If I woke up in Hyrule tomorrow I would probably have no problem finding my way around. I could live inside Luigi's Mansion and easily be able to find my car keys if I lost them. At a push, I could probably still find my way from the Banyan Tree to the toilet if I was stuck in Jet Set Willy's mansion.
Obviously none of this geographical knowledge is of any use when you stop playing the game. I'm not even likely to get a chance to drive around the Nürburgring at any time in my life, which is a shame 'cos I've been round it enough times on the Xbox to have a decent crack at it.
So why not set a game inside a location that will be useful to learn? A real place that is a challenge to navigate and also would be hard work to learn without the aid of a video game? No, I'm not talking about the Birmingham ring road- I'm talking about a human body.
It's perfect. You have natural enemies and obstacles. You have lots of different areas each with their own style and it can be both realistic and abstract at the same time.
It's also easy to imagine interesting missions without having to rescue princesses, collect orbs or smash any crates.
Of course it would be very difficult to make a photo realistic interior of a human body in Flash. The game would be lovely on the 360 or PS3, although it would still be a tough one to pull off. Why would that stop us though? Technical limitations have existed since the 8-bit days, but it hasn't stopped imaginitive developers setting their games in exciting places. The best games aren't always realistic anyway- they rely on style. Take Rez for instance- I'd rather play that than Assasins Creed any day of the week, no matter how well realised the world is it's still boring.
So we've used vectors. Loads and loads of pretty vectors moving smoothly around at 30 frames per second. Yes, it does kind of look like a 1970's disco but why not? Underneath the style there is still plenty of substance. All the organs are where they should be. We even have blood flowing around in the right direction to and from both chambers of the angular, neon heart. If you have a decent knowledge of anatomy then you'll have no problem finding your way from the small intestine to the spleen.
The gameplay is based on reality too- your nanoship arms itself with white blood cells to fight infection. If it's tricky to navigate arteries upstream, you can use adreneline for a speed boost. If you run out of adreneline then the adrenal gland is exactly where it's supposed to be so you can go and get more.
As a human body gets more and more iinfected with disease it becomes a more dangerous place to be inside. It's easy for the game to start off easy and get progressively difficult. Location specific diseases become end of level bosses. The battle against cirrhosis would be in the liver, an ulcer will be in the intestine and if you fancy a game of asteroids, head to the kidney and sort out the kidney stones!
Different antibodies become weapon power ups. Each antibody works better against different infections, with your arsenal growing as new disease are introduced.
It's not just about shooting stuff though. Your nanoship is equipped with a camera for recon missions. Taking pictures of new infections allows them to be identified so new antibodies can be created. Photo's are a real snapshot of what is in front of you, and can be stored in the players own unique collection like an organic pokedex.
.With a game like Body Defense there's no real reason for a plot. You could just endlessly protect the body from increasingly more dangerous infections until it ends one way or another. But when you've already made a game ambitious why not go all the way? Also, with a flash game, the story is not told with CGI cutscenes and recorded dialogue. It's pretty much just text, so from a memory perspective it's free.
So there's a story. As you progress through the game you slowly realise who's body you are in and why. You have more incentive to succeed and it's an extra layer of content that gives the game more substance.
Body Defense still has a fair bit of development left, but we've done the hard bit. We have a human body and we have a nanoship to travel around it in. We have the first few missions in place and plenty of ideas for the rest of them. It's taken a lot of effort and a lot of time, but when it's finished it will be worth it.
As with Baby Vs Spiders, Body Defense is proof of concept for something larger. Body Defense could be huge. It would fit nicely as it is onto a DS or it could evolve into a MMO for the big consoles. It would also be a game with more blood in it than anything ever made, but still be family friendly!