Epic Science-Fiction Game: What would YOU like to see?

Discussion in 'General Game Discussion and Questions' started by Breeze, Nov 14, 2010.

  1. Breeze

    Breeze Member

    Oct 27, 2009
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    Dear touchArcade Community,

    Me and my Friend are currently designing a Science-Fiction Game for the iPhone. The Gameplay'll be like a mixture of Halo, Mass Effect and FREELANCER!
    We've already written a complex story and now we want to know what you'd personally like to see in such a game. I love blowing stuff up, and flying spaceships, e.g. - In fact the game'll contain these elements.
    It's all about those funny little things that make the gameplay unique. I'd love to read your suggestions, no matter how small or big, common or crazy they are.
    Oh there I've got a new one: Sky-Diving through the atmosphere to get on a planet + evoiding asteroids with accelerometer controls. :)
    Every suggestion has the chance to be implemented in the final game + your name mentioned in the credits + an appstore coupon for the final game!


    Thank you very much in advance,
    Moritz
     
  2. Vovin

    Vovin 👮 Spam Police 🚓

    Nov 28, 2009
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    Germany

    Moritz? Sounds quite German. ;)

    Sky-diving through the atmosphere sounds a little like MDK :)

    So, Welcome to TA (again) - I hope you'll find a lot of nice ideas here.
     
  3. Epox

    Epox Well-Known Member

    Jul 30, 2010
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    Falling in the air while shooting aliens.
     
  4. Der-Kleine

    Der-Kleine Well-Known Member

    SW Battle Front 2 style stuff. Espechially in space were it's a mix of FPS and Space shooter. :)

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    Something with vehicles!

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    Something with stealth missions.

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    Doodle Jump/fall 3D with a top down view?​
     
  5. Alienmario

    Alienmario Well-Known Member

    Aug 28, 2009
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    gaming! lol
    idk udk
    dont release uncomplete game like 99% of appstore games are
     
  6. bigred447uk

    bigred447uk Well-Known Member

    Apr 16, 2009
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    Real physics in space. Look at 'Frontier - First Encounters' from the Elite series of games to gain inspiration. I want to use the gravity well of a celestial body to swing me onto the right course to get home !

    Massive variety in the locations. Check out British sci-fi writer Peter Hamilton for inspiration.

    Good luck ! Can't wait to see what you come up with.
     
  7. Breeze

    Breeze Member

    Oct 27, 2009
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    #7 Breeze, Nov 14, 2010
    Last edited: Nov 14, 2010
    Dear Vovin, Epox, Der-Kleine, Alienmario & bigred447uk: Thx for the suggestions.
    @vovin: as long as your assumption isn't based on my language I'm happy to bear that :D Whats MDK?
    @Epox: That's a cool idea and there's a mission where it would fit into.
    @Der-Kleine: Yeah, I enjoyed SWBF2! Some Thief(Dark Project)-inspired stealth missions are already planned, vehicles are nice!
    @Alien-Mario: That's part of our team philosophy, we'll try our best.
    @bigred: That's an interesting idea! Space'll play an important role as it goes perfectly with the iDevice accelerometer. You'll be able to travel to different planets with completely different ecosystems. Hamilton is awesome!

    Any further suggestions? Things you always wanted to do in such games, but never could?
     
  8. bmanic

    bmanic Well-Known Member

    Nov 21, 2009
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    No, do NOT use "real physics" in space. That was the only part of Elite 3, aka frontier, first encounters, that sucked badly. It's incredibly stupid and boring space fighting.

    HOWEVER, having said that, you need to have some kind of working "pseudo" physics that takes into account inertia and sideways movement.. making ships wobble and NOT be 100% moving on rails. For great reference take a look at Decent Freespace 2, Wing Commander Prophecy (by far the best in the whole series) or even Lucas Arts Tie Fighter. All of these have interesting combat with relatively good AI opponents. Do not forget that good fighting mechanics requires all 4 axis! Pitch, Yaw, Roll and forward/backwards motion (aka speed). The least important of these is Roll but it can be useful depending on how the guns on a ship is setup.. forcing multiple hits on the target by keeping good aspect angle on the enemy and proper roll angle.

    For an example of space fighting done badly you only need to check out Galaxy on Fire 2. It's a great game otherwise but the fighting is just horrendous and has no soul, in my opinion.

    As for the story/universe. Make it somewhat believable and make it feel alive. A great example here is the above mentioned Elite 3, First Encounters. The newspaper system in the game made your actions seem like they counted and had an impact. It was also fun to read about REAL events that actually happened. So if there was a space race, from one star system to another you could read about it in the papers before, during and after the event. Even if you didn't participating in it, you could still check out the location and see ships racing! That is what I call immersion! :)

    If you have trading, make it believable. If you have planetary systems with meteors and raw material that can be mined, make it believable (so that not all minerals are easy to find).

    In order of importance, in my opinion:

    1) Gameplay (the fighting, the mini games, controls, physics etc.)
    2) Immersion (how much a player feels part of the universe)
    3) Graphics and Sounds (both equally important)
    4) Story (it comes last, because if all the above is good, I can use my imagination)

    Cheers!
     
  9. runformoney1110

    runformoney1110 Well-Known Member

    May 6, 2010
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    Graphic designer
    In your closet
    -a fairly big open world to explore and interact with, where most objects can be destroyed/used in some way.
    -side missions maybe?
    -secret easter eggs and unlockables hidden around the map
    -multiplayer! and there should be at least 4-5 multiplayer maps, also with blow-up-able objects.
    -large arsenal of weapons
    -perks?
     
  10. Qurao

    Qurao Well-Known Member

    Oct 29, 2010
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    #10 Qurao, Nov 14, 2010
    Last edited: Nov 14, 2010
    If it's set in space, zero-grav gameplay, or a section where the instruments go haywire, and the gravity in the battlefield changes mid-battle.

    A section with 2D sidescrolling gameplay would be sweet.

    I'd also like, if you're planning on making this an FPS, that you include an option to play it in third person. I hate, hate, hate first-person games on iOS.

    I'd like to see some rewarding, gritty melee takedowns. Could possibly involve quick time events?
     
  11. strivemind

    strivemind Well-Known Member

    It might be a good idea to go back and study what made Masters of Orion so popular (and still popular to this day). Since Freelancer, Mass Effect, and many others draw a lot of inspiration from it.
     
  12. currymutton

    currymutton Well-Known Member

    Oct 16, 2008
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  13. bmanic

    bmanic Well-Known Member

    Nov 21, 2009
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    Yeah, I played I-War 2 to death. It was an excellent game and had a fantastic engaging story as well. It's only problem was that it was frustratingly hard to complete. Once you did complete it you could continue trading/pirating in the fully dynamic and open universe.

    Great game that one!
     
  14. Breeze

    Breeze Member

    Oct 27, 2009
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    You've got great ideas! Thank you!

    First of all, when I played I-War or other great space games, I always missed exploring planets with immersive missions. When I played Halo, I missed the open space gameplay.
    Our vision for this game is to combine the immersive planet-based missions of halo on one hand with great intergalactic combat on the other hand. We still don't exactly know how linear the gameplay'll be, though. However it's great to hear ideas dedicated to both topics, thank you.

    @bmanic: I think I know which kind of physics you mean. We'll not simulate real space conditions, however inertia'll definitely be used! That newspaper idea is great! That's exactly what I think makes the world believable, thx.
    @runformoney: We've already got some neat easter-eggs :> Side-missions are cool. Multiplayer'll not exist, as we couldn't handle this anymore in a 2-man-team. We'll try to craft a mindblowing singleplayer, though!
    @Qurao: Some 2d-Sidescroller-levels would be awesome. :) Third-Person-Gameplay is a difficult topic. In my opinion it doesn't suit Mobile Devices as the screen is very small, hence constantly wasting 1/4 of the screen to show the players back is suboptimal. QTEs are planned, melee-takedowns are a great idea! thx
    @strivemind: Thx for ur advice, I'll check Masters of Orion!
    @currymutton & bmanic: I-War is awesome, however it is limited to space so do you guys have some more specific features in mind?

    thx!
     
  15. Olord

    Olord Well-Known Member

    Aug 26, 2010
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    I don't know how much of an RPG you want it to be, but I think it's always fun to communicate and interact with NPCs. You could always choose between several answers kind of representing your morality and attitude towards life (good, evil, cynical etc.). Minigames like cardgames might be fun, too.
     
  16. currymutton

    currymutton Well-Known Member

    Oct 16, 2008
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    You are welcome -- just that I think we have pointed out the good features of the game -- except you can only save back in base... If you still want more, try to play the game once again... ;)

    For atmo gamplay, I am not sure since there are not many space games having good enough atmo combat also. (WC3? It is so good that this feature did not appear anymore in the sequels...)

    Just, please, don't turn it into the infamous BC3K....
     
  17. Breeze

    Breeze Member

    Oct 27, 2009
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    Hey Olord and currymutton, thx for your replies!

    @Olord The question, how much RPG our game'll be, is a difficult one. On one hand, we'd really enjoy loads of RPG elements. On the other hand, every additional complexity comes with the risk of not being perfectly integrated in the game. For us, it's more important to do a streamlined, polished game than a huge, open, buggy one. We'll do our best, though!
    @currymutton We'll do everything to avoid a BC3K development :D

    Regards,
    moritz
     
  18. Graz73

    Graz73 Well-Known Member

    Oct 5, 2010
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    Web Design, Graphics & Illustration
    Mansfield, OH
    What makes Mass Effect so great are the choices.

    MAKE the player choose how the game plays out!
    For example, maybe the player can influence if another character is killed or not, with both options being playable.
    Or maybe you can choose which faction to work for?

    That will allow for more re-playability, and more immersion.

    Rather than some canned text that makes my character sound like a "Bad Ass" let the player choose how the character responds to situations.
     
  19. Breeze

    Breeze Member

    Oct 27, 2009
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    Hi Graz73,

    that sounds great. like olords idea, however, it adds a big amount of additional complexity to the game. As we definitely want to publish a well polished game, rather a perfect streamlined one than a buggy open one, we'll have to see how far we can go. Nonetheless, we absolutely enjoy choices and freedom in games, so stay tuned :)
    We're just a 2-Man-Team, but we've got the advantage over big publishers that we really love what we do.

    BTW We're looking forward to release some concept art in the next weeks, so you can get a first impression of the game.

    suggestions and creative ideas are still very welcome, keep in mind that you'll get a voucher for the game as soon as it's out for every implemented idea!

    Thx :)
     

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