A game inspired by Shadowrun. The main world would look very simular to Diablo/DiabloII/Fallout, except the landscape would be all futuristic. Aka, very little landscape, more huge city structures / teleporters / corperation buildings. There would be no need for roads or vehicles, as the invention of teleportation made them obsolete. There would still be walking paths, so I imagine it would look like a big city with very tiny roads. Everything would be set up in 3D, but the main game view would still stay at an isometric type view, allowing rotating + zooming the camera. The city would be ruled by large corperations (aka microsoft, lmao!) who control the entire government. Everything would be pretty corrupted and greed driven, so the player is free to thrash on legal systems with no remorse. The game would revolve around getting hired to take on jobs, hiring other people to help you, and moving towards the goal of the game, which is totally undecided so far. Once you ''jack in'' to the matrix, the perspective would change. You would get a "lawnmower man" type invironment (if anyone knows what I mean). There wouldn''t be real textures inside the matrix. It would look glowy green or blue, with everything visible inside-out. In other words, you could see right through walls and into the insides of objects. The main purpose of the matrix would be to navigate through a computer system to perform specific tasks, like disabling game-world hardware (elevators, cameras, security systems), combating other users, or stealing data. This type of system-entry would not be totally illegal. You may even be able to get hired as a techy near the beginning to let the player learn how to navigate through this world. However, there would be anti-hacking software which would attack any player when they entered specific areas, and advanced software would be needed to combat these threats and get passed them. The combat between player and other player or software would be simular to space-combat, except between floating human shaped intentities casting "spells" and riasing "shields" towards each other. Lets see. I''ve been planning to make this game since I was 12 years old (when I played Shadowrun on the Sega genesis console). But since I''ve just recently gotten into 3D programming, I''ve realized a 3D invironment would be the best approach for this game. Any ideas or advice for me before I begin such a long and enduring project? Would using computer systems and calling it "the matrix" break any legal copyrights or do I need another name? Thanks for any advice!

I would think that Whizkids, or whoever owns shadowrun would have an opinion. Also, I don''t remember for sure, but I believe the ''net was called "The Matrix" in Shadowrun, so I would think Whizkids would own the copywrite for usage of elements of its game. I would like to see a new game however.

William Gibson also called it the matrix in Neuromancer. I think it''s a pretty generic term at this point.

Either way, I wouldn''t worry about it too much until you got closer to the point of actually releasing the game. You can always do a search and replace at the last minute with something else.

Ideas? Don''t start with a long and enduring project but try to get a tiny speck of your grand plans to work completely. Then when you get the hang of things either expand the speck or start to finish larger projects.

It''s hard for me to develop my game 24/7 unless I''m really inspired to do so. It''s also getting more and more difficult to get inspired to start working on a game that will be in construction for 2 years, for some reason.

So I have to have a big plan, or it doesn''t seem worth it.

Anonymous#1 - Well, it''s really just a futuristic city with a computer matrix. I''m not going so far as to use all of their class types and terms, such as "runs" and "johnsons".

Thanks for the thoughts!