Poll: New Quest: Make a game!

[Lil_Rimmy]

Pre-note: I THINK this is the right section for this post?

Hello Escapists, I have decided to make a game. Anyway, I might as well cut to the chase.

I want to make either a multi-player post-apocalypse game, based around players working together to build settlements/camps/fortresses etc. to combat NPC enemies and other players. Most things would be kinda run by players, as in one day "The Knifes" could own the whole damn county side then the next a group of highly armed people raid their caravans, cut off their supplies and then launch an assault into their HQ. The players would keep the game alive.

The other one I would make if I don't make the first one is a co-op zombies SURVIVAL game. SURVIVAL. Not L4D, not Dead Rising, nothing like that. If anything, it would be more like Project Zomboid. It would be based around the idea of a small group of players working together to scavenge, rebuild, protect, survive etc. after the military line collapses and the zombies flood in. I would really stress the co-op part, with many options such as hiding wounds, helping carry friends, hiding ammo, food etc. Things that could put tension on the group.

Both would be first person, with the first one being mainly ranged focused but the second melee focused. Both would include a hunger/thirst system, but I am not sure how to handle a sleep system, especially with the first one...

Anyway, I will post more details later, but for now I am sleepy and will simply wait for replies.

So, a few questions:

I am using the Unity Engine (probably), any tips on it?
Which game should I (attempt) to make?
What sort of game mechanics do you think I should include?
Voice acting or no voice acting?

If you have any other ideas about it or have suggestions for plot or game mechanics, please post them.

 

[Vanitas likes Bubbles]

Depends on your level of skill at making games. How much skill ya got huh?

 

[black_knight1337]

I'd have to go with the zombie apocalypse survival game. I'm a big fan of project zomboid and a first person version would be great. Voice acting is a tough one. you could make it entirely text based but with a 3d game that poses some problems. I'd suggest doing voice acting although i must stress that it must be decent. If its not turning out well then don't have it at all. Start by just posting on some sites like here with a few sample lines for tryouts and see how it goes. Anyway, best of luck to you with whichever you end up deciding to do.

 

[Mr Thin]

For the first question, no idea.

For the second question, and speaking from a consumer's point of view, make the zombie game, for two reasons.

1) Multiplayer games require a community to function. It's hard enough for big AAA titles to develop a community around their game, indie developers generally have no chance. There are obvious exceptions, but you shouldn't assume you'll become one of them.

2) Even though zombies have been done to death, true survival games have barely been poked at. I figure if enough people give it a shot, someone is bound to make an actual survival horror game eventually, and I think zombies are probably the best setting to try that in.

For the third question, be sure to focus on the survival elements, like scavenging, rebuilding, etc. just as you said. There are eleventy million games that offer people the chance to kill zombies; there's bugger-all games that offer a decent barricade system. Guess which one I want more.

For the fourth question, that depends on what kind of speaking there's going to be in the game. If you're planning on having stuff like idle banter between characters, similar to Left 4 Dead, then yes, have voice acting.

If you're planning on having a fully fleshed multiple choice conversation system, then don't have voice acting. It'll take ages to do, and most people will skip it anyway.

 

[Lil_Rimmy]

Alright guys, thanks for the feedback! I think I will choose the zombie game, as the multi-player game would probably turn out costing more, taking longer to make and requiring a large player base to actually get any fun out of it.

@Gethball: I haven't used Unity before, I have, however, got a nice bit of skill in various programs and I am master mind at the ArmA 2 editor. I have made many missions and other things in that editor, which taught me a fair bit of scripting, game making skills etc.

@BlackKnight: I think I will get some people (and me) to voice act the combat sections and things like quick commands. (i.e. Press V then Q and your character says "Quiet!" However, I'll make the rest of the dialogue text-based. Most of the talking, however, will be done between players (or in single player, with your "party" members.)

@MrThin: Wow, that's a whole lot of really nice points. For starters...

Question one: Ok.

Question two: Yeah, that what I always think. I LOVE zombies games. (The reasons of this can be found on many sites including Cracked.com) But almost everyone of them has been a disappointment, except for Project Zomboid (And maybe Minecraft, with the zombie break blocks mod.) I mean, the games are awesome but they are just shooters/slashers etc. You can replace the zombies with angry mothers who want their money back and they get it back by biting you then stealing it.

A real zombie game (Project Zomboid) makes the zombies something scary. Not just enemy number 2345, but a huge horde, something that you have to both hide from and fight. You can actually get infected, you can go out in a blaze of fire or die from a slow disease. That's the kinda thing I am aiming for, but with a really big co-op influence.

Question three: Yes, I want to make it possible to change practically every little bit of the environment. Don't want that wall? Smash it down, but don't make too much noise! Got a hole in the roof? Fix it, but you will need something to fix it with. Run outta batteries, start a fire. Break your favourite weapon? Use a chair. Need a place to store bodies or stash food? Build a little shed. Things like these would be awesome when included, but they should be hard to do in game. A shed would require a lot of wood or tin, so where would you get it from?

Question four: Like I said earlier, the voice commands (V then Q "Quiet!") and combat noise will be voice acted. The dialogue, which will be about choice but also action, probably won't be scripted. When I say choice and action, I mean that I want to stress that these people are human, and will fight, complain, whine, steal, especially after society has collapsed.

You could find out that your "friend" had been hiding food, and when you discover him he stabs you and runs off, leaving the door wide open, leaving you to the zombies. There won't really be a "story", more like events. It will be a very big sandbox game, and therfore it won't stick to a story, kinda like Mount and Blade. Events will happen instead. For example, the military are bombing a certain area and without a radio, how will you know? Maybe you could meet a survivor who tells you about it, which then kicks off a mini-story as you then choose what to do. Choosing what to do won't be a option in the chat menu, it will be WHAT you do. Hide in the basement, run, stay, try to radio back. The military don't care, they have just told you what's happening and letting you get the hell outta there.

Of course, in multiplayer, this whole tension part will be doubled as you might meet a new player who seems jolly fine, only to wake up and see that he has stolen all of your ammo. In multiplayer, the number of NPCs will be cut down a lot.

 

[ThriKreen]

Word of wisdom: Start small with a throwaway idea first. See what is capable with your engine of choice. Build up experience before tackling your "Magnum opus" game idea.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Well whatever you decide on I urge you not to do it on your own, or to do it off someone else's game.

This will be a huge project and for one man alone I can guarantee you it's too much, you will just get in over your head burn out and leave it all behind with nothing to show for.
As always work smarter not harder, I would find examples of fan made Unity projects and look for the closest thing to your vision so you get all the basic functionality already, then just gradually build that up with you own ideas, item by item, feature by feature.

Also I suggest you keep co-op/multiplayer as an open option but add it at a later stage, first things need to work on a basic one man level.

 

[Lil_Rimmy]

Well whatever you decide on I urge you not to do it on your own, or to do it off someone else's game.

This will be a huge project and for one man alone I can guarantee you it's too much, you will just get in over your head burn out and leave it all behind with nothing to show for.
As always work smarter not harder, I would find examples of fan made Unity projects and look for the closest thing to your vision so you get all the basic functionality already, then just gradually build that up with you own ideas, item by item, feature by feature.

Also I suggest you keep co-op/multiplayer as an open option but add it at a later stage, first things need to work on a basic one man level.

Of course, I am already starting to talk to people to see if they can help me with various parts. I am, among the people I know, the best scripter/designer, but I have never really done any work with textures, so I will need help with that. At the moment, I am testing several zombies and guns, getting them to work. Once that is done, I will make a small town with several waves of zombies attacking, just to iron out any bugs with the combat/player/movement etc.

Finally, I will release the EARLY versions to people I know, then I might release a version here on the Escapist or somewhere else, but I won't start to officially sell it or advertise it until the co-op is ready. That is going to be the biggest part of my game, and something I will tackle after getting the basics done.


Believe me, when I was making missions in ArmA 2, copy paste was the one and only true god. If I made a script, copy pasted a script or found a script, that was like a key. With that key, I unlocked new things. That's what I am aiming at. For example, earlier today I worked out how to do both third and first person camera angles, and how to control a player and a car. Those are both vital keys with now mean I can move onto weapons, environments and textures.

Oh, and as for the whole one man = brain destroyed?

I am surprisingly stubborn and can learn most things from scratch. I was practically a master at the ArmA 2 editor by the end of it, but it took a lot of time and frustration that could have been spent playing games. Thank god for video tutorials.

But once I start something, I fucking finish it.
Or I die... either or.

P.S. If anyone would be so kind to help me on this journey, I would LOVE anyone who could either teach me how to make textures, or make textures for me. All the "help" topics I have looked in have just said things like "Use GIMP, Use Blender" but never HOW to make the textures. I swear, if I have to learn two programs from scratch at once without video tutorial help, my brain WILL explode.

 

[Smooth Operator]

But once I start something, I fucking finish it.
Or I die... either or.

Well that is good to hear because it does take much dedication, usually people just start climbing the mountain of work without preparation and then half way in it hits them that it's not what they imagined at all.

P.S. If anyone would be so kind to help me on this journey, I would LOVE anyone who could either teach me how to make textures, or make textures for me. All the "help" topics I have looked in have just said things like "Use GIMP, Use Blender" but never HOW to make the textures. I swear, if I have to learn two programs from scratch at once without video tutorial help, my brain WILL explode.

I highly suggest you use free textures from various websites, creating your own is a horrific amount of work, heck just editing existing ones to proper size, brightness, saturation, color,... will take plenty of time.
Also textures should be a low priority thing, for the first versions just use stock Unity stuff or even flat colors.

It would be pretty spiffy if you could keep us updated on how things are going.

 

[Lil_Rimmy]

snip

SNIP

That seems like a good enough idea, but the problem I have hit is that I don't really know HOW to make, edit, modify etc. textures. I guess I will just have to learn it. Anyway, I probably will keep updates going on the Escapist, maybe release a few versions for test.

 

[Lil_Rimmy]

Neither. Zombies and Post-Apocalyptic dystopias are a dime a dozen these days.

How about using your skills and lack of a publisher telling you what to do, to make something more original?

Just my 2 cents.

That's why I was HEAVILY considering the other option (Only reason I said post-apocalyptic was because that just opens up ruined cities, high tech, ragtag armies but also huge armies) , but in the end of it, the only other game I can think of with a similar goal to mine is Project Zomboid. Yes, zombies are done to death but are mostly shooters/slashers.

I really wanna create something new, where co-op MEANS something, not just an extra gun. I would love to have made the other game, but to actually make it would be practically impossible for me without signing my game and name away to a publisher. And that is something I never want to do.

The thing is, I really, really, don't want it to turn into a combat game. Yes, of course combat is there, so are guns, axes and knives. But I want it to be more about hiding, surviving and barricading. Strategy and tactics over combat and strength. I want to make something new.

And zombies are still awesome.

BTW:
I am not too sure what to call it... I want something that REALLY stresses the co-op nature in the name but also mentions zombies. Friends don't bite? I dunno...

 

[Smooth Operator]

That seems like a good enough idea, but the problem I have hit is that I don't really know HOW to make, edit, modify etc. textures. I guess I will just have to learn it. Anyway, I probably will keep updates going on the Escapist, maybe release a few versions for test.

Well I could write up a wall of text at this point but I only know the basics myself, so as always it is best to turn to the experts.
http://www.gimp.org/tutorials/
Or preferably find a friend who already plays around with photoshop and such, there are usually one or two of those around.

BTW, Friends Don't Bite would actually be a really cool name.

 

[Lil_Rimmy]

Ok, update time!

First off, programming wise, I have been stuck for a few days due to many events (birthday, homework, projects etc.) but in my spare time I have already made a first person movement system with a firing system. Currently the bullets do nothing except for shoot, fly, then despawn after 3 seconds. But I can now start scripting damage and soon, inventories!

My three main goals I want before I start letting people play it is:

1. Working gun and damage system. (Combined with a HUD)
2. Inventory system with ammo, weapons, healing items and food etc. (Not all of them have to work at the moment)
3. Simple AI, just for the zombies to get close then attack, wait, attack and after three hits, the player dies.

Those are my goals to get the basics down.

Second, I am starting to get people to help me out with the game, I have someone trying to learn how to use GIMP to make 3D textures, I have someone willing to do sound, along with three or four for voice acting + sound making (e.g. "BRAAAAAAAAAAAAAINS!") and lastly, I have a concept art drawer.

He's a damn good drawer, and quickly sketched two ideas he had and gave them to me. These are rough rough rough copies but it gave me an idea. These are the two sketches:

Spoiler

Ignore the dragon face . Also, just remember that he did these very quickly. Just a sketch.

Don't mind the dragon face That was just everyone joking about the only thing he draws is dragons so he stuck one on it. Anyway, one of them is just a basic zombie, but the other one, we decided, shall be a recently infected zombie. The normal zombies are just going to shamble around, moaning, but these fresh zombies are going to be tougher in many ways:

Some may still carry weapons (not guns, they still can't work those metal hunks of death out ), they might wear some form of protection, faster, as their bodies have not degraded as much as the other zombies but will carry things like supplies, weapons and ammo.

At the start of the game, there might be a fair few of them around, but they turn into the normal zombies as time goes on. However, if survivors are infected, they turn into that. Meaning if a horde kills a group of survivors, it's gonna get even harder to survive for a little while.

Anyway, at the moment that's it. However, if you would like to help make the game, assist in any way or even help program/make it, just tell me and you could join in. Doesn't matter where you live, you could just e-mail the textures/scripts/whatever in. I am still wondering how to turn this concept art into actual models for the game... hmmm....