would be great to see this concept applied to, say, an Art of Theft-esque heist game, featuring a thief who keeps going back in time, going through one-man, co-operative thefts that get increasingly more complex and culminate in dozens of "copies" of this thief rampaging around a loot-filled mansion with perfect foresight.
BroloBroseidonLord of the BroceanRegistered Userregular
edited January 2008
Man, just got a friend to play this and we immediately started talking about the possibilites of it. Here's a basic game idea that came out of it:
Game premise : Kill Yourself.
Essentially you have five lives that play out simultaneously in an arena. The object of the game is to kill the oldest iteration of yourself in the most spectacular way possible, with your score being generated in much the same fashion as the game Stair Dismount. To accomplish this task you're given a variety of Garry's mod-esque physics tools - poles, pistons, rockets, cars, levers and the like, which can all be welded together in interesting ways. These are scattered around a stadium-sized arena.
The game records the input of your first run through the arena, where you have a minute to do whatever you want. You then create a second iteration of yourself, with the goal of killing your old self as painfully as possible. So while the first version of you ran into the middle of the room and started jumping up and down, the second version of you created a catapult and launched the first version of you into a wall. The third version of you will see your two previous selves, one running into the room, and the other creating a catapult, and so on. This continues until you reach the sixth iteration, where the first iteration and its inputs are removed from play. The goal is now to kill the second iteration of yourself, now building a catapult.
The trick, much like cursor-10, will be planning in the early stages how to get the later versions of yourself to help you out in your quest to commit spectacular acts of suicide. Sometimes you may not even wish to prematurely end the life of one of your old selves, so that all four lives are working together to reap the highest possible score. The nice thing is that you're playing against yourself, so the challenge is just in manipulating the sandbox to its fullest potential.
The best thing about this is I'm pretty sure the entire mod could be done in the Source engine. The player iterations are done by recording the player inputs, and then making a bot that performs the same actions in the next round. The physics tools are already all there in Garry's mod. The only thing that would need to be added is a way of totaling up how much damage was done to the ragdoll, which I'm pretty sure you could already get the info from out of the source engine.
Really, really cool idea. Couldn't hold my attention though. Then again, most flash games don't. When I figured out the mechanic, I thought "Oh, that's neat", then I closed the window.
I remember way back when the official (UK) PlayStation magazine used to put games people had made with Net Yaroze (an amateur PSX SDK Sony made available for a while) on the cover disc every so often. One such game was an otherwise very basic little platformer called Time Slip where you play as a snail and have to collect x number of coins the get to the exit of each level. The gimmick to this game was that every minute you would warp back in time (although remain stood in the same place) and all your past selves would be going about ding whatever you'd done. There were a lot of stand on switch to open door so you can get through next loop puzzles much like this game. The only way to die was to collide with your past self.
I love the feeling that you have when you realize what is actually happening. That doesn't happen very often.
This exactly what did it for me. The epiphany I got right as I realized what was happening and what to do to solve the puzzle was a monumental one beyond the level of just about any other game in history.
I mean, I've had this kind of feeling from movies before, when a particularly good twist is revealed -- the sixth sense, the others, fight club, unbreakable --- but never from a game. I very nearly loudly exclaimed an "ohhhhh shiiiiiiiiiit!" as it struck me, even with no one around me, or even in the house.
Wait, now that I think about it... how is this any different from a 'ghost car' in gran turismo etc?
Uh, can you use your ghost cars in GT to shunt other racers off the track leaving it open for you? Because that'd be the only corollary I could see here.
Well obviously it's not exactly the same as a ghost car, but it's only half a step off, and not exactly an astounding step.
It's...erm...completely and utterly different. The ghost car shows what you did before and doesn't interact with you, with this you have to cooperate with yourself.
Regardless, I liked it.
I think a full game would be a bit much and drag on but as a mechanic (as someone mentioned) in something like the next Prince of persia game, it'd be awesome.
This reminds me of a story idea someone once told me. It was his special project so I hope he won't kill me for sharing it, but basically there's this guy who really loves soup from a local mom & pop restaurant. Unfortunately it closes down. He happens to be able to time travel so he abuses it to go back in time to the restaurant's last days and buys soup. After doing this several hundred times, he finds out that the restaurant made so much money from his repeated visits that it actually didn't have to close down.
This reminds me of a story idea someone once told me. It was his special project so I hope he won't kill me for sharing it, but basically there's this guy who really loves soup from a local mom & pop restaurant. Unfortunately it closes down. He happens to be able to time travel so he abuses it to go back in time to the restaurant's last days and buys soup. After doing this several hundred times, he finds out that the restaurant made so much money from his repeated visits that it actually didn't have to close down.
That's clever. I'd love to see a finished product if your friend ever works on that.
This reminds me of a story idea someone once told me. It was his special project so I hope he won't kill me for sharing it, but basically there's this guy who really loves soup from a local mom & pop restaurant. Unfortunately it closes down. He happens to be able to time travel so he abuses it to go back in time to the restaurant's last days and buys soup. After doing this several hundred times, he finds out that the restaurant made so much money from his repeated visits that it actually didn't have to close down.
This reminds me of a story idea someone once told me. It was his special project so I hope he won't kill me for sharing it, but basically there's this guy who really loves soup from a local mom & pop restaurant. Unfortunately it closes down. He happens to be able to time travel so he abuses it to go back in time to the restaurant's last days and buys soup. After doing this several hundred times, he finds out that the restaurant made so much money from his repeated visits that it actually didn't have to close down.
I could swear that you've posted this before.
Now that you mention it I have, in some story idea thread or game idea thread, maybe that it would be a neat idea for a game. I know we've talked about time travel at various times.
This reminds me of a story idea someone once told me. It was his special project so I hope he won't kill me for sharing it, but basically there's this guy who really loves soup from a local mom & pop restaurant. Unfortunately it closes down. He happens to be able to time travel so he abuses it to go back in time to the restaurant's last days and buys soup. After doing this several hundred times, he finds out that the restaurant made so much money from his repeated visits that it actually didn't have to close down.
I could swear that you've posted this before.
Now that you mention it I have, in some story idea thread or game idea thread, maybe that it would be a neat idea for a game. I know we've talked about time travel at various times.
Yeah, I think it was a game idea thread.
I just got a little confused, and wondered if you had come back to tell that anecdote and got your time lines mixed up.
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It is a pretty good game, but.. better than portal? Portal was more than just its gameplay.
I just wish they'd make your current cursor a different colour or something, it gets difficult to track after a few levels.
Also all you nay-sayers can DIAF. That was awesome.
0431-6094-6446-7088
The game itself is an amazingly awesome concept (if not just for its novelty). Unfortunately it is very short and the puzzles are very easy. I would love to see an expansion on this wherein each floor had its own unique puzzle (instead of really only having 3-4 puzzles and a bunch of filler floors where you simply click the stairs as fast as possible).
AKA: mdraw, dux, milkman
Ooooh maybe make it a lockpicking minigame or some such. I could handle it in short 2 minute doses.
then i realized what was happening and im like Oooohhhhh thats sweet
AKA [PA]Ilovepandas
Steam | Live
Game premise : Kill Yourself.
Essentially you have five lives that play out simultaneously in an arena. The object of the game is to kill the oldest iteration of yourself in the most spectacular way possible, with your score being generated in much the same fashion as the game Stair Dismount. To accomplish this task you're given a variety of Garry's mod-esque physics tools - poles, pistons, rockets, cars, levers and the like, which can all be welded together in interesting ways. These are scattered around a stadium-sized arena.
The game records the input of your first run through the arena, where you have a minute to do whatever you want. You then create a second iteration of yourself, with the goal of killing your old self as painfully as possible. So while the first version of you ran into the middle of the room and started jumping up and down, the second version of you created a catapult and launched the first version of you into a wall. The third version of you will see your two previous selves, one running into the room, and the other creating a catapult, and so on. This continues until you reach the sixth iteration, where the first iteration and its inputs are removed from play. The goal is now to kill the second iteration of yourself, now building a catapult.
The trick, much like cursor-10, will be planning in the early stages how to get the later versions of yourself to help you out in your quest to commit spectacular acts of suicide. Sometimes you may not even wish to prematurely end the life of one of your old selves, so that all four lives are working together to reap the highest possible score. The nice thing is that you're playing against yourself, so the challenge is just in manipulating the sandbox to its fullest potential.
The best thing about this is I'm pretty sure the entire mod could be done in the Source engine. The player iterations are done by recording the player inputs, and then making a bot that performs the same actions in the next round. The physics tools are already all there in Garry's mod. The only thing that would need to be added is a way of totaling up how much damage was done to the ragdoll, which I'm pretty sure you could already get the info from out of the source engine.
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2nd Cursor: What?
3rd Cursor: OH THAT IS SOOO COOL!
As soon as I saw the second cursor, I went "OH!" and immediately felt compelled to finish it.
This exactly what did it for me. The epiphany I got right as I realized what was happening and what to do to solve the puzzle was a monumental one beyond the level of just about any other game in history.
I mean, I've had this kind of feeling from movies before, when a particularly good twist is revealed -- the sixth sense, the others, fight club, unbreakable --- but never from a game. I very nearly loudly exclaimed an "ohhhhh shiiiiiiiiiit!" as it struck me, even with no one around me, or even in the house.
I'M A TWITTER SHITTER
Now i need to go back and play and collect all the pyramid thingies.
PSN: SirGrinchX
Oculus Rift: Sir_Grinch
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Methinks you may have missed the point entirely!
PSN: SirGrinchX
Oculus Rift: Sir_Grinch
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Uh, can you use your ghost cars in GT to shunt other racers off the track leaving it open for you? Because that'd be the only corollary I could see here.
(Don't answer that, I know you can't.)
I'M A TWITTER SHITTER
Yeah, seriously. Thumb?
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It's...erm...completely and utterly different. The ghost car shows what you did before and doesn't interact with you, with this you have to cooperate with yourself.
Regardless, I liked it.
I think a full game would be a bit much and drag on but as a mechanic (as someone mentioned) in something like the next Prince of persia game, it'd be awesome.
PSN: SirGrinchX
Oculus Rift: Sir_Grinch
That's clever. I'd love to see a finished product if your friend ever works on that.
I could swear that you've posted this before.
Now that you mention it I have, in some story idea thread or game idea thread, maybe that it would be a neat idea for a game. I know we've talked about time travel at various times.
Yeah, I think it was a game idea thread.
I just got a little confused, and wondered if you had come back to tell that anecdote and got your time lines mixed up.