Developer for A Day 4

This one starts with a brilliantly obvious concept and runs with it far and wide, within a well-researched and well-organized document filled with plausible examples. From a gameplay standpoint, culling from World of Warcraft and Guild Wars seems like a no-brainer for any future MMO, but this idea for Hogwarts Online sounds like much more than just a clone of the stuff that's already out there. Some interesting original ideas are carefully introduced, and the whole experience seems to fit with the theme of J.K. Rowling's novels very well. Honestly I'm not much of a fan of the source material, having never read the novels but enjoyed a couple of the movies; but this sounds like a game that could genuinely appeal to fans of massively multiplayer games and not just Harry Potter. Reading this document reminded me that I really need to catch up with everybody else and check out those books.

I like the premise of this creepy, supernatural-themed adventure game. For that matter, I like that this is an open-ended adventure game for the Nintendo DS, designed to use its two-screen display to suit an interesting concept. The document could use more focus up front, clearly highlighting some of the game's distinguishing features. But the concept and the story nevertheless seem compelling. I like the idea that the main character seems to exist in two places at once, one of which is sort of this spirit world occupied by strange monsters. And allowing players to make meaningful decisions in the context of the story is always a noble goal for a game. This one gave me flashbacks of Deus Ex now and again, so it's the type of game I'd definitely be interested to play.

The image of Duke Nukem impaling ugly aliens with the flagpole of an American flag was enough to sell me on this one. The author clearly understands the qualities that made the original Duke Nukem 3D such a great game, and spells out--in great detail--how those qualities could be applied to a next-generation first-person shooter. The document could have been a lot more succinct, and I would have liked to see some more reference to the core shooting action and how the level of challenge is balanced--issues that I think are very important to a good FPS. But this author sounds like he knows a great FPS when he sees one, and a lot of those ideas do come across here. I'd play this game.

Wow, what a concept. The author had me, hook, line, and sinker with the first couple of pages. I read through this document more eagerly than any other, fascinated by the "metagame" concept. The author admits it's been done to a certain extent by games like Metal Gear Solid 2, but I really like the underlying premise of this game. It's an alternate-reality game (ARG) combined with a "normal" game. I honestly do thing the straight-GTA-clone underpinnings of Mafia Man undercut the real creativity behind it, though. Some sort of obvious distinguishing feature would help differentiate it from all the other GTA clones out there. For example, how about making the main character a skilled arsonist? Realistically setting buildings, people, and vehicles on fire would be a compelling feature to sickos like me, and would fit in nicely with the theme. At any rate, there's not enough straight gameplay detail in here for me to be able to say "I'd love to play this," but I can say I'd love to get hit in the side of the head again by a game of this sort.

The author is meticulous in spelling out a grim, near-future science fiction world that reminds me a bit of Neon Genesis Evangelion, though the game itself is a squad shooter with real-time strategy elements. I really like the setting and the attention paid to the story and characters; the storytelling of a game like this could make it more than just a fun and intense shooter. The gameplay itself sounds like a cross between Freedom Fighters and Mercenaries--two excellent sources of inspiration, and the author seems to have thought through a lot of the squad mechanics and persistent world elements. This is an ambitious idea, but I'd really like to play something like it. As for the document, the author's enthusiasm for the material clearly shines through, though I'd recommend focusing on the gameplay up front and finishing with the details about the story and setting, rather than the other way around.

This epic three-part document clearly shows the author's devotion to the idea--and, soon enough, I became convinced it was a good one. The storyline seems straightforward enough at first, but it ended up reminding me of the movie Dark City, and I really like the movie Dark City. As for the gameplay itself, the author unabashedly cites Resident Evil 4 and Metal Gear Solid 3 as influences, and it's hard to come up with two better influences than those. Gameplay-wise, I especially like the idea of how the location-specific damage is manifest on the player character. Too many games let you operate at full capacity even when you're about to die. They do that in the interest of "fun", but I think Nightingale would mess with you and your head in the name of fun. The document would benefit from putting the gameplay description and explaining some of the twists front and center, but overall it's clear that the author has picked up on some of the best qualities of recent games--but also how they could be improved on. I'd play this.

This one sounds like it could be right up my alley, since it's an action RPG reminiscent of Diablo, but with elements shared in common with action adventure games--fairly complex, action-packed combat and puzzle-solving to go with all the leveling up. I didn't necessarily get a great sense of what was unique about the fantasy gameworld from the document, and the unique features of the gameplay probably could be spelled out more clearly early on. However, I think this one does a good job of not trying to totally reinvent the wheel--it describes a big, sprawling RPG, and those of us who like RPGs only wish that we had more stuff to play along these lines.

I'm not too familiar with the anime Bleach, but my understanding is that this game design idea bears more than a passing resemblance to it. That's fine, but the author should presume to be basing a game off of a licensed property rather than assuming it's possible to make minor changes to an original work of fiction and pass it off as new. Gameplay-wise, there are some promising ideas in this action RPG, such as how it suggests that characters' "spirit force" represents both their offensive and defensive strength; you'll need to decide whether to go all-out against an enemy or reserve some power so you can withstand an attack. I like that idea, and appreciate that the game itself is attempting to be a new spin on Japanese role-playing conventions. The document itself could be structured more clearly to present the game's unique features right up front, though.

It's been a very long time since I've read something that was so disarming right from the start as the document describing Pure Sin...and I've been reading H.P. Lovecraft and some of my brother's publishings from Void Books lately, which are pretty gnarly. This is one ballsy concept, and frankly, in a lot of ways it seems the least viable out of all of the documents I've read for this concept. The author deconstructs his own work all the way through, something that comes into play on more than one level...so much that this becomes difficult, bewildering to follow even if you try, and the author himself concedes that big questions are left unanswered at the end. And even though other games have tentatively broached similar subject matter, Pure Sin is plainly and brazenly straightforward in its traditional approach to a subject that--in its purest form--has become uncomfortable for many. The author himself says it best at one point: "Pure Sin is the author's attempt to make one of the greatest stories of all time (though it probably fails)." I enjoyed reading this document.

The author of this one grabbed my attention early on because of his stated goal to create a game with a really good combat system, partially inspired by fighting games. I quickly thought of Ninja Gaiden or maybe Devil May Cry 3. But the document deals in some pretty dense abstraction, going as far as to give detail about hit frame data for specific moves. So I found it ironic that the author asserts, "I favor the minimal systems over complex ones." Still, I think Tenet Storm provides a complex explanation for what in fact is meant to be a fast and responsive combat system. There seems to be a pretty interesting story to it as well, but the author saves that for near the end of a long document. Some restructuring to focus clearly and early on about the game design's distinguishing features would help here, but I'm comforted to know there are others out there who recognize that combat in most games still has lots of room for improvement.