If I was a game designer...

You know what? Now that I actually asked myself "whats my dream game" I think I realized something. I dont care anymore :( I use to have the most creative ideas. I think years of let downs, growing up etc has really killed that aspect of myself :(
 
Data said:
This is the game I would make.

It's an MMO space opera -- a combination of all the best elements of space games past and present; X-wing, EVE, Freespace, Allegiance, Star Wars Galaxies, Freelancer, X3... you name it.

This is the game I've been waiting for (and still am, I suppose).

  • Complete head-to-toe character customization (CoH)
  • 8 playable races, each with its own unique history, appearance, and vessels
  • Expansive, diverse, free-roaming galaxy (EVE)
  • Semi-accurate flight physics, without sacrificing gameplay (Allegiance)
  • A deep, meaningful player-driven economy
  • Fully-rendered cockpits and bridges for each vessel (SWG)
  • Multiple player avatars on one vessel (ship's crews, space taxis)
  • Carrier-class vessels with realistic hangar bays
  • Partially mapped interiors for larger vessels (SWG)
  • Massive list of player-owned and operated craft, from fighter to cargo to carrier-class
  • Interactive stations and bases, where players can roam as their avatars and converse/trade face-to-face with other players
  • Planet, system, and sector ownership (EVE)
  • Joystick support
  • A emphasis on reflexes and player intelligence rather than levels or "skills"
  • Inter-system "jumps" from almost anywhere, with a required warm-up time -- or use a "gate" and skip the warm-up

What's your dream game?
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I imagine imagine a mix of what i understand EVE to me plus planetside, plus tribes... and definately MMOFPS.

In fact, i predict that there will be a "genre killer" MMOFPS that is like this, in the coming 5 years or so. This FPS will basically "destroy" the genre in the way you could argue World of Warcraft has done for the RPG genre.

What i think is required are these "RPG"ish elements that make an MMO compelling within a persistent world... but that has the FPS action so many gamers expect. It doesnt have to be massively innovative in every way and is likely to actually be fairly standard in core design elements... in order to be genre-familiar and comfortable to people.

The games that stand the test of time and define a genre are often the most simple.
 
I wouldn't need that kind of budget if I was working with a small enough team. Me on lead, 2 programmers, 2 artists (1 concept/skinner, 1 modeler), 1 sound designer, 1 writer/scripter. Everyone testing. Free open (truly open, none of this FilePlanet exclusive bullshit) beta test.

It'd take us the better part of a decade, but we could do it. :D
 
Data said:
Nice.
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Ive got like ten pages of notes somewhere. Ground combat would be sort of like BF2, but not as lame for the infantry (power armor for the god-damn win) and with crafted resources (as in, available weapons, vehicles, etc).
It'd be much more segregated, as well - air vehicles would own the air but be much, much more vulnerable to AA fire (missiles, flak, lasers, etc) so they'd stay higher up. Bombers would be about the only survivable ground attack unit, and fighters would be tasked with taking them out. None of that untouchable-fighter/bomber-murder-the-ground-guy shit; try it and you're dead, your fighter is dead, and you dont just magically get another - you have to have spares at the airbase.
Ground vehicles would be powerful, but in a city they'd have trouble; infantry would be able to actually get in all the buildings so they would have the advantage in urban areas. Also, certain objectives would need to be taken and secured (held the fuck onto, like important factories or subway lines/roads used to move troops) and only infantry can fit in the areas to fight.
 
Just ask the Duke Nukem: Forever team.. they know tons about working on a single game for 10 years.
 
That sounds awesome.

I'm not big on ground combat. That's kind of been done to death (how many shooters are there?). I'd focus more on space, but let players interact in space stations and planetside bases to enhance the realism.
 
Pachacutec said:
Screw complex games. If anything they need to be simpler.
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Heh, in my game a fleet battle is the equivalent of a scheduled comp match - transit for ships takes days or even a week, so its a Big Damn Deal to send an invasion. The fact that an arrival time can be exactly determined lets people plan for it, so its like a mini-event. Players with characters in the fleet all know that, say, Wednesday at 8pm there is going to be a new combat theatre opened up and they all play at that time. Players in the system thats going to get will either get caught wth their pants down, or find out over the forums, etc.

Now, this seems lame at first, but think about it - first, it makes it so that you dont have to always worry about scream-and-leap ambushes while everyone is offline. Second, its rare enough that players will rally around it without being so rare that the game suffers. Its a plannable, repeatable, guaranteed highpoint.

Adds a layer of intrigue to the game as well - if you assemble a fleet out of random players, you'll most likely get more poeple involved... at the cost of word reachign the defenders as someone talks about it. However, if a guild decides to make a raid or (if they have a shitload of people like the EVE guilds) full invasion, they can try and keep it secret and end up catching the defense unprepared, with mostly AI-controlled units.
 
Data said:
That sounds awesome.

I'm not big on ground combat. That's kind of been done to death (how many shooters are there?). I'd focus more on space, but let players interact in space stations and planetside bases to enhance the realism.
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Thats the beauty of what I'm thinking of - if you want to be infantry, you can be infantry. If you want to be in space, you can be in space. Each area has tons of specialization, so you could be a fighter pilot, starfighter pilot (inertial physics, they'd be very different), space marine, planetary army, base/unit commander, ship/fleet commander... and thats only the combat shit.
Add in SWG-style economics (players make all the ships, guns, ammo, armor, vehicles... and sell it to each other as well as the NPC armies, ensuring even non-awesome crafters can make money)/civvie shit like bounty hunting, smuggling (illegal weapons you cant get without joining the military, vehicles, ships, stat-enhancing drugs and cybernetics, etc), colonizing unsettled planets (creating player empires to rival the NPC starting empires)...
 
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Yours sounds like a supergame. One game to rule them all. One game to find them. One game to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them.

Frankly, your game scares me.
 
JackBlack said:
testing on a game like that would take longer than development
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It's an MMO. Who needs to test? Call the alpha a beta to generate hype, and release the beta as retail. Works for everyone else.
 
Viggy said:
It's an MMO. Who needs to test? Call the alpha a beta to generate hype, and release the beta as retail. Works for everyone else.
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Yeah.

Except I wouldn't do that.
 
Viggy said:
It's an MMO. Who needs to test? Call the alpha a beta to generate hype, and release the beta as retail. Works for everyone else.
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That, and a game like that if properly kept up (graphics updates as time goes on, like the City of Heroes games are doing), it could run for a decade or more making all that development time worthwhile.
 
You think you'll have a choice? You'd better have "liberated" a few of Saddam's solid gold toilets for yourself if you're going to fund it.
 
This would be a hella game

Premise:
Basically a game similar to a single sorcerer play through of baldurs gate 2, except with oblivion graphics (1st/3rd person).

Combat: Along the lines of Ninja Gaiden/God of War. Playing through as a stealth character would be more like Hitman, and a sorcerer play though would probably be like a magic user in elder scrolls.

Story:The story would be like BG2 meets what Fable was suppost to be like.

World: The entire would be like Thief/Deus Ex style buildings with Morrowind landscape. I also though it would be sweet to make buildings or towns random, with different treasures and stuff in them every time you play.
 
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yes basically all the best aspects of every game, im sure no game designers have thought of this.
 
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