Design you own game!

[Hurlshort]

Ok, I was wistfully thinking about Shadowrun and I caught myself thinking about how I used to write down game design ideas when I was young. So pretend you have an unlimited budget and a great team of Artists and Programmers. What game would you make?

 

I always wanted a Shadowrun game that played like Jagged Alliance. Jagged Alliance 2 is to me the best squad based strategy game ever made. It's basically XCOM style combat with character development and a good merc story. If I could design a game, that is the game I would make.

 

You would start with a custom character, and as you precede through the game, you would meet other people to join your MERC team. I would want the story depth of KOTOR and Fallout. There would be a variety of ways to complete missions...you might have a hacker disable security or a mage frying guards. Again, the combat would be turn based with action points. During non-combat it would switch to real time. The reason this would work well is Shadowrun, for the most part, is a close quarters type of game. Refer to Silent Storm for a more recent example of a good tactical engine.

 

*edit* Maybe I didn't make my question clear...What game would YOU design?

[qaz156]

Whatever I would do, and this is maybe the theater major in me, I would make it deep/rich/intricate and especially artistically on par with any novel. But of course the first goal would be entertainment. That would be the number one goal. It has to be fun and interesting and most likely comedic, (but not over the top.)

One comic book that comes to mind is Neil Gaiman's Sandman, which, even if you don't get what he's getting at artistically, the characters and story are so interesting that you read it until the end.

Now my game wouldn't look or be anything like Neil Gaiman's Sandman, but it would be a deep and rich artistically IF AND ONLY IF THE GAMER CHOSE TO ANALYZE IT. The main thing would be fun, and excitement of course.

This approach would be similar to the playwright Jean Anouilh, who primarily wanted to entertain the audience and hated having characters spew forth contrived philosophical discussions. Instead he entertained his audiences with hilarious dialogue and plot. But his endings were often contrived denouements which even he alludes to the fact that they're hard to accept. As in the play ends and for the lazy, they might think it's just some fluff that's funny. But the ending to those who think about it later, doesn't fit, and when they analyze the play they realize there was some real artistic integrity behind it.

 

With RPGs there's often some real art going on there. Even in horror games as well. Silent Hill 2 is an excellent example of an adult game. Adult, not in the raunchy way, but how it dealt with very adult themes and material. A pro game guide writer did an analysis of the game based on documents he got from Konami, and that really opened my eyes as to what the game was getting at. There's some serious thought going on behind it, despite the minimalist dialogue.

 

I guess I just sound like a Chris Avellone afficionado, which I am. The question is how I would deviate from his style. I think it would be through more comedy, which would help to mask the philosophy more, so gamers wouldn't complain that there was too much of that. Morte for instance was essential to Torment, otherwise the philosophy would have been even more obvious.

 

I know that this still doesn't say anything about what the GAME WILL ACTUALLY BE LIKE. But this is just my starting point. What I want for my game will come soon.

[Judge Hades]

What game would I design, that is a question, ain't it.

 

Okay first off I would work on the engines the game would use. I would have a separate engine to handle all the physics of the game, a separate graphics engine, and lastly a separate rules engine.

 

In this way the same physics engine can be used over and over again with only needing to upgrade the graphics engine to take advantage of newer graphic technologies. The rules engine would be modular so that different games could use the same physics and graphics engine but not the same rules engine. Gotta keep it modular.

[Oerwinde]

What game would I design, that is a question, ain't it.

 

Okay first off I would work on the engines the game would use.  I would have a separate engine to handle all the physics of the game, a separate graphics engine, and lastly a separate rules engine.

 

In this way the same physics engine can be used over and over again with only needing to upgrade the graphics engine to take advantage of newer graphic technologies.  The rules engine would be modular so that different games could use the same physics and graphics engine but not the same rules engine.  Gotta keep it modular.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

There has to be a reason that something like this hasn't been done yet. Because it makes too much sense. So we must be missing something.

[Hurlshort]

Well, game engines are licensed and manipulated to create different types of games very regularly. This is how some game companies make all their money. As to having a modular capability on our own systems, so we simply need to upgrade on part of a game to change or improve the experience...that's an interesting idea. My first instinct is to say that the standard computer may have trouble handling multiple complex engines at once. Today's graphic engines require pretty much all of the resources our computers have, and to separate a physics and rules engine may cause unnecessary slow downs.

 

It's a very interesting idea though. There are definitely variations of this out there, such as what people have done to the Half Life physics and how people manipulate the rules of Neverwinter Nights. These games are built around a single engine, but they are flexible enough for even amateur programmers to change.

 

I would love to hear what a programmer or game designer thinks about a modular gaming system.

[alanschu]

Physics Engines already are separate from Graphics engines.

[Oerwinde]

Anyway, I was thinking of a game a couple months ago I thought was a really cool idea. It was a turn based squad based strategy RPG with base building and such. Basically you start out as a single mercenary, you do jobs and spend your reward money on new equipment and possibly a base of operations. Once you have a base of operations you can equip it and hire more mercenaries for your company etc. As you get more money and are able to get more advanced equipment for your base it opens up missions you couldn't do without that equipment etc. For example once you have a shuttle launch pad (Sci-Fi setting for this) you can start doing off world missions, while before you were limited to earth. Eventually your base will be too small and you can expand and buy more buildings to equip and hire researchers and stuff to create new equipment and then both use it, and patent and sell it for more profit. Once you expand enough you can either just sit back and manage your company, and send off your mercenaries to do jobs, or you can hire accountant and management staff to handle it for you, and you can just go off on missions.

[metadigital]

Sort of Fallout meets Rome: Total War meetsSplinter Cell: Chaos Theory meets Hidden & Dangerous 2 meets System Shock 2 meets Neverwinter Nights meets Warcraft III ...

 

 

... all you need to add is co-op and PvP ...

[Walsingham]

I'm still deciding. Good poll idea though.

[Archmonarch]

Id take a note from the old Interactive Fiction games, and have a story worth following, though obviously more complex given our technical advantages over those days. I do not know enough of programming matters, especially engines, to handle the technical areas and so would have to get someone else to do that. My job would be more designer/writer than anything else.

[metadigital]

It would just need to be a Deus Ex / System Shock 2 with more RPG depth.

 

Good sound. Something that instantly transports the listener to the game and the mood (dark at the beginning, but with slight highlights promising hope).

 

Writing the story is the hard bit, graphical bells and whistles are all nice, but the story is what will bring the audience back in ten years, not the graphics.

[Craigboy2]

I plan on becoming a dev when I'm older so my ideas stay in my head for now

[metadigital]

Because you only have a limited amount?

[Craigboy2]

Because you only have a limited amount?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

For now, yes. I have only a few good ideas now but I have a lot of bad ones but I usually don't think too much of the bad ones.

[Azarkon]

Here's my game:

[Craigboy2]

Here's my game:

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Kindy...nothing...

[Hurlshort]

I think they need to try and do a few games based off of good books. Most of my favorite movies are based off well written books. Obviously a game is very different because it's interactive, but it would just be nice to see some really great stories told in games.

 

One of my favorite games was an adventure called "Sanitarium" I just thought it was a great story, and I could actually picture it as a book.

 

PS - Oerwinde, I love your game idea. Kinda strikes me as a Xcom/Jagged Alliance style game, very cool. I think the sci-fi setting could be wonderful too.

[Oerwinde]

I think they need to try and do a few games based off of good books.  Most of my favorite movies are based off well written books.  Obviously a game is very different because it's interactive, but it would just be nice to see some really great stories told in games. 

 

One of my favorite games was an adventure called "Sanitarium"  I just thought it was a great story, and I could actually picture it as a book.

 

PS - Oerwinde, I love your game idea.  Kinda strikes me as a Xcom/Jagged Alliance style game, very cool.  I think the sci-fi setting could be wonderful too.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Yeah, the missions would be Xcom/Jagged Alliance/FOT style, but then there would be a resource management/base building part that would be like half the game. I just figured since FOT was fun (for me at least), and I liked stuff like evil genius and dungeon keeper, combining both would be cool. I figured it could come with a bit of a toolkit too, so people could design their own missions that would come up as options during the game as well.

[EnderAndrew]

The makers of Tale in the Desert are making a new game based off Orson Scott Card's Alvin Maker series.

[Hurlshort]

One of my favorite parts of Xcom was building a base, and then fighting off an alien attack in it. There was a cool customization feel to it. I wouldn't even make defensive structures because I WANTED to be attacked.