A lot of people have posted that they would like to start developing a game, but don't know where to begin.

So let's just do it and see what happens. What's the worst that can happen -- we have some fun thinking up some interesting/new game mechanics? I can live with that.

Until you get started, you won't know what the initial roadblocks are so that you can begin to formulate the right questions. It will be all the more easier if you get started in a group of like-minded individuals who, like you, are not afraid to ask "dumb" questions.

Let's begin by using this thread to come up with ideas for a simple game. The ideas don't have to be 'a whole game', just a game mechanic. We may never get past this point, but this stage can be a lot of fun.

And hey, it's just crazy enough to fail miserably. But what else are you going to do?

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I like it, I'm in the process of learning to code at the moment so by the time art and story was done I'd like to help.

If I think of anything I'll let you know.

I've always liked the game mechanics in "the room" demonstration that lionhead gave. So objects being resized and transported through portals.

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In the spirit of things moving through portals and re-sizing... what if the player isn't the one controling that? Imagine being in a building where things started to resize and pop in and out of existance in different places. How long before the building collapsed? how would you get out of such an unpredictable environment?

I like it! It reminds me of an idea for a game mechanic that I've tossed around over the years..

Many, many, many years ago, when I was in high school (I'm in my thirties now), I used to day dream about what it would be like to be walking down the hallway and suddenly, for no apparent reason, the gravitational pull on me would slowly start changing from the direction of the floor to the direction of the opposite end of a very long hallway! For a brief moment I would slide, but I would need to make haste and grab a doorway into a classroom to prevent myself from falling.

The idea behind this game mechanic would be that every so often the direction of the players gravitational pull changes. From the perspective of the player the map is rolling over onto a different side. This, of course, changes possible routes to the player's goals. Any wall or ceiling could potentially be a floor. During the roll two (or even three) of the sides could be floors (at angles).

Think of it like the M.C. Escher drawings with the stairs. This would make the maps very interesting and a lot of fun to make.

A few years ago I tried to do this with the Unreal Editor/Engine, but it simply wasn't possible from the modders perspective.

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http://thnogg.mybrute.com

I really like it, however if the player had control over the gravity it could make for an awesome strategy game.

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sim656:

I really like it, however if the player had control over the gravity it could make for an awesome strategy game.

I agree. It could be like Portal where maybe at first you can't control it and it just happens. However, soon after that you get a device that lets you control it. Perhaps later you could gain access to change the pull on other objects too.

Hmmm... I'm liking this.

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Aynen:

How long before the building collapsed? how would you get out of such an unpredictable environment?

I like the idea of the building or environment possibly collapsing as a way to motivate players to keep moving. The goal can be that they simply need to get out in time!

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http://thnogg.mybrute.com

Your idea of shifting gravity works on buidlings the same way: buildings wheren't designed to support their weight sideways or upside down. Some structures would fail. If you have a window in your ceiling, then when the gravity goes upside down, you could fall through it into the air... so you better have a plan for landing safely when gravity turns the right way up again.

I'd prefer not giving the player control over where gravity goes, but to give him tools to make use of it. Finding the right balance between things the player cannot control and things that the player can control can make or break a game, and often the value of being out of control in a game is underestimated. Give a player too much control and you essentially make him the game designer, rather than the player. And most gamers don't make game designers, which is why a lot of players get bored in sandbox-type games. Taking away some control from them puts it firmly in the capable hands of the game designer, which is suppost to be a thing.

But back on topic... someone mentioned Portal, and this gives me an idea of combining your gravity idea with things popping in and out of existance...

If gravity turns, and you fall with a dangerous object in your path, you could portal away the object to somewhere else, clearing your path... but if you do so with a wall, you risk the structure coming down on you, so be carefull when to apply it.

Also I'm thinking about a setting where (story-wise) this gravity shifting might make sense, and a tumbling spaceship in close orbit to a planet comes to mind. The ship is out of control and spins uncontrolably, and with the close orbit, there is gravitational pull. Lets say the ship is getting boarded by an enemy, and in the fight the ship's stabilisors have been disabled, making it slowly spin and fall into the planet. Goal: Escape from the ship before you crash and burn.

Keep the ideas coming.

In the meantime I'm going to throw some boilerplate code together for a prototype. Then I'll upload it somewhere so you can take a look at the code.

Can someone make basic model of a person? Nothing fancy. We're talking Blob with a head, arms, and legs. No animation or anything. Simple texture to show a face so we know which side is the front.

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http://thnogg.mybrute.com

Can't say I have any modelling skills, so I can't help with that, but I'm glad to see a person of action being involved, and I look forward to seeing the prototype develop.

What I CAN do to help is game design and music (being that I'm a composer).

Aynen:

Can't say I have any modelling skills, so I can't help with that, but I'm glad to see a person of action being involved, and I look forward to seeing the prototype develop.

What I CAN do to help is game design and music (being that I'm a composer).

That's awesome! So you can come up with original music? We need that! Also, what experience do you have with game design?

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http://thnogg.mybrute.com

I've spent quite some time developing a social-structure based MMO, but couldn't secure funding for it, and eventually we fridged it. I'm also running for CSM (council of stellar management) in Eve Online, and am in the process of getting a symphony of mine performed by an orchestra (lots of work that is).

Music-wise I can create orchestral music, and create a relatively midi-representation there-of without creating expenses (which would come into play if you want it performed by real orchestra).

What kind of scale did you have in mind when developing this idea?

I've got no experience with game development, but have some basic modelling skills so could very quickly put together a basic blob.

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Aynen:

What kind of scale did you have in mind when developing this idea?

Well, to be honest, I'm not sure how far we'll get. I was thinking this would be a fun project for those who have never developed a game before.

A number of people have posted on the Lionhead forums wondering how they could get into the game development industry and one part of that answer is having experience developing a game. Education is definitely , but I think real world experience is also very necessary. You'll run into more real world issues this way that you will then solve on your own and be a better developer because of it.

I myself have been a programmer for twelve years (financial industry -- c++, java, c#, etc.). However, I have yet to get very deep into developing a game. I've been collecting books over the years and have built rather anemic beginnings of what would be games, but without the people with the same goals around me I find it was hard to keep the inspiration. The small successes of getting something to work wasn't enough to keep me motivated.

After seeing some of these posts in the forums and reading some of the responses from the Lionhead developers, I figured why not see if people might be interested designing and developing a simple game. What's the worst that could happen -- we don't get very far and quit. I can live with that. Done that before.

Can a ragtag team of misfits from different parts of the world actually develop a game when the odds are stacked against them? Probably not. But we won't know until we try.

This is starting to sound like a reality show.

But again, we're just talking about ideas for game mechanics right now. Nothing official by any means and this whole process is meant to be just a learning experience.

I figure if I start laying down the foundation for a prototype, got something up and running, with at least one key game mechanic that it might inspire some people.

Now to get to your question -- the scale of the game will be small. What does that mean though? To me that means implementing one or two key game mechanics for the player to enjoy while conquering small goals that lead to an ultimate goal. I know that's really high-level, but I think that's where we are right now.

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sim656:

I've got no experience with game development, but have some basic modelling skills so could very quickly put together a basic blob.

Excellent! I think we need something with a head, arms, and legs. No animations or anything crazy like that yet. Keep it simple (and I mean simple) and have fun with it.

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http://thnogg.mybrute.com

I think it's a great idea Don't let lack of enthousiasm on somebody else's part get you down though. In game development there will always be long stretches of dispair, and any game developer looking to hire will ask you if you've seen projects through to the end regardless of how unmotivating it can sometimes get.

We have a programmer, and someone who can do modeling, it's a start. What do you consider to be the most important part of the design that we've talked about so far, what is the absolute most essential thing that needs to make it into the game?

I really like the gravity idea, whether it be controlled by the player or not, as already said buildings aren't designed to take strain on the walls ect so it might be a nice idea to focus on this as our one main game mechanic, a really indepth physics replication and maybe just literally have one building which we could develop it round.

by the way what do we want our main character to be like, clothing and muscle wise.

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Aynen:

We have a programmer, and someone who can do modeling, it's a start. What do you consider to be the most important part of the design that we've talked about so far, what is the absolute most essential thing that needs to make it into the game?

I like the gravity stuff, but that was just one suggestion. I'm open to any ideas. We're still at the very beginning.

Once we get enough ideas together to formulate a plan of attack, I'll write up a list of features and go from there. If we agree on the list we should write up a simple document that describes the game and lists it's feature set.

Then we're off to design.

I also need to figure out where we can share documents and code.

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http://thnogg.mybrute.com

How about having it as some sort of free-running speed trial, but on an extremely long level (ie entire building)

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sim656:

by the way what do we want our main character to be like, clothing and muscle wise.

Surprise us! We still haven't nailed down the type of game and camera support we will need -- FPS, 3rd-Person, Side-Scroller, Top-Down, RTS, etc.. So for now we can leave that up to you and it may very well change or at the very least evolve over time, because this is just for a prototype. We will end up with a lot of stand models in the beginning. We can grab free ones that are royalty free for this kind of stuff too if necessary.

What format do you want to save the model in? I have a 3DS loader, but I can write a loader for other formats if necessary.

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http://thnogg.mybrute.com

Once we've tossed some more ideas around and picked our favourite, what we're looking for is proof of concept, which means not wasting any time on looks, just the most basic functionality so you can see if it's actually fun. You can also do this in the shape of a boardgame if you lack programming knowlage. And making boardgames is fun and accessible to everyone. Just need pen and paper and scissors... I still do it often to test ideas. Try it, it's fun

Aynen:

You can also do this in the shape of a boardgame if you lack programming knowlage. And making boardgames is fun and accessible to everyone. Just need pen and paper and scissors... I still do it often to test ideas. Try it, it's fun

You make a point. I like to draw stuff out too to help me visualize a concept. If we go with gravity as being part of the main game mechanic it would be helpful to visualize the gameplay by building a 3D model out of a few cardboard boxes. That can bring out more ideas as well.

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http://thnogg.mybrute.com

Aynen: You musical background might also be helpful in the area of sound effects. Music and sound affects are an important part of any game.

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http://thnogg.mybrute.com

Musical composition and producing sound-effects are to vastly different arts I'm afraid. And with the latter I have very little experience, nor do I have the right tools.

Sound effects often require fieldwork, and the recording equipment that's needed to record in the field. It's often easier to go for existing soundbanks, and if we end up making this game as a mod to an existing game then we'll have it's sound-effects at our disposal. But sound and music are miles away from where we are now. We haven't even decided on basic matters like single player game or multiplayer game. Or rpg, fps or strategy (or some other genre). Let's not worry about music and sound yet, it'll come much later

The gravity idea shouldn't be the only one on the table, let's add some other options. Got some ideas?

Agreed. Post more ideas everyone. Anyone can participate.

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