Game out of a Dream

Last night I had a dream, from which I can make a sketch of a game that is worth a good plan and design.

Interestingly, even in the dream itself, as I was kind of going through the process on which the game would be based, I was already aware that it could be made a game from and made the decision to bring it forward or if possible into the final implementation.

The plot is quite simple. It is largely based on what happened or I imagine was happenning inside the building where my grandparants home was. It was a 24-storey residental building built late last century in Pudong, with butterfly-shaped plan with 2 units on each of the four wings, typical of buildings at that time. For buildings like this, there are normally 2 or 3 elevators and two stairways in the middle. The game mainly focuses on the stairways rather than the elevators, at least for the time being. The two stairways go across each other independently leading to the floors up and down in an almost completely closed space, people walking through one of the stairways can never see the other, and what she can see is no more than the entrance above or below to the corresponding floor. As they were so deeply concealed in the centre of the building,  it was very dark even in the daytime. So it gives a very eerie and creepy feeling when walking on the staircases, for one cannot help thinking about who is up or down waiting for her and who is on the other stairway on other side of the wall. And if it was not very well soundproof (I couldn't remember, but I wish it had been to an extent that gives best effect for the game), one could hear from now and then indistinctly footsteps from above, below or even aside. And the most exciting thing is one never knows, and if it does come from a place so close as on your side, it doesn't mean it takes shorter for the guy to reach you than say for someone from above or below, and in fact it takes much longer. In those days, I always like to have fun by running around these stairways with my cousin, imagining the sudden appearance of our two uncles in the darkness summoning us back home in a somehow deliberately scaring manner.

So when all this is transformed to an adventure or escape game in my mind, the player would be required to use her judgement and sensitivity about the things around to decide which way to go and how fast in order to avoid being caught by the enemy. Certain postures of player could be introduced such as peeping from the corner to check for instance whether there's ongoing enemy in the front without being discovered in most cases; and powerups for both the player and enemy can be distributed along the stairways or in the corridors.

As a game with a story (or maybe no story at all) as simple as this, it is not hard to get implemented once all the fundamental things such as the 3d game engine (support of features such as from collision detection up to inverse kinematics needs to be ensured) are available, sound is a must, well planned atmosphere, decoration and upholstering will greatly increase the fun. One key issue is the game has to be in 3d with some of the details delicately treated, this is no less demading than making a miniature of such a game as Silent Hill. Downgrading the the game to 2d will severely diminish the entertainment of it.