Idea Info Name: Halfway Samurai Index: Primary Category: Fighting Submitted: 6/10/2003 8:35:43 AM Written By: Aprone Game Architecture and Design: A New Edition Book Highly Recommended !

This is a mixture of Fighting/Action/Adventure/RPG

Hello, I am Aprone and this will be my first game entry.

   Unlike most of the authors for all of the other game ideas, I actually do quite a bit of programming in my spare time.  Although I have only finished a few games (many were left unfinished)… I constantly run into the problem that I do not have either the time or the resources to complete my games.  Of course, I’m not going to share my best ideas with the world, but I am willing to give away my “least favored” ideas that fell through or were never started.  I hope someone else out there with more time can benefit from my ideas.

    The game takes place in an ancient Japanese-type setting (meaning no guns).  A young samurai named Russell (who is basically nobody important, but has always dreamed of becoming someone honored and important) witnesses a meteor falling from the sky into the courtyard of the temple.  Following the large explosion, many guards begin running around frantically searching for the source of this “attack” as they try to protect the emperor.  Russell makes his way over to the crater and picks up the glowing stone.  Russell is surged with mysterious energies radiating from the meteor, and a tear is formed between his dimension and the dimension of a strange world inhabited by demonic creatures (which are of limited intelligence, like advanced cave men).  Our hero finds himself trapped halfway between two worlds, existing in each one at the same time!

    The demon world is a barren wasteland with huge “temples” and structures constructed from stone and other materials to give them an eerie feel.  Russell is surrounded by several of the demons who had come to investigate the same meteor striking their world at the same time!  They are startled to see him and some flee while others prepare to attack this strange invader.  Russell draws his sword and begins fighting them as fiercely as he can!

    Temple guards (humans from his dimension) begin running towards him with their swords drawn because they thing that he is a threat to the emperor.  All that they can see is a man yelling and thrashing his sword around while standing in a crater!  Russell also sees them (he can see both worlds at the same time) and yells for them to help him.  When they approach him, he is still forced to fight the demons and one of the guards is stabbed because he was standing (partially overlapping) one of the demons!  Russell then realizes that the men cannot see this other world or the demons, and that they are all preparing to attack him now too. 

Alright… this intro is actually longer, but you get the idea.  Now for the game play itself.

    The game will be either a 3^rd person perspective fighting game (as seen in games like “MorrowWind” and the new “Enter the Matrix”) or somewhat of a top-down view of the same style.  Using a smoke-styled effect, the user sees both the human world and the demon one at the same time.  He is limited by BOTH at the same time, so if a wall exists in one he cannot pass through it.  This will provide interesting obstacles for the player since he must navigate himself around two entirely different environments during combat.  Russell (and his clothes, weapons, ect…) are the only things that can interact with BOTH worlds… so the human guards who now believe he is an assassin for the emperor would simply pass through the demon creatures which believe Russell is some strange invader sent from the gods!

    The game will incorporate hundreds (hopefully) of martial arts moves, counters, and combos taking advantage of unarmed combat and his samurai sword.  To make combat and movement more interesting, destructible environments (as destructible as they can be anyways) could be used.  Whenever possible, stealth can be used to avoid confronting humans, demons, or both (hopefully).

    The story should (could) progress something like this…

- Russell first touches the stone and finds himself in 2 worlds, kills a guard accidentally, and must fight his way to a hiding place where he is temporary safe from both attackers.

- Russell must eventually (through a handful of levels at least) get himself out of the temple and escape into the city.

- He begins to make sense of the demon world, and snoops around in one of their buildings (while looking like a possessed fool to people in the city).

- He sees rows and rows of demons marching off into the distance in the direction that he came (they are looking for him).  Russell realizes that they could touch the stone too!  If they did, they might kill the emperior (they would appear already inside the temple, some of the guards were killed by Russell, and many of the rest are still out looking for him!).

- Russell gets his way back inside (very difficult because MANY guards around ways in, and he is working his way towards the small army of demons in the process).

- He arrives after it has begun… terrified guards are battling a handful of demons which had touched the stone (simply to look at it)!  Other demons (which still only Russell can see) are stepping back in great confusion as to what their comrades are doing.  Russell joins the battle and the guards start to notice that it seems like they have an invisible ally or something (the creatures are attacking them, and some unseen opponent!).

- In the battle, much damage is caused by the demons to the structure around the courtyard.  A column falls and smashes the stone into millions of tiny particles, which scatter in every direction.  In an instant, the two worlds melt together at that location.  The stone dust has touched everyone nearby (say 30 feet in all directions) from both worlds, walls, and the ground.  Suddenly a massive battle erupts as members of both sides suddenly share the visions of their “crazy” comrades who had been fighting thin air!  This major battle pits a few dozen samurais against over a hundred demons in a battlefield of twisted mixtures of the two worlds!

    In the end, the humans are victorious and have killed all of the demons that had entered our world.  Months have passed, and we are updated with a video or narration.  The courtyard has been transformed into a walled in “gateway” to the demon world.  The empire has devoted much effort into keeping this land guarded so that no more of the creatures will ever threaten them again.  We find that now Russell is the head of the “World guard”, which is the 24/7 station of guards whose sole mission is to protect the “gateway”.  Even though there is room for more conflict, the story can end here happily because our hero has achieved greatness and honor as he has only dreamed of.