Ideas That Never Die

Or go away for that matter.
Have you ever had game ideas that seem to have been around forever, get brushed off once in a while or turn up in conversation and you go -


"Oh yeah. I remember that idea. It's actually not a bad one. I should develop that some day."


Then off it goes back into the "Great Game Ideas" pile to gather some more dust. Repeat cycle.
That's what happened this week as I sorted out my home office before I get into high gear developing "People of the Dawn". There they were among the drawings and sketches from countless contract gigs and bored boardroom meeting doodles. An idea that's be kicking around for at least 10 years - C.O.R.E.

That's what it was called before the movie came out and strangely enough dealt with some of the same issues - but with at twist. You see there is this Professor Potts who in 1916 was commissioned by the British Army to develop a tunneling machine - The Wimble - to allow the allies to excavate under the enemies trenches, place charges and well, blow them up. If successful, a larger version would be built that could carry troops. So on the day of the test, the Professor climbs in The Wimble and burrowing underground, proceeds to plant the charge under the enemy. Moments later -


BOOM!


...


Potts never returns. Obviously something went wrong. Right?


The story and the adventure that follows takes place under the Earths surface, and in five worlds. One of these worlds and its people live high above the misty cavern floor. To move around, they use airships:




Or fly a docile animal that feeds on floating "plankton" from which they get their lifting gas and which the Fliers Harvest.




Of course there are dangers - no good adventure story would be without them.




C.O.R.E. was originally to be an adventure game based on a mixture of Myst and Full Throttle/Monkey Island interactivity between characters. In fact, character interaction was the key to the game and a strong motivating factor for developing it. But alas, the time and resources were not at hand to pull it off. Although the original "team" (friends and co-workers) have moved on, 10 years later the idea remains alive.


So while I focus on "People of the Dawn", I think I might keep this idea dusted off and when I'm in a boring boardroom meeting, work on some designs and ideas. Who knows, maybe in 10 years it will be done!

Until next time.