Brain Duel

The Brain Duel, generally inspired by the successful Brain Training phenomenon from Japan, is a game of fast perception and evaluation that can be played single player for training purposes and in one-on-one duels.

The game is composed of 4 mini-challenges:

1. A random item or abstract form is shown in 4 positions. 3 of them are (randomly) rotated versions of the same shape, while the 4th is both rotated and mirror-flipped. The player has to single out that 4th one.

2. Again, 4 items or shapes are shown, more complex in general than those in 1. They are all rotated and also, in one of them, the item has a minor difference inserted into it. The player has to figure out the different item.

3. Two stacks of coins are shown next to each other. They are composed of random coins of 4 different values - 1, 2, 5 and 10. each coin has a different face, and also - the more valuable coins have a larger diameter. The piles have different values in total, different but close in value. The player has to point out the pile with the greater value.

4. A mutitude of different colored fish are swimming in an aquarium - a random number of fish. Four numbers are presented, only one of them is the real number of fish in the aquarium. The player has to pick that number.

Single player, each of the challenges can be played on its own for training purposes. The success level of the player on each game is tracked with a graph. A single challenge consists of 10 questions - the faster the player answers correctly, the more points he earns. There is a time limit of 10 seconds for question - if you don't answer within this time, you fail. Failing does not incur a penalty, just gives you no points. Answering incorrectly however, costs you points.

The two-player duel is composed of all mini-games in order, ten questions for each. The first to answer correctly wins a point. Answering incorrectly takes away a point.

Weekend Game

I bumped into this game lately. In fact, i remember playing an identical game somewhere before, but i never saw a 2-player version. It's a fast turn-based game played on a checkered board. The squares come in two colors and nine values: each is rated from one to nine, while one color indicates the value is positive and the other color indicates a negative. At the beginning of a game a row is chosen randomly. The first player chooses a square in this row, and the value is added or substracted from his points total. The chosen square disappears. Now the second player has to choose a square from the column of the square chosen by the first player. Alternating turns, the first player is limited to picking squares from the row of the previous move and the second player is limited to picking them from the column of the previous move.

The players move over the board like that, each pulling and planning towards a route that will reward him with maximum positive points and penalize the opponent with maximum negative points. The winner is the player with more points when there are no more legal moves to make. Confused? Just play it.

A multiplayer version will have a tight time control, about 10-15 seconds for a move (and a legal square is chosen randomly if no move is made during that period). You can also build in a Marathon mode where the game doesn't end after one match, but new boards keep appearing until one of the players reaches a specified point goal, or his point total drops below 1. You can enchance the game experience by adding a visual representation of ths players' respective points. This depends on the theme you choose - for example, a tower for each player that gets constructed when you earn positive points and demolished when you collect negative points, or a man that gets fatter and thinner, or a pile of treasure that gets richer and poorer. It should, in any case, allow anyone looking to see at a glance who's in the lead.

Build & Destroy with Physics

Physics are fun. Here are two quick ideas for two-player physics fun:

1. Sky Tower: the purpose of this game is to use a pile of blocks to build a skycraper reaching up to a certain height. The exact height may be based on the players' rating - the higher the rating, the higher they are required to reach.

Each player sees both his and the other player's screen. The screen contains a pile of blocks and a line indicating the height to reach. The players drag and drop their blocks, placing them one atop the other. The first player to have a balanced structure standing for five seconds above the line, wins.

2. Castle Battle: the goal here is the other way around - instead of constructing, each player throws blocks towards the opponent's castle with the aim of inflicting maximum damage,

The game is built of 2-3 rounds, with the first to win 2 rounds the overall winner. Each of the players has a block castle standing at opposite edges of the game screen. The castle structure is different for each round, but the same for both players.

Players get one block at a time to throw at the rival castle. A red line, a little beyond their own castle, indicates their control zone - they cannot drag the block beyond that line. Throws are handled by holding and dragging the block. When released, the block keeps on flying depending on last speed and trajectory.

Hopefuly the block will hit the enemy structure with the force and positioning to send blocks flying. A damage algorithm measures the damage done by each side. There are different algorithms possible, for example, depending on the current distance of each brick from its original position in the castle and on the current height of the top blocks of each castle.

The player to have caused more damage in 30 seconds is the round winner.

Turn-by-Turn Football

Still in an athletic mood, this concept is based on a sort of board game/table football combo i've spent many a good moment on during childhood, even though i never was a big football fan.

Football (or soccer, for you US readers) is always very popular. What we want is a leisurely game that can be enjoyed without lags and is more strategic and less reflexes based.

Before a match begins, each player chooses his team's formation from a list. Some are more aggresive, some more defensive, others balanced.

Each side's players, small football puppets, are placed on the pitch in accordance with the chosen formation. The players are static and will not move during a game. The only possible change in their positions can happen during half-time, where a player may re-deploy his players for the second half using a different formation.

The keeper is the only player to move. Both keepers move automatically from one end of the goal post to the other, reversing direction when they hit the edge.

As the opening whistle sounds, the ball is thrown high up into the air and falls down approximately at the center of the pitch. When it comes to a rest, it is drawn as if by magnet to the closest player, and that side starts the game.

When the ball is at one of your player's feet, you use mouse hold-and-drag to determine the direction and power of the kick, and release to shoot. The ball bounces from players and the sides of the pitch. It is also affected by pull - each player, friendly or rival, exerts a weak pulling force on the ball. When it finally comes to rest a player's feet the game proceeds. The only other option is that it bypasses the goalie and scores a point.

That's the simple billiards-meets-foosball core. The developer may also add bonuses that appear randomly on screen, and can be collected by the ball passing through them (the last player to kick the ball is the one gaining the bonus advantage). Example bonuses: more powerful kicks, rival keeper freezes in his tracks, friendly keeper moves faster, enchanced players' pulling force, red card temporarily removes a random rival player.

Another option is to make the controls more nuanced to allow more complex kicks. This can be achieved by adding aftertouch: moving the mouse right or left immediately after releasing the kick gives the appropriate spin to the ball.

Keyboard Athletics

In the spirit of the olympic events soon to open in Beijing, i want to suggest a multiplayer athletics competition, which is sadly lacking from the web. Multiplayer (hot-seat) multi-event sports games were very popular in the olden days of 8-bit - names like Epyx' Summer Games and Daley Thompson's Decathlon spring to mind. Today the gameplay is a tad simplistic for hardcore game systems, but perfect for a quick round on the web.

The olympic multi-event gameplay did evolve somewhat during the years, and especially lately on cellphones. While once upon a time much of the game was based on button bashing and joystick wrangling, a somewhat hardware unfriendly and inelegant interface, today that type of game has moved to being timing-based. So, instead of pressing keys repeatedly and as fast as possible, you have to press keys in time and rhythm with the event - be it running, swimming or long jumping.

The very best examples of the genre are to be found in Mr. Goodliving's mobile sports series, the Playman games, the lastest of which is Summer Games 3. You are strongly advised to try it and its predecessors out. In principle, an avarage event is based on pressing one or two keys when you pass the correct mark on the track - the more accurately you press, the more speed you get. Miss the mark by too much and you will slow down instead. Additional keys are used to jump or throw before the white line (at the right moment you start pressing the key. The jump or throw angle rapidly rises, and when you release the key you jump or the object is thrown at the current angle).

A multiplayer web version will allow players to freely practice each of the 5-10 events included, and to challenge 1-3 extra players for a competition that spans all events. A gold medal will be worth 3 points, a silver 2, a bronze 1 and fourth place earns nothing. An alternative scoring system can be based not on relative achievements, but on absolute achievements on each event. A formula will be needed that gives each event about the same importance.

Because many of the events are similar, the game won't need 5-10 different engines, only one engine (or maybe 2 or 3, for an ambitious collection of events) with support for different features, such as jumping for hurdles, throwing for javelin etc. Each player will play in his or her turn, and watch the other player's turns, so no lag problems to throw a spanner in the gears. This also means short events - 200 meter hurdles should still be ok, but 1500 meters is a little too much.

As well as winning competitions, players can aspire to be the record holders for an event, for the channel and maybe also globally. All records will be kept in the server, and you could also give each player an analysis of his performance compared to the avarage and to the top players.

Crazy Golf

It's a mini golf competition between two players (may also be suitable for up to four under certain conditions), with a few differences.

First things first: it's important to choose an attractive theme for your mini-golf course. Combine the theme not only visually but also functionally with the holes. Here's one game with a jurassic park theme. Digital Chocolate, a well known mobile developer, has a whole line of mini-golf titles with different themes: Beach, Carnival and Casino. A piratey theme, for example, would be most welcome.

Now change the rules somewhat, so that Par is much less important. What's important is scoring more points than your opponent. One important aspect of scoring is, indeed, getting the ball into the hole first. But you can also score critical bonus points by collecting gold coins strewn through the course, some two dozen per hole, and even the rare gem (two per hole, worth more). Points are constant through the 18 holes, with the player with lowest score going first on a new hole. You still get more points the less shots you use to get to the hole. You should also impose a 12-shot limit on each hole so that the game doesn't drag. A player that can't get his ball into the hole with 12 shots collects 0 points on his way out, or even a penalty.

Next, increase the interaction between players so that they can hit each other. By hitting your opponent's ball you can send it into a difficult corner or one of the traps that litter the course, sending him way back, throwing him into the water or miring him in slow terrain. Or you may screw up the shot and send him flying towards that valuable gem.

Finally, carefully place special power-ups and power-downs on each hole. Each player aims to collect the power-ups (deviously placed near edges and other dangerous bits) and bump his opponent into the power-downs.

Power-ups may include Heavyweight (much greater mass for ball-to-ball calculations), Great Attractor (attracts gold coins from some distance away), Jumpin' Jack (automatically jumps when a non-walled edge is reached, may save the ball and even provide shortcuts), Telekinetic (has limited control over ball direction after shot is made by moving the mouse right and left). Their duration can be shot limited or until the end of the current hole. Power-downs are similar, with examples being Drunken Meister (ball has slight random deviations from course), Aztec Curse (gold collected is deducted instead of added to score) and Hot Potato (ball turns into a time bomb: player has limited amount of shots before ball explodes and is teleported back to the beginning of the hole).

Games can be played over an entire course (18 holes), a half-course (forward or backward half), or up to a thousand points. In the former case, the winner is the one with more points at the end of 18 or 9 holes, and in the latter, the first to reach a thousand points.

Steal the Flag

Game idea of the day: an online version of the outdoors game known in some parts as "Steal the Flag".

It's again a competitive game for two players. Each player controls 3 children (boys and/or girls, his choice, no difference in abilities), and has to lead them to victory by snatching the enemy's flag and bringing it back to camp while defending his own flag.

The playing field is a randomly generated light wood terrain, cut up into hexes. In addition to the 2 camps, situated at opposite corners of the field, terrain features include trees (block movement and sight), fences (slow down movement), and bush (camouflage terrain).

Each flag is initially situated in the middle of the friendly camp. Friendly forces cannot enter a radius of six hexes around this initial position so as to prevent defending the flag by camping on top of it. Only a child with the enemy flag in his hands can enter this radius, and when he does, the game is won by his side.

The game is handled in turns. Each player in turn rolls two six-sided dice to create a number between 2 and 12. The player may now either move one child a number of steps equal to the result (taking into account that bypassing a fence takes up two points instead of one), or move two children, each of them half of that number of steps (rounded down).

Each player can only see enemy characters that are within the field of view of one of his children: no more than ten hexes distant, not directly behind a tree and not inside a bush. The visible enemies are updated continously, so that if an enemy enters and exits a child's field of vision in the same turn, you can still see him pass through it.

If a child moves into the location of an enemy child, the enemy child is "caught", and cannot be moved the next turn. The child that caught him cannot stay in the same hex and has to retreat immediately to a neighbouring hex. The caught child cannot be caught again before he recovers.

When a child gets to the enemy flag, it is captured and he begins carrying it with him, with the aim of bringing it into the friendly camp. To prevent that, the player whose flag was captured must get one of his children to the flag thief. If he manages that, the thief is out of the game until the player controlling it manages to get a double dice, after which he re-appears near the friendly camp. The retrieved flag is teleported back to its home camp.

Each time a player gets a double dice, he is rewarded one Command Point. A player may use those command points to activate special bonuses, shown as icons at the bottom of the screen. A special bonus may cost 1, 2, 3 etc command points, according to its power and balance issues to be tested during game development. You also get 2 command points whenever you snatch the enemy's flag.

Examples for special bonuses: Rapid Runner - one is added to the dice roll for the next round, Ninja Master - friendly children cannot be spotted from beyond eight hexes away instead of ten for the next three rounds, Lucky Luke - next dice throw is guarenteed not to have any ones in it.