Game Idea #1

When i signed up for the class game programming, i did not do it because i had an idea of a game i wanted to develop, but because i wanted to experience game development in case i got an idea in the future.
But anyway, i have tried to come up with an idea of a game and since we're on Hawai'i i have been very inspired by this place and its locals. A possible title for the game could be:

"Hang Loose"

I have always thought that RPG's or games where you follow the same character throughout the story and watch it develop are awesome. With this in mind i wanted to create a game where the player had to customize his/her own character in the beginning of the game. After customizing the character, the player is bound to this character for the rest of the game, unless he decides to delete it.

The Story

The storyline of the game is about a young local Hawaiian (The character) who has just been given his first Surfboard for his/her birthday. The character dreams of becoming a true Surfboard Legend by competing in the world championships at the legendary 'Pipeline' on Oahu's famous North Shore. 

But as the character has never surfed real waves before, he has to train his surfing skill and the different styles, learn important tips from the pros, make friends in the environment, customize new and better surfboards and most importantly he has to win surfing competitions for cash prizes to make it all happen. 

The Gameplay

There will be different types of gameplay in this game. When walking around in the towns and interacting with NPC's the gameplay will be like most other RPG's where you freely control the character walking around and interacting. What could be really nice would be to have the gameplay be like in Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, where every single action and interaction made by the player has consequences for the story. 

The customization of surfboards and the character brings up windows where the player can customize what can be customized. 

When training and competing in the water there is a whole other gameplay where the player has to learn how to ride the waves and avoid rocks, wave-breaks and more, while surfing as smooth as possible.

The Technology

As the game story takes place in Hawaii, the full game experience will be very poor if the graphics suck, so the demands on graphics for this game is high. Using somewhat the same technology as Bethesda did for developing Skyrim is impossible because they created their own engine, but that's what i'll have to do then! 

 Each mini-game within the game (A surfing competition for instance) does not run the RPG gameplay thing and the technology is therefore a bit different, but still with high demands on graphics. This could most likely be made in HTML5 for a quite nice result. I just don't know how to do it yet :)