I want to play a game

I’ve wanted to develop a game of my own for a while now.  Sure I’ve programmed small games here and there but I want to make something more… substantial.  Something that will take me a year or more to build.  Something that I can bring in experts that also want to help develop a game from other areas to help me build such as writers, graphic designers, and even musicians.  For far too long have I played games made by others and thought what I would have done if I had made that game.  I want a game to be my own creation.

For all I know this could just be a pipe dream of mine and it probably is.  Game design to the extent that I want to push it for a soloish developer is largely a pipe dream.  But I have dreams which will turn into regrets if I don’t at least give it a try.  So here’s what I want to build without giving away too many potentially unique design ideas:

An open-world fantasy multiplayer (possibly mini MMO) roleplaying game with statically built quest areas such as dungeons, caves, mines, castles, villages, mountain tops, etc with statically written quests that are procedurally and randomly applied to those quest areas.  Players can then accept a quest from a quest giver which locks other players out of that quest area.  The idea here is that there would be essentially a bank of 30 or 50 or even more quest areas and 30 or 50 or even more quests that can be applied to most of those quest areas.  If it’s 50 x 50… that’s 2500 different quest area/quest combinations!  Plenty of replayability.

Journey + Quest = Adventure

I also want to make it a survival game… so that the journey to and from the quest area could be perilous.  Players would have to eat and drink to stay fed and hydrated and avoid cold or overheating.  Wild animals and creatures and other threats might pop up along the way, scaled to the player’s level and capabilities to add a challenge along the way.  I really want to make this a game about adventure.

Plenty more good stuff but I really am getting ahead of myself.  It is time to hit the books while I am motivated to continue feeding this motivation.  I need to study up on game design and the project management skills and knowledge associated with such a project.

I also need to pick an engine.  I want the game to be 3D from the first or probably third person perspective.  Either turn-based or time-based combat.  I did think of a pretty nifty idea that draws inspiration from the targetting and combat system from Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time – Z-targetting…  Players had to hold the Z button on the N64 controller to target a monster.  Doing so would lock the camera at the monster from behind Link and change up some of the attack moves.  You could fight without Z-Targetting and it was easier to do so in some scenarios so players had to pick and choose.  I’d like to expand upon that a bit more.  I feel like the hit detection over the network should be simple enough for a combat system like that.

Hopefully there will be more and this dream won’t become a regret.  Your comments and interest will help me.

Tags: Game Development