ok here is my first Idea, give me any feed back you have, i have really no idea what kind of time frame this type of project would need.




Game title: pending


Overview:

I inend to bring a team together to program a game in the style of an competitive arcade FPS.
What will set this game apart form the average FPS will be weapons and abilities based on the users music.

Intent:

To sell this game in the digital market place.

Engine:

Undecided, feed back on some good engines would be nice.

Art style:

Yet to be fully decided, I could use some feed back on the
kind of style you would expect, after reading what the game will do.

The Music:

I intend to relase the game with a sample of pre loaded music from all diffrent generas.
The music will be played through a built in player that will
have custom playlist options for diffrent loadouts, as well as hot keys for on the fly
music change for game play reasons (start and stop your own music/change tracks to suit
abilities and tactics). I see possbile Itunes or other intergration in the future if the project makes it to market.

Level design/game modes:

The game will have many standard game modes, as well as mutators to suit the
theme of the game. things like each team must use the same song provided by
the server. I am currently in the process of designing mechanics that will also
make the levels more effected by your music. things like assult maps with barriers
that require the assulting team to bombard them with diffrent types of music
in combination.


Weapon mechanics:

The weapons will all be unique in the fact that they
all react diffrently to diffrent genres of music. there will of
corse be overlap for each weapon to make sure they are all not useless.


I intend to acomplish this by having each weapon pic up on diffrent aspects of each
genre. things like bass and treble levels/balance ect (esentialy each weapon will be
a 3d visualizer). for each weapon diffrent aspects of the sound will effect
diffrent outputs like range and damage (play testing will be required for balance and to
assigne max caps on all stats and weapon effects)
All weapons will be avaliable in the loadout at the start of each map, as well as
a list of saved loadouts.

examples of weapons and effect:

these can be changed at any time based on future research and playtesting when the game
is in the right state and are just here to give you an idea of what I intend.

acoustic laser: uses tempo bass and treble. this weapon favours songs with a high tempo
and a good balance of base and treble. high tempo ensures a continus beam. base effects
the high end of the damage output, while treble provides a range bonus.the wepon effect
will look like a stright beam that swells and contracts based on the bass while
stretching and contracting based on the treble (gaining range)


blast cannon: uses bass and tempo mainly, weapon will be programed to favour songs with a
slower heavy base beat for max damage and accuracy. as the tempo gets faster accuracy is
reduced.


abilitys machanics:

abilitis will be devided based on loadout with a few that can be spread between all
loadouts

example abilities and effect:

these can be changed at any time based on future research and playtesting when the game
is in the right state and are just here to give you an idea of what I intend.

Sprint boost: GOOD-gain a speed bonus based on the tempo of your music BAD- lose speed
if your music slows down, take loss in overall health.

power jump: GOOD-gain a jump hight and control bonus when your music is pumping out alot
of bass. BAD-reduces overall jump when music does not have enough bass.

sonic shield: GOOD- projects a forward shield (45ish degrees), any damage you take
through the shield is reduced by an ammount deturmined by the overall balance of the
things tracked for the song you are currently listening too. BAD- reduces over all
speed. (could be something else base on play testing of corse)


most abilities will be unlocked from the start, with other more situational abilities
(will be found by play testing) being avaliable after unlocking related
achivments.

It's an interesting idea but here's the problems:

People don't want to listen to metal if they don't like metal.... or dubstep, or hip hop, or classical, or country.. etc.
So forcing them to listen to that to get correct powers/abilities is not a good idea.

Secondly it would be a bit unfair for people who don't know how to produce their own music.
People who do know how to do that... they can create a song that sounds absolutely horrible but it has all the correct amounts of bass, trebble etc.
And then they can mute the game and be godlike.

It's an interesting idea but here's the problems:

People don't want to listen to metal if they don't like metal.... or dubstep, or hip hop, or classical, or country.. etc.
So forcing them to listen to that to get correct powers/abilities is not a good idea.

Secondly it would be a bit unfair for people who don't know how to produce their own music.
People who do know how to do that... they can create a song that sounds absolutely horrible but it has all the correct amounts of bass, trebble etc.
And then they can mute the game and be godlike.

In addition to these excellent points, consider this:

• what stops people loading in completely non-musical white-noise or some other purpose-built sound file circulated among hackers/metagamers?
  
• commercial online FPS games are intricately balanced over thousands of hours of labor, because it's very difficult to do, and even when you do it, you still can't please everyone. What you propose is a game that's externally balanced (or more like imbalanced) by completely unpredictable forces. I would be concerned about overall enjoyment around this point.
  

But all of that aside... You're thinking waaaaaaaay too far ahead. It happens to everyone, and I know exactly what it's like, but you have to STOP. Take a step back. Take a deep breath.

Your idea can't go anywhere without a few things happening. These things will be hard work, take some time, and unfortunately may not satisfy that burning itch to see what's in your head on your screen, but that's just the way it is.

Firstly - you need to prototype the bare essence of what you're proposing. Ideally, this would be 2D - little to no graphics - just a mechanical test of musical properties can affect conflict outcomes. Find out if this whole thing can even theoretically work.

There is absolutely no way you can assemble a team without this leg-work existing first. You shouldn't even try to bring people into this beforehand. It's your baby. It's up to you to prove it has legs. If you don't have enough programming skill to prototype it, you could consider working with ONE person to help you out, and see where it goes.

Don't start people modelling characters, designing levels, etc. You may learn very quickly that you have insurmountable flaws in your plan and next week you could have en entirely new obsession.

I can tell from your writing that you're very excited, but reign it in. The project you describe could entail work hours in the 100,000s to match what you probably see in your head. Prove to yourself and others that you can put even 10 solid hours into a working concept-test before you even think about the real road ahead, that would literally span years of your life.

The major game mechanics haven't been given enough thought (the musical weapons I mean), and yet time was wasted on formalities like writing about all the crap that's present in every other game. You should consider those game mechanics that make your game unique more. For example aside from what glhf said, it looks like winning the game depends not on player skill, but on the music she listens to at the time. And it seems everyone can put their own music in the playlist, so people who have more music on their PCs have an advantage. This kind of gameplay will be impossible to turn into skill based gameplay. Give this idea of yours a lot more thought. It's not a bad one in the general sense, but there are all kinds of little problems that require you to stray a little from your original idea to develop gameplay that incorporates music.

thanks for the feed back i'm a bit new to the whole thing. i'll take whats said to heart and see if i can refine things a bit more and get back with something a bit more solid. i'm starting to think this might make a beter co-op game.

again thanks for the honest feedback!

I like the idea, although there's a real chance it'll suck. In competitive play, balance is a feature, and if I can write a loop of loud bass and sweet guitar riffs that recharges my health and shoots a grenade every measure, I'll just listen to that noise while I own fools in your game. If you can pull it of, it'll be awesome, and I'll play it.

Also, you should put in an easter egg where players who have Marty Robbins in their list get an awesome quick-draw ability that one-shots everything.