Korra Finale: Brain Won't Shut Up Want Sleep

12/23/14

My brain won't shut up.

I guess it's only to be expected. Avatar has been a part of my life since the show started almost ten years ago. It's been with me since before I learned how to program, since before I met my significant other, before so many things.

And now it's gone.

I mean, it's been gone before, and I was pretty sad. Like saying goodbye to a pretty good friend. But now... now it's like saying goodbye to one of my best friends. "The Legend of Korra" is leaving me as my favorite show. And, of course, I can't help but keep thinking of it and things related to it.

Normally, at this point, I would go to the Avatar subreddit or find some Avatar fan-site, and just consume other people's thoughts (some really good, but most really bad) until my brain finally shut-up, but recently decided I didn't like how such habits affected me.

So, instead, I shall write this post, wherein I will wander aimlessly inside a Korra-related area of my brain.

Right now, I'm thinking about how one should go about making a good video game in the Avatar universe.

Now, there are already "Avatar: the Last Airbender" games, and even "Legend of Korra" games, but I don't find any of them to be particularly good. I have heard promising things about Platinum Games' Korra game, but what I've seen of it does not look interesting to me.

To me, the first Avatar games should really focus on something small to mechanically get right. The mechanics of the game are really going to shape the feel of the universe, and if you don't get the feel right, it just won't really be an Avatar game.

And in an Avatar game, you're going to need to feel like a bender. But bending is complicated! It's based on real martial arts and that stuff is carefully crafted.

A non-traditional fighting game might be a good place to start, for a variety of reasons. One: earth and, to a smaller extent, water-bending need to have a semi-permanent effect on the environment they're used in. A fighting game can more easily get away with this, as it's in a limited space, and that space is expected to reset between sessions. Not too much has to be remembered, and it doesn't have to be remembered for very long.

A fighting game, though, still seems pretty big in scope, requiring a diversity of characters to setup, and settings for those characters to fight in. And those settings couldn't just be scenery, either, because the environment needs to be an important part of bending, for both water and earth benders especially.

I also don't like a focus on violence as a first game entry to the Avatar universe. Action was a key part of both shows, to be sure, but a pure fighting game would kinda hurt the pacifism themes very much present in both Airbender and Korra.

So, I've been thinking, as both a limitation to scope and to better feel like a snapshot of the Avatar universe, why not a game featuring the in-universe game that Aang plays with Sokka in Book 1: Episode 3, "The Southern Air Temple".

I recently rewatched this epsiode, because of course I have started rewatching the whole series, and in this episode, to distract Aang from the emptiness of the Southern Air Temple, Sokka convinces Aang to show him how to play a game of "Airball".

Airball would be a perfect game to focus on getting mechanically right. It could be set in a time to really give us a deeper look at airbender culture (something still greatly missing).

Futher, the actual game itself doesn't look too complicated, so budget could really focus only on getting airbending right in its specific setting. Mechanics would be the same for all characters involved, as well. Scope could foreseeably be properly small.

It could maybe even have young Aang as a character so it's, you know, still an "Avatar" game, though this one isn't really necessary.

After this game gets a handle airbending, there could be an Agni Kai game to get firebending right. Then a waterbending and earthbending cultural traditional "game" of some sort.

And this cycle could continue a few times until all bending was really conquered mechanically. Then, maybe "Pro Bending" could be made into a game. Maybe even a version of it where airbending is also present. This would allow a limited space to start learning to balance the four elements. Then maybe a larger scope game where the bending elements are all present. Finally, there could be a proper "play as the Avatar" game.

I really need to focus on getting good at game design, and general programming development, so maybe I can learn enough to work on at least that first game idea.