Medieval Times Game Pitch
Summary
The world would pertain of a vast recreation of 12th to 13th century Europe. Plains, mountains, islands, oceans, sea’s and everything in between. From Italy to Iceland and Paris to Russia the player would be able to traverse the magnificent map. In the past RPG’s have bragged about the great distances you could travel, but this game would make games such as Elder Scrolls look like miniature golf courses. So it takes days to traverse the maps of Morrowind and Oblivion by foot. Medieval Times traveling from edge to edge should and hopefully would take weeks to months depending on the mode of travel. Travel in medieval times varies from Horse, to Carriage, and maybe depending on the creativeness and trueness to the ways of technology in those times, some sort of Flying machine, maybe something of Deviancy’s planning. Now you may think, if you are recreating the past what sort of monsters would you be able to fight? What kind of things would be around to entertain the player on their epic adventures, besides wild animals, and common beasts of the past, many stories were told of dragons and wild beasts of the past. Although to date there are no traces or facts to support such beasts, from lore we are told that they did exist. The placement of such great beasts would have to be in large areas, or deep caverns. Other beasts that would be worthwhile to recreate would be things such as the Cyclops of Greek lore, and the mighty Behemoth. The many islands of Greece would be a great way for the adventurer to plunder riches from pirates and the like. But a worthy ship would be hard to find, and even more hard would be to create such a ship and make it maneuverable by the player and perhaps a crew. NPC pirates would be a nice touch to the sailor of medieval times always add a bit of danger to every trip. Storms with the capability of damaging the ship, and possibly sinking the vessel if it takes on too many cracks and holes. To get to the basics of the game, every player when creating their character will randomly be selected a starting town, they will create their character as a child changing features etc. A small window should be shown at the creation screen showing how the child will appear as it ages. After creating the character the player will select ‘Create’ or something similar and the player will be placed in the random village, with a random family as their child. This way the player will have no control over if they are poor, rich, or born to a single mother or something similar. The player will be able to interact fully with the surroundings and the village people being able to steal, do chores, play with other children, or anything else worthwhile that a child may do, such as going to school and learning. Each activity should bring knowledge to the child. A leveling system would not do the game right but more of a knowledge system, and when a player gains so much knowledge they should be able to advance to the next ‘Age’ if you will instead of the next ‘Level’ each player will start out at the age of 3 or 4 skipping the early after birth ages. A small text should be given or read to the player after creation to get a summary of how they were born and their current life situation. When a child reaches the age of 12 they should be confronted by either their parent or a trusted NPC of the village that they have spent a lot of time working for, or helping. (The age system should work for the NPC’s so that they age accordingly to the player. Each time the player gains an age the entire world should age with them) When confronted the player will be encouraged to seek out a profession, the NPC that confronts the player should press them to become the profession that they have chosen in life. So a vast class system will be available. Ranging from crafters, smiths, soldiers, farmers, bakers, and so on. Each profession will branch into more specific strengths, such as a soldier can become skilled in archery or swordsmanship and the like. Now most players will not want their character dying from old age, this is not how they would like to live their fantasy life, so to remedy this a fountain of youth type quest should be thought up. When any player reaches the age of 30 they should be confronted by a strange NPC that should either give them a map leading to its location or give them bits of information that if used correctly could lead the player to it. The fountain should grant the player either; Immortality (Living at the current age for eternity) Youth (Becoming a child again but maintaining all current states and abilities) Gold (Riches beyond their wildest dreams). One more method could be by becoming one with the undead, such as a vampire or zombie per se. These choices should come with great consequences seeing as they would be much easier than completing the quest for the fountain. Now you may think if the player becomes immortal wouldn’t the rest of the game world? If the player chose immortality or youth, the NPC’s aging script should change from following the player to a timed one. Then every ingame year the NPC’s will grow 1 age level. Based on the players actions they should be treated differently by the NPC’s. When the child chooses their profession at age 12 if they choose a profression different from what they were offered the NPC who offered should like the player less than if they chose the profression that the NPC suggested. A like/hate system would have to be added but something different, something not searchable by the player. The only way to understand how an NPC likes or dislikes you would be to study how they act towards you. The game in theory would never end, but be constantly changing. A simple spawn system for the creatures would suffice and keep the player satisfied. The world should be filled with odds and ends but no quest should be outright given to the player with a location and an easy way to do it. If given a location by an NPC the NPC may mark the players map or just point in the direction of where to go as if a player was given the task of sweeping a basement, a mark on a map would be silly. This summary seems to be efficient and I will get on to the hardware details of the game itself.
Memory Space Issue
This game will no doubt require more space than one disc could hold, so I suggest a multi-disc expansion like style. The game should come with a set of discs being parts like the Shivering Isles expansion for the Elder Scrolls 4 Oblivion title. One disc will be the play disc and the others will be a set of install discs per se. Thusly making this game ripe for PC but you must remember PC never runs as well nor sells as well as Console, since PC requires much more cash to have a computer worthy of play. But the storage space on an Xbox 360 would be I think more suitable with the expansion multi-disc style of play.
Advertising
Getting this game to sell would be much easier than you think, a game with no limits, do what you want when you want to. Gamble, work, fight, love, live.
ESRB
The rating for this game to make it perfect would have to be Mature. A little bit of gore never hurt anyone, and in a sick way chopping off some ones leg with an axe or sword is a lot of fun, and extremely satisfying. Although the game is rated Mature all audiences would buy the game that is certain.
Important Aspects
Voice acting: This is extremely important to find the right people. If the voice acting isn’t as
as it should be then the game will not be as fun and will lack a lot of excitement.
Movement: It must be easy to move, if a player is hassled in movement then they will dread the distances for quests. Ship control, horse control, craft control must all be tested and tested and tested again to make sure that the movement is enjoyable.
Appearance: This is something greatly important in the game Two Worlds the characters look as if they are well, mentally challenged and they act in combat to equally prove that. Players should move as they would in reality. When you run with a sword in hand you don’t run with your arms up you would run with the sword at your side. The characters need to be suited for their role be it ugly or beautiful. A bum on the streets of a large city should be hideous and covered in boils etc, and someone of royalty should cast a light upon your eyes with their beauty.
Combat: The combat system should be in real time. It should be made to involve the player in combat and keep them on the edge of their seat. Depending on the weight of the object they are using to fight with they should wield it differently.
Vision: The player should be able to choose from a variety of viewpoints to entertain their will. But at the minimum 3rd Person should be the primary format and then for the player who wants to look through the eyes of themselves 1st person should be choosable. But in first person when you look down you should be able to see your feet, most games forget that when you look down you can see your feet.
Online Capabilities: In the up and coming release Fable 2 players may join their fellow online and adventure with them. Something along the lines of that would be exactly what this game would need. If a player of an adult age joined a player of child age the NPC’s would conflict you would think. But not so. The player hosting the match, would be the age the NPC’s grow off of. The Fable 2 online is using a method of screen type as in the Lego Starwars games forcing the two to stay together, that is NOT what I would want this to be like. The players should both have the freedom to go wherever they please without having to bring the other with them.
Thank you for reading over this pitch and I hope you can work with the idea, I myself lack any skill in programming, graphic design or anything like that so I cannot make this come true. I have played video games my entire life and through my experiences as an RPG lover this is what I would truly want to experience.
Another thing came to mind as I finished writing this, and that would be Downloadable Content. Most video games charge insane prices for the content, and adding in new clothing styles, hairstyles, tattoo’s, houses, quests would be a way to gain extra profit. And the rockband series sold for $170 apiece for the bundle. A game coming out with multiple-discs would I am certain be able to go for more than $59.99
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