Game Idea A Week: Sun God Chariots

Week Thirty-Two (14/05/2010)

In the idea for this week, is a driving race of the gods, the Sun Gods to be precise. Become a Sun God and drive your chariot through the clouds. Compete against Sun Gods from other cultures. Control the sun to blind your opponents and use your chosen Sun God's special power to attack others or defend yourself.

Platform:

Wii

Genre:

Driving game

Why it needs to be made:

The player gets a feeling of power being a god and is able to control the sun. The racetracks are through the clouds of different countries, giving picturesque views. Each Sun God has its own special power, so players can choose a God whose special ability matches their own playing and driving preferences.

Description:

Many cultures have myths of Sun Gods who drove a vehicle across the sky to bring daylight to the world. This game lets you become one of these Sun Gods as you compete against the others to earn the title of supreme Sun God. Each Sun God has their own special power that they can use to protect themselves or attack others. Every Sun God can use the sun's powers to temporarily blind their opponents.

In single player mode, the player must compete in locations that represent the culture of where each of the Sun Gods is from. In multiplayer mode, the player can compete against friends on a single track or do a tournament of several tracks. After each race, the players can change their chosen Sun God (where more than one player can be the same character).

Players can attack each other using a Sun Attack, which partially blinds the target temporarily. Each Sun God has its own special power and a specific vehicle which has an assigned speed, maneuverability and strength. A player starts with a certain amount of strength or lives (represented as suns). If the player hits objects on the road, they will loose strength. If they run out of strength, they will be forced to wait a short period of time to power back up again.

Special power abilities are either an attack on another character's speed, maneuverability or strength; or a defense of their own speed, maneourvability or strenght. Sun attacks and special powers cannot be used continuously and the player must wait a short time before they can reuse the attack or power again. Creating a good balance between each Sun God's special abilities and their vehicle's powers will be key to creating a game where no Sun God has a clear advantage over another. The different abilities will allow players to choose a character who most suits their own preferred playing style.

Players drive around the racetracks by using their Wii-remote to change their vehicle's direction. On the road there are winds that will blow with the player (increasing their speed), or against the player (decreasing their speed). Other pick ups include the ability to use an attack or special power continuously for a certain number of seconds, or a hurricane which allows the player to go at super speed and will automatically follow the racetrack.

Some possible characters that could be used are:

Name	Culture	Vehicle	Special Power
Helios (or Apollo) (m)	Greek	A chariot drawn by four horses: Pyrois, Aeos, Aethon, and Phlegon.	Spurs on the side of his vehicle that damage the strength of any God Helios bumps into.
Inti (m)	Incan	No vehicle mentioned in myths, but for this game he could be on a jaguar.	Call the sun to him, so that he gets some strength (suns) back.
Surya (f)	Hindu	A chariot drawn by a horse with 7 heads.	This god has been seen to carry a conch shell in one of her four hands. She uses this to create a wind effect that slows down the victim.
Amaterasu (f)	Japanese	No vehicle mentioned in myths, but for this game she could travel on a mini cloud.	Can get extra speed from her cloud as a cloud burst to go faster.
Sol (m)	Norse	A chariot drawn by two horses, Arvak and Alsvid.	This god had a twin, the god of night. So Sol can call darkness around a victim which will restrict their ability to turn easily.
Ra (m)	Egyptian	On a barge or boat.	The boat can float over the other Gods, which makes passing much easier.

Why it will be a compelling game:

Since each character has its own special ability, dedicated players will enjoy being able to work out the best strategy for each Sun God. However, since using a special power ability will be the same mechanism for all Sun Gods, new people to the game will not need to remember too many buttons. This means that players can compete relatively fairly with friends who are new to the game.

Other thoughts: