Game Design & Development

Morality in games?

jitenk17 — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 12:57:21 GMT

Hi all,

My name is Jiten Karia and I'm currently doing a feature story on gaming morality.

I'd HUGELY appreciate an opinions and feedback based on the issue. Some of the questions I'm looking to get answered are:

Should the media/government really be crying out loud when a game has a provoking storyline element?
Do you think games affect a player's morals in the slightest?
Do games with 'moral choices' improve gameplay or are they a ploy to make you play the game again?

Any other opinions regarding morals in gaming would be happily included.

Thanks

So you want to develop a game? Let's get started...

XALAN — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 06:16:56 GMT

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?

Populous the beginning on Iphone

Dudedavid — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 10:04:41 GMT

Please consider to port populous 3 to the iphone. "the Settlers" is out and it's great to play on iphone, keep in mind it has a great potential. A game like pop 3 would be much appreciated, it was said it would have been ported to nintendo ds but the project never came out.
Thank you for reading.

Black and White mmo?

LordRezo — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 11:40:34 GMT

Hey i am writing to you as a great fan of your black and white series.

The Black and white series are some of the most unique games i have ever seen. Especially the first one, it takes strategy/sandbox gaming to a new level never seen before in another game.

Recently i had been thinking if you were going to make a third edition the game or not, but then the thought of a Black and White mmo came to me.

Some games can be ruined while turned into an mmo, but here i think black and white would have great potential.

I have played loads of mmo's myself and whats come to bore me is that almost all of them are the same workover of everquest and world of warcraft. What players miss from those games is simpleness and choises. Some might think those two dosn't make any sense together, but the fact is many are tired of "leveling" and buying items for gold...

Black and White online sure could be an amazing game, of course allowing the player to choose or design their own symbol, choose from a load of creatures which they should have the ability to redesign a bit for themselves like a character. with this kind of gameplay their would be no gold trade since all resources should be in a village center where they belong

Gods could then go different ways, such as when you have belivers enough you could become a "Night God" gaining some bonuses at night just as an example. I have thought of a lot more details but i think i have written more than enough in this post for now

I hope you will consider the idea and don't hesitate to write should you want more thoughts. Regards Rezo

Ps. please don't flame this post with stuff as "Lol black and white is singleplayer lol" its a serious idea to a new mmo genre.

Fable ? A Hobbes Tale (Spin-off from Fable)

DrunkEnStupid — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 11:01:38 GMT

I had an idea for a spin-off from the Fable series, which doesn't necessarily have to be an entire game (but I think it would be cool if it were) maybe part of a DLC for your Hero to see something from another point of view or just something for fun.

It would be a story where you the player gets to play as a hobbe. I don't think it would be to difficult, they have a lot of stuff in place already character design along with advancement with the character, you could start as one of the small low level hobbes that you see at the beginning of the game in Fable 2 and progress into obviously one of the larger red hobbes or the Mage hobbe or maybe something entirely new.

They have a lot of similarities with actual people or your hero so I don't think it would be to much of a stretch, your hero uses and collects weapons and clothing, he/she uses magic, all of which a hobbe does as well.

So what do you guys think, am I just shouting into the wind or does this interest you at all?

Will Lionhead ever create another RTS-like game (i.e. Populous, B&W)?

XALAN — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 20:42:17 GMT

Will Lionhead ever create another RTS-like game (i.e. Populous, B&W)? I'm not very at RTS games, because I am a "creative" player.

I enjoy setting up my base and generating units. The part I don't like is when the 10-year old zergling come into my base and everything goes to hell. "Hey! I just put that there!"

I know why this is happening -- I'm not aggressive enough of a player and I linger around too much early on. However, that's the part I really enjoy.

Peter's games have always aloud the player to be creative. You know what my favorite part of Populous was? The raising and lowering of land. You could change the landscape to help your people. I've heard Peter's explanation of why raising and lower land was put into the game. He said that -- paraphrasing here -- he wasn't smart enough to make the AI do it itself. Almost two decades later and that's the part I remember about Populous. I loved that game!

What's my point? I guess I'm just "writing" out loud at this point. I like RTS game for the creative portion and I think Peter and his team at Lionhead are the people to bring us creative kind of RTS-like gameplay on the console with Natal.

And heck! The player controls everything organically with nothing but hand movements and finger movements. Heck sign language.

-- Ooh quick thought -- Natal and Xbox 360 can be a sign language interpreter. At least a minimal one.

XBox 360 and Natal could be used to make a "headless" game too. Bring the game outside of the box -- like a live-action RTS.

Gotta go!

A possible alternative death system for Fable III!

anonymousguy — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 11:01:10 GMT

Fable I's death system was too easy because it was so easy to get ahold of Ressurection phials.

Fable II's death system was too soft, once you've discovered the Crucible, all you need to do to get all you levels up is drink loads of XP potions before fighting the hollow men and you've already got enough experience to get 5 star on all levels (well, you may have to do it several times). Once you've done that, you really don't have anything to loose, and you hardly ever do die then anyway.

For Fable III, I've thought of a something a little less forgiving. In fact it isn't actually a "death system" at all, you wont die, you wont be knocked out, nor will you even have a health bar (it may sound silly at first, but hear me out). Instead whenever you are hit successfully by an enemy, you will feel "pain". Similar to when you got hit in Lego Star Wars, when you you get hit will loose gold and it will never come back. Not only that, whenever you are hit, you are permanently scarred, you will loose experience and will loose renown. No scars can be removed and will never get the experience, gold or renown that you lost back. Though, you can avoid this by blocking of course.

A higher toughness level will make you less prone to this, and of course, stronger enemies will harm you more than weaker ones.

It may answer Lionhead's problem over people prefering to restart their console rather than face permanent scars, because at the end of the day, it's going to happen anyway.

Please tell me what you think of this idea.

Please add levels of difficulty! and Bring back Mana

wagon666 — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 16:42:41 GMT

Game play for the seasoned Fable player in the Fable II game was far too easy and unfortunately a large let down. The game looks fantastic but it is too easy and unfortunately boring. Please, please, please bring back armor, limited quantities of magic, a larger range of spells, and increased difficulty. This is super important! I cannot stress enough how the unlimited ammo and magic dulled the beauty of this game.
Fable III looks promising if Lionhead will listen to its players. I understand their trial and error of making a game for non-gamers, BUT it made the rest of us turn the system off. There is no need to have endless amounts of money, a family that does nothing but drain your account and you can't have help on the missions, endless magic to basically have a full time barrier keeping your opponent far from you, and not being able to die. Why can't I die???? this seems pretty important to me for some reason. Please make Fable III have game play options to suit the level of gamer playing.

Clothing within the Fable games

Robkinsons — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 20:04:31 GMT

I think it might be a idea if your families' clothes changed based on the budget you gave them. For example if you marry a beggar and house them in castle Fairfax, while giving them a million gold a day they will still look and dress like a beggar. I think it would be a idea to have your spouse's/children's clothing change based on what you supply them with. It might also be funny to have a spouse with a really strong regional accent try and mimic that of the upper class.

What do you think?

Fable 3 Co-op

Tusumaki — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 21:33:32 GMT

Ok so almost anyone that has played fable 2 co-op can agree it wasn't . So I think what needs to be done for fable 3, is make it so people can play co-op with there own separate cameras that is the main problem with fable 2's co-op and so we can play as our own heroes instead of predetermined ones. I also think that u should encourage people to play co-op u should make a few unique dungeons that require some teamwork and at the end u each get a legendary weapon, and if 2 people both have a quest they haven't done they should be able to activate it together if u added them features into the fable 3 co-op experience it would make it 100x better but personally if ur just going to paste the fable 2 co-op over to fable 3 then personally don't even add the co-op and spend more time on making an extra quest or a new feature or even another legendary weapon.

Do professional game developers write UI's for their custom tools using c++/cli?

XALAN — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 04:32:00 GMT

Developing a UI for a Windows application in native c++ using nothing but the Windows API is still pretty painful. When developing a tool like a map editor this can get ugly fast, because you're flying blind when placing UI components at runtime for example.

Lionhead developers: Have you used either c++/cli or c# to build your custom tools? Native code can still be used, of course, in the middle tier (and even in the same exe/dll if using c++/cli); but does DirectX/OpenGL performance suffer when the UI of the tool is built with DotNet?

Jobs in Gaming (Directed at Devs!)

Mongo1 — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 20:43:20 GMT

Hi, I really want a job in gaming. But not a developer or a programmer, I want to be a Storywriter or Concept Artist. I'm only young so I have a couple of years before I'm even near GCSE's well actually I'm doing some next year but I'm in the Express Group. I have to take my options this year which is very hard to choose and I am not very at art. I was just wondering if you have any advice on how exactly to get into this career. (Would really appreciate advice etc, not sure if this is the right section for this.)

What would you like to see in Fable III?

anonymousguy — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 01:32:03 GMT

It may be a little early to discuss this but the earlier we do so the quicker Lionhead can adapt to our suggestions.

A longer storyline and a tougher death system go without saying. But what else would you like?.

I personally would prefer a prequel to a sequel, going back before Fable I to Archon's time, this way the player could be in charge of the development of the new guild and choose its fate, society would be largely undeveloped, thus giving the hero a chance to build it to his/her own satifaction.

About the death system, how about we combine the the scarring system with the system which was used, in which resserection phials can be used but the player looses experience using them. The scarring system takes place if the player has no resserection phials.

Plus, with whoever the main enemy is in Fable III, why can't we have the option of joining him/her rather than having to kill the person (I know not many people would want to do so, but it would be great if we could).

That's just my idea though, I'm happy to listen to everybody else's.

Oblivion Obsessed?

Mongo1 — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 16:50:32 GMT

Why is it that every RPG game known to man is now compared to Oblivion? The game is and does beat alot of newer games but to constantly go on about it and compare it to games which it has no likeness it is outragous, next Modern Warfare 2 will be compared to it. Really why do you think there are so many people Oblivion Obsessed?

What is a good game development software?

Razlo_Steel — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 06:41:37 GMT

Title says it all.

Fable II

txi_darthbane — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 19:35:49 GMT

Dear Staff of LionHead,

Before the quest for Fable III finishes I have a few ideas to make Fable II last a little longer. Why does your kid only have to be a kid? Make it so the kid can actually grow up and you have to go on some mission to save him because he has run off to go on some adventure to fill his fathers shoes. During the epic story line you hear a lot about the "Warrior Monks in the north" and "Samarkand" ... why cant you go to these places? Those would be a great Add-on for Fable II. I think another great Add-on for Fable II would be a mission to either kill the Shadow Court or to make the same wish as Reaver. By killing the Shadow Court you restore Oakvale to the living, breathing, once busy town it was before. If you choose to make the wish instead, than everyone in Bloodstone will die and will be as Oakvale is now. During the adventure you can either "Donate to the Light" or "Sacrifice to the Shadows" and by doing so one of the Temples thrives while the other dies. If the Temple of Light is picked it grows in size, another building is added. Why not the same for the Temple of Shadows? make the temple fix itself so to speak. put a roof, alter, second floor, something just it needs some work too. For being greedy people you would think they would be greedy enough to make the temple look $$$. I've talked about all the Add-ons I've been thinking about, now for the Achievements. An Achievement for getting all the original Legendary Weapons. A bigger Renown Achievement, which in turn unlocks a new title Emperor, or Lord, etc. something along that line. Another Real Estate Achievement also make it 10. mil or something. My idea for a few other things. What ever happened to the Sword of Aeons. I think you should be able to buy the Hero Hill and when you do the sword is stuck in the Ground on the top in the middle and all you have to do is pull it out. What ever happened to Obsidian Weapons. Just bring those back into the game. Also, just make an Add on that brings the old weapons back into the game such as... Avo's Tear, The Harbinger, Katana Hiryu, Cutlass Bluetane, Ronok the Axe, Dollmaster's Mace, Orkon's Club, Wellows Pickhammer (in fact all the pickhammers), Murren Greathammer, Murren Greataxe (and all the Axes), Solus Greatsword, The Bereaver, The Sentinus, Arken's Crossbow, and the Skorm's Bow. Duel wielding weapons would be great also. some clothes from the people of fable I would be great, Jack of Blades, stuff like that. A clan option so that when your playing you can set the orb to either your friends, everyone, or just your clan. You should be able to fast travel to anyone in the clan. (example= if they are in Bowerstone Market, than you "fast travel" directly beside there orb). A trade option is needed, you already have people gifting people money to have some item or weapon gifted back to them in return. One time someone will gift someone money for an item or weapon only to have been tricked out of the money. Castle Fairfax looks so big from the outside... why is it a rip off?...and for a million too. When you finish this epic quest you get to pick the ultimate choice, people, family, or $$$. (sorry $ its not that much). You pick the people YA wow a statue, it's not like I haven't already made 5 others for "The Sculptor" Quest or anything. If you pick family, so sweat you get your wife/husband back with the kids that never age even. You get your dog, and even your sister, who you never see again might I add. (why is that?) and than the money.......Ya I make more than that every 5 min. I think another cool thing that would make the game better is, you should be able to start your own little village that you name and that can grow in population and building size. It can start like the gypsy camp and work its way to a town like Bowerstone Market, or the other way around depending on the money you have and how or bad your governing/economics skills are. I was thinking what would it be like if you could restart the Hero's Guild and be the Headmaster...that's something else to think about. OK I like the fact that you can redecorate a house you own or are renting out, but why do you have to keep it the way it looks, why not be able to move furniture around to a set up you like. This brings me to the Bar... you should be able to update the furniture in the Bar to make the Bar a better place to be. Why not add a wallpaper and flooring option. I like the fact that you can buy the farm but ya! a giant plot of land for me to do nothing with that cost me 750k. Let the Character be able to plant carrots and celery than sell them to the produce trader, Even be able to pick the apple trees for a profit also. To be able to Augment more than just weapons would be nice also. (clothes) A option to write your own little book to sell at the Book store or to other players would be funny. Oh being able to set up a store so other people on xbox live in the same town as you can come up and see what you have for sale and possibly even buy it from you (make the "shop owner" appear in other peoples games as a traveling sales gypsy). A bank like in runescape.com that you can put any item you have in to keep safe. (I like to keep my characters quest log, items log, etc... empty) but I have a lot of stuff I want to keep, just not carry on me till I want to. OK you can have sex on this game and get STD's but what happens then, you character doesn't get any weaker or anything. Thank you for taking you time to read my horribly long message. Please reply back with as much info, ideas, and heck yes/heck no's as you see fit. Tell me if the staff finds any of these ideas or bad.

Once more I thank you,
†Darth Bane†

Dark Tower ala Liohead

haikubi — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 19:16:18 GMT

I've been obsessing over Stephen King's masterpiece Western/Fantasy series the Dark Tower.

I read all the books (listened to 2, 3 and 4 on audibook first - Jack Muller (R.I.P.) was a truly awesome reader). Then, I got into the comics - not as great by any means, but the art was amazing. Marvel also released a series of one-shot 'Guides' to the Dark Tower universe - kind of a weak attempt to sell more books, but I bought them for lack of something better to read on a trip. Like I said, they're weak, but the additional information made me think:

"I'd really love to play a game that was based on the Dark Tower universe and had gamplay similar to Fable."

I know they're probably planning movies for these books and that bums me out a little. Because, unless someone willing to treat these books the way Peter Jackson treated Lord of the Rings gets his or her hands on that project, it'll turn out terribly.

But a video game, man that'd be the perfect way to experience All-World.

Any thoughts?

game concept : The conquest of albion

Darkbelg — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 20:29:55 GMT

takes place between fable 2 and 3.
It clarifies why the ruler has become a tyrant.

Executing it will be hard X.X
Because I can't research anymore.
Because i moved my 360 with fable 2 disc in it.

RTS game a bit of Warcraft style with hero's.
No horses,different range soldiers and mellee soldiers.

Aspects for a new RPG

Jintus — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 16:53:42 GMT

Dear Sir or Madam,

related to the Release of Fable 2 I have read an Interview with Peter Molyneux. He declared that there would not be an increasing System of armours. (Leather Armour, Steel Armour...)

Mr. Molyneux declared, that he wanted to break this standard System. Because of this Fact i started to think about the possibilities to change the standard way of a RPG.

The first Step was a Task in the german RPG "Drakensang". The story of the task was to get three Trolls out of a Tavern. The three Trolls were so cute that the thought rose in my mind: Why does Ogres or Trolls always have to be the huge, strong, stupid, bad Monsters? What about to turn such a Monster to the Hero Character? Yeah, exactly like "Shrek".

The Ogre/Troll is a huge creature who has as an adult the strength of fourty men. He is not quite a genius but he is not bad. The Ogres/Trolls are just the victims of bad guys who enslave them because of their strength. So tell the Story of one of the last free Ogres/Trolls.

Armour? A Ogre/Troll is to huge to wear a suit of armour. To fill this gap a Skill-System could replace the increasing collection of Armour suits. For example two Skills colud be leather and Stone Skin. While the years the Ogre/Troll has to get through a lot of fights and so his Skin is hardened. One more new aspect is the realation between the Skills and the look/appearance of the Ogre/Troll. For example the Stone Skin changes the colour of the Skin to a grey dominated texture. Another Skill could be a fat-belly. With increasing age the Ogre/Troll stocks more and more fat under the Skin. The fat increases the weigth of the Ogre/Troll so he can`t be pushed so easily to the ground. The appearance of the Ogre/Troll is affected by the skill Level, with a higher Skill the belly of the Ogre and the mass of his body are increasing.

Next to the Character bound Skills there are Skills which the Ogre/Troll can gain through magic potions. The Alchemy and plants do not just create Health and Mana potions or these who increase the Statics (Strentgh, Willpower...). For example a Thorn-Armour Potion. The Ogre/Troll drinks the Potion while a Ritual. As an Effect, the Player can choose one Body part which will be protected by the Thorn-Armour. The Bodypart and the thorn-plant are combined by old magic and from this day on the thorn-plant is growing on the Body. The effect on the appearance should be clearly recognisable. More potions increase the protection and the degree of the plant growth.

I hope i colud explain the main idea of the RPG and i hope you like the thoughts behind it.

Yours faithfully

Jintus

P.S.: Please excuse the mistakes i am not so used to write in english.

a script/ plot for a game

erbanleamonaid — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 11:30:53 GMT

i have a game script i am currently writing as a short story although it was first designed to be a computer game a book format opens up for more character development.

so i was wondering how does someone like myself go about getting in contact with a game designer/publisher and pitch my idea...or are most games thought up by an inhouse design team?

any info/ advice would be appreciated.

Medieval Times Game Pitch

MichaelHavoc — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 16:33:56 GMT

Medieval Times Game Pitch

Summary

The world would pertain of a vast recreation of 12^th to 13^th 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 3^rd Person should be the primary format and then for the player who wants to look through the eyes of themselves 1^st 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

Questions and Comments should be sent to

Michaelhavoc@live.com

This in no means would be an easy task, it would be costly, and would take years of work. I am giving you this idea to use at your will, and in no way will I hold it against you to modify it. I do not want any payment for giving you this idea or recognition. I would be happy with it being made.

Due to the length of time it would take to create this game the next generation of consoles may already be released.

I am sure you get ideas all the time, but this is something I hope you consider.

The ultimate role playing experience.

Lionhead is a bunch of jerks for making me post this here lol.

Pub games on the iphone

Rensi — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 03:08:55 GMT

Has anyone considerd porting some of the pub games to the iphone? I would love to play fortunes tower during my Math class...

Seriously, I think it would be awsome to get some of the minigames ported.

Black & White 3 or expasion pack

simboy — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 08:57:17 GMT

Hi I am Richard after playing Black and wihite 2 since it was out and I have completed the main game and expansion pack load's of times I am wondering if you a re going to make a Black & White 3 or or a new black and white 2 expasions pack? it would be very if you do

Fable 2 DLC idea's

GGplease — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 03:31:49 GMT

I know this is long but I think they are some idea's that could really make this game into the best game yet for the 360.

I bought this game expecting greatness and it is so very close. Please make it so you can see the other player's actual Hero in Co-op and give each player their own camera not the shared thing. I bought this game expecting greatness and it is so very close. Adding a "Hardcore" with 4-player Co-Op that scales the difficutly depending on the amount of players like in Diablo 2. (Which could be as simple as increasing the HP and Damage of the monsters or tripleing the amount spawned or even both) In this mode once you die you start over, which would be great considering you can't really ever die in Fable 2 the way it is now. It's just not the same when you know that NO MATTER WHAT you do you're going to come back right where you died in about 3 seconds to keep on plugging away at whatever killed you. (That is if you actually find something hard enough to kill you) And it would act as a sort of Player-Controlled Matchmaking system since obviously the people that don't die will end up together since everyone else will be back at the beginning. Considering the way the "Party" syster works an experience table or something might need to be added to the menu that comes up when you "Interact" with the player orb. Make Augments give the weapon some kind of a "Glow" effect. Add Legendary Augments.(Not Augments you can only use on Legendary weapons more like Augments to make a normal weapon more Legendary, i.e. an Augment that inverts your spell bar so that rank 5 is on the bottom and rank 1 is on the top, just for fun, or an Augment that allows you to cast the highest known rank of a Will Ability, regardless of it being at the top or bottom of your spell bar, as long as its EQUAL to or lower than the rank of the Spell above it.) Last but not least maybe some sort of online stage-based arena style mini-game where you have the option to team up with other people, and fight endless waves of monsters that just get harder and harder untill you eventually die, recieving rewards depending on how far you get. You have to use your in-game character and you don't receieve any experience, skill, will, or strength points from the monsters. It could even go the extreme of having a Ladder ranking system with set up teams that tracks what team has gotten the farthest. Im not a programmer but these things don't really seem like they would be all that complicated for the Lionhead Studio to add into the game. Im open to Critisism. (not that it would make much difference other then knowing if the Community agree's or disagree's). If you do like this post and feel it would be better noticed in a different thread, please feel free to copy it.

RPG aren't RPGs

Net-Ninja — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 13:41:55 GMT

First I would like to clarify what the acronym means. RPG stands for Role Playing Game. This means that you are playing with an identity, your are another person. Todays RPG have lost much of what ould be called a personal identity. In world of warcraft the only thing unique is you name. So I ask, what makes this an RPG?

The true elements that make up an RPG has been lost in the games we make today, the bond between you and your character has faded away. Somewhere along the line Leveling, item hunting, and skill trees has become all that RPGs stand for. The genre of RPG seems to have fallen into darkness.

Alas, the tide is now turning. The RPGs now being created is becoming more and more fluid and personal, maybe in a few years the true meaning of an RPG will be regained.