short question for game

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24 comments, last by liquiddark 16 years, 4 months ago
i'll try to keep this short and to the point i'm thinking of making a game that's maybe like command and conquer. it'll be medieval-like. and depending on the game, there will be several factions who have their own dominant race, or there will be players who create their own castle. my question is, tho, should i make it single-player with a story-line (with all the factions), an MMORPG (like single-player but with more ppl of course), or a Stronghold Crusader type game where u create your own castle from races and connect thru a host's IP to play together, but still be able to do single-player to build stats for troups. i'm iffy on the Crusader type game, but the single-player and especially the MMORPG (i'll like playing with others) sound like great ideas to me. things look big in my mind, i just need oppinion to know what the majority of ppl would want. thanks for taking time to read this, and i hope for any comments/suggestions on this idea.
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For now I think you should just skip the MMO idea unless you're not very serious, and if you aren't, then you might not want to expect too much help.

But, ultimately what you're doing is creating either a single-player game or a single-player game with some sort of LAN/multiplayer option. Either way, it's up to you what you want the focus to be on. Is it the kind of game you're supposed to play with other people, or is it centered around a story? Alternatively, you could have it similar to a Warcraft game, where the single-player game follows a story, whereas playing the game with other people is basically building the strongest army and defeating your opponent - of course, with smoe innovation and original/refreshing implements.

I would actually recommend you to have the game like a strategy game based on a story, with perhaps some sort of hero to control the army. You could create a multiplayer save file where you and a few others follow either the same storyline or a different storyline. Of course, to keep consistensy, you would be forced to play with the same players in that save file... you could probably work around it, I'm just throwing out some random ideas.

But generally, I think that combining a strategy game with adventure elements could be fun, if you do it right. There's so much you can do with a strategy game, and it all boils down to what kind of game you want it to be, and you're not entirely clear in your post on that point.
well,i had an idea of making the battle system like Dynasty Warriors, and that would playout fine if i do a lan connection co-op game, wouldn't it? or maybe even if i did an MMO but u go around as only ur character and ur group is whoever is in ur party, not like an army, but a party like FFXI? of course, better battle system than FFXI.
Well, you seem rather uncertain about what you really want? You're kind of wobbling around, unsure if you want an MMO or not, if it's going to be an RTS, an RPG or an action game... I'll try to make it easy for you.

What you could do is create a game (not CREATE a game) but more like... starting a game, which other players could join, perhaps. Seen from a single-player perspective, you could just start the game by first building up a base, expanding it to a castle with perhaps a fortress, a city or such that will let economy flourish, allowing you to fund whatever army or small group of soldiers you're leading, and stuff like that. So what you could have is a single-player normal Adventure game, with events where you have to prepare for a large, full-scale war.

In a multiplayer game, I suppose you could just skip the entire "build your own stuff" thing and just team up with other players in a "created game" (like Diablo II, for instance) where you can adventure together, or one can like, infiltrate the enemy while the other party member works around the government of the home nation, and the rest might be gathering information and equipment and making sure you have enough money to fund whatever expedition/adventure/war you're later going to carry out.

Sorry... I'm just... shooting off ideas and that's probably not what you want. But essentially, you have to first decide what you want the game to be like. And having a battle system that's superior to FFXI's is a very good idea, as I despise the whole auto-attack, untrue interactive battle system that you find in most MMO's.

Look at Hellgate: London. I think it's more fun to play that game than FFXI or WoW. However, I'm not very fond of the whole questing system of MMO's...
Quote:Original post by PokeDestiny
i'm iffy on the Crusader type game, but the single-player and especially the MMORPG (i'll like playing with others) sound like great ideas to me. things look big in my mind, i just need oppinion to know what the majority of ppl would want.

What is it with the MMORPG genre? It's like a true zombie plague. And only gamers are susceptible to infection.

MMORPGs are crap. Or at least I think so. And there are enough medieval MMORPGs on the market right now to drive anyone to hate them. I would sway back toward your dreams of real time strategy.
Kest, you should try to explain why MMORPG's, as you put it, suck.

I could put my two cents on why MMORPG's tend to be less than viable good games. First of all, their "addictive" factor isn't solely due to fun gameplay. It may seem addictive because you get quests - lots of them - that take time to complete, and if you leave them alone for too long, you won't know what the hell you were actually supposed to do in the first place (yes you can re-read the objective but yo still need some refreshment). Most quests are also fetch-and-receive type of quests, others are plain "kill, collect and deliver". Therefore, it just consumes lots of time.

And these days, you only play with others if you're endgame. Millions of people are playing games like WOW, so there must be some certain appeal to it, but as both a veteran gamer and an aspiring game designer, I think MMO's tend to be shallow and bland.

I would very much so suggest you go the RTS direction. It's a genre I feel isn't all too much fun but it's a different gamestyle and many people like it and I can understand why and I don't judge them for it; it's a matter of opinion :) But even I used to play some Warcraft 3 and Red Alert in my younger days. RTS has so much potential, and I think you should try to play around with the genre because you could come up with pretty interesting stuff, if you know what you want to do with your game.
As of two days ago, you couldn't get Hello World to compile. Focus on something very simple. This precludes MMOGs entirely. I would suggest taking one of the things that you mentioned - making a castle, for example - and building that component as a single-player sandbox. Then add elements of scoring, resources, troops, what have you.

Once you're sure that part of it works, add network browsing of high scores. Then try your hand at adding the ability to connect two people together. See where it goes.

What I'm saying is, break off small tasks and do them first. Even the best game makers in the world had to start with simpler stuff.
No Excuses
Quote:
As of two days ago, you couldn't get Hello World to compile.


first of all, my dislexia was the problem, and i have my gf to thank for that. second, my real idea for this game is to actually be able to do whatever u want, really, whether it's to be good or be evil. that's if it's MMO.

i don't really like single-player games too much anymore because i've been playing them all my life (i'm an only child and have hardly any friends in real life) but i still like RPG games, and an RPG u can play with others i think is the best.

and truthfully, this game doesn't have to be medieval, i had thought about creating a space pirate game too, or some kind of fantasy game that would put FFXI and WoW to shame. not saying my idea will, but i would certainly love to try. and about maybe being like Stronghold or Warcraft, i just suggested something to get a reaction, but i still like the idea of a battle system like Dynasty Warriors, or even KH-ish.
Most of us would love to create games that would put the aforementioned games to shame, but it's easier said than done. If you create a space game, you know plenty will tell you that you can't compare these two games with your space game.

Also, your game might take a completely different direction depending on what you choose to make. What genre for the game, and what setting and mood you want for the game. What you're sometimes forgetting is that MMO's do not necessarily equal having fun playing with others. In such a case, a simple Online game would be bettr, where you are between 4-8 per created game, so to speak. Because 99% of MMO players don't really care about the other people around them.
Quote:Original post by PokeDestiny
first of all, my dislexia was the problem

Your problem was that you were trying to compile with the wrong compile target, and there was a linker error message that told you the basic thing you needed to know in order to figure that out. If you're the lead programmer for an MMO, that is an issue that you have long ago and far away learned to deal with. What I'm saying is, hone your skills first. Find much smaller targets that are interesting enough to work on. The game you're talking about writing is well beyond your current capabilities, so develop your capabilities until that statement is no longer true.

Quote:my real idea for this game is to actually be able to do whatever u want, really, whether it's to be good or be evil

You have to be able to do something before you can do anything. So, write the ability to do something. That's how software development works. You write something, then something else, then look at the common things between them and decide that there's a better way to support both things.

I'm not trying to tell you not to try to attain your goals, but I am trying to differentiate between the goals you've enumerated - WoW-killing sandbox title with an MMO universe - and the ones that lie on the path to that - implementing a working version of, say, checkers.
No Excuses

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