Would you be intereted in an FPS set in the Old West? It seems like an interesting period that has gotten no attention the game market. Right now I'm just throwing out ideas Weapons: Fists - some fights could be non-lethal Knives - for hand-to-hand or throwing Pistol - your trusty Colt peacemaker, of course :-) Shotgun - for close range fights, when you can hide it Rifle - maybe something like a Winchester rifle for the longer range open country gun battles, especially if they're on horseback Early gatling gun - perhaps in special circumstances since these were not mobile and is really out of character for the genre Cannon - ditto Grenades - would be primitive, but again out of character Enemies: Outlaws/Lawmen (see Objectives) Indians Maybe some animals like wolves, bears, etc. Objectives: - You are lawman (Sheriff, Marhsall) who protects townfolk and hunts down the bad guys - You are an adventurer/outlaw - maybe not as bad as GTA - seeking fortune/fame style : Doom/half-life style linear GTA style open ended - wouldn't want everything to happen in the same town though Realism: Obviously, one-shot kills are out. OTOH wounds should effect things like movement and accuracy (like they do in Deux Ex). I wouldn't want to have medkits. Maybe you could visit the local doctor after getting beat up and he would patch you up. Outlaws could visit the "medicine man" of the local Indian tribe. Storyline: I'll have to go back and watch some old Westerns. The story around Wyatt Earp would be pretty interesting - there is alot of action, the location is perfect(Tombstone, Arizona) and you start out as a lawmen and end up an outlaw. Its not exalty a happy ending though. Plot/game elements: Rescue the damsel in distress tied to the train tracks (a must!) Rob/overtake a train Gold/silver prospecting (don't know how this could be a game though) Cattle roundup So whaddya think?

Sounds interesting and it seems to me that it has lots of potential. I would play it.

Other weapons you could integrate:
Bow and arrow
hatchet
spears
blowgun

objective:
bounty hunter - no western can do without them
indian worrior - having to protect your tribe from the white men seems interesting to me, especialy if you are not nearly as good equiped as they are.
escort

generaly, there seem to be a lot of "will do anything for money" type of characters in westerns (though usualy not the main characters). They allow for many different objectives. Also, you could do a kind of outlaw to good guy transition story, which from the not so many westerns I have seen, also seems to be common in the genre.

On realism:
I think even one shot kills would be ok, since the fire arm where not that acurate back then. I don't mean that every shot would be lethal, just some of them could be.

Quote:Original post by paulecoyote
Red Dead Revolver? (the music is awesome)

That looks interesting, too bad its for consoles only though.

Outlaws did exactly this some years ago on the PC and it was well received I believe. Lucasarts' work if my memory serves me correctly.

If bishop_pass is around, he might want to say something about Black Hat. It's a fairly sophisticated project that he began years ago. I was temporarily attached to it as an unskilled advisor, but I'm sure it's changed since then. I thought the focus was gunfighting, he thought the focus was horses, and other team members centered their efforts on things like bar fights, quick-draw duelling and landscape design. A lot of what you describe was covered there.

Actually, that old thread might still exist...

Bingo.

First of all, thanks everyone for the links and advice!

Quote:Original post by Razorguts
And don't forget about Dead Man's Hand, released last year by Human Head Studios (the same folks who picked up the "Prey" scraps with 3D Realms and are running full force with them)...

-Razorguts

You're kidding, someone's still trying to finish Prey??? What has it been, like 10 years now? I remember at one point they were trying to build an entire OS just for the game - maybe they scrapped that and are now trying to build an entire console for it :-)

Quote:Original post by ghosted
Outlaws did exactly this some years ago on the PC and it was well received I believe. Lucasarts' work if my memory serves me correctly.

Believe it or not LucasArts stil has a page up for the game, and I just played the demo - looks like a really neat game with the classic LucasArts "charm" found in games like the Dark Forces series. The weapons(pistol and rifle) are implemented right on track with what I'd want. I especially like the two handed "rapid fire" mode with the pistol. I would probably include en aimed fire mode for the rifle. I also liked how reloaded single shots at a time, and how you could die in two shots at the hardest difficulty level. Although the experience was fun I'd wouldn't exactly want the "Doom feel" of Outlaws however - I wouldn't want medkits though and you wouldn't fight hordes of enemies at one time except in maybe a few cases. Gunfighting wouldn't be the only thing you did - I would have other action sequences (like maybe lassoing cattle that go astray on a cattle drive) as well character interaction and maybe some puzzle solving. I think I'd reallyh like to tell a story in Half-Life/Deux-Ex style so the game would be fairly linear. It would also be nice to have multiple storylines/endings and decisions you make that effect the game in a meaningful way.

All in all I think parts of it are quite doable. First I'd work on character models, maps, and animation sequences and see if I could do a simple gunfight. Then I'd flesh out the script and try to add more elements. I've done some modelling in Blender but if anyone could recommend a free engine/renderer, (at least for non-commericial use), especially one that interfaces well with Blender, that would save me alot of effort and coding.

P.S.: I've tried Ogre3D but it didn't seem to work well with me - couldn't get it to compile though I didn't look at it that much and its been about six months. Anything that runs efficiently(no Java or Python engines) on Windows that requires VS .NET at maximum would be great.

[Edited by - SunDog on July 8, 2005 6:05:12 PM]

Quote:Original post by SunDog
I also liked how reloaded single shots at a time, and how you could die in two shots at the hardest difficulty level.

That's what I loved around Outlaws as well (well, and also the awesome music!). What I thought was a great touch was that not only could you die in two shots, but every one else could die in two shots as well; they lowered the health of everyone! (Well, except maybe the bosses). This made it a game of fire first and fire accurately. Great fun!

But if you're keen, go for it SunDog! There are too many FPS set in the standard settings of modern day, WWII and futuristic. I'd like to see more set in WWI, the nineteenth century (Wild West, the British colonies such as colonial Australia etc.), or even further back (musketeers, swashbuckling pirates etc.)

Gold prospecting was a theme in an old game named "Gold Rush". I believe it was made by Sierra. I enjoyed this theme very much.