Which game should I work on now ?

cyberwan · Post by **cyberwan** » Sat Jan 17, 2009 4:22 pm

Hi everyone !

I'm writing a topic here because I have a problem in my open source developper life : sometimes, I have an idea of a game I would like to play to, so I begin coding it. Some time after that, I have a new idea, and I begin coding it, leaving the first idea. That leads me to having a few non-playable games started, and I can't stay on an idea and go to the end of it.
So I would like to know, among my game ideas, which one is the best, so I can just close the others, and focus on one (maybe with some help

)

1 - Metabolsim
This game would be a RTS, characteristic because its battle field is a human body. The player has to manage the resources he gets by the character eating, build defense units, fight against aggressors (virus, bacterias), ensure every organ gets oxygen, ensure the character grows, ... I think this game can be fun and educative, but it requires a lot of work !
What's done yet : I've started this project 2 years ago with 2 friends. We've worked on it during some months, so a lot of things have been done : learning Irrlicht, designing units, designing body and some organs, basic unit interactions, basic animations, digestive system, many ideas of what's to be done, and even artworks. It seems advanced but there is still much work to do. It's based on Irrlicht only.

2 - The computer factory
This game would be a management game. The player has to buy computer parts, make them being assembled by workers, and sell the built computers. He also has to organize its factory so that every worker is productive and doesn't spend his time on walking. This game can be fun if you like management, but maybe not for people who don't care about what's inside their computer.
What's done yet : I've started this project 1 year ago, alone. I've worked on it during some months, so there is a playable part : the scene has been designed, the workers come to the factory, the gamer can buy computer parts. Maybe there is less work left that on the previous game, but it still needs a lot of time... You can have a better idea of it on http://sourceforge.net/projects/computerfactory/ It's based on Irrlicht and Qt.

3 - Sims clone
This game would just be a "The Sims" clone, as this game is one of the bests I know. It could be very extensible so that designers could add objects, characters, wallpapers, ...
What's done yet : nothing, this is just my current idea

so there is a lot of work to be done ! Designing characters, objects, coding AI, GUI, ... It would be based on Irrlicht only (or maybe on Qt too, as it is so great ?)

4 - 3D movie maker clone
Do you remember Microsoft 3D Movie Maker ? I remember spending hours on it when I was a child, it was great, even if some parts of it were just not user-friendly. So here again, the idea is to do a clone of it, with an extensible architecture, so that anyone can add scenes, characters, objects, ...
What's done yet : nothing, this is just an other idea ! Maybe this one needs the less coding work, but there is more work on video/sound rendering, and designing resources.

That's all ! Now I'm waiting for any idea, some of mine can probably be upgraded, or maybe I can transfer my work to someone else, join an existing development team, or hire developers/designers.

Thanks for reading this whole post !

cobra · Post by **cobra** » Fri Jan 23, 2009 3:10 am

I vote to Computer Factory.

Good luck with your project![/list]

Josh1billion · Post by **Josh1billion** » Sun Jan 25, 2009 7:07 am

I like the Metabolsim idea.

Ion Dune · Post by **Ion Dune** » Sun Jan 25, 2009 7:38 am

Voted Metabolism - RTS is my favorite genre.

zillion42 · Post by **zillion42** » Sun Jan 25, 2009 2:15 pm

I am currently caught playing 'Ports Of Call' with my friend. POC is a

Trade- and shippingsimulation. Our popular classic game Ports Of Call comes to new life.

After so many years POC (more than 10 sice the first Amiga Version in 1986) is still very popular and we decided to develop a new generation of this game, with new technical features as 3d simulation and new features with more ships and harbours, multi freights and many more for the trading part.

http://www.rdklein.com/poc/index.html
but to be honest, the original classic amiga version was a lot more charming than the new xxl version, mainly because it lacks a few quite important features and the new graphics suck. I was actually thinking about doing something like that for myself, so that would be my suggestion... I voted " Any other, your ideas are too bad !" which I dont think (I like metabolism a lot actually), but I'd really like to have a decent ports of call...

another potentially really good remake...
'North and South'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHcoemBuUZ0

and for the inspiration (old games just had it)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUoJBerF ... re=related

psychophoniac · Post by **psychophoniac** » Sun Jan 25, 2009 6:31 pm

since i had an idea that was like yours, i voted for the first one.
i would love to see that done, i don't have the time for it atm

cyberwan · Post by **cyberwan** » Sun Jan 25, 2009 10:20 pm

Thanks for all your support !!
As I now have 21 votes and 9 for Metabolsim, I think I have a winner ! I started porting the current code to Irrlicht 1.5 last week, and integrating it into KDevelop. My next task will be to open a Sourceforge project, upload the code on the svn an place a Wiki to restore the old one I used to host on my own computer.

psychophoniac wrote:since i had an idea that was like yours, i voted for the first one.
i would love to see that done, i don't have the time for it atm

I would be glad to know about your ideas, I'm trying to compare what I imagine to the RTS games I played, so that it would be the most attractive and pleasant as possible.

zillion42 wrote:I am currently caught playing 'Ports Of Call' with my friend

I didn't know this game, there has been some change between the original and the current version !

zillion42 wrote:and for the inspiration (old games just had it)

Well, you're definitely right ! There are a lot of old games I thought about making a 3D remake : Civilization (but there is already a very good 2D clone), Risk, and even the Windows Pinball

Thanks again for your answers. If someone is interested in working on The Computer Factory, the Sourceforge project is already opened, so I can transfer it.

psychophoniac · Post by **psychophoniac** » Mon Jan 26, 2009 3:15 pm

cyberwan wrote: I would be glad to know about your ideas, I'm trying to compare what I imagine to the RTS games I played, so that it would be the most attractive and pleasant as possible.

my idea was to create a "Age of Empires" inside the human body, you have the body defense forces, with the main base fixed in the head, and the virus fraction, that has multiple "mothership cells" that can be moved.
you can fly around inside the vitals of a human and build cells. there are fes basic types, but they can be modified (for example a defense cell for the body forces, that can eat up virus cells and grows bigger with that, but gets slower and a virus cell witch provides resources from "killing" enemy cells).
resources are provided to the body forces every few seconds (that can be upgraded like a technology) and virus forces have either to kill enemies or send out some "farmer" cells, but they are expensive and not very effective.
you can also build some buildings, such as research centers, unit-building-centers(that does not pay on the virus forces, since the motherships can do that too) and defense towers (wich are build on the motherships directly on the virus forces). as you can see buildings do not pay on the virus fraction, this is to keep them moving along the body.
what i liked about the idea is, that you have several things to keep the game going:
-a huge battlefield, from feet to stomach to the final battle, the brain.
-the virus forces have to fight to gain resources, they will not survive from the few resources they gain every few seconds
-if a battle is lost, virus forces can easily build up a new army in another region (f.e. stomach lost, but in the feet there are waiting new forces)
-ability to move makes virus forces harder to be caught by body forces since they can easily escape an lost battle (i wanted to make it impossible to the body forces to control the whole body)
-i haven't seen the idea in any other game...
-i had an idea that you can play this in internet, where you can move (as virus forces) from one body to another, where the body forces are controlled by another human player, but this was way to unrealistic to write for me ^^ (nevertheless i liked the idea of one player waiting with his body forces for an virus team to attack the body, since it should not be possible to see them coming that easy)...

...there were far more ideas, but who knows, maybe someday i have the time to do this, so i won't tell you everything, but i hoped this gave a few new ideas

i'm looking forward to yours, hope you post it here

let me know what you think please

cobra · Post by **cobra** » Mon Jan 26, 2009 4:18 pm

Awesome! Sounds very sweet.

Good luck

cyberwan · Post by **cyberwan** » Mon Jan 26, 2009 7:04 pm

psychophoniac wrote:let me know what you think please

Well, I see you spent a lot of time thinking about it ! My ideas are quite the same, actually, but there are some new things you talk about.
* The first one is about your virus motherships. This is a good idea because you really have a virus force, with a main building center. What bothers me is that it's not very realistic

* About resources, I have a similar system as yours : resources come regularly. But I have thought (and coded !) a tower-defense-like game into the character digestive system. When the character eats, the food comes into the stomach, then into the intestine, where some tower-like energy eaters grab the food. The player has to build the towers, upgrade them, and decide what kind of energy they can grab.
* About buildings, we had initially decided to turn the character organs to buildings the player could control, but now I think this is not very good as he can't decide where to build units. So I came to the same as you, different buildings the player can build anywhere in the body.
* I think your game misses a main goal. I've seen many games which missed a one, and finally, you stop playing before even trying every possibility. Finding a main goal in my game is my current purpose, but this is quite hard, as there are some differences from the usual RTS : when the game starts, you already know the whole battle field, so there is no exploration needed. Whatever you do, you can't stop once and for all the viruses from coming into you charachter's body, so you can't just defeat the enemy. I've thought about splitting the game into difficulty steps, ages if you want to call them so. When the character has grown for some time and you have the needed resources, you go on the next age, where the game opens more possibilities, but the viruses also become more aggressive. Once at the final step, you just have to keep your character alive as long as possible. I think that would keep the player playing, wouldn't it ?

psychophoniac wrote:i hoped this gave a few new ideas

Actually yes, I used to think that I just needed a defensive force, and the virus would keep trying to kill the character, but now I really think I need a complete virus force, with buildings and everything, the player could control, would it just be for multiplayer game ! I'll think about it, thanks

psychophoniac · Post by **psychophoniac** » Mon Jan 26, 2009 9:05 pm

the "goal of the game" idea is nice, i like it. ^^
what would be the goal the other way around, when you control virus forces?

cyberwan · Post by **cyberwan** » Mon Jan 26, 2009 10:01 pm

Well, to kill the character of course !
Viruses will be able to damage units, buildings, and organs. If the heart or brain of the character gets to a critical level, then the character dies ! That will happen one day of course, so the body force goal is to make sure it happens the latest as possible, as in real life actually

psychophoniac · Post by **psychophoniac** » Tue Jan 27, 2009 10:24 am

so there is only one unit that can win and the goal of the body's forces is only to survive as long as possible? this is quite fun, but it should be some kind of option, there should be alternatives... (like building a super-defense cell that has much energy and kills many virus forces and their motherships easily...) or a "fever" you can develop to kill many viruses (like a world-wonder in AOE, only that it kills enemys from time to time...). this would make the game more interesting because it forces the enemy party to attack, so all those "i build up my army for 30 minutes and attack then" players have to move their ass to stop this technology from being developed ! (i hate those from AOE ^^ )...

cyberwan · Post by **cyberwan** » Tue Jan 27, 2009 6:32 pm

You're right, I think just waiting for the viruses to attack may become boring. Starting from your world-wonder idea, I've thought at a super-organ the player could build and get very powerful. The best thing I found is an organ which allows the defensive forces to get out of the body and then destroy the viruses base ! That's not realistic of course, but it would be a good goal I think.
My girlfriend gave me a campaign-mode idea : the game would contain many levels, each one corresponding to one step in the character's life. Every time, he gets infected by a specific illness, and the player has to make everything needed for the character to survive. That would be great as many game modes could be included, and at each level the player has a new objective, until the character has spent a long and happy life

I think this would be really great, but I will keep this for the day I have my own 30-people development team

On the other hand, the viruses really need a reason to attack, as you said. Maybe they could have only one barrack outside the body, and build more once they are inside ? Or maybe they would be able to duplicate once they have killed enough defensive units ? That would be a good and quite realistic idea, but maybe it would increase the difficulty of the defensive force too much, wouldn't it ? Or maybe it just needs being adjusted.

Dorth · Post by **Dorth** » Tue Jan 27, 2009 6:47 pm

Copy nature. A virus needs a cell to duplicate. Make an equivalent unit/building on the human side and the virus can thus only becomes more numerous by infecting cells. Thus, he is constantly in attack mode and when the human starts losing, at least the virus flow increase slow down, up to a halt, making a come back more likely. The same, the bigger the human forces, the higher the chances for a virus to get a cell. Play with those and defense and you will have a good equalizer. Just avoid the death trap of a too powerful equalizer (a.k.a., the winning side should still keep the advantage, just not having it impossible for the other side to do a come back) You also gain nice missions with that like starting in a losing position.