Sometimes it just flows. Sometimes, not when you want it, or when you expect it. I've spent the last 1 1/2 hours trying to fall asleep. Hm... did I really try to fall asleep? No... not really... I'm full of inspiration, and 2 minutes ago, I decided to put it down into this blog.

It started out with ideas for the FAQ of the Unity-Website. If I write those ideas down, I'll link it from here... but that's just how it started in my mind, and then I shifted towards "my own stuff".

So let me start with what's relevant:

I might be using my old name for those computer games: Purple Sunshine Productions - Games beyond Imagination. I need to create a cool "intro" with nice sounds and effects. That's just branding... no big deal...

I've had quite a few ideas concerning JC's Unity Multiplayer TRaceON and JC's Unity Multiplayer Pill Cruncher. New names: JC's Unity Multiplayer TRaceON - Not just another Tron-Clone. JC's Unity Multiplayer Pill Cruncher - Not just another PacMan-Clone. The PacMan-style game will use textures "from the real world", so I will try to take it completely out of the "old-school game context". It'll be a somewhat surrealistic mixture of a "techie-smily" going through a "physical-world-style-garden" with funny ghosts. Ah... I might use the cloth-script I had just found on the Unity forums for those ghosts... that'll look spooky and cool ;-)

More important right now, however, are the ideas concerning the game with the long name, let's abbreviate this with JCsUMTRON from now on. Each player will have a history that is connected to his / her account on this page (or www.jashan-chittesh.de, or www.ahhht.de - I'll connect those accounts somehow, anyways). Depending on what a player has achieved in the game, certain areas of the game will be freely accessible. Also, obviously, there will be highscores. The highscore module will be generic, i.e. I'll create a generic high-scoring that will be used for JCsUMTRON, JCsUMPC, some funny other games in between (like the "maze game"... a very old but funny idea that should be rather easy to implement with Unity, some first person shooter) and finally all the various player stats within RaMtiGA once that gets going. The cool thing about this is that as I'll be integrating all those little games into RaMtiGA (ah - secrets revealed ;-) ), whatever players achieve even before RaMtiGA sees the light of its existence will be recorded and available.

The whole high-scoring system will probably only be available to paying players, as an incentive to support the development of RaMtiGA. Oh, and I've had another idea for Unity, concerning creating Web players with lo-res textures and lo-res polygons that I'll also have to post to their forum.

Finally, some of the ideas for JCsUMTRON: Many different levels with very different styles and specials. Starts out as it looks right now, simple large arena. Add a GUI with the important keys always being visible (left, right, 1, 2, 3, q and e) with their effect. Also, add "slots" for extras. In Arena 2, first "extra" is available: "high-speed". If user picks it up, it shows in the GUI, with the key, and the number how many times it can be used. It simply accellerates the lightcycle for a moment. This is useful in "head-to-head-races" (use it to pass by other user, make a sharp turn and win). Extras can be carried from one level to the next, but only within one game session. Each Arena has its name (very creative: Arena 1, Arena 2 and so on ;-) ) somewhere as a texture, written in Diavlo font (or maybe a more technical one).

Arena 3 is shaped like a plus: +. More "high-speed" extras. Arena 4 is shaped like an L. Here comes the first instance of the "turbo-boost" extra. This allows you to simply jump over a wall. With some cool effects (camera from below following the lightcycle flying above the camera until the cycle lands, try to use physics for this). Arena 5 is shaped like Arena 1 - BUT: This comes with a few high-speed extras, a few turbo-boost extras, and a new one: stealth. Stealth makes the lightcycle almost invisible (use glass effect, maybe soft particles) and stops wall creation. But only for a specific amount of time (countdown-timer). Then lightcycle fully "re-appears", and starts creating the wall again. The "master-way" of using this is sneaking in front of another lightcycle so that the wall starts right before paths cross. The other user doesn't know when the wall re-appears and he can hardly see your lightcycle.

Further extras to be added in later arenas: A laser-gun with which you can destroy a wall in your way (this actually is visible on your cycle, so other players can see you have that extra). "Save-me-from-myself": Immediately removes all my own walls all at once. This is very useful when you're cutting off your own way. The other player(s) may feel safe and think they've already won - and suddenly, your walls are gone and you can get at them. And finally: a MAP with a 2D view of the Arena and the walls. Looks like the original old-school game. This will be extremely useful in one of the later arenas ;-)

Further ideas for arenas: one with quite a few obstacles. A 3D arena with different levels (one above the other) and teleporters between those levels. This can become rather complex and will require quite some experience to be handled by the players (so consider this a rather advanced level). A maze-level. Obviously, this won't be a complex maze, but a rather simple one... but that'll be hard enough to play...

Finally: One level with a ceiling. In that level, you can only use cockpit view because the camera can't move much above the cycle. This level is not for people with claustrophobia, because it will be rather "narrow". It WILL however, be a level for people who were smart enough to keep their MAP extra. Without the MAP extra, this will be extremely hard to play because you don't really see much of what's going on in that arena...

Alright... gotta go sleep... gotta get up in 4 1/2 hours... ouch... feels good though - another set of ideas was just born, and the cool thing is that these aren't too hard to implement once the basic game framework is done... JCsUMTRON will become a part of RaMtiGA, even though you don't HAVE to play JCsUMTRON within RaMtiGA. It's an option, and for a few people, it will be a fun-option... In the long run, JCsUMTRON will only be available inside of RaMtiGA...