I'm in high school right now, and in my english class we are reading the Great Gatsby, and I'm learning about the 20's in history. Speakeasies, bootleging, massacres, corrupt government- the 20's seems like a good era to base a video game around, and there aren't alot (if any) games based on the 1920's underworld-anywhere, suprisingly. I want to make one, and had a few ideas: an FPS, basically running around with a shotgun and tommy-gun killing gangsters and law enforcement pros: fun, quick to get into, potential for online multiplayer, I've made an FPS before and still have the source code that I can use for an engine, simple design elements cons: incredibly unrealistic: although there were shooting and assassinations, it wasn't on a scale like a war, with many enemies, so full fledged fire-fights wouldn't be historically accurate a Tycoon-style game where you build up your empire by hiring people, buying alcohol, opening speakeasies, etc pros: more realistic than FPS, very strategic cons: not as quick to get into, design elements need to keep the player interested for long-term play, expansive hard to work with design elements a Sims style game, you can interact with gangster/flappers, work at a speakeasy, etc pros: addictive, fun, original, immerses you into the culture, non-linear cons: hard to make, advanced ai for NPC's, many items and 3D models, etc a sandbox world, similar to GTA pros: expansive, tried-and-true sandbox play, combines shooting and life simulation, non-linear cons: still too many firefights for realism, many 3D models, the large, expansive world will be a challenge I have a strange feeling there is a reason a game based on this era hasn't been done before-it seems like there will be many challenges. But, it also seems like it would have potential. If anybody has any advice, or other ideas not listed above, i would be willing to take what I can get.

How about an X-Com strategy / adventure approach where you can play either rival Mobsters or the Feds? The core would be squad based 3rd person combat mixed with environmental exploration and NPC interaction. You'd get named characters with skills and the ability to tactically position them or affect the level (open doors, talk to people, etc.) Maybe you'd unlock historically accurate personalities like Eliot Ness or Al Capone. The city would represent a metagame strategic map with different gameplay based on what buildings you enter (entering a bar if you're mob lets you run a protection racket while as the Feds you can try to get information).

You could really adopt an old school approach with this using 2D art (think collectible card games) and a SimCity-esque city view. Maps could be tile based and designed to mix and match as with old school RPGs.

Gangsters is an old game that was set in this era. It fell in the Tycoon category. You had to manage your illegal empire and try to control the town. They also made a Gangsters 2, but that was more of an RTS and completely failed.

Check out these movies. There are plenty of stories to tell about the 1920's.

The Roaring Twenties (1939)
Scarface (1932)
The Public Enemy (1931)
Three on a Match (1932)
Miller's Crossing (1990)
Little Caesar (1931)

Does nobody remember Mafia or The Godfather? They weren't set in the 20s, but the general scenario is what you have in mind. Obviously the adventure genre is well-suited for this sort of deal, it's personal and manageable but still gives a big enough world for the sense of corruption you have in mind.

A 1920s Gangster FPS wouldn't have to be about all-out war. For example, you could have the player in a "squad" as he or she would be in a military shooter, but make the objective something non-violent and more realistic. For example, you could have a smuggling mission requiring stealth. Or you could have a mission where you have to assassinate only one key target. Combine these two mechanics and you have more realistic gameplay along the lines of knocking a civilian unconscious, taking his clothes and and ID, using his identity to infiltrate a rival speakeasy, and getting close enough to assassinate a key member of the rival gang, with failure to do so stealthily resulting in a car chase sequence.

Take a few pointers from the Deus Ex and Hitman series: both involve the player engaged in underworld activities kept hidden from the public and law. Such characteristics definitely belong in a video game about the Prohibition Era. Deus Ex style branching storylines and objectives are especially conducive in reflecting the nature of such an "Invisible War", and Hitman's overall gameplay mechanics reflect the realistic setting of the game.

Good luck on your project. If you need a coder, I'm interested (specialty is character AI).

I actually ahve an idea for a collectable card game based around the 1902's gangsters. One of the mechanics was that if you used a minion (mobster) too much it would attract police attention and cause them to be eliminated (put into the Slammer). There were actions you could take to reduce the police interest (basically not use them for a few turns). which made managing your minions an integral element of the gameplay.

If you do an RTS style game, then you could use this idea: When you use your units in battles or to do illegal activities, this causes the Law to gain more interest in those units. If you use them too much, then the police will enter the field and try to hunt down those units. You, of course could fight off the police, but this would be a highly illegal activity and would thus greatly raise the police interest in those that fought them. This could attract more police into the battle and you might quickly be overwhelmed by them (and your enemies could take advantage of this and attack you while you are fighting off the police).

This makes outright combat between units rare, and often the units involved will have to not be used for a while (lie low).

The maps will be city streets, rather than open field like a normal RTS, with tall buildings and narrow alleys that your units can move down. It would also be a lot slower paced than your typical click fest RTS game. More of a strategic than a tactical game.

Resources could be taken from businesses around the place by protection rackets (and you would have to avoid combat near these or you would not have fulfilled you protection - but they still would have given you some money upfront). Businesses can be forced out if too much illegal activities occur near them, and districts of the city could become abandoned where battles take place regularly (so an area might become contested because it has valuable businesses there, but because of this, battles are waged there and this forces out the businesses and reduces the value of that area).

Businesses would exist and attempt to make money. the public walks the streets and gets a small amount of money which they spend at nearby businesses which can then be taken by the player. The businesses then have to pay rent to the shop they are in (and protection money to the players) and the rent is based on the number of businesses nearby (so the more businesses the more rent they have to pay).

If not enough public enters the business, then they won't have enough money to pay the rent (and protection) and so will have to shut down.

The more public in a location, the more likely a new business will appear. However, fighting near public will make them move away and relocate to a nearby street (and as they only spend their money in nearby businesses, this will mean that less public will enter businesses from on the street where the battle took place.

The player can choose not to take protection money form businesses, and this will encourage more businesses to form there, and as public travel to the business location, this could attract more public to that location (and so the value goes up).

The player can also run their own business (legal or illegal) and the money the public spend there goes straight to the player. It is more profitable, but you are more tied to the location, so if the value goes down, then your business will suffer - and you will have to pay rent there too, so you might actually start to loose money and have to shut the business down. So you would want to do this deep within your own territories.

Businesses can also do other things for the player, like storing resources (weapons, ammo, etc) and allowing your units to Lie low for a while to get the police off of them.

If your units get captured by the police, this puts police interest on the player and if too many units get captured, then the police might come for the player (try to get into the player's base of operations building). If they do this, the player will be hit hard in the resources (but not directly eliminated from the game) and have all their businesses and protection rackets removed (so they essentially have to start again, except for their units). SO it is in the player's interest to not have the police capture their units, but if they try to resist, this will just bring more police and make more of their units wanted by the police (but they can move them into safe houses/businesses that the player owns to wait out the police interest - but that means the unit(s) is out of action for a while).

The idea is for the player to juggle attacking the other players, protecting their own territories and making sure that the police don't take an interest in their activities (it is this part that makes the game different from most RTS games).

This is just a stream of thought post, so it is a bit rambling, but the purpose is to help you spark off ideas. I hope it helped.

thanks for the ideas, and JDSO: thanks for volunteering, however since i'm pretty new to programming, and have interest in RAD development, i use GM, not c++. also, i would like to write all the code myself-i got into programming to develop more problem solving and mathmatical skills (both of which i'm good at) and would feel better about it if i knew i could make enemy ai myself.

Those are very good ideas Edtharan. I have written a basic gangster tycoon design spec myself, and use very similar concepts. Most of my ideas I took from Gangsters 2. bluesy_92 if you would like a partner for a tycoon type of game PM me. I am C++ coder.