G A M E S T O R M

“Whilst driving on a long road trip I imagined a game where characters are driving on a road trip to the beach in a station wagon. There is a surfboard on the roof and the passengers are surfer-type/new agey characters to choose from as your player character. The players selects a station (track) on the radio. There is a joint in the ashtray. As the chosen character “zones out” the soul climbs out of the body onto the roof of the car and grabs the soul of the surfboard.

Out of body experiences often describe a silver cord attached to the neck of the physical body. As the cloud surfer jumps from the roof they get carried into the air like a parasailer, tethered to the car by this silver cord. The game then consists of riding the procedurally generated clouds, jumping gaps, and trying not to miss a jump (in which case you plummet back to the top of the car and need to take off again.) The cord can be reeled in and let out and the angle of the board can change.

The very act of surfing the clouds reshapes them and players can even purposefully dip below the top surface or change directions sharply in order to carve into the cloud surfaces and create more complicated landscapes; more important for multiplayer surfing (surfing the wakes that other players leave behind) rather than solo.”

Submitted by Brooke Colquhoun in Richmond, Virginia. The description was so awesome, I couldn’t bring myself to shorten or remove it, so I posted it in full.

“Ideas I sketched a couple years ago for an action platform game. It’s still on the to-do pile.”

Submitted by David Amador in Portugal.

“Sketches for a time management game about running a theme park. Players need to operate the facilities with limiting power supply.”

Submitted by Joshua.

“We’re creating a procedurally generated game and we were tossing around level generation ideas. It’s always great to get some visual representation of things down on paper just so you can wrap your head around what everyone is talking about.”

Submitted by Robert Lach and Alexei Andreev from Chicago, USA.

“Beat ‘em up as zombies sounds like a good idea.”

Submitted by Javier Chavez.

“A gameplay brainstorm sketch for a stragegy RPG game which plays in a platforming environment, rather than the typical isometric perspective.”

Submitted by AndrewFM.

“Sketches and ideas for my Room Jam game that I made last weekend.”

Submitted by Noel Berry from Winnipeg, Canada.

“Okay, so the guy will come out the door, then jump over the block. After that, everything goes to hell.”

Another one of my favorites found at Global Game Jam 2011 in Vancouver.

Graph paper is favored by all game designers, and this little gem was found at Global Game Jam 2011 in Vancouver. I love trying to figure out what this game is about, and how it plays.