What would be yor perfect game? discrib the levels you would go through, the name, the multi, weapons, and what kind of game would it be plz tell me and let ur imagenation flow....no matter how twisted inside you are.... (like me) 
What would be yor perfect game?
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My perfect game would be called a sniper's revenge or some what of that line... it would be a 1st person shooter. It would take place in ww4, weapons system would be that of a sniper combo with a seral killers weapon chocie.
the story would be that your famliy was killed by a black ops team when you refused to do an order for you C.O. you are then hunted in the battle field which you've been fighten in for the last year. at ur mercy you would have your an asortment of sniper rifles, and milsolanios items to kill the plp who want to kill you. it would take place in jungle, city and forest areas. and you goal would be to sneak back into your head corters and kill the plp who ordered and killed your family.You could pull of brutal exuctions or snipe your current target.
the story would be that your famliy was killed by a black ops team when you refused to do an order for you C.O. you are then hunted in the battle field which you've been fighten in for the last year. at ur mercy you would have your an asortment of sniper rifles, and milsolanios items to kill the plp who want to kill you. it would take place in jungle, city and forest areas. and you goal would be to sneak back into your head corters and kill the plp who ordered and killed your family.You could pull of brutal exuctions or snipe your current target.
so im new lol and i dont wanna be that guy whos at the 10 list and none reads it....Skalman said:
Don't care if it's been done before. I'll post one.
My perfect game would be an RPG. It would take place across the entire lifespan of a universe. You would have to keep making new characters as your old ones died off. You would meet the NPCs of the world and come to live and fight alongside them. Each character would allow you new ways to explore. When you died you would simply start a new character and keep going. The game would end when that Universe ended. You would have shaped its history all the way through and at the end it would show you how your character's fared and what they did to contribute to the end.
My perfect game would be an RPG. It would take place across the entire lifespan of a universe. You would have to keep making new characters as your old ones died off. You would meet the NPCs of the world and come to live and fight alongside them. Each character would allow you new ways to explore. When you died you would simply start a new character and keep going. The game would end when that Universe ended. You would have shaped its history all the way through and at the end it would show you how your character's fared and what they did to contribute to the end.
Adventure/action/RPG game where I play a malevolent earthbound spirit up to no good. My main means of interacting with the physical world would be to possess things and people, though I would have other ghostly powers to mess around with as well, like the ubiquitous control over ambient lighting and temperature, spooky ghost sounds, mysteriously shutting and locking front doors and the classic creepy face appearing in inappropriate places bit. In fact, that would be the only way I could see myself: reflected in mirrors and water, and changing based on how I act. I would grow more devilish and fiery if I'm mean, angelic and beautiful if kind, decrepit and skeletal if I'm apathetic and don't use my powers often, and vital and glowy if I do. There wouldn't be much of a plot - it would be almost like a sandbox game, though I could 'end' it by figuring out the means of my destruction (which would be either randomized or procedurally generated depending on my starting stats/actions) and getting my remains put to rest. That wouldn't be the point, though. The point would be the mayhem. Like Grand Theft Auto, with less gunfire and more Ghostbusters.
I want a game where I am the disembodied voice of the Devil. The entire game would be about finding the right people and whispering the rights things into their ears to convince them to do terrible terrible things.
*kill you family johnny, your wife has been cheating on you with the UPS guy!!*
*burn down the orphanage, YOUR GOD COMMANDS IT!!*
*kill you family johnny, your wife has been cheating on you with the UPS guy!!*
*burn down the orphanage, YOUR GOD COMMANDS IT!!*
My perfect game would be like a Morrowind or Oblivion for the Ps# (It will come out in the not-so near future...). You will have as much control over this character's life as you do your own. That mean you can become a king, an evil king, a donkey, an ant, the planet's life, all-powerful god, the man who created weed or pot, or etc. Unlimited options for what you want to do. It'll have the best damn physic engine. Even the physic engine God use for earth would seem lame in comparison. You'll be able to do anything....sex, deal drugs, kill your mother, develop cancer in your testicles, or whatever. Have more options on gender; not just male or female. (Maybe I want to play as a hermaphodite Bestheda.) Start from any age. If you choose a sperm, you play a racing mini-game.
Also, random shit. I want some real replay value.
Also, random shit. I want some real replay value.
Military RPG, where you guide your men into battle against 6 enemy players' soldiers with 5 fellow players on your team. Each player gets 20 soldiers and a massive map to play on. (tanks and planes and more soldiers added as players see fit, using money gained from victories.) Game is open to one on one and all manner of alternative types of gameplay.
You send your men in to kill the enemies, capture the point, defend the base, etc, except the cool thing is that as you play, you can switch in and out of the body of any of your soldiers in the game, and play an fps until said soldier dies, then you move on to the next one, play rotates in such a manner as your fellow soldiers will work as really smart NPCS, fighting alongside you.
Could make for a cool game...
You send your men in to kill the enemies, capture the point, defend the base, etc, except the cool thing is that as you play, you can switch in and out of the body of any of your soldiers in the game, and play an fps until said soldier dies, then you move on to the next one, play rotates in such a manner as your fellow soldiers will work as really smart NPCS, fighting alongside you.
Could make for a cool game...
Sounds very challenging. It'd probably be for all of those people who can multi-task real well.Somethingironic said:
Yeah... probably, but most of the game would probably be sorted out buy NPCs, or how about one player plays as the RTS guy, and all the other players play as his soldiers?!?!?!?Dance The Revolution said:
Prepare for a looooong read.
The perfect zombie game would in my opinion be a realistic first person shooter that took place in a free roam city full of detail and that allowed for the ability to go anywhere in that city. The game would have scripts and plots hidden within, but would be largely free of scripts in how and when many "missions" or plot elements are activated or carried out, and would follow an AI director like left 4 dead in the generation of zombies (with scripted number or placement in some instances, like dead rising). From very early on it would be possible to leave the city, thus ending the game and netting you one of a number of different endings. It would also not be possible to "see everything" in one playthrough, merely because some stuff would overlap, and also because some stuff just wouldn't be triggered at all (either because you didn't meet the criteria or because it just randomly didn't happen). Because of the free form plot structure and the reliance of player input, the game could either be very short or very long. You could save at designated areas but they would be few and far between; the game would autosave often, though, encouraging you to live with your mistakes. Oh, and perhaps most importantly, the game could have an option for casual play and then hardcore play, where one bite equals eventual zombification.
Hey, all. I was thinking recently about some innovations in games that could lend to the sort of atmosphere that a really great zombie game demands, the sort of game zombie fans could really get behind. So here's my idea in a big long wall-o-text which nobody will read. I'll post the short (bulleted important ideas) and then details for the rabid fanboys among us. Keep in mind that this is a game which caters to the hardcore zombie fan; it's a what-if, not a suggestion for something that in the current market could be realistically made. Just a dreamer's idea.
Type of game: realistic first person shooter in a free-roam post-apocalyptic ruined city that can be physically explored fully (including vertically)
-RPG system for skills, stats, and abilities. You get better at it by doing it.
-Weight and space system for items and weapons; physical stamina determines health, mental awareness/fear, running speed and endurance
-Skillsets learned from books or in-game teachers, practiced and mastered through use (smithing, mechanical aptitude, shooting, etc.)
Mission structure: Begins long after the outbreak, you do jobs for a group of survivors who have holed up. You can find others, recruit them to your sanctuary, or take what they have. Ultimate goal is determined by player.
-Complex social structure allows you to choose sides or sway others (based on social skillsets)
-Some events are scripted, but some are randomized. Not possible to "see everything" in one playthrough
-Multiple endings. Escaping the city is possible even very early on if you're so inclined. Game could be short or long, depending on you.
-Autosaves encourage you to live with mistakes or decisions; manual saves only possible at safehouse.
-One bite equals eventual zombification. It's up to you how to live out your remaining time. You can't save after infection reaches a certain point.
Okay, so that's the short of it. If you have comments or criticisms but don't want to read the details, go ahead and fire away -- but don't be surprised if I refer you to the wall of text in response to a question.
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The game would be a first-person shooter for maximum immersion. I know this can limit some abilities, but with good looking zombies, realistic animations, and great sound and environment, the atmosphere will be the centerpiece. The mapping and development would be a nightmare, but this is fictionland, so I suggest a pretty much full-sized urban sprawl. Each and every apartment, office, hospital, police station, mall, supermarket, sewer, and any other building could be entered and fully explored given the right tools. Many will be boarded up, but that can be overcome via a crowbar and some elbow grease, or some explosives. Every door and window in the game can be destroyed; you can rebarricade as you see fit, and they can get in if you didn't do well enough. Even buildings themselves can be taken by explosions or fire. There won't be enough explosives to take down a whole building, but to wreck the inside of it, sure. To burn it to the ground... possibly. Trap zombies in a building you've soaked with gas and light it up? Optional.
The city would be full of debris, the buildings full of hidden goodies. Each place would be modeled with a story in mind, so this great aftermath would have a sense of life, a sense of history. You could scavenge and raid for parts to make useful tools or items. There is verticality to every building; climbing on the fire escapes, rooftops, or even up the sides of some of them would be feasible. There would be a jump button and a grip button, so you could try climbing on about anything. Zombies wouldn't necessarily be able to follow you up, but they'd hear you and surround you in a hurry. Debris like rubble could be climbed and even taken apart by your weight, the weight of zombies against it, or explosions.
As far as you as a character are concerned, everything would be tracked and recorded -- from running to jumping to climbing, melee kills with all the weapons, shooting, lockpicking, tinkering... Everything you do has an effect on your growing abilities. Your proficiency with a pistol will increase, to a point, the more you use it. The more you reload the easier it is to do, the less you fumble and the faster you recover from a fumble. The more you shoot the better you get at managing recoil, the tighter your accuracy becomes. The stronger your grip and arms get from melee and climbing, the better your recoil management gets. Skills realistically overlap, and their minutia are tiered. Take melee as an example. You fight with a crowbar, the first effect is that your crowbar skills go up. You're more precise, you don't overswing, you're not as vulnerable after a swing, you learn better, more effective ways to attack with it. But secondly your grip and arm strength also go up, which is where stuff like damage is calculated. Now, you pick up a wrench and you're not as good with it as you were the crowbar, but you're better with it than you would have been if you'd picked it up first.
If your endurance is good, your muscles strong, you can sprint longer, run faster. You take less damage from falls or other wounds, and you recover more quickly. You can hurt your leg or arm, and injuries affect your skills: a gimp leg means you limp, can't run. A broken arm means you can't shoot or use two handed stuff as well. You can be healed, but besides the time necessary to do that your skills on that attribute are reduced. The healthier and less wounded you are, the longer your body will fight the infection if you do get bitten. Then there's your mental health to consider.
Mental health affects you in a negative way, to heighten the mood. The longer you stay out in the field, the more weary you become, the more likely you are to make mistakes. Make mistakes, you get stressed. Get stressed, you make more mistakes. Do it in the presence of zombies, when it puts you in danger, and you start to panic. Panic and fear manifest in tunnel vision, muted hearing, decreased stamina, perpetuating mistakes. The controls aren't as tight. You shake when you aim. When you're panicked, your reload ability becomes more difficult, and if you fumble, you take way longer to recover. As time passes, all your increasing stats fuel an overall mental health: the more apt you become at living in the zombie world, the better you manage fear. The attributes feed an overall pool (some more than others, like combat with zombies) that eventually maxes out, giving you a boost in stats and an ability to cope with any danger without losing your cool.
(I need to insert an aside: I refer to small abilities like reloading and shooting as active techniques you control rather than passive animations that are modified by whatever factors. For example: the reload system from Gears of War. You press reload, it reloads. You can opt to speed reload; the windows for succeeding get smaller as stress increases, the windows for failure larger. If you're very panicked and it's a gun you don't know how to reload, you can drop the magazine entirely and have to scoop it back up. As your reload attribute goes up, your success windows grow. Max out your reload attributes and your stress management, you can double tap the reload button every time for a guaranteed super fast reload. For shooting, the trigger is like MoH: Airborne. You squeeze, not pull. The better you get, the less shaky you are, the longer you hold your breath. etc. etc.)
You can opt to wear armors to protect you from bites, but they weigh more, make you move more slowly. The overall weight you carry affects stamina and all physical attributes; the space you have to carry stuff in affects what you choose to take. Items wear, guns jam or break. A gun jam immediately spikes your panic, which can be countered with an aptitude for fixing firearms. An assault rifle you're not good with jams and you panic. Switch weapons and you'll feel better; clear the jam later. A pistol you're boss with jams and you keep cool about it. Clear the jam, keep shooting. Panic is affected by proximity to zombies, time out in the field, number of zombies, and light. Light plays an important role. What you see is what you see. If it's nighttime, you need a light. If you have a light, they can see you. If you're alone in the dark, your panic increases. If you have a handheld flashlight, you need a hand free. Get a gunlight (tape one on). Pitch blackness affects you.
Say you want to learn lockpicking. You can find a book on it, which will give you a certain mastery of that ability. Or you can have somebody teach you, which may be hard to do depending on who you know and whether they like you, whether it's the right time for it (under siege isn't the right time), so you'll start at a higher level of proficiency. You modify skills and attributes at the beginning of the game, so everybody starts a little differently depending on their play style.
Now, on to mission structure. The game would start with you in some sort of safehouse, some time after the outbreak (we're talking a couple months, when what's left are survivors who are just now standing up and seeing the new world). Maybe an upper story apartment with the stairs blocked off, maybe a bunker, maybe down in the sewers. You're introduced to your crew, the people you live with, and a request is made of you to go out and get something. This is the only mission you ever have to accept, as it includes the tutorial and sets up the plot, gives you direction. So, you go out to retrieve this item, let's say a stash of armaments and supplies that had been abandoned in a rush and is now needed by your crew to survive the ever-prominent sieges. Say it's in a vehicle that needs a couple parts; you'll be given a quick mechanical rundown (as well as a few other skills) to familiarize you with the system from the group's mechanic and then sent on your way to collect the parts to fix the truck.
So, off you go. This first part would be slow, build tension, introduce you. You, as the player, don't know what happened. You're seeing the devastation for the first time, the empty desolation. You weren't there when the truck was lost; you've been in hiding most of the outbreak. This sequence takes place during the day; it's quiet, foggy. Over the radio you're given street by street (or landmark by landmark) instructions. The whole thing is unsettling as you delve deeper into the wartorn city, you begin to feel more isolated, more lost. Finally, you collect your first part -- and encounter your first zombie. During this sequence, zombie prevalence is scripted, as to weave a specific narrative. You encounter them as if by accident, one at a time, the castaways that seem to have gotten left. Eventually, you find your parts and reach the truck -- this ideally after maybe half an hour of gameplay.
You're working on the truck, and then suddenly a handful of people you don't know appear, screaming and fleeing. Something is hot on their heels. A legion of zombies is closing in; you don't have much time. But you can't fix the car, something's not right. They have a mechanic, though, and he offers to take over, giving you your first look at a siege. You have a few minutes before they get to you, so you have time to move objects around to make barricades and to set up for defensive positions. Here you undergo a siege, the length of which is determined by how effectively you hold them back. It takes the mechanic X amount of time to finish, but if you fail to keep him alive it isn't game over. You can still run away, back to the hideout (if you can make it, because now the city is teeming with zombies). Or you can go off yourself and hide, get a vantage point, and clear the zombies. Then return and repair the vehicle yourself -- if you can -- and take it back.
But assuming the mechanic succeeds, and you and these survivors pile into the vehicle for their narrow escape. Now you're in a brief rails-shooting sequence in the truck, the end of which sees the driver dead (a crash, a zombie nab on a too-slow maneuver, whatever), and you in the driver's seat. So you RTB, right? Well, throughout the course of meeting these guys, you learn that this is their truck. It was stolen by your group. They're in a bad way, maybe worse off than you guys, and they need these supplies. Further, one of them is making the very poignant observation that they might be too bad off, and that they could just take these supplies and leave the city, since it's obviously suicide to stay.
Here you're presented with a major choice, and the driving ultimate goals in the game. Do you escape? Do you support your crew without a word? Do you abandon your crew? Do you try to save everybody? You can just drive out of town, and then the game will end. Indeed, at any time you can (try to) leave, and that'll be that. Game done. You can also kill any character in the game, so, assuming you can do it without getting killed yourself, you can off these guys and take their supplies -- for yourself, or for your crew. Or you can go with, and follow their plot which leads to an eventual desperate attempt to find a new haven. Or you can return empty-handed (perhaps after supporting these new guys by donating the supplies) and maybe be ousted by your group or maybe attack your leader for stealing from them in the first place.
The game would have dozens of intertwining plot points that all change subtly depending on how you unravel them. But more importantly, from that first big decision they would start, so that there's a sort of time limit to everything. And, more importantly, so that you can't even begin to see or do everything in one go (and also so that no two runs are exactly alike). Not a single passing of time as in dead rising, but that between major events there are parts of the time line that run forward and parts that are points that are stopped. You get a distress call over a radio, and you obviously have a set amount of time to go help. Too late (maybe you were just too far away?), and you can raid what's left for supplies. Dawdle too long, wrestle with indecision (is risking your neck worth saving them (i.e., is it worth seeing if they have something you need, if their skills or presence can be of value, or if you morally feel the need to help?)), or just plain do't go, and you can go later to see the aftermath. Events such as these stack up quickly, and you're forced to make choices. But just because they have a time limit doesn't mean everything does: some of the major plot points, from some of the more capable characters, might be waiting on you to trigger them (since they can hold out by themselves). Even these seemingly random side-events might be triggered by you, offered up as distractions designed to throw you for a loop when the main players really need you all of a sudden.
Anyway, there are a million possibilities for what can be done. From a design standpoint, assume that the random side events even happen in varying places, so that even after multiple runs you can't work out a path for saving the most people. Sometimes they happen early, late, or not at all. Their triggers are random, too (or rather random among a specific predetermined set). Just use your imagination and see what you can come up with. Further, even when events are scripted, like surges of zombies designed to initiate siege behavior, you can modify how they play out. Each character has a specific personality or personality type. Some types get along, others don't -- so depending on your real-time actions (which would categorize you into such personality types), they will react differently to you. You can try to sway them with something akin to speechcraft (you select the base stat, and as with everything else it gets better through use). Trading, talking to them, making decisions they agree with. Supporting them with ammo and health or other supplies, protecting them, performing selfless acts. Being there when they need help, boosting morale. All these increase your skill and their liking to you, which means that potentially you can recruit them to follow you for your own endeavors (for example: you might bring along a mechanic since he will always be able to fix things faster than you even at maximum skill. Or a hunter who might be a good shot). But be careful; if you try to buddy up to two people who don't get along, they'll see that your allegience is split. If you can figure out their personality type, and if you're willing to gamble with your popularity -- or even your life! -- you can try to be a hardass and throw the perfectly timed movie punch to knock some sense into some jerk (or for that matter to slap around somebody who's freaking out). You can even try killing people yourself to navigate situations (just don't get caught; maybe make it look like an accident?).
One important thing about a zombie game of this complexity (any game emphasizing choice and how the world is affected by yours) is that you have to be encouraged to live with your mistakes. Completionists will try to work out different situations by reloading, but I think it's best to push forward -- and if you can't push forward, if you corner yourself... then that's your fault, and you need to start over. From scratch. I'm not saying no saves; it is still a game, but I am saying that the system for saving data should force you to make and stand by choices in game, without punishing you for your real world life outside the game. That is, without punishing you because you had to stop playing, or you couldn't devote a long-play session and just wanted to mess around a little. That's why I think that from the beginning there should be a choice between casual and hardcore. Casual has manual saves on the fly, wherever you want. Hardcore has only manual saving at the safehouses, and only when they're not under attack. Beyond there, there are autosaves after lengths of playtime and after all sorts of specific events (or perhaps after specific types of events; if the game recognizes that you've suddenly lost a lot of points with a particular group because of something you did it'll autosave). Furthermore, autosaves override manual saves without your input (it will notify you, but you don't get to say no). So if you just shot a guy and his crew has turned on you and you're in a room with six or seven guys, it'll autosave. Then you're stuck with having to load from that one autosave because they keep filling you with lead. Is it inescapable? Maybe. If you're both good and lucky, maybe you can figure out something to do in that one moment before they put you down, something that will save you (take a hostage? have an explosive handy?). But maybe you're just stuck dying. You made a very bad choice. If you don't like it, don't choose hardcore next time.
That brings me to my next and final major point, which is the issue of infection. You can take decent enough injuries. You have the ability to mend wounds. In the game's plot, there may even be ways to delay the infection (drugs? be wary of side-effects. If you're healthy and uninjured, if the bite was little, maybe you'll take a long time in turning), but if you get bitten, you will die, and you will zombify. On hardcore, anyway. On casual, you don't get infected as easily, and even if you do it can be fixed (not easily, but it can be). The game will even remind you that you're infected when you try to save, warning that if you do nothing you'll die, and so you may want to revert to an earlier save. But on hardcore, one bite, and you're in deep doo-doo. All sorts of problems happen.
First, if you're bitten, there's the obvious: you're infected. It will affect your stamina, you'll take longer to heal, eventually your physical stats will wane (strength, aim, speed, vision). If you're bitten once on the arm, you've got a few (in-game) days; the symptoms won't be bad until later. If you get mauled, everything speeds up, gets worse. Then, if you're infected, you'll also take a major hit with others. If it's easy to conceal, if you dress the wound to stop the bleeding and wear the proper clothing to cover it, and if nobody saw it happen, they won't even know until your symptoms start to worsen. Some are quicker to figure it out than others, and some are sympathetic. Many are not. Depending on your previous standing with them, they'll either be wary of you, abandon you, or outright try to have you executed. Then, being that you're on hardcore, you'll be hit with that autosave right after you get infected. I know, it stinks, it means that at best you've got a few days and then your game will end. But you're on hardcore. Zombie bites passing inescapable infection are arguably their scariest factor. So they should be SCARY. You should be shouting at your TV when they get close because you don't want to get bitten. The only way to make a gamer not want to die, to be truly afraid, on the edge of his seat, is to put the entire game at stake. Some may say that's too harsh, but you knew going in that zombie bites equal death, and so you should treat them seriously.
Anyway, those are the main points. I encourage you to use your imagination, and I'd love to hear some feedback.
These are not my own words, i copy pasted them from a topic on a zombie game website into a word document and then back here.
The perfect zombie game would in my opinion be a realistic first person shooter that took place in a free roam city full of detail and that allowed for the ability to go anywhere in that city. The game would have scripts and plots hidden within, but would be largely free of scripts in how and when many "missions" or plot elements are activated or carried out, and would follow an AI director like left 4 dead in the generation of zombies (with scripted number or placement in some instances, like dead rising). From very early on it would be possible to leave the city, thus ending the game and netting you one of a number of different endings. It would also not be possible to "see everything" in one playthrough, merely because some stuff would overlap, and also because some stuff just wouldn't be triggered at all (either because you didn't meet the criteria or because it just randomly didn't happen). Because of the free form plot structure and the reliance of player input, the game could either be very short or very long. You could save at designated areas but they would be few and far between; the game would autosave often, though, encouraging you to live with your mistakes. Oh, and perhaps most importantly, the game could have an option for casual play and then hardcore play, where one bite equals eventual zombification.
Hey, all. I was thinking recently about some innovations in games that could lend to the sort of atmosphere that a really great zombie game demands, the sort of game zombie fans could really get behind. So here's my idea in a big long wall-o-text which nobody will read. I'll post the short (bulleted important ideas) and then details for the rabid fanboys among us. Keep in mind that this is a game which caters to the hardcore zombie fan; it's a what-if, not a suggestion for something that in the current market could be realistically made. Just a dreamer's idea.
Type of game: realistic first person shooter in a free-roam post-apocalyptic ruined city that can be physically explored fully (including vertically)
-RPG system for skills, stats, and abilities. You get better at it by doing it.
-Weight and space system for items and weapons; physical stamina determines health, mental awareness/fear, running speed and endurance
-Skillsets learned from books or in-game teachers, practiced and mastered through use (smithing, mechanical aptitude, shooting, etc.)
Mission structure: Begins long after the outbreak, you do jobs for a group of survivors who have holed up. You can find others, recruit them to your sanctuary, or take what they have. Ultimate goal is determined by player.
-Complex social structure allows you to choose sides or sway others (based on social skillsets)
-Some events are scripted, but some are randomized. Not possible to "see everything" in one playthrough
-Multiple endings. Escaping the city is possible even very early on if you're so inclined. Game could be short or long, depending on you.
-Autosaves encourage you to live with mistakes or decisions; manual saves only possible at safehouse.
-One bite equals eventual zombification. It's up to you how to live out your remaining time. You can't save after infection reaches a certain point.
Okay, so that's the short of it. If you have comments or criticisms but don't want to read the details, go ahead and fire away -- but don't be surprised if I refer you to the wall of text in response to a question.
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The game would be a first-person shooter for maximum immersion. I know this can limit some abilities, but with good looking zombies, realistic animations, and great sound and environment, the atmosphere will be the centerpiece. The mapping and development would be a nightmare, but this is fictionland, so I suggest a pretty much full-sized urban sprawl. Each and every apartment, office, hospital, police station, mall, supermarket, sewer, and any other building could be entered and fully explored given the right tools. Many will be boarded up, but that can be overcome via a crowbar and some elbow grease, or some explosives. Every door and window in the game can be destroyed; you can rebarricade as you see fit, and they can get in if you didn't do well enough. Even buildings themselves can be taken by explosions or fire. There won't be enough explosives to take down a whole building, but to wreck the inside of it, sure. To burn it to the ground... possibly. Trap zombies in a building you've soaked with gas and light it up? Optional.
The city would be full of debris, the buildings full of hidden goodies. Each place would be modeled with a story in mind, so this great aftermath would have a sense of life, a sense of history. You could scavenge and raid for parts to make useful tools or items. There is verticality to every building; climbing on the fire escapes, rooftops, or even up the sides of some of them would be feasible. There would be a jump button and a grip button, so you could try climbing on about anything. Zombies wouldn't necessarily be able to follow you up, but they'd hear you and surround you in a hurry. Debris like rubble could be climbed and even taken apart by your weight, the weight of zombies against it, or explosions.
As far as you as a character are concerned, everything would be tracked and recorded -- from running to jumping to climbing, melee kills with all the weapons, shooting, lockpicking, tinkering... Everything you do has an effect on your growing abilities. Your proficiency with a pistol will increase, to a point, the more you use it. The more you reload the easier it is to do, the less you fumble and the faster you recover from a fumble. The more you shoot the better you get at managing recoil, the tighter your accuracy becomes. The stronger your grip and arms get from melee and climbing, the better your recoil management gets. Skills realistically overlap, and their minutia are tiered. Take melee as an example. You fight with a crowbar, the first effect is that your crowbar skills go up. You're more precise, you don't overswing, you're not as vulnerable after a swing, you learn better, more effective ways to attack with it. But secondly your grip and arm strength also go up, which is where stuff like damage is calculated. Now, you pick up a wrench and you're not as good with it as you were the crowbar, but you're better with it than you would have been if you'd picked it up first.
If your endurance is good, your muscles strong, you can sprint longer, run faster. You take less damage from falls or other wounds, and you recover more quickly. You can hurt your leg or arm, and injuries affect your skills: a gimp leg means you limp, can't run. A broken arm means you can't shoot or use two handed stuff as well. You can be healed, but besides the time necessary to do that your skills on that attribute are reduced. The healthier and less wounded you are, the longer your body will fight the infection if you do get bitten. Then there's your mental health to consider.
Mental health affects you in a negative way, to heighten the mood. The longer you stay out in the field, the more weary you become, the more likely you are to make mistakes. Make mistakes, you get stressed. Get stressed, you make more mistakes. Do it in the presence of zombies, when it puts you in danger, and you start to panic. Panic and fear manifest in tunnel vision, muted hearing, decreased stamina, perpetuating mistakes. The controls aren't as tight. You shake when you aim. When you're panicked, your reload ability becomes more difficult, and if you fumble, you take way longer to recover. As time passes, all your increasing stats fuel an overall mental health: the more apt you become at living in the zombie world, the better you manage fear. The attributes feed an overall pool (some more than others, like combat with zombies) that eventually maxes out, giving you a boost in stats and an ability to cope with any danger without losing your cool.
(I need to insert an aside: I refer to small abilities like reloading and shooting as active techniques you control rather than passive animations that are modified by whatever factors. For example: the reload system from Gears of War. You press reload, it reloads. You can opt to speed reload; the windows for succeeding get smaller as stress increases, the windows for failure larger. If you're very panicked and it's a gun you don't know how to reload, you can drop the magazine entirely and have to scoop it back up. As your reload attribute goes up, your success windows grow. Max out your reload attributes and your stress management, you can double tap the reload button every time for a guaranteed super fast reload. For shooting, the trigger is like MoH: Airborne. You squeeze, not pull. The better you get, the less shaky you are, the longer you hold your breath. etc. etc.)
You can opt to wear armors to protect you from bites, but they weigh more, make you move more slowly. The overall weight you carry affects stamina and all physical attributes; the space you have to carry stuff in affects what you choose to take. Items wear, guns jam or break. A gun jam immediately spikes your panic, which can be countered with an aptitude for fixing firearms. An assault rifle you're not good with jams and you panic. Switch weapons and you'll feel better; clear the jam later. A pistol you're boss with jams and you keep cool about it. Clear the jam, keep shooting. Panic is affected by proximity to zombies, time out in the field, number of zombies, and light. Light plays an important role. What you see is what you see. If it's nighttime, you need a light. If you have a light, they can see you. If you're alone in the dark, your panic increases. If you have a handheld flashlight, you need a hand free. Get a gunlight (tape one on). Pitch blackness affects you.
Say you want to learn lockpicking. You can find a book on it, which will give you a certain mastery of that ability. Or you can have somebody teach you, which may be hard to do depending on who you know and whether they like you, whether it's the right time for it (under siege isn't the right time), so you'll start at a higher level of proficiency. You modify skills and attributes at the beginning of the game, so everybody starts a little differently depending on their play style.
Now, on to mission structure. The game would start with you in some sort of safehouse, some time after the outbreak (we're talking a couple months, when what's left are survivors who are just now standing up and seeing the new world). Maybe an upper story apartment with the stairs blocked off, maybe a bunker, maybe down in the sewers. You're introduced to your crew, the people you live with, and a request is made of you to go out and get something. This is the only mission you ever have to accept, as it includes the tutorial and sets up the plot, gives you direction. So, you go out to retrieve this item, let's say a stash of armaments and supplies that had been abandoned in a rush and is now needed by your crew to survive the ever-prominent sieges. Say it's in a vehicle that needs a couple parts; you'll be given a quick mechanical rundown (as well as a few other skills) to familiarize you with the system from the group's mechanic and then sent on your way to collect the parts to fix the truck.
So, off you go. This first part would be slow, build tension, introduce you. You, as the player, don't know what happened. You're seeing the devastation for the first time, the empty desolation. You weren't there when the truck was lost; you've been in hiding most of the outbreak. This sequence takes place during the day; it's quiet, foggy. Over the radio you're given street by street (or landmark by landmark) instructions. The whole thing is unsettling as you delve deeper into the wartorn city, you begin to feel more isolated, more lost. Finally, you collect your first part -- and encounter your first zombie. During this sequence, zombie prevalence is scripted, as to weave a specific narrative. You encounter them as if by accident, one at a time, the castaways that seem to have gotten left. Eventually, you find your parts and reach the truck -- this ideally after maybe half an hour of gameplay.
You're working on the truck, and then suddenly a handful of people you don't know appear, screaming and fleeing. Something is hot on their heels. A legion of zombies is closing in; you don't have much time. But you can't fix the car, something's not right. They have a mechanic, though, and he offers to take over, giving you your first look at a siege. You have a few minutes before they get to you, so you have time to move objects around to make barricades and to set up for defensive positions. Here you undergo a siege, the length of which is determined by how effectively you hold them back. It takes the mechanic X amount of time to finish, but if you fail to keep him alive it isn't game over. You can still run away, back to the hideout (if you can make it, because now the city is teeming with zombies). Or you can go off yourself and hide, get a vantage point, and clear the zombies. Then return and repair the vehicle yourself -- if you can -- and take it back.
But assuming the mechanic succeeds, and you and these survivors pile into the vehicle for their narrow escape. Now you're in a brief rails-shooting sequence in the truck, the end of which sees the driver dead (a crash, a zombie nab on a too-slow maneuver, whatever), and you in the driver's seat. So you RTB, right? Well, throughout the course of meeting these guys, you learn that this is their truck. It was stolen by your group. They're in a bad way, maybe worse off than you guys, and they need these supplies. Further, one of them is making the very poignant observation that they might be too bad off, and that they could just take these supplies and leave the city, since it's obviously suicide to stay.
Here you're presented with a major choice, and the driving ultimate goals in the game. Do you escape? Do you support your crew without a word? Do you abandon your crew? Do you try to save everybody? You can just drive out of town, and then the game will end. Indeed, at any time you can (try to) leave, and that'll be that. Game done. You can also kill any character in the game, so, assuming you can do it without getting killed yourself, you can off these guys and take their supplies -- for yourself, or for your crew. Or you can go with, and follow their plot which leads to an eventual desperate attempt to find a new haven. Or you can return empty-handed (perhaps after supporting these new guys by donating the supplies) and maybe be ousted by your group or maybe attack your leader for stealing from them in the first place.
The game would have dozens of intertwining plot points that all change subtly depending on how you unravel them. But more importantly, from that first big decision they would start, so that there's a sort of time limit to everything. And, more importantly, so that you can't even begin to see or do everything in one go (and also so that no two runs are exactly alike). Not a single passing of time as in dead rising, but that between major events there are parts of the time line that run forward and parts that are points that are stopped. You get a distress call over a radio, and you obviously have a set amount of time to go help. Too late (maybe you were just too far away?), and you can raid what's left for supplies. Dawdle too long, wrestle with indecision (is risking your neck worth saving them (i.e., is it worth seeing if they have something you need, if their skills or presence can be of value, or if you morally feel the need to help?)), or just plain do't go, and you can go later to see the aftermath. Events such as these stack up quickly, and you're forced to make choices. But just because they have a time limit doesn't mean everything does: some of the major plot points, from some of the more capable characters, might be waiting on you to trigger them (since they can hold out by themselves). Even these seemingly random side-events might be triggered by you, offered up as distractions designed to throw you for a loop when the main players really need you all of a sudden.
Anyway, there are a million possibilities for what can be done. From a design standpoint, assume that the random side events even happen in varying places, so that even after multiple runs you can't work out a path for saving the most people. Sometimes they happen early, late, or not at all. Their triggers are random, too (or rather random among a specific predetermined set). Just use your imagination and see what you can come up with. Further, even when events are scripted, like surges of zombies designed to initiate siege behavior, you can modify how they play out. Each character has a specific personality or personality type. Some types get along, others don't -- so depending on your real-time actions (which would categorize you into such personality types), they will react differently to you. You can try to sway them with something akin to speechcraft (you select the base stat, and as with everything else it gets better through use). Trading, talking to them, making decisions they agree with. Supporting them with ammo and health or other supplies, protecting them, performing selfless acts. Being there when they need help, boosting morale. All these increase your skill and their liking to you, which means that potentially you can recruit them to follow you for your own endeavors (for example: you might bring along a mechanic since he will always be able to fix things faster than you even at maximum skill. Or a hunter who might be a good shot). But be careful; if you try to buddy up to two people who don't get along, they'll see that your allegience is split. If you can figure out their personality type, and if you're willing to gamble with your popularity -- or even your life! -- you can try to be a hardass and throw the perfectly timed movie punch to knock some sense into some jerk (or for that matter to slap around somebody who's freaking out). You can even try killing people yourself to navigate situations (just don't get caught; maybe make it look like an accident?).
One important thing about a zombie game of this complexity (any game emphasizing choice and how the world is affected by yours) is that you have to be encouraged to live with your mistakes. Completionists will try to work out different situations by reloading, but I think it's best to push forward -- and if you can't push forward, if you corner yourself... then that's your fault, and you need to start over. From scratch. I'm not saying no saves; it is still a game, but I am saying that the system for saving data should force you to make and stand by choices in game, without punishing you for your real world life outside the game. That is, without punishing you because you had to stop playing, or you couldn't devote a long-play session and just wanted to mess around a little. That's why I think that from the beginning there should be a choice between casual and hardcore. Casual has manual saves on the fly, wherever you want. Hardcore has only manual saving at the safehouses, and only when they're not under attack. Beyond there, there are autosaves after lengths of playtime and after all sorts of specific events (or perhaps after specific types of events; if the game recognizes that you've suddenly lost a lot of points with a particular group because of something you did it'll autosave). Furthermore, autosaves override manual saves without your input (it will notify you, but you don't get to say no). So if you just shot a guy and his crew has turned on you and you're in a room with six or seven guys, it'll autosave. Then you're stuck with having to load from that one autosave because they keep filling you with lead. Is it inescapable? Maybe. If you're both good and lucky, maybe you can figure out something to do in that one moment before they put you down, something that will save you (take a hostage? have an explosive handy?). But maybe you're just stuck dying. You made a very bad choice. If you don't like it, don't choose hardcore next time.
That brings me to my next and final major point, which is the issue of infection. You can take decent enough injuries. You have the ability to mend wounds. In the game's plot, there may even be ways to delay the infection (drugs? be wary of side-effects. If you're healthy and uninjured, if the bite was little, maybe you'll take a long time in turning), but if you get bitten, you will die, and you will zombify. On hardcore, anyway. On casual, you don't get infected as easily, and even if you do it can be fixed (not easily, but it can be). The game will even remind you that you're infected when you try to save, warning that if you do nothing you'll die, and so you may want to revert to an earlier save. But on hardcore, one bite, and you're in deep doo-doo. All sorts of problems happen.
First, if you're bitten, there's the obvious: you're infected. It will affect your stamina, you'll take longer to heal, eventually your physical stats will wane (strength, aim, speed, vision). If you're bitten once on the arm, you've got a few (in-game) days; the symptoms won't be bad until later. If you get mauled, everything speeds up, gets worse. Then, if you're infected, you'll also take a major hit with others. If it's easy to conceal, if you dress the wound to stop the bleeding and wear the proper clothing to cover it, and if nobody saw it happen, they won't even know until your symptoms start to worsen. Some are quicker to figure it out than others, and some are sympathetic. Many are not. Depending on your previous standing with them, they'll either be wary of you, abandon you, or outright try to have you executed. Then, being that you're on hardcore, you'll be hit with that autosave right after you get infected. I know, it stinks, it means that at best you've got a few days and then your game will end. But you're on hardcore. Zombie bites passing inescapable infection are arguably their scariest factor. So they should be SCARY. You should be shouting at your TV when they get close because you don't want to get bitten. The only way to make a gamer not want to die, to be truly afraid, on the edge of his seat, is to put the entire game at stake. Some may say that's too harsh, but you knew going in that zombie bites equal death, and so you should treat them seriously.
Anyway, those are the main points. I encourage you to use your imagination, and I'd love to hear some feedback.
These are not my own words, i copy pasted them from a topic on a zombie game website into a word document and then back here.
I think my perfect game would be called something like "Hells Crusader" Or something like that "Pure Evil" Sounds a little better but anyway, It takes a leaf out of the non linear rpg game because there is a whole world out there just for the taking... Or invading.. Or whatever evil deeds you want to perform. Set in the old medieval days, but not on earth of course. Its should be a bit like overlord in the fact that if you decide to build an Evil head quarters, a gang hideout or an evil tower or something like that then you will have many options, like decoration and henchmen. If you have henchmen you will be able dress them however you want. And they can be whatever sort of class you want, Like thuggish gangmembers or acolyte watchers of the tower of darkness..
Combat should be incredibly gory and weapons will come in all shapes and sizes. And depending on what class you are, new abilities will become available to you. Like for instance, The ability to use acrobatics and athletics in combat, Or a deadly swipe of your weapon which can kill a whole group of enemies, Or of course the ability to cast more deadly and gory spells. Like for instance a charged blast of negative energy or a wall of fire.
You should be able to do whatever possible in criminal terms.. for instance you could be the most wanted criminal in the world, infamous for your lack of mercy and uncontrollable rage and hatred for all. It would be a bit like GTA in this respect apart from is someone sees you the watch, or soldiers, or guardsmen wherever you are will be alerted by a lookout or a civillian that isnt running in fear or begging for his life. And then there's more organised crime, Like a thieves guild or a large gang. They will bribe the men to look the other way, or just sneak past unoticed or even kill them quick and quitely.
The story would be about your struggle to be the best of the best in your terms. And when you have achieved this or done something gruesome or even fallen into one of your enemies traps you will be confronted by your nemesis, But your nemesis wont always be the same. Depending on how youve treated people and what your actions are and who they effect. It could be the best bounty hunter in the land, the top man of all the watch or even a certain mercenary or military leader. Thats kind of prototype, planning the story is not going to be so easy.
I'd like to hear what other people think of my idea, whether they like it or not or whether some ideas need changing, Thanks ^^
Combat should be incredibly gory and weapons will come in all shapes and sizes. And depending on what class you are, new abilities will become available to you. Like for instance, The ability to use acrobatics and athletics in combat, Or a deadly swipe of your weapon which can kill a whole group of enemies, Or of course the ability to cast more deadly and gory spells. Like for instance a charged blast of negative energy or a wall of fire.
You should be able to do whatever possible in criminal terms.. for instance you could be the most wanted criminal in the world, infamous for your lack of mercy and uncontrollable rage and hatred for all. It would be a bit like GTA in this respect apart from is someone sees you the watch, or soldiers, or guardsmen wherever you are will be alerted by a lookout or a civillian that isnt running in fear or begging for his life. And then there's more organised crime, Like a thieves guild or a large gang. They will bribe the men to look the other way, or just sneak past unoticed or even kill them quick and quitely.
The story would be about your struggle to be the best of the best in your terms. And when you have achieved this or done something gruesome or even fallen into one of your enemies traps you will be confronted by your nemesis, But your nemesis wont always be the same. Depending on how youve treated people and what your actions are and who they effect. It could be the best bounty hunter in the land, the top man of all the watch or even a certain mercenary or military leader. Thats kind of prototype, planning the story is not going to be so easy.
I'd like to hear what other people think of my idea, whether they like it or not or whether some ideas need changing, Thanks ^^