Game pitch competition, ending on June 3rd

[Andail]

Time's up for this round, use the poll to help decide a winner!

Behold, the great contributions to this competition (interestingly, exactly 10, like last time):

#1

Haunts
The tombs of the old royal necropolis are connected by the ghost roads, so that the spirits who knew each other in life can visit each other. They are not for mortal feet; only the dead travel them. And now you: Hunted. Hungry. Half-mad.

Make your way from tomb to tomb, getting the ghosts to lead you ever further by offerings, threats and trickery. Gradually piece together a history of blood and betrayal, generation by generation, to find a path through the crumbling network of ghost roads, face the Forefather, and ask him your question.

#2

During the Reconquista, Ponce de Leon attacked a farm manor.
His home burnt, parents and siblings slaughtered, only Benilyas and the old maidservant Alda escape. Puzzling their way to the coast, they join with Ottoman pirates. Looting cities and helping other refugees, they learn de Leon travelled to the Americas, and follow his path.
Moors...Pirates...Conquistadors! Young spoiled Benilyas and vengeful old Alda's epic adventuring, cultural mashings, team puzzles, naval combat, exploring the New World, and collaborating with local tribes to kill de Leon.

#3

Two lovebirds at the turn of the 20th century. He, an engineer, has been away on business for months. She, carrying their child, writes him every day. One day, he invites her to come in West Virginia. She packs her case and takes the first train.
On her arrival, she learns his death in the collapse of a mine. Showing up in the middle of his funeral, the poor woman  discovers his family and receives mixed welcome.
No one's heard of her. More worrisome, her  lover's been dead for two weeks despite the recent unearthing of his body. Who was she writing to lately?

#4

Your long lost twin sister knocks on the door after 35 years. A joyous reunion. Until she takes over your life, your job, your husband, and accuses you of being the imposter.

The burden of proof falls to you as you embark on a quest that takes you right back to your place of birth. Discover the truth about the sister you never had in this twisted adventure that examines the loose threads binding love, family and our own sanity.

#5

Taking influence from cheesy young adult novels, create an RPG adventure centered around teenagers living in the suburbs, but not all is as it seems.

Supernatural entities are creeping into the world, but only our protagonists can see them.

Gameplay would focus around going to class to gain skills, making friends to join your party, and hunting monsters at night in the streets of your sleepy home town.

Can our heroes save the world in time for third period?

#6

Imagine Maniac Mansion, but with a randomly generated mansion. The layout and the rooms would all be randomized, making some puzzles impossible and others possible. You could play the game twice, and not have any of the same puzzles.
In one playthrough, the kitchen won't have a microwave, in another the kitchen has a microwave, but it's broken. What objects, items, and rooms are available will be different each time. Thus giving you an adventure game with unlimited replay value.

#7

Eupolemo the Metaphysic is on top the Tower of Babel when Jehovah is going to destroy it! He must escape, but God confused all tongues, now the guards and doormans speak unknown foreign languages and don't understand him! He can only count on his Easy-Speak-For-Dummies© book to learn pippian cockney, hurrurian gesturing, q'quintsian phrases and more to reach the ground floor and go out! But he must learn fast… before the wrath of Jehovah drops upon his head!

#8

The case of the hidden letters (a Christmas story)

Christmas is around the corner. Santa tells Pefty to go to Praiser Town and find the hidden residents letters to him. Praiser Town's residents are set to disprove Santa's existence and his "knows all", so every year they hide their letters instead of sending mailing them. It's up to Pefty through highly detective skills of investigation and interrogation to locate the hidden letters! And in all secrecy, because the residents must not know what Pefty is up to or doom the world!

#9

Death Show

Two death-row criminals go on a virtual-reality game show in which they must overcome obstacles and solve puzzles to find the exit. The winner will gain his or her freedom. The game show's theme this particular week is fantasy land.

The player will be able to switch between controlling the two criminals. One is a woman, a wrongly convicted English teacher. The other is a man, a hardened gangster. Will the two despise each other at first? Yep. Will respect and sexual tension gradually increase between them? Uh-huh. Will they eventually join together to break out of the game entirely? Maybe.

The game will feature three possible endings: the woman betrays the man and escapes on her own, leaving the man to certain death; the man betrays the woman and escapes on his own, leaving the woman to certain death; both escape together and “ride off into the sunset”.

#10

A first person horror game taking place in broad daylight. The player finds themselves locked in a garden surrounded by an unclimbable fence, and the only way out is to explore the garden further.
It's a beautiful summer garden filled with walls of blooming bushes and green trees casting deep shadows in the strong sunlight, but the player is not alone. There is an unseen horror stalking the player, it's presence known only by the rattling of leaves it makes when it moves through the bushes, and the player has to keep their distance or be instantly killed while collecting items and solving puzzles in order to get the key to open the garden gate. The entire premise is built around the contrast between the beautiful, serene environment and the paranoia and horror of being hunted by an unknown monster.

[Gilbert]

Aw well... Isn't it better to write which would this is, or at least the duration of the activity, in the topic? Telling threads with identical topics apart is just hard.

[Andail]

Fixed!

[Danvzare]

Could you use one of the other game pitches I sent you?
I didn't save them elsewhere.

If not, I'll just think of something new.

[Snarky]

You don't save a copy of your messages in "sent messages"?

You should check that checkbox!

[Andail]

Could you use one of the other game pitches I sent you?
I didn't save them elsewhere.

If not, I'll just think of something new.

I sure can, but as Snarky said, you should find your message in your "sent messages" box

[Danvzare]

You don't save a copy of your messages in "sent messages"?

You should check that checkbox!

I sure can, but as Snarky said, you should find your message in your "sent messages" box

Ok, now I feel like a real idiot. I've just found it.
Can you believe I never knew that tab existed, despite having looked for something like it several times.
Thank you two for telling me.

[Snarky]

Don't feel bad; it's not exactly obvious. (If anyone else is wondering: go into Messages/Read Messages, hover over the "Messages" tab in the new menu line â€" the one next to "Actions" and "Preferences", not the one in the standard main menu â€" and there should be a dropdown menu, select "Sent Items".)

[Snarky]

One difficulty with this contest is that there's not really anything to post about while it's ongoing. But to everyone who said they'd enter this round, now is the time!

[Cassiebsg]

Oh, right. Thanks for the heads up... I have it written on my phone, but was about to forget to send it as PM...

[Andail]

One difficulty with this contest is that there's not really anything to post about while it's ongoing. But to everyone who said they'd enter this round, now is the time!

True! But if last round is anything to go by, there'll be more posting afterwards instead:)

I'll close this by midnight, so there's still time to join this extremely exciting competition!

[Andail]

Alright, the poll is up so start voting!

We ended up with 10 submissions this round as well - not saying if it's the same people participating because that's part of the follow-up activity: Guess who wrote which entry!

Read! Vote! Guess!

[Danvzare]

Voted.
Also it was a tough choice. I easily managed to narrow it down to two, but it felt impossible to choose between those two.
Some really good pitches.

[CaptainD]

Some really interesting ideas.  I've voted for #3 as that felt like the most fascinating story to me.

[Andail]

It should be mentioned that the rules stated "roughly 80 words". While it hasn't been enforced very strictly, please do award mental bonus points to entries that abide by that rule.

[Stupot]

Lots of interesting entries but my vote went to number 9 (even though it was very liberal with the word limit). Very Black-Mirroresque.

[Durq]

Number two ("Conquistadors!") got my vote. It sounds like one hell of an adventure!

[Blondbraid]

Number two ("Conquistadors!") got my vote. It sounds like one hell of an adventure!

Same here, though it was a close call between that and number 3, and I liked number 1 as well.

Number 3 had a very intriguing mystery, but the pitch said little on how the tone or gameplay would be.

Most of the others felt like they borrowed too much from already existing stories, or in the case of number 6,
it sounds fun in theory but in practice I could see the random puzzle generating resulting in accidentally getting the player trapped in a dead end,
plus puzzles depending on logic are much harder to randomize than say, Tetris or Bejeweled-style puzzles.

[dactylopus]

But to everyone who said they'd enter this round, now is the time!

I wish I had had the time.  This came and went very quickly.  Lots of awesome ideas in here, though!  Great pitches, everyone!

[Riaise]

There are some really great ideas, here! A lot of them have potential, but one in particular caught my eye and kept drawing me back, so that's the one I voted for.