Just don''t forget to start small, it''s very easy to do the whole "Tell-the-word-about-my-great-idea-then-lose-interest-a-month-down-the-line-cause-I''ve-put-all-this-effort-into-it-and-have-nothing-to-play-with-yet" -- it is a game afterall.

Heres what i did

Make a folder, then categorise it like ¡°story¡±, ¡°combat¡±, ¡°world¡± etc.

Now every time an idea pops in your head, open the folder that corresponds to your idea, for example ¡°story¡±, and then write your idea in ms word or whatever you prefer.
Keep doing that and you soon will have an ¡°idea database¡±.
Now you can try to combine some of these ideas into a game design document.

It might sound take a long time, but it helps, especially if you are doing this as a hobby.

Thanks for the help again guys,

sunandshadow - first of thanks for keeping interest in this thread its really helpfull to have regulars coming back so thank you..
Your arguments exactly express why I chose this type of world, I already see players very scarsly traveling around by foot first, savenging the remains, fighting of mutated animals, trying to survive in this dead world, wonderfull.

And bout the MMO part, I had an idea I liked better its more controlled and more fun for the player, and its suits the game better. I was thinking about letting the player host games and they can play for hours with whom they want to and how they want to, they can setup everything to their liking and go have a nice game of RPing for hours.

When the time comes they are tired or dont feel like going further they just save the game the host saves the gamestates, and at a later they they an go on exactly where they left off. Something like that I thought was better then a constantly persistent world, many MMOs get ruined by the players because everybody is a diffrent player, one is action oriented on is a die hard fanatic role player and etc etc. So when players game toghether they have an experience for themselves how they wanted it and they will enjoy it even more I think.

Oooo and the MCGuyver thingy your talking about DONT EVEN GET ME STARTED ONE THAT ONE haha. That is another great aspect of it I would love to work out a very deep system for this, not just drag this on top of that and boom. But something more complex something very custimizable but how is a big question and what exactly.


botman2 - I know exactly what you mean and I dont intend on making a game all of a sudden in some months I know it can take quite a while. But ive been putting many of my ideas on paper and other media for such a long time already, and I dont intend on leaving it to rot I intend doing something with it, as much as im possible to. Dont worry


Panzooka - Thanks for the excellent idea this will keep me having track of my ideas even better, thats a nice one, why did I not think of that now I feel rather dumb haha. Thanks allot m8, thisll keep me collecting ideas till I have plenty and work them out in a deeper way.


the World :
I have another big question I have already started with some drawings but then stopped cause I had a mayor issue,
we know those post acolyptic worlds look all the same, just a barren earth look like landscape with scorched trees, burned down black buildings, thinks fallout like (which was excellent nonetheless) but I want to stay of this.

I want the vegetation and the landscape to look like on another planet so this must be very distinguished from the standard p.a. world asa well. This world has just begon developing again after a mayor blowout, there is some lushness already there to be seen, but the ruins are still ruins, cells are just evolving themselves and turning into lifeforms, and the first humans scavenge these lands, each one has there own path. etc


Technology:
Ofcourse this is almost entirely wiped out, but how would I implement technology in this world, how would technology be reinvented and developed again ?
Would it be basic but futuristic at the same time, say an electronic PA watch running on solar energy or radiated energy cells, any suggestions on this ?
I was thinking of kind of an steampunk technology thing, with steam running things, and basic things like wood, and coal and such things for fuel, but there must be other ways ?
Open for alot of suggestions on this as well :D

Thanks for taking the time to read again, and I am eagerly awaiting mor input on this.

Just a small thing as i cba to post much right now, in escaflowne they had computers and mecha however they ran off of kinetic energy systems and the computers used steam generators.

Mayby you wanna be thinking high tech but powered by low tech standers, that way you can have things like guns and mechas but there powered by some new kind of gunpowder substance and basic forms of energy such as steam.

Technology and the world - If you had a biological warfare apocalypse instead of a violent one, that would leave lots of interesting empty buildings and technological things sitting around possibly in working condition but just unable to be run because of no electricity, etc. Samuel Delany''s _Dhalgren_ and sombody else''s _Emergence_, oh and _The Girl Who Owned a City_ are all interesting portrayls of a post-apocalyptic world in which technology has not been completely wiped away.

Siolis - That was excactly what I meant like rather high tech stuff but the source of its power would be as basic as it gets, and I want technology to be diffrent then its right now.

Sunandshadow - Its an excellent idea and sounds logical to have many things lying around not working- half working and suchg. And those titles are from books I guess thanks for the reference ill look em up, thanks !

Have you perhaps any thoughts or ideas about the things I mention in my previous posts ? Thanks for brainstorming with me, its helping allot to keep it flowing thanks ! :D

quote: Original post by Jamaludin
Sunandshadow - Its an excellent idea and sounds logical to have many things lying around not working- half working and such. And those titles are from books I guess thanks for the reference ill look em up, thanks !

Have you perhaps any thoughts or ideas about the things I mention in my previous posts ? Thanks for brainstorming with me, its helping allot to keep it flowing thanks ! :D

You''re welcome. Don''t know if you meant me specifically but let''s see, what else did you mention, levelling and object combination?

Well, here''s a general suggestion - Gamedev has been around for a few years now, and all of the great design ideas anybody ever discussed here are archived. There''s this nice little search button up near the top of the screen, that actually works now, despite being broken for a few months a while ago. So any general subject you want ideas about, you can just type it into the search engine and see what you get. Try "levelling", "leveling" (no one seams to be sure how to spell this, lol), "modular" (I remember making some interesting posts to a thread about modular weapons myself), "apocalyptic", and any other words that seem relevant. If you actually have the patience to read any substantial chunk of the archives you will be giving yourself an education in game design better than one you might pay thousands of $ for at a college.

Jamaludin

i started out in similar situation like you, then i use my idea database system to record all my ideas.

later one when u look back at some of your ideas, u might find its stupid. this is GOOOD i mean it shows that your ideas are getting better, feel free to delete your old and disliked ideas.

later on when you want to design a game, just pull your favorite ideas together that are compatible.


another suggestion:

vocab,

say you have ideas range from fantasy style to sci-fi space.
create document and write down all the good words in catogory. do this very often, maybe a shortcut in your desktop.

that way you will be less likely to run out words to use when designing say magics.

A great bit of advice I heard about and followed: Like with a book, get your idea down to an "executive summary." Pretend you''re going to give it to some big-wig who just wants a synopsis so he can determine if he wants to give you a million bucks or not.

Like the summaries in TV guide, what a synopsis will do for you is focus you. You''ll find yourself writing it again and again. It will keep you ultimately on track, as you will find that as you design and play other games, tempting alternatives will pop up that are really distractions.

One of the first things I would focus on above all else are the elemental actions you do in the game. I''ve heard this called the gameplay palette, and it will help set the limits of what you can and cannot expect to do in your game world.

I would either try to complete your story first if you have a story driven game, or do the story and backstory in parallel if, as with most games, the story really cannot be changed and has no fundamental impact on gameplay. The story and/or backstory will suggest not only characters, locations and places, but gameplay itself. For instance, you may decide in your high-tech universe that the story depends on body-swapping. If this is the case, it will be important to design stats, resources and gameplay around this feature.

Next, carefully consider economizing your ambitions. Is there an easier way to implement any feature that either takes less time, less resources, or less risk of programming the unknown? If so, consider doing it, as the easier things are to do, the more likely they are to get done. Also, be sure to leave some for the sequel. As a great performing once said, always leave them wanting more.

I''d highly recommend doing graphics, especially texturing, last. Do some to see if you or your artist(s) are talented enough; and to see if they''ll work with your expectations, in game-- you might find you want too much for your poly budget, for example. But otherwise, I wouldn''t do art at the beginning because if you project suffers any long delay, you''ll be stuck coming out with dated graphics.

For indie MMO game projects and game projects in general, gather as much information on similar projects as possible. Consider what worked, what failed, and how you''d like to avoid or brace for the problems others have faced. This will increase your odds.

Oh, yeah-- and above all, have fun! :D

--------------------
Just waiting for the mothership...

Sunandshadow - haha lol, indeed I tried it before and it did not work so I thought it to be the same but it did work it sure is a nifty thing that search button sorry haha. I dounf allot onf intersting threads thanks, I know allot more now been reading allot of poster material here :D

Panzooka - I actually dug up some old material it did not differ mutch from what I have now but some ideas did, boy I am going smarter every year lol. Thanks for the suggestion man..

Wavinator ! - Your a genius yourself thanks for your input already. Its a good idea to take it very seriously if that is what you meant ideed. And I do im at this point in my life that I really want to undertake something, so your totally right there !
It will have a backdrop story, not a central story that will drive the game that much. I want it to be really open, so that players make the story as they play, the back drop story will function as a history of the planet and maybe its previous inhabitants. And info about this world will be scattered all over.
As for the implenting thing Im not very good at programming yet, just been diggin in that for some months now, not that much. Its very VERY hard to learn *sigh*.
And your right I will be doing concept text and drawings at the begining but the graphics models, textures and such will come last when everything is done on paper first, it is indeed much smarter that way.
I searched allot of information about this on existing projects many MMO''s these days make the same mistakes, but my concept is not exactly an MMO its not persisten 24/7, its stil player hosted for as long or as short if they want it to, and singleplayer as well. Sunandshadow helped me finding the search button for this ahha.

Everyone thanks for your input, itll keep me sharp and thinking. I will post more when I come up with things I would love it if some of you would find the time and if you feel like it to post some more, love hearing more ideas. Thanks for the comments everyone...