Internal brainstorming

So, I read somewhere the other day if you allow your mind to wander, you aren't actually flaking off, you are apparently allowing some massive problem-solving section of your brain to kick in and tick over things. This might explain why every time I go to bed - the one part of the day I'm not busy doing something, I suddenly come up with a whole batch of ideas and can't get to sleep!

So last night before I went to the land of ZZZZs, I sent myself a text message note to remind myself about bead bingo. I like playing bingo (with Mum of course :-) and I thought, what part of it do i like? The race to fill your section first? IS there a way you can link this up with beads and have something where you have to match the colours or shapes somehow? Not sure what I was thinking. Sound now a bit like bejewelled.

Anyway, to continue my mind wandering experiment, I decided not to watch or listen to a podcast on the bus this morning and these are the game ideas that popped into my head:

A kayaking game. You are in a kayak. dealing with the waves? Trying to find sunken treasure? Don't fall in and get eaten by sharks?

You are a creeping plant like potato weed or ivy. You need to try to grow, finding cracks and crevices to bury anchors in. Are you out running the weed killer? Gardener? Like the potato weed, you don't die straight away, you shrivel up a bit so long as you've got enough supplies? Branches to bring in health/energy? It is a bit of a pattern one e.g. you could have it growing over an even brick wall or fence, or an old cracked sandstone building or just along the dirt int eh garden. Each area could be like a level and your aim is to entirely cover a house? Not sure how you'd control the millions of individual branches? Press a key to change between them? How fast can you grow? Does the weed killer fade over time? Do you choose to grow tentacles or plant hooks? Where is your brain? Are your branches expendable? Potato weed can start new roots/bulbs - these would be new brain centres? How would you control multiple ones?

You're a bus driver. In a similar vein to the ferry one, you have to keep to a timetable while dealing with different traffic (cars, bikes and other buses in your bus lane) plus dealing with passengers (paying cash, disabled or elderly needing time to board/disembark, too many people trying to cram on a bus) while random inspectors along the way at random bus stops check your timing, your passenger load etc and police watch your speed? Have car/vehicle games been done to death? Can this be achieved in a way that looks OK in GameMaker or does it need a lot of graphics and variables to work? Could this be a new level to the ferry game?

Maths Kurushi. I keep trying to come back to the puzzle game :-) A bit like sudoku - blocks are rolling towards you and you have to solve maths equations and blow up the correct answer blocks?

Dandelion propagation. I love blowing dandelion seeds off (the white fluffy flowers). I always try to get them on good grass so they will plant and more will grow back. Maybe you have to try to keep the population alive as long as possible - variable ground, wind strengths and direction etc, plus blowing strength (a bit like golf) the more you can scatter over good grass, the more that grow - but you have to keep running around and blowing the seeds before they get a chance to turn into the yellow flowers and die off? That actually sounds cute.

I was looking at wall patterns and thinking of bead patterns and stone carving. It might be exciting to have to build a wall in a certain pattern before disaster strikes (e.g. the floods come in, flood waters rise or the ground falls away). Actually, just writing this now, what about building a sand bag bank - you have to do it before the flood waters rise and get into your shop? Might be OK for one round, but why would you replay? What is the premise that would make you go on for more than one level? You could have different levels for different natural disasters and you have to learn how to prevent them or deal wit them to get through the stages? Might be too complicated. Would be good if there was some economy with that and you had time between disasters to stockpile supplies and learn techniques etc.

Anyway, back to the wall to avoid a disaster. I was thinking, building a bead pattern/virtual jewellery might be interesting if you were trying to avoid a disaster. But what disaster could you avoid? Are you a servant an do you try on a princess' jewellery and break it and need to rebuild it before she gets back (you'd have to track her whereabouts or show it to the player somehow. She's have to get through a maze or something)

Maybe you need to find the beads you need to complete the weave. the beads get tipped into a pot. Ones that are left at eh end of the round get carried over, so there are more beads to wade through at each round to find the one you need. You can substitute up to 5 old beads in each weave? Another thing I like (and hate ) doing re beading is sorting through beads e.g. when I've accidentally spilt the beads and they get all mixed, having to go through them all and sort them into type. But it's sort of therapeutic as well. That might be a good game. And it could be time pressured (do it before mum gets back?) But again, why would you keep playing? What's the premise? Why have you spilt the beads? Who's beads are they?