But I figured I might as well take a stab at talking about a work in progress anyway. On one hand, having my ideas out in the open might actually encourage me to finish the game and not consign it to the ever-growing folder on the computer of half-finished projects. On the other, it'll give everyone a good laugh if I don't finish it. So, one way or another, we all win.
Without further ado:
It’s called The Superhero’s Sidekick and it’s about – yep, you guessed it – someone who isn't a superhero herself. She's the superhero’s sidekick. She's the one who was best friends – or a little more than friends actually – with someone who got super powers and now she's just... tagging along. Running the hero’s fan-club, carrying her bags and doing all the hundred and one things that need doing but are a little beneath a hero. After all, when you can leap tall buildings in a single bound, you don't want to be seen carrying your own bags, do you?
Only... there's a hitch. Some technical whizz-kid has come up with a device called a Jammer which does what it says on the tin: jams superhero – and villain – abilities. Reduces them to normal again. Which means the sidekicks of the world finally have a chance to shine.
YOU finally have a chance to shine.
That's the basic premise anyway. You're a sidekick working for a superhero called Midnight, who goes off to fight the evils of the world while you tend to stay behind on account of being of slightly less than average strength, not bullet-proof and not able to fly. You also can’t shoot lasers out of your eyes and if someone cracks a crowbar over your head, it won’t be the crowbar that breaks. You can fight – a little – and you have a few tricks up your sleeve, but for the most part your job comprises of sitting in a van, listening to Midnight fight, and helping sign autographs for her (she's too busy saving the world to do it herself).
It’s going to be a fairly big game. I don't know just how big yet because I've only just started writing it, but I'm imagining quite a few fights with various supervillains, encounters in secret underground lairs (because what supervillain worth their salt doesn't have a secret underground lair?) and all manner of clever gadgets you can use to overcome the slight problem of having no super powers.
There are going to be multiple solutions for most puzzles and extensive hints – at least to begin with. Once the game progresses, I'm planning to cut back on the hints. Early hints will pretty much tell you what to do if you're stuck, but later on they'll just be a gentle nudge in the right direction.
No screenshots yet because I still haven’t settled on the way I want it to look – I keep messing around with font sizes and faces, using multiple fonts to give it a distinctive look – and naturally no ETA. Maybe this year, probably next, unless another Best Game Ever Written idea occurs to me in the meantime.
Basic stats for it so far:
Size: 10kb
Rooms: 6
Objects: 10*
Tasks: 62
Events: 3
* None of the existing rooms are properly fleshed out yet. The finished version will have a lot more than one and a bit objects per room.