If you had $100 Million to make a game...

[Askthepizzaguy]

Genre of game: Fantasy
Type of game: Role Playing Game


Setting: A world located at the crossroads of several folds of existence, at the end of time, just before total annihilation.



The Premise: There are several folds intersecting this one planet, which happens to exist in a universe seemingly designed like clockwork. The heavens and the planets align with remarkable, perfect precision, and gateways to other realms all intersect on this one planet. The planet itself takes many forms, and is represented in all of these other realms.

These realities were all created by the Eternals, who set the universe in motion and gave it a perfectly balanced design. The Eternals created the Immortals, who are limited, yet godlike beings of extraordinary power. These Immortals ruled the celestial plane, and were given dominion over the other planes. The Immortals created the Mortals, who exist in various terrestrial planes. Below those folds lay the UnderRealm, where the Mortals go when they die, and below those folds lay the forgotten Dark Realms.

The story begins at the end of existence, where everything is set to be annihilated by an all-powerful force, greater than any Eternal being. The gateways between realms are shattered, and the entirety of existence is about to be consumed by nothingness. The Eternals wage war against this dark force, but they are consumed easily by the darkness. The Immortals fare no better, unable to even harm this all-consuming force, and the Mortals stand no chance whatsoever. All life, all existence, even time itself, is facing everlasting death.

The Eternals exist in a nonlinear temporal state, and exist within all time frames. The limitation of this, is that they cannot use temporal gateways to alter linear time, because they are nonlinear. The Eternals are swallowed up, and the Immortals hold off the coming wave of darkness for as long as they can, holding the gate even while all the rest of existence is destroyed.

Several Mortals are sent back through history to change the course of time's river, hoping to prevent this catastrophe.



The Challenge: Time as a river is an apt metaphor, because unlike certain theories about cause and effect, such as the butterfly effect, a small change to the timeline does almost nothing, and the current of time smooths out minor inconsistencies.

Like a river, the overpowering current resists changes. If you throw a pebble into a river, there is a small splash, but within a split-second, the river continues as if totally unaltered. The changes to the river are canceled out by the majority, and the smaller the change, the faster the change disappears, and the less it affects the river. Altering the mighty flow of history's river away from the falls of annihilation is a challenge that seems nearly impossible for simple mortals to complete. Even as they remove tyrants, change the course of wars, and save certain key people from death, history remains mostly unaltered, as certain events happen regardless of minor changes. When dictators are slain, their top generals continue the struggle. When certain key people are saved from death, to try to alter history, the "splashback" effect causes other people to emerge from below time's surface, canceling out the effects they otherwise might have had.

It is not enough to go back to the past to try to alter the entire future, either... time has an "eternal" quality to it, normally unnoticeable by Mortals, which allows for reciprocal changes to the Past when the Future is altered, not just alterations to the Future when the Past is changed. The reason for this is because all of existence was designed by the Eternals, and time is a masterpiece of precision clockwork. The gears of time can be thrown out of alignment in the past, but also, in the future.

In order to change the course of time, key events throughout all of history must be altered synchronously, causing the entire clock to reset and the entire course of time's river to be changed, allowing for the possibility that the final event which ends the flow of time can be changed as well.



Features:

• The story contains an interactive, reactive history, which changes slightly every time a major temporal alteration occurs.
• The setting of the Planet is represented by several different versions thereof, each inside a unique fold of existence unlike all the others.
• The game incorporates a system of elemental Magic I designed which has 30 elements.

Certain characters are more than they appear. Some of these characters are actually Avatars for the Eternals themselves, physical representations of the very beings responsible for creation. However, in their limited mortal forms, they do not remember who they are and have no greater magical power than anyone else. Finding these Eternals and awakening them, and uniting them, is a key element of the story.



I wrote this story about ten years ago and have been slightly modifying it ever since. But it will never happen because I do not have 100 million dollars or even a thousand. I also have not had time or the inspiration to write it as a series of novels (it would have to be a series... there's no way I could convey what I mean to convey in a single book), mostly because although I can see the grand scope of the overall story, I have a hard time imagining the subtle details, and I don't feel my storytelling abilities are capable of putting into words the ideas I have in mind.

It would be much easier with a group of professional story writers and, in a game setting, I feel that the story serves as an appropriate backdrop to the action, whereas as a novel, the story is the entire point, and if there are weaknesses in the story, they are more noticeable.

Anywho. I've had it sitting in my brain for a decade, it would be nice to see it come to life.

[Vladimir]

OK. Got bored while reading the premise. Care to summarize?

[Askthepizzaguy]

OK. Got bored while reading the premise. Care to summarize?

Game is boring and uninteresting. Move along.

[Beskar]

OK. Got bored while reading the premise. Care to summarize?

A Good Game.

[a completely inoffensive name]

It would be impossible to do for many unfortunate reasons. What would be the point in me buying lets say WoW, when some one has already won? It means I can't "win" it. Pretty lame. Then I would be in direct competition with people who scrounge on benefits and too lazy to work so can afford to play WoW 18 hours per day, compared to my lets say 4-6 hours. They would have had all that time to 'grind', and other things, which I cannot compete with on any realistic scale.

The list goes on...

It wouldn't be an individual player winning. In Eve Online you have corporations who are able to take systems away from other corporations. I don't know how it handles one corporation steamrolling everyone but I assume for some reason you can't own everything.

This is my vision:
Basically the collective group (AKA a "side" like the Horde in WoW) operate the macro scale of the MMO as a game of war from a FPS. In an MMO you have usually two or more sides that are "against" each other. But the goal is always pointless quests and "raids" or having some lulz just attacking the others sides cities. But this is all pointless and time wasting because you could attack stormwind with a gang of 10,000 Horde players and dominate the city for 5 days straight but that city will be and always will be an Alliance city. Where is the consequence?

Make a WoW like MMO with cities and such, and quests but the quests are not grinding but instead task based. You gain levels through working hard in the military of the side you are on. All beginners start at boot camp and do have to do some basic grinding of creatures to get to a high enough level to actually enter the main fighting force, it also allows them to learn how to play the game. The highest levels are generals who can do incredible damage and also have the ability to coordinate the attacks. With any MMO when you die, you always just respawn. So you are never going to run out of soldiers, always increasing as people join the server, which makes things more complicated and successful attacks more rewarding. Allow it so that a town can be captured and controlled if it is held onto long enough by an invading force. As a punishment for death you will lose "points" attributed to your level and if you keep dying, then you might be demoted. This allows scrubs to naturally work their way back to the bottom and allows people in higher levels to gain a better sense of trust with his teammates, which makes artificial gangs (Guilds) somewhat less needed.

As the game progresses for the most part since no one ever really dies in an MMO, the war in a server will likely last a long time. However, when one said eventually does manage to dominate the other side and take control of the entire map, then the server will reset and start with a brand new map. People's characters won't be deleted, I don't know the mechanics of how it would work, but everyone's character would simply be re-uploaded to the reset server and map. The players of the winning team gets lots of goodies and titles (in game or material idk) to make them feel good and rewarded.

So you don't "win" per se, you help your team win. And if it does, you get rewarded. You compete against the other team which might have people playing 18 hours a day, but so will your side.

As a side note, in order for battles to actually be won, when a battle is flagged in a region, when you die in battle you are not allowed to participate in the battlezone anymore, but may roam around the rest of the map and could be recruited as reinforcements to get back into the battle. Idk, I have to think the mechanics out some more in that regard.

EDIT: Also, just coming from the top of my head, the game economy would be a naturally evolving free market. Instead of a million NPCs in a town selling an infinite amount of stuff with certain prices, the crafting ability that WoW has could just be extended to actually make weapons and armor. Those that spend most of their time making stuff instead of attacking will be able to make more things faster and will be able to make better weapons and armor. They would post their goods to sell on a massive list, which essentially would act as an in game ebay. If not enough people are crafting, you could tak advantage and sell your goods for higher amounts of money and vice versa. This will add a whole nother level off complexity both on the individual level and on the macro level because if people are not crafting, then people can't get the improved armor they need which makes the army as a whole weaker.

That's why he needs $100M, to afford the expenses of being creative and figuring out solutions to those problems or coming up with completely different gameplay structures. I don't think (though I don't know) ACIN meant "WoW with a win condition."

See above.

[a completely inoffensive name]

If you guys like my idea, I was thinking of writing it out completely and posting it in the frontroom.

[The Stranger]

i would make a ww1 rts in the style of Company of Heroes. But with a special option to switch to 1st person shooter in certain parts of the game. totally awesome!!!

and then i would make it into a series and have a similar game but in American Civil War setting!!!

then i would make a bunch of others which are all worse then the first two and i would totally enstrange the big community ive build up during my first 2 games. i would remove all modding possibilities and i would sell my company to the highest bidder!!!

[Hooahguy]

i would make a ww1 rts in the style of Company of Heroes. But with a special option to switch to 1st person shooter in certain parts of the game. totally awesome!!!

But wouldnt it just be putting guys in trenches and sending them on mass suicide charges towards enemy lines in the hopes that they will get to the other side.

There is a reason that there are few WW1 games...

[The Stranger]

But wouldnt it just be putting guys in trenches and sending them on mass suicide charges towards enemy lines in the hopes that they will get to the other side.

There is a reason that there are few WW1 games...

eastern front was much more mobile. and so were later parts of the war. its all about chosing the right battles ;) and even then, things like snipers, creeping barrages etc would provide tactical depth

[Jolt]

EB III!?

With 100 million dollars, I'd buy Creative Assembly from SEGA, hire certain historians as creative directors and make Europa Barbarorum the Game with a 3-5 year development cycle.

Thus an epic game would be born.

[Subotan]

There is a reason that there are few WW1 games...

Also because it's not really that present in the American national consciousness. Certainly not to the extent it is over here.

[Vladimir]

With 100 million dollars, I'd buy Creative Assembly from SEGA, hire certain historians as creative directors and make Europa Barbarorum the Game with a 3-5 year development cycle.

Thus an epic game would be born.

With 100 million dollars they'd probably laugh at you. I don't know how much the company is worth but they're making money for Sega.

For some reason I'm starting to miss Battletech. There have been similar games since then but they never seemed to catch on.

[Jolt]

With 100 million dollars they'd probably laugh at you. I don't know how much the company is worth but they're making money for Sega.

For some reason I'm starting to miss Battletech. There have been similar games since then but they never seemed to catch on.

Err. You seem to have no idea how much game companies are worth. They bought CA for 30 million dollars. Sega isn't exactly in a very strong position and refusing a 80-90 million dollar offer by one company would be seriously retarded (Triple the turnover plus the revenue and stock benefit from the games the company had made while during Sega's tutelage.

With 100 million dollars, I would make far better manegerial decisions then dish out most of my fortune into a medium-sized game developer.
A much better decision would be to buy Paradox Interactive for instance.

But the purpose of this thread is to create a single game.

[Vladimir]

Err. You seem to have no idea how much game companies are worth. They bought CA for 30 million dollars. Sega isn't exactly in a very strong position and refusing a 80-90 million dollar offer by one company would be seriously retarded (Triple the turnover plus the revenue and stock benefit from the games the company had made while during Sega's tutelage.

With 100 million dollars, I would make far better manegerial decisions then dish out most of my fortune into a medium-sized game developer.
A much better decision would be to buy Paradox Interactive for instance.

But the purpose of this thread is to create a single game.

So he'd end up with a maximum of 10 - 20 million to make his game.

[ICantSpellDawg]

I would create the matrix and just hook people up to it in exchange for all their valuables.

[Jolt]

So he'd end up with a maximum of 10 - 20 million to make his game.

Yes, which is still a lot. A great deal of money

[Subotan]

It wouldn't be an individual player winning. In Eve Online you have corporations who are able to take systems away from other corporations. I don't know how it handles one corporation steamrolling everyone but I assume for some reason you can't own everything.

Because the players are smart enough to realise when such a corporation in powerful enough to do that. There has only been one recorded instance of the devs intervening in a PvP war, and it was quite a minor one. All the other times, when one corporation has become pre-eminent, the other corporations will form an alliance to take it down.

E.G. This is the current state of affairs in the EVE Universe. Black areas are controlled by NPC Empires.



EDIT: Read this: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2008...the-great-war/ as well as http://www.tentonhammer.com/eve/spymaster/50

[Mailman653]

A WW I game in the style of the Close Combat game series.

[Crazed Rabbit]

I think, if I wanted to improve on M&B, some main points for me would be making seamless integration between campaign and battle map. The battle maps would just be zoomed in from the campaign map. So instead of discrete instances for battling, you could fight across the whole of Calradia. If you wanted, you could ride across the map without ever zooming out to 'campaign' view.

I'd also like a major refinement of the fighting mechanics.

One thing I'd really like to see are cities that come to life: huge interdependent environments with people going about their lives, and the ability to enter all buildings and have the AI react appropriately.

Finally, a way to make the other lords into characters with depth.

Askthepizzaguy: That's a really interesting premise. Thanks for sharing.

One thing about Eve Online that stands out to me is how easy it is to rip people off for a lot of in game money and escape by (IIRC) transferring the money to a new account. In real life, robbing the mafia of millions and running will make them come after you. But in Eve, it seems like a lot of the risk is gone.

I'm not quite sure how I would fix it.

ACIN: You should write out your idea and post it here!

CR

[a completely inoffensive name]

ACIN: You should write out your idea and post it here!

CR

Ok! I will think about it for a while and try to hammer out the main points of it. Needless to say, I think that MMO's could use a additional sprinkle of elements from other genres such as RTS, and FPS. Hopefully you guys will appreciate the way I implement those characteristics.

[Veho Nex]

One thing about Eve Online that stands out to me is how easy it is to rip people off for a lot of in game money and escape by (IIRC) transferring the money to a new account. In real life, robbing the mafia of millions and running will make them come after you. But in Eve, it seems like a lot of the risk is gone.

I'm not quite sure how I would fix it.

They have a bounty hunter system in the game. Though its not that effective since there is almost no way to locate people, you would have to have contacts all over the Eve universe in case someone happened to seem that person.

[Vladimir]

They have a bounty hunter system in the game. Though its not that effective since there is almost no way to locate people, you would have to have contacts all over the Eve universe in case someone happened to seem that person.

That's odd. There has to be something.

[Subotan]

The problem with the bounty system in EVE is that eventually, if you are a good enough scumbag, then your bounty will exceed the value of your clone (Which is a back-up you stored t space stations which you have to pay for in order to maintain all your skills - getting your ship blown up and death aren't the same in EVE), and if you can find a trusty friend, then your friend can kill you, claim the bounty, and then you two can split the bounty.

[Beirut]

Because someone has to represent the bozos of the game world - I would design a flightsim.

It would incorporate the entire world in stunning detail. Any era would be flyable and would represent the world as it was at the time, including great events and battles.

It would cost $50 million. I would spend the other $50 million on booze and broads.

[Vladimir]

Because someone has to represent the bozos of the game world - I would design a flightsim.

It would incorporate the entire world in stunning detail. Any era would be flyable and would represent the world as it was at the time, including great events and battles.

It would cost $50 million. I would spend the other $50 million on booze and broads.

Yea. I never understood that. Not the booze and babes part, but why don't they just learn to fly? A private pilot's license isn't that expensive. If I'm going to buy a flight sim, it better be more impressive than looking out a window.

[Beirut]

Yea. I never understood that. Not the booze and babes part, but why don't they just learn to fly? A private pilot's license isn't that expensive.

Perhaps, but getting the plane and flying it all over the world is. That's why we bozos have flightsims. Also, no one will let me fly a Spitfire or an A-10. FSX will.

With the new scenery available for Microsoft FSX from Orbx (fullterrain.com), there has been a qualitative jump in the level of detail and accuracy for the flightsim crowd. If you have a good enough rig and a nice screen, the eye-candy is spectacular. But it's the same old story; FSX, especially with the new sceneries available, is a CPU and GPU chomping beast like no other. You can load up the best i7 CPU and the fastest 580GTX card and FSX can still make themn beg for mercy. Hell, some guys are running 500GB+ FSX installs. That's a big game to run.



If you can tolerate the stupid music, check out the eye-candy in this Orbx video. It's all in-game footage.

[Veho Nex]

Yea. I never understood that. Not the booze and babes part, but why don't they just learn to fly? A private pilot's license isn't that expensive. If I'm going to buy a flight sim, it better be more impressive than looking out a window.

If you screw the pooch in a flight sim you are considerably more likely to wake up in the morning.

[Vladimir]

If you screw the pooch in a flight sim you are considerably more likely to wake up in the morning.

If you do it in real life you might wake up in jail.

[a completely inoffensive name]

I am still working on my idea. It has been taking much longer than I thought to hammer it all out.

[Justiciar]

I'd give it all to the Norwegian company "Running Games", on the condition that they resume development of Medieval Kingdoms. They still haven't officially announced it's abandonment, despite five years of silence. Throw in M&B style combat and I'd never leave m'room.