[sigtau]

Hey HLP, I'm looking for some feedback.

As of late, I've felt rather unproductive on the game design front.  I've fiddled with remakes of childhood games I played back in the Win9x/SNES days to pass the time and further learn myself in the art, but that's far from the intimacy of larger projects that I've churned away in my mind for countless months--and that intimacy is something I truly miss, and that's why I'm writing this post.

Some of you may remember my last project, Operation: Red Arm, a third person shooter game akin to Ghost Recon and Rainbow Six.  The game was slated to kick off a story canon that I had been mulling over since the start of my high school career and give me credible resume-citable indie experience in the game industry--with which, I could hopefully start up a real team to work on future titles.  Needless to say, the funding failed for the project, and even with help from family members and personal savings, I just couldn't muster up the funds to pay people to animate characters for me.  The game was just too much.  So, I've shelved it until a later date, when I can either afford it or I am skilled enough to fill the roles of the animators I had to hire to do the high-paying jobs for me.  It's an angering decision on my part, because of all the work I put into it so far--countless map sketches, terrain concepts, gameplay prototypes, hours wasted coding something that wouldn't be completed--I even had a successful indie electronica/orchestral artist working on the soundtrack (proof here) contracted to do the work at a highly cheap rate (I consider it a blessing to get the discount he gave me)--but nevertheless, I'd rather do it when I can make it as great as I had originally planned.

So, all Red Arm stuff aside, here's the real reason I'm posting this thread: I've got other game concepts in mind that I'd like to make while Red Arm is shelved.  There's lots of things I'd like to do to continue the legacy, many of which are actually feasible when compared to the scale of things I wanted to put into Red Arm.  I've narrowed the potential games down to five vague (very vague) descriptions,* found in the poll attached to this thread.  All of the games follow the philosophy of "only make the games you'd play regularly" that I've come to adopt--but that said, anything I make is going to be subject to criticism, and I'd rather see what people like the most instead of arrogantly picking a single favorite.

The game will be single-player and is very likely to be story driven and focused on the atmosphere of the game world--think of the dystopia of Half-Life 2 or the sense of sheer scale invoked in Skyrim.  (Although I don't think I could ever compare any of my work to those games, the point still stands on what I'm after.)  Multiplayer is something I don't think I'm quite ready to touch yet, so make no assumptions that there would be any multiplayer functions.

tl;dr version: My last project is shelved, I'm going to make a different game in order to compensate for its absence, please pick a poll option and voice your opinion on what you personally think sounds the coolest.

REMEMBER: Whatever poll option you pick, please don't make any assumptions about genre.  That's something that can be adjusted more easily than the game's environment and presentation.

* Vague because I don't want anyone to make preemptive assumptions about the game, whatever it ends up being.

[Black Wolf]

Go modern. Cheap or free assets to fill up a modern world are all over the net. Medieval are there, but massively rarer, Sci fi rare still. Purchasing or obtaining free, ready made assets will shrink your dev time enormously.

[redsniper]

Not sure what you mean exactly by "modern era epic" but it sounds pretty cool.

[Thaeris]

I have and always will be a sucker for flight simulations. Of late, I've been toying around with some of the WWII paper projects I've always enjoyed. I elected steampunk on this accord, though WWII is certainly beyond steampunk, though short of cyberpunk. It has this unique vibe that fits right in the middle. I'd like to see something that isn't Crimson Skies, nor is it some generic, almost offensive jingoist blabber that's been done ten times over. Furthermore, assests for that type of game are either easy to come by, produce from scratch, or even modify to fit the world environment. Electing a vastly different alternate history of the world gives you a unique setting, and lets you escape the past while retaining its elements. That is at least one possibility. And, it's really all I've got, as I've been musing on something similar for the past few days.

[sigtau]

To me, assets that I have to pay substantial amounts for (read: >$10 USD apiece, because I have no job) usually means "character art."  Level design is an entirely different animal altogether, though, and when it comes to texturing and UV mapping things, the more complicated something gets, the more apt I am to simply model it and pay someone else to UV and texture the damn thing.

Also, I can animate decently, and at the university I'll be attending, I'll have free, unfettered access to a motion capture studio.  But I can't rig (assign bones to a model).  There's just no ****ing hope for me in that regard--for now, at least.

So really, this is what the asset pipeline ends up looking like at the present time:

Props and things to plop around levels: done by myself, usually both modeling and texturing, occasionally picked up on the Unity Asset Store (a giant game asset trading floor) and TurboSquid when I'm lazy or have no reason to abide by concept art
Characters: Drawn/sketched, modeled, textured, and rigged by other people, animated by myself.
Level designs: Drawn or sketched and modeled by myself.  I ****ing hate texturing these, so unless it's a giant outdoor terrain which can be procedurally texture mapped, I prefer having someone else tackle that.
Non-modeled assets: If it involves shaders, videos, music, sound, voice acting, interface design, or anything to that effect, it's something I have no problem doing myself--all of these are things I've handled with incredible ease during past projects, Red Arm included.

[JCDNWarrior]

I'll go for steampunk(cyberpunk?) dystopia, though modern would indeed be easier to work with due to easier to acquire assets. Maybe a Modern Dystopia kind of setting? Nonetheless I hope you'll get far with it no matter what you decide to pick.

EDIT: Disregard the line where this Edit now is.

[bigchunk1]

So that voice acting was for nothing? I hate to be a buzzkill but try not to bite off more than you can chew. Making an entire universe populated with steampunk assets sounds like a huge commitment. Also paying people to make stuff for your campaign?! I dunno that sounds a little heavy. You're better off doing what blackwolf said. Whatever you do, keep it in the design phase for a bit and play around with it until you're sure you got something you like.

Or... If you don't like doing that, how bout you try making a nice 3-5 mission campaign based on a fun attention getter style plot and work around that. You don't have to marry the story or the setting if it's not a gigando project. If it turns out you like your setting after releasing the minicampaign you can expand on it. If not, then at least you came up with something.

Urban Noir sounds cool, you mean like the movie 'Sin City'? Might be difficult to translate to a space game but interesting none the less.

And fred the missions before auditioning voice actors!    

[Mongoose]

Bigchunk...he's talking about creating an original game, not a mod for FS.

[sigtau]

Bigchunk...he's talking about creating an original game, not a mod for FS.

Yep.  http://operationredarm.com/secret/ outlines my last attempt.

bigchunk, if it helps at all, you had the part--I just didn't have a finished script and university prep work kinda took over when I was working on it

[bigchunk1]

Oh, I'm a fool. Sorry. Didn't realise this was in GD. Most of the advice still applies as well as my grumbling about voice acting.

I wish you luck with it. It's a respectable endevor to be sure.

Edit: lol thanks, but I wasen't worried about that. (Yess, I auditioned for everything so I got everything  )

[mormon_boy]

what would be wrong with making a freespace campaign or TC as your time filler?

[sigtau]

what would be wrong with making a freespace campaign or TC as your time filler?

My flight-sim-loving stage has slightly subsided since I got into FreeSpace, and I'm really more interested in branching out into my own games, unrelated to FreeSpace.

... that's not to say I've lost any love for FS, because it's still one of the greatest games I've ever played.  It's just not as easy to convince a team to assemble by saying "I created this mod," because of the word "mod."  Which sort of kicks a hole in the whole "make a viable game to pave the way for future productions" plan.  And really, creating a fully fledged game isn't something that's difficult for me--in fact, I find it enjoyable (pleasurable, even!)--it's just the time and money factors that have, in the past, taken a massive **** on any effort I make.

Semi ontopic: I should clarify that earlier, when I referred to "creating my own universe," in this case, that would basically consist of:

1. creating a base storyline and setting, based on what the people I poll deem as the best option,
2. elaborate the living **** out of everything once the game is made, and
3. eventually, branching the game's setting and plot into different mediums or spinoffs.

Star Wars started out this way.  Lucas kept re-drafting the original script repeatedly, and just as the publishers started to lose hope, he recruited his buddy Ralph McQuarrie to draw concept art based on drafts of the script--some of which had absolutely nothing to do with the original script, but later ended up being the inspiration for the rest of the original trilogy.  For example, this image is highly reminiscent of Luke's duel with Vader in Cloud City.  However, that piece was painted before Star Wars was even really a thing--meaning that just writing the initial storyline can sometimes cause you to accidentally crap out some of the world's greatest franchises.

I mean, that's a total pipe dream on my part, but the point still stands--all it takes is a bit of writing and great storytelling.

[Polpolion]

Maybe it's the fact that my family has been playing it non-stop all day but an ID4 sequel video game would be cool. Imagine it: The irradiated hulk of the disabled alien mothership looms eerily over Earth as a second moon, dancing in and out of phase with Luna. Debris slowly accretes into a ring, or burns up as pieces gradually reenter the atmosphere. Much of the world's population is dead and most major population centers are completely destroyed, though virtually all else is untouched. The alien threat is far from vanquished, however. The wrecked, innermost labyrinths of many alien ships still house thousands of troops and crew that survived its destruction and war continues to consume Earth.

That's where the player comes in. Amidst the wreckage of the Detroit Metropolitan Area, much new life has found its home surrounding Zone Number 14. The 107th fighter squadron "Red Devils", responsible for the destruction of the Behemoth now resting at the mouth of the Detroit River and Lake St. Clair, keeps watch over the skies above Detroit as the city struggles to revitalize itself in the wake of a tremendous disaster. With the Behemoth blocking the entire waterway, thee of the five Great Lakes are cut off from the oceans. Thus construction on a channel through much of what used to be Windsor begins.

Engineers and scientists alike simply cannot be too enamored by the newfound alien technology. 60 miles west of Zone 14, the University is just one corpus willing to pay incredible sums for interesting artifacts. Fallen debris in found in the wasteland of the downtown area is simple enough to get, but the fantastic insights into the Alien motives, technology, and culture can only be found closer to the Behemoth.

The xenomorphs hold an area directly beneath the elevated radii of the Behemoth most frequently shaded. Very little attempt at probing defenses has been made by either side in this conflict, though this is not the case at every Zone. This is not the only way to enter the craft, however. Enormous rifts in the Behemoth's back stretch all the way from the waters of the lake to several thousand feet in altitude. Many enter through here, though few are brave enough to venture far. Most are satisfied enough by the trinkets found strewn across the nearby land and water, by the work in the canals, or in any nearby industries finding new life as a result of this cleansing. But what about the Xenomorphs? No obvious attempts at contact have been made by them, and all of ours have been refuted with hot plasma. But at the same time, they seem perfectly content with the status quo and no combat initiative has been taken.

Other Zones have seen incredible fighting, and tales of heroism and graces of superior firepower have trickled into the recovering metropolis, leaving everyone with a sour taste in their mouth and a lingering question: what are these aliens up to? Blah blah blah, it's up to the player to find out. Super srs mystery.

Stalker meets Deus Ex meets System Shock. What's not to like?

EDIT:

Oh man, and a sequel to the sequel: Mankind has finally regained its footing following the alien invasion. The Zones have been razed and repopulated. The Behemoths, too large to move, are slowly whittled down for scrap and spare parts. With the help of brilliant scientists, extraordinarily capable engineers, and a large quantity of alien wreckage humanity is finally able to remove the shackles that previously prevented easy space flight. Large bases on Luna have been established, though more to show that it's possible than to serve as any kind of legitimate annexation. Still, well over twenty thousand people permanently reside on and beneath lunar surface. Most make livings that are in some way related to visiting and exploring the wreckage of the alien mothership.

A space shuttle glides through the triangular entrance to the new moon's core. Even with the heavy radiation shielding on the craft it is only safe to remain inside for a few days at a time, an unfortunate side effect of detonating a salted fusion bomb at the core of the ship. It will be at least two hundred years before it's safe to make any substantial presence in the new moon, but the crew of the shuttle expect it doesn't make much of a difference. They are one particular survey team among dozens of others, among hundreds of other salvage teams. Though the free floating debris and outer surface has been scrutinized heavily for all of value for the past several years, the inside has been untouched until now. Slag and ash are all that remain of the very heart of the new moon, mixing in with its artificial atmosphere to create a hellish glow all around. The shuttle floats lazily through the main chamber to what they hope used to be the flight control spire. Despite a dense coating of ablative armor the craft needs to maneuver with caution - the fog limits radar's effective range and they are quite heavily laden. It doesn't matter. They find nothing of value; at least nothing that would readily be of more value than what they can get on the outside. The control spire is nothing but a solid mass, a barely recognizable feature on radar. Disappointed, they set course for the exit and drift towards the exterior of the new moon.

Months later, a station in orbit above Ganymede (fun fact, I spelled that right first try) ceases all contact with Earth. Immediately, the US Air Force sorties the USS Shughart, the second spacecraft of the Kennedy class. Upon arrival, the crew of the Shughart learn that the station suffered a mutiny and in the fighting the main antennae arrays were damaged, preventing any transmissions from being made. The player needs to help re-capture the station from the mutineers. During the midst of the fighting, the Shughart detects an extra moon coming from the opposite side of Jupiter. Suprise, it's another alien mothership, presumably come to see what happened to the first. I'm sure whatever happens here would depend on what happens in the first game, but whatever, I'd just say they nuke it again.


Man, I don't care what you think about ID4 - the universe at the end of the movie has some pretty sweet scifi potential.

[mormon_boy]

if you ask me the best approach would be to take inventory of what resources, assets, and skills you have in arms reach and devise story that can make the most of that. for example if you don't have access to decent voice acting assets then you can either use text and posibly go for a retro feel(pixel graphics, hard gameplay etc...) or you can craft the lines using speech synthesizers and put the setting in a cyberpunk Dystopia

[FlamingCobra]

Steampunk dystopia with a female protagonist. Deviantart is a very good place to get ideas for steampunk jewelry.

I also agree with Mormon_Boy's suggestion of a Cyberpunk dystopia.

Steampunk and Cyberpunk are both good.

[z64555]

Steampunk dystopia with a female protagonist. Deviantart is a very good place to get ideas for steampunk jewelry.

I also agree with Mormon_Boy's suggestion of a Cyberpunk dystopia.

Steampunk and Cyberpunk are both good.

Hmm. Me thinks you are a punk. 

[sigtau]

If I close the polls (reposted on a few other forums) this weekend, the results will clearly be in favor of something sci-fi, though I'm personally partial to steampunk, and I don't want to make things purely space-based or rule out Earth/any planet as a likely setting.  (At the moment: 14/33 votes on the sci-fi option, equating to 42% of the popular vote.)

I'll roll it all into one.  Cyberpunk dystopia set in the future during a time period fringing on viable consumer-grade space travel within the solar system?

[z64555]

I'll roll it all into one.  Cyberpunk dystopia set in the future during a time period fringing on viable consumer-grade space travel within the solar system?

Oh I can SO imagine the cyber missions meshing together well with the space missions. Perhaps instead of jumping through subspace you have to jump through cyberspace? (It's Sci-Fi, after-all...)

[sigtau]

I was thinking more along the lines of the player assuming the role of an officer aboard a space station (perhaps the official successor to the ISS, maybe half the size of an Arcadia?) operated by the United Nations or some world organization.  Not necessarily flying the ships, but perhaps the role of a field engineer of sorts.  Hop into an environment suit, get an awesome view of Earth from the station exterior as you weld together new radiation shielding for the living quarters portion of the station... until finally, some sort of calamity happens on that portion of the station causing you to either fall to Earth (would have a hard time proving how one could survive that, but eh) or have to re-enter the station and sort out the mess.

Doesn't sound too cyberpunk unless I adjust the plot or setting to be more cyberpunk, and according to TVTropes:

The plot will more than likely take place Twenty Minutes into the Future in some City Noir, Industrial Ghetto or Crapsack World that tends to be marked by crime, cultural nihilism and bad weather, where we use cutting-edge tech less for making a shining utopia and more for the sake of selfish profit and pleasure. Heroes are often computer hackers or rebellious antiheroes, while major villains are almost inevitably multinational conglomerates or Police States (or both).

This might kick a hole in the world-owned space station idea, unless I were to make it corporate-owned and have national governments succumbing to corporate empires...

... oh, the ideas are flowing.  This is exactly what I wanted. 

[SpardaSon21]

Or you could subvert the cyberpunk trope and not make it completely dystopian.