Survival. Horror. Alien.
Alien (yes, the movie) defined the 'Survival Horror' genre of gaming. Enemies that are hard to kill. Tension. Limited capacity to fight. Limited support.
And Survival Horror games are frustrating as hell.
Penny Arcade has a great line about how EA's Dead Space is ignoring many of the restrictions of Survival Horror and becoming an Action game that is significantly more fun to play, freed of idiotic restrictions. To quote, "They could have made it Survival Horror very easily, or slid the toggle closer to our conceptions of it, by placing dolorous restrictions on saving, ammunition, and every other resource. It would appeal to our strong sense of ascetic virtue - but this is an action movie. It's not Alien. It's Aliens."
That really made me think - are our preconceptions of survival horror actually making the genre worse? Aliens was a damn good movie. Different from Alien but still good. Alien could make a great game - but I don't think game designers have figured out how to make a game with an enemy that can kill you in a one-on-one confrontation. Shadow of the Colossus takes this track somewhat, but the player still has strong advantages in both speed and agility.
I don't know how to design games, but I think this would be an interesting challenge. Write a design doc for Alien with the following preconditions:
You do not have traditional weapons. Only what can be improvised with hardware and tools.
The Alien is faster, stronger and more agile than you.
You are smarter than the Alien. The Alien is intelligent, similar to other primates.
The Alien is relentless. It wants to kill you. If you do not kill it, it will keep coming.
The Alien can be stunned and injured.
The Alien will retreat if it cannot win.
The Alien will not attack in plain daylight unless it can totally overwhelm you.
