You know... everything seems cliche to a cynic...

the trick is how you use cliches. The refinement that goes into them.

If you don''t flesh them out properly, making generic tolkien/D&Desque elves, but generally just blander, then you won''t be winning any fans over. If you put a significant amount of effort into fleshing themout and giving them polish, adding twists here and there, then regardless of the cliches, you''ll be able to create a good fantasy element.

For example, most elves in contempory fiction is in some form of decay... why don''t you set it so that your elves are on a rise - that they''ve encountered an obstacle along the way that is akin to a trial that one must go through in order to become a better person.

Generally, the best tend to have a good knowledge of human civilization, and draw parallels between the evolution of elven society and human society: understanding the causes and the factors that lead into societies developing certain traits and what not. In that manner, you create a convincing world for not only children, but for the person with a degree in fiction, history, et al.

anyway, to your game design:

"This game can be best desctribes as a 3rd person Action/RPG. The combat will be somewhat like Oni, but more weapon (swords and bows) oriented. I want to have some exaderaded kung-fu style combat."
Be careful how you design this: Very few 3rd/first person games succeed well in their melee combat systems. At best you get something like Rune, somewhat limited but fun, at worse, you find players acquiring the one or two ranged weapons and having to use those consistently in order to win through.

If you do include ranged elements in the gameplay, you''ll want to give the melee movements alot more bonuses and elements to make it intresting - not least of all would be a simple but flowing combat system: pressing one button to produce the same swinging effect is simple, but not flowing; an example of simple flowing combat would be Capcom''s Devil May Cry.
So you''ll want to include things like, more then one attack animation: click three times and the character will pull off some kinda 3 hit combo/chain. Double tap forward in addition to attack, and you get a thrust/charge attack. Include a block button... etc.

"You will cycle through items and weapons in each hand. That way you can equp two swords, or a sword and a flash-bomb or whatever. That is also how items will be used to interact with things."
For the longest time, designers have thought, the more the better. That''s not true... you''ll want to give the player options, but at the same time, make the experience more focused and more intense: limit the number of items and weapons they can carry: you won''t find any man or elf with 17 blades strapped on their back: maybe one main weapon and one side arm (grenades, dagger, et al).

"The city I would like to be completely maped, so you ca ngo anywhere, and play a very open-ended game. There will be objectives so the player will have some idea what to do. Scripted sequences and very short cut-scenes, along with NPC interaction will progress the story, and determind objectives."
Its simple enough to write this paragraph, but be aware of the amount of resources it takes to create an ''open ended'' world. Also be aware of the difficulty in keeping in focused experience for the player if they''re given too much freedom: many will wander around confused as to what to do, if all city gates are open, and the key to advancing the plot is in some obscure house in the south east portion of the city. Make sure you give the player ample warning as to where to go as to move on - a good example of freedom with mission/story structure is GTA3: despite the freedom, you''re constantly aware of what to do if you want to move on.


Zaptruder

quote: Original post by ShadeStorm
Actually, that''s good. Reminds me of a Dean Koontz novel with the electronics-implant superhuman type town residents where some are devolving instead of evolving. I just looked, and I think I loaned the book out. Can''t recall the title otherwise I''d provide it. Maybe someone else knows?

ShadeStorm, the Day_Glo Fish

It''s called "Midnight" and it''s a very good book.

I generally like the sound of your game idea, but to be honest I hate seeing generic fantasy elements such as elves. Perhaps if you moved away from the idea of elves being the noble and good children of magic that the''re usually depicted as it could attract more of the anti-elves posters.

I do like the idea of the parallel world though. Will you be able to go between them? Perhaps in the same way as Soul Reaver''s Real/Specteral worlds, where one is a twisted version of the other (maybe twisted by peoples evil thoughts).

- DarkIce

Consider your basic premise: There is a race of beings, who are being corrupted by a force, and must be saved from utter decay. The hero is a reluctant one (makes for better storytelling; good move on that!) and must combat the minions and "forces of evil" and eventually depose (and destroy? imprison? banish?) the evil force in order to save his people (vested interests).

Flesh out your gameplay and then come back to concretize your characters. I personally dislike common medieval elements like elves because they are so overdone, but many folks like them. Whatever. I''d like a totally unrelated race of energy-based (as opposed to matter- or magic-based) beings in an alternate universe (have groovy stuff like multiple moons, different graviational expectations, inability of "death" - energy can be dispersed but never destroyed - and so on). Watch a couple of good sci fi flicks (none of the primarily commercial mess) for some inspiration.

Wish you the best.

I wanna work for Microsoft!
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Thanks to Kylotan for the idea!

To elaborate on a few things.

To balance combat, the ranged weapons will have a pretty slow fire rate and not do near the damage of melee. I think the problem with Rune was that there was not that much to do. It was just hack with a axe, or hack with a sword. So I do want to have combo attacks. Im also thinking about having a way to apply alchemy to weapons. Such as poisoning swords, or lighting arrows on fire.

The different worlds, or demensions, are parrallel, and overlapping. What I mean is, the people minds overlap into this evil forces world. So if he conquers their minds, he will control them, and have a foothold into other worlds.

Im also trying to figure out how to fight this evil. Its exists in another world, that only he can see. But does that mean he can also manipulate (attack) the other world? Im not sure how to explain that. He cant just run around waving sticks at invisible demons...

Another thing i need imput on, is the race that inhabits the city. I want them to be agile, and noble, and basicaly good, but Im not sure what they will be like. The energy based idea, is interesting, but I need time to think that out and see how it would fit with everything else.

Edited by - phriction on February 17, 2002 12:14:15 AM

Sounds cool. I especially like the idea of making the city''s architecture change in response to the level of "infection." Would the change take place in real time before the hero''s eyes, or would he just notice a change whenever he returned to a region after some time away?