A blast of ideas! Cloud player (Could use some inspiration:))

For my game I want to player to be an idea, that tries to escape the unconsciousness to help a writer make up his story. So what kind of player character would an idea be? The first thing what came to mind what a thought bubble, so i tried to make that (should change the sounds as well). It does seem a bit bland at the moment though… I’m going to see If i get a better idea how to make the cloud interesting looking, or to use another shape altogether. If you guys have an a cool idea, I’m all ears^^.

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In the right context, your idea sounds very playful to me.

Considering “Ideas” as your main character, there are different metaphors for it that one could dig up. Let us look at an idea. You said the main character is an idea that is trying to help a writer. Some ideas deal with imagery and are therefore ascribed to the sensing parts of the brain, but the more abstract concepts (like Love and Wisdom) are metaphysical concepts that deal with non-material functions, or if one is a materialist, it is a gas or excretion of the brain (not so glamourous of an explanation this second).

But following along with the above, ideas can inspire, give one a push toward a right direction, the “Aha”! moment in which all things suddenly come together as a unified whole. So your idea has the ability to inspire the writer, to put random pieces together into a cohesive whole.

What symbols can we apply to Idea since it is an abstract concept rather than something we imagine? Or even better yet, what images have been used? You said you could use some inspiration- Light, doves, lightbulbs, cloud, mist, seem to convey different aspects of inspirations or illuminations. To be illuminated is literally to be lighted up, to make that which was dark, clear. You can see how this can apply to our mental activity.

The word inspire itself literally means to spirate forth, that is, to breath into something, a breath, with the connotation of giving life. Thus your idea is something that will breath life into the writer. Perhaps a floating coloured glowing light, sort of like in the BFG movie, like a sprite or fairy, would be of some utility? This would then take both concepts of illumination and spiration and attach it to a sort of metaphysical/fairytale like form that would inflesh your “idea” with physical form. Simple point of light is all that is necessary if one wants to.

Thus it could be that a fairy or sprite (some form of floating light) wonders about the world seeking writers/poets/musicians to inspire.

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The idea of a thought bubble could be exploited in many ways, you could tell the writer’s story, imagine this: The bubble is just a transparent sphere, but inside it, there’s something, an image that represents the idea, each time the player moves to the next level the image will change because a story is not a single idea, is a series of ideas and concepts.

Here’s an example of how that’d look.
Captura de Pantalla 2021-04-04 a la(s) 16.44.19

This way you could tell two stories in one; the effort the writer had to put to come up with everything, and the written story.

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This sounds like a good idea :slight_smile:

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Wow, thank you guys for all the replies:). This is a lovely way to brainstorm^^.

@Zangk @Yee I like a lot of your ideas! The bubble is quite simple to make and I feel like its easy to understand as well. I was already thinking about projecting a word (that you can collect in the level) into the cloud, so you know what the idea is that you will take to the writer to make different stories. For example: you see the sentence “And then the knight kissed the (blank).” And you can collect “princess”, “henchman” or “dragon” to make your own wacky story. Maybe pictures can work as well.

Yee’s though bubble player idea would combine nicely with zangk’s idea of using a lightbulb. What if the light-bulb is the finish point? If the thought-bubble brings the word/picture to the light-bulb, it lights up as to indicate the writer just had an idea and can continue his story. I do like the idea of the fairy as well, but I do feel like its not as clear what it symbolises as the light(bulb), being in the dark or mist or thought bubble without a introduction… Hmm, something to think about. I want to keep this game both easy to understand and lighthearted for players and not too complex to make for me as a beginner^^.

I still have two weeks before I will have to time to really go and customise this game, so I will keep all our idea’s in mind and brainstorm at bit. Thank you^^

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I like the shape of the thought bubble, also looks like a low poly cloud :slight_smile:

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@Paula, that is a good combination: Lighted thought bubbles :).

As a side thought for a future consideration: you could have “bad Ideas” that do not glow, or have an ominous red glow (or something) that float about trying to take your precious idea away from you so you cannot give it to the writer. They replace your idea with something that does not make sense to your level. (And the knight kissed the “angry dog”: sounds like a bad idea to me… good thing he is wearing armour…)

You could also have obstacles that try to get in the way of your idea, they are called “Writer’s Blocks”.

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@Zangk
Having “Writer’s Blocks” that are actual blocks is a very punny idea:P. Thats awesome^^.

About the angry dog kissing… I actually would mind if that was in the game:). When I was younger, I used to sing a song that was called ‘cowboy billy boem’, in which a cowboy tries to catch thiefs, but after some time his horse gets really tired. Then you think of an animal, any animal, for Cowboy billy to ride on, and you sing the song again with that animal instead of horse. You get very silly songs that way, with a cowboy riding on an ant, a platypus or a flamingo. I loved the goofyness and the freedom of that song and I would like to capture that same magical feeling in this game. If I would introduce a ‘wrong’ word, I feel like I would take away a bit of that freedom. If the player wants to make a story that is really weird, I would want them to be free to do so^^.

Some kind of obstacle/enemy that would take away your Idea is a nice one, though:). Maybe you just lose the idea if you bump into the walls… will be thinking about it^^.

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According to how you want to situate your idea, you are probably right about the words. Stealing words would be more apt than “wrong words” since silly is something you want as a feature.

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