A cool new idea for a game... after overgrowth of course

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pwnasaurus
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A cool new idea for a game... after overgrowth of course

Post by pwnasaurus » Wed Jan 28, 2009 9:59 pm

i think ive got a great idea for a game that would fit perfectly into wolfire's style; focus on gameplay not graphics or effects.

It would be an FPS (online and single player) where your character, and others, are 6 balls that make up the head, body, hands, and feet. not that hard. builings could be gray cubes with no texture whatsoever. water not needed either

There would be only like 3 guns, a powerful on shot rifle (like the M14 or the M1 Garand, not a machine gun- one shot kill, slow to reload, very ranged), a pistol (not one that completly sucks, 3 shot kill, decently ranged, can be shot fast and reloads quickly), and a shot gun (short ranged, but not too short, instant kill, slow to reload, slightly less aiming required).

all guns would have iron sights, but these would not have to be detailed at all.

deaths would not be animated, but enemies would simply turn limp and use ragdoll physics. the power of the "push" on the enemies would be relevant to the power of the gun. ie: shottie very powerfull, lifted off the ground and thrown a couple feat. rifle, medium power knocked back a bit, and pistol, barley any push, sort of like the way you die if you get lit on fire in lugaru.

Headshots are instant kill, gun regardless.
body shots are instant kill for the shotgun (close ranged) the rifle (any range) and 3 shot kill for the pistol.

screen goes red the more damage you take.
healing could be done one of the three following ways:

regenerates like in the call of duty games.

or like this

(i gained the ideas for this method of healing partialy from hearing about far cry 2)
-puts a bandage on where he got shot, and gaines a little health (body shots)
-when he gets shot in the hand, aiming decreases drastically. puts a bandage on a regaines his original aiming (shot in the hand)
-when he gets shot in the foot, he goes into a lying on his back position with his gun. uses one hand to shoot (i know its unrealistic to shoot a shotgun or a garand with one hand, but this game would be based on FUN not realism)and puts a bandage on and gets up once he has cleared the area

Personally i like the second idea more and think that it would add a lot more to the game, but i dont know how hard it would be.

online would be simple, teamdeathmatch for sure, maybe capture the flag or some other classic game modes. single player would be just like online, but with bots to fill the place of other people. a campaign would not even be necessary. it would also be cool if they mixed them, so that if there were not enough people to play properly, you would be able to play online and fill the missing places with bots.

these are my ideas for a rediculously fun game, and would love it if wolfire might "take it under thier wing" once they are more or less done with overgrowth. i would make it myself, but i have no experience whatsoever in game making. id also love it if other people would contribute thier ideas on how to improve this game.

From the pwnasaurus

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Sandurz
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Re: A cool new idea for a game... after overgrowth of course

Post by Sandurz » Wed Jan 28, 2009 10:26 pm

First off, I love your name.
Second, sounds like a great idea. Don't know if they would have time to make it, they have a shit load of other ideas. I'd make it, but I only have a small chunk of experience in game making. (I'm going to be taking a programming course in a year, score!)
*sigh*
I hope someone else could though.

pwnasaurus
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Re: A cool new idea for a game... after overgrowth of course

Post by pwnasaurus » Thu Jan 29, 2009 12:05 am

i realize that if wolfire ever does decide to give this game a try, then it wont be until they've finished with overgrowth. Does anyone know of any other small game developers i might talk to? also, if any of the Wolfire staff read this, i'd like to get thier oppinion on (how doable is it, do they think they might consider it, is it a decent idea etc.)

Skofo
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Re: A cool new idea for a game... after overgrowth of course

Post by Skofo » Thu Jan 29, 2009 4:28 am

Neat. Looks like you put a lot of thought into this. Kudos for that!

But you know, FPS games are one of the hardest types of games to make succeed. It is the game genre that multi-million game companies use to show new technical, graphical and creative concepts. Through millions and millions of dollars, game companies have pretty much perfected the concept of the first person shooter, and throw even more money at it to make it even more perfect as technology progresses, so you (or anyone else without a big game studio) cannot hope to compete with them unless you create something exceptionally new and awesome. This is why most indie game developers stay away from the FPS genre and look to innovate and revolutionize other genres (or even invent new genres). I mean to say this in the least offensively way possible, but your game idea sounds like a mashup of the concepts seen and made in various other first person shooter games, probably your favorite ones, and you most probably cannot hope to succeed with that. To make a successful first person shooter, you'll need something more than what you have. Something new.

If you want examples of innovative creative concepts in first-person-shooters as opposed to the usual formula of simply upping the graphics, you should look at Valve's games. Valve is king of FPS innovation. Half-Life was considered awesome because it had a story, something that no FPS game had before then (but it is now a staple of FPS). Half-Life 2 was highly acclaimed because of it's physics engine, miscellaneous innovations and because it's a sequel to Half-Life, Team Fortress 2 because of it's very unique graphics and simple but deep but balanced class-based gameplay, Portal because of portals, etc.

You don't have to be a big game studio to have awesome new ideas and implement them into an FPS, though. All you need is a unique perspective and a passion for games and innovation. It's tough, especially when it comes to FPS games. However, keep in mind that Team Fortress, Counter-Strike, the concept for Portal and Garry's Mod were all created by no more than a few guys, and those games became famous because their developers innovated. You should too.

I doubt that you'll find any good developers who are willing to help you if you don't have any money or any good past work to show for yourself. Game developers generally do not like to make things for other people and would rather bring their own brilliant ideas to life, especially programmers, especially if you don't have anything to add to the table except ideas. However, your acclaimed lack of experience is absolutely no excuse to not make it yourself. If you lack experience, you get that experience. Learn, practice and make the game yourself! It is your dream game, after all. Since this is a first person shooter, a good idea would be to mod an existing first person shooter engine, since those are everywhere. I'd look into the Source engine and ioquake3.

Best of luck, and more importantly, have fun!

EDIT: Meh, I often painstakingly explain things to people, but I feel like it's wasted on them because the people I explain it to don't listen anyway more often than not, and then I feel guilty, as if I've wasted a big chunk of my time and energy in vain. :cry: Anyone else ever feel this way?

pwnasaurus
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Re: A cool new idea for a game... after overgrowth of course

Post by pwnasaurus » Thu Jan 29, 2009 6:16 pm

Thanks Skofo.
when i said that i didnt have much experience, i meant that i don't have any experience, and really dont know where to start. i nearly failed my schools mandatory programming course, and we were programming calculators step by step on visual basic. so I don't thuink that me making it is in the question. or maybe im just a negative thinker. about other big game companys making FPS perfect, i'd disagree. i find alot of cheap weapons, and alot of bad animations where good graphics arn't important. another diadvatage for thos big games are the crazy prices. i simply think that this game wouldnt be that hard or take long too make, considering ive already seen lots of my ideas in other wolfire games.

Thanks for your input tho, i appreciate it! :D

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Blorx
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Re: A cool new idea for a game... after overgrowth of course

Post by Blorx » Thu Jan 29, 2009 7:28 pm

Well, put as blunty as I can, given the fact that you're not looking at making the graphics incredible, it wouldn't be too hard to start out in Blender with some tutorials and start on modelling and animation. I figure some spheres and cylinders wouldn't be too hard to make a body with. Just make some wicked Animations for a basic model with some sort of one-color texture (maybe shooting) and find a good coding/game making forum (Dream In Code, XNA, etc) and request some programmers, composers, sound fx guys, etc. and they should be willing to help.

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BunnyWithStick
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Re: A cool new idea for a game... after overgrowth of course

Post by BunnyWithStick » Thu Jan 29, 2009 8:17 pm

Lolwut? You're actually suggesting a game where everyone is a bubbleman? Awesome! You probably haven't seen any of my animations either which makes it even more awesome!

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Starrz
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Re: A cool new idea for a game... after overgrowth of course

Post by Starrz » Fri Jan 30, 2009 4:32 pm

I like the game idea, but I kinda thought I was hearing a little bit of Black Shades, no?

pwnasaurus
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Re: A cool new idea for a game... after overgrowth of course

Post by pwnasaurus » Sat Jan 31, 2009 12:57 pm

Starrz wrote:I like the game idea, but I kinda thought I was hearing a little bit of Black Shades, no?
yah, i got some ideas from that. But that game is fun until zombies never die and sniper kill ur vip in one sec. its easier and less frustrating (for me anyways) too defend myself over someone else.

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nutcracker
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Re: A cool new idea for a game... after overgrowth of course

Post by nutcracker » Sat Jan 31, 2009 1:24 pm

I like this idea

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