What is your game idea?

[MercenaryCanary]

Okay, this thread was based around many discussions that me and my friends have had. One was after playing Dead Rising and one of us started to scream on the microphone that he had beat the 5-Day challenge. When that happened I tried out the mode myself. I noticed it was rather fun and I thought to myself "This could have been a multiplayer mode,"so I spent a few days thinking it up entirely and it seemed like a really good concept. Your trapped in a mall, with limited food, and survivors who make the decision whether or not to be hostile or friendly towards you.If they are friendly they can share your food with them(vice versa)and they have back-up.Since your forced to eat eventually,this itself can put a giant gap between trusting players that have been going at this for a long time(Jimmy, I think our food supply is getting dangerously low...Can I kill you for food?).It seems like a really good multiplayer mode doesn't it.

Then after Brandon was done playing the Banjo&Kazooie Nuts&Bolts demo,and finished making a new map in Halo 3 he thought about a way to combine both of those into an RTS game.The premise would be developing your base into a certain way that could be purely aesthetic,an overall fortress(with limited supplies to prevent creating something impenetrable),or some other buildings that fit your play styleand the combat units would follow a spore/B&J N&B's style creator that would also enable you to create combat units that would also fit to your style but with limitations(Example:No super powerful units with the ability to rush the enemy base in 0.4 seconds).

It seems that some people always have some really good game ideas.Considering what me and my friends have come up with(I'm going to ask them if I can put them up) it seems that we the gamers can create some industry-breaking or just incredibly good concepts.So I'd like to hear any of yours if you have any.

 

[Praelanthor]

damn cant think of anything when i get an idea i remember a game that has already done it or somthing similar

 

[Praelanthor]

Edit yep i got one im thinking a game about schemeing not just combat or stratagy just planning and relying on your preperation falling into place to achieve your main objective

 

[Bulletinmybrain]

runescape strongly recommend.you can buy a decent account in Vgoldseller.com

Banhammer to the etneral depths of a ring of fire.

 

[Ronwue]

A combo between supreme commander and battlefield or similar games. It is rather impossible, but for the distant future...

 

[Seydaman]

MY SUPERGAME but i cant give details because people would steal my idea

 

[Good morning blues]

Right now I'm working on a film-noir style adventure game with lots of branching paths starting from the very beginning. The challenge will mostly come from trying to pick the best path. There won't be obvious "good" and "evil" choices like in a game such as KOTOR or Fable; instead, you'll be put in situations like one where gangsters have two of your allies - one who's your close friend, one who you know you need to get out of the situation - hostage in a "mexican standoff"-type situation, and you need to choose to either shoot one of the gunmen or lay down your weapon. I hate being completely stumped in inventory-based point-and-click adventure game puzzles, so while those will be in there, there will always be a way to bypass the puzzle, though obviously there will be negative consequences for doing so. In one scene, you know that there are police officers outside your room waiting to arrest you; you can either solve an inventory puzzle to fashion an escape out the window, or you can simply walk out and surrender.

 

[shadow skill]

My idea is for a game like Ninja Gaiden with a greater focus on the real life weapon fighting forms. The four main face buttons would control the forward attacks, left and right attacks, and backward attacks. The left trigger would control attack intensity and Left Bumper or L1 allows the player to jump, R1 or Right bumper would allow the player to block and centre the camera, and Right trigger would allow crouching, and serve as another attack modifier.

For example the player is sorounded by five guys, the player is armed with a spear, the five enemies are armed with swords. The one's directly in front and behind the player are closest. So how might the player deal with this situation? If he or she decides to go after the guy directly in front of him or her he or she might decide to go for a stun attack by depressing the left stick about halfway and hitting Y or Triangle, as soon as this happens the other four begin moving in. The guy directly behind the player moves forward so the player again depresses the left trigger about halfway but this time they hit X or A and jab the guy in the chest with the blunt end of the spear disabling him for a few precious seconds. The two guys on either side are dangerously close by now so the player fully depresses Left trigger for full power and quickly hits Square or X tthen O or B stabbing the one on the left with the spear, and cracking the ribs of the one on the right (hopefully) killing him.

Guy number 5 who was off to the right a bit from the one directly behind the player is just about to try and take the player's head off. The player quickly ducks under the attack, depresses left trigger fully and hits X or A and sweeps number 5's legs out from under him putting him down. By now the first guy you attacked has regained his footing so you decide to deal with him. The player keeping Left trigger fully depressed hits Y or Triangle thursting the spear into guy one.

Now that you have dispatched three of your attackers the odds are a hell of alot more even especially since you have the reach advantage. You then promptly dispatch the two stragglers and continue on your way. I want a game where the player has to really think about the properties of their weapons as well as the enemy's and plan things aording to the current situation.

 

[54r93]

I had this idea for an MMO once, it was kind of a mix between an mmo and an rts. It'd be a war game, and every player would play as a soldier from their respective country. and while there would be the standard MMO things like level grinding missions and stuff, there would also be battles where entire units would battle other countries for land. These battles would be chosen by the higher ranking officials and the battle happened whether you were there or not, if afk your player just standed there. I always thought it would be realistic too, like, if you died you wouldn't respawn until the battle ended, and your character would become a new soldier, looking the same, or different if you wanted, and a rank that was randomly selected from the lowest possible to the one under your rank when you died. I thought wounds would be realistic too. If you get shot in the arm, you either couldn't use it or werent' as effective with it and so on and would need to call for a medic for healing. If they heard you and got to you in time they'd heal you, but it would be realistic, if you had a wound that takes time to heal, your character would be unable to do missions and stuff for a said period of time. Or if the wound was so bad, the character would be shipped home and you would become a new character of equal rank.

I always thought that this would make for a great game because it would require skill, players would have to work together or their beloved characters would die. And that is what has always made me steer away from multiplayer, players who just run off alone to do whatever and I think that a game like this would fix that.

 

[Mandarth]

Yeah, I have always toyed with the Idea of a FPS/RTS, where one person plays the commander and builds buildings and deffence, along with NPC troops, and there are a few other players playing as some of the troops that the commander builds. Would make an awesome game.

Also thought of a game that was set within something like a virtual internet (NOT THE MATRIX) and due to a computer malfunction all these people were integrated into the computer itself. They go crazy and start creating things with their new found powers that resemble the deepest darkest parts of their personality. Its up to you, in an Oblivion/Fallout 3 style world, to infiltrate the areas that The Integrated have taken over and erase them so the Computer can fix itself.

 

[Eipok Kruden]

I'd love to play an MMORPFPS. Hundreds of thousands of people on the same server in a persistent game world with a deep backstory, character customization, currency. Like an mmorpg, but without EXP or skills. You can do whatever you want as long as you have the money. It would stay in FP throughout. And if you don't want to kill other people, you don't have to. People can be miners, traders, brokers, can have a position in a company, can be a merc, a soldier, a pilot, etc... It would be set in the future, and as I mentioned before, It would have a very deep backstory. There would be a myriad of races, each with different attributes, but all completely balanced. I'd subscribe to a MMORPFPS like that in a heart beat.

 

[Jolly Madness]

You got a sniper, a handgun and a few boxes of ammo. Now cleanse this wretched city of its evil souls!

 

[shadow skill]

You got a sniper, a handgun and a few boxes of ammo. Now cleanse this wretched city of its evil souls!

This could be made of pure concentrated win mixed with awesome.

 

[101194]

Got the Idea playing Fable II and then rushing to Oblivion.While doing a guild quest i thought to my self. Why don't we jsut make a World where its like your in this city and you have X certain cash and you need to work for one of the five main Buisnesses; The Mages Guild,In gathering rare herbs to sell for money.The Fighters guild,In killing local disturbances in the surounding area.The Theives Guild,In steeling stuff from other players houses and Targeted NPCS of rare artifacts.And the Assassins guild,In murderering NPCS and taking contracts from other players to murder ppl.The Merc Guild,In finding Bandits and Fugatives and killing them and collecting bounties.Once you have enough money you and some friends could start a buisness and hire other people to work for you and sell stuff to other players and random NPCS to keep your buisness afloat and buy out the compitition. or start a gang and extort out of buisnesses and hire yourself out to buisnesses to take out other buisness men.It might sound boring but with a great Copperate empire the stocks will allways be changing and the fun would be in paying assassins to kill your Rival Potions master across the street.

 

[Yog Sothoth]

ha! nice try, attempting to steal my valuable intellectual property! here, have this instead: i'd make a turn based strategy GTA clone.... chew on that!

 

[Praelanthor]

I'd love to play an MMORPFPS. Hundreds of thousands of people on the same server in a persistent game world with a deep backstory, character customization, currency. Like an mmorpg, but without EXP or skills. You can do whatever you want as long as you have the money. It would stay in FP throughout. And if you don't want to kill other people, you don't have to. People can be miners, traders, brokers, can have a position in a company, can be a merc, a soldier, a pilot, etc... It would be set in the future, and as I mentioned before, It would have a very deep backstory. There would be a myriad of races, each with different attributes, but all completely balanced. I'd subscribe to a MMORPFPS like that in a heart beat.

ohhh ive an addition to that all structures are fully dynamically destructible and will be slowly rebuilt over time that way cover and environemnts will never be the same changing up gameplay

 

[Eipok Kruden]

I'd love to play an MMORPFPS. Hundreds of thousands of people on the same server in a persistent game world with a deep backstory, character customization, currency. Like an mmorpg, but without EXP or skills. You can do whatever you want as long as you have the money. It would stay in FP throughout. And if you don't want to kill other people, you don't have to. People can be miners, traders, brokers, can have a position in a company, can be a merc, a soldier, a pilot, etc... It would be set in the future, and as I mentioned before, It would have a very deep backstory. There would be a myriad of races, each with different attributes, but all completely balanced. I'd subscribe to a MMORPFPS like that in a heart beat.

ohhh ive an addition to that all structures are fully dynamically destructible and will be slowly rebuilt over time that way cover and environemnts will never be the same changing up gameplay

Yea, and they won't just be slowly rebuilt over time. AI controlled construction crews would come and rebuild the environments if it's in a city or town. If it's out in the middle of nowhere, players would have to fix the stuff. You could have entire professions built around building and rebuilding things in hostile environments. And the physics in the game would be a cross between Digital Molecular Matter and whatever they're using in Red Faction: Guerrilla Wars.

 

[Ago Iterum]

I have to do this for my games design course. Whilst 90% of my peers ideas were 'it's apocalypse, go survive now', mine took a lighter take on this.

Set in 2051, the human race had wiped itself out, and only a couple of repair robots in a factory survived. They began repairing and rebuilding all the other robots, who then after 2 years, had erpaierd monstrous cities, and a robotic utopia.

But things went awry when some of the robots, the ones designed to have brains identical to humans, got power mad, and banished the weak robots from the city. History started to repeat itself, as wars began between these cities. This was all started by one robot, the leader of the evil corperation 'The Heirarchy' who wanted world domination.

This story is all displayed in a huge cut-scene. When it's finished, it cuts to a scene in the small primitive villages to which the weak robots were banished, where a small robot is being repaired. This is the main character.

You will spend the rest of the game fighting against this corperation, breaking into their cities, and hunting for their leader. Elements incorperated are; Time travel (A huge element, later on in the game) Upgrading (You get to upgrade the weapons, armour and look of your robot and the rest of your team) Turn based battle system (I imagined it similar to that of Final Fantasy III) and there is stealth in there (Sneaking into cities)

The games main audience is older kids, and young teens, however, from the 3ds max demo's I have produced, I believe it has a charm that will attract older teens, and some adults (Like Animal Crossing)

 

[hypothetical fact]

An MMORPG the flavour will be in caves, chasms, tombs, crypts etc. It will be the standard only when you get underground there will be enemies that can crush you and traps everywhere so you will need help from other players; the catch is that underground is completely player vs player and while some caves won't have any loot others might have a single large crystal that only one player can take.

The ultimate form of this is that in every section of the map would be an incredibly hard to find cave with massive enemies and traps, but at the end would be a gem that completely overpowers the player that gets it but excludes them from nonpvp rules so they can attack and be attacked by anyone. The catch is that if the gem is taken that section of the map starts screwing up with storms, swarms of monsters, the entire area becoming pvp etc. Only if the player with the gem is killed which would take an entire team and the gem is returned to its cave altar would the area go back to normal.

This game would be both an interesting mmo and a display in my lack of faith in humanity because I can say without a doubt that every gem will be taken without a second thought.

 

[Uncompetative]

Bear with me, this is in context with this thread...

Recently, Eggo mentioned the very next-gen Project Offset:

I read through the technology page on their website, seems fairly clever stuff:

http://www.projectoffset.com/technology.php

but then I looked at the leaked HD footage on Gametrailers and it was running at about 1 frame per second.

This suggests that it will be one of those PC games that everyone aspires to run on maximum settings, but can't without cooking their CPUs.

Even so, I'm sceptical about the actual game. I know Crysis went silly at the end of its storyline, but the way it did 'flesh' was excellent. With that technology out there I don't think I can get excited about the graphics on any game that makes the skin of its characters look like metal or plastic. That said, the fantasy architecture looks wonderful. Yet, I would have more confidence in such an ambitious project if they were to work on the controls/gameplay/viewpoint first and worry about the graphics/physics/level-design/art-design/story/music/voice until they know what kind of a game experience their control system/viewpoint constrains them to.

I'm always reminded that Shigeru Miyamoto directed his programmers to work on the inertia of a 'ball' when he came to do Super Mario 64. Only when the scope of this prototypical avatar had yielded the empowerment one would expect of a Superhero plumber, did he let them replace the sphere with context-dependent transitional animations of a 3D Mario. Everything else followed this, so the doors to the levels were unlocked when the player had proved their proficiency with a shallow knowledge of what was an incredibly rich and precise control scheme. In a sense, the game was there at the very outset, he just had the sense not to stuff its complexity down the beginner's throat at the very outset of the adventure. Remember the manual?

Project Offset needs to think about how to make swordfighting work and add subtlety, skill and mastery without over-reliance on RPG stats.

It would also be sensible, given their dubious quest for 'a cinematic experience' to do something more varied than an over-the-shoulder, or chase-camera, or first-person viewpoint (which is awkward for sword combat against multiple targets - it is hard to say what they have picked from the trailer, they seem to be using a mix), but I feel that a game would appear a lot more Cinematic if it had edits between multiple-cameras.

Perhaps these edits could arise when you identify a particular assailant from a group of attackers. Then the camera could switch to show you from their point of view (has the advantage of being non-blocking in rooms with columns that might ordinary get in the way of an AI controlled camera which formerly baffled Lakitu), it would also show damage thereby removing the need for an atmosphere breaking HUD; sound-effects could also be used (especially, chordal tones for magic combos).

I think the easiest way to implement the controls is to look at Robotron, or its contemporary imitators, such as Geometry Wars. This means the Left Stick moves the character relative to the map whilst the Right Stick changes the direction in which they are facing - normally, in Robotron it would fire in the direction you were pushing the Right Stick into, but it wouldn't do that as there are no "run and gun" weapons in a fantasy FPS (the crossbow should be slow to reload and more of a sniper weapon...), unless you were going to implement magic and needed some rapid-fire some spell-casting mechanism (perhaps, hold one/more of the 4 face buttons to build up a mix of Elemental energy which you could cast and recast after auto-recharge, the performance of which depended upon RPG stats and collectible items).

In this default mode the game would use a Cinematic camera, attempting to show your character navigating the impressive architectural spaces and ensuring that you weren't staring at your feet when presented with an epic dawn over a fjord, or somesuch. You could enter a Goldeneye style 1st person floating-reticle 'Aim-mode' by holding down the Left Bumper, but the freedom to do the gamepad equivalent of "mouse-look" would be balanced by preventing you from moving from that position, the Left Stick would then be used to lean both left&right and forward&back, the Right Stick would only reorient the character's body when the reticle swept to the edge of the screen, either turning, or nosing the character forward&back. The apparent duplication in control is intentional as the lean is faster and self-centering on release. It is this 1st person mode that you would use for the crossbow, indeed it may dynamically equip that weapon on holding the Left Bumper. A small 'dot' reticle would only appear as the Right Trigger was partially squeezed and be 'red' if no target was in range. From this 1st person mode you could target a threat and "lock-on & track it" by also holding down the Right Bumper, at this point the camera would switch to show the assailant's point of view of you, etc. If they turned to flee it would be up to you to release the Right Bumper and return to 1st person, but as you had been "locked-on" you would find them more or less still in the centre of your view as your character had been automatically rotated around to face them as they had circled you in the fight.

Having the thumbsticks do something entirely different again in this "lock-on" mode may be a mistake. It would probably be okay to keep the Left Stick as multi-directional lean and keep your character standing in one place whilst defending themselves - i.e. "let them come to you". The Right Stick could explore the peripheral vision of the assailant so as they looked away from you, the camera could be "finessed" to keep you partially 'in shot' - this would also add dramatic shakiness to the camera work, making you the director and similar to the way you can 'choose where to look' within constraints in the cutscenes of Far Cry 2. The Right Stick wouldn't control where you're character was looking. The area of the body to attack would be 'queued-up' in a sequence on the face buttons then the Right Trigger would perform an aggressive move and the Left Trigger a defensive parry. It would be important to meet equivalent force with force, hence the use of the pressure-sensitive Triggers. Stance would also be an issue as certain moves could make you lose your balance if you over-swung whilst leaning. Crouching would help lower the centre of gravity and dodge some head slice-attacks and you could hold the Left Thumbstick in to do this and release to stand-up straight. The Right Thumbstick could either be clicked to jump, or released after being held to jump - the difference being that in the latter you would jump higher the longer you 'prepared'; this may prevent characters hopping around like rabbits on amphetamines as often happens in FPS games.

Boss fights are risk-reward and can be avoided completely if, like me, you are totally useless at them at get stuck at that point in the game and can't get any further. The point-of-view changes again for these fights and becomes boss-centric, essentially like Shadow of the Colossus. The camera keeps moving around the body of the huge dragon, etc. that you are climbing about on in order to keep you in picture, whilst moving in and out to keep the monster within frame. Once its weak spot has been reached and the beast brought to the ground you will be free to look through the treasure it guards, collect a reward from the formerly terrorised neighboring villages, or in the case of the game's 4 dragon's simply scavenge its magic teeth.

You see, the magic system works off the power of Elemental Dragons. Without going into too much detail, this is based upon the Xbox 360's color-coded face buttons:

Earth = Green - creates earthquakes, panicking hordes; or will 'Earth' any lightning based attack provided the player isn't standing in water
Air = Yellow - creates sunlight, useful in dark dungeons; or allows player to glide when direct sunlight, mitigating high-falls
Fire= Red - creates fireballs; or a ring of defensive fire
Water = Blue - creates freeze-lightning; or heals the player

Acquisition of teeth is a major part of the game as the player is required to travel to the "four corners of the world" to collect them from the respective dragons.

North = Air Dragon, 'Norwegian/Viking' Mountain theme = Yellow
East = Fire Dragon, 'Ancient Imperial Chinese' theme = Red
West = Water Dragon, 'Native American' Great Lakes theme = Blue
South = Earth Dragon, 'Frank Herbert/Tremors' Desert theme = Green

These can be combined to cast mixed spells, e.g. Hold Blue then Yellow to create a mist of vapor all the better to disguise your stealthy approach, or combine Earth and Fire to crack the landscape asunder and bring forth lava. Obviously, you can't create earthquakes and lava when you begin as you will need to 'rank-up'. Dragons teeth in powdered form are available in Apothecary shops in major towns although they are 'cut' with large quantities of chalk and only have limited effects. Basically, you are better off acquiring your own fresh Phoenix feathers and Minotaur horn even if this is the more dangerous course.

Consequently, some form of balanced questing party/squad-combat is required, where you can choose to focus of being a stealthy thief/assassin, or an armored warrior or a wizard, etc. (or any combination of the above; as what you do in the game determines your class, rather than some "menu choice" when you first start the game). This is where the D-pad comes in to effect as it can be used to direct other members of your party. Sure, you can play Cooperatively with up to 3 others of mixed classes to better tackle each quest, but as games can take a long time to finish it is only reasonable to adopt the Gauntlet method of jump-in/drop-out play where the sudden exit of your warrior just leaves you with an AI controlled character. Whether or not members of your team are "real" doesn't even need to be apparent as you don't talk to them to direct a strategy, but use the D-pad to control their advances, flanking, and holding position - whilst the Back button issues an organised retreat to your current position. Therefore, look at a place you want to send your teammates, or a target you want them to attack from where they currently are and press:

Up = to get them to head straight there
Right = to circle anticlockwise around to the location/target's left flank using all available intervening cover
Left = to circle clockwise around to the location/target's right flank using all available intervening cover
Down = to hold their current position, making use of nearby cover if attacked

Back = to retreat to just behind your current position, defensively flanking you

The 'rules of engagement' could be defined at the same time by Holding the D-pad and then tapping one of the face buttons before the D-pad was released:

Red = Red Alert - "belligerent, attack first"
Yellow = Yellow Alert - "passive, only fight back"
Green = All Clear - "healing, rest & restore from fatigue phase"
Blue = Sneak - "stealth approach, avoiding combat as it discloses position"

Obviously, this is a very long post and I am well aware that few of you will take the time to read/comment on it. I don't actually care. The reason I like to go into all of this detail is that I don't think it is fair of all of us to bleat on about game X or Y being rubbish without saying why. What do we want? What would work? What are publishers getting wrong? Are the priorities of developer's correct in this gen?

When a game as interesting as Project Offset is glimpsed whilst still in development I feel we have an opportunity to influence its design.

After all, publishers are driven by marketing departments and marketing departments listen closely to focus groups.

I don't mean to be impertinent in my detailed suggestions. I mean to help.

I don't like to be sceptical of aspirations to Cinematic swordplay without making what I feel is a constructive technical criticism.

Anyway, enough of me being boring... just be relieved I didn't tell you about the game I'm actually working on:

Universe.