Programmer Needs Help Making a Game

[spazzattack]

I'm currently trying to brainstorm ideas for a 2 dimensional java game. I've done games in the past that were similar to the Super Mario series and others like "Helicopter". Now I'm looking for a new challenge. Any seed ideas or full-fledged ideas would be appreciated. Something creative is preferable.

Edit: Also if anyone out there is an artist and would like to team up on making a game, please let me know. -Thanks-

 

[cookyt]

A superhero gets a tip that a derannged maniac with oodles of money is building a device that will do something bad. mid-flight, the superhero loses his power, and falls. By some lucky coincidence he lands in a ruber trampoline factory which saves him at the last minute. he then procedes to stop the madman (who is on top of a large office bulding constructed exactly in the shape of Mt.Fuji) armed only with a fire extinguisher that shoots liquid mercury. along the way he must defeat slush the clown with a razor sharp herring, among other equally sinister foes. other wepons that he may obtain include a boxing glove that can run up to, and sock people, and many more. the game is layed out in the syle of a classic platformer that is intentionally difficult, and which the player may choose his path to the villain. for example, the player may take a path that makes him wind up in the middle of a desert, or another that leaves him at the bottom of the sea. each being a diffrent ending, and only one being the "real ending."

PS. if you need any programming help, I's be happy to help you with the coding.

 

[Theo Samaritan]

A 2d shooter with a gun that shoots velociraptors. I never got around to doing it.

It must be done.

 

[TsunamiWombat]

Actually Cookyt's deranged rambling held a good idea. A fire Extinguisher that shoots liquid mercury?

Made a sidescrolling platformer where the main character carries a "freeze thrower", expelling a gaseous cloud of Liquid Nitrogen in a cone. Freezing enemies into blocks, stopping doors, stopping up cannons and causing them to backfire- play with the mechanics thereof.

Enemies of various size and toughness could take longer to freeze, they can be shoved around or jumped on when frozen (or kicked to shatter with the tap of a button), freezing puddles of water can cause them to slip. You can have boss fights that require you to freeze various parts of a boss to eventually beat them. Half frozen enemies should unthaw slowly, making freeze n run a viable tactic if you come back quickly (ala in a boss fight, freeze, dodge, freeze, dodge, until said part is frozen, then kick and chatter).

If your creative the sheer extend of the mechanic could be mind boggling for puzzles and combat.

 

[cookyt]

Actually Cookyt's deranged rambling held a good idea. A fire Extinguisher that shoots liquid mercury?

Made a sidescrolling platformer where the main character carries a "freeze thrower", expelling a gaseous cloud of Liquid Nitrogen in a cone. Freezing enemies into blocks, stopping doors, stopping up cannons and causing them to backfire- play with the mechanics thereof.

Enemies of various size and toughness could take longer to freeze, they can be shoved around or jumped on when frozen (or kicked to shatter with the tap of a button), freezing puddles of water can cause them to slip. You can have boss fights that require you to freeze various parts of a boss to eventually beat them. Half frozen enemies should unthaw slowly, making freeze n run a viable tactic if you come back quickly (ala in a boss fight, freeze, dodge, freeze, dodge, until said part is frozen, then kick and chatter).

If your creative the sheer extend of the mechanic could be mind boggling for puzzles and combat.

yes, liquid MERCURY!

No, just kidding. It was really ment to be just some rant that encompasses many diffrent ideas whilst tieing it together loosley with a backstory. That way people can extrapolate creative - good - ideas. Basically pseudeo-brainstorming.

the freeze thrower sounds like it would be fun to use, and puzzles could be very well built around freezing things, while the game can remain challenging by throwing freeze based obstacles. A challenge where one has to freeze falling water, then climb up the water as you freeze it. I would love to work on something like that myself.

 

[Theo Samaritan]

I will make the soundtrack for my experience if you'd let me :3

 

[heliosa]

And you could make it so the freeze does different things to different elements like if you tried to feeze fire you get a lot of smoke, I don't really know what else but its a idea.

 

[Phoenix Arrow]

Actually Cookyt's deranged rambling held a good idea. A fire Extinguisher that shoots liquid mercury?

Made a sidescrolling platformer where the main character carries a "freeze thrower", expelling a gaseous cloud of Liquid Nitrogen in a cone. Freezing enemies into blocks, stopping doors, stopping up cannons and causing them to backfire- play with the mechanics thereof.

Enemies of various size and toughness could take longer to freeze, they can be shoved around or jumped on when frozen (or kicked to shatter with the tap of a button), freezing puddles of water can cause them to slip. You can have boss fights that require you to freeze various parts of a boss to eventually beat them. Half frozen enemies should unthaw slowly, making freeze n run a viable tactic if you come back quickly (ala in a boss fight, freeze, dodge, freeze, dodge, until said part is frozen, then kick and chatter).

If your creative the sheer extend of the mechanic could be mind boggling for puzzles and combat.

You know, that sounds like a really fun idea. You could even make it a first person affair if you had the know how.

 

[Anarchemitis]

Awesome! Steal my idea!
[img_inline caption="Not a Work in Progress."]http://img101.imageshack.us/img101/8123/youincnm1.png[/img_inline] "You, Inc."
It would be like Sim Industry. Keep your workers productive, happy and well paid, while keeping them profit margins up.
Also, it would be cool to have a Toy Stock market.

NASDAQ (National Association of Stock Dealers and Automatic Quotations) becomes TDAQ (Traders, Dealers And Quotations)
NSX, TSX, NYSX etc all become WISX (World, Incorperated Stock Exchange)

Spoiler: Over 60 Industries to Choose From! List Warning!

Industries to Choose from
Primary Industries
Hardwood
Softwood
Silicon
Salt
Iron
Bauxite
Gold
Precious Stones
Rare Metals
Oil
Fruits
Vegetables
Pharmaceutical Plants
Fish Agriculture
Beef (Meat & Dairy)
Chicken (Eggs, Meat & Feathers. I know there are other better feather birds, shut up.)
Pork
Grain
Cotton
Horticulture
Secondary Industries
Chemical Manufacturer
Steel Mill
Aluminum Smelter
Petroleum Refinery
Jeweler*
Plastics Manufacturer
Food Producer
Slaughterhouse
Dairy (also Fromagerie)*
Liquor Producer*
Power Plant*
Pulp Mill
Wood Processing Plant
Computer Parts
Hollywood Hardware & Props
Water Distillery
Fabric Producer
Flora & Fauna*
Tetritary Industries
Beverage & Cola*
Software Developer*
Entertainment Software Developer (Video Games)*
Computer Hardware*
Entertainment Hardware (Video Game Consoles, TVs, DVD players etc.)*
Furniture Factory*
Structural Fixtures & Construction*
Industrial Machinery (Bulldozers, Big Trucks)
Industrial Factory Equipment (Conveyors, Automated Milling Machines)
Automotive Producer*
Locomotives & Rolling Stock (Freight Trains)*
Specialized Rolling Stock (Them cool Monorails, Maglev Trains or Subways)*
Rocketry Equipment*
Aerospace*
Decor & DIY (Like Home Hardware or B&Q)*
Restaraunt Supply (The people that make millions of patties or napkins and ship them to Burger Kings everywhere)*
Movie Industry*
Medicinal Manufacturing*
Toy Manufacturing*
Newspaper & Media*
Fashion (God Forbid)*
Eco Development*
Bible Manufacturer*

All industries maked with an asterisk (*) Cannot sell their products to other industries in mass bulk, majorative-ly to individual consumers or Franchisees.

Have your CEO have cool attributes that help you out in the beginning of your industry, for example "Charisma, +2% Productivity" or "Compuslive Gambler, +5% All Federal Taxes"

That's my..

Nuh nuh nu... carry the 3...
5 cents.

 

[spazzattack]

I really like these ideas. A Castlevania styled game might be a do-able project, but it would need something to set it apart. The industry simulator that Anarchemitis came up with looks like some great set pieces, but I think some funny content should be added to it, so it doesn't seem like the actual management of a company i.e. work. Puppy Smashing Factory Sim or something of the like maybe?
Any more ideas would be appreciated greatly!

 

[dukethepcdr]

I'd like to see a Doctor Who game that is superior to the ones on BBC's website for one thing. If you could pull off an actual time travel game play element that would be so cool. You could have the TARDIS and be able to choose which planet (in the Doctor Who Universe) you wanted to visit and in what era. Then go there and solve problems and/or stop an villians who are there from pulling off their evil schemes. The main villian could be The Master and you (as The Doctor) could chase him around time and space trying to prevent him from doing evil things. Maybe you and he are both looking for the fragments to the Key of Time and you need to find them before The Master does. If the Master gets some of the fragments, there could be ways you could defeat him (at least temporarily) to get them back.

You could also make it so that The Doctor can choose to take a traveling companion or two on board. You could have several possible companions living on different planets for the player to choose from. You could also make it so that once you choose a companion and decide you need more or a different one you could leave the one(s) you already have behind back on their home planet or somewhere else. Each companion would have a special ability or two that the Doctor doesn't have. For example, K-9 (the robot dog) could have scanners to detect the fragments and enemies as well as a stun ray. Or you could pick the Brigadier from Earth for his ability to shoot guns and fight or Leela for her knife fighting and tracking skills etc. The Doctor himself would have his trusty sonic screwdriver, regeneration (could do some cool looking regeneration effects if the Doctor gets killed), higher intelligence than most other characters in the game (except the Master who would need to be a pretty tough enemy).

I don't have any programming experience, but I'm pretty good at writing, so I could write dialog for the characters (you could use dialog boxes and maybe even have it so the player can choose what the Doctor says to other characters). I have also made my own levels in the level editors of games like Disciples II, Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds etc, so I enjoy coming up with ideas for levels. I also happen to be a huge Doctor Who fan and have seen lots and lots of episodes, so I have a pretty good idea of what is possible in the Doctor Who universe and could research the parts I'm not as sure about.

Who knows, we might even be able to get permission from the BBC to make it an official game if they are impressed enough with it.

 

[Lvl 64 Klutz]

I'd love to see a typical point-and-click adventure game with more openness than the typical "collect item, use item in this exact way," kind of thing. A game where the player collects a bunch of items, and then can use ingenuity and creativity to create MacGuyver style tools to get through situations and obstacles.

Maybe have a Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner type scenario where the point is to build traps and whatnot, or a cliche prison break type scenario.

 

[curlycrouton]

A 2d shooter with a gun that shoots velociraptors. I never got around to doing it.

It must be done.

I would imagine that when hit with said velociraptor, the enemy would proceed to die violently with dinosaur clinging to their face?

Niiiice.

 

[Uncompetative]

Multiplayer Asteroids, without the asteroids. You could turn your ship left or right, engage the shield for two seconds after which it would take 7 seconds to recharge, you could deploy up to 5 proximity-detonating space mines in your wake, and use a beam laser that would destroy and unshielded ship or remotely detonate a mine perhaps with an overheat if used too much.

I'm undecided about having your velocity influenced by a thrust key and otherwise gradually slow to a halt (as there is no friction in a vacuum). It would probably be easier to get something working with constant velocity and play-test it to death with a friend.

If you wanted to be clever you would do it in HD with anti-aliased vectors rather than sprites. This would allow you to zoom out as the ships got further away from each other and only then have them 'wraparound' fly off one screen edge and onto the other. Obviously, you would need it to be full-screen so you could play it in the dark (certainly not have it run in a browser window). Make a lot of the sound effects. You may want a star-field behind all this that grows/shrinks with the overall zoom to make the playfield feel more coherent.

Oh, and colour-code the 4 player ships and have their score/number of mines in each of the screen's corners in the same colour using an original vector-ish typeface to fit with the overall retro aesthetic. Gamepad support would be a nice addition, but keyboard should be ok to test it with 2 players as you develop it.

 

[Fraught]

A 2d shooter with a gun that shoots velociraptors. I never got around to doing it.

It must be done.

That, my kind sir, is purely made of genius-liquid.

 

[Baby Tea]

I like a bunch of these ideas! Especially the freeze-thrower. Badass.

I can't offer anything in the way of coding, but I do audio production for a living. So if you want SFX made up for whatever, let me know.

 

[Theo Samaritan]

A 2d shooter with a gun that shoots velociraptors. I never got around to doing it.

It must be done.

Problem is...the guy will have to pay Mr.Ben 'Yahtzee' Croshaw for the idea...

Aye, but I wasn't being plageristic. I was going to make a version shortly after that episode and quite a few people knew about it. I just had life get in my way. I wasn't claiming it was my idea.

 

[cookyt]

Here's a genuine idea to contrast my rambling:

How about a game -presented in a bird eye format- where you are a rocket powered robot and must lead a line of missiles -think snake- into various objects or enemies to destroy?

 

[this_was_a_mistake]

I have an idea, but I'm not telling because I'm also working on a game.

 

[spazzattack]

I have an idea, but I'm not telling because I'm also working on a game.

Then please refrain from posting in this particular thread.