I have been tinking with a "Gameplay Design Thread" for a while, even creating some rough posts. The new Fight Night Champion thread dovetailed with one of my drafts so I thought, "Why not just post it?" It is rough but figuring I would never put it on a blog no one would ever read anyhow I might as well post my random ideas here for people to laugh at 
With no further ado, Joshua's first effort: Joshua's Kinect Boxing.
Game: A boxing / workout game for the Xbox 360 Kinect.
Concept: A fun sporting game using pattern based gameplay that passively encourages exercise. The game would have mini-game training sessions, real boxing-oriented workouts, and a full career mode.
Selling Point: Makes good use of Kinect technology as it is similar to the dancing games.
Highly interactive.
An established sport with gameplay mimicking various elements.
Good exercise potential.
Limited game scope could allow excellent visuals on a cheap budget.
Offers both local and online gameplay and a host of mini-games.
Avatar dashboard clothing (robe, gloves, black eye, missing teeth)
Challenges: The Kinect presents a couple challenges for a boxing game.
Tracking: Resolution provided a hurdle for some tracking.
Avatar Integration: The disconnect between human movement and online interaction could be stilted. E.g. As the player throws a punch the avatar may hit the opponent hence while the players arm moves the avatar arm would not.
Latency: 100-150ms and online would add another 50-300ms. Showing the player their exact body movements would appear laggy.
Core Design: Gameplay is similar to a mix of the old school memory game “Simon” and a “pop up shooting gallery” and shared a lot in common with the gesture/posture dancing games.
The player will be presented with a series “targets.” Targets would be small flashes (e.g. translucent arms w/ gloves doing a fast gesture motion w/ a flash for the terminating glove position, so a right handed jab to the face would be a jab with a flash at the face), accompanied by the movement specific sound, that correspond to requested movement and target (so right hand punches may be a small shheeesh sound from the right speaker, left the same sound but lower pitch from the left; hooks would be a swoooosh sound; face targets would be higher pitched than body shots). Successfully completed maneuvers would have visual and audio feedback.
The player will be presented with their targets. Successful series take down the health, stamina, etc of the opponent. Missed series will result in failed punches/blocks. (Multiplayer Dynamic: No health exchange for successful series on both ends as blocks/dodges/bobs/weaves mirror opponent offense. If a player fails to gesture a punch the defender, regardless of success of the block, will not be hit—so no health exchange BUT there is a stamina cost. Landed punches have more heft in MP to reward/penalize. Missed punches and blocks are important as they strongly impact stamina [closing gesture window, the game offers fewer offensive moves]).
“Confidence” bonuses for successful series; player can store up to 3 Bonus Stars. 1 Star = Basic power up; 3 Stars = Super Powerup. Through voice commands the players can request power up use. Players can choose (and unlocked) various abilities. They can be everything from requiring the opponent to string together very difficult defensive moves or series, hit windows being shrunk, very quick gesture sequences, health or stamina boosts, and for 3 Star moves certain unblockables.
Depth: Various player skills (e.g. hard hitters have shorted windows, etc)
Various player styles (offensive, defensive, balance, dancer, etc)
Power ups and Customization (including unlockables and perks ala MW2)
Round # and Length modifiers
Blurred Vision and Muted hearing as players take more and more of a beating
Player Skill: Beginner has fewer moves and presents simpler combo series; Expert presents the full repertoire of movements, punches, and blocks in a dizzying number of patterns to keep the game challenging and fresh
Difficulty: Easy has larger windows for successful movements, a lower penalty for not completing series, allows for missed move(s) in long series while still getting a successful series, and more stamina for energy (i.e. window size) regeneration; Hard has a tighter window for movements, a larger penalty for failed series, requires perfect series completion, and smaller stamina
Replay: Full online mode (as the game’s design is lag resistant)
Career (ala Punch Out story mode) and full boxer customization (appearance, style, power ups, perks)
“Training Workouts” to “prepare” for matches: heavy bag, jumping jacks, speed bag, running, pushups, squats, sparring, combo practice, etc
Tutorials
Mini-games for fun, local multiplayer party games, and to hone skills
I had some additional ideas, e.g. online leaderboards for match-making, and for the gameplay players could select tactic (e.g. defensive, offensive, neutral, counter, etc) every 60 seconds or whatnot and what strategy you chose would impact the sequences. e.g. If you are losing/"tired" and pick offensive while the opponent is good at defense and selects defense your series will be more difficult). As a sequence style game there could be a lot of variables to add gameplay depth and strategy through simple user decisions that have significant impact on the gameplay difficulty. This need not be a shallow game.
With no further ado, Joshua's first effort: Joshua's Kinect Boxing.Game: A boxing / workout game for the Xbox 360 Kinect.
Concept: A fun sporting game using pattern based gameplay that passively encourages exercise. The game would have mini-game training sessions, real boxing-oriented workouts, and a full career mode.
Selling Point: Makes good use of Kinect technology as it is similar to the dancing games.
Highly interactive.
An established sport with gameplay mimicking various elements.
Good exercise potential.
Limited game scope could allow excellent visuals on a cheap budget.
Offers both local and online gameplay and a host of mini-games.
Avatar dashboard clothing (robe, gloves, black eye, missing teeth)
Challenges: The Kinect presents a couple challenges for a boxing game.
Tracking: Resolution provided a hurdle for some tracking.
Avatar Integration: The disconnect between human movement and online interaction could be stilted. E.g. As the player throws a punch the avatar may hit the opponent hence while the players arm moves the avatar arm would not.
Latency: 100-150ms and online would add another 50-300ms. Showing the player their exact body movements would appear laggy.
Core Design: Gameplay is similar to a mix of the old school memory game “Simon” and a “pop up shooting gallery” and shared a lot in common with the gesture/posture dancing games.
The player will be presented with a series “targets.” Targets would be small flashes (e.g. translucent arms w/ gloves doing a fast gesture motion w/ a flash for the terminating glove position, so a right handed jab to the face would be a jab with a flash at the face), accompanied by the movement specific sound, that correspond to requested movement and target (so right hand punches may be a small shheeesh sound from the right speaker, left the same sound but lower pitch from the left; hooks would be a swoooosh sound; face targets would be higher pitched than body shots). Successfully completed maneuvers would have visual and audio feedback.
The player will be presented with their targets. Successful series take down the health, stamina, etc of the opponent. Missed series will result in failed punches/blocks. (Multiplayer Dynamic: No health exchange for successful series on both ends as blocks/dodges/bobs/weaves mirror opponent offense. If a player fails to gesture a punch the defender, regardless of success of the block, will not be hit—so no health exchange BUT there is a stamina cost. Landed punches have more heft in MP to reward/penalize. Missed punches and blocks are important as they strongly impact stamina [closing gesture window, the game offers fewer offensive moves]).
“Confidence” bonuses for successful series; player can store up to 3 Bonus Stars. 1 Star = Basic power up; 3 Stars = Super Powerup. Through voice commands the players can request power up use. Players can choose (and unlocked) various abilities. They can be everything from requiring the opponent to string together very difficult defensive moves or series, hit windows being shrunk, very quick gesture sequences, health or stamina boosts, and for 3 Star moves certain unblockables.
Depth: Various player skills (e.g. hard hitters have shorted windows, etc)
Various player styles (offensive, defensive, balance, dancer, etc)
Power ups and Customization (including unlockables and perks ala MW2)
Round # and Length modifiers
Blurred Vision and Muted hearing as players take more and more of a beating
Player Skill: Beginner has fewer moves and presents simpler combo series; Expert presents the full repertoire of movements, punches, and blocks in a dizzying number of patterns to keep the game challenging and fresh
Difficulty: Easy has larger windows for successful movements, a lower penalty for not completing series, allows for missed move(s) in long series while still getting a successful series, and more stamina for energy (i.e. window size) regeneration; Hard has a tighter window for movements, a larger penalty for failed series, requires perfect series completion, and smaller stamina
Replay: Full online mode (as the game’s design is lag resistant)
Career (ala Punch Out story mode) and full boxer customization (appearance, style, power ups, perks)
“Training Workouts” to “prepare” for matches: heavy bag, jumping jacks, speed bag, running, pushups, squats, sparring, combo practice, etc
Tutorials
Mini-games for fun, local multiplayer party games, and to hone skills
I had some additional ideas, e.g. online leaderboards for match-making, and for the gameplay players could select tactic (e.g. defensive, offensive, neutral, counter, etc) every 60 seconds or whatnot and what strategy you chose would impact the sequences. e.g. If you are losing/"tired" and pick offensive while the opponent is good at defense and selects defense your series will be more difficult). As a sequence style game there could be a lot of variables to add gameplay depth and strategy through simple user decisions that have significant impact on the gameplay difficulty. This need not be a shallow game.
