Game ideas

[DRW]

Note taken ! I do not know how exactly to make it "faster" but I'll try. Perhaps having enemies with less health, but then I'm afraid the game would be too easy.

Fast-paced beat-em-ups would be the ones that look more like sidescrollers, where opponents need to be attacked only once and where you can pass them. But those "Double Dragon"/"Final Fight"-like games: I guess they're slow by design.

Outisde of Double Dragon series, and Battletoads but which is only partially a Beat-em-up, I didn't know there was so many.

"Prisoners of War", "Batman Returns", "Turtles" and "Lethal Weapon" are some that I remember.

Your arcade-like RPG reminds me a bit of the Japan-only game "Grand Master".

She will be very attactive, obviously.

What outfit would she wear?


About having so many ideas and spending 10 years on one game: I would suggest to find one game and go through with it.
For example, while I have a bunch of ideas, they only exist as some general ideas in my head and a few posts here. But I haven't done any actual plans.
In the moment, I'm doing my first game and I won't write a single line of code for any other game until the first one is completely finished and put on cartridges.

[Sik]

There's so many variations on this to be done it's hard to pick. Cave exploration? or excavation? Avoid deadly walls? Flight of the bumblebee? Mario bros/bubble bobble style arcade game? Actual moon lander simulator?

viewtopic.php?f=21&t=11627

Add in 90º rotated variants of the sprites and we may have something. Start from a normal platformer, but then remove gravity because we're in space (that's right, if you jump you won't fall). Then if you're in the air and hit a wall or ceiling, that becomes you new floor. (for the sake of simplicitly let's assume no slopes) In other words, you can walk on any surface.

As far as programming goes, it wouldn't be much different from the usual platformer. As far as level design goes it's a completely different beast.

[tokumaru]

- The fighting game that I mentioned in the other thread.

Yeah, the NES needs more decent fighting games. The abundance of crappy pirate fighting games makes the NES look bad, but if we can come up with something nice we can prove its not the system's fault.

2- First-person shooter (raycaster):

I'd really like such a game on the NES. But I hope you don't do any of the following things:
- Lifting the plot directly from "Doom" (space marine fighting against demons).
- Doing some cutesy thing like fighting squirrels or whatever.
I'd prefer a "normal" approach: Some good guy fighting against bad guys. Maybe some freaky opponents, but nothing that gets too much into science fiction or fantasy. If there's only one first person shooter on the console, it should be with regular humans in a relatively realistic setting.

Actually, if I was really doing this, I'd like to use many of the typical elements of the classic games of the genre, but in a sort of satirical way. The main character would definitely be a strong badass guy, smoking a cigar or something. Enemies would be a mix of aliens, soldiers, monsters and mad scientists. Not sure about the setting yet, but it'd have to be something simple due to the limitations of the engine.

For example, you could invent FMV scenes for "Super Mario Bros." So, FMV doesn't say much about the game itself yet.

Yes, this is what I mean. I don't want anything that revolves around the FMV, I just want to make a nice FMV engine that could be used to insert video sequences in any game, to help set the mood.

[tokumaru]

What outfit would she wear?

This is sounding too much like phone sex.

[Bregalad]

If you want to come around the ammo/mana conservation problem (i feel the same about these things), you could have a dynamic cooldown of your design. Outline would be that it takes x hits/turns/moves/actions/seconds/a combination of two prerequisites before you can use this or that, except that you _can_ use the abilities earlier than the cooldown dictates by some sort of sacrifice - be it health points, upper hand, secure position, or an increase of fatigue.

Well one idea I had was just to have a delay slot system, where powerful abilities delays the next action, while less powerful abilities allows next action to come soon. This doesn't prevent anyone from using powerful abilities, but it prevents to spam them too quickly. The problem is that for weak enemies you can still use your most powerful ability just as the battle starts and defeat them in one hit with no penalty.

The other solution is to have a traditional mana system, but have the mana refill when you walk. That way, mana is limited "traditionally" within a battle, but you can still use it with moderation in random battles in a deep dungeon, without risking being short of mana. Golden Sun does exactly that, and I tough it works great. Even with that system I still found myself doing mostly "attack attack attack", just to save time, but I liked that I could use spells without being penalized for it.

What outfit would she wear?

I have no idea whatsoever, but it's a NES sprite we're talking about.

Yeah, the NES needs more decent fighting games.

Oh, I completely forgot but I also sort of have this fighting game project, although it's more a tech demo than a game, at least without someone else doing other parts of the game.

For example, while I have a bunch of ideas, they only exist as some general ideas in my head and a few posts here. But I haven't done any actual plans.
In the moment, I'm doing my first game and I won't write a single line of code for any other game until the first one is completely finished and put on cartridges.

Don't worry I haven't written a line of code for most projects I talked about there. My main prject #1 is still unfinished after more than 11 years of development (started in late 2004).

[FrankenGraphics]

There's so many variations on this to be done it's hard to pick. Cave exploration? or excavation? Avoid deadly walls? Flight of the bumblebee? Mario bros/bubble bobble style arcade game? Actual moon lander simulator?

viewtopic.php?f=21&t=11627

Add in 90º rotated variants of the sprites and we may have something. Start from a normal platformer, but then remove gravity because we're in space (that's right, if you jump you won't fall). Then if you're in the air and hit a wall or ceiling, that becomes you new floor. (for the sake of simplicitly let's assume no slopes) In other words, you can walk on any surface.

As far as programming goes, it wouldn't be much different from the usual platformer. As far as level design goes it's a completely different beast.

A null gravity simulator? Could be fun!
Looks great, i love the helmet. I guess the same goes for general jumping direction. So what i would like the player to control is the rotation of the astronaut (you need to land on your feet to grip; else you bounce off in an off angle. Landing on your head means damage, or death and room reinit)

[DRW]

Yeah, the NES needs more decent fighting games. The abundance of crappy pirate fighting games makes the NES look bad, but if we can come up with something nice we can prove its not the system's fault.

Actually doing a fighting game would pose a problem for me, though: The game would need about eight or nine fighters with a whole bunch of animation phases, plus a bunch of backgrounds and intro and ending cutscenes. The artist who does the graphics for my current game for free would never do this unless I can pay her a few thousand dollars.
So, creating a fighting game would require to find a capable artist who is willing to actually draw all this stuff.
And using more than one artist means much more coordination. Also, they will have their own ideas that might clash with my vision.

Another problem that is connected with it: Before I ask someone to do the graphics, I have to be sure that I can create a good fighting game engine, including computer AI. Because if I hire someone, I have to deliver a product. As long as I work alone, I can just cancel it whenever I don't like it anymore.
But before I spend a huge time in designing a game engine, I'd need to be sure that I actually have a graphics artist who designs everything. There's no use in creating code for a game when I will never get the necessary graphics.

Yes, this is what I mean. I don't want anything that revolves around the FMV, I just want to make a nice FMV engine that could be used to insert video sequences in any game, to help set the mood.

You could create these videos for a fighting game to enable a story mode like the one in the most recent "Mortal Kombat" games.

What outfit would she wear?

This is sounding too much like phone sex.

Phone sex would be: "What outfit do you wear?"

What outfit would she wear?

I have no idea whatsoever, but it's a NES sprite we're talking about.

So? My game also has NES sprites, but that's no reason they can't wear sexy clothes:

Sprites.PNG (1.68 KiB) Viewed 2820 times

Also, the main character will be shown on the title screen in a 61 x 85 pixels anime drawing.

[DRW]

Oh, I completely forgot but I also sort of have this fighting game project, although it's more a tech demo than a game, at least without someone else doing other parts of the game.

Do you already have a general setting in mind? For my game, a good bunch of the story is already finished. (I just made it up in my head. As I said, I don't sit down and plan stuff for a new game until the current one is done.)

Don't worry I haven't written a line of code for most projects I talked about there. My main prject #1 is still unfinished after more than 11 years of development (started in late 2004).

That's something I would never want to do. I started my game in June 2015 and I'm planning to have it finished by June 2016 or earlier. I would never start a game that would take me so much time. That's why I consciously took a game that's about as complex as "Kung Fu" because I knew that this is actually doable. When it's finished, I could do a bigger project since most of the basic stuff (NES low level code, general game loop structure) is already done and can be reused.

[tepples]

Actually doing a fighting game would pose a problem for me, though: The game would need about eight or nine fighters with a whole bunch of animation phases, plus a bunch of backgrounds and intro and ending cutscenes. The artist who does the graphics for my current game for free would never do this unless I can pay her a few thousand dollars.

Kickstarter and Indiegogo didn't exist in the NES era, but they do now. Have her make a few sample images and then crowdfund the rest.

So, creating a fighting game would require to find a capable artist who is willing to actually draw all this stuff.

Give us the specs, and perhaps someone will be willing to draw at least one character for free so you can make the engine.

[Sik]

So what i would like the player to control is the rotation of the astronaut (you need to land on your feet to grip; else you bounce off in an off angle. Landing on your head means damage, or death and room reinit)

That would probably get on everybody's nerves. Lack of gravity and walking on any angle is already hard enough to cope with as-is, the last you want is forcing players to control something that's prone to go wrong often and get punished for failing at it. Besides it'd probably also pretty much rule out the ability to flip around in small areas.

[DRW]

Kickstarter and Indiegogo didn't exist in the NES era, but they do now. Have her make a few sample images and then crowdfund the rest.

Yup, she already told me if I can pay her $50000 from Kickstarter, she would definitely do it. (I don't know the actual minimum price that would convince her to do this in her freetime, though, since the project hasn't been anything but a thought experiment as of now.)

But actually creating a project on Kickstarter would put me under even more pressure. Because if people pay me thousands of money (assuming anybody would pay me at all), I'm bound to delivering a high quality product in time. (And I guess these people would expect the game to have 20+ characters and not just eight.)

This whole work would be pretty different from the game that I'm doing in the moment where I don't have to answer to anybody.
And even if my current game flops, I don't need to care because even if nobody likes it, my original goal is still done: I made myself an action game with a clearly female main protagonist.

But having a huge bunch of investors and then producing a game that only I really like: Yeah, that could be a bit stressfull.

Give us the specs, and perhaps someone will be willing to draw at least one character for free so you can make the engine.

My problem is not that I don't have a character for doing the engine. I could even use a stick figure for that.

My problem is:
If I really seriously consider to do a fighting game, then I have to be sure that I definitely will get all the graphics that I need. Because if I program a full game, but only get 50 % of the graphics, then it's as good as nothing until I can find someone to provide me the remaining 50 %.
But to ask people to do graphics for me means that I have to make sure that the code will actually get finished. Because I don't want to be one of the people who only deliver 50 % of the stuff they're expected to.

So, if I start writing the engine, then I do this with the danger that I won't get enough graphics.
And if I find the graphics artists first and let them draw stuff, then I do this with the danger that I might get to a point where I'm stuck with the code (most likely it will be the computer AI) or where I just don't feel like continuing anymore.

[FrankenGraphics]

That would probably get on everybody's nerves. Lack of gravity and walking on any angle is already hard enough to cope with as-is, the last you want is forcing players to control something that's prone to go wrong often and get punished for failing at it. Besides it'd probably also pretty much rule out the ability to flip around in small areas.

Yeah, might aswell keep it simple. It would work perfectly fine for, say, a 'collect stuff and move to the next screen/room/level' objective or the like.

[NESHomebrew]

I'll second the point-click adventure. And I'll just leave this here for anyone that hasn't seen it yet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drGKve3rdzw

I've also been wanting to do a room escape type of game with the style and whimsy of the Dr. Brain games, or a game like Please Don't Touch Anything. I think these would be good genres for someone starting out that just needs a bit of experience before biting off more than they can chew. I see a lot of ambitious projects, but IMO single screen games are a good way to go.

I've also been working on a speedrunner type of platformer. No scrolling, majority is single tile characters, fast gameplay, achievements and high re-playability. But I haven't touched asm in a while, so who knows when/if that will get finished.

[Bregalad]

I'll second the point-click adventure. And I'll just leave this here for anyone that hasn't seen it yet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drGKve3rdzw

Looks amazing !!

[Drew Sebastino]

Watching that guy walk everywhere would drive me crazy though. His walk cycle also needs to be synched better with his walk speed. Anyway, I guess this isn't the place to critique it anyway.