So I've started a really small and simple programming project for fun just recently. I'm making a little "toy" with various units. Each unit has its unique movement style, and the idea is to see them chase each other. It's the classic "can the slow but maneuverable avoid the quick but slow-turning?" situation, but with some additional variation in movement. This was partly inspired by running away from the faster but dumb Tank in Left 4 Dead. So the question is, could this be turned into a game? If so, how? I'd like to keep this very simple. I could kinda see a game where you can select some stats at the start then try to survive for as long as possible using those stats against various enemies. Some possible stats the player could change: base speed, base turn-rate, base acceleration*, sprinting speed, sprinting length, sprinting cool-down. (Sprinting would be a fast, short, straight-line run that could be used periodically.) Other ideas? Enemies can have varied stats, but can also have varied "intelligences". Eg: leads its target vs. moves straight at it; knowing when to stop and turn versus just always running while turning. Basically, any suggestions that could turn this from a fun little programming project into a playable game would be great! *Acceleration could be related to turning speed, but not necessarily.

I sort of picture the Spanish bull-fights where you have to dodge the bull when he comes at you, at the right moment, except in this case you'd be in an arena full of them.

What if you could gain some sort of bonus or extra points for each chaser that successfully misses you.

This might be fun as a gimmick, but it would get old pretty fast, I would think.

Heh... dodging the Werebulls in Serious Sam 1 was a lot of fun for me ^_^

perhaps you could include some special abilities, like repel enemies or short-range teleportation? these abilities could be loaded by 'rage' bar which fills for every second being chased by opponent (close to enemy)

Your title mentioned chasing, why not build levels and tell the player to chase an enemy and catch it before it gets to where it is going.

Create a story around it; I would go for something like the story in that free runner game, Mirror's edge I believe was the name where you had to get something to a place, over roof tops and around obstacles to achieve your goal. Why not turn it around say change the genre to fantasy and change the character from the runner to the catcher.

You are in your kingdom as a city guard when suddenly you see a black figure dart past you on the right. A few minutes later there are screams of "Thief, Thief!" then you have to spend your level trying to catch the little bugger before he gets out of the city.

I imagine your game is "bird's eye view"? I also imagine that you could probably have a few more skills, for example 'kicking down doors' (In case the thief runs in a house window you can't reach) 'jumping' (Over boxes and creates) 'swimming' (In case he makes for the cities river) and other such things.

As you progress through the levels your area of guarding gets greater, your stats improve, and the thief(s) get harder to catch.

What do you think?

Entertaining would be if the levels were procedurally generated. Use a bunch of different algoritms, and let each have a different "flavor". I think it could work on any scale, from 2d flash game right up to expensive intense development Like mirror's edge. It seems You are looking at the simple kind, but it could be good if done full scale commercial. I personally love the little flash games that are based on a unique idea. I value the challenge of getting used to that weird idea as much as the immersive experience of a full scale game.

Le it be unique and interesting. Do not allow the obvious modifications and upgrades. Let the upgrades be things like smoke bombs, or ability to spot hiding places and terrain features to take advantage of. Think of the knight in chess. It's movement does not follow logically from the coordinate system. But that's what makes it a cool unit. There's a game called meeblings on ninjakiwi that is unique. The idea does not immidiatly follow from the standard games. But it's fun, and it allows for increasing complexity. A chasing gameMight have portals in it. But put an arbitrary limitation on the portals: they change color every time something goes through, whether a box or pc or monster. buying upgrades gets you more colours? You have to pick a color scheme? I dunno.

Pick a random idea that has expandability, and has exploration potential. People will play the game as long as tehy feel like they are still exploring the system. Keep the system changing, gradually, so you keep taht exploration going as long as possible.

Well, my original idea was to explore how different movement styles affected the ability to catch other things. You guys seem to be taking it in a little different direction, which is cool too, of course. I really wanted to see what allows someone to avoid something that is faster than it or what allows you to catch something more maneuverable. My current program just has the 'player' following the mouse cursor and another unit chasing the player. From that, I've been playing with movement styles to see which beats which, but nothing has emerged as game play yet.

I like the idea of chasing someone down. That seems to be more appealing than running away, in general. Doing so in a procedurally-generated level could be quite fun too. You'd have to react quickly to the unknown. Even if the player gets multiple tries through the same procedurally generated area, it'd take skill to learn that level the fastest or with fewest tries.

Yeah, it's birds-eye-view. I think, at least for simplicity's sake, I'd like to not introduce skills such as swimming, knocking down doors, and others that essentially avoid the primary game play.

Keep throwing out ideas, please! They've been quite helpful so far.

Now that I think about it for a bit, it might be rather fun to play an open-world shooter game where you are a fugitive running from the infinite resources of the law. You could be an escaped convict (either rightfully or wrongfully sentenced), or you could have a situation similar to 1984. The player could have fun just surviving, or explore and find some clues/missions that you scatter around the game world to progress the story.

I'm not entirely sure whether your intention is to make a fun game, or a game that explores movement as a kind of intellectual pursuit?

Either way though, here is my idea. What you are talking about I think is well known amongst racing people as oversteer and understeer. I would make a racing game that explores this.

There was a game years ago called Wipeout, where you race these hovering, arrow shaped craft around a race course. My idea would be similar to that, although the camera would be zoomed out further so you can see people coming up behind you earlier. If you want to keep it simple, you could then make a course that generates on the fly, like very old racing games where you watch the horizon and see what comes up next - either a nice straight or a sweeping left turn, or a sharp right turn etc.

You then pick a craft, and you get to spend some points. The only two important ones for the time being, are "power", and "maneuverability", and the rest you can come up with depending on what you want to achieve with the game.

The default craft is like a rocket ship that screams towards the horizon at incredible speed but is barely capable of turning at all. If you put the points in to power, it goes even faster. On straight lines it is screams ahead beautifully. On sweeping corners you have to start turning very early and pray that the corner ends before you "understeer" into the wall at the side. On tight bends, you are screwed. You go slamming in to the wall and have to bump and grind your craft along the wall until you get back on to the straight again where you can open up the power again.

If you however put the points in manoeuvrability, you corner quite sharply, and easily make even the tightest bends in the track. On the straight however, you don't have as much speed as the other craft.

Now for how it plays. The idea is to win the race, but if you can bang in to the other craft, you make their engine cut out and they quickly grind to a halt. It then takes them a few seconds to get started again and they are now going to be chasing after you. Whoever is in the back has a speed boost, so whoever is in the lead is always under pressure by their opponent coming up behind, and whoever is at the back, is always preparing themselves to catch the guy in front and smash them.

The trick to making it fun is balancing the two extremes. A course needs to have a fixed number of straights and bends (although they can come in a different order). The two craft in general, need to be identical over the course of the race. The faster one hits the walls on tight corners which really slows it down, but it makes up for it on the straights. The slower more manoeuvrable craft can complete the entire race without hitting a single wall, but it doesn't have much speed on the straights.

As for the chasing/catching element, both players will experience both chasing and being chased. If you are chasing the fast craft, you have to watch it keep one step ahead of you on the straights, but then as a corner approaches, you have to be ready to bang your manoeuvrable craft in to it when the fast one inevitably struggles to make the corner. Then when you are in the lead, you have to keep an eye out behind you, because the fast craft will come screaming up behind you and smash in to the back of you. It will be so fast that you only have a second to react, but if you do, you should be able to avoid it thanks to your impressive manoeuvrability.
As the fast craft, everything is reversed. You have to suffer the frustration of banging in to all the walls on tight corners, while the other craft steers around them with ease. But once you get on the straight, you scream along and quickly catch up, and then you can try to smash in to the back of them before they get a chance to dodge.

Game could be 1 person vs AI, or 2 player game. Perhaps could even have multiple people playing. You could also add shooting to spice things up. To be honest, as proud as I am of my little idea, this has all been done before, exactly how I described, only better. In games like this:




Hope this was of some use to you though.

Well, there was an idea I liked that appeared a year or so on this forum : someone wanted to do a squirrel-race game, in the idea of the squirrels chasing each other in Disney's "The Sword In The Stone". The idea of a fast-paced 3D game where one controls a squirrel that can run on top or on the side and bottom of branches, do epic jumps, follow parallel paths, and turn almost instantly, was something I would have liked to see happening.