146 replies to this topic

[Pasidon]

Like I said in our previous topic (only staff would know about), some of us are pretty interested in using the Unity engine to make a real grade A game. But first, we need ideas. Here, state your game ideas and styles, and also any mechanics that would be based around your game. Simple ideas with really clever mechanics are preferable.

Also, just as important, we need people willing to work. If you want to work on the project, state what you're willing to do. Make sure they are things you can do well. Also make sure you're just not applying just 'cause. If you apply, that ensures you to have free time for this project and you will not quit. And you're willing to work hard. We're not going to have lots of people for this project, so yea... you best be prepared to work. But it'll be fun...

Oh, and by the way, if it turns out really good and we can get it green lighted on Steam, that means profits will be made and you have a chance of making big bucks.

I'll post my ideas and what I'm willing to do later, but first, I'll let some of you guys start first.

Edited by {IP}Pasidon, 13 January 2013 - 07:17 PM.

[Mathijs]

If I like the resulting ideas/if my concept contributions are taken into account, I am willing to sign up as texture artist, low-poly 3d artist, concept artist, or writer. Pick two.

Edited by Mathijs, 13 January 2013 - 08:13 PM.

[duke_Qa]

Great stuff, I'd love to see some ideas flowing about. If the project turns out nice, I'll try to help out with what I know. I've got quite a bit of experience with scripting in unity and programming in general, and there's my 3d-artist and generic media background for the other things.

I've got some crazy ideas but they are still very rough so I don't want to expand too much on them. Also I want to try and finish one/two of my personal unity/other projects before I delve into developing a new concept. Finish what you started and all that.

[Pasidon]

Yea, a not-so complex idea would be nice. Side-scrolling or top-down styles would be best.

Well, just to give sort of an example, I'll give my idea. Especially since I'm really staring to fall in love with the idea.

The game I want to see made is a combination of an open world and a Rouge-like. A Rouge-like is a game... much like Rouge... that features a series of dungeons that become more challenging as you go on. But you gain a variety of fun power-ups as you progress, as well as a risk of power-downs and accessories. If you've played The Binding of Issac, then you know what I'm talking about. The main catch is that, if you die, you die for good. I want that concept brought into an open world with randomly generated terrain and dungeons.

There's already a game sort-of like this: Realm of the Mad God. That's online multiplayer only and very fast paced. And not visually appealing. I want this game to have simple animations but good visuals. The theme I think would fit best with this idea are robots. It shouldn't take a serious tone, as we would design it in a cartoon'y style with outrageous enemy designs and maybe some cosmetic options you can do with your robot as well with loads of stuff you can unlock, like weapons and upgrades. The fun thing is, you will be able to unlock items you can find in the game by finding secrets or killing specific bosses... or anything that would provide an endlessly repayable yet challenging experience for the player.

There's a big market for Rouge-likes currently, and really only The Binding of Issac is the only one taking the success. This would be a simple top-down shooter with a heavy emphasis on good designs and fun effects, as well as game-play dedicated to survival, risk and exploration. I think we can make a really hard game, and that would market VERY well. I would like to make it about surviving as long as possible with a dependency on certain power items (batteries?) that can be gained by delving into dungeons and exploring the landscape since you'll die without these items, all while gaining hundreds of different perks and items that benefit you, and hinder you.

I'm really happy with this idea, especially since it's an arcade type and we don't need to exhaust energy on story elements or 3D modelling... or anything silly like that. Just a colorful HD game that has unlimited replay value that will be different every-time you play. It wouldn't be too challenging to make, but it will require lots of clever programming and design. But it would make me very happy if someone else can top this idea in ability to market, concept and simplicity.

And I can help with writing and texturing. Cuz that's what I dooooooooo........ sort of.

[Irenë Hawnetyne]

Well, I've three ideas, both revolving around 3D, but one's more complex.
The simple one is slightly like Minecraft, except heavily oriented towards combat. You'd have, if possible, randomly generated landscapes, except with smoothed sides as opposed to blocks, and from these you have to gather materials to develop weapons and defences to, well, survive. Basis is that you've survived the crashing of your bomber in the middle of some war and you're in the middle of enemy territory, and you want to survive, so you go off and build a fortress. Mind that you'd start off with a crappy weapon, eg pistol. Then you can either make weapons from raw materials you find or dig out, or steal 'em from enemies.
To keep the game competitive, you'd need a levelling system, and online mode, but keep higher-levelled people from being OP. Like, at high levels, you get small bonuses.

Second idea is more fully formed, but for me it's an indulgence into horror and gore. Not sure if that's appropriate for Revora, so you might be able to turn off gore in-game. Anyway, it has a very long storyline, which I'll sum up for you: you wake up not knowing who you are, you find this run down, hotel-like building which serves as a post-Apocalyptic inn. Oh, this is set in dead London, btw. So, there, you wake up again having slept for some hours, and through a series of events I care not to explain presently, you meet a 'God', who sends you on your way to destroy 'Chaos', which is what destroyed London. Of course, there's a lotta dialogue, but he ends up back in his room in the hotel, which is burning down cause minions of Chaos found it and set it on fire with everyone in it. So, after travelling through London and kicking ass, we get to 'The Gate' (cue applause for my brilliance in naming stuff), which you travel through and destroy the Lord of Chaos. Lovely boss battle. And then your God-friend turns up and explains how he deceived you into destroying Chaos just so he could take over Earth himself. 'Nother boss battle, but you've absorbed the powers of Chaos. Twee, I know, but how else to you kill a God? Apologies to the religious among us. Anyway, you destroy him too, and you end up outside with a nice zooming cinematic.
I've missed out hunks of it, like a cool-beans Alchemist who's supposed to look ... nasty, for want of a better word, but there you are.
This idea, in hindsight of it's writing two years ago, is a lot like Skyrim/Fallout in terms of gameplay.

Third and last, however probably most complicated is a steampunk-vs-politics game about a guy/girl who has these 'skyhooks', basically really long four-pronged hooks which you can use to grapple to Zeppelins and climb walls, perform acrobatics in combat, dadidadidah. So, overall, this person, you, is going to attempt to stop the corrupted government here oppressing the people of some futuristic glass and brass city, using cool moves and stuff. I've not really planned this one out, it's more about the aesthetic feel of movement within the game.
Having written this one early last year, it reminds me of a mix of Assassin's Creed and Prince of Persia: Warrior Within. I think this would be the hardest to make, and yet the most fun to make and play. For myself, at least.

That's my thoughts, so.... ya. They're probably too complex to start off with, but you never know, and posting them can't do any harm.

I'd be willing to do some 2D artwork (eg. UI's, maps, limited concepts), story development, speech writing, and possibly some 3D models (minus uv's or textures, takes too long considering I've Westernesse to contend with, too.)

Edited by FellbeastIII, 14 January 2013 - 07:05 AM.

[Pasidon]

Cynical time.

Well Felly, for your first idea, it's something that would sell really well. There have been games being released similar to that idea recently, such as Ace of Spades. That's more voxel based, and not a smooth, realistic terrain like what you want. There is a huge market for a COD like game with randomized landscapes and a building system. You may find that most COD players are also Minecraft players. But in order to do this idea well, we would need very specific skills in order to make a 3D landscape generate randomly and generate well with balances. We would need to be clever about it. So I think it's a good idea but it needs more behind it.

For your second idea, I also wanted to invest in a horror game. AND YES WE DO GORE... Revora is a proud supporter of gore. But horror is something that needs to be thought out long and tediously. Based around what would be scary, not necessarily around a story. I think something in the woods would have more of an effect. That's why Slender does well.

And your last idea... we would never be able to do well. We would be competing with AAA games that have similar mechanics that will look and perform better than anything we can make.

[duke_Qa]

Pasi: I remember trying this realm of the mad god flash-game. I dunno if the terrain was random, but it wasn't too shabby on style or execution. I have to say though, it will be a massive project. As I put in the shoutbox yesterday, Watch this lecture to get some perspective on how long time things take:

Spoiler

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=qvsoxmJqBww

.

Also pasi, have you tried dungeons of dredmoor? its supposed to be a rogue-like dungeoncrawler with a lot of humor and strange stats and items.

Fellbeast:
Your second idea is less horror and more action imo. Horror usually involves being quite useless and a lot of hiding around from whatever is trying to chomp on your head. boss battles doesn't define as horror-like for me unless there's lots of deaths on your part.

Anyway, I might as well draw the outlines of one of my most recent ideas: Cyberpunk game in classic GTA1/2 perspective. Though I think with a more Hotline Miami inspired character control so you can use the mouse more aggressively. Think this trailer, deus ex HR, syndicate, newest edition of the netrunner ccg, that sort of gothic-neon style. Gameplay would be a combination of gun-shooting and acrobatic melee. Cyber-enhancements would allow players to jump dozens of meters, run at extreme speeds, bounce between skyscrapers to climb to the top, jump off skyscrapers and land far below without taking damage, punch people to pieces, through walls or dozens of meters away(think combat where you punch someone into a wall 10 meters away before you jump after him and try to hit him while he's stuck, but he then jumps out onto another wall 10 meters away before he bounces back and hits you in the back or something). Depending on their defensive enhancements, lift cars and throw them at other things.

Huge potential for gore when you combine superhumans and normal humans in a gta-like environment. Not too sure about the plot, for me its most about creating a gta1/2 styled multiplayer setting but with more acrobatic and epic combat manouvers and sci-fi equipment.

Edited by duke_Qa, 14 January 2013 - 10:33 AM.

[Pasidon]

Yea, that Cyberpunk trailer is pretty boss. Also... I hear there is a line of code hidden in that trailer that warns people about February 5th. Might be an announcement for The Witcher 3... also boss.

And I don't have DoD. I really like the concept and old-school vibe of the game, but it does seem like something that could get repetitive Then again, I'll probably get it in the next Steam Sale.

But yea, Duke. Are you wanting your idea in more of a pixel art style or, like mine, an HD top-down? I can see lots of potential in a really well designed and fast paced Hotline Miami type game. Maybe a combination with mine, and making it a Rouge-like... hmm... now there's something that could be marketed.

[duke_Qa]

I think I'd go for 3d, but with a lot of JJAbrams flares and glows, blur and stuff like that to enhance the scenery.

One of my visions for the multiplayer was to do it in a bit of a dota/natural selection style, where there are two teams, one is a corporation and the other is a "rebel" group of hackers, and they are fighting a shadow-war in a city. Both sides would have a tech-tree that allows them to get more upgrades and resources, resource points around the map are available at times, but too much bloodshed will bring down the law on either side present. I recommend looking into the netrunner card-game for how the rules work there, I'd love to integrate something like that card system with gta-style run-and-gun and RTS resource nodes. Though pure deathmatch and tdm is just as valid. .

[Pasidon]

I can tell you right away that multiplayer is a bad idea. It costs a metric ton to support, and indi games rarely create a multiplayer that is good / one that people are actually interested in. Maybe if we end up making something like Robo Cop Rampage: Streets of Danger (the name of your game, Dukie) and we sell well, we can release a multiplayer version alone.

Also, I think you should consider your idea to be not 3D. People who make 3D indi games are usually in development for insane amounts of time, and your idea can perfectly fit in any retro style environment.

And who seriously liked this topic on Facebook?

Edited by {IP}Pasidon, 14 January 2013 - 01:12 PM.

[Gen.Kenobi]

SInce I'm a 3D modeler, I'd go with 3d alternatives. Nothing against 2d... is it just that... I don't have the artistic power to make it so. Or to help make it so.


@Feel: Your third idea has several similarities with Mirrors Edge, only with weapons. It's a good thing, but I dunno...
@dukie: I like your Cyberpunk GTAish idea, but yeah, as Pas said, TDM MP is overrated...
@Pas: Your Robot-Realm idea is good. But I'm not very fan of "repeating" games. If you die you must restart all over again... I don't like that. Maybe it's just me, but the more you try not to repeat the formula of non-repeating, the more you create something boring and repeating, since it's all about coding - that's why I don't really like MMOs.


Maybe we can create something alongside with a good storytelling. Because what really sells nowadays is great storytelling - see MassEffect, Hotline Miami, ect.

[Irenë Hawnetyne]

Two things.
One, (whilst it seems most of you have disregarded it, which is fair enough) for the second idea, I must say that you're right about the lack of horror in that respect. Mostly however, I've got a plethora of gore scenes in mind. Particular favourite I've written out's where some unfortunate guy you meet early on is pinned against the wall by two spikes through his arms, whilst a spindly snake-like minion of Chaos breaks one by one his ribs by tugging at them with it's hook-ended talons and he ends up with only his ruined upper body in one piece. Then, dead, the minion has a feast. Just wanted to say that, cause I love the idea of that scene.

Two, is this: Pasidon, if you're planning to develop for Android or portable devices, yeah, 2D would be acceptable, but comparatively very few people enjoy playing non-3D games on PCs or consoles. Remember, this is a platform for Revorian publicity.

Really like the Cyberpunk game idea, I think that would go very far.

Edited by FellbeastIII, 14 January 2013 - 03:35 PM.

[Pasidon]

Very few PC gamers enjoy 2D games? Well... regardless of Hotline Miami being Eurogamer's top game in 2012 (selling nearly half a million copies), Super Meat Boy breaking the 1 million sale mark and many more stories with similar outcomes. Your statement may work for console gamers .. but that's because they're idiots. It's true that most people will prefer Assassin's Creed 3 over Mark of the Ninja, and superior realism in graphics is a big reason. But that's the thing... we will be competing with games like Assassin's Creed and Dishonored and Super Mario Galaxies (lolololololololol), and I prefer not to do that. Saints Row 3 was an amazing game, and even published by an amazing company. But where is 2K games today? Gone. Dead. Capooy. Saints Row 3 sold like counterfeit snake oil, compared to its production costs. If you want to make a good 3D game that can compete in the market (well), then you have to do something that no one else has done before with wall breaking artistic styles and mechanics.

Also also, I don't think we're talented enough to make a 3D game that would be visually great. We've never really done this before... maybe some model making and texture work on the side, but we don't have the resources, the time, skills or staff to do anything we've suggested in 3D. Unless we can create a very retro art style that's easy to do yet visually gorgeous, then I dunno.

ANd Gen, it is just you. People like having consequences with death because it changes the way they play games. It adds a more nerving feeling during game-play That's why Xcom is popular. People like knowing their actions have consequences, but ultimately, making the right decisions and being rewarded. It's probably why I have hundreds of hours spent in The Binding of Isaac, which is significantly more than any other game I have on Steam. TotalBiscuit had a video about permanently dying in video games I should link you too... the market for a good perma-death game is massive and not very hard to compete with, if you have a team of classy thinkers.

And yea, I would love to do something with a story line. But I also would love to do something in an arcade style where story doesn't get in the way of game-play .. that's a tough decision to make. You could compromise and make a game with an arcade mode and a story mode, but that may double the time of production. But next week, we should have all our suggestions and volunteers sorted enough to make a decision on what we want to do (or at least a style).

[duke_Qa]

As that youtube video further up says, The failures are there to learn you how to make better games.

Also on the philosophical debate of whether multiplayer is expensive or not: Unity has plenty of multiplayer code ready to use right from the get-go, with plenty of the standard things like estimated position interpolation and whatnot that is required for fast-paced action multiplayer.
I would also say its much much easier to create a multiplayer game because you don't have to write/produce a story and you can ignore AI/pathfinding and whatnot. Once you've gotten the code to join a game-session up, you can start worrying about multiplayer game-design concepts.


I see Pasidon is looking to make a 2d rogue-like. I can mention that unity also does 2d well in 3d, you just go for a isometric camera and alpha-channels for the textures. advantage with rogue-likes is that they have to be relatively short so that people can try out the different paths and not be morally crushed by a death after 20 hours.

Mostly however, I've got a plethora of gore scenes in mind. Particular favourite I've written out's where some unfortunate guy you meet early on is pinned against the wall by two spikes through his arms, whilst a spindly snake-like minion of Chaos breaks one by one his ribs by tugging at them with it's hook-ended talons and he ends up with only his ruined upper body in one piece. Then, dead, the minion has a feast. Just wanted to say that, cause I love the idea of that scene.

Well if it was a scene that you'd come over as you were sneaking by trying to survive the hellhole, I'd imagine it would work well. But in a pure action game, this scene would come off as gorn-like, since a super-space-marine who don't take no prisoners wouldn't stop and just look at this chaos-critter torturing some victim, and if he did it would be very wrong morals-wise("oh hello there mr.spaec mareen, do you mind if i pull the ribs out of this guy before you shoot my head off?" "...Shur, why not").

However, if you were playing a guy sneaking through the torture chamber while trying to stay hidden from the creature, AND keeping his sanity intact by some minor mini-game at the same time as he jumps from hiding spot to hiding spot(failing those sanity checks might start by making him twitchy and start making noise, worse would cause him to start sniffling or other more irrational acts), you'd be on to something that's both a horror game and that justifies such gorn-scenes.

[Gen.Kenobi]

XCom was fun to an extent. You play like hell the first weeks you buy the game, but then it's just repetitive and boring - as some crits said themselves.
I am not totally against perma-death, but I am against the whole game reboot. Like when you die you must start off from the first level. This bugs me a lot. If it's not the way of perma-death we're talking about, then I'm all ears.

A 3D game does not necessarily have to have AAA quality. We can create some fancy cartoonish graphics with 3D, you know. I think It's easer tham creating animated sprites, unless we have here some 2D Artists tallented as hell here.

BTW I am not a fan of horror/gore games. Gore is being overdone. And it gives video games in general a bad view from people of the society.

@duke: TDM MP is considerably easer to do than anything else, maybe that's why the market is overflooded with a new TDM FPS everyday... This is a thing to consider. It was first CS, then Combat Arms, CoD itself, now we have lots of F2P models, like Batman and stuff... But if we're aiming to start, why not TDM MP?

[Mathijs]

One thing to add so far: Roguelike. Not rougelike.

I played the shit out of Hotline: Miami, but not necessarily because of its core gameplay elements; it was the theme, the music, the whole thing that came together so flawlessly.

What I would like to do is not get stuck on 2d vs 3d, but incorporate both elements where necessary. We should not be looking at creating entire 3d worlds, we will never have the resources to do those things. I like Pasidon's preference for arcade gameplay, but any clever writer could create an overarching storyline to guide the level and creature design. That said, I'm not interested at all in a completely robotic world. I don't like designing mechanical things, so designing a whole game full of them would be a no-go for me.

Something I would like to do is take a bunch of cues from Hotline: Miami. Top-down view, level-based, highly dangerous (1 or 2 hits = dead), but add more stealth elements, more shadows, less fast-paced, more of a dungeon feel. Take some cues from Amnesia: The Dark Descent. Maybe give it a bit of a military feel, classic Metal Gear style. I'm still thinking of further ideas.

Edited by Mathijs, 14 January 2013 - 05:07 PM.

[Pasidon]

But robots are adorable.

Stealth games are fun. I want a really hard stealth game... but I don't really have any ideas for one.

[el kevo]

Hey, what's up guys? Long time no see. Pasidon just only told me about this and for some reason thinks I'd be a good addition...even though he hates the fact that I love consoles.

The game is called Ashes to Ashes and is based off the Jack the Ripper legend. It is a two-player third-person game where one player plays as Jack and the other as the Sheriff. The game will take place in a sectioned off White Chapel area.

Jack:

Jack is all about stealth and deception. The player will spawn as a random avatar with the codename of Jack. They will then receive a target to kill and must assassinate that target with as few people noticing as possible. Jack can climb, blend into crowds, bribe and use his surroundings. It is essential for Jack to remain as incognito as possible as those around him will pick up his face, clothes and other details that will lead to his capture.

Sheriff:

The sheriff will play like L.A. Noire. He will go to crime scenes and collect clues to help lead to Jack's capture. The sheriff can pick up items, examine areas and interrogate people in the area for clues. An idea I've been flirting with is a monocle that is kind of similar to Batman's detective mode that allows him to pick up things like blood trails and possibly figuring out how Jack murdered his victim. Sheriff will also have access to a gun.

There will be a total of seven targets. The game is over if Jack can pull off all seven murders or the sheriff captures him.

Honestly, if I had the time I would prepare an entire pitch for you guys, but I sadly do not .

---------------

My other idea is to make a new Lord of the Rings RTS game. We can easily get a license for it. My suggestion, as I've learned from Daniel (Pixel), would be to build a prototype, crowd-fund it, then we can either buy the license and publish it ourselves or pitch it to Warner Bros. in order to get film rights and such.

However, we absolutely could not use the Battle for Middle-Earth title since EA still owns that trademark.

[Irenë Hawnetyne]

Personally, I love the idea, but I think people would bore of it pretty quickly, considering it'd be only two players on multiplayer, with a limited scope on what you can do.

And with LOTR, from the whole WB stuff, would we be safe to make any commercial games?

[el kevo]

@FellbeatIII

It actually is quite safe. You only have to worry about Warner Bros. if you want to use material based on the LotR and Hobbit films. You can release a game completely based on the book through a license agreement with Middle Earth License and their is nothing Warner Bros can do to stop you. Turbine did this with LotRO when EA had the license.

The game is meant to be small like Mark of the Ninja, Journey and other indie titles. It isn't meant to last a long time like Call of Duty.

To everyone, I implore you to think about console ports, if not RTS. Unity works with every major platform and the markets on them are just as big on PC. Plus, indie games have sold extremely well on the likes of the Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Store. I get that some of you don't like consoles very much (Pasidon), but this is a market worth investing in due to its large install base.

Thanks.