Skinny Banter #1 Wrap-Up: Worlds, Wars and Ponies (1/4)

Last month, we launched our very first Skinny Banter, a community initiative aimed at sharing ideas focused on a single topic. Encouragingly, several very fine writers from the GameSkinny community stepped up to the somewhat ambitious challenge of imagineering the ultimate game. Here is the question set before them:

If you could take your favorite game elements of all time and combine them into the ultimate digital experience – the one game to rule them all – what would it be? How would it work? Describe your digital nirvana, build your ultimate game from the still twitching parts salvaged from other titles.

With the entirety of gaming history their palette, our intrepid Banternaughts set about painting their gaming utopia, here’s a summary of what madness was wrought:

God Squad

Sugar Kyle opened the SkinnyBanter mash-up with ‘All the Worlds All at Once‘, taking us on a reflective journey of her gaming career from the days of Sonic the Hedgehog and on into real time strategy games. Her taste for exploration and discovery grew into a passion for god games which ultimately led to her making this modest appeal to game developers:

“I simply want a vast, intricate, complex world building god based strategy game that doesn’t leave pieces on the table. I want it to be long, I want the board to be huge and I want the graphics to both make me giggle and dazzle me at the same time.”

For the Whinnying

Amy White took time out from masquerading as GameSkinny’s CEO to share her vision of ‘The Dark, Oblivious Time of Ponies: An Ultimate Game Mashup‘. It largely revolves around horses, “I don’t care what horse, it just has to have a horse” she explains. Also involved in this equine extravaganza would be elements borrowed from Dark Cloud, Darklands, Oblivion and the Zelda series. To sum up, she tells us:

“I want an open world where my actions have impact, my character is embroiled in emotional quest lines, the music is burned into my brain for all time and I get everywhere via epic horses.”

What War is Really Good For

Wokendreamer definitively smacks down Edwin Starr’s complaints about the purpose of war in ‘Elder Civilization Age: Total War‘. His breathtaking vision of a completely immersive theatre of politics and combat would see grand Civilization-style empire building combined with courtly intrigue, deep character development and, of course, war. Essentially 300 meets Dangerous Liaisons whilst wearing wizard hats.

“This game will play, for the most part, similarly to Civilization games. Pick your starting Elder Scrolls race, found cities, spread out over the world, research new technologies and magic, and prosper. The combat comes into play, obviously, when wars start happening, with the Total War model allowing massed armies of Orcs to charge at waves of Argonian skirmishers.”

Part Two: Japan, Warcraft and Cyberpunk

Skinny Banter #1 Wrap-Up Index

1. Worlds, Wars and Ponies

2. Japan, Warcraft and Cyberpunk

3. Spies, Trolls and Tools

4. A Conclusive Mash-Up