I have always loved rhythm games. Guitar Hero, Rock Band and the like, and in particular I love the feeling these games give you. The mechanics and the custom hardware slaps a bridge across the skill gap and welcomes you to try being a rock star for a day. It's as if the game puts a long lever and a fulcrum against the enormity of effort required to be good at something and says "We got you, give it a try"
I've had some thought to applying this kind of thinking to other genres and mechanics. One day I was watching a clip from the movie hackers and...well just watch
It is ridiculous, as are most hacker TV tropes which include
Nonsensical keystrokes that befuddle the viewer and the non hackers watching them work
Crazy nicknames for programs and viruses
Cheesy and bizaar graphics
A blocky Tron style 3D environment representing the hacker's journey through the network
Taunting words from hackers in competition with them
A non hacker wondering aloud at what the heck they are doing
The premise I have is this...
What if you had a game that made you feel like a 90's hacker without having to know anything about computers and systems.
Game Design
We're In is a game where you get to experience what its like to be an elite hacker from the movies without any knowledge whatsoever about networking. Because clearly the makers of these movies don't have that knowledge either
The keyboard is your controller. By pressing different regions of the keyboard, your character will go forward, move up and turn left and right.
You can in theory just press a single button on a region of the keyboard to travel, but you are also rewarded by increasing the variety in the keys you press to navigate. This has the effect of making the player look like they are typing like a movie hacker to maximize speed.
As the player hits keys, a console will appear to write lines of code, as if the player is actually writing the commands.
You can collect new abilities as you travel through the system. You have to bring up the console and type the name of the ability, and if it's available it will cause your character to do cool things
Examples
%%zoomzoomchoom%% - Boost
killingmesmalls!!xx - Fires a projectile
The goal of the game is to navigate through the system architecture without hitting anything, blowing up security programs to get new abilities, bust through the firewalls protecting the data core, then escape into the internet with your prize. Watch out though, the datacenter's security consultant is attempting to stop you with his own suite of programs and hacks. My time is limited, but I'm going to shoot for a two or three part series Part 1: Project Setup and Movement Controls Part 2: Enemies, Pickups death and victory conditions
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