Your Ideal Video Game II

So, if you didn't have to go through all the business and creativity strains of game design in the industry, what game would you make? Something to reinvent genres that have been "done to death"? Here's mine!

Okay, so it'd be a historical fiction game. You're a English field commander in World War I: Your objective is to get into Austrian territory and help win the war for the allies. Wouldn't be 90% accurate.

The gameplay is simple. You use a set of 5 or more speech/strategy suggestions that pop up on the screen. There are no obviously right or wrong answers, and using our instinct could result in either failure or victory. The only time combat takes place is at the end of (usually) every 2 stages, either involving tanks and gas warfare or trench battles. You have control of each soldier but only for a limited 5 minutes. To be effective you're recommended to switch to another soldier every two minutes (There would be 10 types of combatants, grenadiers, machine gun operators, cannon operators, and more). The battles rarely last more then two minutes. At the end of most battles you take control of either tanks or planes and have to avoid the mines/turrets to progress to the supply depots.

Sound repetitive? Well here's a thing to change that: Co-Op.

Another thing: You are able to make strategic choices if one of your soldiers die: Should we use more grenades or save them for later? Should we use the cannons? Should we send troops out of the trenches? Or should we stay status quo?

And finally, you get to control the chemical gas to go into enemy direction...

Wouldn't that be a war crime?

20 years after the game takes place, of course.

Okay, here's my take then...

I'd like to make a JRPG which takes place in a world which is somewhat more magical than the Standard Fantasy Setting. Instead of having a medieval-ish setting with knights and wizards and so on, wizardry has rendered knights obsolete.

All combat in the game is magical. Your characters don't even have HP, they have barrier points, which represent the strength of the magical shields preventing them from being obliterated by fellow magi or monsters which no mundane human could hope to fight. The only healing magic in the game is strictly plot-based, since any enemy which reaches the point of physically harming your characters in battle will just kill them outright, resulting in a game over.

There is no Lost Golden Age (I'm sick to death of that trope anyway,) the greatest height that magical civilization has yet reached is taking place in the present. Over the course of the game, your characters research new magic which allows them to explore places where humans have never gone before, like above the clouds, and the floor of the ocean.

I have another concept for an RPG which takes essentially the opposite route, in a setting with no fantastical elements at all. Why am I suggesting this game in this thread instead of that one? Because this thread is ignoring business constraints, so I might as well pick the game that would be more expensive to animate.

I love that idea. Always wondered why the mighty wizards didn't just walk up and take over the kingdom instead of playing toadie for kings.

Probably because they didn't have popular support from the troops and knew it.

My ideal game would be a first-person open world game, set in a big city and the local countryside. It would be scaled properly to actual people, and would have a lot of stuff to explore. The player could climb and explore ala Assassin's creed, but here's the twist: It's an Urban Fantasy game. The player has access to magic, capable of affecting the world in really neat ways. for instance, use wind magic to knock over a newspaper stand, scattering the papers, then fire to light them and make a very flashy and dangerous show. In cars, use fire or ice magic to over-charge (or better cool) the engine so that it goes faster.

I'd even go so far as to make the terrain deformable so as to have earth magic, allowing you to make your own stunt jumps or stairs and such.

And then as your magic gets more powerful, use water and ice magic to make things, or shake apart the city with massive earth-magic based quakes.

Or just get a lot of C4 and blow it all up.

Or just ignore all that and act like a normal citizen. Just for shits and giggles.

...Ever read the Dresden Files? But yeah, as a general concept, I'd like for open-world games to start focussing less on massive sparse worlds and more on small yet very realistic and detailed locales.

I love Dresden Files, man.

But yeah. I sort of agree, but I also like the large spaces as well, especially when given fast vehicles.

My problem with RDR was that most of the places were too empty despite being so interesting, and getting between them was a lot of uninteresting empty to boot. My problem with GTA 4 was that it was too small. I got a lot of that place memorized. And those two didn't have magic powers either. :[

Do the police come after you if you start deforming the streets and such?

Okay, I'm pretty sure I'm not 'fancy smancy' unique with my game idea, but I'll gove it a shot.

The game is a RPG/Beat 'Em Up sort of game where a group of 5 people, ranging from a young kid to a young adult sort of age range, get sucked into a movie world called CINENMA WORLD!!!

They are told that the movies' characters and atagonists are causing chaos, and the villains of 12 movies (aka worlds), each from a different genre/timeline are in the movies that don't exactly fit in with their role/occupation. The so-called' director, who made the movies as well, is gone as well, so the heroes are expected to defeat each atagonist two times; one in order to get them back to their original movie, and another to 'finish' the movie, where the movie is actually produced in the real world.

It's played like a RPG whereas you move around freely and attack enemies using the commands shown, but there is also a setting where you can just do combos and the magicks in buttons on the controller. You go into a area and are expected to beat up the enemies within a certain time limit, although you don't get a game over if the time limit gets to zero; however, your grade for completing a part of the movie will be downgraded, depending on what 'part' of the movie you're completing. On the hardest difficulty (which I named 'Lights, Camera, DEADLY ACTION!), you'll have to start over the game from the beginning of the first part of the movie, even if you were on the part of the boss. After all, a movie shouldn't be too long!

The characters themselves have each their own stories to play as, such as a woman who wishes to revive her dead baby brother, or a anthromorphic lizard who wants to find the secret to sucess. The real ending for the game can only be obtained after completing all of their stories, which means in a way you'll have to really go 100% story completion wise to finish the game.

I'll post later on for more details and stuff, I might change things too

still boo de boop

@Desertopia: I'd prefer it. That would be quite fun. Moreso than just having no reaction from the police at all.

A 3D first person game where you can found your own settlement and build it up from square one, in a massive world full of other people (NP Cs) who do the same. All orders will be done by hand, and either told or sent to who needs to do them. When enemies come, you'll have the option to go lead the troops as a good commander should. When nothing's happening, you have the option of moving the game ahead by a certain amount of time, with an interruption if things get exciting.

Think a 3D Dwarf Fortress where Adventure mode can be used to jump start Fortress mode, with Aurora 4x's time dynamics thrown in.

A big RPG with enough branching dialogues and differing conversations to make In Search Of Lost Time seem like a footnote.

My dream game would be a tedious and demeaning 3D platformer collectathon that beats Donkey Kong 64 in the Guinness World Records.

Enkufa@ Ooo, let me add to that.

The game takes place in a town about the size of Alton, Illinois. Your job is to make sure other powered characters (there are 25 in the whole game) don't accidentally kill civilians with there 'contagions' (AKA there powers going berserk and infecting people with various viruses). You can do that by killing them, absorbing there power so they can't hurt anybody, or lead them to a military area where they'll be "neutralized" and researched offscreen. Each results in an ending if you do one option for 10 powered characters. The best is if you lead over 10 of them to a military base where the military will gain power and be able to capture powered characters more easily, though this results in you being captured yourself. The second best is if you killed them all, which...just involves funeareals and a bittersweet ending. The worst is if you absorb all of them, where there really is no end...but civilians are permanently scared of you and police will attack you on site. Of course, with your newly acquired powers you have control of the city, living as an elementally powered dictator and destroying any military forces to come across the town (which all happens in gameplay mode).

Plus you level up to 20.

You'd have a sort of karma meter: Kill civilians- 5 civilians will be scared of you and call the cops/military to come and shoot you. Kill 2 powered characters- civilians have less fear, but are weary of you and police will investigate for 10 in game days. Kill 10 police officers/military personnel and expect lot's of backlash. If you even this out, you'll be able to live safely until the next disaster happens.

Each powered character would be based off of "elements and attack patterns". They would also have a distinct personality, and are playable in separate modes (each with there own story).

Level 1-5 characters- electricity, mind control, and water

Level 6-11- Fire, ice, metal material

Level 7-17- Magic, earth, stealth

There would be 2/3 characters for each of the "attack patterns" (and they'd appear in multiplayer and alternate story!)

Finally, boss battles would involve strategy. You get hit by a 10 ft earth rock with no shields, instand game over. You use shields- you have a chance to parry or counterattack (depending on health).

Finally, the ending cutscenes of boss battles is different with whatever karma stance your on.

As for parkour- You can drive cars, but if you have upgrades in electrical/earth powers your able to quickly make flying cars, or at least for a minute (then they fall to the ground). This can be used to get between missions and way points very quickly, though hijacking a car causes "fear awarenness" on the karma meter.

Does 'no fantastical elements' just mean 'no magic', or 'nothing that couldn't be found in the appropriate real-world setting'? Because you can easily have fantastic settings without magic...

The setting is physically and historically distinct from our world, but strictly mundane, with technology comparable to the beginning of the 16th century in Europe.

Mine would be a third-person action RPG in a futuristic world where soldiers, instead of using standard guns, are now equipped with armor that can materialize into full-blown mecha suits. Think Power Rangers, but more badass. These suits would be divided into 12 classes, each with their own strengths and weaknesses, and their own preferred combat methods and weapons. Are you an assassin-style melee weapon user, or do you prefer big guns? Maybe you're a tank? Or a support?

The gameplay? A large map per mission with lots of area to explore. Not just on the ground, but flying as well. The combat would be like a more fast-paced Armored Core, with a bit of Zone Of The Enders-style melee battles and dogfights. Enemies vary between opposing-faction armies with their own mecha suits, or robots. Or automations like turrets.

The suits will have lots of customization. First of all, you'll have the choice between male and female. Then, you'll have tons of parts for things like the head, chest, shoulders, arms, and legs. All purely cosmetic, of course. There are also little modules that give passive bonuses in battle, depending on which part of the body you install it on. For example, an energy recharging module? On the legs, it means longer sprinting/boosting. On the head? Faster weapon recharging. Depending on the class, some parts will have more module slots, and some will have none.

Lastly, the multiplayer will be either co-op survival and missions, or competitive MOBA style, where each team gets an army of robots and has to destroy the enemy's factory core producing their weapons. It ought to be quite hectic.

THIS IS ME.

I forgot to talk about the actual RPG elements... silly me.

Skill trees. Everybody gets a skill tree. The options vary from increased damage, defense, health, new weapons, mobility, and new abilities, active or passive. Flash Step! Wall Run! Beehive Barrier! And stuff like that.

I also kinda wanted to make this one of those Borderlands-style Shout-Out-heavy games that has references all over the place with the armor parts, abilities, weapons, etc. But that doesn't matter too much. Yet.

Gameplay wise I was thinking of an real-time RPG where every enemy had the potential to be a Boss in Mook's Clothing, dependent on factors such as environment, AI tactics, and if the enemy was doing some of they're own Level Grinding. It would also have stealth and diplomacy mechanics more robust than "have this number".

More details later, but for now I'll give you the TL;DR version.

A less linear Bioshock-style game set in an Escher-esque Stepford Suburbia contained in a Pocket Dimension, with cues taken from Pleasantville (although with less postmodernism).

edited 14th May '13 10:35:54 PM by DAStudent