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Since I'm working on my RPG first, I'll be writing down my latest idea, something I'm not able to create with my current knowledge of DarkBASIC.
Quite simply put, inspiration came from two sources: My father, and the game BioShock. My father told me yesterday that games seem to be very land/air orientated, and that he and a friend of his had been discussing this terrible issue.
At first, I countered him, saying there's not enough interesting stuff down there, when he said: "But, it's a game! You can put anything you want down there!". And then I figured it out.
BASIC CONCEPT
The story is simple. It is the year 2097 as huge mechs start fighti... oh wait, that's One Must Fall 2097. Sorry.
It's the year 2097 as the space programme starts to seriously investigate the possibility of putting large domes on other planets. For this cause, they first decide to build several of these domes on the bottom of the ocean/sea. Built of the most powerful materials known to us at that given date, several domes are constructed and closely monitored. Basically without outside help, the volunteers have to survive in the dome as good as possible. So far so good. But, the scientists, or at least, the organisation doesn't feel comfortable about the monitored dome. They secretly decide to build an additional dome, rally up survival experts and without any outside monitoring, transport them to the Seadome. Twelve men, ten women are to be left in the Sea Dome for 15 years. After this period they will all be rewarded with a small bag of money, well, essentially, a huge bag of money.
Of course, you play one of these survival experts. One of the males, preferably. You start after 12 years in the dome, and everything is going well. Structures have been built with the aid of robots, including the Dome tower, the central tower which rises till the roof of the dome. Everything is fine. Until then, ofcourse.
After the tutorials, in which all is well, there is a sudden explosion and electricity is severely damaged (just because I like flashing lights and stuff). That's not much of a problem, but the dome has been breached. Water is slowly filling the dome, and there will be no help from the outside. That ís a problem, I'd say.
Now, the thing in Seadome is that the water fills the dome in realtime. Most of the time you will be trying to stay ahead of the water, before that hatch closes, before water crushes the door or pressure locks the exit. Sometimes, you'll have to dive through area's, but all the time, the water level is slowly rising (with increasing speed since the dome is spherical). The only enemies in the game are the other survival experts.
There used to be twelve single-man submarines for emergency situations - but the explosion shut down power and shortcircuited the hatches to eleven of them - so, there will be only one survivor. Of course, nobody likes to die, so after a short time of cooperation more and more of the team start to turn against each other.
These 'enemies' would mostly be trapping the player - putting him for a puzzle to escape from a new difficult position. Ofcourse, at one point, the player would have to fight the others, or trap thém. Direct confrontations are avoided except for 'boss fights'.
Scene's I could imagine would be near the place where the water roars down, fighting one of the 'bad guys'. A room where the water is electrified, a fight. Being trapped in a room in which the water is slowly filling in.
Objectives could vary from opening a door to reaching a safe place. De-electrifying water. Destroying a hacked robot (which could be an enemy). Avoiding the enemies. Find something, a suit or air. Escape from a room. Sabotage. Well, anything.
Weaponry will be nearly unexistent. Most combat will be melee (first person) or with sea-like weapons. Harpoons, manual gun, grappling hook. Ammo is sparse, almost non-existant. Skills as hacking will be vital (interactive, preferably). Weapons will have a fully realistic effect - shortly said - one hit is usually fatal. This also goes for your enemies, ofcourse, although they will be equipped with body armor (at least, the latter ones).
HUD is non-existant. When reloading a magazine, you've got 8 bullets. The maximum of magazines is 2 - so at any time, 16 bullets. Harpoon will have a single arrow at max, but will pierce most body armor. Also, harpoon ammo can be regathered. The grappling hook, as in Quake 2, does damage but does mostly serve as transporting unit. Health stats will be shown with a Mono-like system (if you don't know the Binary Zoo game Mono, you should check it out now!). Blurred effects when heavily damaged. Edges of the screen darken, reddish glow around things. Health restore can be done by resting (at the cost of a few millimeters water rise) or with health kits that take a few seconds to apply.
Saving is done only at save points - scattered through the game in the form of computers or books or something similar. This to keep the game challenging. With saving, all stats including water level are saved.
Summarized: the gameplay focus will be in this order: Survival, Adventure, FPS. Examples of gameplay are found in Metal Gear Solid, Deus Ex. Stealth, speed and survival are most important.
Most important to the game will be looks. The looks are what is going to carry the game, should it ever be developed. A convincing, dark, watery look. The waterfall. The dome, through which a small part of the depths of the ocean can be seen. Flashing lights. Shadows. Water effects. Whatever.
- Dome Tower, about 130 metres high. Central to the dome and will function as hub for the player. The player will always find a save-point in the tower.
- Engineering Bay, about 20 metres high. Contains a robot facility, maintenance, several contruction rooms and controls for a lot of facilities in the game. Will need to be visited early.
- Encampment. 35 metres high. Contains most of the living space. Where the player starts out the game. Will later turn out to contain something to have the player return to it (when it's submerged). Small corridors/rooms.
- Observatory. 30 meters high, with on top a dome of 15 metres (so total of 45). Will contain a lot of information about the SeaDome and controls for many locations. Large, open, rooms and views to the outside.
- 3 Science labs. (20, 25 and 25 metres high). The Doom-esque labs but basicly just built for investigation sea-life and machinery (of which some Quake-esque) Later on, will be stage for one of the confrontations.
- Oxygen plant. 15 metres high. A building attached to the dome's flank in which oxygen is filtered from water. Ofcourse with huge vents, maelstroms ect. Steam vents ect.
- Resource plant. 30 metres high. A large processing plant for nearly everything. Ofcourse again with deadly processing units. Large rooms with large cannisters.
- Submarine Bay. 15 metres high. Containing the emergency submarines but heavily damaged. Sparks, small corridors as only built for emergency. All submarine doors are locked except for one, but the emergency door unlock code is located somewhere else. Attached to the dome's side next to the oxygen plant. Final stage and part of the intro (after the disaster).
- Power Plant. 30 meters high. On top 2 huge pipes of 40 metres. Total 70 meters. Small rooms and corridors. Heavily protected by computer turrets and security. Metal Gear Solid Power Plant-like layout with elevators.
- Vehicle Bay. 15 meters high. Containing vehicles (non-usable or maybe at start once driving around (interactive look-around cut-scene?)). Lot of floors, elevator platforms ect.
- Greenhouse. Jungle-like environment with dense vegatation. Nice for a melee fight or something similar. Glass building so collapses under the weight of the water.
- Park. For the relief and recreation of the test subjects. Scenery, I'd guess.
How the USP regged the building plans for the SeaDome.
GAME HIGHLIGHTS/(SEMI-)UNIQUENESS
I'm at most creating a design doc. I got a main character list which will consist out of 7-8 hostiles. A lot of the people will get killed in cooperation, by other, the aftereffects of the explosion or by security. Survivors will range from a programmer to a athlethe. For every character, I've got a first and last name, nickname, age, nationality, reason to be in the dome, former profession, reason for selection, specialty and the 'actual test results from the appliance test'.
I got a storyline, building outline, I actually have the first 30 minutes of conversation including a tutorial lined out. I've got two sketches of how it shoúld look - I got three architectural sketches for the SeaDome. I got sketches for the internal of two of the buildings.
The SeaDome exists as an experiment. The USP, the then-to-be Space Program is researching the effects of being completely independent in a limited environment in extreme situations. Several domes are built and monitored, but the USP builds another dome in secret for a 'realistic' test. There will be no USP interference in-game as they dropped the 'team' in the Dome and would return in 15 years. There is a small 3D sketch of the dome in my second post. Besides, I've got several sketches laying besides me but no scanner. I'll try and remake them in PhotoShop later.
There will be little/no effects due to the depth. Only noticable thing is high frustration levels contrasting with the high level of friendship. As soon as disaster strucks, the main things will depend on survival instinct (and at several points, friendship or love).
The lack of one-men subs is actually on purpose, but I realize it might look as an error - the point is that the USP is experimenting with the limited amount of escapal submarines and the effects that has. After all, you will not be able to supply enough escapal methods for an entire Metropolion Bay on for example, Mars. You were supposed to find that out after the explosion through hacking or storytelling. The fact that there are only 12 escapal subs is a total surprise for the team, though, who are fully convinced there are 22 subs, or better said, 11 two-man subs - there is an emergency lock on the escapal submarine bay which the leader of the team may only open in cases of emergency. In my original draft, there was actually just a single sub.
For Data: 'Unique'/Feature factors:
Probably nothing really Unique, but at least special in combination.
* Total immersion. No HUD.
* Limited level, clear walls, realtime water level and thus changing level.
* Hasted gameplay due to the water - game time is limited to 7-8 hours preferably (hard to keep it fun longer than that).
* Dynamic environment. Due to the water, easy-to-reach area's can turn impossible to reach and unreachable area's can become simple to reach.
* Limited hostiles. Six to Eight boss-fights including a programmer capable of reprogramming the bots.
* Very limited weaponry. The FPS aspect will be rather minor.
* Adventure/Survival gameplay. Stay-ahead-of-the-water gameplay. Don't show yourself, stealthish gameplay unless armed or armored. Limited save-points.
* One shot, one kill (or close).
* Diving suits with about 20 minutes of air capable of being destroyed, slowing the player by 50% on land and increasing visibility.
* Awareness of hostiles from sound, movement and shadows, no visual aids.
* Trap/Detrap system. Trapping enemies to take them out. Detrap attempts by AI. Also, AI setting traps for the player of which several scripted.
* First-person cutscenes - no out-of-person-cutscenes.
* Hacking system similar to Deus Ex - possibly a minigame.
Game Highlights:
Not giving away too many, but consider the next two scenarios:
* Final fight for the final diving suit at the top of Dome Tower while water rised in realtime.
* Fight against the programmer, who has reprogrammed several of the security bots to stand by hís side.
* Trapped in the Power Plant where the water is slowly rising to the point where the electric equipment will be in contact with the water.
PDG-8, the only real gun in the game. Further weapons are harpoon and grappling hook.
Example Screenshot rendered as if a n00b like me created this game for real.
I could write the entire story, a storyboard, and hey, if anyone would like the create the game, it would be great if you'd notify me and let me help. But I'm not starting this project. I ain't good enough yet.
