These are exciting times

The need to boast about my studies at ITU comes over me quite often, but this time it will hopefully be more than just boasting.
Our exam in the course game design, will be a game that we produce, prototype and playtest during the semester. My group, made of Preben, Anders, Parkov and myself, have just finished a couple of weeks of brainstorming ideas for our coming project, and have now settled on the game idea we will be working on.
The proces of brainstorming was pretty tough, especially since we had very high ambitions from the start. We had some difficulty agreeing on an idea, but managed to narrow it down to three ideas, and today our teacher and supervisor Miguel, steered us toward the idea that would be most interesting. Credits to Miguel, for being to the point in his supervision, not like other vague supervisors I've known in the past.

The idea we settled for is about an ancient vampire, who's sleeping in his tomb, probably in some backwater eastern European country. The vampire doesn't do "active duty" anymore - the sucking of blood and all that - instead he enjoys manipulating the minds of the hapless villagers who live nearby. You, as the player, controls the vampires manipulation - so to speak - trying to fulfill your goals through your unholy tinkering. The goal will probably be to turn the villagers to mindless servants, who worship you, an objective you will complete through a series of levels, each with their own goals.
The basic premis for the game mechanics is that you don't have direct control with the villagers, instead you must rely on indirect manipulation. This will mostly be through the villagers dreams - nightmares - where you'll try to steer the subject the way you want through discrete and nasty insinuation. You'll then - hopefully - be able to see the results of your mischevious deeds during the day, where the villagers mood and actions will change according to the pressure you've put on him. This might end in suicide or murder, according to the objectives of the level.
You'll probably also be able to manipulate during the day, with the restriction that you can only manipulate objects and not persons, i.e. making or mirror break or setting the house on fire.


Exactly how the manipulation interface will function, we haven't fleshed out yet. The next step is to work out how we can give the villagers some rudimentary intelligence.
Im very excited about the project, and can't wait to get cracking. Im also quite sure it will be veyr hard work, since we have to finish the game by christmas, but that's how it goes. I'll post regular updates on the progress.