Firstly, has anybody else here ever seen or heard of that Japanese Gameshow known as the Sasuke course (or 'Ninja Warrior' to the US and UK)?
If not, you might wanna read-up (But you don't necessarily need to do understand the concept of the game I'm working on):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sasuke_%2 8TV_series%29
Sasuke (%u30B5%u30B9%u30B1, Sasuke? romanized in Japan as SASUKE) is a Japanese sports entertainment television special that airs on the Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS) between Japanese television drama seasons and consists of a competition in which 100 competitors attempt to complete four obstacle course stages. Each 3-hour special covers an entire competition, and there have been 19 specials, approximately one new special per season, since Sept 26, 1997. The show is produced by Monster9 [2] and is one of the spin-offs of Muscle Ranking (%u7B4B%u8089%u756A%u4ED8, Kinniku Banzuke?), another sports entertainment competition. Until the 10th Competition, Sasuke was broadcast as a special part of the Muscle Ranking series but became an independent program when the Muscle Ranking series was discontinued. The 1st Competition in 1997 was held indoors, marking the only time Sasuke did not take place outside.
There have also been several programs related to Sasuke. Kunoichi, the women's version of Sasuke, is composed mostly of obstacles that require balance and agility rather than upper body strength. There have also been special competitions for children and the elderly.
Through an interview or audition as well as trial rounds to test physical ability, the field of applicants is narrowed to 100 who will be allowed to compete in the 1st Stage. Sasuke consists of four stages the competitors must complete. The stages increase in difficulty, and depending on the course set up, the third or second stages may not be timed. For the purposes of fairness, in the 18th competition, a 1200-meter run was held before the event. This run also determined the competitors' numbers. Each competition is taped prior to the air date and broadcast as a 3-hour show edited for time.
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So anyway, my game, Ninja Gamer (subject to change), is pretty much similar to Ninja Warrior, only it focuses solely on your gaming skill, and will most likely be a challenge even for the hard-core gamers out there :P.
Like Sasuke (Ninja Warrior), there will be 4 stages to test your skills. So far, I've fully planned out the first stage, but my general idea towards the game will be like so:
Stage 1 - Mouse-Based Realm (Cursor Corridor)
6 mouse-based obstacles with a 37* second time-limit.
Stage 2 - Keyboard-Based Realm (NoNameYet**)
So far, I've planned 2 obstacles, but of course, there will be more, they're both keyboard-based and the par time-limit is 13 seconds at the moment.
Stage 3 - Boss Realm (NoNameYet)
A series of bosses await you, they're all of different styles in different types of gameplay, it's purely up to your ability to figure out a game without the use of instructions to defeat these bosses.
Stage 4 - ???
I've barely planned this one yet, all I can say is it will be easy enough to NOT be annoyingly hard, and hard enough to NOT be too easy xP.
* - The times are not yet definite, when I get a chance to test the obstacles as I make them, I'll decide on the final times then, they may be much MUCH shorter xP
** - Name suggestions are welcome, I was thinking of calling this particular stage 'The Hallway of Hands', but yeah.. >_> <_<..
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And so far, what I have for stage 1 (The par times mean nothing, just a rough-idea of how quickly you'll need to beat the obstacle to succeed, but you can go slowly on one and really quickly on another, as long as you beat the stage in under the over-all time limit):
Mouse Avoider - PAR 0:05
A simple mouse avoider; Simple, yet difficult. If you don't know what these are, a mouse avoider is a small "maze" or path-way in which you must keep your mouse inside without touching ANYTHING other than the start or the exit.
Failure to do so will result in a loss xP (All losses mean that you lose the contest, even if you fail at the end of stage 3, you will have to go all the way back to the start to try again).
Ball Grabber (subject to change) - PAR 0:10
A small mini-game in which you must catch all 3 balls as they drop and drag them into a box, if you drop or miss one, and it goes off-screen, you lose!
Button Smasher - PAR 0:10
A much harder mouse avoider with more obstacles, and something blocking off the exit, you must hit 3 switches along the way to unblock the path.
Balance Bridge - PAR 0:02
An easy EASY mouse avoider where the path moves from left to right, and the exit with it.
Pulse Avoider - PAR 0:05
A spiralesque mouse avoider with 4 buttons, you must hit them all to proceed to the next obstacle, but a cannon fires objects at you every 1-2 seconds, the objects will move swiftly into your direction and pause for a split second and continue this pattern in an attempt to hit you.
Final Spin - PAR 0:10
You must click and drag a round object in a circular motion to bring a box holding the exit down, once it reaches the ground, you use a small gap that leads to it to get to it and complete stage 1.
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Just an idea I had, I'll see how it goes as I progress with it.
Any and all suggestions for the unplanned parts of the game are welcome :).
