An untapped Genre, and an idea of a possible game.

Blarkage · 2008-06-24T10:38:23

Iv'e been thinking about a few types of games I, as a kid(i'm 13), would like to play. As i thought about it i came to the conclusion that i wanted to play some sort of a zombie horror survival. When i went online, to the store, and viewed magazines i found there were almost none that were any good or worth playing. Recently i've found a decent one called Dead Frontier, its not all that great and so i've been starting to think about what i would like in a game about zombie survival. I read an article that covered some of it, but then i read some more and found out that the company wasn't even going to bother making. The article talks about starting in a tiny hotel in a small city, you and a team of survivors managed to meet up there, you have a hunger meter and zombies have found out where you are, you will need to keep the hotel safe and get food and ammunition for guns at the same time, so you will have a team of eight and you will have to send four men out to go get food and ammo and four men need to stay to keep the hotel from being overrun. Also while doing this there are seven other teams of eight out there that you can choose to help, if there in trouble, or just leave to die. This seems like a very good idea and there are really no other games like it. Some ideas i would like to add about this project(i hope you guys work on it because im only 13 and dont have much experience). I would like for their to be multiple buildings, each with stuff inside of it, for ex. one house had a gang member living in it who had an uzi, or something like that. Also when you use a microphone depending on how far from each other, in the game, depends on how loud or quiet you hear the guy talking. Also you can form an alliance with another team, if you can find them, then you can move to a bigger building, like a store or a mall, and try to defend all, or part of it. The zombies should run about 80% as fast as you, but there should be enough of them you cant simply run by them. I want multiple maps, the more the merrier, and perhaps something realistic like a part of NY, NY. Also when you start your multiplayer account you choose a class/profession, for example your guy was a police man or a doctor who survived(other possible classes/professions are thief, can get into buildings better and search them better, computer technician, can run a security system, if the building has one, and with the help of a doctor to get a zombie sample can make a device that tells when a zombie is near, construction worker, can smelt down metals to make bullets and can make metal into pieces to help secure a building). When a person gets bit a doctor can work on them, if the doctor gets there in time, and can cut the disease out of your skin before you turn into a zombie. A system rates players before the game so they can determine who they play against so its fair. However it should be some what like a normal city and should not have unlimited ammunition or food. But your construction worker can make some bullets for you, depending on what metals you can find will determine the bullets, and he will need to go to the gun shop and bring back a bullet making and filling device, and there are also farms on the outside of the town, unless its NY, NY or any other big city, that you can get food from and plant food in that you can harvest, if you live long enough, and use(i personally dont think the plant and harvest idea is very good but i want the communities ideas and opinions on it). Also if you can get to a radio station and have your computer technician work on it to make it work, you can call for an air drop of supplies, the supplies should only be able to be called two times per team. There should be an assortment of weapons from pistols to shotguns, maybe one rocket launcher or two if you can break into the police building and get into their gun stash. How To Win How to win should simply be last team standing, but you cant kill other people, that would make it too easy simply to go out and shoot the other teams so your team is last alive. If one man survives his whole team gets some sort of reward, for example next time the man that lived will have a gun to start with. Also, i think their should be some sort of a level system and skill system so players have something to look forward to with the end of a round. Depending on a class/professions level determines how fast they can make stuff, and determine how good they are at their jobs, for example a computer technician can break a police stations password lock depending on his level. I hope you like my idea, and I really hope that someone will start to work on it(but I really doubt anyone will). Thanks for reading this and I hope you see the untapped potential of this genre as well. Please comment and tell me new ideas and thoughts, or complaints about this idea. [Edited by - Blarkage on May 14, 2008 8:25:48 PM]

Writing for Games Game Design

Started by Blarkage May 10, 2008 07:20 PM

104 comments, last by Zooch 15 years, 9 months ago

Viperrr

139

June 03, 2008 01:21 PM

Alright I am giving it a go.

I need a project to improve my skills, and this will do. Weather or not it will be MMO or Online doesnt matter right now. Once I have all the buildings, models, guns, zombies etc, and the rendering engine done, I can always convert the game to either type.

I am building my own engine from scratch, using c++ and directX 9.

Blarkage

122

Author

June 03, 2008 03:06 PM

what exactly is c++ i use a game design system called blender and i dont really like it all that much so any other system would be nice

Viperrr

139

June 03, 2008 03:26 PM

C++ is a very populair programming language. Most professional games are coded in C++. This forum has a whole section on C++ (a workshop). You can read all about it.

Since you are 13 and have no programming experience, you are probably vastly underestimating how hard it is to make games. Not to mention online games.

Blender is modelling program, not a programming language. You use it create character models and building and such. All the graphics.
C++ is used to actually make a game with those models.

Maverick Programmer

100

June 03, 2008 08:38 PM

Hmmm... sounds a lot like GameInformer's article about the new Resident Evil game...

But anyway, like Viperrr said, making a game like this would be somewhat challenging and would take a ton of time, but why wait until someone starts making the game for you (to be honest, I don't think anyone would just make a game for someone lickidy-split) and learn how to program in C++. Heck, I stated programming when I was 11. It's like learning a new language (And it is a language, a programming language! Ha! I crack myself up...). At first, getting your basic greetings down is all you need for a while, but soon you'll need to speak complex and dynamic sentences, but it comes to you almost naturally (sounds geeky I know).
But it's well worth it.

Well, there's my two cents.

Holy crap, you can read!

Blarkage

122

Author

June 03, 2008 08:56 PM

yeah i went through and checked out c++ and messed around with it learning through tutorials, eventually i decided i would just mess with it later and ill probably retry it some time closer to college

also id like to put that im not underestimating how hard it is to make games(i mess around on blender just for fun to see what i can make) i asked someone to make the game for me on the first blog for a reason. :)

deadstar

536

June 03, 2008 08:58 PM

I was planning to do something like this for my 2nd year Programming project at uni. Other assignments got me swamped and I only had time to do the engine and knock up a pretty lame zombie shooter demo.

Your idea sounds pretty good, I'm not convinced it's an untapped genre though, there are hundreds of zombie survival horrors...

I'd definitely give it a shot though, look into creating a Games Design Document.

http://www.hysteriagaming.com/storage/zombie_release.zip - if anyone cares. Not proud of it in the least, wish I'd had some more time :(

"The right, man, in the wrong, place, can make all the dif-fer-rence in the world..." - GMan, Half-Life 2

A blog of my SEGA Megadrive development adventures: http://www.bigevilcorporation.co.uk

Blarkage

122

Author

June 03, 2008 09:07 PM

you are true there are lots of zombie survival games, however not many have been done in a sandbox survival style, and i think thats what gamers would really be interested in, and also thanks for trying to take on the game, the more people working on it the better chances of a good game coming out :)

deadstar

536

June 03, 2008 09:10 PM

Just filling a list of possible games to make when I finish my final year project. It won't be for a long while yet.

"The right, man, in the wrong, place, can make all the dif-fer-rence in the world..." - GMan, Half-Life 2

A blog of my SEGA Megadrive development adventures: http://www.bigevilcorporation.co.uk

Viperrr

139

June 04, 2008 08:58 AM

Lol deadstar :D Your zombie shooter cracked me up! Nice demo

LOOY

134

June 04, 2008 10:10 AM

Hey Viperrr how long will it take you to build an engine? I was planning on making this game but using something like the C4 engine to save time and blood pressure. Anyway I guess if your making it I'll have to find something different to do. :( Although that really depends on what type you were going to make...

An untapped Genre, and an idea of a possible game.

This topic is closed to new replies.

Popular Topics

Recommended Tutorials

An untapped Genre, and an idea of a possible game.

This topic is closed to new replies.

Popular Topics

Recommended Tutorials

Reticulating splines