INQUIRER game mooted by GameWeaver

READER CHRIS DAVIS got in touch to tell us about a new site he has developed, called GameWeaver and dangling the attractive, and very orange, electronic carrot of a specially formulated game starring The INQUIRER. We said, hmm, let's talk this over. Read on:

INQ: Why should we care about yet another game site?
Chris: [The concept is] why play games at lunch when you can create them, download them to your Nintendo DS and play them on the train home? What's new about this is that nobody as of time of writing this has made a website where you can make your own game online, which can be downloaded and played on your actual Nintendo DS or Gameboy Advance. Of course it can be played on an emulator, but the best bit is you can take your creation with you and show your friends.

The online game editor allows you to draw your own sprites or import your own. You can create custom animation sequences, build up your own levels and so on, then press ‘publish' and your game will be compiled and emailed to you. The system is completely free to use. At the moment you can only make side scroller games, but new engines will be added soon.

INQ: I'm guessing that this isn't aimed at 41-year-olds -- albeit ones that are often mistaken for men in their mid-thirties -- that haven't played a game since Galaxians at the Spanish City arcade in Whitley Bay circa 1979. Do people want to develop their own games? Why?
Chris: It's aimed at teenagers who want a taste of making games, although I have people of all ages registered. People want to express themselves. You can take a picture or make a video and put it on the web, but you can't interact with it. Making games lets other people experience your vision.

INQ: So you're primarily targeting future loners and social misfits?
Chris: I think the game makers of today will be the tech superstars of tomorrow. Game-making is seen as a nerdy thing but it isn't. It allows you to express yourself, and, eventually, if you get very good at it, get super rich too.

INQ: Interesting. Go on then, who did you steal the idea from?
Chris: I didn't steal the idea from anybody. There are already programs to help make games for the PC but nothing to make games for Nintendo DS. I saw some people in some forums saying it would be cool but impossible to do, so I decided to just do it.

INQ: How are you going to turn this idea into a cash bonanza that will let you spend the rest of your life developing eccentric habits and referring to yourself in the third person?
Chris: Chris wants to make money. Chris would love to be able to make games and game-making tools full time. We'll have to wait and see how it turns out but I have already started referring to myself in the third person.

INQ: What is this lunacy we hear about a possible INQUIRER-themed game?
Chris: GameWeaver allows you to make any game you want. If the INQ readers want to write in with their ideas we'll put a game together, maybe collecting graphics cards, CPUs and bad guys like malware creators, playing on a level inside a PC. Let your imagination run riot.

INQ: We'll get back to you, Chris.

Well, INQUIRER readers, what do you think of the prospect of an INQ game? What should happen? Which characters should appear in it? Like Zoe Ball, we're all ears. µ