Custom Made Shooter Game, Discussion and Design Options

[ultra magnus13]

A lot of it we might just rip from other games...

you just had to go and say that, didn't you?

Well, yeah, it is easier to transfer skin textures then try to eyeball it. It is best to try to get as accurate as possible to the real thing.

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

Yes, one of my friends is currently going to college for programming. Yes, I have made games before. I imagine C++

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.

I had so many programming errors when I made my first game. It is a nice little hobby, spend 4 hours of programming for 10 minutes of game play just to hear people say "meh". I think the most frustrating part is having people tell you have grammar errors and then going back and fixing them. Because if I want to change any dialog text it is not like it is in one big word document where I can just scroll down and fix, each line of text is hidden some where that I randomly place in a code or in a trigger, I pretty much have to dig through everything to find it, then change the words and see if the text can still fit on the screen or if I have to resize it and what not. If it is just some glitch in the game those are easy to hunt down and fix.

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.

There is nothing original left in the world. If we do make our own creatures, they will just resemble something someone else saw in a different game and be all like "well, this is just a bad rip off of blah-blah-blah" or what not. This way people will know it is a nostalgic homage to all their favorite past and present games. But, really, many ways can you reinvent a human soldier or just keep making new designs for a pistol?

I mean look at Halo, look how popular that game was, but did it have anything original about it? No, it was just another generic shooter game but yet everyone loved it and when asked why no one could give a more in depth answer then "IT ROCKS!!"

But just to be a tad original, I might add in a bunny race.

EDIT

Wow, uh, this sounds....


...like you'll do two weapon textures and promptly forget the project.

Yeah, it will take a lot of time and effort to do it.

People loved Halo because it was one of the first mainstream games to incorporate one button melee and grenade buttons as well as limiting the weapons you could carry. This combined with excellent combat AI and killer set pieces made for some of the most exciting combat encounters that could be very challenging without feeling cheap. Fights felt very dynamic and would often play out very differently when played again.

[Spark]

And recharging shields, so even the players who suck can do okay as long as they know how to run away.

My suggestion is to look into the Unity engine. It's made for this kind of thing and free as long as your game is, too.

[Nyarlathotep]

Ah man, this thread is full of youth!

[Sobana]

People loved Halo because it was one of the first mainstream games to incorporate one button melee and grenade buttons as well as limiting the weapons you could carry. This combined with excellent combat AI and killer set pieces made for some of the most exciting combat encounters that could be very challenging without feeling cheap. Fights felt very dynamic and would often play out very differently when played again.

Well, that is a lot better in depth explanation. But, this wasn't the first game to incorporate any of those features. You had one button for grenades since Soldier of Fortune and giving your guns a secondary melee attack has been done since, gosh, I can't even remember. The excellent AI combat I have ever seen has been in Perfect Dark. I beat all the Halo games and honestly, the first one felt more like a random summer release game in some bonus pack meant to keep sales going in the slow season but somehow, beyond my understanding, exploded in popularity with it's uninspired game play. It is like this new generation showed up and forgot there was shooter games before xbox came around.

but, I think it mostly became popular because of the internet.

And recharging shields, so even the players who suck can do okay as long as they know how to run away.

My suggestion is to look into the Unity engine. It's made for this kind of thing and free as long as your game is, too.

I'd have to admit, those recharging shields was pretty cool and original. We will look up this Unity engine, but the team is really psyched about making their own engine, but I'm sure I can talk them into making short cuts.

Nerds. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/icon-primal.gif)

Ah man, this thread is full of youth!

I know right! It can get rather disheartening at times.

[Nyarlathotep]

Okay, you just proved you never played Halo at all.

Honestly I think you're making this entire thing up....

[Varnon]

I didn't really like Halo... It just felt... slow somehow..
I loved Marathon back in the day though.
(It had a fun level editor too)

The end.

[wonko the sane?]

Okay, you just proved you never played Halo at all.

Honestly I think you're making this entire thing up....

No, I gotta agree with him. Other than shields recharging halo really didn't bring anything new to the table other than limiting weapons and ammo stock. Levels were folded on each other and repeated overly, the AI wasn't that good all told, and the story (which was the best part of it.) was just rehashing select stuff from the marathon series in a different way.

Yeah, I played them all. I still have a copy of ODST, which was the best example of story telling in the series. Gameplay wasn't bad either, but again: nothing outstanding or groundbreaking, just average.

[Sobana]

Yeah, I played them all. I still have a copy of ODST, which was the best example of story telling in the series. Gameplay wasn't bad either, but again: nothing outstanding or groundbreaking, just average.

I think just the whole internet community was what made it so popular, like the first shooter game on xbox or something?

[Nyarlathotep]

Okay, you just proved you never played Halo at all.

Honestly I think you're making this entire thing up....

No, I gotta agree with him. Other than shields recharging halo really didn't bring anything new to the table other than limiting weapons and ammo stock. Levels were folded on each other and repeated overly, the AI wasn't that good all told, and the story (which was the best part of it.) was just rehashing select stuff from the marathon series in a different way.

Yeah, I played them all. I still have a copy of ODST, which was the best example of story telling in the series. Gameplay wasn't bad either, but again: nothing outstanding or groundbreaking, just average.

ODST was the second-worst with Reach being the absolute worst, honestly. Halo: Combat Evolved had the best storytelling, because it didn't overstate and let the environs and radio chatter do a lot of the talking. It had the atmosphere, the mystery, and the sense of something new around every corridor. Also serious wrong about the AI, it was excellent.

ODST was a couple of interesting bits split up with very empty and boring segments. Nothing about it was particularly amazing.

This post has been edited by Hora Hora: Mar 2 2012, 09:21 PM

[ultra magnus13]

Okay, you just proved you never played Halo at all.

Honestly I think you're making this entire thing up....

No, I gotta agree with him. Other than shields recharging halo really didn't bring anything new to the table other than limiting weapons and ammo stock. Levels were folded on each other and repeated overly, the AI wasn't that good all told, and the story (which was the best part of it.) was just rehashing select stuff from the marathon series in a different way.

Yeah, I played them all. I still have a copy of ODST, which was the best example of story telling in the series. Gameplay wasn't bad either, but again: nothing outstanding or groundbreaking, just average.

ODST was the second-worst with Reach being the absolute worst, honestly. Halo: Combat Evolved had the best storytelling, because it didn't overstate and let the environs and radio chatter do a lot of the talking. It had the atmosphere, the mystery, and the sense of something new around every corridor. Also serious wrong about the AI, it was excellent.

ODST was a couple of interesting bits split up with very empty and boring segments. Nothing about it was particularly amazing.

You really need to play Legendary to appreciate the AI. On the lower difficulties your superior fire power allows you to ignore strategy both yours and there's and still come out on top. When there weapons actually hurt you, you will find yourself saying "Clever Girl" more often than you would expect.

This post has been edited by ultra magnus13: Mar 2 2012, 11:24 PM

[Nyarlathotep]

You can still get that on Heroic, but then I didn't think people played on Easy only.

[Sobana]

I play everything on normal, the way God intended.

[Cabooceratops]

I play everything on normal, the way God intended.

Actually the creators intended "Legendary" to be the way the game was meant to be played.

[Frost181]

I think heroic is what they say the "true" experience is actually, legendary is for extra challenge. at least that's what the descriptions in reach and odst say.

[Sobana]

Does different levels of difficulty have new content? Because I got into an argument with my friend when I told him the only way to truly beat WoW was to do so on 25 heroic and he was like "Does the hardest difficulty give any new content?" and I was like "no" and then he was like "Then there is no point to beating it on that setting." and then when I told him I beat Halo on normal, he said I haven't truly beat it until I did it on legendary to which I replied "Does the hardest difficulty give any new content?" and his reply was silence. =)

[wonko the sane?]

I suppose it depends on how you define content. The quality of the AI could be considered content in a fashion: It will generate a game which is MUCH more challenging, to some even impossible. Using different enemies in different positions even being smart enough to ambush with over whelming force.

Finishing halo on legendary is certainly an achievement, but I don't know if they've done enhanced cinematics for the legendary end since halo 1.

[ultra magnus13]

I suppose it depends on how you define content. The quality of the AI could be considered content in a fashion: It will generate a game which is MUCH more challenging, to some even impossible. Using different enemies in different positions even being smart enough to ambush with over whelming force.

Finishing halo on legendary is certainly an achievement, but I don't know if they've done enhanced cinematics for the legendary end since halo 1.

Halo 1 and 3 for Legendary at the end. I don't think 2 did. Pretty sure ODST does not and I don't think Reach does either.

[Nyarlathotep]

Does different levels of difficulty have new content? Because I got into an argument with my friend when I told him the only way to truly beat WoW was to do so on 25 heroic and he was like "Does the hardest difficulty give any new content?" and I was like "no" and then he was like "Then there is no point to beating it on that setting." and then when I told him I beat Halo on normal, he said I haven't truly beat it until I did it on legendary to which I replied "Does the hardest difficulty give any new content?" and his reply was silence. =)

It does though, Halo changes the loadouts, numbers, types and tactics of enemy forces, alters weapon placement, and generally gives you a more challenging experience each time.

Also don't compare an MMO with a shooter.

[wonko the sane?]

Sobana, what news? How's it going?

[Sobana]

Does different levels of difficulty have new content? Because I got into an argument with my friend when I told him the only way to truly beat WoW was to do so on 25 heroic and he was like "Does the hardest difficulty give any new content?" and I was like "no" and then he was like "Then there is no point to beating it on that setting." and then when I told him I beat Halo on normal, he said I haven't truly beat it until I did it on legendary to which I replied "Does the hardest difficulty give any new content?" and his reply was silence. =)

It does though, Halo changes the loadouts, numbers, types and tactics of enemy forces, alters weapon placement, and generally gives you a more challenging experience each time.

Also don't compare an MMO with a shooter.

Hmm, might play it again on legendary mode to see if it is possible to actually die in that game.

Also, you seem very informed about shooter games, would you like to share some input to what you might like to see in it?

Sobana, what news? How's it going?

Right now deciding which Mass Effect races we want to add, which should be playable and which should be NPCs that just hang around the bases. We are also working on an opening story.