Game Designs by E. Scapist.

[HT_Black]

'Sup /e/?

We all know the pitch: some hopelessly optimistic gamer comes out and creates a thread that amounts to "What ideas for a game do you have? Here's mine!"

You can't swing a stick around here without knocking over two or three half-baked sales pitches from someone with more imagination than follow-through or design know-how; but today we're going to put a spin on the formula and leave any regard to setting or story at home. Here, we're going to go public with game design ideas; mechanics, GUI formats, even AI behaviors--if it's a new idea for a gameplay mechanism, system, or even control scheme, show it off here. (Preferably, you'll have thought it through.)

REMEMBER: The focus here is on game design, not concept, setting, or characters; your idea can be a modification to an existing title just as much as it can be built from the ground-up; and moreover, unless it's absolutely necessary to the gameplay itself, leave the stories on the shelf--we've already got enough of those lying around, and here they'd only be distractions and padding.

IL;DR: Epic new game mechanics GO!

 

[TerranReaper]

An engine built specifically to house the ability to utilize RTS as well as FPS, also designed for larger maps of gameplay and higher counts of players.

 

[Deviltongue]

I don't have a Valid contribution but I do have a comment:

Please DON'T call the escapist "/e/" ever again. That is all.

 

[Sanguinius- The Angel]

A new dual stick controller in the vain of the xbox 360 controller, but with the face buttons (A,B,X,Y) appearing on the underside of the controller (where your fingers support the controller), for easy access without the need to remove your thumb from the right joystick in order to press them.

Also, completely customizable controls for all games so that you can set the control scheme to whatever you feel is most comfortable for you.

I like that controller idea.

OT: I would like to see something like the Kingdom Under Fire: Heroes approach to gameplay. RTS elements with an optional take of a hack and slash. However, I'd like to see this perfected, because the system often lagged when you took control of the hero. I love the concept of that, it's just so.. Fantastic.

 

[HT_Black]

'Cause I figure I might as well do my bit to keep the ball rolling, how's about:

THE SIXTEEN-POINT DIALOGUE TREE?

The way I see it, when you enter the usual Bioware-style conversation/cutscene, each of the four face buttons would be assigned to a different general direction where you'd take the conversation, while the down button on the D-pad would exit the conversation where available. When you select a topic, each of the four buttons would switch over to a finer direction where you'd steer the conversation, (the down button would back out into the topic/mood selection) and when you selected that, your character would speak.

FOR EXAMPLE: Say an NPC runs up to you and tells you that a nuclear missile has been stolen and is locked in a wherehouse over the hill. You'd have the options:

A). Theft
B). Warehouse
C). Missile
D). Stranger

When you picked one, you'd be presented with:

A).
--Who stole the missile?
--How was it stolen?
--Where did the robbery take place?
--How many thieves were there?
B).
--What is the area around the warehouse like?
--Is there any way I can acess it?
--How well protected is it?
--What on earth is it doing out here in the ass-end of nowhere?
C).
--What was a nuke doing just lying around like that?
--Is there anything special about this missile that would cause the thieves to pick it over any other ones?
--Who does the nuke belong to?
--Why in the bad name of sin was a frikkin' nuke lying around waiting to get stolen?
D).
--Who are you, lady?
--How exactly do you know the nuke is in that warehouse?
--What are you doing out here?
--Seriously-- what the heck is up with you?

Using this system would have several pros and cons: Firstly, it would allow the player to cover a much wider array of topics and emotions than dialogue systems usually allow. Unfortunately, this would triple-or-quadruple (I'm too lazy to do the math) the voice acting expenses, so it would only be used by games like Heavy Rain (where half the game was in the acting) or partially spoken games or games that used text exclusively for dialogue.

I don't have a Valid contribution but I do have a comment:

Please DON'T call the escapist "/e/" ever again. That is all.

You can't say it doesn't deserve it.

 

[dududf]

snip
You can't say it doesn't deserve it.

I'm fairly sure that the Escapist is not well known for it's Ecchi, so /e/ is out of the question. We require a different letter

 

[SquirrelPants]

An engine built specifically to house the ability to utilize RTS as well as FPS, also designed for larger maps of gameplay and higher counts of players.

Something like this actually exists. It's not an engine, but it's a game that utilizes both RTS and FPS. It's called Zombie Master. My computer is doing a ton of work right now(running games, browsing, IRC), otherwise I'd google a link and stick it in here. Pretty cool game though.

 

[TerranReaper]

An engine built specifically to house the ability to utilize RTS as well as FPS, also designed for larger maps of gameplay and higher counts of players.

Something like this actually exists. It's not an engine, but it's a game that utilizes both RTS and FPS. It's called Zombie Master. My computer is doing a ton of work right now(running games, browsing, IRC), otherwise I'd google a link and stick it in here. Pretty cool game though.

Played it, it has a lot of limiting factors that goes against some of the good ideas that could've been utilized but otherwise can't due to the limitation of the Source Engine.

 

[HT_Black]

snip
You can't say it doesn't deserve it.

I'm fairly sure that the Escapist is not well known for it's Ecchi, so /e/ is out of the question. We require a different letter

Pardon my ignorance, but apart from a hotlink to the painseries on ED, what does 'Ecchi' mean?

 

[conflictofinterests]

I'd like to see more games with character models more in the vein of Paper Mario. I imagine laying sprites over a 3D rectangular prism would be much easier to render than full 3D models as is apparently requisite nowadays, and would take strain off of my laptop's crappy integrated graphics card.

 

[enzilewulf]

EH to make it so a war game could have VAST fields of combat.. like inter fronts and you could select fronts to be worked into and move any where you want... it would be hard but AWESOME

 

[Nouw]

I have lots but they're going to be kept secret XD

 

[dududf]

snip
You can't say it doesn't deserve it.

I'm fairly sure that the Escapist is not well known for it's Ecchi, so /e/ is out of the question. We require a different letter

Pardon my ignorance, but apart from a hotlink to the painseries on ED, what does 'Ecchi' mean?

I was referencing to 4chans E section, which is ecchi which Is why I'm sure the Escapist is not E.

Ecchi is basically softcore hentai porn. Yup.

 

[Not-here-anymore]

Turn FPS games into more of a spectator sport, a la Gamer (the film). But replace the people with humanoid drones of some kind, and have damage done via electronic signals rather than actual impact (these drones would be expensive to replace).
This might take a decade or two to come about.

Also, once people start hacking things to make their droid do more damage/take less, it would get even more interesting. I assume eventually under such a system mods would eventually give up and allow each person one 'hacked perk' each. Each player would have their own unique, individually designed perk system. So they'd stop whining about balance issues.

 

[Folio]

Oh, I've only thought about one rough mechanic.

There's this thing... and er... some other... things.... eh...

Well! What if you have a 'pod'? (like a potatoe) with units surrounding it. (places 6 radishes around the potatoe.) And the powers each individual unit has might add up to total statistics and special abbilities. All in the comfort of the players playing style to duke it out to whatever they face.

Oh! Or a game like a third person perspective where you use the objects in the map to construct traps for your opponent? Fun eh?