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Sunday, November 24, 2013

Home by 11 (NaGaWriMo Day 23)

Day 23 of National Game Writing Month! These game concepts are silly one-offs that will never be considered for production. If you’re inspired by one, feel free to use it, but it would be nice if you told me!

Yes, I missed posting this on the day it should have actually been posted. My bad. So today there will be two NaGaWriMo’s they will just be dated differently. And now without further ado …

Home by 11 is a game inspired by my experiences of being Graduated Drivers License (GDL) program of New Jersey. All the rules of the game are the actual laws of the program. And there are many. 

What makes the game fun and challenging are the situations devised and how the player/driver must interact with the laws. Each level has the main goal of getting home by 11 because that is when the probationary license expires. Sub-goals will be things that the player must complete and often make difficult the primary goal.

Example: You need to be home by 11. You’re friend needs a ride back to their house on the other side of town. How do you accomplish both? Do you speed just a little and risk getting caught? Do you cut through the college and risk drunk students wandering out into the street? What about the highway this time of night?

Home by 11 creates a risk/reward scenario. The more goals you accomplish the more points and better rewards you get. Yet, the more goals you complete the high chance of you doing something your not supposed to increases. Such as driving with or without the red stickers. All they do is act as profiling and single out your car to patrolling cops. Then the talk to a cop minigame ensues. Do you lie to them and say that one of the extra people in your car is your cousin so you don’t brake the one non-family passenger rule?

And this being a teen driving sim situations with less obvious routes of action will turn up. One level may have you attempt to drive home while slightly inebriated. (Bad idea. Do not do it. The Age of Gaming does not condone this action. Just, thinks it would be a neat gameplay mechanic.) Another level might evolving having to take a friend home and then perhaps following inside if all works well. But, can you still make it home by 11 if you do this? Or perhaps you just pull of the side of the road. Is your car and/or your actions inconspicuous enough to avoid detection or will you end up playing the most awkward version of talk to a cop minigame?

By pitting you against the clock and the rules of a ridiculous system, Home by 11 creates the most aggravating driving experience possible. The player can pick any course of action as the core of the experience is interacting with, abiding by or just out right braking the rules of the GDL program. Do you think you can make it home by 11?

Want to do your own NaGaWriMo? It’s fine if you start late. It’s a made-up challenge. Write a good one and include the hash-tag!

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