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Geek Culture / Need inspiration for a game

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james hardy
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Joined: 29th Jan 2006
Location: Good Old Britain
Posted: 14th Oct 2007 13:46
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hi im lacking in inspiration for a game too make all i can think of is...........a huge city type game were you walk round shooting people that it and i have no idea how to make a out door enviroment look half like a city
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Zotoaster
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Posted: 14th Oct 2007 13:48
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I always say make a game engine for a specific type of game first, then make the game from that. That way you dont have to worry about the actual game itself 'til the engine is done, and when it is done, you wont have a too hard time making the game.

"It's like floating a boat on a liquid that I don't know, but I'm quite happy to drink it if I'm thirsty enough" - Me being a good programmer but sucking at computers
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james hardy
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Posted: 14th Oct 2007 13:51
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ok
thanks
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David R
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Posted: 14th Oct 2007 14:03 Edited at: 14th Oct 2007 14:06
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That's the antithesis of making any game in my opinion :/
Make a game, not an engine. Usually, you'll end up with either one or the other; and a game is far more useful than an engine with no purpose.

http://scientificninja.com/advice/write-games-not-engines


09-f9-11-02-9d-74-e3-5b-d8-41-56-c5-63-56-88-c0
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Zotoaster
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Posted: 14th Oct 2007 14:06
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Yes but you can make a game with an engine much easier than just writing the game level by level.

"It's like floating a boat on a liquid that I don't know, but I'm quite happy to drink it if I'm thirsty enough" - Me being a good programmer but sucking at computers
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Jess T
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Posted: 14th Oct 2007 14:36
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Quote: "Yes but you can make a game with an engine much easier than just writing the game level by level."


You design it first - Make the game design, not the engine.

If you want a good game, you design every aspect of it first (yes, level by level) before writing any code, or making any tools...

Then, when it's all written, then you write a basic engine, and build on it as you need.

Nintendo DS & Dominos :: DS Dominos
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Jeku
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Location: Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Posted: 14th Oct 2007 21:54
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Quote: "If you want a good game, you design every aspect of it first (yes, level by level) before writing any code, or making any tools..."


That never happens, though, not even in the industry. The design is always changing and taking new shape, sometimes with new features even toward the end of development. This is not how it *should* be, but it is. Same with overtime--- we *shouldn't* have overtime in our production cycle, and the managers always plan to try and make it not happen, but it always does.

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Raven
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Location: Hertfordshire, England
Posted: 14th Oct 2007 22:21
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Something I'd recommend with design is once you have the basic concept, then write up as much as you can.

Storyline (if any), what you hope to achieve, list of potencial features (will get edited so don't write it like it's set in stone) then move on to the design aspect of levels, how to include features, etc.

You won't be able to have a design docet that goes from the start to end of development very often; especially if it's a large heavy story-based game but it gives you a good starting point so you can then create a rough timeline for getting features done and dusted.

It's your choice during development to cut or extend development of features.

That said smaller arcade games you can usually do the design and start development the same day. If needing much of a design document at all.

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james hardy
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Posted: 14th Oct 2007 22:22
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cool will do thanks
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Dr Manette
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Posted: 15th Oct 2007 01:09
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Designing is key. Of course, you'll find that one thing is crappy or this other thing will be awesome in the engine. But having a base to work off is important so you don't float around with no direction.


BioFox Games...http://www.biofoxgames.com
BioFox Forums...http://biofox.aceboard.com
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Jess T
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Posted: 15th Oct 2007 04:19
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Quote: "That never happens, though, not even in the industry. The design is always changing and taking new shape, sometimes with new features even toward the end of development. This is not how it *should* be, but it is. Same with overtime--- we *shouldn't* have overtime in our production cycle, and the managers always plan to try and make it not happen, but it always does."


Oh, I know.
Nothing in practice is as good as in theory (for the programming world).
The point I was getting at is that you should come up with the concepts, flesh it out as much as possible, then get to work. If new things pop up, you have to be open to allowing them as features, or getting something thrown out, because it's definitely not a rigid process.

That's why remakes are so great - all that documentation is already done for you in the form of the original game, then you make that and if you come up with any enhancements along the way, you can feel free to throw them in, changing the original design

Nintendo DS & Dominos :: DS Dominos
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Matt Rock
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Posted: 15th Oct 2007 06:18
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Quote: "Yes but you can make a game with an engine much easier than just writing the game level by level."

Yeah, but isn't it better to make a game, and then take bits of the engine you created for said game for use in other games?

Design is key. As has been already pointed out, start out simple: a piece of paper with a few sentences on it related to the game's concept. You can make an entire game with a character, a setting, and one single overall goal, because once you have that data, you're just filling in the blanks until a piping-hot GDD is sitting on your desk.

Quote: "a huge city type game were you walk round shooting people"

Also important: start small! I'm not sure how many projects you've worked on in the past or how big your catalog of completed games is, so don't take offense that I'm guessing you're just starting your first project... it's just a "Safety comment," hehe. But if this *is* your first project, I strongly recommend you start out small, learn the ropes in a number of fields, and work your way up to the big shooting-everyone-in-a-huge-city game. When I first came to TGC, everyone (including a few people in this thread) told me to start small, and I ignored them... and I really should have listened because they would have saved me a whole heck of a lot of time, energy, and resources .

Quote: "That never happens, though, not even in the industry. The design is always changing and taking new shape, sometimes with new features even toward the end of development."

100% agree with that, based on my own experiences. On the current game coming down the MISoft pipeline, "Project Domesticated Ferret," Agent Dink spent some immeasurable amount of time creating a metric ton of 2D backgrounds and sprites. All beautiful and perfect in every way... until we decided to dramatically alter a key feature of the game's design. As a result, 99% of his hard work was put in the scrap heap, and now he needs to start over, essentially from scratch . Definitely not the first something like that has happened with us, either... like the massive units of text removed from Eternal Equinox's Raider's Ridge and Keep areas prior to bug testing because of a design and continuity issue that would have taken a very long time to fix and would have delayed the game for a pretty long time.


Text Adventure Competition 2007
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