Custom Made Shooter Game, Discussion and Design Options

[Sobana]

Some of my friends we discussing how cool would it be if Zerg (starcraft), Xen (Half-Life) and Xenomorphs (aliens vs predators) were all in the shooter game when we had a brilliant idea, why not make a custom made shooter game featuring every alien race from every science fiction game? We could take all the insect alien races blend them into a big enemy, use all the cool weapons and features and have dozens of playable races. Like a fan made Mugen fighter style shooter. Right now we are just getting started and trying to lay out all the ground work. We have decided to build our own engine for this project so it won't be confused as just another mod for a different game. We haven't even decided a name for it yet, we are thinking of calling it either Eden or Genesis.

The reason I'm creating this thread is to get help collecting mods and resources for this little project of ours. Any race, weapon, map or any thing at all you would like to see in this game just leave a suggestion and we will take it into consideration. We are looking to incorporate a wide verity of different games and elements into this. If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment. ^.^

-The Background Story Thus Far-
In the year 3124, across the multiverse dimensional rifts ripped open and an unknown biological alien force flooded into all the known galaxies. They quickly swept through and overwhelmed the unprepared defenders, devouring planets whole and leaving a trail of destruction in their wake. In a desperate attempt to try to seal the rifts, the various races sent their own fleets into the rifts to try to close them from the other side. Unable to navigate the turbulent rift space, the fleets were ravaged and many vessels were destroyed. The ships that managed to survive were thrown into an uninhabited universe with a swarms of bugs in pursuit. Knowing their numbers are to few and resources to scarce to hold off the invading bugs alone for long, they must band together and make a final stand for survival. This newly formed alliance will not only have to stop the invading forces, but also deal with betrayal within it's own ranks. (story needs work)

-Playable Races-
Human
Predator (Aliens vs Predators)
Protoss (Starcraft)

(We plan to add more playable races from Halo, Mass Effect and Starwars.)

-Enemy Force-
Flood (Halo)
Necromorph (Dead Space)
Xen (Half-Life)
Xenomorphs (Aliens vs Predators)
Zerg (Starcraft)

-Weapon-
(N/A)

-Vehicles-
(N/A)

-Maps-
(N/A)

-Game Modes-
Campaign Missions: Solo story mode.

Player vs Player: Multiply player

Survival: Endless stream of bad guys will attack the players, gradually increasing in amount and difficultly as the game progresses.

Onslaught: Waves of bad guys will attack the players. After each wave players will have a brief time to recuperate before the next one. After all waves are completed, an end boss will appear.

Domination: Players will collect resources scattered across the map or by killing enemy forces. Dropping resources off at your own base will grant access to vehicles, turrets and allow your base to generate NPC soldiers and tanks that will attack enemy forces and structures. Match is over once the enemy base is destroyed.

I'll try to keep this post updated.

This post has been edited by Sobana: Feb 28 2012, 11:52 PM

[Varnon]

Do any of you guys have programming experience? Ever made a game before?
What language will you be using?

If any of the answers are "no" or "I don't know," then I would suggest starting much smaller.
Try a simple 2D space shooter. It doesn't get much simpler than that. Want something more complex? Try a 2D platform-action shooter.


I few years back I made a 2D space shooter. It was worlds simpler than what you are describing. Never finished it...
But I totally get how making your own engine is fun. I had the most fun with AI. I had code for "seeking" enemy ships, that would home in on the player in the X or the Y, or both. Those were pretty easy to kill, since they pretty much get right in front of you. But they are also difficult to dodge. I also had code for "dodging" enemy ships. They would dodge bullets by moving on the X or on the Y, or both. XY dodgers were almost impossible to kill. Even worse, the levels would sometimes (randomly) spawn XY-dodger-XY-seekers. They stayed right on top of you all the time... but got the hell out of the way if you fired at them. I also had a lot of fun with weapon behaviors... which really are coded the same way AI is. It was a very satisfying project for me, even though it was only 2D, and pretty unambitious, and very unfinished. Maybe start more in that direction, so you actually can make some progress faster, and hammer out who is going to be fulfilling what role.

(The project was also pretty useful for me. Coding simple video games is extremely similar to coding the behavioral experiments with animals that I spend most of my time doing lately.)



As far the creative content... Really, you can get sued over ANYTHING. Just because you get sued doesn't mean it will stand up in court... but if the other party has more money for lawyers than you do, it can waste a lot of your time and money. I was recently sued by [confidential] because I [confidential] even though what I was doing had nothing to do with them. Essentially it was a BS move because they wanted to [confidential] before anyone else could, and were afraid that my [confidential] would cause someone else to want to get a [confidential] on the [confidential]. We came to an agreement, which is really kind on my part, where I had to put [confidential] on hold for a few months while they worked on getting [confidential]. If they make a fuss again we are counter-suing.

The morale of the story, work on something small, and don't get your feelings hurt if you have to use your own creative property.

This post has been edited by Varnon: Feb 29 2012, 07:20 PM