A neat game idea.
Posted: Tue Oct 27, 2009 3:18 am
In my Game Development class, we broke down into groups representing game studios. The teacher is our client, and he gave each group a different type of game to create.
The types he gave my group is Absurdist/rule discovery. Keep in mind all of this is an "as-if" scenario, so we aren't ACTUALLY doing any of the production on it..more of the pre-production planning, design concept, etc.
We decided to go with the Torque 3D engine based on the XBox 360 platform. We'll have a open 3D world (think GTA-esque) where the player can free-roam around the city.
You're playing as a mad scientist, who came across an amazing discovery in his lab. He discovered the ability to change matter with a simple beam. However, in his discovery there was a catastrophic accident which left his ray gun broken. The object of the game is for the player to progress through this city finding the parts to fix his ray gun.
The absurdist part is that since the ray gun is broken, though it still fires, the outcome of the shot is completely random. We don't have a whole list of random abilities yet, but they can do anything from change your enemy to a skyscraper, a car, set him on fire, freeze him, and various other abilities. I'll post up a more detailed, better list later on.
On top of these random abilities, you can insert "Cores" into the ray gun, which you find throughout the game. There are free-world cores, which you can find by exploring the city around you, and there are quest cores, which are only given through questing. There are multiple types of cores. As with the abilities, I'll post up a list of the cores, synergies, etc a little later when I get my hard drive back (forgot it at home 3 hours away..Doh!)
On top of all of this, the city has random events occuring all the time. Riots can break out in the streets, the city can be invaded by aliens, dinosaurs can rise out of the ground and attack. Here's a cool little feature with the random events:
Say a riot broke out in the streets. The rioters aren't necessarily targeting you, they are just wreaking havoc. You notice on the outskirts of town that a T-Rex is walking through the streets, and unlike the rioters, he will target you if you get close. You can aggro the T-Rex and have him chase you toward the rioters, and that in turn will cause a war between the dinosaur and the rioters. One type of core is a Grower Core, which is used to heal you or your target. If you want the rioters wiped out you could use the Grower core on the T-Rex to keep him alive, or you could use the area effect of the core to heal the rioters to help them down the beast.
I'll be posting updates as we work on this in class. Sound like it would be fun? Keep in mind it's an absurdist game, hence the invading aliens, dinosaurs, etc.
I'll also be posting up our enormous design doc when we're done with it in a few weeks in case anyone is interested in seeing a legit, complete design doc of a full fledge game.
The types he gave my group is Absurdist/rule discovery. Keep in mind all of this is an "as-if" scenario, so we aren't ACTUALLY doing any of the production on it..more of the pre-production planning, design concept, etc.
We decided to go with the Torque 3D engine based on the XBox 360 platform. We'll have a open 3D world (think GTA-esque) where the player can free-roam around the city.
You're playing as a mad scientist, who came across an amazing discovery in his lab. He discovered the ability to change matter with a simple beam. However, in his discovery there was a catastrophic accident which left his ray gun broken. The object of the game is for the player to progress through this city finding the parts to fix his ray gun.
The absurdist part is that since the ray gun is broken, though it still fires, the outcome of the shot is completely random. We don't have a whole list of random abilities yet, but they can do anything from change your enemy to a skyscraper, a car, set him on fire, freeze him, and various other abilities. I'll post up a more detailed, better list later on.
On top of these random abilities, you can insert "Cores" into the ray gun, which you find throughout the game. There are free-world cores, which you can find by exploring the city around you, and there are quest cores, which are only given through questing. There are multiple types of cores. As with the abilities, I'll post up a list of the cores, synergies, etc a little later when I get my hard drive back (forgot it at home 3 hours away..Doh!)
On top of all of this, the city has random events occuring all the time. Riots can break out in the streets, the city can be invaded by aliens, dinosaurs can rise out of the ground and attack. Here's a cool little feature with the random events:
Say a riot broke out in the streets. The rioters aren't necessarily targeting you, they are just wreaking havoc. You notice on the outskirts of town that a T-Rex is walking through the streets, and unlike the rioters, he will target you if you get close. You can aggro the T-Rex and have him chase you toward the rioters, and that in turn will cause a war between the dinosaur and the rioters. One type of core is a Grower Core, which is used to heal you or your target. If you want the rioters wiped out you could use the Grower core on the T-Rex to keep him alive, or you could use the area effect of the core to heal the rioters to help them down the beast.
I'll be posting updates as we work on this in class. Sound like it would be fun? Keep in mind it's an absurdist game, hence the invading aliens, dinosaurs, etc.
I'll also be posting up our enormous design doc when we're done with it in a few weeks in case anyone is interested in seeing a legit, complete design doc of a full fledge game.
