Janes tried to do something similar to this idea, but it failed. One problem with games some games is that they try to be too many things at once and fail to do any of them good. So an Idea I have is that you make a series of different types of games, each able to stand up on its own merits. Then if possible merge the games so that you can move seamlessly from one game to another. An analogy would be the old transformer toys (constructicons) that you could take all 5 and make one big toy. One example could be Flight sim. + Fps + RTS + mechs etc. Each is its own game, and complete in and of itself, but also they can all be combined to make one giant game that encompases all of the above. What do you think?

ADHD

look it up

that''s what the majority of gamer''s have

...huh?

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"Kierkegaard reminds us that belief
has nothing to do with how or why.
Belief is beyond reason.

I believe because it is absurd."

Most decent games require 110% of the system resources of their target machine. How exactly do you envisage the user being able to move between four of five different games (unless they are all rubbish and only use 20% of the machines resources).

Dan Marchant
Obscure Productions
Game Development & Design consultant

One developer if I recall correctly tried to do something like this. Maybe it was Jane's I don't remember if they actually did it or just talked about it. But they were going to have it where they had 4 different games, a jet sim, a helicopter sim, a tank sim, and a ground assault sim, but you could join them up online and have battle between the different vehicles. Of course this was before battlefield and those types where there are tons of vehicles already in one game.

Hmm, sort of what your saying. I don't see how your idea would link up. Maybe something like the quest for glory games where you got to keep your stats? Or you can save the mission structure and have the next game branch off from where the old mission structure left off.

Edit: erm you mentioned jane first line of the thread, I think I missed it lol

[edited by - saluk on September 17, 2003 1:10:30 AM]

Doesn''t World War II Online let you play as different kinds of units; Infantry, aircrafts, tanks..? From what I heared (Assuming that it is WWII Online I''m thinking about), it''s supposed to work out really good.

-Luctus

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Statisticly seen, most things happens to other people.
[Mail]

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder?

I vaguely remember a two games from about six or seven years ago.

The first game was a space combat strategy game. The second was a space ship siege game, two space ships locked together and you tried to board and take over the other ship.

Each could be played stand along, but if you had both you would start in space combat mode and if you happened to get close enough and dock with an enemy ship you automatically went into siege mode.

So it can be done.

What this really seems to be talking about is a single game universe with multiple user interfaces, each sold separately. The example closest to my heart would be the RTS/FPS type that''s been touted as the next big thing almost as long as VR games...

The tricky part is the word ''seamlessly'' - it''s much easier to come up with a design for an RTS that''s intended to let other players control your units as an FPS than to come up with one where you can take the Commander for a walk in FPS mode (though Total Annihilation could probably have got away with it). There''s still the problems of balancing the conventions of two different genres - maybe a better way of thinking about it would be as an added layer for a Counter-Strike style game where one player has no avatar, but instead has access to the map (in effect allowing a special "dead" player to communicate with the living). Obviously, there are some interface features that should be added - at the least, an onscreen recommended move (Halo style) and recommended target (probably the same thing in red)

I guess this isn''t quite what the original post wanted - rather than seamlessly moving between two or more games, I''m suggesting allowing two or more games to have simultaneous access to the same game world and letting them interact.

The XCOM series of games did something similar to the original post - in fact, the original game in the series (XCOM: UFO Defense or UFO: Enemy Unknown in Europe) had three executable files - one batch file that just alternately called one then the other of the other two files and the two game files. The first exe (geoscape) was a global strategic resource management/research game where you researched and manufactured new tech and tried to intercept alien incursions. When a troop carrier reached the site of some current alien activity, geoscape.exe created and saved a mission map, with appropriate alien population and scenery and XCOM units (using fairly obvious landscape tiles - each about 10*10*4 cells - ending with a map 4*4, 5*5 or 6*6 tiles). geoscape.exe then saved its current state and exited, leaving the batch file to call the second exe (tactical) which played out a turn based tactical shooter on the saved map data and then saved a data file in turn which contained the updated stats of the XCOM soldiers, and a list of items and prisoners carried away at the end of the battle (and, in the appropriate special case, indication of successful destruction of an alien base). geoscape.exe would then pick up this data, delete the temporary mission map and continue from where it left off.

quote:

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Original post by Saluk But they were going to have it where they had 4 different games, a jet sim, a helicopter sim, a tank sim, and a ground assault sim, but you could join them up online and have battle between the different vehicles.

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That sounds like Microproses "Gunship!" Helicopter-sim, and the cancelled "M1 Tank Platoon 3", which were going to be mutually MP-compatible. Gunship! flopped, so M1TP3 never saw light.

quote:

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The first exe (geoscape) was a global strategic resource management/research game where you researched and manufactured new tech and tried to intercept alien incursions. When a troop carrier reached the site of some current alien activity, geoscape.exe created and saved a mission map, with appropriate alien population and scenery and XCOM units (using fairly obvious landscape tiles - each about 10*10*4 cells - ending with a map 4*4, 5*5 or 6*6 tiles). geoscape.exe then saved its current state and exited, leaving the batch file to call the second exe (tactical) which played out a turn based tactical shooter on the saved map data and then saved a data file in turn which contained the updated stats of the XCOM soldiers, and a list of items and prisoners carried away at the end of the battle (and, in the appropriate special case, indication of successful destruction of an alien base). geoscape.exe would then pick up this data, delete the temporary mission map and continue from where it left off.

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OT, but thanks to this design, a gifted XCOM-nut modded the game to an unbelievable degree. He wrote a program that modified the temporary savegame each time control transfered from geoscape to the other .EXE-file. This way he fixed a bug, made ammo-loading automatic, optionally randomizes alien ships etc.

You can get it here:

http://members.aol.com/stjones/xcomutil/