It’s the start of another year, and another Global Game Jam. The theme has been revealed to be Transmission. A neat, multi-use word for this year. I was debating whether to join in this year, but I think I might, even if it is alone from my house.
So, Transmission… Immediately, I think of the meaning being ‘disease transmission’, rather than automobile transmission, or transmission of information.
My first idea is some sort of ‘things floating around in space’ idea, like agar.io, but the player avatar is a parasitic entity only able to attach to the blobs floating around. Transmission would be some form of key combination that allows your parasite to jump from one host to another. The larger the entity, the longer the combination.
So, what are these shapes, and what’s the point of the game? I figure as a single-player experience (no one around to test multiplayer :P), it could just be a survival game. Or perhaps a series of levels, where new shapes and mechanisms are introduced, making it harder and harder to progress.
The shapes themselves can each have a certain ability. This is an idea I’ve had floating around before – a paper-scissors-rock thing. Triangles can pierce Circles, Circles envelop Squares, and Squares blunten Triangles.
It’s a loose framework to start with, and if I know GGJ, I’ll have trouble enough finishing that. But hey, time to get cracking!