The video game industry needs new product

In the Warcraft series alone,
they have a team that redesigns the fonts,
for warcraft 1, 2, and 3, and world of,
and that's not counting their other titles.



Patents can make you money.

If you have

a great law firm
a team of people scouring every title released for infringement

Other than that,
they serve more to prevent others from wanting to touch that tech in any way shape or form.


Mike

reply to post by mikegrouchy


Your crushing my dreams man, your crushing my dreams

Originally posted by Thorneblood

Your crushing my dreams man, your crushing my dreams

As gently and as positively as I can.

I too,
still dream
and hope for ideas.

That one day there will be
a team that delivers on schedule
and doesn't melt down when customers
have idiotic feed back and petty complaints.


Mike

Screw those people, everyone just bitches these days anyway.

I am still down for the challenge if you are.

Originally posted by Thorneblood
Screw those people, everyone just bitches these days anyway.

I am still down for the challenge if you are.

The mission is tantamount
to immigrating to another country
swearing blood loyalty to a feudal lord
and putting your descendants to work on their land
in perpetuity.

I don't think the being "down for the challenge" is enough.

But I will help any way I can,
and answer any questions you may have.


Mike


Oh,
and I forgot to add,
some of us may be martyred along the way.

Sounds like any other business venture....

Besides, doesn't Mojang have like 9 employees? and How popular is Minecraft?

The Time Warp Effect

Blizzard's hit game World Of Warcraft,

at release, was

4 years of development
thousands of employees

And most people had "finished" the game 6 months later,
some in only 2 months after release.


The modern game consumer will blow through
you thousands of man hours in a weekend on
redbull and vitamins.


Mike

The modern game consumer will blow through you thousands of man hours in a weekend on redbull and vitamins.

They dont know how to develop quality games anymore.
My son and I always used to go to the midnight releases for games such as Halo and CoD. We would wait in line for hours get the game and be home by 1 am and then we would have the game completely beaten on normal level by 6 am.
We also have an N64 and a few months ago we decided to replay our old time favorite, Zelda: Ocarina of Time.
Now we have played and beaten this game literally a hundred times but still to this day, it may take us about two weeks to get all the way through all of the temples.
That was a quality game, a rarity now days.

Originally posted by Thorneblood
Sounds like any other business venture....

Besides, doesn't Mojang have like 9 employees? and How popular is Minecraft?

I'm glad you mentioned Mojang,

He is a Legal anomaly.

Did you know that he was actually one of the developers employed by the X-Box version
called Total Miner ( I think that was the title ) and when they were done with him
he made his own version and beat them to release.

Their version only had creative mode.

The mojang version had Survival mode.

He had great lawyers and they couldn't stop him.


So basically he was a traitor to his development team,
was paid to learn how
and paid to develop it by another company
then went rogue and stole all their customers.


Employee contracts have become even more draconian
since his little stunt.


Mike

It can be done!

We can do it!

Believe!

Originally posted by Sharingan

The modern game consumer will blow through you thousands of man hours in a weekend on redbull and vitamins.

They dont know how to develop quality games anymore.
My son and I always used to go to the midnight releases for games such as Halo and CoD. We would wait in line for hours get the game and be home by 1 am and then we would have the game completely beaten on normal level by 6 am.
We also have an N64 and a few months ago we decided to replay our old time favorite, Zelda: Ocarina of Time.
Now we have played and beaten this game literally a hundred times but still to this day, it may take us about two weeks to get all the way through all of the temples.
That was a quality game, a rarity now days.

Your assessment is both accurate
and echo's my own feelings.

I Blame the fact that all the money is in the "pretty artwork"
and the actual coders are paid peanuts for 100 hour weeks.

In fact
if a game (like Minecraft) can strike a chord
with old 16 bit graphics,
there may be hope.

But it takes the perfect mix of
being the hot-new-thing on 4chan
with all-the-cool-kids making videos of playing it
for that to happen.


Did you ever play Masters of Magic?

Civilization + Warcraft + enchant your own magic items
with an individual hero rpg thrown in for fun.



Mike

reply to post by mikegrouchy


Exactly, these are the kinds of games that i want to make...

Original, satisfying and epic.

Considering the amount of information on ATS, we could feasibly base it on something found right here on this website.

Originally posted by Thorneblood
It can be done!

We can do it!

Believe!

I never stopped believing.

What is your Idea?


Wait.


I mean.

If ideas are your children,
and you love and are attached to them,
do you have one you don't mind putting in the meat grinder
so we can see what color blood comes out.

/proceed with caution.


Mike

reply to post by mikegrouchy


I will say this though.. The Black Ops franchise of the Call of Duty games did something unique that gave me at least two years of entertainment.
Wanna know what it was?
NAZI ZOMBIES.
I played that day after day after day trying to get as many levels as I could but in the end I gave up after only attaining a paltry 30 levels.
I just couldnt go on, all of the usuals that I paired up with moved on to new games and I was left getting paired up with scrubs that would open the wrong door at the wrong time or hog the mystery box or would just plain suck lol..
Good times tho

Sure....

Remember the old cartoon series Batman Beyond? Remember Tenchu?

It got me to thinking about power suits and the other ways they could be applied to a video game concept.

So, consider this.

You are a highly skilled thief in the year 20xx who comes into possession of a new model of stealth suits being produced by a local tech company that grants your character certain advanced abilities.

Climbing walls/ceilings, gliding, invisibility, hacking security, etc.

Imagine an open world game concept that plays similar to Assassin's Creed, Prototype, etc. Your character's goal is simply to steal and profit, and you are able to break into and steal from any of the many buildings/businesses in the world.

Some of this work would be done on contract, some would be simply for sport.

Example....Client 7 wants an old painting that has recently been transferred to the local museum.
Example 2....Client 33 wants an advanced copy of a new operating system being developed in your area

Your job is to break in, undetected, and steal said painting/OS. Along the way you would be able to pick up any other pieces of art/software or tech you desired for profit or collection.

As you progress through the game your account balance would increase, allowing you to upgrade your hideout, expanding it to include a trophy room, garage for stolen cars, etc.

All the while you are being pursued by the tech company that produced the suit for government work, facing off against local police, modified assassins, etc.

An alternative to the main 'suit' idea would be an advanced form of genetic splicing that allowed the player to customize their character with advanced abilities based on the natural gifts of animals.

Example
A bat gene would allow for flight, echo location, etc

A panther gene would increase strength, speed, fighting abilitiy

A chameleon gene would allow for climbing any surface, camouflage, etc.

The list kinda goes on from there....

Want something more basic or will that do?

Originally posted by Sharingan
reply to post by mikegrouchy

 

I will say this though.. The Black Ops franchise of the Call of Duty games did something unique that gave me at least two years of entertainment.
Wanna know what it was?
NAZI ZOMBIES.
I played that day after day after day trying to get as many levels as I could but in the end I gave up after only attaining a paltry 30 levels.
I just couldnt go on, all of the usuals that I paired up with moved on to new games and I was left getting paired up with scrubs that would open the wrong door at the wrong time or hog the mystery box or would just plain suck lol..
Good times tho

A perfect example of a simple to code idea
that met customer expectations.

Prior to C.O.D. Nazi Zombies,
games had been getting easier and easier,
and there was a backlash across the internet.

People had written whole blogs about how games used to be harder,
that the new games were too easy.

That need was met in a timely fashion by a big label game.

3 years earlier, it probably would have been an ignored option.
If released now, it wont meet the current zeitgeist.


Mike

Second Game Concept

Consider the popularity of open world games like GTA or Saints Row

Now combine that open world concept with one of the best Pen and Paper RPG's ever made. Shadowrun.

And when i say combine that concept, i mean it. You take everything available in Shadowrun and apply it to the game world.

Combat lovers would operate purely in the "real world"

Hacking lovers would operate both in the 'real world' and in the Matrix (a stylized neon version of the city)

Magic lovers would operate in the "real world" and the "astral plane"

Originally posted by Thorneblood
Sure....

Remember the old cartoon series Batman Beyond? Remember Tenchu?

It got me to thinking about power suits and the other ways they could be applied to a video game concept.

So, consider this.

You are a highly skilled thief in the year 20xx who comes into possession of a new model of stealth suits being produced by a local tech company that grants your character certain advanced abilities.

Climbing walls/ceilings, gliding, invisibility, hacking security, etc.

Imagine an open world game concept that plays similar to Assassin's Creed, Prototype, etc. Your character's goal is simply to steal and profit, and you are able to break into and steal from any of the many buildings/businesses in the world.

Some of this work would be done on contract, some would be simply for sport.

Example....Client 7 wants an old painting that has recently been transferred to the local museum.
Example 2....Client 33 wants an advanced copy of a new operating system being developed in your area

Your job is to break in, undetected, and steal said painting/OS. Along the way you would be able to pick up any other pieces of art/software or tech you desired for profit or collection.

As you progress through the game your account balance would increase, allowing you to upgrade your hideout, expanding it to include a trophy room, garage for stolen cars, etc.

All the while you are being pursued by the tech company that produced the suit for government work, facing off against local police, modified assassins, etc.

An alternative to the main 'suit' idea would be an advanced form of genetic splicing that allowed the player to customize their character with advanced abilities based on the natural gifts of animals.

Example
A bat gene would allow for flight, echo location, etc

A panther gene would increase strength, speed, fighting abilitiy

A chameleon gene would allow for climbing any surface, camouflage, etc.

The list kinda goes on from there....

Want something more basic or will that do?

What I'm reading is content,
with some allusions to existing play styles.

A quest editing-system / database-system that allows multiple quest designers
is no small matter,
compounded by existing patents and copyrights.

Some stuff is pretty safe, like Threat Level,
where say "the police" change color as they become more hostile to you.
But even safer is to have different art work for each threat level.

Of course that multiplies the cost of art development,
which usually means more cuts to the programming side.

Also,
I assume you are thinking 3D and not text based.
And I assume you expect a multiplayer option,
which is a whole other world of hurt.


Mike

Third game concept

Me and Darkbake are kinda speaking about this now in PM

Essentially it would combine the Space ship dogfighter genre with a bounty hunter concept, allowing the player to navigate from planet to planet to colony etc within our solar system, hunting down bounties while following a greater storyline.

Think a combo of Wing Commander with a FPS once your are out of your customizable ship.

Originally posted by Thorneblood
Second Game Concept

Consider the popularity of open world games like GTA or Saints Row

Now combine that open world concept with one of the best Pen and Paper RPG's ever made. Shadowrun.

And when i say combine that concept, i mean it. You take everything available in Shadowrun and apply it to the game world.

Combat lovers would operate purely in the "real world"

Hacking lovers would operate both in the 'real world' and in the Matrix (a stylized neon version of the city)

Magic lovers would operate in the "real world" and the "astral plane"

Ah, you played Shadowrun too. Cool.

You know I thought that reading the first Idea.
"This sounds kinda like Shadowrun."


The appeal of GTA is best summed up by what I heard a cook tell me back in 90's.
"Dude have you played the new Need for Speed! You get to run from the 5-0!!!!!"
It's many a young mans dream to exercise their repressed urges of modern society
by taking on the Authorities. Something most would never dream of doing for real.

GTA has met and satisfied that need.

People's sense of what is repressing them, as shifted a bit.

What Idea do you have for an Authority,
that players would literally fear to take on in real life,
but could be attacked on the Astral, Real, and Matrix all at the same time?


Mike