Community Game Development Project

[Xion]

Aye, a Tiny mock.
This is the "incoming" area, where the next group of recruits is previewed.
This is the player's (P1) "gathering" screen. Here, Small soldiers (the colors will be replaced with sprites) march down from the top of the screen, controlled with the classic WASD format, plus another, yet to be defined button, which, for now, we'll call "button H." Similar to a falling blocks puzzle game (More specifically the Puyo Pop series) the soldiers will march downward from the "Incoming" area and pile up here. As they pile up, they will be able to join forces with adjacent fellows to form different weapons, like get four bazooka men into a square to create a tank, or eight infantrymen to create a transport. Of course, "A" would move the blocks of soldiers Left, "D" would move them right, and "S" would make them fall faster. "W" would rotate them, but rather than rotating as a whole, they will just shift clockwise. Button H would stop the blocks from moving downward as a whole. When the soldiers pile up to the top of the screen, the game is not over! Nay, any units within the right half of the gathering screen will move onward to the "Battlefield" screen. The rest of the units just continue to march downward.
this is the battlescreen, where units from both sides collide and duke it out. After each round, lines will be drawn to show the advancement of each side, the first player to have his/her line reach the enemy's Gathering screen wins.
This is the GUI, showing things like score, and stuff.
This is a piece of Player 2's (or the computer's) gathering screen.

[Skalle]

Wow Xion, that is really a nice idea. I don't understand completely the way they would make weapons, and strategies how to win, but still it seems cool. Battle in a puzzle game.

Alex: I still think you're a little easy on the parts of the game(s) other than art. A game with more than 1 person making it will surely be lots easier if you plan every aspect of the game in time. Also deadlines are good.

Camus vs Puzzle-idea: I think there are pros and cons to both sides. Camus mentioning the cons, here are some pros: A puzzle game won't be a very big game to make when comparing to some other genres. Also, making a puzzlegame that is more restricted in it's ways, can make people think more, and put detail into small... details? I.e. a platform game or RPG often has a basic set pattern: Walk from left to right with the hero, avoid obstacles and shoot with a gun or swing sword. Fight the enemies and the big boss at the end of the level. Save the world by defeating the last boss.

Maybe all games aren't like that example, but I hopw you understand what I'm getting at.

[Xion]

Heh, I've got a ton of 'em. The whole idea was slightly inspired by Siege, but I can come up with a more original one if you like... I agree with skalle in that most platformers are identical when it comes to objectives and gameplay, but The Lost Vikings was sort of a mix between platforming and puzzle. We could do something like creating a new hybrid of game by mixing, for example, Gradius with Boulderdash, or Donkey Kong JR. with a mech game. Mix a Shoot 'em up with a Beat 'em up? A single genre in itself is a bit restricting, but when you combine two or more, originality might actually be feasible.

Ooh, ooh! I just got another Idea: Tetris + lemmings. Little lemming-like critters run around and you have to place tetris blocks without crushing them so that a certain # can reach a goal height. Or better yet, crush as many as you can to keep them from climbing the walls to the top while simultaneously keeping your blocks from reaching the top...

[Krizmo]

These are some good ideas, and a really good overall idea Alex!

I would put my services forward as a programmer (although I am not very skilled, I am learning), and wanted to know if there is a set programming language that you want the programmers to use, ie. Java, C++

[Akira]

I'm loving the tetris + lemmings idea xion. Two of my favourite games together at last!

[Dogmeat]

ISOMETRIS

http://www.mindcrank.com/isometris.html <-- unfinished buggy flash version of concept

Ok, so this was a concept I came up with when I used to work for a game company. Seeing as I'm having trouble finding work and I don't think I'll be presenting this to any other companies I've decided to donate it to this challenge. I lost the original concept document, so I'll just briefly describe how the game is intended to work:

The gray area on the gameboard is where all your pieces accumulate, they get "pumped" out from that red opening on the side, at differentiating speeds depending on what level you're at. The pieces move out from the left towards the right, then up and to the left, like a snake. You move your "indicator" around from side to side to select whatever the foremost piece is, and press a key to launch it straight forward.

The brown area on the board is where all of your pieces accumulate, the idea is to try and make the patterns that are displayed in the top right corner using solid colors to forum them. every time you complete one you get points and it changes, these are bonuses.

Ways to score points

The most simple way to score points is to combine 3 blocks, horiz, vert or diag, you can also make combos of 4, 5, 6, etc.. THe pattern display at the top right helps you think of cool combos to try and aim for, although some of them may fill up your game board.

Lets say you create an X and free up some blank area, if you shoot a block at another block and theres room behind it, it will move back to hit the closest block.

The more points you get, the higher level you go, the faster the blocks come out, etc..

Later on in the game, say level 25 or something, I was thinking new boards could have holes in them and such, where blocks will fall down to another board, or maybe ramps to launch blocks on top of other blocks so you can create 3d combos as well, but those are just random ideas off the top of my head. Maybe one level you have to build a staircase to another board, and work 2 boards at a time or something.

This is just the basic premise of this game.

[Skalle]

So, it's been almost a week since the last post here. Alex, are you still willing to continue this project? From this post and other posts on pixelopolis I think many posters are eager to participate in some community game making. We already have some ideas posted here and you might want to continue the progress for these ideas to become actual games. As you posted about this here idea of game community project(s) and decided to become a supervisor here, I think you might want to take the responsibility to keep this project floating over the surface, since nothing really has happened here this week. What are you waiting for, really?

[AlexHW]

I only see 2 concepts submitted..
we need more.

[Skalle]

For example: I could tell one person to do background tiles, another person to do linework & animations, and another person to color the linework.. or I can make just one person do all the art, haha! But I will likely not do that.

That would mean that these game projects would have at least 2 or 3 members each, for the art. If you only want one project at a time, then pick any of the two concepts, since nothing new has come in a week. If you allow more than one project at a time, then you already have two. Really, I don't see why more than two concepts would be needed. These two concepts both seem good enough to be games. I think it is a good idea to use these two concepts to start small. If the projects work out fine and more people want to participate, then more projects might be a good idea. Why is 2 not enough to start with?

[AlexHW]

Because two is two, and I specified for a decent number so that we could vote on it.
I could specify a date to have concepts submitted by, because perhaps some people could still be thinking of submitting one.
If thats the case, i would suggest getting in your entries by next week.