So once again, this month is an even-numbered month. Since so much time has passed by, it’s time to share my next big original game idea. Last month was on Winter Island, this month is on the 3D Platformer called Glow City, which is in the vein of Super Mario 64, Super Mario Sunshine, and Super Mario Galaxy.
Glow City – General Ideas:
Glow City is about a fictional video game company called RevivePlay, which makes new games based on retro games. It is founded and owned by a 31-year-old woman named Kaylee Cook, a retro gamer who enjoyed retro games. For much of the story, RevivePlay’s computers were working very poorly. They have been littered with crashing glitches that were taking over the computers completely. Kaylee had 12 hours left to fix the computers, or every computer will die. She and her vice president, Courtney Baker, decided to go inside the virtual world and face the problems personally rather than attempt to fight the glitches at the desk. On June 21st, 2016, RevivePlay’s sixth anniversary, the two women traveled into the virtual world.
While inside the virtual world, they arrived in Glow City, which represented Kaylee’s computer. The glitches that were killing the computer were represented by cyber roaches, robotic roaches with light trims. The roaches destroyed the city and killed many people (which represented the data). The cause of their existence were the missing golden microchips, which not only would kill the cyber roaches, but also prevent them from existing. The golden microchips were hidden in RevivePlay’s ongoing projects.
Genre:
Glow City is a 3D Platformer where you have to collect a primary item to complete a mission. The item that is equivalent to the golden banana in Donkey Kong 64 and the power star in Super Mario Galaxy is the golden microchip. There are several levels in the game. If you enter a level, you will stay in it as you explore. But once you earn a golden microchip, you complete the level, and you’ll return to the hub. The more golden microchips you collect, the more levels you’ll unlock.
As for theme, the general theme would be science fiction, given the Tron aesthetic when exploring Glow City. But when you enter a game belonging to RevivePlay’s, the theme matches the world. The first one follows the autumn theme. The second follows the desert theme. The third follows the city theme. And the last follows the winter theme. If you get the DLC, you’ll unlock the fifth world, which has the sci-fi theme.
Characters:
Despite having to interact with several background characters in the game, there are only three main characters. They are Kaylee (the president of RevivePlay), Courtney (the vice president of RevivePlay), and Lola (the primary helper character). On the villain side, you have the Cyber Roach Queen (the main antagonist), Glow Hornet (a robotic wasp responsible for the whole crisis), Glow Spider (the general in Fall Forest), Glow Scorpion (the general in Daylight Desert), Glow Cicada (the general in Crazy City), and Glow Moth (the general in Winter World). As one of the themes is female empowerment, all main characters and main villains are female.
- Kaylee is one of the co-protagonists you can choose from. She is the president of RevivePlay and the oldest employee, at Age 31 (as of 2016). She founded RevivePlay in 2010 to make new games based on old genres, but at the beginning, it started as a mobile game company. In 2014, RevivePlay left the mobile game market and started working on larger games.
- Courtney is the other co-protagonist you can choose from. She is the vice president of RevivePlay and the youngest employee, at Age 21 (as of 2016). She got a job at RevivePlay in 2013 after finishing high school. Her hard work during her first year got her promoted to vice president.
- Lola is the primary helper character and the queen of Glow City. The life of Glow City is dependent on her life, as she was the most powerful person in Glow City. But the attacks done by the cyber roaches weakened her.
One thing all three human characters have in common is that they are blonde women. Kaylee has her hair tied in a ponytail, while Courtney and Lola had the same hairstyle, which is the bun style.
Setting:
While the introductory cutscene and closing cutscene take place in Kaylee’s office in the RevivePlay headquarters, most of the game takes place in Glow City, particularly in one of RevivePlay’s projects. The four projects the golden microchips were hidden in were Critter Cram, American Adventure, City Life, and Winter Quest.
The first game, Critter Cram, is an RPG based on Pokémon, where you have to capture creatures called “critter crams”, train them, and fight against other critter crams to become a champion. It also had elements from Neopets (such as paintbrushes) and BIONICLE (such as masks). In the events of Glow City, Critter Cram was set in the fall, which is where the game began. Critter Cram has already been published in March 2016, but it was on Version 1.0, showing that the game was still on its base game.
The second game, American Adventure, is a 3D platformer that is similar to Donkey Kong 64. There are eight levels based on different regions of the United States. In the events of Glow City, American Adventures was set in the desert, particularly the Southwestern United States. The game is already completed and is set to be published in August 2016.
The third game, City Life, is a virtual life game like Animal Crossing, but it borrows elements from business simulator games like RollerCoaster Tycoon and Zoo Tycoon. It also took place in the 1990’s, back when RevivePlay’s employees were kids. In the events of Glow City, City Life took place in the summer of 1995. The game was still in its beta stages, which was enough to release in the public for beta testing, but not ready to publish.
The last game, Winter Quest, is an action-adventure game like the Zelda games. It even had dungeons and quest items. In the events of the Glow City, Winter Quest was set at night and at the mountain in Wyoming. The game got enough work on, but is in the alpha stages of development.
The postgame and DLC-exclusive game, Future Travels, is a first-person shooter like the Metroid games. The game has recently entered production, so very little has been put into the game, but there were some extra golden microchips there.
Story:
The story begins in Kaylee’s office in RevivePlay’s headquarters. After dealing with computer-breaking glitches for days that affected every computer, she finally came up with a way to fight them. She placed her virtual world transporter, which would send people into the computer world. Before going inside, the two had a discussion on why the glitches were bad. They weren’t just interfering with their work, but also making their computers unusable. If they didn’t stop the glitches within 12 hours, the computers will be broken completely, and they have to get new computers. The problem is that all of their data were stored onto their computers, with none of them stored to flash drives. Having to replace every computer would put the company of RevivePlay in jeopardy.
The two women were sent into Glow City, where they meet Lola, the leader of Glow City. According to Lola, Glow City was attacked by cyber roaches. Unless if something dealt with the cyber roaches, Glow City will fall within six months. And nothing could deal with the cyber roaches because Lola was too weak. However, Kaylee’s and Courtney’s visit gave her hope. Both women were given light beam guns, which would instantly kill the cyber roaches and other robotic insects. Kaylee took the Cyber Streamer, while Courtney took the Digital Missile Launcher. They also got a necklace that can glow and change colors.
They learned that in order to get rid of the cyber roaches once and for all, they must collect the golden microchips, which were hidden in four of RevivePlay’s projects. But the first thing to do was to defeat Glow Hornet. If they start collecting the golden microchips without defeating her, she will interfere with their work. Then they had to go into each of the projects to look for golden microchips. Unlocking more projects required defeating other robotic insect generals.
As the girls’ quest went on, the golden microchips weakened the power of the cyber roaches, as they made it harder for them to live or reproduce. Meanwhile, for each robotic insect general Kaylee or Courtney defeated, Lola regained her strength, as more of Glow City revived. Lola eventually recovered fully, as Glow City was fully restored.
Meanwhile, the cyber roaches, led by the Cyber Roach Queen, had a much darker plan. With Glow City and all nearby cities nearly wiped out, the one thing they have left to target are the cities of the devices belonging to RevivePlay’s customers. To get to them, they needed to use the internet portal. But the near destruction of Glow City caused the internet portal to shut down. The Cyber Roach Queen got more threatening and impatient, demanding the portal operators to re-open the portal. The portal eventually re-opened, but by the time it opened, it was already too late. Kaylee and Courtney were ready to fight the Cyber Roach Queen.
The duo encountered the Cyber Roach Queen at the portal station, which represents RevivePlay’s official website. With Glow City restored, the cyber roaches’ plans were foiled, and all they had left to defeat was the queen. The women defeated the Cyber Roach Queen and left back to the real world. Lola restored all nearby cities with her powers.
Back in the real world, Kaylee and Courtney saw that all computers were back up and running smoothly. They tested for glitches, only to find no glitches.
Gameplay:
Because the game is a 3D Platformer, the focus is on exploring levels, collecting items, and fighting the bosses. In fact, there’s even a cycle. In each world, there are four levels, all of them having a golden microchip lock (except for one of the levels in each world). The boss level also has a golden microchip lock. You explore each level as you search for golden microchips. Once you defeat the world boss, you will unlock the next world, where you will have more levels.
There are four main levels per world, and four golden microchips per level. There are technically five levels, not counting the boss level, in each world, but one of them is a Kaylee-exclusive level, and the other is a Courtney-exclusive level. In each level that you can access as either Kaylee or Courtney, three of the golden microchips are obtainable by both, one is obtainable by Kaylee, and the other is obtainable by Courtney. Additionally, the hub world has four golden microchips, bringing the total to 20 golden microchips per world. But the hub world golden microchips will only be available as you collect silver batteries.
The game is not just a 3D platformer. Being a nod to Nintendo’s franchises, here are some of the other elements from various genres:
- Shooter – one of the two weapons you can use is the light-beam gun, which you can also upgrade for each silver battery you obtain.
- Action/Adventure – the boss levels will come with a pre-boss stage that is very much like a dungeon.
- RPG – not like a traditional 3D Collectathon Platformer, the robotic insects will have their own health meters. If your light is of a certain color, you can deal more damage. The bosses have their health meters and advantages too.
- Virtual Life – the game has both clothing customization and base customization. In every world, you will have a small house that appears in every world, which you can customize.
And that’s not all. Each level will have one silver battery and several neon coins. Each silver battery you collect will unlock one more golden microchip in the hub, as well as a shooter upgrade, more clothes in the shop, more furniture in the shop, and stat boosts. The neon coins can be used to buy more clothes and furniture.
My Confidence in the game:
While 3D Platformers may not be the most popular genre, I feel like that this game would be one of the best 3D Platformers. In fact, with all of the gaming references, it might be popular for a little while. Now if Winter Island does get made before this game, the gameplay gimmick might be the same as Winter Island’s since I did want to keep using the player light feature. But Glow City had more reason to use it than Winter Island. It’ll never reach the same height the Mario games have reached, but it might be more loved than A Hat in Time.
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