Okies, I don''t know if I mentioned this already in another of my posts, but I''m actually returning to game design and programming after a bit of an EverQuest binge
I''ve been thinking that most of all I REALLY want to get a complete game made that I can use in some kind of a portfolio so that I can apply for jobs and have something to show to demonstrate my abilities. I do have lots of very advanced ideas, but I''ve really decided to cut back and make something somewhat more simplistic than I had at first envisioned, but keeping a degree of the same feel in it''s design to what I had originally contemplated.
As seems very common nowadays I''m mainly interested in the field of RPG''s. An RPG though does seem to be more than I can handle while Im currently stuck working a regular job. My idea then is to attempt to create something simpler, but similar.
My plan thus far is to go for making a kind of revamped hybrid of bomberman and worms. The idea being that the player will battle it out in 3D arenas viewed from a top down perspective, players will control a small team of characters "a la worms" but the action will be fast paced and real-time "a la bomberman". I already have an idea how levels will be made. This was my biggest slump previously, I couldn''t work out how to make an effective level design program that would create the kind of maps I was after. This time I will rely on a heightmap combined with a grid of 3D tiles. Each model that is being used as a tile would be pre-generated and held in a grid alongside each bitmap. I think that''s all there is I need to worry about maps, I''m pretty well versed on the implementation of heightmaps and reading from a grid for the 3D tiles should be quite similar to this process, so everything is fine there.
Controls should be quite simplistic, arrows keys to rotate and move the player, along with a few mouse button clicks and a few other keyboard buttons for various controls. Again, DirectInput I''m pretty familiar with so this should be straightforward.
I don''t have much experience with 3D AI techiques, so I can brush over this by allowing it to be a purely PvP game, and perhaps consider implementing things such as AI opponents and pathfinding algorithms later on AFTER I have something ready to show off.
Hmm, so all in all, including things I have not looked at here (which I have still considered in depth) I think such a project is well within my scope and should maximise what I''m good at while not having to worry about the things I''m less used to dealing with. Plus I think a game like this could be simple, fast paced with a big concentration on fun!
One thing I''m not certain on though is what to do with the characters. I''m not certain if it would feel better as a kind of futuristic tank/robot combat game, or if I''d be better off with a fantasy setting with wizards and warriors and such like battling it out, I like both sci fi and fantasy but I''m not sure which would fit better.
I also remember character animation stumping me big time. All I wished to do was use existing models teporarily in my projects until I could afford time to create my own. MD2 and MD3''s didn''t suit though because the only tutorial I could find on loading them involved stripping the model file and removing it of some kind of scripting which was in use for Quake 3 model files. I''m really loathe to the idea of using gutted models that aren''t in the exact same state as how I downloaded them, I''m sure it would lead to lot''s of glitches in displaying the models correctly. That aside I also looked at X Files. I found I could convert some types of existing models into X file format, but there was a HUGE problem in the fact that I could not find a single file format convertor that properly worked on animation. Sure I could convert a simple unanimated model, but add in animation and any exporter available would only export one animation at a time, rather than several. So I would be able to choose from static model or walking animation... with no other animations available. The only solution to this I could think of would be to design my own models from scratch in 3D Max and use those, but I do not wish to lose any more time than necessary and I do not wish to have to learn 3D Max, heck C++ is a beast in itself to learn, I could do without another whole program to throw into the equation! I tried various small pieces of software, most notably milkshape which has a huge range of import and export options, yet it still failed me. I also found out that Jim Adams in his book Programming RPG''s with DirectX, actuallyexported animations singly and literally cut and pasted them into one file. Again, that is waaaaaaay too time consuming for my liking, so maybe someone else has a reasonable suggestion of how to get a current file format into a format I can use with multiple animations with minimal interfering on my part so I can just get them into the game to use to make do for now until I have the time to model some characters myself or get someone else to work on some for me?
Anyways my whole post is kinda lacking focus at the moment, so I''ll tie it all together with a couple of questions. What would you implement in such a game design idea? What ideas would you have for things such as weapons, terrain, characters, abilities, effects, gameplay elements, interface etc? I''m not asking you guys to design my game for me (I already have a wide variety of ideas documented on my computer), but I would be very interested in seeing what elements you would most like to see in such a game? What gameplay modes would you have to keep things interesting, like perhaps victory conditions and such?
So basically take the theme of a realtime worms/bomberman hybrid and let me know what you''d most like to see in such a game.
Oh and if you can help with any of the side issues, heh that''d be a bonus
Thanks,
Steve AKA Mephs
