NEW PROJECT!!!!!

A new project. I have one.


So, I'ma bounce some ideas off you guys. Try not to flinch.

First things first:

Story driven, gameplay driven or RANDOM!!!


Personally, I'd say story driven. A good story will distract people from my bad coding and graphics...


Which leads into:

1st, 2nd or 3rd person...

Now, first person gaming isn't my kind of thing. But, a lot of people like it... Which may help find testers ['cos I totally aint paying them...]

2nd person leave only a couple of choices of game style. [Text adventure... and text adventure with pictures.]

3rd person is where it's at.


So now...

3d or 2d?

I want 3d, that's the current thing... but I suck at 3d modelling.

2d would allow me to just use something random like paint[.net?] for graphics.


Game style... Hmm.

Platformer, RPG, shooting, random adventure [think Zelda style. RPG with no levelling]...

Zelda style is pretty cool. But, I may go platformer.


Game engine?

No. I'ma code it myself. [Why do I make more work for myself... eh, it's a good way to learn.]



Anything I forgot? Any suggestions?

If anyone knows a good GPL work of fiction I can use as a story would be awesome. Otherwise, I'd need to figure out a GOOD story. [suggestions?]



Also, any tropes I should try to avert, subvert or lampshade?



Le EDIT: Holy carp, that's a long post.

A couple of thoughts.

1. Go 2D not 3D. A good 2D game trumps a poor 3D game any day.
2. Why not run a couple of polls - 1 asking for a genre and 1 asking for a topic eg. FPS,Platformer,Strategy etc... and Space/Egypt/Memes etc... Then combine the 2 top choices together and end up with a Space FPS or an Egyptian Strategy game.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by localzuk

2. Why not run a couple of polls - 1 asking for a genre and 1 asking for a topic eg. FPS,Platformer,Strategy etc... and Space/Egypt/Memes etc... Then combine the 2 top choices together and end up with a Space FPS or an Egyptian Strategy game.

---

Oh... Good idea.

Egyptian strategy actually sounds pretty cool...

Oi thief! Stealin my suggestions! :p

Tbh I would start of making a good puzzle based game as building a story based anything is a much more massive exercise and depends a lot on the quality of the story where as you just need to come up with a basic concept for a puzzle type game.
Angry Birds etc have no plot but that doesn't stop it being fun.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by X-13

2d would allow me to just use something random like paint[.net?] for graphics.

---

2D rotoscoped from live action footage? It worked well for Prince of Persia, and might work for you if you can't draw well.

Quote:

---

Game engine?

---

I know you say C++ in your linked post, but you could try Objective C - make your game into an Apple app.

[QUOTEIf anyone knows a good GPL work of fiction I can use as a story would be awesome.[/QUOTE]

Project Gutenberg - free ebooks

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by localzuk

Oi thief! Stealin my suggestions! :p

---

Hide yo kids, hide yo wife... Hide yo husband, too.

Cos I'm stealing everyone's ideas.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ZeroHour

Angry Birds etc have no plot but that doesn't stop it being fun.

---

Yeah it does...

Pigs stole the birds eggs. Now you seek revenge via suicide bombing.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by dhicks

I know you say C++ in your linked post, but you could try Objective C - make your game into an Apple app.

---

Screw Apple. And the horse they rode in on.

Also, rotoscoping you say... Interesting.

First project, right?

Make it 2D, make it short, make it simple - just make it. If you commit to too much you will just end up demotivated. Plan something achievable and build up some momentum with completed projects before launching into your magnum opus.

Custom engine - why bother? There's so many good engines out there now there's absolutely no need to reinvent the wheel. If it's a 2D game, Flash is workable - Super Meat Boy and Binding of Isaac are just Flash games, after all. If it's a 3D game, christ, you can use Unreal Engine 3 for free, or the Crysis engine, or Unity - no way you're going to beat them with something you've put together. Engine building will just slow you down and dull your enthusiasm and early fire. Maybe later, a couple of projects down the line, when you know you can finish these things, but not yet.

Style/theme - if you don't know that then it's no good asking others. There's only one audience you should ever create anything for - yourself. If you try and pander to the vagaries of public opinion you'll just wind up with some confused, watered down, workmanlike horsepoop. Make something that you would like, in a setting you love, and your enthusiasm for that will carry you through the dark periods of CBA you will suffer. Just think about the games that stick in your head, mechanically or atmospherically - one of the first that always leaps to my mind is STALKER, for the harshness and brutality of it. Many people might say FFVII, or a Zelda, or a Mario, but think about what leaps into your head straight away, and what you like about it, and how you can put a twist on it and make it your own.

And you do need to make it your own - a slick and professional 2D side scrolling platformer will disappear in the market without some reason to make it stand out.

Most of all, JUST GET ON WITH IT. Don't get bogged down in details (hence the game engine bit). Just keep the wheels churning whilst your enthusiasm is fired and worry about the little bits and pieces nearer the end when you know you'll finish it. If you slow yourself down too much early on you'll start to feel like you'll never finish it, you're not good enough, no-one cares, why bother... so keep that momentum going at all costs.


Much of this may, in a clichéd hollywood style, actually be a message to myself right now.

Have a look at Gamification. Yes I know, another twee name for something that already existed, but may give you some ideas. There is a lot of rubbish and drivel written on the subject but anyone with a little common sense can work out the good stuff from the bad.

If you aren't a redditor OP, then you sure have the syntax down... :-D

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by SpreadsheetJockey

If you aren't a redditor OP, then you sure have the syntax down... :-D

---

X-13 is the king of memes, slinger of slang. I personally think he's the love-child of 4chan and Reddit...

@sonofsanta actually... that makes a lot of sense.

@alan-d I've looked at gamification. It's one of the many things rolling about in my head.



Everyone gets +rep [via thanked posts] except @SpreadsheetJockey. Because, that [censored] just aint necessary.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by localzuk

X-13 is the king of memes, slinger of slang. I personally think he's the love-child of 4chan and Reddit...

---

Come at me, bro!

Also, read the last paragraph of this Penny Arcade newspost, for they are words of brimstone to fire your soul:

Quote:

---

Somehow, and I don’t know how this kind of thing starts, we have started to lionize horseback-not-getting-on: these casual, a priori assertions of inevitable failure, which is nothing more than a gauze draped over your own pulsing terror. Every creative act is open war against The Way It Is. What you are saying when you make something is that the universe is not sufficient, and what it really needs is more you. And it does, actually; it does. Go look outside. You can’t tell me that we are done making the world.

---

(a videogames webcomic is a strange place to take motivation from, I suppose, but that struck a chord with me)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by sonofsanta

Also, read the last paragraph of this Penny Arcade newspost, for they are words of brimstone to fire your soul:


(a videogames webcomic is a strange place to take motivation from, I suppose, but that struck a chord with me)

---

"This site was blocked by restriction list: RM Pornography and Illegal or Age-Restricted Activity List "

This is the most idiotic filter I've ever encountered...

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by X-13

"This site was blocked by restriction list: RM Pornography and Illegal or Age-Restricted Activity List "

This is the most idiotic filter I've ever encountered...

---

Well those there vidja-games are bad fer yer soul, we gots to keep em away frim the young uns whats lookin ter do them sum verchewal killins

(I quoted the important bit anyway, the rest is just context)