Hopeful Game Idea

[deepsear]

Alrighty then, my friends and I have come up with a game that we so badly want to play. A short rundown is it is in the near future, on a newly surfaced volcanic island in the Pacific, off the coast of California.

The zombie war has devastated the world, but this island has reclaimed to a degree.

A central city, (Yet to be named), has been fortified and fit out with its own ways of producing food, water, and shelter.

Railways are being used to hop from town to town to rescue survivors, and an interim military has been formed to operate these trains: the Force.

You are a regular man on one of these trains, heading towards a city not yet liberated. Suddenly, around a bend, another train appears on the same track- heading straight for yours.

You jump off, and the trains collide and explode. Now, in the middle of zombie-infested territory, you can decide where to go. Do you roam the wilderness, to find cities and liberate the citizens? Or do you return to your base in the big city, to receive your next assignment?

Mechanics:

Option to switch between first and third person view, plus certain actions that are performed in third person. (Throws, escapes, climbing, driving, special attacks.)

Completely customizable character, down to the scars and backstory.

Completely customizable weapons, including rail system upgrades and alternate ammo.

Minimalist HUD, for immersion. (Health, which is shown in how far the zombie virus has advanced through your bloodstream, is shown on an immersive helmet-display slide down thingy. As is heartrate and stamina. Ammo is displayed by pressing a certain button, and your character takes out the clip and counts the bullets for you.)

Healing is accomplished by resting, and taking the prototype immuniuzation medicine to slow and back up the effects of the virus.

Multiple Classes for play styles. (The Scout, the Soldier, and the Berserker are what we have at the moment.)

Hooks:

A messianic man who has been infected, but not treated, and has stayed unturned for years. Displeases Force officials.

Second interim city placed in the back of a giant mining truck. (You know, the ones that haul, like, 500 tons of granite around.)

City infiltrated.

Did I miss anything you want to know about?

Some stuff I left out because my friends and I have not agreed on it yet.

[Eakin]

Sounds like the unholy bastard child of Urban Dead and World of Warcraft. Or some kind of sandbox-style Resident Evil.

[Hermit]

Have you seen Dead Island? (http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=179309)

The premise: Take one tropical Island paradise, and add the undead. Then throw in makeshift weaponry, a free-roaming environment, RPG elements and NPC interaction (With survivors, one would assume).

Looks pretty nice from the screenshots too. I for one am hoping they pull this off.

[Ronsian]

Dead Island sounds pretty cool, although, to get back on topic, sounds like a good game. Have you heard about Fallout 3? It's sort-of like that, except without the island part. It's made by Bethesda, who are debatably a good company.

Edit: Changed Oblivion to Bethesda, feel dumb.

[Mr._Blinky]

Dead Island sounds pretty cool, although, to get back on topic, sounds like a good game. Have you heard about Fallout 3? It's sort-of like that, except without the island part. It's made by Oblivion, who are debatably a good company.

Uuuh, Oblivion was another game made by Bethesda, the name of the studio.

EDIT: Feeling stupid, I accidentally cited Bioware rather than Bethesda. Putting foot in mouth...:smallyuk:

[Hzurr]

What system were you hoping to develop this game for?

If you don't have any system planned, then I would highly recommend using Microsoft's XNA platform. It'll let you make games for Windows or the 360, and soon (this summer I think), Microsoft is going to let people try and publish their games through XBox Live. I'm currently in a game development class at my University, and I've really liked using XNA for my development. All the coding is done in C#, if that makes a difference.

Aside from that, I've heard rumors that Nintendo is also going to be releasing some devkits so that people can develop games on the Wii as well, although don't quote me on that one?

[Demented]

For some reason, it reminds me of STALKER.

[Hermit]

For some reason, it reminds me of STALKER.

Indeed, I could see this working well as a mod in STALKER. Perhaps in the upcoming Clear Sky with its various AI improvements, vehichles, and whatnot. Might be worth looking into the STALKER SDK.

[Ronsian]

Heh, it's okay Blinky, I feel more stupid. I got mixed up, because I live near a Bethesda and always feel weird saying it.

[Hermit]

Heh, it's okay Blinky, I feel more stupid. I got mixed up, because I live near a Bethesda and always feel weird saying it.

Heh, there's a Bethesda Building near where I live and it still makes me smile every time I go past it on the bus.

[deepsear]

I'm glad most of you think its a good idea. I'm wondering, would you buy it?

I was thinking of the third person of Mass Effect, the first person of Half Life 2, the environment interaction of Dead Rising (improvised weapons and such), and the openness of Morrowind. I'm not gonna say Oblivion because for some reason Morrowind was better, in my honest opinion.

That is a very blunt way to put my game.

For a reference on the zombies in the game, try reading Max Brook's Zombie Survival Guide, available (for some odd reason) in the humor section of your local bookstore. Different types might also come into play, it's a group-idea thing.

Does anyone know what to do with a game idea? I have absolutely no talent pool, I just want to see the game developed. I wanna play this, dangit!

[Studoku]

I prefered the third person of Gears of War to that of mass effect, at least in combat. Out of combat, Mass Effect was better but that probably had something to do with Gears' walk unarmed method of out of combat travel.

[Hermit]

I'm glad most of you think its a good idea. I'm wondering, would you buy it?

I was thinking of the third person of Mass Effect, the first person of Half Life 2, the environment interaction of Dead Rising (improvised weapons and such), and the openness of Morrowind. I'm not gonna say Oblivion because for some reason Morrowind was better, in my honest opinion.

That is a very blunt way to put my game.

For a reference on the zombies in the game, try reading Max Brook's Zombie Survival Guide, available (for some odd reason) in the humor section of your local bookstore. Different types might also come into play, it's a group-idea thing.

Does anyone know what to do with a game idea? I have absolutely no talent pool, I just want to see the game developed. I wanna play this, dangit!

I love the idea, doubly so if you included tha ability to play the game only from first person (Perhaps if your characters body was visible ala FEAR throws and the like would be possible in First person too).

As for what to do with a game idea, thats a tricky one. Pitching it to any sort of development or publishing company would be very difficult without something being playable. It's worth noting that quite a few of the smaller companies who've put out games in recent years have started with mods (Red Orchestra was once a UT2004 Mod, Shadowgrounds was once Alien Swarm, a UT2004 mod, Black Widow Games, who used to do mods including They Hunger, are now working on a commerical release called They Hunger: Lost Souls, and so on). Modding wise getting anything off the ground can be tough - You'll need some fairly comprehensive documentation of your ideas, and after that it's a case of attracting a team to work on it. This kind of scope in gameplay makes any sort of mod version much more difficult, of course - Source is a decent enough engine, for example, but it can't really handle Morrowindesque open worlds.

If I had to make a suggestion, I'd say try looking at either the STALKER or Crysis SDKs, as those engines seem more suited to handling this. Alternatively, it might be more difficult but a total conversion for Oblivion, or possibly Fallout 3 when it comes out, might also work.