Plant the seed: +1
Open to a few interpretations, but will most likely result in 90% gardening games, which is too much like harvest IMHO. But the non-gardening games could all be pretty interesting, and I've already got an idea I like just in case.
Can be read as gardening, sexual, propaganda, espionage, maybe parasites.
I could maybe shoehorn my card game into it via the sexual path, but I think there's a funny sexual joke game to be made...
Decay: -1
A few interpretations, but not sure they're very compelling.
There's decay of matter like corpses and trash, decay of things that need maintenance like cars or relationships, or I guess the decay of sound forms or other waves over time type of thing. That last one could make 'waves' fans happy. I'm not really into any of those concepts mechanically or narratively, so it would be a struggle for me and likely for a lot of other people as well.
Recharge: -1
I could only really see 3 interpretations for this.
Batteries, self-care, and maybe some memey interpretations like re:charge or re-charge in the sense of charging into something again rather than charging something back up to full. Arguably, 'Charge' on its own would have made for a better theme than 'recharge' does. It's just too limiting.
Depths: -1
Underground, underwater, cave spelunking, deep diving into information. Feels a bit limiting again and I've heard a lot of complaints that it's been done so much via otherly-worded themes. Pass.
Salvage: -1
I like Lethal Company, but not sure I wanna play a few hundred clones of Lethal Company when there's already a few hundred clones out there on Steam... other than lethal company clones all I can think is metaphorical salvage like salvaging a relationship; or a 'make something new out of disparate parts' approach. Again, doesn't really feel like a super open theme to me. You could I guess take a memey approach where you identify the ages of different salves; the Salve-Age if you will.
Doors: +0
It's a funny theme to imagine winning, but realistically, it's too constricting. There's no obvious paths and no subversive paths. It's just doors. What, you want me to recreate Monster's Inc or something? A game about installing doors? Then again, it's constricting but not in an obvious "every game will be the same" way, just that they'll all somehow be about doors. This might actually be just restrictive enough o force people to be more creative... Fine, have my +0.
Send signals: -1
A little bit broad, a little bit constricted. Will mostly fall into the camp of digital/analog signals or face-to-face communication signals, so games might end up feeling very same-y. But I could use the face-to-face path to shoehorn in my card game and give it some more mechanical direction or a different mechanical direction. Not enough to get a positive vote from me though.
Keep it together: +1
Gotta vote it for nepotism, that's my theme! But I also think it's got that good-ol'-fashioned "keep it alive", "sacrifices must be made" theme style that LD has bee missing for a while. It's a common phrase which allows for easy interpretation and easy subversion, without anything entirely specific; and because it's a vague command, it's a good prompt for narrative design. Keep it together? Why should I? Or wha am I keeping together? Will it fall apart if I don't? Are we in a group: "keep it, together"? Why does it take multiple people to keep it together, is it a pet? A baby? It's open to a lot of questions that can lead to a lot of interesting games.
Out of order: -1
So you want me to fix toilets and machines or organize your house for you. At worst, punish someone in the royal court for speaking out of turn. Got it. Next.
Wild magic: -1
I mean it sounds neat, but where do you really want me to go from there? Druid simulator #5000? D&D clone #1200? What kind of games would it even lend itself towards? Gardening again but this time it's overgrown forest and you can move vines around with your mind? Maybe a couple games about shapeshifting? Ehhhh.
Side effects: -1
I fail to see how this is one people even like. Like it would just be annoying to play and annoying to code depending on how you took it. Especially if you wanted to keep the element of surprise, meaning players wouldn't be able to make informed decisions and might be more annoyed than anything else. And thematically, 90% of the games are just gonna be about drugs/mad science experiments or ingesting mysterious materials. Very samey.
Garden: -1
This one's like 'plant the seed', but worse. Now it's 100% gardening games. Even if you subvert it into growing people in the soil or something strange you wouldn't normally find in a garden, you're still restricted to gardens as a concept. I don't need harvest 2.0 thank you, if you want to make a gardening game then give a +1 to 'plant the seed' so the rest of us can make something different than your game.
Trade: -1
Merchants. Occupations. Bartering. Trading card game. None of these sub-categories interest me very much, but at least there'd be about a 25% split across them since they're all easy interpretations to think of. I'll work with it if I have to, but I'd rather not.
Waves: -1
Ocean. Greetings. Cheering in a sports stadium simulator. 'Making waves' in society. They are all pretty different, it's really lacking a lot of narrative interpretation possibilities, but at least they're not too same-y. Still pretty ehh though.
Bottomless: -1
This is the same thing as 'depths', but now a few people can make games about people with no butts or people with 'bottomless' stomachs, which is slightly better than 'depths' since it adds a couple new categories. To be honest, I'm probably the main one that wants to make a game about people missing their butts. But like, not badly enough for a +0. But I could live with it if it won, that's all I'm saying...
Companion: -1
Cube?
In all seriousness, I could see a couple dating sims, escort mission simulators, co-op games and some pet sims. It's a decent enough theme. I could technically shoehorn in my card game but not very well. Not compelling enough for a +0 though.
Layers: -1
Now we've got 'depths' but the extra categories are about lasagna, onions, paintings, and clothes. Which is an improvement over butt-less people and gluttons. Well, with the lasagna and onions you might still get quite a bit of gluttons. Also, you're going to get a lot of Shrek games. Are we ready as a community to play that many Shrek games?
Anchor: -1
It's funny to me that this is at the bottom of the round, like it's the 'heaviest' theme, like some kind of... anchor.
We've got stopping a boat from moving, Mr. Krab's house, being the worst player on your team, finding something to ground you mentally or spiritually. I could imagine some interesting ways to take anchor, but again, do I haaaaave tooooo?
In summary: 3+ word themes, that give you vague instructions or verbs to work with rather than flatly describing something as is the case with 'out of order', continue to remain the optimal theme style hands down. Even though I would have enthusiastically given a +1 to 'chained' if it made it through slaughter. Or some of the other actually good 1-word themes that didn't make it through slaughter compared to this dictionary simulator selection of themes. Alas poor themes, I knew ye well...
I was really hoping for some themes with good game mechanic ideas this time. I'm rooting for side effects, but let's see what happens
I am not very good at some themes, but because there are ones that I am even less proficient in, I can only choose some that I am relatively familiar with
I really love the final theme! Thank you all, you guys chose such amazing themes. I have so many ideas for so many of them and can"t wait to bring them to life! (PS: Pleeease don"t let it be Decay, I feel like I really can"t handle that one orz)
The baby in the picture has grown up, and there are now two kids jumping around here, but this time we came up with the brilliant idea of organizing a babysitter. Who knows, maybe we'll have a family game jam soon.
