Sci-fy Game Idea! If interested in helping, message me

[fraysher]

Game Mechanics

1. 1st person shooter yeah I don't care there's a lot these days I get it but you can always try to separate them in a way and get something unique

2. Open World

3. No level up system, there's upgrades you can buy.

4. No dialogue options, but there will be choices in the game that will leave an imprint somewhere and definitely change the game or your surroundings.

5. Hoping to achieve smart A.I.

6. Realistic fighting, your gonna wanna take cover or enable your shield (I'll talk to you about that later) so you don't die and you can get fatally wounded in the game and the only way to heal it is by having a certain item or grabbing something near you to stop the bleeding or buy yourself time.

7. I'm gonna try to keep the game as even as possible between you and the enemy because I've played games before that just let's you massacre the enemy and you don't take any damage which to me isn't fun.

8. you are going to be able to use thing;s like gadgets in the game to give it a stealthy approach to any combat situation.

9. Realistic lighting, If it's dark, It's Dark

10. Going to build up a bond between the player and perhaps a friend of the protagonist to give the game an emotional feel if something were to happen to that character.

11. Guns Still just message me if you want to hear about them I mean there is just so much information.

12. If there is anything I missed point it out.

Basic Concept

1)Year 3599

2)3 Organization if you will
A)UA (Universal Alliance) This is the government
B)UAEF (Universal Alliance Engagement Force) This is the Military
C)UTA (Universal Transportation Agency) This kinda like NSA OR CIA and monitors Inter Universal Affairs and monitors Universal traffic as well)

3.Game does involve space but not the way you think it would we don't have extremely fast spaceships we have 2 different ways of transport. Nikito Teleporter, and Warp Gates (trying to come up with a more complex name so it don't sound generic)
A)Nikito Teleported-uses reversed white blood cells to basically turn your body and such down to a cellular level then uses a small group of protons which move extremely fast to transport you to the coordinates you picked, BTW this is on planetary level you know planet to planet. Anyway after being transported it uses regular white blood cells to reverse what happened and there you are back again with no damage.
B)Warp Gates- uses negative matter to push away matter although this does open a Warp Gate it remains unstable and there are many risks going through a unstable warp gate so there is a very neat process (which i have explained just not gonna explain it here) that can be found at any UTS (Universal Travel Station) in the game.

4. Plot is based around 3 things the UA, new universe with similar if not better technology except advanced in a different way than UA did and refuses to join AUP which brings a war, and the resistance (Don't worry I'm gonna change the name) which is trying to prevent the war and at the same time trying to bring down UA because of the corrupted leaders and so on. I'll go more in depth if you want me to just ask.

5.Warp Hub- Is where everything was created and the only place which has natural sustained warp gates and all the warp gates to lead to every universe. I do have how everything was made in a section in Libre already so like the others if you want to hear it just say so.

6.If you haven't noticed we didn't advance like most other futuristic games we advanced through experimentation of element's and well I'm hoping in this game to take a totally different route than Halo or Mass Effect but I want it to be fun.

7.Today we know that life can only happen under certain condition in this game were sticking true to that but as you know since there different planets they are similar to earth but life evolves differently and takes on different shapes and creatures. We abandon the word aliens in this game because there is only one Intelligent life form per universe in this game and they are similar to humans in very ways. they have their own religion, language, weapons, history, wars, philosophy and etc but we refer to everything that living and Intelligent in this game as Planetarians.

8. I have reasons for UA becoming what it is like a war that left a lasting imprint on AUP to enforce laws new regulations and so on.

9. I am currently working on universes names right now and planet(s) in them.

10.I have the very beginning of the story line thought out in many different ways and the protagonist name

Now I know there are some things I haven't gone over like weapons, species, languages, planets and other thing but I can say I have the weapons done and other stuff to Alot of it but to be honest there is just too much so if anybody want's to skype with me my username is Fraysher43

Thank you. Please be respectful in the comment's alright and if you are interested in helping me I would be happy to have your support

 

[senordesol]

Ummm...

Okay, you're clearly enthusiastic about this; but dial it down a notch. I can barely understand what it is you're getting at.

Anyway, 'ideas' are a dime a dozen. Have you prototyped your core mechanics and are they fun? Your lore doesn't matter, your acronyms don't matter. What makes your game fun in the tightest, most focused sense?

 

[fraysher]

I understand what your saying now let me ask you this. Have you ever played a game where mechanics isn't all that matters?
I'll take for instance The Walking Dead the taletale game you play it because your always thriving for the next dialogue or radical decision you have to make.
But then you take a game like Elder Scrolls now from what I've seen people don't play Elder Scrolls for the Story and most don't read or look up the lore in the game they play it for fun to level up their character well with this game i want an equal combination of both like Metal Gear Solid you know.

 

[senordesol]

I understand what your saying now let me ask you this. Have you ever played a game where mechanics isn't all that matters?
I'll take for instance The Walking Dead the taletale game you play it because your always thriving for the next dialogue or radical decision you have to make.
But then you take a game like Elder Scrolls now from what I've seen people don't play Elder Scrolls for the Story and most don't read or look up the lore in the game they play it for fun to level up their character well with this game i want an equal combination of both like Metal Gear Solid you know.

Let me answer that question with another question: Do you have what it takes to pull off a game with no central mechanics?

You're not Telltale and you're not Bethesda; you're some schmoe spouting off a game idea on an internet forum. I'm not trying to be harsh here, but if you haven't heard this already then take it from someone who's had a few years experience in the games industry: Ideas are basically worthless. I could poll half my office tomorrow and have dozens of 'ideas'.

You want to know if your game has legs? Make a prototype and ask yourself one simple question: is this fun?

I know you're excited about your concept; but you're putting your cart WAAAAY in front of the horse.

Prototype. Test. Iterate. Test. Iterate. Test. Iterate again! Then maaaybe you can start thinking about story.

 

[Pinkamena]

Okay, so you have an idea for a game. Good. Do you have any idea of how you are going to make it?

 

[Albetta]

Are you paying?

 

[The Heik]

snip

You are expecting to make a 3d open world first person shooter with multiple factions, a large overarching story and smart AI?

No lie, that's a scope that is hard for most major game devs to accomplish successfully, and they've got usually an army of trained and experienced artists, designers, coders, level editors etc. not to mention backers ensuring that the devs are paid and motivated to finish.

To try and accomplish that with nothing more than a few random people you've gotten from the internet as a side project is foolhardy to the extreme. Heck, given that all you've apparently put together is a random amalgamation of the ideas you want shows that you're not ready to put this idea out. To put it in perspective, most companies would laugh you out of the pitch room if you don't have a basic demo or at the very least a well put together GDD (General Design Document) to show them.

I know that what I'm saying is harsh, but I just want you to understand precisely what you're trying to attempt here. This is not a minor undertaking, and if you really want to make it you need to put in the time and effort to show others that you mean it, and that you have a cadre of people you can really rely upon to work at this regularly and without pause, because if you don't the project WILL fall apart.

Now if you really are determined to make this game, I will make one final suggestion: Make your posts on an actual game-maker site such as the Unity Engine Forums. The Escapist is a game-centric site, but most of the people on it are not game devs. You need to pitch this in a community where it's seen by a lot of the people you would need for the project, not simply make a shot in the dark.

 

[vector_zero]

snip

You are expecting to make a 3d open world first person shooter with multiple factions, a large overarching story and smart AI?

No lie, that's a scope that is hard for most major game devs to accomplish successfully, and they've got usually an army of trained and experienced artists, designers, coders, level editors etc. not to mention backers ensuring that the devs are paid and motivated to finish.

To try and accomplish that with nothing more than a few random people you've gotten from the internet as a side project is foolhardy to the extreme. Heck, given that all you've apparently put together is a random amalgamation of the ideas you want shows that you're not ready to put this idea out. To put it in perspective, most companies would laugh you out of the pitch room if you don't have a basic demo or at the very least a well put together GDD (General Design Document) to show them.

I know that what I'm saying is harsh, but I just want you to understand precisely what you're trying to attempt here. This is not a minor undertaking, and if you really want to make it you need to put in the time and effort to show others that you mean it, and that you have a cadre of people you can really rely upon to work at this regularly and without pause, because if you don't the project WILL fall apart.

Now if you really are determined to make this game, I will make one final suggestion: Make your posts on an actual game-maker site such as the Unity Engine Forums. The Escapist is a game-centric site, but most of the people on it are not game devs. You need to pitch this in a community where it's seen by a lot of the people you would need for the project, not simply make a shot in the dark.

Pretty much took the words out of my mouth. As someone who has gone to school for game design you start small and build from there. Unless you are a big company with millions of dollars and the best programmers and graphic artists in the world.

And to expand on the DDD(Detailed Design Document) With a concept this large any publisher wouldn't even give you the time of day without a basic working demo, no matter how good the design doc was.

Been said by a few here, build your mechanics and make them fun. Then add your story around said mechanics.

 

[Blacklight28]

If you're looking for a crew to develop a game with you there is crucial question you need to answer before you even think about bringing other people on:

What are YOU going to contribute to the project?

If the answer is along the lines of "I am the ideas guy", you may as well pack it in right now.

 

[Drops a Sweet Katana]

Right. Okay. I've just come off a major project management assignment for which I was the manager so I'm still that sort of mindset of how to go about a project. I'm not going to lie to you: I'm about to take a massive shit over each little piece of something that I'm sure you are very enthusiastic about. I'm gonna spoiler this shit up so you can read at your discretion. I'm not even joking. Don't read it if you don't want someone shooting down your idea then purging the ground it lands on.
EDIT: I'll try to make this a little more constructive than what it was. Reading now, it's pretty dickish and not really helpful.

No. Just no. First things first: everyone has ideas. I have ideas. Everyone else posting in the this thread will have ideas. Ideas are worth somewhere in between pocket lint and sweet fuck-all. The least you should have is a solid concept, beit a setting, mechanics, a story, etc., and a brief listing things you ABSOLUTELY NEED in order to realise it to its minimum acceptable state. That should give you a skeleton add to and to flesh out. One of the first rules you learn in project management is that THE PROJECT'S FOUNDATIONS WILL OFTEN MAKE OR BREAK IT in the first stages. You also have to realise the goals and scope of your project before any work is really committed to it. How long will it take? How much will it cost? What expertise and resource do I need to achieve our success criteria? Can I get those? Even with those resources, is this feasible?

You don't have any of this.

If you were to go ahead and start this project now with what you have just shown us (we're not even the people you're looking for), I would be confident in saying that it would fall to pieces within weeks if not days. There is no substance here. Nothing that gives any kind of end goal or even a jumping off point really. Let's go through what you've presented to us:

1. 1st person shooter yeah I don't care there's a lot these days I get it but you can always try to separate them in a way and get something unique

...
Is that it? Well, I'll be honest if you opened a pitch or a brief with this and handed it to me, I'd just walk straight out. Stunning. Okay, I guess you could do something with this. First question I'd ask, assuming I would, would be 'Well what are you going to do differently? What are your justifications for this decision? What can you do to stand out in the crowd?'

2. Open World

If I didn't walk then, I'd walk now. This does not justify a point by itself, let alone this high on a list of, what should be, key distinguishing features and concepts, i.e. THE SHIT THAT MAKES YOU STAND OUT! I can rattle off several open world FPSs (FarCry, STALKER, Fallout 3 and NV, Crysis) and I can almost GUARANTEE the phrase 'open world FPS' did NOT show up in any kind of initial pitch.

3. No level up system, there's upgrades you can buy.

4. No dialogue options, but there will be choices in the game that will leave an imprint somewhere and definitely change the game or your surroundings.

For fuck sake, NONE OF THIS BELONGS IN A PITCH! These are things to be chucked in later on once the foundations, like the mechanics and whatnot, are laid.

5. Hoping to achieve smart A.I.

DO NOT PUT TENTATIVE TERMS IN A BRIEF/PITCH! You NEED to be clear about your aims and goals. What the do you mean by smart? How are you going to achieve this?

6. Realistic fighting, your gonna wanna take cover or enable your shield (I'll talk to you about that later) so you don't die and you can get fatally wounded in the game and the only way to heal it is by having a certain item or grabbing something near you to stop the bleeding or buy yourself time.

Six fuck mothering points in and you've finally gotten to mechanics. In the strictest sense albeit. You need to have a better idea about your mechanics when start a game project, especially if you want to make an FPS.

7. I'm gonna try to keep the game as even as possible between you and the enemy because I've played games before that just let's you massacre the enemy and you don't take any damage which to me isn't fun.

Again with the vague, tentative terms and shit that isn't anywhere near specific enough to be useful. What do you mean by even exactly? You aren't doing anything to elaborate or expand on this or really anything else.

8. you are going to be able to use thing;s like gadgets in the game to give it a stealthy approach to any combat situation.

What have I been saying about vague term. It's becoming abundantly clear that you don't have a solid enough idea to take this forward at this time.

9. Realistic lighting, If it's dark, It's Dark

Are you actually shitting me with this? Let's ignore the fact that you have put something pertaining to making the game pretty into a brief/pitch in lieu of actually meat in the ways of mechanics and just focus on what you have just said to us. You want to lighting engine that makes things dark when their in shadow... I'd want that from a lighting engine as well. Seriously, not even stealth games have this in a pitch.

10. Going to build up a bond between the player and perhaps a friend of the protagonist to give the game an emotional feel if something were to happen to that character.

This is not need now. You need to set your foundation before anything happens

11. Guns Still just message me if you want to hear about them I mean there is just so much information.

You're making an FPS. Guns pretty much a given, and even then you don't need details on them right now.

12. If there is anything I missed point it out.

Some actual mechanics would be advantageous.

Right. Now on to the story I guess?

1)Year 3599

2)3 Organization if you will
A)UA (Universal Alliance) This is the government
B)UAEF (Universal Alliance Engagement Force) This is the Military
C)UTA (Universal Transportation Agency) This kinda like NSA OR CIA and monitors Inter Universal Affairs and monitors Universal traffic as well)

3.Game does involve space but not the way you think it would we don't have extremely fast spaceships we have 2 different ways of transport. Nikito Teleporter, and Warp Gates (trying to come up with a more complex name so it don't sound generic)
A)Nikito Teleported-uses reversed white blood cells to basically turn your body and such down to a cellular level then uses a small group of protons which move extremely fast to transport you to the coordinates you picked, BTW this is on planetary level you know planet to planet. Anyway after being transported it uses regular white blood cells to reverse what happened and there you are back again with no damage.
B)Warp Gates- uses negative matter to push away matter although this does open a Warp Gate it remains unstable and there are many risks going through a unstable warp gate so there is a very neat process (which i have explained just not gonna explain it here) that can be found at any UTS (Universal Travel Station) in the game.

4. Plot is based around 3 things the UA, new universe with similar if not better technology except advanced in a different way than UA did and refuses to join AUP which brings a war, and the resistance (Don't worry I'm gonna change the name) which is trying to prevent the war and at the same time trying to bring down UA because of the corrupted leaders and so on. I'll go more in depth if you want me to just ask.

5.Warp Hub- Is where everything was created and the only place which has natural sustained warp gates and all the warp gates to lead to every universe. I do have how everything was made in a section in Libre already so like the others if you want to hear it just say so.

6.If you haven't noticed we didn't advance like most other futuristic games we advanced through experimentation of element's and well I'm hoping in this game to take a totally different route than Halo or Mass Effect but I want it to be fun.

7.Today we know that life can only happen under certain condition in this game were sticking true to that but as you know since there different planets they are similar to earth but life evolves differently and takes on different shapes and creatures. We abandon the word aliens in this game because there is only one Intelligent life form per universe in this game and they are similar to humans in very ways. they have their own religion, language, weapons, history, wars, philosophy and etc but we refer to everything that living and Intelligent in this game as Planetarians.

8. I have reasons for UA becoming what it is like a war that left a lasting imprint on AUP to enforce laws new regulations and so on.

9. I am currently working on universes names right now and planet(s) in them.

10.I have the very beginning of the story line thought out in many different ways and the protagonist name

You don't need any of this in a pitch. You can have an idea of what's going on, but you seem to be hung up on it.

Sorry for being harsh, but it needs to be said. If you want this to be a thing, you need to refine your ideas and actually have a concept for the GAME you want to make, not the setting. If you want to write about the setting (which it seems you do), then write some short stories or something. You need an idea for a game to make a game. Even then, the setting seems half-baked and not realised enough to warrant anything other than more though on your part.

Let the ideas stew. Sit down and think about what you actually want to make before looking to get it made. Write a brief. Five pages, maybe, on what you want to achieve, what mechanics you want. All that business

 

[MirenBainesUSMC]

Generally speaking, if you really have a passion for it --- then follow it but follow it with realistic goals and research on the various aspects you would need to complete and/or begin such a project.

There's no need to rip anyone down but a proper knowledge as to where to start and a feasible plan can go a long way.

I wish you luck myself, it doesn't cost anything to pass on encouragement.

 

[Ragsnstitches]

First of all, what is your area of expertise? Nobody will rally behind a person with just an idea, without that person having a huge amount of clout and respect within a community. If you want to start a project you'll have to contribute to it too. Secondly, if this is your first project you might want to take a step back and reassess.

My reccomendation?

Don't do what you are thinking of in the OP. You'll hit a wall almost immediately. It's too large in scale for you to do on your own and by the sounds of it you have little experience working on such a project. Work on your own to start with on something drastically smaller in scale (and be more focused about what you want to do). It's easy to get excited and go for broke, but without experience, talent and money, you'll be severely limited in what you can do and have little to no chance of getting anyone to join you. Even if you do get someone they'll probably be equally inexperienced which still makes the project way too large to manage.

Work small. Learn the ropes. Find out what's required in a project. Get hands on experience. Go do a college course on game development. Get a working skill set that you can apply to the project. You are obviously passionate about this, so I encourage you to pursue it, but with realistic goals and expectations. The only way to attain such insight is with experience.

Regarding the story? Don't worry to much about it. If you are making a game the story isn't your primary concern. Find out what you can do with what skills you have and apply them towards a working set of systems. Once you have that done you can work whatever story you want around it. But if you start with story and work your way back you are going hit a few snags, notably said limitations that you may not be aware of until you try to implement something and you can't get it to work.

Obviously you can have a theme or genre in mind, but don't fret the details until you know what it you can actually do.

NOTE: The recommendation is based on the idea that you don't have experience. If you do then just take it as a cautionary warning. But I figure experience is something you lack, so correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

Here's the first question ANYONE with an idea for a game should ask themself:

"What do I bring to the table?"

the second question is "how does that compare to what I'm asking people to do for me?"

When it comes to the people burning hundreds of hours coding, making art or sound or whatever, being 'the idea guy' is worth exactly fuck all. What other skills do you have?

If you really want to build worlds/settings learn level design or write fiction about it and get it published.

 

[Seishisha]

So first off i realise im a little late to the discourse and because of that you may have abandoned monitoring this thread so i could just be talking to thin air.

Anyway enough of that, i read your post, then i read the replies, then i reread your original post again and i wanted to reply but couldn't for the life of me figure out a decent way of doing so without merely repeating previous poster's concerns and advice. So i took my dog for a walk and whilst out it suddendly occured to me that perhaps the best possible way to convey my opinion on the matter was todo exactly what you did and post a concept for a game.
This is somthing that i spent about twenty minuets on whilst i was out walking my dog and my inspiration comes largely from a chinese comic that i have been reading recently.

Now with that needlessly complex explanation out of the way onto the actual game concept.

First off the buzzwords!! 2D sidescroller; brawling action; combo systems; rogue elements; random levels; random powers and items and finaly perma-death.

Playstyle: The game would be a 2D sidescroller with both horizontal and vertical movement, randomised level layout with the usual assortment of hazzards such as pit-falls, spike traps, fire, ice and other envirmental conditions.
The player would start out with one of ten or so weapons sets such as a sword and shield, spear, double axe et cetera, this starter weapon is just for the opening segment (more on that explanation in abit) as you progress through the level the player will learn the basic mechanics of movement, offence and defence, enemy variations and attack patterns, this will culminate in a boss battle.

Upon defeating the boss you will gain it's power and discard your weaponry, powers will come in two flavours active and passive.
Active powers could include pyromancy, telekinesis and so on, passive powers would be things like super strength, speed, flight et cetera.
Active powers will tie directly into your character's standard attacks and work with combo strikes, passive powers are essentialy a raw stat boost or modifier.

Once your power has been gained it is permanent during the course of your game and only lost upon death or restart, from this point on all enemies slain will give you lifeforce, when your lifeforce is full you may spend it to either revive or reinforce.
Reviving means a full heal to your character, reinforcing means an increase to your base stats, health, damage and power but no healing.
As you reinforce your power it changes and becomes stronger, an example pyromancy gains increased range, damage, projectile size and speed this will also effect your combo attacks making them more devastating.
The down side is that everytime you reinforce this unlocks a tougher enemy type to match your newely gained strength, defeating bosses will give you a free reinforce and revive aswell as unlocking the next stage.

The goal of the game is to defeat all of the bosse's and claim the title of demi-god for yourself, whether you die or succeed the game ends and you may start again, with new random levels weapon and power.

So thats the game concept, as i said took me about twenty minuets and you know what everything i just wrote down is completly and utterly worthless.
I have no background in game development, i can not create a working prototype, i lack pretty much every essential skill needed to manage the time, resources and team needed to create such a game and this whole post was little more than a mental exercise that will bear absolutly no fruit.
My game concept is considerably narrower in scope and scale then yours is, so unless you have knowledge of programing, or a team that you can manage in order create atleast a basic proof of concept demo then everything you wrote is also worthless.

I am sorry if that final note was a little harsh and unreasonable but those are the facts of game development, you can have the greatest concept in the world, you can have smartly written story, compeling characters, deep world lore and history fully fleshed out, but none of it matters if you do not have the apptitude necesarry to program a proof of concept or manage a team todo so.