20: Stick man wars

[edg3]

Due to time constraints I will have to move on with this as I have no solid direction in my other ideas (cant even get around to prototyping them), so will have to spill the beans on Stick Man Wars. I will also throw in the other ideas that sort of were half thought up and such as an afterthought to this thread, and if people feel I have better ideas on the other games I can switch over.

Proto 1: Stick Man Wars: http://www.gamedev.za.net/filecloset...547/proto1.rar

The idea behind stickman wars is simple, make a game that has simple controls, that is highly generic in all aspects, and then to throw in multiplayer. The original cocept spawned from wanting a turn based team game (think worms) with minimalistic graphics, few weapons, andhigh speed gameplay, which actually is where the destructible terrain comes in. The other problem I faced is that I feel that I can make an effort to minimalise the amount of memory spillage and up the efficiency to try and get this to run on the most bare bones pc I can get my hands on (in an acceptable range, as its all in GM so it has to be a windows pc).

One thing that sits highly on my things-to-actually-think-about-before-jumping-into-this list is to make it fun, which given how Im approaching it seems a little unobtainable, and Im looking for suggestions as to how I can add more of a fun and interesting appeal to the game. As for graphics, I can see how people would actually be worried I might over minimalise the graphics, but there will be "doodads" so to speak the brighten up your 2D world a little and im sure that it will make various people happy.

Currently, I want to first get everything running nicely over the network with only the basics I have here, and then move on to adding AI and the other weapons. Handling of team/player colours and game types will be quite easy and aside from FFA, If I can get everything working nicely before rAge (hopefully before the competition end) I can add in things like TDM and CTF, along with game modes like king of the hill.

So let the war begin....

Originally Posted by Tamagotchi?

A simple command simulator mimiking the idea behind a Tamagotchi, perhaps with point and click game play? (havent gotten anywhere playable in the prototyping yet, but its quite fascinating :P )

As soon as I remember the other random Ideas I will post them here.

[Thaumaturge]

I take it that this is the same prototype that you posted in your other thread? If so, then you already have my comments on that in that thread.

However, as to ideas for increasing the fun of the game, hmm... First of all, I would suggest larger playfields, or smaller characters - at the moment there doesn't seem to be much space for multiple characters. Another thing that I'd suggest is to take advantage of your alterable terrain:

• provide some or all of tools, items or weapons that can add to the terrain, allowing people to build barriers.
• Prevent characters from moving to terrain points that are too far above them (allowing walls), and perhaps include falling damage for long drops (even if you don't actually change the mechanic of simply appearing at the new point, rather than "falling" - you could simply have damage be done when they move to that point).
• Provide objects in the terrain that are indestructible (rocks/iron chunks/crashed titanium satellites... ;p). These should be able to sit below the terrain (i.e. buried) if they end up there, but could end up on top of it if terrain is destroyed above them, and do not "float" if terrain is destroyed below them. Simply put, I think that the rule "if there is terrain above or beside, do not move, otherwise, set to terrain height" should work. You could also include objects that do "float", or that can be pushed, if you want. If one of the above terrain-lifters is used on a point containing such an object, they are again buried.
• Hazardous terrain (water/slime/toxic waste) at a certain level (a-la-Worms)

[edg3]

I've encountered some issues with this project that I will not have time to work on and sort out before the end of the comp, so I will be moving onto my fall back idea, which I will only post at a later stage ;)

(although I will still be keeping this idea, as I feel even though I cant complete it in XNA until after DBP ends, the gameplay would work nicely on the 360 with 4 players a console. Look forward to big guns, ninja combat and trees)

[Thaumaturge]

I'm sorry to hear about such issues, but glad that you have a fallback position - I hope that you have time in which to complete it! ^_^