Hi all. Have used the resources here on GameDev but never got around to making a forum account/posting. First thread/post. Anyhow I've been tossing around ideas for a game project for a while and have come up with what I believe is a pretty solid foundation. I've taken some elements from movies, games, books and other people I know (primarily in terms of personality) and kind of assembled a basic idea (more or less) about where I want to take things. Basic Premise: Player is a member of a semi-cliche government agency devoted to protecting the general population from people/places/things that are slightly more than garden-variety. It's believed that fighting fire with fire is a good thing, and thus said organizations makes heavy use of psychics as field operatives. Most missions, etc. revolve around containment and possible elimination of paranormal entities and those that attempt to use them for their own ends. Player leads a small squad of commando-type agents (a la Republic Commando) in infiltration, assassination and reconaissance missions. Primary goal or focus of the whole thing is character realism through AI/behavior, personality and visuals. Psychic abilities play a very prominent role, usually through telekinesis or similar, but the player is far from invulnerable. As may be deduced from the player/ally system, squad-based combat is a major component of this and I believe that through the use of some of the AI systems/techniques used F.E.A.R. enemy movement and tactics can be executed in a convincing way that is ultimately challenging to overcome. Of course there are also more types of denizen than just the generic security guard, in fact I've even been toying with the idea with the inclusion of (possibly also psychic) saboteur units that actively follow and thwart the actions of the player and their squadmates. This sounds like a really cool multiplayer scenario as well, with one group designated to take out a target with another group tasked with protecting them through any means necessary-- with some AI help, of course. (reminiscent of spies/mercs in Splinter Cell) A customizeable character/weaponry system should really help flesh things out and add a lot to immersion. The player should be able to strongly identify with his/her character for reasons that will probably become clearer once I explain a few other dynamics. Ultimately what should happen is the interesting paradox of shadow-- while he/she must rely on it to survive, the player will also need to be afraid of whatever else may be having similar ideas. I also intend to capitalize on character realism to a degree in order to get the player to think twice about blind/mindless trigger-pulling and ending the life of a unique, living human being. (Probably conveyed through NPC reactions and behavior, such as a more fearful reaction to the player's presence as opposed to the hyper-overused gung-ho type of personality. Truthfully I think the opposite would be more akin to real-life situations.) Also thinking that such moral complications can factor into character development and plot somehow. This is kind of what I was referring to when I mentioned the whole identification thing. The idea is to make people think. Gameplay Dynamics:Psychic powers As mentioned earlier, psychic ability is important to player success. The kicker is in the system itself. Sure, you'll be able to toss/smack around scenery and people just fine, but depending upon a sort of psychological/emotional index you'll be able to do different sorts of stuff. This adds a sort of balance and teamwork emphasis that I don't see very often in the FPS genre. For example, say we have a bunch of elite players laying the smackdown on a group of people with lesser experience. After witnessing his/her teammates getting wiped out after than you can say "ZOMG AIMBOT WTF," one or more of the newbie players will probably start to get pissed off, and their avatar's reactions/abilities/powers will change in-game as well. In a typical offensive situation this will probably translate into a very powerful, hard to counter psychic attack along the lines of telekinetically tearing the offender into bite-sized chunks. Conversely, players have the option to perform acts of self-sacrifice (not necessarily death, however) in order to receive a sort of buffed protective ability from teammates they help, e.g. taking a bullet for someone in order to receive more powerful aid abilities from the defended avatar. Theoretically certain other powers might counter the aforementioned death attack, such as redirecting the caster's (for lack of a better word) hate energy right back at them, causing the power to backfire in a very spectacular/typically fatal way. In order to balance this type of thing a mechanic could be introduced that causes the protective spell to be an imperfect channeling that harms the caster somewhat during the power transfer. Weapon Customization Pretty self-explanatory. Players will be able to assemble a weapon by combining parts such as stocks, barrels, scopes, optional accessories, magazine/ammo types and possibly even projectile/propulsion mechanics. Perhaps additional components could be unlocked through single/multi-player play, kind of like BF2, etc. Dual-wielding Halo 2's system was pretty well thought-out and really added a lot of strategic depth. I'm thinking this would be an interesting break from the normal espionage type thing. Melee System If there's one really neat feature in F.E.A.R. it was the scissor/bicycle kick. The slide also made for some interesting maneuvers as well, thinking of ways to extend this further. Cutscenes While I'm not sure if it'd be interesting or not I came up with the concept of semi-scripted cutscenes, blending the open-endedness/immersion of HL1&2 whilst overcoming the potential drawbacks/event limitations that complete player control during story sequences gives. Think scripted stuff that never leaves first-person viewpoint, but still allowing the player to do their own thing for some of the time. That's for the most part what I have down right now. While I definitely do have concepts for creatures, characters, weapons, etc. I figure I may as well get most of what's of great importance to the actual engine and the like figured out first before some of the SP, etc. elements. In the event that anyone has an interest in contributing please let me know by all means, currently I've been coming up with most of this stuff on my own. I'm primarily a C++ coder with a pretty good degree of experience, although I'm a fairly decent physical media artist and dabble in sound modification/design and texturing. I suppose it would be important to note that this would be my first actual scratchbuilt game engine project, although I've studied a lot of game design and play since maybe the 7th grade. (approx. 5 years, give or take a couple of months) At the very least, I know how these things work and can figure out the implementation, more or less. Feedback as to mechanics, psychic ability suggestions/revisions, plot and character design and/or anything else you think is important or needs mentioning is appreciated. Seeing as I intend to go into game design/programming as a career I'd like to get a professional opinion on what I have going so far. I also think the title's going to be Paranormal, too. Have a nifty logo whipped up in Photoshop, too :) http://img458.imageshack.us/img458/9568/paranormallogov2pa4.jpg (If anyone knows how to include image tags lemme know, they don't appear to work when I tried) [Edited by - InvalidPointer on April 5, 2007 4:19:19 PM]

I commend you for originality! (sorry, I'm a big advocate of original stuff).
Psychic powers
The biggest thing I'm worried about is functionality and ease-of-use. Especially for real time and multiplayer, it won't be very fun if you had to run through a menu looking for a certain psychic ability. I would suggest something like a limit of abilities, such as different psychic "professions", where you would have one person with a "soldier" personality that had more powerful mind-attacks and such. And possibly the "scout" which has the ability to "brainwipe" and enemy so he will appear invisible and be able to sneak past him. (but, of course, there must be vulnerability; if the psychic attacks the brainwipe victim or comes within close proximity of him he will become visible or something like that. :) ) I would suggest giving each character type about 3-4 psychic skills according to their type that they can use. That way it'll be easier to use in real-time. Try to avoid a scrolling system like Jedi Knight's force power system... running around and dodging enemies while trying to select the right power is no fun.
Weapons
I think this is a cool idea, it was also done in Ghost Recon. I think you should probably "break out of the mold" so-to-speak on this, and create something new; even if it doesn't exist in real life, put it in your game if it's cool. :)
Miniature gun-mounted rocket launchers, grappling hook guns, invisibility belts, that type of stuff.
Cutscenes
Basically, I would keep it "short and sweet". Try to make it short but interesting, as not to bore the player. If you need to really "cut" out of the main game for a movie or something, make it skippable so the player doesn't have to watch it every single time he plays the game.
Other stuff
- Create a no-fuss interface; keep it cool but keep it simple. Some game interfaces, like Jedi Knight's, were just too complicated for their own good. You knew what to do but it took to dang long. Half-Life 2's wasawesome, but if you need to go with more style, make sure everything is clearly labeled and easy to use. Test it out on your friends or family if you need some input.
- Don't make the music intrusive, just keep it to the game material (i.e. if it's a sad part, play sad music, if it's an energetic part, play energetic music (duh)).
- Whatever you do, do not use stock sound effects as is!. The best thing to do is to take recorded samples, and mix them together until you get what you want. If you're going to be doing the sound design yourself, I would suggest learning about what different filters and effects do, as well as basic sound frequency theory, if you don't already.

That's my 2cents, I would like to encourage you to go through with this project, it sounds really interesting! :D

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Original post by destron I commend you for originality! (sorry, I'm a big advocate of original stuff). Psychic powers The biggest thing I'm worried about is functionality and ease-of-use. Especially for real time and multiplayer, it won't be very fun if you had to run through a menu looking for a certain psychic ability. I would suggest something like a limit of abilities, such as different psychic "professions", where you would have one person with a "soldier" personality that had more powerful mind-attacks and such. And possibly the "scout" which has the ability to "brainwipe" and enemy so he will appear invisible and be able to sneak past him. (but, of course, there must be vulnerability; if the psychic attacks the brainwipe victim or comes within close proximity of him he will become visible or something like that. :) ) I would suggest giving each character type about 3-4 psychic skills according to their type that they can use. That way it'll be easier to use in real-time. Try to avoid a scrolling system like Jedi Knight's force power system... running around and dodging enemies while trying to select the right power is no fun. Weapons I think this is a cool idea, it was also done in Ghost Recon. I think you should probably "break out of the mold" so-to-speak on this, and create something new; even if it doesn't exist in real life, put it in your game if it's cool. :) Miniature gun-mounted rocket launchers, grappling hook guns, invisibility belts, that type of stuff. Cutscenes Basically, I would keep it "short and sweet". Try to make it short but interesting, as not to bore the player. If you need to really "cut" out of the main game for a movie or something, make it skippable so the player doesn't have to watch it every single time he plays the game. Other stuff - Create a no-fuss interface; keep it cool but keep it simple. Some game interfaces, like Jedi Knight's, were just too complicated for their own good. You knew what to do but it took to dang long. Half-Life 2's wasawesome, but if you need to go with more style, make sure everything is clearly labeled and easy to use. Test it out on your friends or family if you need some input. - Don't make the music intrusive, just keep it to the game material (i.e. if it's a sad part, play sad music, if it's an energetic part, play energetic music (duh)). - Whatever you do, do not use stock sound effects as is!. The best thing to do is to take recorded samples, and mix them together until you get what you want. If you're going to be doing the sound design yourself, I would suggest learning about what different filters and effects do, as well as basic sound frequency theory, if you don't already. That's my 2cents, I would like to encourage you to go through with this project, it sounds really interesting! :D

The idea for the whole thing was to group most interactions into a couple approaches, such as (not final, of course, but you get the idea) offensive method A, offensive method B, Buff/protection A, B, so on, healing and stealth-type stuff, but then having these vary in power/appearance depending on the aforementioned index. As a JK:JO/JA player myself, I absolutely hate how they have the whole cycle thing. It's idiotic how long it takes to get something, especially if A) the keys aren't close to your current hand positioning and B) you accidentally jump ahead, God forbid, typically resulting in a cheap kill via Choke or something stupid like that. (remember kids, Yoda says use the choke 'n' throw! :D)

Points well taken on general audio theory. Having heard F.E.A.R. with EAX Adv. HD is an aural treat, especially with a 5-7.1 surround setup. I've done a lot of SFX mods for games, most notably Oblivion and Doom 3. I have a pretty good understanding of how sound behaves from researching global illumination in terms of reflectance, etc. For actually deciding how stuff will sound I pretty much wander aimlessly through sample folders listening to random things until something catches my attention as sounding pretty cool. Surprisingly often it's quite different from what I had in mind originally. In terms of engine I'm probably going to go OpenAL since I have Vista, but on the other hand I recently got a hold of the SDK and had a blast with that effect filter tool they give you. I was especially impressed with the positional sound using the exponential falloff system and am currently wondering why developers haven't used something like that more often. The linear model sucks.
In regards to music specifically I consider myself to be pretty good at figuring out mood/patterns and appreciation, ironically I'm a horrible composer -_- Overall trying to decide on a musical theme for this whole idea-- to go back to F.E.A.R. the sort of otherworldly semi-industrial type of thing is really effective and I often find random tunes getting stuck in my head. Ambience/mood is extremely good too. On the other hand Jeremy Soule is probably one of my favorite composers outright, and the more Hollywood-ish classical stuff could also really work as well.

In terms of weaponry/armaments/gear I was thinking James Bond all along :) Not only do we add an interesting spiritual vs. technological element we can also do a lot of balancing overall. I was randomly doing some research on Wikipedia when I ran across good ol' Gauss and came up with the supertech weapons almost immediately. Thinking the primary propulsion/basic mechanism types will be standard explosive solid projectile, rail/magnetic accelerator, Gauss/coil weaponry and the staple energy rifles/pistols. Everyone loves garish special effects! :D

Hm, I'm not a programmer or anything, so this may sound noobish; but does OpenAL work with Windows XP? If it only works with Vista, you have a problem - there are a still a lot of people still using Windows XP and using Vista-only technology might minimize your player base.

On to some non-specific stuff. I notice you reference Half-Life 2 and F.E.A.R. a lot, and I know it's mostly for general design and not detail, but always remember: "Emulate, but don't copy". If you need ideas for a game design issue, say a certain level with a high-tech feel to it, don't think "Oh, [GAME] had a map like this and it looked really good, so I'll make it look like that". Don't just go copying some other game, flip through photography, art history, science/biology books, whatever; just make it original and interesting. I think you're on the right track when you said you looked at Wikipedia for weapon ideas based on science. That's the spirit!
Also, just because it isn't realistic doesn't mean it's not fun. As you said, "everybody likes garish special effects". :)

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Original post by destron Hm, I'm not a programmer or anything, so this may sound noobish; but does OpenAL work with Windows XP? If it only works with Vista, you have a problem - there are a still a lot of people still using Windows XP and using Vista-only technology might minimize your player base. On to some non-specific stuff. I notice you reference Half-Life 2 and F.E.A.R. a lot, and I know it's mostly for general design and not detail, but always remember: "Emulate, but don't copy". If you need ideas for a game design issue, say a certain level with a high-tech feel to it, don't think "Oh, [GAME] had a map like this and it looked really good, so I'll make it look like that". Don't just go copying some other game, flip through photography, art history, science/biology books, whatever; just make it original and interesting. I think you're on the right track when you said you looked at Wikipedia for weapon ideas based on science. That's the spirit! Also, just because it isn't realistic doesn't mean it's not fun. As you said, "everybody likes garish special effects". :)

No worries 'bout OpenAL. It powers lots of commercial titles and works fine on any OS, including Linux and MacOS-- http://www.openal.com
As you may or may not be aware, Microsoft removed some parts of DirectSound with Vista, and this is noticeable in the form of weird stutters/random slowdowns and changes in pitch in games using said DirectSound components. The ALchemy project by Creative Software aims to fix this by doing a DLL hack and converting the DS functions to output nothing and in turn call OpenAL stuff.
Also edited main post again to include a few other thoughts on gameplay dynamics and posted my logo concept/possible final asset.

Ah! My noobishness has been corrected. I thought OpenAL was a Microsoft thing. Shows how much I know. :\

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Original post by destron Ah! My noobishness has been corrected. I thought OpenAL was a Microsoft thing. Shows how much I know. :\

Don't worry about it. We all have to start somewhere, and as you mentioned earlier this isn't your area of expertise :)

Any other questions/comments/concerns?