Patrick Curry's craziest game ideas

by Ross Miller { Jun 16th 2006 at 9:25PM }

For 2006, game designer Patrick Curry (Stubbs the Zombie, John Woo's Stranglehold) resolved to creating a new game idea every week. 24 weeks in (and five weeks after E3), Curry has amassed quite an interesting collection of ideas on his blog. Here are some of our favorites:

Snow Day (game idea #9): An open-ended sandbox game from the perspective of a kid in a small town covered in a blanket of snow. You can make snow men, have snow fights, and (if you want to quest) help adults do various tasks for rewards. May we also recommend an online MMO portion alongside a crafted single-player adventure. And, if you decide to use more contemporary music (bad idea), consider Minus the Bear's "Hooray" (good idea, and the lyrics are related to snow fights).
Loup-Garou (game idea #15): Mild-mannered adventure game by day, maniacally-warped romp by night, Loup-Garou puts you in the role of a farmer who at sunset transforms into a werewolf. In your wolf form, you have limited control over your actions, and the entire world takes a visual transformation (humans become monsters, sheep into tasty treats). It's up to you to prepare for the transformation each night (i.e. making sure you do the least amount of damage / do not get killed by the angry community).

Face Your Fear (game idea #21): You play a hostage negotiator; the intensity derives from non-violent resolve. Learn about your subject, talk to him, do the best you can end the conflict with as little casualty as possible.
Puppet Show (game idea #23): Tailored for the Nintendo Wii, you design every aspect of your marionette, learn to manipulate the puppet (via motion control), give it voice via a microphone*, and share your creation online to make an orchestrated puppet show.
Audio Trip (game idea #24): An episodic series using only audio -- perfect for handhelds and mp3 players. Listen to a scene and make decision to progress the adventure. Curry suggests comedy could easily be added, as humor is "one of the few rewards that's easy to deliver in a purely auditory fashion."

He's got 28 weeks to go. Not every idea is brilliant, but the good certainly outweighs the bad. If you have some time, we suggest you read through these.

* Don't take this as a verification of the Nintendo Wii's microphone, it could just be speculation.

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Mitch @ Jun 16th 2006 9:43PM

For anyone wondering about the name of #15, "Loup-Garou" is French for werewolf.

dead_red_eyes @ Jun 16th 2006 9:44PM

Wow, you guys listen to "Minus the Bear"? I'm impressed.

This guy "Patrick Curry", I hope that he's done a great job on Stanglehold ... it looks amazing. I like his one game a week idea, I wish that there were more people trying to evoke ideas like him.

Spoon @ Jun 16th 2006 9:54PM

The werewolf idea sounds like there's some real potential there. Half Harvest Moon and half Rampage equals winner. =D

The puppet idea could be pretty fun, too. In an Electroplanktin kind of way. Though I think it would be better off with more human-like characters, as opposed to actual marionettes with strings and such. Maybe you could add your face in, like in Tony Hawk's Underground. Seriously, how kickass would that be? Animating you and your friends, being able to trade the movies back and forth. It could be like Iclone. Just more practical, and not $200, heh.

I'm sure someone will pick up those ideas sooner or later. Most likely sucking out all the creativity and adding some rappers.

chris @ Jun 16th 2006 10:09PM

im actually quite taken by the idea of Snow Day; it just screams childhood fun to me

Intellectualdiot @ Jun 16th 2006 10:34PM

I'm enthralled with Snow Day as well, and it's an idea that would have been terribly endearing within Animal Crossing. I think it brings a certain simplicity that Animal Crossing is obviously established upon, and adds a layer of undeniable fun that could be brought into the world to stave off the mundanity of planting trees and watering flowers.

Maybe I'm just always trying to figure out ways to make Animal Crossing a great game, rather than just a good one. (And make the WiFi, good rather than "you've gotta be fucking kidding me with this".)

sagan @ Jun 16th 2006 10:36PM

im more interested in minus the bear

Mark D. @ Jun 16th 2006 10:47PM

I think the Blackout idea was the one that has the best chance to become a bona fide AAA game. Mix in the desperation of Condemned's weapon system, the atmosphere of System Shock(or Bioshock) and you'd have a good game.

But since you're leading your family away from the city, imagine they could die, or become wounded greatly. You'd then have to decide what to do with them, whether to find a hospital or keep going. Have those family members express emotion like Alyx in HL Ep.1 and that would be one HELL of a game.

Loup-Garou also sounds tremendously fun, but it also sounds hard to pull off well.

AmaranthCrown @ Jun 16th 2006 11:39PM

That is just plain...f-ing awesome that the author ref'd a Minus The Bear song...and a damn good one too! Game and music nerds unite!

Erik Chan @ Jun 16th 2006 11:52PM

Oooo. I like the snow day game idea. Although I'm not sure how much replay value a theme like that could provide- it would depend on the game itself (mechanics) which could be pretty difficult for the developer to keep interesting.
I love games that provide the player with the tools to create their own experience....well, only if all the experiences are polished.

Ross Miller @ Jun 16th 2006 11:59PM

If you know nothing of life, know this: Minus the Bear is the greatest band on earth, and a treat to see live (I've had the pleasure twice in Atlanta -- both, unfortunately, short set). More than worth it.

Intellectualdiot @ Jun 17th 2006 12:05AM

Ok. Time for "Minus the Bear" to live up to the hype. Recommendation noted.

Shagi @ Jun 17th 2006 12:34AM

I'm more interested in the Jam between my toes. I don't blame him however, I would never share any real game ideas in a public forum either.

So heres one that I thought up:

Reservation Moon:
Its the year 2120 and the Native Americans have been completly pushed off the earth and onto a reservation set up on the moon. Tired of being bullied by the white man for years the Native americans decide to seek revenge. Build Casinos, Duty Free Cigarette shops and attact tourists with quaint ancient rituals in order to generate enough cash to build a giant bow and arrow to fire it into the earth.

Highlights include; Horses and riders with fish bowl breathing apparatuses; moon corn; drunken indians; and of course the eventual destruction of the white devils.

Shalazar @ Jun 17th 2006 1:21AM

I played a game on the internet once that was a snow game. It was 2-D. You had a fort and everything and it was the most hilarious game I've ever played. If a character was hit 3 times they "died" very dramatically. They screamed bloody murder and fell over with their mittens, hat, and shoes falling off. It was funny. So the idea of that snow game sounds really funny.

Ross Miller @ Jun 17th 2006 1:49AM

Thank you all for having civil discourse -- no, really, I love it when I don't have to monitor sites (especially since tonight's Lost Experience update was super hella crazy).

Okay, that said, Minus the Bear recommendations: Pachuca Sunrise, Monkey!!! Knife!!! Fight!!!, Hooray, Get Me Naked 2: Electric Boogaloo ... honestly, what I love about MtB is that I can't think of a really bad song. It won't matter, just grab something.

But yeah, I'm glad you guys don't mind this post (even if some of these ideas are -- gasp -- almost half a year old! =] ). I love reading about game developer ideas and I was very impressed with Patrick Curry's consistently creative concepts (alliteration!). That, and Stubbs the Zombie flat out rocks. It's the bee's knees.

Conn @ Jun 17th 2006 2:56AM

Snow Day and Face Your Fear sound awesome- I'd definetely play them!

Alex @ Jun 17th 2006 6:26AM

Snow Day sounds pretty cool (tee hee!). Sadly, snow is such a tactile thing that I don't know if it'd work in a game for kids, unless you put them in a fridge too. Also, snow would probably be a difficult thing to simulate well - getting it right enough to make snowballs, snowmen, snow angels and snow forts would probably be a big technical challenge. Of course, it'd be better than more shiny environment-mapped Havok-physics cars... :)

Stephen Almada @ Jun 17th 2006 7:37AM

minus the bear is effing awesome. it would be great to hear them in a good game.....but you can do it with the help of an xbox 360.....

But if looking for a good CD with great guitar work and great vibes with great lyrics minus the bear is the way to go.
!MENOS EL OSO!

Dashiell Dunn @ Mar 7th 2008 2:34AM

What an awesome guy. I really like the Blackout idea.

Pseudo @ Jun 17th 2006 8:20AM

Dang, I'm interested in MOST of those ideas. I'm burnt out on about everything when it comes to games nowadays.

Still waiting for someone to take me up on Paul Bunyan's Pro Lumberjack. Activision? Anyone?

devian @ Jun 17th 2006 1:33PM

I honestly hope Patrick Curry takes some of these ideas and goes with it.

Stubbs the Zombie was a ridiculously fun game (aside from the lack of replay value), and quite innovative at the same time. Seriously, how many games have you seen that put YOU in place of the zombie... just to have a dance-off with a police chief whose a midget...

There's a ton of potential here. Lets hope the next 28 weeks come with some ideas that DO become games.

An unkown Shape from the world beyond your closet door @ Jun 17th 2006 11:53PM

Wow this guys kinda cool, I thought I was the only person who thought of gameideas on a daily basis. I just got one, You start of as a small piece of insignificant plankton but you've been genetically modified by a bad assed scientist with a good heart, the idea is to evolve by eating other things (plants, bacteria, smaller plankton,) the more of certain things you eat the bigger you get and the more of those features you gain. So you evolve bigger and bigger until your king of the reef then you get even bigger eating people swiming around the reef and attacking fishing boats then you wander into a nearby city and begin devouring as much people as you can, and by the end your so big that you can tear buildings out of the ground and there are tanks and jets shooting stuff at you. aha, I think that is original but if it aint I can post another Idea, I'll probably have a new one in a few more hours.

An unkown Shape from the world beyond your closet door @ Jun 18th 2006 12:11AM

Just for fun I just thought of another cool game idea, you have to race to the end of a long but straight track, the only problem your a square and you have to think of yourself being different shapes to change into a better form to race with so at the start you get thoughts and you have to move your mouse around and find the right thoughts and the more thoughts you get the more things you can become and the faster you may get based on the combination of your shapes that is. Oh and whenever you collide with other racers you lose parts of yourself and have to rebuild.

Okay I will stop posting now.

-have a day :|