Game ideas

[Jast]

There hasn't been a game idea thread here in a while. I know a lot of you guys have game ideas. Let's see what we can come up with.

 

An idea that's been in my head for a while:

 

GTA has gotten stale, with the same old mission structure, same old betrayal plot in every game etc. I'm also getting tired of playing as a bad guy. So how about you play as a cop? I know True Crime has tried this, and both were Ok games, but if they truly want to compete with GTA, they need to be deeper.

 

In the game I'm thinking of, let's call it Police Story, you start off as a rookie cop. A good guy. No drinking problems, drug problems, anything like that. Just an idealistic young man. The game begins with you taking an aptitude test, the higher you score the more options are open to you. Score low, you're just a regular patrol officer, score high, major crimes. Unrealistic, but it adds some randomness to the game. You're then thrown into the game world. Now what I'm imagining is that the game uses a skill system like Deus Ex, with stats like pistol, hand to hand, rifles, first aid, driving, stealth, and maybe some other things. The "training" so to speak would be you with a training officer solving some crimes. How you solve the crimes, like by being stealthy, hacking into a computer, or shooting the place up, affects your starting skill levels. Basically, the game watches your actions and reccomends what you should start off with, you can choose differently if you want to.

 

The mission structure in the game isn't linear. You start off with a few contacts in the police force who give you missions, but you don't have to complete them all to advance the story. In fact many missions are just side missions, with their own storylines. Now, there are factions in the police force. Drug Enforcement guys who only care about getting drug busts, vigilantes who to enforce the law their way, people who play it by the book. There are also some corrupt cops you can side with or take down. You can take missions from any of them, and they will come into conflict with other groups, forcing you to take sides.

 

Apart from contacts, you can solve crimes on the street, which also have their own multi part storylines, bringing the crime level or whatever area you're in down. Turn that crime infested ghetto into a nice peacful place. Contact missions are affect crime levels.

 

Every choice in the game matters, who you side with, who you go against, all of that. Save that corrupt cop, and maybe he'll turn from his evil ways and agree to testify. Join the vigilantes and kill criminals, and you'll have some own personal backup. None of the choices are superficial, all affect the story in some way or the other. You don't save a character and he dissappears, there will be reprecussions for every action you take. To make it more interactive there will also be a rpg like dialog system.

 

I don't plan on going into the game industry, so I really don't care if a company steals my idea, in fact I encourage them to. If no one makes a game like this, I guess after I get out of college I'll try to pitch it to a company.

[Krookie]

You play a cop in Crackdown.

[Morgoth]

If no one makes a game like this, I guess after I get out of college I'll try to pitch it to a company.

Normally, companies don't accept game concepts in any form from outside. They have policies to reject these.

[Jast]

I guess I won't be pitching any ideas then. Unless I start my own game company....

 

You play a cop in Crackdown.

 

A step in the right direction. Just too repetitve.

Edited May 18, 2008 by Jast

[Krookie]

Speak for yourself, Crackdown is in my top 5 co-op games ever.

[Jast]

It was definitely fun in co-op mode, but after you killed the bosses, what was there to do? There's nothing really on the side, just collecting orbs. I just don't find massive scavenger hunts fun. To each his own though.

[Krookie]

After we beat the main campaign we did all the time trials on Pyschotic, then we did all the races, and maxed our stats. Lots of things to do after the main bosses actually.

[Jast]

After we beat the main campaign we did all the time trials on Pyschotic, then we did all the races, and maxed our stats. Lots of things to do after the main bosses actually.

 

Hmm, I probaly put the game down too soon then. Once I get xbox live back I'll give it another try.

[Jast]

Maybe starting my own development company isn't such a bad idea. Get some programmers from whatever college I go to, make small games, make bigger ones. It's tough, but every company starts off somewhere. I'll think on it.

[Musopticon?]

Hah, what endless optimism! Great to see it.

[Jast]

For some reason I think you're being sarcastic...

[Musopticon?]

Not really, no. It's just a surprise.

 

Hopefully you can come up with a good team.

[Nick_i_am]

The problem is that ideas are really cheap. Good games are made with good design, good direction, good programing and good art assets; good ideas are only a very small part of the overall process and everyone has their own.

[Humodour]

I have a few ideas of my own. I've written them down, so that one day in 10 years when I'm sick of teaching kids why 1+cot^2(x)=cosec^2(x), I'll read my notes, and think "hey, I'm going to start a game company" and it will be tyte.

[Musopticon?]

Good. I expect that by then I'll be dead tired of teaching kids why "they" has a different concord when used in anaphoric singular reference and will be wizened enough to jump into any kind of crazy project which sounds tyte enough. Count me in!

[astr0creep]

The problem is that ideas are really cheap. Good games are made with good design, good direction, good programing and good art assets; good ideas are only a very small part of the overall process and everyone has their own.

 

It's the spark that lights the fire but you still need wood and matches...

[Jast]

I have a few ideas of my own. I've written them down, so that one day in 10 years when I'm sick of teaching kids why 1+cot^2(x)=cosec^2(x), I'll read my notes, and think "hey, I'm going to start a game company" and it will be tyte.

 

In ten years, you can come work for me! Krezack-Jast designs, but waitaminute, shouldn't my name be first? Already trying to take over the company eh, and we're just in the idea stages!

[Moatilliatta]

So starting your own company is the gamemaking solution to people with zero skills?

[Humodour]

So starting your own company is the gamemaking solution to people with zero skills?

 

Worked for Bioware.

[Monte Carlo]

In the game I'm thinking of, let's call it Police Story, you start off as a rookie cop. A good guy. No drinking problems, drug problems, anything like that. Just an idealistic young man. The game begins with you taking an aptitude test, the higher you score the more options are open to you. Score low, you're just a regular patrol officer, score high, major crimes. Unrealistic, but it adds some randomness to the game. You're then thrown into the game world. Now what I'm imagining is that the game uses a skill system like Deus Ex, with stats like pistol, hand to hand, rifles, first aid, driving, stealth, and maybe some other things. The "training" so to speak would be you with a training officer solving some crimes. How you solve the crimes, like by being stealthy, hacking into a computer, or shooting the place up, affects your starting skill levels. Basically, the game watches your actions and reccomends what you should start off with, you can choose differently if you want to.

 

On one level, this game would rock. However, the freedom of action required in a RPG versus "suspension of disbelief" (i.e. all the cool things you'd like to do versus the strictures of working in a hierarchical law enforcement agency) limit where it could go. Why is GTA so popular? Because criminals don't have rules or probable cause or are obliged to issue Miranda rights (or reasonable suspicion and PACE if you're in the UK). Ditto secret agents and other rules-free heroes of popular fiction.

 

Where your idea definitely has legs is as a strategy game. Anybody gamer has seen and enjoyed The Wire should be able to spot the potential to make an intelligent, fun game about politiking and backstabbing your way to the top of an urban American police department. Do I put officers into drugs stops on the West Side or address the endemic burglary out East? I can't do both and I've got the COMPSTAT meeting with the boss tomorrow.... Do I fund zero tolerance or community policing. SWAT needs a new armoured car and five officers, but the schools drugs programme needs ten guys that might divert the kids from crime in the first place. And then there's the mayor, who's third party funded by a drugs cartel doing property deals. My serious crimes unit is all over that, but there's an election in five turns time....

 

It would make the Medicis blush.

 

Cheers

MC