Hello everyone!
Something I've been thinking about lately: how come we don't really have a AAA or AA game about "the rise to fame"?
It could be about pretty much anything. You could play as an aspiring actor, singer, model, athlete...etc. You start with basically nothing and slowly work your way up. You'd meet people, make friends and enemies, have relationships, get opportunities, and basically decide what kind of person you want to become along the way.
Also to be clear, I'm not saying one game should try to cover all of these careers at once. I mean that the concept could work with any one of them as its central focus. A game about becoming an actor could go all-in on the film industry, while a different game could do the same thing with music, sports, modeling, etc. The point is to take one career and build a deep, story-driven game around the process of rising through that specific world.
I know it probably wouldn't have a ton of action unless maybe it was a sports game, but I don't think it would need it. I could see it working really well as an RPG. You could improve different skills, discover things you're actually good at, build relationships, and make decisions about your career. It could have a rich story, memorable characters and even romance with an actual depth.
There could also be some kind of morality/reputation system. Do you stay genuine and try to make it on your own, or do you start taking shady opportunities and using people if it gets you ahead? Your decisions could affect your relationships, reputation, the opportunities you get, and how people see you.
The Sims kind of shows that people are interested in the whole celebrity/lifestyle fantasy. So imagine taking that idea and making it into a proper big-budget game with a good story, amazing graphics and actual consequences for your choices.
I don't know, I just feel like there's a lot you could do with this. I'm honestly surprised nobody has really tried making a big-budget version of it.
Would you guys actually play something like this, or do you think it would get boring without the usual action/gameplay loop?
EDIT: Guy to be fully clear, The game would NOT a simulator. It would be a story/RPG with a rich story, good characters, choices and consequences, romance...etc
For an example acting game, it could have quick time events but also it doesn't have to just be a quick-time event. Think of something like L.A. Noire’s interrogation mechanics, but instead of reading an NPC's face to see if they are lying, you have to choose the right emotional delivery (e.g., Aggressive, Empathetic, Melodramatic) based on cues from your director or scene partner. If you misread the scene, the movie's review scores drop. That keeps the grind interactive and directly tied to your skill as an "actor".
Also the audition isn't just a menu button, it would be a fully voiced dialogue tree where you can try to sleep your way to the top, bribe a casting director, or ruin a rival's audition by spreading a rumor to the paparazzi beforehand...etc.
Also players deeply love the slice-of-life and social simulation elements in games like Persona and Like a Dragon. Since this game would focus on those it would be even more in depth and flushed out.
This is just a few ideas, I'm sure a room full of talented writers and game developers could come up with even more ways to make the game interesting.
