Eli Dupree @elidupree@mastodon.social

Bad game idea of the day: a game that gives you a "completion percentage", but it's based on the percent of *unlocked* missions that have been completed. And there are some missions that you have to choose between, meaning you're permanently stuck below 100% completion. The only way to achieve 100% completion is to make sure to only *unlock* a compatible subset of the missions in the first place.

Bad game idea of the day: A game about summoning eldritch horror entities, but it's based on the process of coaxing a cat. You spend ages meticulously crafting a summoning circle to appeal to their interests, and when they finally incarnate, half the time they inhabit one of your cardboard boxes instead.

Bad story idea of the day: Classic dystopian eugenics scenario where the evil government has manipulated the circumstances of the protagonist's birth to make them the perfect person to unlock the secret magic. But, the secret magic can only be used by someone who is generally hopeful about the goodwill of humanity! The plot centers around the government's comically desperate attempts to prevent the protagonist from growing up to be a cynic, without changing any of their actual policies.

Bad horror idea of the day: An evil spirit tracks down people who say "I know teenagers are irrational because I was irrational when I was a teenager", and punishes them by forcing them to relive their teenage years and realize that a lot of their "new-found wisdom" is only useful when you're an adult, and isn't actually that helpful when they have to cope with the struggles of being a teenager in our society.

Bad movie idea of the day: A zombie/detective movie with the tagline "The murder victim always returns to the scene of the crime"

"El Niño" is Spanish for "the boy", as in "What up it's ya boy the Pacific Ocean, coming at you with a new unboxing video! As always on this channel, when we say 'unboxing', the boxes we're referring to are your houses--"

As you know, zombie survival scenarios lean fascist because the concept of "a horde of evil, yet pathetic, invaders, who you must wipe out to defend your home" replicates fascist views about immigration.

Bad game idea of the day: A game that makes this explicit by not having the zombies come from outside, but instead, alternating a phase where you label some of your residents as zombies with a "zombie survival" phase where you build defenses against them. They don't actually attack you though.

Bad game idea of the day: A "grittily realistic" simulation of medieval combat, where you spend most of your time marching around, and you're more likely to die of the plague than actually fight in a battle. In a few rare runs, you get to see front-line action - instead of just marching, you get to starve to death during a siege!

Bad game idea of the day: A game named "Sponsored"

Bad game idea of the day: An MMORPG where you can reload from a save if you die, but the save is a save of the ENTIRE game world, so it's almost impossible to accomplish anything without it being swiftly undone by someone loading a save somewhere.

Bad game idea of the day: Sandwich'd!, a game where you hide human-sized slices of bread in your environment, then trick your opponents into standing between them, at which point you reveal the bread and yell "Sandwich'd!"

Bad story idea of the day: Horror story where a time traveling future version of you kidnaps you and assumes your identity. They immediately start going out with your crush, they pursue your hobbies better than you were, they have a better relationship with your parents, etc.

Bad game idea of the day: A co-op game where when you die, you turn into a ghost that can be revived, but also there are some levels that only ghosts can interact with, and you need to proactively get some of the players killed because it's hard to get them killed on purpose right when you need to.

Bad game idea of the day: A massively multiplayer fishing game, with a realistic portrayal of overfishing where the players can and will deplete fish populations, thus taking away the fun of the game, if they don't proactively agree on regulations.

Bad game idea of the day: A racing game where you have a "pretend you're going really fast" button, which displays lots of zoomy motion lines but doesn't change how your car is moving at all.

Bad game idea of the day: Escape From Nice World, a game where you live in a utopia and you're trying to leave. You need other people's help to leave, and although they're all friendly and helpful, they tend to assume that you're confused or making a mistake. Primary game mechanics are about convincing them that you actually understand what you're asking for.

Bad game idea of the day: Choose Somebody Else's Adventure, a series of books like Choose Your Own Adventure except that on each page, you have to follow the choice the previous reader wrote down, and optionally erase it and write in a different one for the next reader.

Bad game idea of the day: One Billiard Balls, a game of billiards where the number of balls is one billiard (in the sense of "a thousand billion" in the long scale, i.e. 10¹⁵)

Bad game idea of the day: But Where Do They Go To The Bathroom?, a puzzle game where you play as an architecture firm. In each level, you get hired by an evil mastermind who built an evil fortress but forgot to include any bathrooms. You have to design the cheapest renovation that adds the needed amount of bathrooms.

Bad game idea of the day: Credits Tycoon, a game where you sell ever-more-prominent positions in the credits to people with ever-more-dubious claims to have participated in the creation of the game.