nekoflux on 18/10/2006 at 20:31
Hi all
I'm working on a simple engine with a few friends that is intended to deliver interactive games/stories. I am not really into creating yet another "sword and dragon" rpg experience, and I'm a huge system shock fan. Any ssh fan writers/artists/developers have an interest in branching into this?
Obviously for copyright reasons we couldn't develop a system shock title, but I do think that we could create something in the cyberpunk genre that would be a lot of fun to play, and similar to SSH in some respects.
As far as format goes, we are going low-tech. I envision something with mixed text/graphic elements such as the depiction of rooms/scenes.
Thoughts? I'd love to hear from any fellow ssh fans out there! If you want any details feel free to email, im, and/or post questions here.
Mike R.
[email]web_fella@hotmail.com[/email]
MikeR1728 (aim screen name)
Kolya on 18/10/2006 at 21:09
Will this be like the Lucasarts games where you can pick, examine, use, etc. items in the grafical view? Or plain old text input?
Do you have anything to look at? Screenshots or something?
nekoflux on 18/10/2006 at 21:45
Hi Kolya:
Unfortunately I don't have any screen shots, because the engine is currently being used for a different kind of rpg, but I'll try to briefly describe the game play:
Our vision is that it would be a mix of several game play elements. Think interactive fiction/MUD interface combined with the old school static 2d images for scenes. You'd be able to interact with control panels via mouse clicks, and other controls would be a textual keyboard style interface. (so for example, you are trying to access cryo lab-3, and there a lock on the door. you opt to hack the door's access mechanism, and a small graphic window pops up which allows you to interact with the control. Another obstacle in the game might be to write a small virus that shuts down a security subsystem by typing in a little program using the keyboard)
Rooms/scenes would be represented as 2d images. Maps would also be represented graphically. Some of the room details might be implemented as text markup.
anyway, i hope this paints a clearer picture of what I'm envisioning.
I know that many people are turned off by low-tech. It's not glamorous in the same way that playing doom3 or counterstrike source is. Our development group has made a deliberate design decision to go with a low-tech implementation of this concept. It's not that we aren't interested in using cool technology or eye candy. It's more of a problem with the industry, in that small game developers can't hope to compete with fully staffed, financially backed game dev studios.
I guess the overall motivation for this approach is to be realistic, and create a game that is fun to play and designed in such a way that it's maintainers have a realistic shot at releasing something with 6 months, rather then lay out a 2 year development roadmap that has little chance of surviving.
Still looking for feedback and questions! :)
--Mike
Kolya on 19/10/2006 at 00:55
Oh but why don't you show us the other RPG that the engine is being used for? Personally I don't have a problem with lowtech if it's a good game.
JossiRossi on 19/10/2006 at 05:44
Not to discourage the creation of a new engine which will of course be entirely customized to your needs, but if you want an adventure game style engine, this truly is about as perfect as it can get. (
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/) http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/
Easy to learn, easy to use, and quite customizable as well.
cosmicnut on 19/10/2006 at 08:32
Low tech is fine, look at games like lemmings and worms. Very low tech engines but did very well. Lemmings was programmed by one guy!
What you need are :-
1. Good plot!!!!! If your really going to go cyberpunk, be carefull. It's easy to get a very generic sci-fi story that we've heard a million times. Yes use some familiar elements but bring something new to the table.
2. Variety!!! The problem I have with most RPGs is that the aim is off :joke: Sorry, about that. The problem is that you usually end up doing the same thing over and over. The good thing about SS's is that, alothoug it was the same, there was enough window dressing and veriety that you didn't notice
3. Good graphics!! Now this doesn't mean Doom3 engines etc, you can find some people on the net that are brilliant artists. Text only sucks but text with bad graphics is worse!
If you want some writing done, I have been known to do some good stuff. I was working on some SS1 fanfic but realized it's been so long since I played the game that I can't remember half the plot!
nekoflux on 19/10/2006 at 17:32
Thanks for the feedback! I'll try to address previous posts...
kolya:
well, the problem is that the engine is amost ready, but the game that we initially started developing it just completely sucks...I'd rather show nothing then show a very poor implementation of a good idea. ;) I will have a demo that will be available in about a week, but until then im reluctant to release samples of stuff because they won't represent the concept adequately. It's kind of a catch-22: hard to get artists and writers without tangibly showing the demo, hard to show a good demo without having artists and writers contribute material to build a good demo with. :)
JossiRossi: wow, that is a pretty cool engine! reminds me of kings quest and space quest. Good tiiiiiiimes :) I think our game wont have a little character walking around, it will be an adventure game, but from a first-person perspective.
cosmicnut: I simply could not agree more. I have some ideas for the story, and wouldn't mind working with other writers and artists to build something great. I would say that making the game short would be fine too, and keep it from getting too mundane. That way it's lower risk, less time investment for all of us, and if it's gathers a loyal fanbase we could develop the content in an episodic nature (think comic book installments of the game). If you would care to talk sometime maybe we could chat over im to discuss concept and plot. LIke you said, finding brilliant artists is a very important aspect of the idea, and I remember seeing some sshock fan art a few years ago that was just..well, simply fantatstic! If you know of any sites I can go to or any contact info for some talented art people, that'd be awesome!
Thanks for the stellar feedback, keep it coming! :) :)
--Mike
cosmicnut on 20/10/2006 at 08:15
It's gonna be difficult with IM as we are in different time zones!
If you want to show your idea, write it down. Just give a brief description of plot and some basic characters. storyline is not tooooo important. Just make sure you get down how you want the thing to work. Whata are the drives for the characters and how does your universe "work"
I'll sign up to an IM (no I don't even have an account). PM me your details and we can work something out
Oh yes, if you want to find artists. The usual place I look for some good artwork is (
www.deviantart.com) theres a fair amount of rubbish but also some quality work.
