Topic: New Game Ideas (Short Term Project)

[Morgul]

As mentioned in another thread, I'm looking for project ideas/proposals for a short term game to be produced, and finished in about a year. I want to come up with a very small scoped game. Something like froxen bubble or something like that. Small, adicting, and FUN! However it can be 3D, it can be multiplayer, and it can be more interesting than a game like frozen bubble. Give me some game ideas... and we'll see about turning this into a real project, and something that can be done rather quickly, and getting the GNE name out there. It's something that would really help, I think. Seeing what we can do might give Precursors more credibility than it currently has.

--Chris

[Rosencrantz]

Perhaps something similiar to the N64 game Pokemon Puzzle? It has other variants as well that are out there, but so far that has been the most fun flavor of the game I have seen. I believe that it is similiar to Tetris attack. The 3d mode in Pokemon Puzzle is alot of fun though.  ;D

[Morgul]

Never played it. I'll have to do some 'research.'

[ryguy_1617]

Hmm...while I'm brainstorming, just to say, I also really think that if we do make a game for short term use, it cannot be too much of a crapper...because while we want to get the name out there, we don't want to do it negativly.  You probably all were already thinking that , but I just wanted to furthur emphazize it.  I'll try to come up with a few ideas here soon...

[Infernal]

Well... If you want an addicting good game you might want to think of a morder/demise type game.  The demise and mordor games are a dungeon crawler type game that is EXTREMlY addictive.
Heres some screen shots of demise.


Chances are youv prob played games like this.  You basicly have a map and you move your little arrow around killing monsters and leveling up in your "guild".

I could see this game being produced in way under a few months.
If you want to get addicted to this game and loose your life... Heres the demo http://www.download.com/Demise-demo/3000-7539_4-10229390.html  .
Have fun!

[ryguy_1617]

Hmm...possibly.  I'm not really into those kind of games too much though, because one of the main things I like in games is interactivity and options, and most games like this are limited in interactivity and may become well, boring for some people.  It might just be me, but I'm thinking that if we do another short term game, it should be addicting, but it should be high quality as well.  Just to throw something out there, about how long do you think it would take for an online FPS game, with campaign mode?  And about how long might it take without? 

[Also, that brings up something else I wanted to ask...will precursors have a campaign mode option, like in case the servers go down (and just for extra fun )]?

*EDIT* ...and also, if we did decide on doing something like the game mentioned above, we should do something else other than medievel based, because EVERY SINGLE GAME like that has been medievel-based...so maybe we could make it sci-fi or something...idk

[Rosencrantz]

I think that an online fps game would take more than a year of development time.  The demise/nethack style games are probably easier to design but have far more content than you can shake a stick at. The problem is with only a year of development time how do you mix fun and original.

[PieceMaker]

I'll do some brainstorming and get back to you Morgul.

[contingencyplan]

Well, if y'all want to adopt a stripped-down version of Thaliss, y'all are welcome to. Though the code's probably nothing like y'all are doing, so it may just be an adoption in spirit or something.

[Morgul]

I'm going to come upw ith some good ideas here. Look at flash games.. those don't take long to make, and are very fun, and original. But make it 3d. Or something. I don't know.

[Neo]

www.battleon.com

now THaTs addicting

[ryguy_1617]

yea...flash games are addicting, but alot of them don't have many other features...so if we do make something like that, it should have all the features that other pc games would:  such as the option to ssave games [like on you hd, not just temporarily]

[Infernal]

I'm going to come upw ith some good ideas here. Look at flash games.. those don't take long to make, and are very fun, and original. But make it 3d. Or something. I don't know.

Iv made flash games before, but the problem with flash games are that they get boring very fast...  > We could make a dungeon crawler in scifi mode with guns and your exploring a planet on a different galaxy... =D
An fps would be much nicer but the problem with FPS is they take too long to accomplish anything good...

Hey!! we could make a mod for cs! Precurser mod which lets you have ships and futuristic guns and stuff... That would be sweeeet..

[ryguy_1617]

i agree...flash games can be entertaining for like...a couple days at the most.  I, personally, get bored with them after about 25 minutes.

[Infernal]

samme but stick rpg lasted me an hour ( =.

[Morgul]

How many of you have ever played Starship Creator? It was an interesting game... the entire premise was that you were given like 5 or 6 hulltypes, and you could modisy the hull, then you had different systems you could put in. A certain amount were needed to make it operational... and then the rest was however you wanted it built. Once that was done, you could send your ship of to perfor a mission, and sit back, and watch as it did it's thing, with only a limited amount of control from you. very simple game, limitted content, and pretty fun. No, not for everyone, but it had it's nich. What I would like to see would be building he design end to the game, then throwing a simple 2d (overhead vew) scriptable mission interfce in there, just like StarShip creator. This would all be based in the precursor universe, but it would be modable to be useful in *any* universe. (just replace the content, and edit a few config files. Possible support multiple universes at once; you select in the preferences which universe of ships you'd like to build.)

I'm not sure if it would go over well with people, but I like the idea, especially since the ships it generates I would like to be able to be dropped in to Precursors. (just copy over the zipped archive.)

Whatcha think?

[contingencyplan]

That could well work. Especially with me (soon) getting started on the Systems architecture - it could give us a testbed to try out different ideas for the Systems stuff.

Maybe that could be how we do this: Work on this over the break, both as a small project and as a way to get Systems pretty much done - hopefully be able to drop the code into Precursors and have it work with minimal changes.

Think that might work?

(Oh, and I don't mean that the smaller game will be a testbed for just the initial - we can use it continually as development continues.)

Just one thing to keep in mind: each project requires a certain amount of maintenance. We must be willing to commit the time and energy necessary, not only to building the game initially, but maintaining it. If we just throw something out there without maintaining it, it reflects very poorly on us - the exact opposite of what we're hoping for by releasing the small game in the first place.

[Morgul]

Well, if I have a large hand in writting this, then I'll be able to help maintain it. Personally, I would not mind starting some work on this. I think I'll outline some design goals, and a a few other things, as well as name it. But you're right, this would need to use the same Systems scheme we're planning on using.

Biggest problem with this is the simple fact that it will need to be pretty menu driven... from early on. CEGUI should help with that, however. I guess it would be a good way toget experiance with CEGUI, CS/CEL, and a few other things. Good news is that networking stays far away from this.

Even if this isn't the small game we release, it's something I'd like to see, as it would make a good development tool.

[Noonien]

You know, I kind of like this idea. Having a small, "simple" game based in the Precursors world to get people hyped up about it. Sounds like a good place to, like you said, get experience with CEGUI, CS/CEL, systems and so on. Perhapse even a good place to get stuff like A.I. basics ironed out, 2D and A.I. is more akin to what I have experience with (cough*FIRST*cough). I have two, probably easy questions about this game though:

1. What from either game will/can/won't be able to be shared between the two games (A player/ship you create with this mini-game being transposed into Precursors)?
2. How will this game be distributed? Buy it now, download link off the main GNE site, or universal access to an SVN repository?

~mcrobotics

[contingencyplan]

I have two, probably easy questions about this game though:

1. What from either game will/can/won't be able to be shared between the two games (A player/ship you create with this mini-game being transposed into Precursors)?

Right now, I'm personally hoping that the ships and systems we design for this game can be transported directly into Precursors proper. Basically, this game allows for a fun testbed for new Systems and Ships and Such.

2. How will this game be distributed? Buy it now, download link off the main GNE site, or universal access to an SVN repository?

Likely downloaded off the website. I figure, though morgul may disagree, that this smaller game will be open-sourced, so we will likely allow distribution through the SVN as well.