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So, it was about two weeks ago when I came to find out that the website that hosts the Game Maker engine was hosting a video game contest that ends on the Aug 31st. To my dismay, I found out that it began in May, slimming my chances of meeting the deadline to just two months. And let me tell you, you need all the time you can get. Well, you would think I would be in development already. But no, I'm still in the brainstorming stage. The theme of this contest is Discovery. Basically, make a game around that word. It can literally going out and finding something or discovering something more abstract, like yourself or finding out truths. It's basically a broad term.

The contest is awarding money prizes of $1000, $500, and $250. The limits are:

- 480 x 272 screen size
- size limit of 8 MB
- can only use the arrow keys, space, z, x, c and p as the interface

Anyway, I'm narrowing down the ideas I've had to these:

- play as a man who is dropped in the middle of the desert (accidentally) who most find a way back to civilization. Taking on a top down view like Zelda, he will walk around and try to survive, from hunting his own food to increasing his inventory of survival as he come across random items that significantly make a difference, such as a tire that may be used for some utility somewhere else in the level, or just simple as a weapon?

- Something a friend did by altering the above idea: you play as an Otter instead, having the game take on a light hearted feel. And instead of survival being the main drive, you're going through the desert to save your otter friends who have been kidnapped by the evil Scorpion empire. Your otter comes to learn water powers, which will help him against the scorpions and their minions while going on a quest to return water to this barren wasteland.

- play as a cloud who goes around dropping rain on places that needs it, while battling the sun who wants to drought the entire earth due to not liking their pollution ways

- play as a spy of a rival organization as you infiltrate their office building to try to find the plans to their secret project. During the day, you use your position as an employee to gather information. Then at night, you must use stealth to get to places you normally couldn't in the day, but if you're caught by security, the night ends, moving to the next day. The player has ten days to find the plans or risk the downfall of his company.

- A battlefield esque game where your method of attacking is placed on your field, along with your battlements. If all of your guns are destroyed, you lose the game. But everything else follows as normal.

- play as a geeky kid who decides to clean up his neighborhood by using potions to get super powers. As he gains money from gameplay, he can use the money to invest in increasing the potential of his potions to increase his powers. A player can choose to specialize in a couple of powers or choose a variety for versatility. The game will play like a mix of Pocky + Rocky and Zelda

- A platform game where you play as a male and female miner teamed together, going to different parts of the world to find the rarest resources. However, a rival organization is attempting to drain the planet of all its resources, adding enemy miners to the heroes list of obstacles. A tag team system will be just like in Donkey Kong Country, due to each miner having unique attributes.

And that's pretty much all I got. Now this is where your jobs come in. Since game design is a collaborative method, and because I'm still young in this career, I could use the help with figuring out a solid game design idea around the theme "Discovery." Try to avoid cliches like "sailing the seas" unless you give it a good twist. The other motive of this contest is getting innovative ideas, so try to think outside the box. And because of the time restrictions, let's keep the concepts simple. So I'll appreciate it if you guys can help a brotha out.