What About Minigame Project?

[Game_over]

I couldn't help but to think about this again.

Episodic and User created content are two of the things that are being are becoming essential to the video game industry. So when thinking of some of the past projects, from the GP32 and the GP2x, The mini-game project was the one I think could easily utilize these two things to and become the one of the initial titles upon the Pandora's launch.

Let me draw it out for you:

*The project starts off with a small collection of games in that grid of boxes (most likely the ones from the old version)

*If the Pandora is connected online, and the app is on- it will check to see if any new mini games are availible

*This grid of boxes dynamically grows and adds more games once it finds a new games available

*The games are probably just made from sdl and thus easy for users to create there own games and upload them to the compilation

*The project has a ranking system that users can compare ranks with each other, and be part of their profile when playing multiplayer

*The minigames could be as small as 1k, and some using OpenGL for 3d (maybe there can be like a "typing of the dead" mini game)

*Once the compilations gets really big, they will then be separated into different genres, there could even be one for those brain-age type games



Of course, I'm aware of several problems or hurdles that would prevent something like this from happening. However, this is just a thought I had for a very long time and couldn't really see it coming, until we had wifi and larger storage.

I'm just brainstorming, what do you think?

 

[senquack]

That is one amazingly good idea.

 

[plopperz]

Indeed.

 

[aaron11193]

Sound like a great idea

What about a LivePlay sort of thing, where you can go on the database of games, take a look around, choose one that you fancy, give it a play and then if you like it you can choose to keep it since it would already be downloaded onto your memory?

Or would this just be too much work?

And there could always just be a 'download all' button :lol:

Aaron.

 

[Forko]

I would love to see something like this. It would also give amateurs a chance to get a basic game out there and to get it rated. This would be a great community thing as many different developers would be able to make games for it, especially those with little free time.

It could be handled through a package manager-type application similar to those of Linux distros. It would be great to boot your andora1: up, log onto the net, boot up a package manager and be able to play a new game within seconds that is just added to a pre-compiled program which would add speed to the process.

P.S. sorry if some of my points are repeated or make no sense, I've got a cold and my brain has gone to mush :blink:

 

[Fishbong]

Seeing as how the minigame project is written in the script language Fenix, it is not possible to alter it to use internet functionality. It is of course possible to make a new launcher for all the fenix games (and possibly for normal C binaries, since fenix is very limited and isn´t suited for real 3D, only mode 7 3D). This launcher could then have all the proposed internet features. The original minigame project would have to be split up in several fenix files, one for each game.

 

[Game_over]

Thanks, I like some of the ideas so far. I wouldn't think about using fenix anyways as some of the points you've just mentioned Fishbonq. I'll draw some concepts later, unless someone beats me to it .

I know that whatever system we come up with is should be fluid and easy to update.

 

[bigtruck]

This is an awesome idea. Perhaps, assuming there's going to be an 'official' Pandora repo, there should be a 'community' one as well, which could be further subdivided into sections such as this (minigames). This project could be a frontend for that.

I would also like to suggest a highscores feature, for those minigames that will have scores, which could be synchronized with an official database of top scores. There was talk of a feedback/commenting system for apps on the Pandora recently. Perhaps if that system is ever created it could also save scores.

 

[x68000]

I rarely feel inclined to comment on posts these days, but have to give you a big 'ol thumbs up on this idea! If it could be implemented, this would be a killer app for the Pandora.

 

[Ryzure]

This idea doesn't suck at all.

QUOTE
...assuming there's going to be an 'official' Pandora repo, there should be a 'community' one as well...

A separate repository for user created levels (games) or do you mean for the applications themselves?

I'd almost prefer the games put into *one* repo, and sorted via quality (# of downloads, rating). Let the people decide which games become more popular, rather than having Pandora sponsored content. The quality games will come out on top, and the games made by pretentious teens will sink to the bottom.

QUOTE
It could be handled through a package manager-type application...

It sounds like the games will all be handled by a front-end app (the aforementioned "expanding grid system"), why not use that same application for downloading content also?


That being said, it's nice to see some dialogue about software for once! :lol:

 

[waffles]

sounds awesome, reminds me of four second firestorm.

 

[MarkoeZ]

well, one thing that everybody actually likes (even if they won't admit it ; ) is competition, and being the best in particular.

If you guys know about Photoplay, that actually proves it. I, and many others with me, spent some euro's and hours on "simple" games like mahjong and find-it, just trying to beat the guy on top, especially if u know him/her

Thumbs up!

 

[bigtruck]

QUOTE
...assuming there's going to be an 'official' Pandora repo, there should be a 'community' one as well...

A separate repository for user created levels (games) or do you mean for the applications themselves?
I'd almost prefer the games put into *one* repo, and sorted via quality (# of downloads, rating). Let the people decide which games become more popular, rather than having Pandora sponsored content. The quality games will come out on top, and the games made by pretentious teens will sink to the bottom.

This is a somewhat tangental topic, but what I meant was the official repo would have stuff necessary for the Pandora to be useful, e.g. files important to the OS, libraries, and all that important stuff developed by (or at the very least tested thoroughly by) the Pandora developers. Basically it has the stuff that will be necessary for the Pandora to be up and running. The community repo would pretty much have everything else. Emulators, games, levels, seperated into whatever subdivisions are necessary. Ideally everything in the community repo would have download statistics, ratings, etc. I agree in that I'd rather not have emulators/games put in the official repo just because the maintainers of said repo happen to like them.

 

[rwip]

I'd make games for it. It advertises the game by putting it somewhere everyone looks to play games and is perfect for prototyping games by giving a rating feedback from players. Plus if it had things like hiscores and what not made ready to plug into your game to add functionality, dev time for a good minigame would reduce.

It would make homebrew dev even more inviting especially too newbies like myself. The only problems are making it in the first place, it perhaps needs moderators and of course as it would attract newbies it would also increase the amount of rubbish games developed and put into the compilation although ranking should hopefully filter that out in a fair way.

Killer app

 

[Ryzure]

Understood BT, I thought you were referring specifically to this "Minigame Project" idea.

But I wholeheartedly agree, things we need should be kept separate from the things we want.


Back on topic, would this "Minigame Project" have its own engine + game editor, or would people design/code/compile their own games to add to a repository?
You're sure to get more content if the system is similar to Warcraft III, or Morrowind where the designer needs to know very little code to make some great original content.

 

[Tobriand]

Whilst as proposed this would be a great system, I'm having rouble getting to grips with why you couldn't simply set this up as the interface for Pandora to interact with the archive for software in general?

So with this project, for instance, you can go to the minigame project tab, see what's currently available, and download anything new at the press of a button as long as you're near wifi.

Whereas with the proposed way the archive should work, you... go to the archive tab, look at what's been released recently, and hit a button marked "install" next to anything interesting.

About the only difference I can see is that the minigame project as proposed would provide you strictly with small-scale games. But seeing as many of the full-one separate games are likely to be small-scale anyway, I can't quite see why you'd need to do that.

I'm not saying it's not a cool idea, incidentally. It would, most definitely rock. It's just it might be overkill given that the functionality should already be there in a marginally different package.

 

[Ryzure]

QUOTE
Whilst as proposed this would be a great system, I'm having rouble getting to grips with why you couldn't simply set this up as the interface for Pandora to interact with the archive for software in general?

It depends on the functionality of this software. If it's going to simply download and install games, then yes, it *could* expand it's uses to make a general package manager. But it seems like there's more to it than that.

I'd like Game_Over to talk about what he has in mind a little more!

 

[jmetal88]

(maybe there can be like a "typing of the dead" mini game)

Yes! Yes! A thousand times yes!



EDIT: It would have to be slowed down slightly though, I guess, to allow for the fact that we'd be thumb typing rather than touch typing.

 

[Game_over]

I've been away from internet for like a day, and just came back on a second ago. Wow, I'm glad everyone thanks this is a good idea, thanks.

I'll go into details as to what I was thinking about later, but I guess you can kinda summarize the idea by thinking of it as a meta-game.

We often have little time on are hands to get engaged and committed to a game. I remember back at GDC 06, Satoru Iwata was talking about the source of there popularity with the nintendo ds, was that many of the games was designed to be played in short bursts. This was when he started talking about Brain-Age, and how this would appeal to adults on the commute, who may have never even picked up a gamepad in his/her life. Heh, he made everyone in the audiences day by giving a free special edition copy to everyone there; this was several months before it came out. As soon as I got to the suite party they had there, EVERYONE was playing multiplayer on it.

I know that sounds like a huge tangent, but the idea is that if we had something like, were we can play games in small burst (or longer if you are hardcore) and have some type ranking (highscore) system in place, it would pretty much be like the days of the arcade; but this time for the people, by the people...the very busy people.

 

[Falcon Delta]

Sounds like an excellent idea. Heck, I might even make a game or two if it becomes reality.