Idea #1

Here's a thought: a text based mystery game... and here's the starting screen.

Player wakes up with a gun in hand, and sees a person in a chair, handcuffed, dead by GSW. The player then notices a note in his hand, mentioning that the police will be there soon, and that the player has one last chance to prove his innocence. Inspired by the games Myst (tm), Zork (tm) and Clue (tm), the player will then spend the remainder of the game looking for clues around the house that s/he finds him/herself in. The player will have access to dossiers of a set number of people (the player only remembers that there was a dinner party the night before), and will have to find evidence of the crime, using items around the house.

The ultimate goal is to create a unique way of telling the story, and redefine the characters in the dossier each time, through flashbacks prompted by item finds. Each time a player starts a new game, the evidence should change, pointing to a new location, a new culprit, and a different set of evidence that proves the player's innocence (or guilt, who knows?).

Although the 'note' mentions that the 'police will be there soon', the game will not be timed, and will end once the player decides that s/he has enough evidence for a conviction, or at least a convincing story to explain the events of the night before.

The only graphics will be the various buttons (evidence, notes, dossiers), and perhaps a map of the house. Otherwise, the game will be entirely based on input text commands ("pick up gun") which the program will then parse and determine the actions.

Well, that's all I have for now, let's see if anything comes of it. Cheers folks, Shriram out.