This is the first of hopefully many game ideas.
I came up with this concept while at my game course last year and found it in an old sketch book.
It’s pretty straight forwards really. There is a guy/girl with boots that can act like large magnets.
It would work best as a 3rd person action adventure platformer.
Magnet boot gameplay possibilities
- Ability to walk on walls and ceilings (provided they are metal)
- Ability to reverse the magnetic charge to ‘jump’ really high
- Ability to pick up metal objects and hurl them ala gravity gun (half life 2)
- Ability to ‘reverse charge’ jump then positive charge ‘dash’ onto walls and ceilings
- Ability to skate/hover inches above a metal surface by using a weak constant reverse charge
So hopefully you can see the potential in this idea. The ability to walk on vertical and upside down surfaces would create an interesting camera issue and the need for quick midair control to select which surfaces to attach to. Perhaps where the player looked would rotate the players body to point the boots ahead, much like Max Payne’s dive control.
The story I had in mind was a character is taken to a prison planet, basically a small planet used to send all the solar systems criminals to (Australia). I think the Riddick game might have done this too.
We take the idea from Face/Off with the magnetic prison boots in order to keep all the prisoners locked down. Our main character is some sort of mechanic or engineer who manages to tinker with the boots and make them totally rad. So the game goal would be to escape the planet.
So the boots are basically face/off prison boots meets the Super Mario Brothers Movie jump boots.
I really like the Mario Bros movie because when I saw it I was young and stupid
Boot upgrades and modifications could be given throughout the game to give new player abilities. I like the idea of minimal hud so the boots could have a coloured light on the back that when green is a positive charge and red negative.
Say if this was a console game (lets say xbox 360) the left trigger could be negative charge and the right trigger positive and depending on the pressure and speed the triggers were pulled could be the force of the charges. If both triggers are held down the character ’skates’.
Cool magnetic boots are the new bullet time
*EDIT*
So yeah… I got the charges the wrong way around, opposites attract
WHAT!? I dropped out of physics.
Oooh oooh! And there could be all sorts of fun to be had with large open spaces with lots of metal machinery protruding from every surface. I like this idea. Let me just give Data a call…..
:/
1 | MstrNetHead March 31st, 2008 at 6:16 pmGood Idea.
2 | rebirth12345 March 31st, 2008 at 10:54 pmAnd you can push bullets back because they’re metal.
It “MIGHT” be a bit better with combat implimention.
Did I also mention that you should also have the ability to turn the boots off?
It Might Be good in a situation like this
KEY
+=Positive
-=negative
———————————–
++++++++++++++++++++
You could get anihalated and get squashed or get ripped in Half.
3 | rebirth12345 April 1st, 2008 at 10:36 amYeah, there needs to be some direct combat moves. Maybe the enemies have metal armor and you can kinda ‘force push’ them away.
4 | Simon April 1st, 2008 at 10:42 amI think the boots are only magnetised when using the triggers. So you can run normally and jump around until you start using the triggers.
have you played twilight princess? they have a whole temple /section where you constantly need to use magnetic boots to solves puzzles/navigate rooms. The camera was pretty decent too (excpet when you turned them on and off mid air)
5 | Elise April 1st, 2008 at 12:24 pmDAMN! No I haven’t played it… No such thing as an original idea hey
6 | Simon April 1st, 2008 at 12:45 pmthats one of the games I wanna play super bad, except don’t wanna buy a wii.
These are similar to the boots in Twilight Princess, except WAY COOLER!
7 | Wormbrain April 2nd, 2008 at 12:00 pmUmm… opposites attract. (ie: + and + means you will float etc.) You’re images are kinda wrong. Good idea though.
8 | Pat April 2nd, 2008 at 1:03 pmThat’s an awesome idea. I dreamed up a similar thing with electromagnetic endoskeletal coils implanted in the hero’s body, allowing him to selectively magnetise different limbs for telekinesis and Force jump type fun. It was also going to have a defensive mode where it repelled all metal, so that incoming bullets would arc away from you slightly, meaning only ones aimed perfectly at the centre of your body would hit you at all, and even them with slightly reduced force.
Your gravity boots could have a cool special attack where you root yourself to the floor with one foot, suck an armoured enemy towards you with the other, then when he’s about to reach you reverse the polarity of your anchor boot to launch yourself into the air and kick him in the face. The repulsion on the kick boot would combine with the incoming momentum from the attracting boot to give a huge shearing force. Depending on the target audience of the game, it could take their head off.
Either way, it should definitely be made as a sort of proof-of-concept game like Portal, where the whole game is designed around this one very streamlined ability with loads of potential.
9 | Pentadact April 3rd, 2008 at 6:55 pmYeah it sounds alright. He should be able to turn lights on and off and capture hookers. STEEEAAADDDYY!!!!
10 | Paul Stead April 4th, 2008 at 9:01 pm“thats one of the games I wanna play super bad, except don’t wanna buy a wii.”
Cmon Simon, get with it! Play it for the Gamecube!! If you don’t have a Gamecube, buy one for $30.
Also, I think we need to invent a new superhero around Pentadact’s concept. We can call him MAGNETIC MAN!!!!! (Or Magnet Man) (Or The Super Magnet) (The Manmagnet) “Magnetize this, bitch!”
11 | SenatorPalpatine April 8th, 2008 at 4:44 pmOh man! I sent a disrespectful comment to the blog creator! )-; Well my comment still stands, but also it’s a very nice blog with a great name.
12 | SenatorPalpatine April 8th, 2008 at 4:49 pmThe Ratchet & Clank games feature Magneboots and Gravity Boots that permit you to walk along twisty metal pathways, spheres, and other goofy contraptions.
It’s a fun gimmick, though it’s very disorienting at first.
13 | Nick June 23rd, 2008 at 6:47 am