Silly game idea: Help wanted

Started by Chrille, Sat 21/01/2006 15:16:55

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Chrille

Hello! I've been working on tools for a rather silly, experimental but hopefully very entertaining little game. However I need help making the actual content using these tools. This is not AGS-related, so I'm asking in the gen. forum. The game idea is this, taken from the Gaspop website:

The game is a turn-based tactics game. You start by creating a character to serve as leader of a group of goons. When the character is ready you can start hiring goons and buy weapons and other gear for these goons. Money will be made when fighting enemy squads. During battle, each player will take turns giving orders to his/her leader-character and the goons. Here's the twist, the characters won't move until both players have given their orders. Once the players are done, the game will unfreeze and the characters will start acting based on the orders they have been given. When a minute of action has passed, the game will freeze and the players will be able to give orders again. This will repeat until the game is won by one of the players. The battlefield is seen from a horizontal-side-perspective, pretty much like say a level in a 2d beat 'em up like Final Fight or River City Ransom.

Characters will have standard skills like speed, strength, endurance etc. but they can also either be good or evil. When recruiting you might be able to try and figure it out by reading the messages the characters will send you when they're looking for work. Characters might also end up disliking other squad members if they are hurt by them. You can keep your goons happy between combat by giving them extra cash or better weapons. If you spoil just one goon the others will eventually grow jealous and dislike your leader character. A character who dislikes another character might ignore the fact that the other character is standing in his line of fire. Evil characters always do this.

The game is supposed to take place on some planet, perhaps earth, years into the future. There are no laws and there are no longer any countries, just cities. Characters will come from these different locations and their looks and personalities will be affected by where they're from. Although this won't do much for the gameplay it will add more depth. The purpose of all this is for players to care more about the characters in their squad. Perhaps refuse sending them to certain death. Perhaps end up surrendering combat in certain cases to avoid having characters killed. Once a goon dies he will stay dead. If the leader character dies the game is over and the player must create a new squad with a new leader.

This may all sound rather serious, but the fact is this will be a humorous game. Part because of the humor that will come out of the many random and hopefully silly events of combat. Part because of the graphics, which imitate the graphics in Tecmo's old games River City Ransom and Nintendo World Cup. Finally, part because of the silly story and game world.

You will be able to play against others either by sending turns through e-mail, or by playing on the same computer. Possibly also directly online depending on if we can figure out a good way to do it.


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Sound interesting? If you're interested in helping, below follows a list of positions that need to be filled:

Project Manager: Will make sure things progress and keep track of who's doing what.

Lead Artist: Will help pick the colors for the game's palettes and look over and approve the work of the other artists. Love of the art of the mentioned Tecmo games a plus.

Pixel Artists: Will create graphics for characters and/or, environment, items/weapons. Love of the art of the mentioned Tecmo games a plus.

GUI Designer: Will help design the layout of the game's interface. Mostly in the menus.

Level Designers: Will create levels/battlefields for the game.

Writers: Will help design the game world, write background stories for the locations and messages from characters. A wacky sense of humor a plus.

All teammembers will get access to the tools that will be used to develop this game.

If you want to help, send me an e-mail and let me know what position/positions you're applying for. Include a description of why you would be the best (or at least a good ;)) person for this position. If you have samples of your work available online, please include links. If it's text you may include it in the e-mail.

Please keep in mind that this will be a freeware product and that you won't get paid for your work. Course I might buy you a drink if I ever meet you at Mittens ;).
GASPOP software
http://www.gaspop.com

DGMacphee

I totally recommend working with Chrille on any project. The man is all class and I've always enjoyed helping him with previous projects.

Dude, I would help you out as a writer if I weren't so damn busy these days, but maybe some one else can help out.

Also, I dig the sound of your new project.
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YicklePigeon

This makes me think of Jagged Alliance, plus I've a similar idea for UT2k4.

Regards,

Yickle.
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big brother

I actually had a similar idea for the turn-based, but simultaneous action solution for a game like JA. The character's experience level would affect how they could react realtime. For instance, if both players ordered their characters to run around the corner of a building and occupy the same spot, the more experienced merc would get the drop on the newbie. As a result, veteran firefighters would improvise on the orders when things went wrong, or when they came across enemies.
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Czar

I think there was a similar game on a siemens c45 mobile where you preentered the  moves. Played more like a luck thing.
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fred

I think it's a cool idea - although maybe a minute is a bit too long for the action sequences imho, especially in those (hopefully rare) cases where nothing really unexpected or funny happens from the orders given.

In games where the action is hands-off/AI-controlled, I often get a feeling that the computer is having more fun than me, and I think every player would be secretly dreaming of actually controlling one of the characters through the action-sequences. Maybe that could be made part of the strategic choices in the freeze state - which of the team members to control for the next thirty seconds of real-time action.

I definately think this should be an online game, so teams from all over the world could compete against each other online, and that the design could allow for some level of user customization (own graphics etc.)

I also want to point out a game, "Soldat", which is something of the like - a one man project as far as I know, but really popularÃ,  - and free, btw.
http://www.soldat.pl/screens.html

I'm curious about the progress of your tool development. Promise to keep us updated on it. I think I'd like to design a level for this when the time comes - there are some links to previous projects in my signature, let me know if you need more details.

Chrille

Maybe one minute is too long. But I could rather easily add an option to make the "rounds" shorter.

As for online play, I'm not sure how I would do it. What I could do is have someone make a small program specifically for transferring data for this particular game. The game would communicate with this program through ini files or something and tell it which files to send and to who.

The game generates "turn" files that you send to your opponent by e-mail, or if it's on the same computer it loads it directly. If the transferring-program should work it would just transfer the turn-file directly to the opponent's gamefolder and have it load directly.

Programming the actual gameplay will start soon. The leveleditor is done and you can make levels already, but I'd rather have the game playable before spending too much work on the levels.

So far you can create characters, soon you will be able to hire goons and then I'll start programming the combat.
GASPOP software
http://www.gaspop.com

fred

Ok, I'd like to try the level editor once combat is in a place.

About the networking: I did some simple socket things in java before, and will probably be able to make the small program you mention - granted that it's a fun project with no big security issues. (Although if someone reading this has done that a thousand times before, I suggest you let them at it). The fact that the game is turn based, and the pre-existing turn-files, eliminate most of the more complicated issues with synchronization etc. Also, do you need direct connection only, or some kind of visible online portal where players meet to connect?



big brother

I would really like to see this game in action (even bare bones with placer art and stuff)! It's all about the simple rhythm of the gameplay.
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("Mom" and "love" are registered trademarks of Mom-Corp.)

lo_res_man

speaking of art, i would like to do SOME of the pixal art stuff, sound like a fun idea to me.
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