Yeah, recently looked up Geist and it does look interesting. I guess main difference is between the two is that Construct A.i. only allows you to move between electronics, rather than "possessing" any thing or object.
Brush of the past: Story of Arty!*(working title)
Many moons ago, man hunted and killed his first mammoth with his spear. It was documented and painted in the inner caves of his dwelling. When man first made fire, it was painted in the inner caves of his dwelling. When man first conceived death, and had his first child, it was drawn on the wall. And when the earth shook, and waters flooded, they too, were drawn and documented on the wall.
Arty was a part of a pack of hunters in the cave-man era. The only problem was that he was the black sheep of the bunch. Where the other members could easily outrun the hunted, the hunted easily outran him. Where the other members could easily toss over their backs and carry big boulders, and animals, Arty could barely handle the twigs and branches given to him to carry. Seeing as Arty was physically unfit to hunt, he had a go at something else.
He would be the one documenting all the trials and tribulations of his "cave-pack", by painting them on the walls of the caves they happened to be in. Once he thought he finally found his true place in the pack, he was soon set back by the snarks, sneers, and laughing of the other members. The men thought him a sissy, for spending so much time in the caves, drawing away while they grew stronger. The women laughed at him, when they saw him experimenting in drawing the fruits, berries, and flowers they picked out, with such girly colors. Members began teasing him, telling him his occupation was worthless to the pack, and his talent was useless. Above all, the drawings were a waste of their time, and server no purpose to them. These writings are more than just documentation, Arty believed, they can be so much more! Animals that were once thought to only walk the lands, could be given wings to fly, or fire can be held in the palm of a man's hands. The possibilities of these brushes and strokes are endless! But to his dismay, the pack declared it unresourceful to the pack.
Truly, Arty felt alone in the pack that alienated him so. He became depressed and stopped meeting with the others of his group less and less as the sun arose and fell each day. Soon, he quit meeting them altogether, and stayed in his cave all day and night, pondering the meaning of his existence. "Where do I belong?!?!", thought Arty.
One day, Arty began drawing strange symbols in delusion, after exhausting his food supply. Due to complete exhaustion, he passed out in front of his final wall painting. In front of his only true passion. The only thing that never made fun of him. The only thing that ever mattered to him. The only thing he ever loved.
Soon thereafter, the last symbol he brushed began to glow. It glowed so much, it lit up the room in a strange white aura. Arty then awoke and was quite shocked at what he was seeing. Hesitant at first, he then moved much closer, and touched the symbol. Soon his body felt a strange shock, and he disappeared. When he finally stumbled and looked about his drawings, he finally realized where he disappeared off to: his own paintings!
The game play is simple. It would be presented in a 2d styled format, in that the game's premise is kinda' like that of a side scroller, where the gamer is basically playing as a painted character on the wall. To get a better idea, there's a scene in the Dreamworks movie, Prince of Egypt, where it cuts to Moses seeing the hieroglyphs, pictures, and symbols move along the wall, retelling the story of how the Pharaoh hunted and slayed the Jewish.
The first part of the game's levels will be in a prehistoric Cave-art style, where most figures are fairly simplistic. After it's completed the user will be warped to a different era, like say Egyptian days of the Pharaoh, where the user will be given the ability to draw himself as close to the figures walking around him as possible. There would be a figure template and palette colors to try and match the Egyptian wall style. Once complete, if the game's mechanics find the user's rendition of the style to be too far off from the characters style, then while walking through the crowd, certain wall painted characters will begin to hassle you and attack you because of how different your character is from the rest. The same will go with other time periods in the game, where the user has to paint the main character according to the period, before setting off on missions to complete the level. The real point of the game is more so art related, and extremely puzzle oriented. In a way, it's a bit similar to Okami, trying to blend art into a game, but the style of each level will change DRASTICALLY from level to level, getting more difficult, as you move into the later, more detailed periods of art, like the Renaissance era, where the user is required to be a bit more in depth with how he paints his character to blend into the crowd, and stages take place in popular portraits, scenes, and paintings.
Sounds complicated and looks like it can take a lot of work, but if done right, I think it may be a fresh start for new games to stop with the same old FPS, or RPGs, and branch out into the strange and unexpected. Producers, management and production teams know better, and the gamer deserves better...
