Lately I've found myself daydreaming back into game design, after the terrible loss of everything I had been working on for about a year, I had practically given up on the process. Sadly that part of me always exists and whether or not I'd actually get back into it, I wish to share my latest dream concoction.

Slasher: The Game

Perhaps it's the autumn weather, or the fact that it's around the Halloween season (Sept-November) but horror movies are making a big impact on my watch list lately... to be more specific, classic slasher films (Friday the 13th, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Nightmare on Elm St, etc...). And in my obsession I found myself designing a game in my head as to how I could actually play the slasher, using techniques in the movies that make them so damn entertaining.

I. Concepts
In order to make the game more than just a random killing spree, there'd have to be goals and achievements behind the mayhem. In theory my perfect slasher game would play out as a strategy-type with minor RPG mechanics.

The goals would be simple yet entertaining, the game would consist of rounds and different scenarios. Each round the top priority would be to strike as much fear into the hearts of your victims as possible, this would be added together as an overall rating, and at the end of each round would serve as your score/currency. This currency would determine how many points you could spend on attributes/skills/items that would benefit you for the next round. Strength would allow you to interact with heavier objects, land speed would be upgradable, you could learn certain skills such as terrorizing dreams, a scary mask that would generate more fear, etc...

II. Interaction and NPCs
The AI of the game would be rather complex, to make a game like this enjoyable you'd have to give the victims both personalities and necessities, as well as reactions based on their level of terror (Some may try to attack you back, some may simply run to a corner and piss themselves, others would toss up a friend as a meat shield, seemingly endless possibilities). They would have to interact with eachother of course, and with this interaction would have to be interactive terrains.

In most slasher films the majority of the terror is generated by the reaction to their peers' turnout. You could murder one of their friends, move the body into a specific location (such as pinned to the side of the cabin) and if the NPC stumbled upon it they would react from a list of certain reactions, from scream and puke/run to picking up a weapon and standing guard. This terrain/NPC interaction could even go so far as my favorite Jason Voorhees moment in which he picks up a body and chucks it through a window to create entry into a barred up room. (Certain attributes would give way to this action).

III. Design
In order for all of this to work it'd have to be based mostly around a line of sight and a virtual radius of sound for the NPCs, and terrain interaction. You step on something noisy and if in range of an NPC it would cause alertness, sounds could lead to fear generation but may also make it harder to move in for the kill. There would always have to be antagonists (which in this case would be the protagonists) who would try to kill you, creating a need for some form of stealthiness as well.

To get the best result out of the design, it'd probably serve best as a single player entry with options of possibly achievement and score competitions online. I think if made correctly, this idea could be very fun.

I suppose it'd be like The Sims meets Horror, meets an action RPG. Some things may not entirely make sense to you folks because hey... it's 12:30am and this was deprived from a series of daydreams and I may design this game, I may not... I'm still very unsure at this moment, but this idea has been pretty dominant as of late.

When I think of more I'll post an update. <3 Ken

I can't wait for it, it's a re-imagination of the original few movies directed by Marcus Nispel and produced by Michael Bay. I really can't explain it in words so I figured I'll just share the trailer.



It was a preview prior to the movie Saw V (which was great too, aside from the ending of a "finale") and it really caught my attention.

Discuss.

I figured I'd join in on the political part of BYOND, and Matt Damon explains what I'm sure plenty of people feel, pretty well.

There's a chance that Palin *could* be the next president, and that is a very scary thought. I do believe it was a cheap political move to get McCain the brainless population of women on his side in a "mooch off of Hillary's success" tactic, and when people wake up from dream land and join reality, they will realize it.

Personally I'm going to vote Obama, I like what he stands for and he has proved as a citizen that he isn't just all talk. He may seem too good to be true in the eyes of some, but even if he accomplishes half of what he proposes America and the rest of the world just might see glimpses of a world we took for granted less than a decade ago.

McCain seems way too flip floppy for me, it seems like every week he goes in a totally different direction... That and I really don't want 4 more years of Bush or as Matt Damon states, a terrible Disney movie. The inexperienced hockey mom suddenly becoming president of the united states might make a nice fairy tale movie, but this is reality and it scares the hell out of me.

Wonder who's accepted the independent party nomination today... Assuming they had the convention...

<3 Ken.

P.S: Make sure you watch that video... Oh and I decided to ruin any serious political tension with an edit of my favorite shirt.

So following boredom of playing our normal toons in World of Warcraft, Jon and I (who are roomates of course, never filled that in) decided we wanted to do a bit of a WoW RP.

First we began with an Obama + McCain political debate over trade, and that was amusing until we were ignored by the bulk of the trade channel so we figured we'd attempt another method before we were flagged.

He created a toon named Tinaturner, and I a toon named Iketurner, and we decided to travel to Goldshire and stage a domestic dispute... Here is how it went.


And that's how it went... I love pop culture RP.

Ok well 2008 has been a pretty lame year for me so far. But things are building up for a good 2009... So hopefully that goes much better.

Well this year started off rough when I got a nice case of rabies, then after all that alot of really emotional stuff went down a few months later. To recap; I lost my job , my girlfriend of 4 years left me for some dude in prison, Bernie Mac died... it just goes on and on.

And of course the one comic I read to take my mind off of the lame that is 2008, went from videogame comic to soapy sitcom featuring our two protagonists facing bombing relationships and drama... WTF m8!?

But coming close to the end of the year, things are starting to look up. WoW has a new expansion coming out, and I finally get to chill back to a Samuel Adams Octoberfest... I hate you 2008, but I looove my beer.

<3 Ken.

P.S: I'm voting for Obama suckas.