The Gaming Blender
Welcome to the Gaming Blender Podcast, the Game Design podcast where hosts Matt and Scott combine random game genres and elements to create exciting hypothetical games.
Join us on a creative journey as we blend puzzle-solving with action-adventure, strategy with role-playing, and more. Each episode takes you through our process, discussing gameplay mechanics, captivating storylines, and immersive worlds.
Whether you're a gaming enthusiast or a budding developer, our podcast offers endless inspiration. Explore new narratives, intriguing characters, and engaging gameplay dynamics. The Gaming Blender Podcast challenges traditional gaming norms, delivering fresh ideas and thought-provoking concepts.
Join Matt and Scott as imagination meets innovation, forging the future of gaming. Tune in, subscribe, and unlock the gateway to endless possibilities!
The Gaming Blender
Rally Steam - Vehicles and the Nemesis System
Fancy setting us a gaming challenge? Get in touch here!
Hey, game aficionados, fear not—we have returned, and the Game Blender is whirring away once more. So how about a side of steampunk chariot racing game, where your decisions and disasters echo through a dystopian world? Gear up for a wild ride as we concoct game worlds where innovation is king and the tracks you blaze can change everything.
Rally steam, friends—until next time!
Thanks for listening and please leave us a review and subscribe if you enjoyed it. It really helps us out. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-gaming-blender/id1597738101
Also please get in touch with us at @gamingblendpod or thegamingblenderpod@gmail.com with your ideas for new games and challenges.
We have begun to update our YouTube channel with video playthroughs and we hope to put more up there soon https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZTPuScm5BTf8DdwvaCj0jQ
Keep blending!
We're back. Aren't we Scott? We're back.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we're back after a very small hiatus that we don't usually have. We don't we never usually have hiatus. Usually very good at not having hiatus.
Speaker 1:So sorry everyone who's missed us, but for various reasonings we have been away I've been away on holiday and Scott has been away with work, and they're just so having to fall at the same time. So we decided to just have a little break and reset reset the old gaming blender. And then you broke your microphone when we tried to come back and record yesterday.
Speaker 2:Yes, I did. I tried to attach it reattached to my desk and it sort of it sort of fell out Landed on the problem for most men our age landed. Landed on my laptop, which was on the floor, so the hard surface rather than the carpet and floor promptly to probably why it's a usual place to put it at the time.
Speaker 1:Obviously, now I'm on the floor.
Speaker 2:Apparently, I didn't realize that it would turn into like a brick on the floor.
Speaker 1:that would then destroy any objects that fell on it 98% of buildings these days are made from old Apple Max.
Speaker 2:Well, there you are they are. They are very hard things, so, yes, but it's okay. New microphone is working, I think we're back, microphone's working your back.
Speaker 1:We're seeing well, people aren't, but I'm seeing your lovely face here. I know you're seeing my, you're seeing my lovely face. Isn't this lovely? It is crack on with a podcast, the game blender. The wonderful game blender, where we invent. For those of you who are new here Again.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what do we do? Who are we? Who are we, who are you? I don't know who I am when we invent hyperfascal video games by messing together a few genres and few mechanics and that will create a randomized video game and from there we will create something beautiful and new and even add a fun narrative on at the end. But, scott, I feel like you want to talk about your experience in gaming recently.
Speaker 2:Yes. So for those who are a fan of a third person shooter, or we are far behind.
Speaker 1:We are a long way behind when it comes to this. That's not. That's not like whether we're pioneers of a game that no one's heard of or a fan of Starship Troopers.
Speaker 2:I'm sure you have seen the glory that is Hell Divers 2, which has appeared on. I think you can play on it on everything actually.
Speaker 1:Well no, you can't play on.
Speaker 2:Xbox. You can't play on Xbox. So PC and PS5. I have been enjoying it immensely. I've been enjoying its tongue in cheek, starship Troopers, eskimo and blowing up bugs and robots.
Speaker 2:However, we did encounter a small issue the other day. Ironically, we encountered a bug in Hell Divers. Ironically, yes, and it didn't make me very happy, did it? No, it didn't. It's a common thing at the moment. Matthew has bought it on PS5. I have it on PC, which is, of course, the superior platform, but we won't go into that. It's just for convenience and because we thought, oh, crossplay, it'll be absolutely fine and the crossplay at the moment for Hell Divers 2 is ever so slightly broken in that you can send, so you can only meet up by sending. You can only meet up with your friends, so you send a friend request, which is fine, that works, but then you can't accept the friend request if you're doing PC to PS5 crossplay, which was a problem. So the only way around we had to do was basically that we had to put it on the easiest setting and make a mission that one of us could see. It took us about half an hour, 45 minutes to make it work.
Speaker 1:It did no no, it took us an hour. It took us a good old hour. It had my clock in the room and I was watching it going. This is taking too long. Yeah, maybe I was being generous.
Speaker 2:It did take us a while. You were being generous, we did make it work after a while, but it's not the ideal method when you just want to blow some bugs up with your friend.
Speaker 1:No, no, no. I really frustrated me because I feel like if a feature of your game fundamentally isn't working, that should be advertised. I was thinking about it earlier today because what you should have is, when you've got Steam Early Access game and they're released and they're for shorter features, they have the Early Access thing, like saying what's in the current game that will be released or what problems with it. I think games should have a. I think every game should have to have one of those, because I think every game should have a storefront where it says what are the intended features and what's available at that time.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, I think on the basis of In this case, I think what they've done is which is the wrong thing? Is they very quietly acknowledged it on their bug reporting pages. Yes, we're recognizing it's a problem, but not to the extent that they should do, given that it's a key. It's very much a multiplayer game. It's not. You can play it solo, but it's very, very hard to do. So it is a multiplayer game. They advertised it as don't worry, you can do crossplay. That main crux those people who bought the game because they thought oh brilliant, that means my mate, who's only got PS5 and doesn't have a PC, can play with me and vice versa. And it doesn't work. And they haven't gone community. We're really sorry. We're gonna put all our efforts into fixing this prom, so they haven't done that. I.
Speaker 1:Well, they might have done that and we might have glossed over it and not seen it, but I don't know. I feel like if it's a key feature, it just needs to be advertised for people like myself who will just Google it and say that cross plays a feature, therefore it should work. Yeah, for that to be fundamentally broken two months after release Isn't great, as much as I'm really sportive. The help studio doing how do I just appreciate that small and doing everything that can and they've been massively overwhelmed. Hmm, I, I feel like there should be better communication. If yeah, if you're, if something's not working.
Speaker 2:I I would agree with you. I think there should probably be a bit more transparency in the video gaming industry in general, because you know, a lesser studio could just as in like morally could just Ignore it and just go, yeah, it's fine, and then just never address the problem?
Speaker 1:What's it? Again, I'm, there's a game that I'm big fans of, a studio called big aunt studios, and they make them. They make niche sports games. So, for example, cricket, they do Aussie rules football and it's fabulous that exists and they've done some amazing stuff for that Um world, that world of games.
Speaker 1:However, this had a very good example of a feature that didn't work Because they advertised when they released the Aussie rules game, they said they would include a pro mode which is similar to our team, that is.
Speaker 1:That never got released and that this is this is a year old now and they've just announced it's going to be released in June, I think it is, but still a lot of their marketing revolved around it and then they never implemented it.
Speaker 1:And then, with the cricket game that they released in November, they again did a press release saying we're going to include it and Then they just sneakily kind of took it off the description, yeah, of the game and it just wasn't massively communicated because now the community and I'm sort of a member, active member of the cricket games community they don't know if it's ever going to come out, they don't know whether to look forward for it, whether push for it, or if it's just been scrapped and everybody's left in this sort of there's no communication. It's not clear, which would be really nice if it just had Pro mode like TBC, or so at least you knew it was still coming. Yeah, it's a mixture of. You know it's not there at the moment, but you know it's something in the future and they're locked into that and they have to provide it once putting it on there.
Speaker 2:I think it's one of the things that if you, if you, if, in the build up to a game you say, look at all these features, and then there's there's one big one that you think we're not gonna do that in time, then I think you have to. You know the best way to deal with that is to go to the community. I know there's profits and stuff that come with it. But you go to community, say, look, this isn't gonna be there. But let's say we'll cut the price by a couple of quid, or we'll cut the price by, like you know, a fiver or something to add. But and then we promise we will put it in later. So for now I think we'll turn them back.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're not we're going to make the game that we promised we would.
Speaker 2:So, therefore, we'll reduce the price slightly. And then you know, because that you know the video game communities, as toxic as it can be, is usually very, very appreciative of.
Speaker 1:I think openness goes a long way, but I think there is limitations and openness because the relationship you have between publishers and and developers developers make the game, publishers distribute, but because of the way that's that's tied up, you could get very even within the same company. You have different sets of people working to different goals, even if if even if a game is self published, you have marketing people working on one side, developers working on, and they don't necessarily at the moment feel like they seem eye-to-eye. So there's a lot. There's a lot going on, but I just think some clear things. When something is not working, you should Be very clear with that on storefronts and not leave it up to the community to Google it and go oh, I didn't know it was a bug, yeah, cuz.
Speaker 1:Realistically, say held either, say, if I turned it on, and fundamentally the whole of cross play, we managed to find each other in the end because we just set up a million things and waited for you to come in. But the whole the cross play hadn't worked that day I would have never played with you and it would have kind of been a bit of a waste of 40 quid and top of patch release and I would have been a bit grumpy. Yeah, so I feel like that is a key feature. Should we really clearly advertise like a lot, cross play isn't working in? Your average person is not gonna spot. It was only the Fact that I googled it and went through the back patch notes. I found out that it was a flag problem. People aren't gonna spot that. Your average Joe, I don't.
Speaker 2:Know.
Speaker 1:Very serious. We've done ten minutes of very serious.
Speaker 2:I actually had a quite seriously yes, let's get started.
Speaker 1:So we get started. So what? The one one I have done in the background, very tactically, because I completely forgot when I was, when I was told I was hosting and set up the Set up the dice and rolled dice, and the number that Scott has got will equate to a number on our list for genre and A number equated for our list for game mechanics. And that's so, that's two mechanics and one genre. He will merge them together, as he wonderfully does, with a wonderful merging stick and then, once we have the, once we have the bare bones of a game, we will then add a narrative, because we're slightly Stupid like that and wants to just punish ourselves. Correct, correct? So, scott, would you like to know what genre you have? I always ask you this do you want to say?
Speaker 2:if I say no, does the podcast? Does just just end no.
Speaker 1:I don't.
Speaker 2:No, please do, please do, give me the genre.
Speaker 1:But do you want the full chunk or do you want me bit by bit?
Speaker 2:Give me the full chunk for once. Full chunky, chunky chunky, full chunk.
Speaker 1:You have rolled a number six. Okay and then you have rolled.
Speaker 2:I don't know what these numbers mean.
Speaker 1:You need to tell me number one and a 31 deal with it. You have your. Your genre is number six, which equates to a sports game. Okay, which seems we're just chatting about.
Speaker 1:We haven't had a full blown sports game. We've tried with, we've crowbarred them in from time to time. We've never had a full blown sports game. And number one and and 31 equates to the shadow of war Nemesis system, so that's the system where people in games can remember exactly who you are and what you've done to them. And Number 31, which is vehicle warfare Okay, off you go. I feel like this lends itself. I feel like there's definitely a thing here. It's just making it our own.
Speaker 2:I mean, the first thing that comes to mind is obviously demolition derby, because the Higula Warfare is obviously just the Higula Warfare, and sports equals demolition derby. Is it a sport, or was it just a pastime? Well, I think, I think, oh, is it a sport? It probably. Well, to be fair, you could, you know, you could make it into a sport in the future. You could say, ah, we're setting the future, and now demolition derby is a sport, or something like that. Well, I think, if you one way to do this with the nemesis system.
Speaker 1:I think that's quite obvious, because the nemesis system operated in a way which also just quick one screw you, warner Brothers, for patenting it, you selfish bees really makes me angry. If anybody doesn't know about this, the shadow of war nemesis system, where, hey, the AI would remember who you are and react to what you did and betray you and be really fluid and stuff and Warner Brothers went and patented it so no one else could use it, and they proceeded to never use it in a game since 2017. Madness, I know, but that's just one of the brothers.
Speaker 2:We won't get into it in into the country companies today. But but sorry, that just makes me very angry because it's one of my favorite games.
Speaker 1:Very angry because it's one of my favorite system.
Speaker 2:Very Warner Brothers that it's very Warner Brothers.
Speaker 1:Yeah. But what you could do is the same thing that I like about the vehicle and nemesis system is you could do damage to people's vehicles which they don't, just because what you'd quite often do if you still had a, if you had a villain in a, they'd go away, heal up and come back and attack you. But wouldn't it be quite cool to destroy someone, say knock someone's front wheel off, and then the next time you saw them they'd replace that front wheel with something else and you could like that bit mad Max's. So you come back and he's got like a wagon wheel at the front because he's got, because he couldn't replace it.
Speaker 2:So I'm just, I'm just thinking, this, I've, I've, I've. You know, vehicular warfare doesn't have to necessarily be a modern day or even a futuristic vehicle. This works for like ancient chariot racing as well, because that technically you could like ram into each other and you could attack one another and you could you know they used to like, they used to like whip each other and stuff like that as they were going along. But obviously, if you, if you do something that was just like ancient chariot racing as it was, it would get quite boring quite quickly.
Speaker 2:So could you take that concept of, could you take that concept and sort of put it into a, a very fantastical setting in which everything from the chariot, the the thing that the things that pull you, you know, the weapons that you have, you can kind of make sort of like chariot racing, mario Kart, but like very gritty and very not serious, but I mean like like quite, you know you could, you could, you could actually like properly like a tacky John, not like throwing mushrooms at one another, but you could actually like. You know you could, you could, you could go past and you could like cut some blokes arm off and then like and then and then, and then you win the race, and the next time you, next time you go, he's like, he's like, he's got some sort of like massive.
Speaker 1:I prefer the idea of you, instead of doing damage to the person, you do damage to the vehicle and that's the way that you're remembered, because, essentially, if you ram someone off the road and they lose the right hand side of their car, their AI partner will come back to you and try and do the same back to you next time and you'll see the damage you did to the car in the next race.
Speaker 1:And also one thing I like the idea of is is you being cheeky and actually trying to sabotage each other before a race. So say, it's more open world, and you're like lining up and as you line up, you know X characters on the way to the race. So you go, you know what. I'm going to ram him off the road now because there's an opportunity, and not take him out of the race because you won't be able to restore himself in time. I see. So it's kind of you can, you can. It's kind of hiring each other while you're. Exactly, it's like it becomes a hybrid of an open world, but with the set race events. So what you?
Speaker 2:do is it wouldn't necessarily have to be open world, you could do it. Or you could do it where it's a bit like before the race, it's a bit more, it's a bit more, it's a bit more strategy and menu focus, and you can. You can choose where I case it. That's my, that's the guy I'm going to target today.
Speaker 2:I'm going to send off, I'm going to send off this guy from my team to go, and I don't know, give his horse laxatives or something, or or you know, and then, and then and then and then, that will come into play and then it could work on like a, on like a chance system, potentially, of like, whether it works or not, and then, if it works, you're like you said, you line up on the start and then the guy, the guy.
Speaker 1:He's got the story. Stop the story. Stop the story. Every listener will know where this story is going. But stop it, Okay. So let's say that. So you have like time and you can, you can. You can really mess over your opposition before and after races. I think that what you could do also is if you say fantastical, let's, let's do it. So you know, when you're in fantastical world, does usually a power source or a gem or something like that that gives you things so the equivalent of modern day electricity, but taken and made into magical and old world, which would allow you to power your power, your chariot, so you could almost like build a mechanical horse kind of thing. So maybe you do that and that's the kind of thing you win from races, and any damage you do to your opposition they will remember and they will either be more or less aggressive to you. As it is is the game proceeds as you'll do more races. Could we make it steampunk? Yeah, steampunk. I did think steampunk when we first said it.
Speaker 2:I was like could we, could we make it so that that then lends itself to? You could create something you couldn't. You could you could make it so that the structure is in place, that people can customize their chariot?
Speaker 1:essentially, yeah, and I think you only get one chariot.
Speaker 2:It is greater detail as you possibly want and if you decide, okay, I'm going to make sure that if I get hit, I'm not going to get hit off the road. So I'm going to make it's going to be a bit slower, but I'm going to make a quite heavy, robust chariot that could basically defend itself. Or you go completely opposite and go right okay, I'm going to create, I'm going to create mechanical velociraptors that are going to pull this little, teeny, teeny, tiny platform.
Speaker 1:And if I get hit I'm doomed. Yeah.
Speaker 2:And I'm going to absolutely fly, but then if anything touches me, I'm dead.
Speaker 1:So what you could also do then is if you could look at as you learn the game, you could go right. Okay, there are, we're going to be doing 15 stages and I know that these stages are long and they're going to drag out, and if I win enough of these stages, at the end I'll win the championship. So I'm going to modify my car to be a big, as you said, a big hulking beast of one that's not going to win early ones, but the plan is you damage enough people's enough throughout that they have no vehicle by the end. Because wouldn't it be really funny if you had like a, if you had a nemesis and you knock their wheel off? And then the next round because they had no money left or no enough, because you everyone starts with a set amount to repair money. The next one they've just got three wheels and they're just taking it really slowly because they can't afford to fall over.
Speaker 2:Yeah, or by the end they've got one wheel and they've got just like balance on one wheel like this, just like yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they're just there, just perfectly like, just damn you because, of this.
Speaker 2:I haven't sat down in 12 days. Should we are. We are we made? So obviously we've got, we're saying. We're saying it's like, it's like old fashioned charat stuff. So you could say maybe in the history of the world that when they were ancient people they had they had charat racing was a big thing, and then as they've sort of technologically advanced, they've kept it but they've adapted. It's obviously gotten. It's gotten to this point where it's now like steampunk animals and you know you could say that I mean you could make them use animals, I guess, but or you could say that animals but animals are more risky because animals can die and you can't repair them Okay.
Speaker 2:So that's another thing you can put in. You could say you can use real animals. Potentially they'll think a bit more for themselves and they'll dodge out the way of stuff themselves, but they'll die. But they'll die. Yeah. Whereas if you make your mechanical velociraptor and calling Keith, you know you can repair Keith after the race, whereas you can't repair Dave, the velociraptor who unfortunately was received a punctured lung in the previous term.
Speaker 1:Just the end of the race, dave finishes and goes. Thank God we can rest together, master, of course, dave. Come and look down the barrel of this shotgun.
Speaker 2:Yes, Okay, oh that's a, that's a, that's an injured looking leg. You've got there, dave. No, no, it's fine, it's fine.
Speaker 1:It's fine, it's really fine, it's fine, it's fine. And now I've checked your shotgun master. Thank you very much. Great Good to have this conversation. This could have been misconstrued couldn't it?
Speaker 2:I think, yeah, no, I think I think I can work quite well because you could. For example, would the say with the say if you decided to go for mechanical animals, you could make anything. You could decide. Do you know what? Mine is going to be pulled by cows.
Speaker 1:Yes, you could literally actually nuts, and then you could be like I really like the cow thing, I'm going to give the cows some armor and then by the end of it you go. You know what I really actually just want mechanical cows.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and do you know what? My cows are really slow, but cows are absolutely immovable, like if you, if you, if you run into a cow, the cow is not going to move.
Speaker 1:It looks at you. So if you run into a cow, a cow looks at you and goes excuse me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's like if you're in a car and you hit a tree, the tree will not move. You will not be in a good way. You move, the tree will not move. It's exactly like that.
Speaker 1:So I think you I like that. I like the choice between living and dead and losing your favorite cow.
Speaker 2:Yes, absolutely, absolutely. It would be brilliant, it would be absolutely.
Speaker 1:I get too bonded to my animals. I wouldn't be able to race with them. It's like I don't want to race Kenny the elephant again, like I think it would take he's just holding on.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think it would take quite a ruthless player who just doesn't, who just doesn't care and just goes right more people into more animals, into the meat grinder Go.
Speaker 1:Go. It's a long stage, this one. Maybe you set it out as a sort of Tour de France-esque thing. Yeah, well, no, not Tour de France. Well, the really famous long stage rally journeys where each one has a pit stop where you can repair your vehicle.
Speaker 2:And as you repair your vehicle, you're just like you mean like a Dakar, like a Dakar rally type thing. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So each time you stop you have to repair the damage. And then obviously for the next, for the next stage, everybody has the existing damage and has repaired their car in X-Way, and the AI has repaired their car in X-Way, but the AI drivers remember who you are, so they're coming for you. If you gave them a particularly nasty ram, so what you could do if you had enough bits and pieces is you could go right. First round, I'm gonna ram everyone, but that's gonna annoy them. So second round, I'm gonna drop all my excess weight and Kenny the elephant will never have gone so quickly in his life because of Charge Forward. Go, kenny go.
Speaker 2:I'm just imagining an elephant trying to, trying to run for miles, an actual elephant.
Speaker 1:Not towards the watering hole. What are?
Speaker 2:you doing? Poor elephant, should we try and shoot? Drop my pen and excitement, should we try and shoot? So I mean, we haven't really discussed the Nemesis bit, but I suppose you know we've kind of touched on it in passing in that you can buy essentially attacking and sort of thwarting other people after races. You can generate this. Yeah, I think the way it works? Is that a bloke is my Nemesis or that particular?
Speaker 1:girl, you're in your career. Each stage will have like 20 races, I reckon, and they will remember you from stage to stage. Now, some of them, if they sustain too much damage and their characters run out of, like energy slash money, they're gone from the game. You've defeated them, there's no way. But they will be replaced by a new racer in the next round, who will be generated and have his own sort of pros and cons.
Speaker 2:I've just had a thought. Could the people who you eliminate, could they appear further down the way and put stuff in the way to try and get revenge on you?
Speaker 1:Because maybe the way you do it, if the character doesn't die, they can come back into the races in later stages. When I say later stages, I mean when you go to a new race it's like oh look, that ex-person got their money back. Or, as you say, they start putting obstacles later on in races to sabotage other races. So they're essentially working to get their space in the race back by taking other people out, because the more damage they do to other people, then it opens up, will open up a space in the next race with that person running out of money. I think that works. I think that works quite nicely, a sort of quite procedurally. Do you want to move on to the plot? Yeah, we'll do it. We'll do. Plot, so plot, plot, famously to throw a spanner in the procedural works that we go on with. So our plot that we'll be going with for our racing game is forbidden love, no no, please.
Speaker 1:It's not forbidden love, thank God. It's rescue Rescue as in to rescue an individual or thing.
Speaker 2:Oh no, no, I understood that. I understood that. I understood the word rescue.
Speaker 1:Rescue is in the rescuers.
Speaker 2:Thank you for the further clarification of the word rescue.
Speaker 1:No, it was the Disney movie. I was referring to the one movie from from the 80s or 40s or 20s.
Speaker 2:I have not seen it, although I think we have on DVD somewhere.
Speaker 1:Although it's like slight, slight sidebar you had to get me for you. You said that bed knobs and broomsticks was completely made up and didn't exist. And there'll be many people listening to this who tell me, who are going to be furious at that so you not knowing what that is. Anyway, moving on, what are you on about? You once said bed knobs and broomsticks didn't exist to me and I was like no, it does exist. It's a really famous film. And you didn't know what it was and you said that. I was like it was clearly a niche film that I was just bringing up because I'm a snob. It's really famous, really famous bed knobs and broomstick.
Speaker 2:Anyway you are a film snob, though let's not, I am a film snob. You are a film snob, bed knobs and broomsticks.
Speaker 1:That's like the 60s Aladdin. Okay, so moving back to rescue, rescue a DVD copy of bed knobs and broomsticks.
Speaker 2:Shut up, so rescue. I mean, the classic thing could be that you're you know. The obvious thing would be you're participating in the race because you need to rescue someone. Yes, as part of it.
Speaker 1:I feel like there should be more to it than that. I like the idea of it. I feel like it's too simple to be like oh, a, a person is over here and B person needs to rescue.
Speaker 2:Could you? Could you be trying to rescue yourself? Could it be that you have to participate in the race? You could do the classic.
Speaker 1:Which we've done before. Fight for your freedom, kind of thing.
Speaker 2:I owe someone a lot of money. The only way for me to win this money is to win this rally and thereby save myself, but it's not the plot you could do is you could do it as in you could do that.
Speaker 1:That's all nuts and rolls plot, but the idea is that this let's call it a mafia boss or equivalent is putting these sleeper agents into the race to race against you. So every so often the nemesis system will throw up someone like, let's say, everybody's naturally nasty in it. But ever so often you'll come up against people and you're like hang on, that's definitely an agent of the person who's too, too I own money to, and they're just here to take me out to make sure I don't get, don't win the race. So maybe the maybe the person has said I will, I don't know, you need to pay me X amount or or I'll kill your family. Actually, it doesn't really work. There's a plot hole there, because why would he say you owe me money and then try and stop you from getting said money?
Speaker 1:I don't know, no, maybe what you've got to do is you are. So let's say this dystopian steampunk world. The way it works is everybody's taxes have been put up, so much the people that are entering. No, no, no, no no, this will work.
Speaker 2:This will work. This is beginning to sound like Santa Menace. Well, yes, we shall have. We shall have a bit in the Senate where they start talking about trade trade around.
Speaker 1:No, no, no.
Speaker 2:All the banking clans are like George, George. Can we not do that, George?
Speaker 1:Yeah, who let George? Who let George write a line. Again, we're backing we're talking about.
Speaker 1:Don't choke on your ambition, george, bloody hell. Okay, we need. I think we need some way that, like in the, in this dystopian world it's not slavery, but it's kind of like you're tied into your, your band and the you discover a loophole, and your loophole is that if you become an important, odd, okay, let's go very interesting a mess with this. So in the future well, no, or in this or in this world and this is kind of pulling off multiple things you have get set a class at birth based on your, based on your sort of family's income, and that limits you into this sort of labor and there's no way of moving up or down the class system. The class system is very defined, but you discover that there is a loophole, that if you become a well known enough member of society, or have enough for once another word of modern word followers, then you can move yourself through the classes. So what you are doing is you are naturally evolving yourself.
Speaker 1:So this is the loophole. It's a bit like with the gladiatorial combat in ancient Rome, where if you became a big enough star, you would get released. So it's kind of a similar thing, but by having so, essentially, the loophole is that if you are well known enough, they consider you a higher ranking member of society not suited to your low bit. So you decide to go out and do this to become a big enough profile to elevate the position of you and your family. And then maybe we say the plot is you decide to try and bring other people with you and that's the rescuing thing. You just try and you try and end up trying to break the system to rescue all your fellow lower, lower level friends. I don't know how exactly that works.
Speaker 2:Are we talking about the people? You're right, like the people you're racing against.
Speaker 1:Well, you know, I think it can mean lots of people, but also the people you're racing against. Maybe you like we reversed, we turned the Nemesis system on its head and if you don't take out, you can maybe develop good relationships with some of the drivers and you're like, okay, maybe I can bring them with me somehow and break the system. So maybe there is, maybe there is a traditional cutscene plot where your character takes it on and does actually say like I'm going to win this race and you're because if I win this race and that makes a bet and bets with the higher ranking people going I bet you I'm going to win this race. If I win this race, I take your place. I take your place here and you can engineer it somehow. I mean, there's a lot of I'm trying to rush through this slightly because we're running out of time, but I think there is a, there is a plot. You can enter there and you can essentially save some of your fellow racers and bring them with you up through the class system if you like them.
Speaker 2:No, I like that. I like the idea of essentially making the Nemesis system or like a mirror of itself, in that you have the traditional side of it and you also have what's the opposite of Nemesis Bestie. You have like a Bestie system and an Amazis system. That kind of works side by side. I think that would. I think that would be interesting, it would be interesting to take on it. It would be nice to see that this is the duality of the two work together.
Speaker 1:Well, yeah, they kind of did it with Shadow of War where you had your own army, but that was just mind controlled. You didn't really have like friendship relationship, so it'd be quite interesting to see that. See that done. I dropped my pen again due to excitement, but, yeah, I think that works and you can just have that as your plot and you're trying to break the system Again. Apologies to everyone who's sitting there going. They haven't finished the plot. They need to expand upon it. We're running out of time. You do the plot. Due to my run to the early odd. I've read out of things, but I think generally, yes, you try and break the system to your character. It's very, I imagine very hunger games, very snowpiercer-esque for anyone to see in those.
Speaker 2:Do you want to summarize and I'll think of, I'll do the thing that I am best at.
Speaker 1:I think you are terrible at which is thinking of a name, I think of a name for the racing game and you go, I'm going to call it racing game one, thank you, thank you, scott. Okay, so, summary, we've got a sports game here with a Nemesis system, with vehicle warfare, and what we have envisaged is a steampunk world where people race for other people's entertainment. That doesn't sound that weird, that's just normal. But in the steampunk world, what you do is you race and this character you're playing as fights in this sort of no holds barred. You're trying to ram your opposition off the thing and you do a big race round with multiple stages, and as your car gets damaged, you can damage other the AI's cars.
Speaker 1:They have to rebuild them. If they get completely knocked out of the race, they get replaced by another driver. Sorry, out of the game. They get knocked out of the game, they get replaced by another driver and that new driver will develop a relationship with you, whether good or bad, and attempt to ram you off the road or befriend them. The rough plot of this is that you are a lower class citizen and you have found a loophole to get up through the class system and that is by getting enough followers, and by those followers you are trying to drag with them and you're also going to try and save some of your fellow drivers, because if you develop a positive relationship with them and score a point, you can't get out of the game.
Speaker 2:I've got a few.
Speaker 1:You're leaning away from your microphone because you're nervous about what it is.
Speaker 2:Okay, I've got the death rally, which is a little bit. Well, it's quite dangerous.
Speaker 1:Very similar to the well-known film Death Race.
Speaker 2:Yes, I suppose this is some connotation. I didn't consider yes. I thought, yes, I'm going to call it the Lord of the Rings. All glossed over that one, the Rally Steam, and the other I got Wild Ride Rally.
Speaker 1:Steam makes it sound like you've got a mate called Steam and you're inviting him out for the day. Rally, steam. Yeah, I'd love to. I'd love to Rally, I'd love to Rally.
Speaker 2:Steam. If I said your text saying Rally Steam, you'd be like, yeah, let's play Rally Steam. That sounds like a great idea. Oh right, yeah, ok, the other one, which isn't going to work. But I thought it would be quite funny because I wrote it down and then I realized what it said. I wrote a steamy ride and then I realized what I'd written and went ah no, we can't do that.
Speaker 1:Well, the podcast will get a lot more hits if I put that as the name Steamy ride.
Speaker 2:Oh yes, People will buy this game and not understand what it's actually.
Speaker 1:There are people who will be like why is there a car on the thing? So the best suggestion of that was Rally Steam. I like Rally Steam. I feel like there's something there and it's just out of reach, Like it's just like a syllable off.
Speaker 2:Do you want the word off between the two words?
Speaker 1:Rally of steam.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:I don't know. I don't know because I kind of like the idea. You all think about the text where you're saying I just text you and go Rally Steam, rally, steam.
Speaker 2:I kind of like it Rally Steam, rally Steam. Well, if also it will actually be a text, I could turn to you on the train and go Rally Steam, and you can go. Yeah, rally Steam. Yeah, it rolls nicely off the tongue.
Speaker 1:It does roll off the tongue. You could call it in the game.
Speaker 2:The rally could be called the Rally Steam.
Speaker 1:Right, ok, this is my thing with it Rally, steam, my brain, brain power wise, I hate it, but a little tongue wise, I love it. Exactly, exactly. My tongue is loving what my head hates.
Speaker 2:I realize when I wrote it down it required zero brain power from me, but when I said it out loud I was like, oh, oh, that's a treat, rally Steam. We're going to have to say it Rally Steam because we've gone 35 minutes now.
Speaker 1:We've gone 30. You've done that. What you've done is you've timed me out. Yeah, you've done this Come up with a rubbish title and then spend five minutes explaining it, for me to then go oh well, I suppose that was the gaming letter. Then a rally steam. Oh God, it does Good to say it is.
Speaker 2:Thank you. Thank you, the listeners will agree. They'll probably be like I.
Speaker 1:Really like the image of someone sat on a train Somewhere to work. Listen to some of the commute again Rally, rally, steam, rally, rally, steam, rally, steam, rally. And then someone next to them has gone rally, steam, rally, steam, rally, steam. I've missed my stop. But rally, steam.
Speaker 2:They've been sat there saying rally steam for the last one, okay.
Speaker 1:I suppose it's rally steam, so that, yes, oh, I have lost, I have lost. No, okay, fine, shut up, shut up. Let me do my wrap up. That was rally steam. So if you are, please send us an email or a comment and just say if you'd like, in saying the word rally steam, thanks, um, I mean, I think the reason I'm letting you get away with this is because I suggested farm total war a few weeks ago, so I'm letting you get away with this.
Speaker 2:Yes, you did suggest farm total war.
Speaker 1:Right. So that has been the gaming that I think is so much. Listening to our utter nonsense. I'm not really really appreciate it. And please check out the other episodes. And if you have any suggestions on what you'd like us to turn into a game, you'll see in the notes for the podcast or the abilities to contact us. So please get in touch with you, feel like it, or drop us a review, or drop us a hug. Drop us a hug, yeah, droping yeah. But in the meantime I've been Matt and I have been Scott and this has been lovely. And look after yourselves, please. And if you're saying rally steam, please stop because you might get sectioned Keys lending everyone.
Speaker 1:Rally steam. That's how we sign off podcast now. Goodbye, rally steam, rally steam, bye. I have some exciting new topics with you for you guys tomorrow week.