My advice would be to not think of how a game fits into today''s genres initially. Let the genres perhaps inspire you for ideas, but don''t let them govern you. Don''t think to yourself, "This game will be like an FPS or RTS". Just design the game according to what you want to create, and create the feel and theme you want. To hell w/ the genres.

"'Nazrix is cool' -- Nazrix" --Darkmage --Godfree

the trend nowadays is to make cross over games, hybrids if you will. RTS/RPG, FPS/RPG. I am still waiting for a RTS/FPS
Come up with ideas, then see how you can do them, the genre you''ll end up with doesn''t really matter, as long as you are making what you initially thought of. Let the marketing guys do their job and put a nice label on you afterwards

youpla :-P

Re: Genres - forget genres and make games the way you like them. There's always a 100 ways to improve any given game. Just take the two examples you put up:

Diablo 2
Mindless slaughterfest with little or no RPG elements. Compare it to old Nethack - there's literally been no advancement. 20yrs (or is it 30) of game development, and all they've really changed are the graphics. It would be quite easy to make something with a little more depth - or alternatively a different angle. How about a Diablo-like Hack'n'Slash where the player gets to play the monsters instead? Start as a Lvl 1 imp and work yourself up to Lvl 50 demon, fight of other demons and all those heroic wizard, palladins, and thieves who insist on disturbing your peaceful lair.

Baldur's Gate 2
Whenever I look at Baldur's Gate, I always think back to the early Ultima games. There's still something missing, IMO - a certain feeling (or lack of it) of aliveness in the BG gameworlds. Room for improvements yet. Also, the BG games are largely set in the standard D&D worlds - there are an endles number of RPG gameworlds still not done - how about a Dune-like universe? Ancient worlds and mythologies? Many people seem to be tiring of the same old D&D stuff - which affords opportunities for the smaller developers to produce something original and with a fresh slant.

Forget the trends, says I. Forget everything about genres. Just make the kind of game you want to play.

/Strategy
Imperium - Rise of Rome

Edited by - strategy on October 6, 2000 9:14:44 AM

quote:Original post by ahw

the trend nowadays is to make cross over games, hybrids if you will. RTS/RPG, FPS/RPG. I am still waiting for a RTS/FPS
Come up with ideas, then see how you can do them, the genre you''ll end up with doesn''t really matter, as long as you are making what you initially thought of. Let the marketing guys do their job and put a nice label on you afterwards

youpla :-P

RTS/FPS has been done. On the Playstation (sorry, only frame of reference i have for games) there is a game called...uhm... I think it''s Wargames: Defcon 1. It was a RTS, and you could control the vehicles individually. Sorry, I guess that was third person view, not first person.
Anyone remeber a game called Return Fire? That game kicks ass in multiplayer mode.
You could make a mutiplayer game, that way you won''t have to focus too much on deapth (if you think that''s a problem for you. I know it is for me. But i can''t even begin to make a multiplayer game. Oh, wait, I wonder if I used multiple input from the keyboard.)



shut up
CAN I GET A WOO WOO!