Game of Many Things

Most of the game ideas presented in this blog so far have been borrowed from the classics or from casual mainstays of today, translated to a multiplayer one-on-one experience. The following is slightly more original while being very simple to understand and quick to play.

The game spans a few rounds, each lasting about ten seconds. Each round, a procedurally generated picture of multiple objects appears on screen (both players get the same picture). Example pictures include a pile of coins, a flight of birds, a field of flowers, a swarm of butterflies, a jar filled with bubble gum, wind sweeping away leaves or a child holding many balloons. The exact number of objects is random and may change from a few dozen to a few hundred.

Each player must estimate the number of identical objects and type it in before time runs out - a matter of a few seconds per round. The player closest to the actual number, or, if both players guessed identically, the player who entered his guess first, wins the round. At the end of the game the rounds are tallied and a winner, or a tie, is announced - with a few statistics thrown in just for fun (accuracy percentage for each player, avarage guess time for each etc).

For the game to work best it should have quite a variety of different scenes and objects, and also include a degree of animation and movement in later rounds to add to the challenge and the aesthetics.