Game Concept: Would You Play This Video Game?

[Xallace]

I'll start by saying that I'm not a programmer, so this is really just a thought experiment. I actually have a feeling that this might take a lot of effort even for experienced programmers.

The Set-Up:
The game takes place in a big, probably fictional, city. For some reason or another, super-powered individuals start popping up all over the place, and most of them (all of them?) are not on the Happy Team of Peace and Justice. They hold down the city, cut it off from the rest of the world, and proceed to make life terrible for the inhabitants.

Our protagonist is not one of these individuals. In fact, our protagonist has no super powers at all, or if (s)he does, they aren't flashy or combat-oriented. (S)He may not be your average Joe, but isn't even close to the Supermen either.

Gameplay:

The goal is to rid the city of the spandex infestation.

While probably decent in a fist-fight, our hero's lack of god-like abilities makes going head-to-head with the Supermen (or even someone with a gun) a less-than-intelligent option. That's where we get to the main gimmick of the game: you can interact with nearly every object in the city. You can tie ropes to streetlights, stack crates, put bricks on gas pedals... the game wouldn't be able to mimic every possibility, but for the most part if you can come up with it, you can do it (within reason).

You put together traps. A city-wide climax to a Home Alone movie, almost. You can gather information and catch your enemy off guard, or perhaps bait them into chasing you to your overly-convoluted death trap. And these are not pre-determined trappings... you design everything yourself using the city's resources. How well you do at the game is limited only by your creativity.

This game would need an awesome physics engine, and would be a sandbox by necessity.

Other Points of Interest
This game would have a story, consisting mostly of smaller side-stories.The villains will react to your successes, and that will progress the plot.
I think a very comic-book feel would do well with this game, at least visually.

So...
Questions? Comments?

Primarily: Would you, personally, play this game or one similar?

[Dogmantra]

Yes.
As long as it wasn't too hard to kill/incapacitate the supers, then I would.

[TheSummoner]

Yes... What would the protagonist get any sort of weapon or would he have to rely on traps?

[Lorn]

If I had a computer capable of running it, I'd definitely look into it.

Though a physics engine as powerful as the one you're describing - essentially mimicing the real world - would consume a stupid amount of memory.

[Oregano]

I would play that, of course add in Ninja and Detective skills and you have a pretty nifty Batman game...:smalltongue:

Well not really but Batman could totally do it.

[GolemsVoice]

I would play it, as laying traps and watching your enemy stumble into them is always entertaining, the more elaborate the traps, and the more fire involved, the more fun it is. You should however be careful to make the traps both easy to improvise from what you have around you, (as the player is no super hero, he won't be stacking cars or something like that) while still being dangerous to persons much harder than a normal human. Consider this. You lead a super villain into an old, barely stable building. Once you have him, you collapse it on him, or at least parts of it. While this youl make qucik work of every normal person, you ARE fighting someone who clearly isn't.

[Xallace]

Well, the traps would certainly be easy to improvise (that being the point of the game), but more complex traps would be, well, more difficult. Mostly you're trying to outsmart the AI, which I imagine as being moderately difficult at least (with occasional moronic villains and at least one Mastermind).


Yes... What would the protagonist get any sort of weapon or would he have to rely on traps?

I would say you could get actual weapons in a variety of ways; improvise, take them from downed mooks, buy and/or steal from shops.


Well not really but Batman could totally do it.

I described the concept to myself as "something like if Batman had to take down the X-Men."

[TheSummoner]

One early level could involve taking out a bruteish enemy... completly stupid, but takes ALOT to take him down.

[Bouregard]

While a sandboxconcept is always a good thing, i would work on the setting.

Why does the city not arrest those spandexproblems? If the police is not capable. Try the army. Or help from other cities/the country.

I would say a hostagesituation comes in handy here, those "superbaddies" simple take the whole city hostage and for some reason (realistical: Island, they can fly and blow boats pretty quick/marvelDClistic: one baddy get a forcefieldpower or something superpowerish to hold them in the city)

You need to find a way that all those spandexmonsters work together to kill the player. One is trapable. Two would be a problem... So how about a little rivalry between them, they have the same goal but use different methods/hate their collegues.


Why do those spandextremists fight in the first place/you have to do something to them? They need a reason for that, and no: "Hey I can juggle with volkswagens and you not" is not a good reason.

What does the rest of the city do? Innocent bystanders? Hostages? Minions? Ressistance?



Gameplay:

I would seperate the game into different parts:

Spyphase: You need to find out what he can do/what he can not do.
Preperation: Set up your mines/tripwires/nets/whatever
Fight:Now its time to lure him, activate the traps /kill/incapacitate him.

You need to keep all those parts interesting and limit the repeatfactor.

[tribble]

Why do those spandextremists fight in the first place/you have to do something to them? They need a reason for that, and no: "Hey I can juggle with volkswagens and you not" is not a good reason.


I disagree, there are a disturbing number of people who would go on a rampage if they could get away with it for no other reason then that they can.(myself included.)

[TheSummoner]

Don't half-ass the plot. Either do it or don't do a plot, but for the love of all that is good in the world, do not do it half-way.

[Xallace]

I would say a hostagesituation comes in handy here, those "superbaddies" simple take the whole city hostage and for some reason (realistical: Island, they can fly and blow boats pretty quick/marvelDClistic: one baddy get a forcefieldpower or something superpowerish to hold them in the city)

...They hold down the city, cut it off from the rest of the world...

Way ahead of you. And while I appreciate the suggestions, the reason they weren't in the first post was because I didn't feel it was necessary, not because I hadn't considered. I just wanted to see what people thought of the basics.



I would seperate the game into different parts:

Spyphase: You need to find out what he can do/what he can not do.
Preperation: Set up your mines/tripwires/nets/whatever
Fight:Now its time to lure him, activate the traps /kill/incapacitate him.

You need to keep all those parts interesting and limit the repeatfactor.

That'd be the logical way to go about it, yes. I don't know if it would be necessary to have little icons pop up that say "Now is the Spy Phase!" but some hints would be good to at least point players in the right direction.


Don't half-ass the plot. Either do it or don't do a plot, but for the love of all that is good in the world, do not do it half-way.

Well of course!

[Oregano]

I think a Crackdown style would work for it. Crackdown was great because it pretty much told you what you had to do and then left you, it didn't have missions like most Sandbox games.

[littlebottom]

i have to say, this is the sort of thing gameing has been striving towards lately, and when technology gets there, a very simmilar game to this WILL pop up, along with many others who have the same idea, when technology is good enough...

we are close to "interacting with everything" in some games currently, to a degree, but only within certain perameters. for instance, ive been playing a game latly where everything is destructable with real world physics called red faction (technically red faction 3) and you can set up traps in a sand box world, (of mars) by anything simple from your proximity mines in a doorway and causing them to chase you to powering through walls and smashing people with a sledge hammer, to remote detonated explosives on the supports of a building/bridge and blowing it up at the right time, causeing it to collaps spectacularily. ok, so not "react with everything" but within your perameters (those being the types of explosives you can get) you CAN do anything... but the day where it was as if it was real life in a video game, it may still be a fair way off... although... i look forward to it :smallamused:

the ideas solid and sound other than the technology not being up to snuff yet :smallwink:

[Trazoi]

I'd play it if it were possible to implement, but you'd need a seriously sophisticated physics engine and a whole heck of coding to interact with most things (interacting with everything in a cityscape would be impossible - there's always going to be something that the programmers didn't think of or had time to code).

The biggest, possibly fatal flaw in the idea is that if you do have such an amazing physically accurate world, the players are going to wondering why they are limited to mundane interactions while the AI characters get to throw buses around. I'd feel a bit robbed if the game was touting the best superhero physics ever but I could only play as Joe Normal.

[TheSummoner]

Which is why you throw in a mode where you play as a bad guy. Theres no plot to that mode or purpose, only mindless destruction ^_^.

[Jamin]

I would watch a movie about it. To me this sounds like a great story but I would not play the game because I really don't think there is any way to make this into a fun game. IMO There are too many issues with how the traps would work and such

[Crispy Dave]

sounds awesome. I may or may not steal some sort of this idea on a mod of some sort.

[Stormthorn]

If I had a computer capable of running it, I'd definitely look into it.

Though a physics engine as powerful as the one you're describing - essentially mimicing the real world - would consume a stupid amount of memory.

He said its a thought experiment not a plan to write an actual game. Assume we are playing it on a NASA supercomputer.


Yes, if the game gives me access at some point to exotic materials like HF and Thermite so i could poison a super or collapse an entire skyscrapers while he is in it.*


*Not a very nice thing to do, but resistance movements are not traditionaly associated with caring about collateral damage very much.

[Kiren]

He said its a thought experiment not a plan to write an actual game. Assume we are playing it on a NASA supercomputer.


Yes, if the game gives me access at some point to exotic materials like HF and Thermite so i could poison a super or collapse an entire skyscrapers while he is in it.*


*Not a very nice thing to do, but resistance movements are not traditionaly associated with caring about collateral damage very much.


Even with a NASA computer I can still see this happening:

"Huston we have a problem"

I like the concept, although to a degree this is possible, Bioshock let you set trip mines, floor traps, proximity mines. I would like Vehicles to be present in a game like this, hijacking a helicopter could have its benefits when fighting a super with only your own trickery. I would like to send a decoy helicopter in between 2 empty buildings with makeshift turrets in every window of both and let them shoot at the super as he follows the helicopter. A black market would be nice, a gun even if it will not directly hurt a super is still a useful tool for breaking of a wire for long range, shooting explosives, cutting that one small rope holding up the very heavy beam at the construction site.

The technology to properly do this is not here yet, I wouldn't doubt within the next 20 years, maybe less, this would be possible. Maybe then I can play Crysis!

Edit: Come to think of it, Xbox's Natal may make this idea more possible in the form of setting the traps, I have only seen the Milo demonstration, but it brings possibilities.

EditEdit: And yes answering the title, I would play this video game if done properly. Very good idea for a Game/Movie/Comic, whatever its put to, if done properly.

[Xallace]

IMO There are too many issues with how the traps would work and such

Probably, but hey, it's hypothetical. I can't imagine what the game interface would be like to be able to put so much together.


I would like Vehicles to be present in a game like this, hijacking a helicopter could have its benefits when fighting a super with only your own trickery. I would like to send a decoy helicopter in between 2 empty buildings with makeshift turrets in every window of both and let them shoot at the super as he follows the helicopter. A black market would be nice, a gun even if it will not directly hurt a super is still a useful tool for breaking of a wire for long range, shooting explosives, cutting that one small rope holding up the very heavy beam at the construction site.

Yes, if the game gives me access at some point to exotic materials like HF and Thermite so i could poison a super or collapse an entire skyscrapers while he is in it.

Vehicles and some weaponry would certainly be part of it (I did envision a contact of the protagonist making explosives, even if they're amateur ones). As noted, however, the focus is on unconventional methods of dispatch (or capture?) so you wouldn't expect to really too heavily on firearms or bombs.

I also imagine that if things went awry you'd need an excellent back-up plan, as some of the enraged supers that survive your traps might decide to take it out on you directly.

Actually, the more I think about this, the best medium for this concept may not be a game.

[elliott20]

the issue here is not that it's not suitable for a game. the issue is that you're not thinking big enough. Assuming that technology can handle this and production is possible, you're not taking enough advantage of this.

Why just traps? Why not deal with superhumans in OTHER ways? i.e. if you able to emulate physics enough to make custom traps (which in the end will probably function just like mines anyway), then you could probably also work in a system where you can interact with the superhumans in other ways too. i.e. maybe you can fight the superhumans if you can get yourself a power suit. but the power suit is still very fragile and consumes a lot of energy so it only lasts a short number of minutes.

Maybe you can pilot vehicles, command squads of soldiers and others to go after the superhumans.

Or maybe you can even find the deus ex machina weakness they have and exploit it.

or maybe you could, you know, talk to these superhumans and form alliances. Hell, you might even be able to play off one supervillain against another.

and of course, the game could use a mode where you play as the supers themselves.

[Copacetic]

I would be too tempted to just blow them up/run them over with a car. Or lure them into razor sharp wire. Or drop a bus on them. Or....


You are right, that would be a good game.

[Stormthorn]

Im thinking of the new Red Faction game. it gave you a destructable environment and explosives and vehicles all on the wimply little 360.

But anyways i parked a garbage truck on some detonators i threw down on the side of the road. Parked it so that they where off center. When an enemy guntruck drove by i blew the charges and it flipped the garbage truck onto the enemy vehicle, killing the gunner exposed on top, and forcing the driver to bail. When he did i shot him through the door of the truck before he could draw his weapon.

Thats the sort of warfare you would need to kill supers.

[Brewdude]

i like the idea of running one bad guy into another bad guy and playing "let's you and him fight." I also like the idea of using the dead bodies of the supers in future traps. For some reason i get old net hack idea of wielding the corpse of a cockatrice as a weapon to turn opponents to stone, and eating the monsters for their powers.

Who says the supers need to be human? Why not just make them edible monsters?

[Brother Oni]

Sounds very much like you want a more freeform version of the Deception series by Tecmo.

[Yarram]

It sounds like an Awesome tabletop RPG, but I'm not sure about a real computer game. It'd be ridiculously be hard to make.