Hello,

Since I started being interested in game development I had some ideas and I tried to make it into a game but it was either way too big for myself or just bad. So I figured my problem is probably that I suck at game design because I do have the drive to do a full project.

Since a few days I am thinking about an idea but I think it's a thing too big for me again so I'd like to make it pass through some game designer to have some informations/advices on what I should do.

So here it is :

The game main style would be strategy and would be set in a fantasy world. With a camera set like Stracraft or any games like that (3/4 view).

I want to explore more of the procedural part of programming games so I plan to make a procedural map with a grid on it, it would have some continents and some seas + some specific Tiles for ressources.

So the map would be something where you make a base (like old school Age Of Empire for exemple) and you have some basic gestion stuff like gold/wood/food.

I still hesitate on making it multiplayer (for 2 players max) or making it turn by turn (which is easier but might be boring). At this time I have no clue on how to make an AI for this kind of games but I could look it up.

The twist would be that you would have a hero (like heroes of might and magic) and you could explore donjons with him and I wanted to make this part kind of hack and slash style (donjons would also be done in a procedural way).

The risk would be to kill your hero so you'd have to get a new one or to not have him during an attack.

The reward would be loots and special items.

And obviously the goal is to destroy the other guy base.

That's the basic already dubbed down idea.

The main idea was to make this but as a MMO where your base takes a long time to create/upgrade (kinda like clash of clans) and you can get allies to make bigger Diablolike donjons with all your combined heroes. (It would kinda be like raiding in WoW but with the hack and slash type of mechanics).

And then you lunch big attacks on guys that are against you, you would deploy the troops like Total War and then control your hero on the battle.

But this one is obviously not something I can do, even with a team it would be pretty hard.

So that's pretty much it, thank you in advance.

gestion

Looks like a french word... did you mean management?

donjons

Evidently the french for dungeon ;)

Overall your idea sounds too big. It starts as some form of an RTS (with actual resources, etc.) but has a hero (which hints at a warcraft III type RTS) but that hero can enter dungeons (red light adventuring game?) etc.

Pick one idea, start from there. Or if you are bound to make all of this, choose where the focus will be, and abstract the rest if you want to make it a sustainable idea.

Once you have a formal design on the table, then you can think about assembling a team... or maybe you need a team to help establish the focus?

What Ogrymus said:

Find the core mechanics, reduce them further, refine, built a prototype one feature at a time, see if its fun. There is a good chance a feature sounds like fun, but isn't in reality. So don't waste too much time coming up with millions of features.

Don't go too far into nice-to-have territory that is not essential to your game design or you will never finish anything.

Sometimes the features you omit are just as important as the ones you include, the absence of a certain feature might be what makes your game fun.

Last bit of advice: while procedural dungeons/levels have been done befor, and can work pretty much, they increase complexity of development cosiderably. Not only because of the technological challenge of developing the system itself, but also because of the game design ramifications. You carefully will have to tweak the systems parameter and parts that can be used so the generated dungeons and level are fun, work with the general game design and actually still mix things up enough to add any value over static maps / dungeons.

Overall it sounds like a WoW RTS. Which sounds fun but oh so difficult.

I agree with the above comments and they offer good advice.

You are encountering an issue I am quite familiar with, wanting the fruit without planting the seeds.

No goal is beyond reach, but you need to put in real work to get anywhere worth getting to.

You need to have the proper programming ability, content(graphics and sound) creation ability, game design skill to create an idea worth making, and game development knowledge to know how to piece it all together.

Set smaller goals that still capture what motivates you.

There is a lot I'd like to say but since you are asking about game design I'll provide an example of how I would approch designing this game.

A design document is a reliable way to design your game, you fill it with pictures and ideas, and organize it for readability and sex appeal.

The following is a vastly simplified but ironically fleshed out design.

You would add more to the design as you imagined new things, keeping it organized and consistent.

You could add more weapons. You could describe what combat stats the champion has. Add a new resource (gold?). etc,etc.

This is a foundation and when designing its important you record your ideas, flesh them out, and keep them organized.

Civilization Uprising (Working Title)

1. Summary

2. Technical Summary

3. Gameplay Summary

4. Reference Material

1. Summary

A real time strategy game where players control a village of settlers as well as their champion. Players must support their village as it grows while their champion defends the lands.

(This briefly describes the game while setting context for the gameplay, settlers need food, water, lumber to grow their new settlement. A champion represents his people, fighting on their behalf, and defending them gives an excuse for him to go raiding and you only have to worry about 1 character having all these special traits)

2. Technical Summary

The game is in 3D, it has an isometric perspective, uses simple lighting, and the player uses a mouse and keyboard to control multiple units. The settlers, champion, wildlife, and enemies have AI. The collision and physics will be simplified.

3. Gameplay Summary

The Environment: The environment consists of watering holes, trees, and caves.

Watering holes provide 2 water and do not dissapear.

Trees provide 2 lumber, spawn wildlife, and dissapear when harvested.

Caves spawn enemies.

Wildlife: Neutral wildlife like bunnies and dear roam the environment.

Bunnies have simple ai and provide 1 meat.

Dear have simple ai but are faster and provide 2 meat.

Enemies: Aggressive enemies inhabit the caves.

Wolves and trolls are the main threat.

Wolves leave the cave, hunt wildlife, drop 1 meat, and provide 10 xp.

Trolls do not leave the cave, kill settlers who enter, drop 1 iron, and provide 38 xp.

Settlers: Settlers can be given many tasks, once given a task they use pathfinding AI to find their way to their target.

Settlers can collect lumber from trees, removing the tree.

They can collect water from watering holes.

They can hunt wildlife.

They can build new buildings.

They can also attack enemies.

They have many stats including, health, attack, defense, move speed, attack speed, etc.

The Champion: Champions have the same intelligence as settlers however they have special traits and will not do some tasks.

They can hunt wildlife.

They can attack enemies.

They can wear armor.

And they can wield weapons.

They have additional stats such as mana, health regen, and critical chance.

Population: The population cannot excede 5*Number of Houses.

When the number of settlers is less than the maximum new settlers will spawn each minute.

This occurs when a new house is built or when settlers die to enemies.

Buildings: There are 3 major buildings; Houses, warehouses, and the foundry.

Players begin the game with 1 warehouse.

Houses are 2x2 tiles large, they cost 6 lumber, take 20 seconds to build, increase population by 5, and can store settlers.

Warehouse are 2x4 tiles large, they cost 12 lumber, they take 30 seconds to build, and they store meat, water, lumber, and iron.

The foundry is 3x3 tiles large, they cost 10 lumber and 4 meat(why? because.), they take 1 minute to build, and they provide a champion weapons, ammunition, and armor.

Crafting: When iron is obtained it can be used at the foundry to craft goods for the champion.

Great Sword costs 4 iron and provides +3 attack.

Iron Helm costs 4 iron and provides +3 defense.

Bow costs 2 iron and provides +1 attack and +5 range.

Arrows cost 1 iron for 10 arrows.

Staff of Lighting costs 2 iron and 10 water(why? because!) and provides +10 attack, +3 range, and -3 speed

4. Reference Material

Age of Empires 2: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b6/Age_ii_feudal_age_celts.jpg

This depicts the level of graphical fidelity we hope to reach and can inspire many of the village mechanics, combat, and ai.