If you could make a new game using the GTA engine, what would you make?

pong

thanks 4 the help

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Original post by Hwoarang
If you could make a new game using the GTA engine, what would you make?

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I would play a special game of sell my copy of the GTA engine and buy a copy of the engine I want =]

Im not just interested in your opinion, I need expert advice boys!

Well, what does the GTA engine offer? An excellent driving physics engine is a good start, and I couldn't in good conscience ignore that element of the game, so something with cars of some kind is obvious. Next, it has a good mission system, with key map points triggering events and cutscenes. Good. A massive environment elegantly divided into sectors, and an ambient population that is at least passable, if not particularly convincing.

The pedestrian elements of the game are okay. Running and jumping is decent, looking around works fairly well, and the guns, whether they're manually aimed or used in conjunction with the decent targetting system, are easy to use. Health and armor are standard.

The game also has a superb faction/reputation system. Highly variable elements, like the police wanted rating, are good for short-term situations, while the reputation of the character with various gangs is more permanent, and can affect where you can go without getting blown in half.

The engine is custom-built for that game. Anything using it would either have to resemble it in some way or else neglect a number of features.

I'd go futuristic, along the lines of Flashback: The Quest for Identity. I actually outlined a game something like this on the "Memento storytelling" thread, and I stand by that plan. Action, driving, and an open-ended plot would go well with that kind of Blade-Runner-ish world. Make some of the cars able to fly, and put the roads in the air, Fifth Element style. Then you could design factions, conflicts, and government enforcers. I remember trying to earn money in Flashback, and taking bounty hunter missions and a host of other odd jobs and working on them. Expand that into a GTA-style world, and you've got a pretty good system.

I'd like to do away with the linear plot of GTA. Sure, there are tons of little side-things to do, but no matter what, if you finish the game, then every gang member in town makes it his business to shoot you on sight. I'd like to be able to pick and choose my jobs and to maintain relations with the different factions, Escape Velocity-style, even if it means sacrificing the ability to "win" the game. Heck, everyone I know with GTA plays long after the story ends anyway, why crap out on missions? The mistake Rockstar made was making the main character beat everyone else out of the city. If some factions stick around, then you can keep interacting with them.

There's my idea. Not a concise description, but it's a sophisticated thought experiment.

[edited by - Iron Chef Carnage on November 20, 2003 4:18:39 PM]

Take GTA... and flip the coin.

It looks to me from toying with the game a little that the engine was pretty much designed for the kind of use that it is used for but not much else, such as interior enviornments, it doesn''t seem that it would have a great detail depth in things like that but...

You could make like a SWAT game or something, where you have to try to hunt down the criminals. Or you could have to escort a convict through the city or something like that.

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I know only that which I know, but I do not know what I know.

Mmmmh, Battlefield anyone ?
An open landscape, no loading time, perfect physics, large range of vehicles to pilots, passengers, guns.
Yup, Battlefield.
Urban warfare sounds like a good idea foir this engine.
Now add a RPG element, a post apocalyptic setting (with horses, for bishop_pass ) and I think you could do a pretty kick ass remake of Fallout.
Or a Mad Max based game (have you seen the first ?)

Or maybe you could do some sort of Sim City game ? actually digging the investment/housing estate side of Vice City ?

Or do a newer version of the hilarious Carmaggedon games (which had pretty cool physics for their time, BTW)

Gee, their are quite a few things that can be done with the jewel that this game is, you know. The sky is the limit really.

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Sancte Isidore ora pro nobis !

I''d make that sucker multi-player! Shame on Take Two for not doing this in the first place!

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Original post by Iron Chef Carnage
...The engine is custom-built for that game. Anything using it would either have to resemble it in some way or else neglect a number of features...

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First of all, nearly every feature you mentioned had nothing to do with the engine itself and was part of the game code. Second, the engine is not custom-built at all. GTA3 uses RenderWare graphics. http://www.renderware.com



James Simmons
MindEngine Development
http://medev.sourceforge.net