Fair warning: this post is a result of too much caffiene, playing MAME, and analyzing System Shock... First, a quick explanation, then my question: You've probably heard of the idea of combined data games. They're seperate, but complete games, that can share info about the player and the game state between them. So you play one, and your character and the world is changed in the other. (A good example was the old game Breech, where you lead a squad of marines through encounters, and Rules of Engagement, which was about fleets. You could fight boarding actions in ROE using Breech, but both were standalone.) Now the question / idea: CDGs are pretty rare, mostly because they're too big a task. You have to design or develop both games at once, and lock their data, then successfully sell both well. (Imagine X-Wing and Jedi Knight as a CDG) But what if you dealt with "gamelets?" Not full fledged games as we know them, but smaller, easier to do stand alone games that mixed together? Games the size of Asteroids or Tetris. Say, for example, you make a small racing game (set in Monte Carlo). Then maybe you make a Poker game (also set in Monte Carlo). Both function seperately. But, when combined, your winnings in the Poker game could be used to buy equipment in the racing game. Your betting assets, like the title to one of your cars, could be used in the Poker game. The point is you'd have the advantage of being able to make and sell two different games, or combine them into a larger and deeper experience. Waddaya think? -------------------- Just waiting for the mothership... Edited by - Wavinator on 11/5/00 12:07:02 AM

Interesting... And then you could have the slogan on your game "< Blah >, from the long line of games in this gamelet series"... I think we were talking something like this (only more with sequels) for games when viewed as art. If we were looking at them as books that is... Anyway... You have provided some food for thought.

-Chris Bennett of Dwarfsoft - Site:"The Philosophers' Stone of Programming Alchemy" - IOL
The future of RPGs - Thanks to all the goblins over in our little Game Design Corner niche
          

i think that things like that already exists.

remenber Shining Force 3? it had three episodes each one was a closed game(well in the same world) but the data of one afected the others.

in fact i know even a music that is like that.(yeah a music with continuation...)
it could be good do games like that... no wait a minute... doing that we might end with something like that "operation trojan horse" book collection... (nothing against it... but there already seven books!!)

========
There´s no ugly woman
You that didn´t drink enough
A brazilian popular belief

Edited by - The Alchemist on November 5, 2000 1:38:01 PM

This sounds like a really good Idea! Got me thinking now. Several seperate games which are actually do-able from our point of view. Which fit togther to make a larger gaming experiance Traveling between worlds, frounnt of a battle, Air, sea and land war *grins and runs off to find paper and pen*. AH-HA HA HA!!!

As Mr Cup always says,
''I pretend to work. They pretend to pay me.''

I think it''s a great idea, if difficult to accomplish. You''ve got to leave as many open hooks as possible to maximise your expansion possibilities.

This type of system is what has made the CCGs work so well, IMO.

I would say strive for the simplest interfaces at all levels. The more complicated the interfaces between objects, the more difficult to adapt to new features.

It could work like, for example, an Indiana Jones Movie. You play through the game learning skills, pissing people off. Then when you make your new game you simpily load in the character sheet from the last game and play on. Same scars, same abilities, (dont get in the that whole thing just work with me here) People you pissed off in the last game still hate you. If it was a CC style game you could play on from your old bases. Intrestink, verry intrestink Mr Jones.

As Mr Cup always says,
''''I pretend to work. They pretend to pay me.''''

Hm, a VERY silly and megalomaniac idea follows.

What about making a "game engine" that was simply a generic interface between games, and would handle sharing their data? It would share similar data types between games, transfer players between them etc. If enough people would support this, games made by entirely different teams could be linked together!

-Jussi

How about calling it GDML - for Game Data Markup Language. An XML-specified language, with a DTD and some good documentation? How about writing a tool that parses GDML into a common Document Object Model, GDOM - ( Game Document Object Model )?

Actually - that''s sort of where Goblin is at currently. We''re trying to set up a pretty universal data language using XML, and writing a parser for it to build a universal DOM.

It could be used for this idea.


People might not remember what you said, or what you did, but they will always remember how you made them feel.
~ (V)^|) |<é!t|-| ~

Actually, Goblin did come to mind when I read this thread... I think I need to go through your messages once again

-Chris Bennett of Dwarfsoft - Site:"The Philosophers'' Stone of Programming Alchemy" - IOL
The future of RPGs - Thanks to all the goblins over in our little Game Design Corner niche
          

That''s it! Breech 2 is the game that Peter Molyneux designed. In fact I think his brother (or some relative) wrote the code (not sure). I had been trying to remember the name of that game for some time now...

They touted the system as "An Interlocking Puzzle Game" and they had an image of two jig-saw pieces, that would fit one another if placed correctly, displayed. Very cool concept.

As for your ideal; I like it. And I think MK and dwarf are on the right track with the XML ideal. This way you only have to make the program aware of the data that it needs and parse it from the XML. Very cool.

Dave "Dak Lozar" Loeser