Balloon Cargo Research and Ideas

After looking up multiple different balloon and cargo type games. Here are a few ideas: Cargo Bridge Is a typical physics based game that requires you to create stable bridges to allow cargo to pass over cliffs and pits. This game would require us to use gravity and physics to determine the stability of bridges. This game doesn't incorporate balloons, but the following game is a mix of these two ideas. World of Goo World of Goo is also a bridge / physics type game that uses goo that connects itself to each other to build bridges over gaps. The cargo itself is the unused goo, and whatever you don't use is counted towards the points you earn. There are some boards that incorporate balloons to help hold up the bridge in certain points. Float (https://market.android.com/details?id=com.elevateentertainment.floatgame) Float is an Android game that has you moving balloons around avoiding sharp objects from popping them. This games isn't all that fun to me as it is more like dealing with real balloons trying to keep them a float by hitting the bottom of them. Unlike real life where you can move around with your whole body and have a little bit more control with the balloons, this one you just tap the bottom of the balloons and it seems they go in random direction and are harder to control.

This brings me to my ideas of what makes video games fun. Easy controls, fun game play, and accomplishment. Accomplishment is I think the key to making video games addicting to people. Those of you who play World of Warcraft (I can honestly say I have never played it) would have to explain to me the enjoyment of building up your characters, and going on quests. In my experience with games like Call of Duty Black Ops, one of the most satisfying aspects of the game isn't the single player campaign, but the multi-player game. Leveling up, prestiging, and starting all over again. Where the addiction comes in, is feeling the need to "just get to the next level", or "get to the next prestige level". Or even with games like Madden, with each new version I will drop myself down to the 2nd or 3rd highest difficulty. Play through a full season (sometimes multiple times) until I have won the superbowl. Then moving up in difficulty and doing it all over again. Then once I have reached the highest difficulty, if I win it all, can I repeat back to back years? Both those games are more complex and niche games, so lets look at a game like Angry Birds. More simplistic game play, that even kids can pick up and play. It too has the addicting factor in trying to get to the next level, trying to get all 3 stars on each level. Then the game will come out with new levels, new challenges. I'm still trying to come up with ideas for a collection of balloons and cargo that we can possibly make. I like the idea suggested by Scott of having it be a war game where bombs are carried via balloon over to the other teams side where you then pop the balloons and the bombs drop on the opponents buildings. A game like this could incorporate where it is easy to pop your own balloons and have them drop. But it could also be able to pop your opponents balloons but it would be more difficult. You could have it where with your balloons you could just tap the screen to pop them, but with your opponents you would have to use something like arrows that are effected by wind, gravity, etc. You could have different types of balloons, ones surrounded by shields, auto dropping, etc. Ways of upgrading weapons, bombs, balloons, defenses. If we wanted to have a one player game against computer opponents, we could have different levels, with a star based system like angry birds. I will continue to work on some ideas for our IDEO design process.