First Person Shooter Ideas

[SNIPERDUDE]

It's been so long I almost forgot how to post a topic. Anyhow, I haven't really posted anything in a good while, as I have not only been busy with school, but I have been planning a project of my own. I have been doing some learning, studying, and research for the past year or so in the development of a FPS (First Person Shooter). I already have a good idea of what it will look like, but seeing how I want this to be open-source and free, I also want to know what people want.

So my question being: What do you want to see in the ultimate shooter? Graphics and storyline don't completely make a game, and far too often these days those are the only two things developers focus on (in mainstream production). Also, what are some really cool features/ideas you have seen (or thought of) in other shooters that you've really enjoyed?

All input appreciated and welcome.

[DemonWasp]

1. Interesting weapons. We've all had MP5's, AK-74's, M4's, M16's, RPGs, rocket launchers, lightning guns, shotguns, sniper rifles, flamethrowers, and pretty well every other conjugation of real-world weaponry. Some have had more esoteric weapons (UT2k4 in particular: Bio Cannon aka "Goo Gun", Shock Rifle, Link Gun were all creative weapons with interesting new uses other than just shooting at things until they explode). Create a gun that fires a conical discharge, hitting in an expanding circle around the crosshair. Make a weapon that slows down its target, or another that causes it to slowly bleed out. Make a gun that reflects off of walls, like a laser off a mirror. Make a gun that blinds or stuns or otherwise disables its targets. Make a grappling hook or tractor beam. Make a teleportation gun that takes you wherever you aimed. Let us customize guns with improvements from the obvious (laser sights, fore-grips) to the wacky (infra-red see-through-walls scopes or zooming scopes or longer magazines or something).

2. Character design. This seems to have been forgotten more recently in game design. Sure, everyone knows Alyx, but we really don't know much about Gordon. Nor do we know anything about Dom or Marcus Fenix, Master Chief (who is a walking cardboard cutout), or Crysis Guy (also a cutout, but at least he has a callsign which isn't his rank). Look back a little more. Sure, you had bland protaganists (Quake series...) but you also had wonderfully detailed characters, like the No One Lives Forever series. Don't be afraid to over-do character details: in general, the pitfall is in bland characters, not ludicrously-overacted characters.

3. Set design. So you have crates. You also have barrels. Some of these explode. Oh, what's that, you also have cars? And a crane! And some chain link fences you can't climb. And a hedge that's remarkably impermeable and that I can't climb or shoot through. Hmm. Add interesting locales (they don't have to make much sense...HL1 and Quake 1-2 never really made any pretensions towards locations making sense and they had some of the best environments ever) with worthwhile set-pieces.

4. CO. OP. If you have a singleplayer campaign, I guarantee you could make it work with several of my friends joining in. Make it happen. L4D is an example, but that's a fairly weak example because doing so doesn't even modify the (mostly non-existent) storyline, and also because that's how the game was clearly intended to be played; playing single-player campaign is no fun at all. It should be fun both ways.


If you're going to manage even one of those, may I suggest that you save yourself a preposterous amount of work and just use one of the existing FOSS 3D engines? I've used jMonkeyEngine and it's fantastic, but if you prefer C/C++, then you should look at Ogre. Either of these will save you years of effort and dozens of headaches.

[SNIPERDUDE]

Thank you very much, you have given me a bit to think about. I do plan on using a pre-built 3D engine - although I could make one myself there really is no need. The focus of the game will be multiplayer, I'm not planning storyline until much later (despite already having the blueprints of it already set).

I knew I could trust the Compsci community to have such wonderful suggestions. Offer is still on the table, still taking idea requests.

[Insectoid]

I'd like to see old-style gameplay with new-age graphics. Small maps, fast movement and low HP pools, as well as a non-massive armory with 50 thousand different weapons. 6 or so weapons that fit a specific role. Shotgun, assault rifle, sniper, grenade, pistol. Throw a flamethrower in there, but keep it simple. Modern games like CoD have thirty different weapons for each roll. Who need seventeen different SMG's?

[SNIPERDUDE]

Hmm, it does seem that everyone has their own preferences, creating opposite spectrums. Regardless, I do plan on 'flexibility meeting simpilicity' as a major emphasis. So insectoid, you're thinking of something like a Quake-type gameplay?

[DemonWasp]

@insectoid: CoD4 has 5 relatively-distinct options for most weapon types, excepting the Assault Rifle options, for which it has 8. This isn't unexpected because they're the most common weapons in use. Otherwise, I agree: don't try to replicate that, because there's plenty of games in that space already. You might want to try out Urban Terror.

You may also want to decide on a rough timeline for when your game occurs. There's basically five categories: far past, near history, modern, near future, far future.

Far Past: fight with thrown spears, bow and arrow, crossbow, swords and other similar weapons; carry shields and wear armour. Perhaps stealth elements would go well (see the Thief series).

Near Past: as in Old West or American Civil War or WWI or WW2 (please no WW2). These realms have substantial technology, but are also clearly in the past: people dress differently and talk differently (though the behaviour is remarkably similar).

Modern: see Call of Duty 4, BF 2 or other shooters hailed as "modern".

Near-Future: these include games like Modern Warfare 2, which has non-existent tech like heartbeat sensors.

Far Future: Halo, Quake, Unreal Tournament, Gears of War, etc. Often include fancy technology (invisibility, time modification, teleportation, shields), and people are often supplanted partially or entirely by alien species - some which are hominid, and some which are not.


You should also decide what impression you want to leave on the player. Is the world gritty, cruel and unfair, or is it light-hearted and sugar-coated violence? Is this realism, where violence is a means to an end (kill the terrorists to protect the hostages), or cartoony, where violence is often the end (how many times has the Roadrunner bested Wile E. Coyote?). Do you want players to walk away thinking "Hey that was fun," as they might leaving a Quake, Halo or UT match, feeling competitive, as they might after a Counter-Strike or CoD4 match, or thinking deeply, as one might after playing Max Payne?


Another aspect incorporated into many games is an element of magic or miracle. For example, the Halo series has some oddities about how religious the Covenant are, while Thief has a world populated by the undead.


How much character customization is afforded to the player? Obviously, one chooses the weapon you wield and often a character model, but what else? Do you allow weapon customization (either like CoD4, like Crysis, or like TF2); do you allow players to be of different races or types (human, elf, dwarf, undead, robot, alien); do you give different abilities based on "kits" or what?

[SNIPERDUDE]

All questions taken into consideration. I won't be spilling any real details about the game itself as it won't be released for a good while - I'm just making this in what little free time I have.

Anyone else with some good advice/ideas/input?

[mirhagk]

There are probably 100's of little ideas you have to improve the world of 3D games. (things that you want in your game to make it good).

none of those little ideas really matter. Yes you should put them in if you have time or w/e but the thing that makes people play a game is that ONE thing that's awesome about it.

Played halo 1 because they intelligent (by those standards) AI

played halo 3 because the online play was sick

played call of duty 4 because it was modern equipment with realism

the way you hear about any game is through one major huge thing about the game that's good. The little things keep people playing but it's the big thing that draws them in.

Just keep that in mind, make sure your game actaully has something that other games don't offer/

[SNIPERDUDE]

mirhagk @ December 14th 2009 wrote:

Yes you should put them in if you have time or w/e

Time is not a factor, this is just a large project I work on in my spare time. It is really a long-term hobby, I got bored of making little programs.
Also I do have the one big thing already in focus (Awesome online play), I was just curious about those small little things that some don't notice, but make your gaming experience all the more fun.

[mirhagk]

yeah that's what I'm saying. Just don't put it the little things unles you have a big thing that's good. Like you can't say:

the machine gun looks more realistic
the jumping is more realisitic
night vision is slightly better
gun sounds are accurate
etc...
..
..

those little things make the game better of course but in order for people to buy/download it (don't know whether your charging or not) you just need one thing. Awesome online play sounds like a great selling point.

A tip to make the game more popular is to look at what you hate in online play, and seek to fix that then say "this game is like no other because the online play has <insert update here>"

Just out of curiousity what is this game made in?? And are you using 3D models you found, or making you own, or not using any at all?

[SNIPERDUDE]

mirhagk wrote:

(don't know whether your charging or not)

It will be open-source when finished, so free.

mirhagk wrote:

Awesome online play sounds like a great selling point.

That's mostly the reason why I started the whole thing.

mirhagk wrote:

A tip to make the game more popular is to look at what you hate in online play

That's what I did at first, and got most of my foundations for what I wanted. One major game I looked at for it's addictiveness is the old 007 games for gamecube (still my most up-to-date system). Gears of war 2 was also a great inspiration. Then knowing what I wanted, I looked at the rest of the more popular games and listed what I hated, and loved about them.

mirhagk wrote:

and seek to fix that then say "this game is like no other because the online play has <insert update here>"

I have a few tricks up my sleeve planned, but that information won't be released yet except to my team (A small group of friends are helping me with this project)

mirhagk wrote:

Just out of curiousity what is this game made in??

It will be coded in Python, using Panda3D (Disney's 3D engine coded in C++ wrapped in Python) for the engine. Also some of the other heavier calculations will be done in C++ if needed.

mirhagk wrote:

And are you using 3D models you found, or making you own, or not using any at all?

I am mostly making my own (All the maps are made by me and my team), but there will also be a good chunk gotten online (I'm being careful of licensing issues, the fact that the game will be free also helps me out in that area). I was also thinking about making some type of encryption for files like music (for obvious licensing issues, I don't want to get in deep water for releasing music or other files for free).
Any idea where to look for help in that area?

[mirhagk]

well the only thing i could've suggested is using XNA. It's probably your best choice for creating a game. But if you've already started coding there's no sense switching because one language is just as good as another I guess.

As for encrypting music, it can't be done while maintaining open source (the encryptor/decryptor would be visible to anyone so it would do no good since anyone who knows anything about coding could easily just decode the music and have it for themselves). Personally I'd suggest finding Indie artists for music since new musicians just want to get their stuff out there, so they are likely to give full rights except for profit off of it

[SNIPERDUDE]

Indie artists does sound awesome, I know a few already.
When (if) I do the encryption idea, that bit of code will not be posted. I can already think of a few work-arounds for testing with the just the source-code provided if need be.

[dn88]

If its going to be online play, one thing i hate now is jumping in half way through a game, or really random respawns. I like battlefiled bad company 2 over cod because at the end of the battle the map doesnt look the same due to all the destruction.Guns should be balanced if its a modern game, you shoudlnt be able to use a shot gun to shoot across the maps, and the maps should be balanced, small medium and large so people cant always just use the same type of gun in every map. One thing i dont think ive seen is forcing players to use only certain guns in certain maps..so you woudlnt have snipers in small maps, but more of machine guns and shot guns. Or make maps and game types based on gun category. All this could work in any category, western,modern, future

[SNIPERDUDE]

Thanks for taking the time to respond. I will certainly keep these things in mind.
I am currently busy with school, but this project will be completed someday. Not a project I want to drop.