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Right now, I'm preparing for a major pitch at my company. My assignment is to come up with a really high-concept idea ... or about a million of them, if possible.
The definition of "high-concept" is for an idea to be so amazing in its simplicity that you can sum up the whole thing in a single sentence. The Day After Tomorrow is high-concept because all you have to say is, "A tidal wave hits New York," and everybody gets what you're going for. Van Helsing is high-concept because all you have to say is, "Hugh Jackman fights ALL the Universal monsters," and again, people can imagine exactly the movie you're going for.
My assignment is even MORE stringent. I need to come up with a TITLE that explains the entire concept of an awesome-sounding game in a few words. I've discovered that this is really, really hard. But it also sounded like fun, which is why I'm posting it here.
So far, I've only come up with one:
Cowboys and Aliens
What can you come up with?
Posts: 1907 | Registered: Feb 2000
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**Forgive me if some of these exist. I'm not exactly huge on what games exist.
Cold War Assassins
Titan Warriors
Yesterday's Spies
Nuclear Ninjas - (side note: the 3 N's of the gaming world of the most often used stuff is: ninja's, nazi's or nukes... combine two of them and hey, look what you got)
Cultural Paths-- mmorpg of ancient civilizations. Could be already done, but I don't know. If so, then well hey, cool.
Posts: 9754 | Registered: Jul 2002
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Oh, you mean like the original high-concept title, Space Invaders. By your definition, game titles used to be frequently ery high concept. Think about it. Table Tennis, Donkey Kong (Miyamoto was trying to find interesting synonyms for "stubborn monkey, but his english wasn't so good), Paperboy, Battletoads, Pitfall, Prince of Persia, etc. Een today, many game titles are little more than descriptions of the concept. Grand Theft Auto, Samurai Warriors, Karaoke Revolution, Tomb Raider, Thief, NCAA Football 200X, or my personal favorite, Run Like Hell (though I don't know if that counts, since you shoot things more than you actually run. As for my list, here are a few:
Black Plague Quarantine Blast Frozen Baby-pult Barn Raising 2000 Evil Answering Machines Puppies of Dooom.
If we are talking about games people might actually be amused by, like Cowboys and Aliens, we could include more odd juxtapositions like:
Dinosaur Ninjas Zombie Cyborg Vixens Death Crimson Ox (I don't know if it's cheating this time, since this is an actual Dreamcast game) Future Knights.
Here's the real challenge. Can you come up with a title that sums up an entire game that ISN'T clearly a mindless repetetive action title. An RPG, perhaps.
Posts: 894 | Registered: Apr 2000
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I don't get it. The idea is that I can tell, by looking at the title, exactly what this game is going to be like, right Geoff. So what is Maize? That doesn't tell me what this game is. It could be a game full of mazes, it could be a corn growing Tycoon sim, it could be a farmland themed RTS. (I've always wanted to see a baseball themed RTS called Age of Umpires but that's beside the point.)
Posts: 894 | Registered: Apr 2000
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CRAP! I knew that title was too awesome to be original! [scratches off the list] I did come up with it myself, but it's one of those universal things that eventually, SOMEbody else had to think of. I've already bumped into one friend who's had the same idea separately from me Posts: 1907 | Registered: Feb 2000
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Hmmmmmm.... here are my off-the-cuff thoughts:
A Game In Witch (a fantasy adventure in which the protagonist is a witch) Dr. Frankenstein's Laboratory (you design monsters and use them to terrorize a hapless populace)
Posts: 10886 | Registered: Feb 2000
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The Spanish Inquisition or: (Nobody Expects) The Spanish Inquisition -- You play an agent of the state who designs and implements tortures. Play in various time periods including the Spanish Inquisition, the French Revolution and, of course, Rumsfeld in Iraq.
Point & Click with it's obvious sequel, Point & Shoot.
CrosSword Puzzles -- I don't know, but I like it.
Office Manager -- Do you have what it takes to keep the office running clean and efficiently? Watch out! We're running dangerously low on paper clips!
Posts: 1295 | Registered: Jan 2003
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