›

Random idea for a game

MCAMCA
in General
Stop me if this has already been done, and maybe point me in the direction of the game that already exists, but…

Is there already a game that uses your OS's desktop as the level/arena? A platformer essentially, that makes use of any folders and files on the desktop?

Monsters would crawl out from folders that could be destroyed
Files are blown up to gain items/treasure
You could possibly climb into folders as secondary areas to explore
Each OS desktop would have unique characteristics, Windows vs. OSX vs. Ubuntu...
Possibilities of multi/split-screen fun
Objects spawn regularly/randomly to help, i.e. guns, ammo, tools, armour, being able to clim the sides of the screen or use a grappling hook/jetpack…

Before the person loads the game they could basically design the level on their desktop. So if you're in the mood for a Space Invaders style game you could arrange a row of folders along the top of the screen… Once you've completed the level, all folders/files/monsters are gone it either reloads as before but is more difficult - more monsters, fewer items, or that's it, or a new level is randomly generated with files and folders repositioned.

Thoughts?

Comments

  • rustybroomhandlerustybroomhandle
    Have not seen anything that uses desktop icons as the level. But I have seen games that generate content based on the files on your system. Two come to mind:

    There's a currently-in-development game called AdventurOS: http://adventuros.evelend.com/blog/

    In 1997 there was another one, titled Virus: The Game. It was a Descent-like. See and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virus:_The_Game

    Thanked by 1MCA
  • MCAMCA
    @rustybroomhandle AdventureOS looks pretty cool, and is a more complex idea of what I had in mind - thanks for sharing it. Virus on the other hand… not so much, but you've sent me on a nostalgic wander back to playing Descent and Hi-Octane way back when :-)

    I suppose I'm thinking more simplistic - the game just takes a "screenshot" of the desktop and scans the files and folders to create the additional sub-content, but visually nothing really changes except the character appears and monsters start crawling out of folders etc. and Start menus/taskbars become interactive in a different way…
  • petrcpetrc
    Cool idea. You would have to use some sort of image recognition. Perhaps have a look at opencv
  • MCAMCA
    @petrc Yeah…. uh, no. I'm just a sound guy - no coding knowledge whatsoever! Haha! The secret (not anymore) plan was to have a brilliant idea and then some coding ninjas do all the work and get super rich O_0

  • vintarvintar
    Probably not a good idea to have a game make use of folders and files and then call it something like "Virus" :D
  • brondinbrondin
    This reminded me of Zach Gage's weird art game, Lose/Lose, which takes the idea of using files and folders to produce game content to its absolute extreme. The files on your hard drive appear as enemies, and when you kill those enemies, the files they're based on are permanently deleted. A really interesting idea, but perhaps not the best source of design inspiration :P
Sign In or Register to comment.