The Pitch - Killer Babies video game

This idea has been percolating in my head for some time.
___


I want to start by saying I love babies. But I often find myself thinking, "What would it be like to kick them?" As actually kicking a baby could be considered a despicable act no matter how evil the baby, I had to figure out an alternative. Enter "Killer Babies," the ultimate baby-kicking simulator. The basic premise is this: a large arena is filled with killer babies, and it is your job to clear the stadium before they can overwhelm you with their baby killing ways. With a game of this nature, I felt it would be best if it were casual, like an arcade game a la "Smash TV." As such, the Nintendo DS would be particularly well suited because of its portability and its touch-sensitive screen.

Gameplay is fairly simple. The player starts out with a full life bar and several lives which carry over to each round. The player's objective is to clear the arena of babies, but if the babies get close enough to the player before he or she can react, they begin eating away at the player's life bar. Once the life bar is depleted, the player loses a life. When all the lives are gone, the game is over. As more rounds are cleared, the number of babies increases along with their mobility and awareness to the player. The player earns a score by eliminating babies from the field and clearing levels, with score multipliers and time bonuses also awarded based on play.


(Concept art)

The game is displayed in a top-down view on the top DS screen. The player's character is always locked to the center of the screen except when panning. The stamina bar, score, and level are displayed at the top of the screen. When the baby count gets to ten or below, it is also displayed on the screen.

Prior to the start of each round, the player must pick a clear spot within the baby-populated stadium on which to drop their character. The player can control their character's movement by using the D-pad. By holding down the left shoulder button and using the D-pad, the player can pan the screen around to see other areas of the arena. Once inside the arena, the killer babies will converge on the player's character. Utilizing the DS stylus, the player can flick the stylus on the touch pad in the direction of a nearby baby to field goal kick them out of the stadium. Alternatively, the player can tap the stylus while their character is facing a nearby baby to pick them up. While holding up to a maximum of one baby, the player can still flick the stylus in order to kick other nearby babies. If the player wants to throw the baby, they only have to tap the stylus a second time on the touch pad. The location on the touch pad controls which direction you throw the baby, and the distance away from the center of the touch pad dictates how far you throw the baby. A hard throw near the edge of the arena will cause your character to chuck the baby out of the arena, while throwing the baby into a crowd of babies will knock them back.

The killer babies will also come in different varieties. Fat babies would be much harder to kick and throw out of the arena. Bipedal babies can walk on their legs for short periods of time at a faster rate, but are clumsy and sometimes resort back to crawling. If sick babies touch the player, they infect him or her depleting life for a short period of time. There would even be boss babies, giant baby-eating babies at whom the player has to hurl and kick other killer babies.

Arena layouts will also vary, with obstacles and pitfalls making it more difficult to maneuver. Same arenas will also be blacked out save for a central spotlight on the player's character and roving spotlights highlighting other areas around the arena.

Randomly generated power-ups will also grant the player enhanced abilities for a limited time. The speed power-up will increase the players overall movement speed. The kick power-up increases the players kicking strength. If a player kicks into a nearby crowd of babies while using this power-up, all the nearby babies will be booted from the arena. The throw power-up allows the player to throw babies farther as well as knock a greater amount of babies back with more force.

Minigames are also a possibility. There could be a target practice minigame in which the player tries to kick stationary babies at moving targets. There's baby dodgeball where the player faces off against another player, throwing babies at each other.

Aside from all this, there could be a career baby-kicking mode with RPG-like stats and leveling. Customized clothing options for the player's character. Custom designed arenas. Even custom babies. The possibilities are limitless

As you can see, I have put a great deal of thought into this game. I even changed the title from the original "Baby Kicker" to "Killer Babies" to avoid offending people. I have worked out all of the game mechanics and even mocked up some artwork, so there really is little left to do but to write the program. So if anyone out there is willing to help make this game a reality, please, please, please contact me.