Sulphur on 28/4/2009 at 21:13
I was mulling over the possibilities of open-world sandbox games today after playing the Red Faction: Guerilla demo and Mafia. One thing that RF:G does really well is that it lets you bask in the glow of unchecked, immoral video game hedonism.
Which is to say, it lets you destroy stuff right good. If you see it, you can maim or topple it. Good, gratuitous, violent fun.
So anyway, it got me thinking. We have all these sandbox games like the GTAs and the Saints Rows and the inFamouses and the Spidermans and whatnot. And typically, you're either some sort of criminal or superhero in these games - because criminals/superheroes are the kinds of protagonists that engender clashes of morals and justice in explosive ways - that is to say, in ways that are the most fun.
So I was wondering, what other theme could an open-world sandbox game mine and still be fun without beating the genre's proverbial dead horses into glue?
And then it hit me: Police
frigging Academy.
I know what you're thinking: 'Er...
what!? Don't you mean Crackdown?' But bear with me.
Imagine the amount of potential that lies therein: you're a new recruit, fresh and immature, but ready to prowl police HQ and engage in all sorts of pranks on colleagues and superiors alike during training.
You know, stuff like (
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VewbAGR1dow&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.listal.com%2Fvideo%2F2486466&feature=player_embedded#t=1m47s) getting a hooker to give your unsuspecting CO a secret blowjob from inside a podium while he's making a speech. Sort of like Bully actually, but more mature... or less!
And once you graduate and become a full-fledged cop, then the real fun begins when the city opens up. Hunt down criminals (like a reverse GTA IV
bank heist), or make deals with shady underworld types, create dynamic shootouts, catch people for speeding (revenge!), and enjoy the fact that you can ask the question, 'Who polices the police?' and be morally ambiguous about it.
I personally think that while the idea may come off as a little trite, the implementation would kick all sorts of ass if coupled with a fun, likeable story. Kinda like the original movie and not all the shitty sequels.
Anyway, that's just one silly idea I had in mind. The real question is, what about you folks? What kind of game experience would you love to make if you had the resources?
P.S. I think we probably had a thread like this a while ago, but I figured a new one would be a good idea.
demagogue on 28/4/2009 at 21:20
On the topic of sandboxing ideas, I'd like to see the sandbox mechanic more closely coupled with trading-economy gameplay, so it's not just an "open" world, it's an open and *living* world, where things you do have effects in the world economy, too.
More specifically, I'd like to see a version of Hardwar (basically a version of Elite or Free Space set on a planet), except that you can walk around inside the hangers and buildings and on the planet, interact with NPCs, and have a sandbox of stuff you can do there.
Chade on 28/4/2009 at 21:55
I have absolutely no idea what the gameplay would be like, but I'd love to make a game where the player is a child, and sees the world through a pair of really fresh curious enthusiastic eyes. In doing so, you help a small town filled with people who are struggling with motivation and/or life.
Ideally, you as the player would know how your actions are helping those around you, but your avater would have no idea of the positive effect his/her actions are having on those around you.
The most obvious thing to do would be to make it an adventure game, but I'd prefer to think of some actual game mechanics that could express the theme ...
heretic on 28/4/2009 at 22:13
A deep medieval RPG/sim would be nice.
I imagine it as a seamless 1st/3rd person perspective cradle to the grave free-roaming epic where you can take part in various things from acts of chivalry or desperation to courtship or warfare.. eventually lording over others or resisting oppression based on your chosen station, role and class.
Some heavy RPG stat & tech trees for the PC, strongholds and your forces and/or guilds would be a must, as would a robust crafting and industry/economy system. Some type of lineage system would be nice, where you can eventually take the role of descendants whose roles have been determined by earlier gameplay choices.
The game could take place over a short period of time or last for decades, controllable through some player generated mechanic that dictates aspects such as aging/passage of time ETC. The ability to bounce from one PC to another in one ongoing game could be quite fun.
Oh, and also the game would make you a nice tasty lunch.
june gloom on 28/4/2009 at 22:21
I want to see a first-person survival horror game. The setting would be mostly in run-down, abandoned urban settings, a la Manhunt or Condemned. It would essentially be about a completely emptied-out town or city that is instead full of monsters and pitch black- though it would be unclear whether the main character was just hallucinating it or not. Monsters would include zombie-like creatures that alone or in groups of two are not dangerous, but will mass around specific areas to block progress with no hope of being defeated. They wouldn't be zombies in the typical sense, however- they'd be supernatural creatures, who don't exactly stay "within the lines" that we imagine them to have. (Sort of like Afraid of Monsters.) Zombies aren't all you'd have to face, however- aside from all manner of strange, freaky enemies you'd have to deal with darkness itself as an enemy- some places will merely be poorly lit, but the darker the room the more dangerous it is. The flashlight would be permanent, except it would randomly flicker out on occasion- and you'd have to thump the batteries to get it working again. After a while you can get better batteries to reduce the flickering out. If you wanted to use a two-handed weapon, you'd have to find a different flashlight, such as a clip-on (a la SH) or a miner's helmet. And in the places where shadows move, formless black tendrils creeping towards you, you'll want your flashlight to be working.
The game would be fairly nonlinear; the climate would be partly cloudy skies with huge clouds that would obscure the moon for a terrifying few minutes.
The setting would be the town or city and the surrounding area- forest, the beach, an island off the coast, so on and so forth. The ultimate goal would be to figure out a way to stop whatever's creating monsters and other horrible things- and that would eventually hinge upon whether it's real, or all a hallucination. To that end, there'd be a nameless drug that you'd take to heal, but it would mess with you a bit- the environment would change, and it wouldn't be immediate. So the player wouldn't realize that by taking the drug she's making the lights go out.
Or maybe I just want a House of Leaves video game. I don't know.
Aja on 29/4/2009 at 02:50
I want an expanded version of (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LSD_(video_game)) LSD, which would include more dreams, more variety within dreams, and more keeping track of player actions so that new dreams could be created according to the player's mood.
Some friends and I are actually working on such a game in XNA. We have some design documents and initial programming, but when it comes to modelling we have no experience. So we either have to learn Blender or recruit a team.
Scots Taffer on 29/4/2009 at 03:08
So many different things.
Mostly I'd love true sandbox games for existing franchises but with the rigour to allow a straight storyline to occur, sort of like Mafia style but with the detail of STALKER.
I'd love to have a STALKER game that worked, real factions, real fights for control, real sides to choose and pros and cons, or playing both off each other as an independent.
I'd love to have a sandbox Hitman game that allows you to set-up the hit on your target however you please by allowing you to plan and execute down to buying gear and escaping the scene etc.
A sci-fi game that took the best parts of Freelancer, SS2, KOTOR and made a really engrossing epic where you could RPG your way through a massive intergalactic war.
demagogue on 29/4/2009 at 03:14
Quote Posted by Aja
I want an expanded version of (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LSD_(video_game)) LSD, which would include more dreams, more variety within dreams, and more keeping track of player actions so that new dreams could be created according to the player's mood.
Some friends and I are actually working on such a game in XNA. We have some design documents and initial programming, but when it comes to modelling we have no experience. So we either have to learn Blender or recruit a team.
Also, hit up public domain stuff. There's more and more of it out there.
I wrote out a design doc for a game using an LSD-like mechanic, because there's so much great (untapped) potential there. In my version the visions complement each other to fill out an overarching narrative, like each showing only isolated fragments of a bigger, disturbing world. I was inspired by things like the movies Rashomon and Mulholland Drive, and novels like Sound & the Fury and Gravity's Rainbow.
Also, the links between worlds/visions will have some twisted sense to them, and part of the "game" is to crack one world, to figure out its punchline, and how its links to other worlds gives a new & interesting context to them ... and part of the beauty of the mechanic is that you don't have to do it linearly. It's such a great idea for tackling a narrative in piecemeal fashion, and not necessarily even get all the pieces, whatever path you want to take through it.
EvaUnit02 on 29/4/2009 at 03:20
A MMORPG with the storytelling elements of a traditional single player RPG.
Angel Dust on 29/4/2009 at 03:23
An idea I've thrown around from time to time mainly involves using two different gameplay perspectives (third person and first person) and styles (linear and non-linear stories) in a Rashomon like narrative. Basically there would be several different versions on the same story and all of them, bar one, would be told using a 3rd person perspective. These 3rd person stories would be strictly linear with no choice in how they play out and would use fixed camera perspectives, fairly linear dialog trees, one solution to each obstacle etc to enhance the fact you are an observer of someone else's take on a story. The stories would overlap with each other, contradict each other etc. That would be about half of the game.
The second half would be told from a FPP perspective as this is your take on what happened. There would be more freedom and you could decide which characters to help, maybe fond out why others where lying etc. A game like this would obviously require some pretty tight writing but the general idea could be transplanted into a lot of scenarios, particularly a 'The Thing' like scenario. I thought a good framing device could be a trail or hearing of some kind after the event in question where you are on trail and you hear the others testimonies before giving your story. This would also be a good way to keep the player prepped for the FPP sequences so the control change isn't so sudden.
