Other I have a huge idea for a game trilogy

Peacemaker .45

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Before I begin, I’m just warning you a wall of text is incoming. But I’d really like to get some feedback with this one. So, should you read it through, leave a response and let’s have a discussion about it.

Now, without further ado, wall of text incoming of a hypothetical game I envisioned incoming!

Let me just start this off by saying this: I’m not a huge gamer these days. I like games, and they’re fun, don’t get me wrong. But as I’ve grown older, and found myself in college with a girlfriend and seemingly no free time to play anymore, I sort of just fell out of gaming in some sense. Well, at least not like I was ten years ago.

But there is one thing that I think gaming does that no other method of storytelling does: tell an effective, long story that you really get to partake in instead of just watch and listen.

We’re on this site because we’re writers. We love telling stories. For some perhaps more than others (myself here, particularly), we come up with stories that drive us insane until we write them. And when we do write them, it feels incredible to see the story fleshed out.

For me, I’ve had a story that I’ve had in my head for probably 7 or 8 years now that has gone through many different iterations that came about really from one scene in my head. This story, while I haven’t figured it all out, I often pondered to myself what would be the most effective way of telling it. And every time I thought about the question, I always immediately came to the conclusion that a video game would be the most effective way. And, I always felt that for me, personally, video games made me feel the most emotion because I was the one driving the story. I wasn’t watching it, I was experiencing it.

As a way of storytelling, video games have a lot to offer. You create everything from the ground up. Restraints might be things such as time, budget, and so on. But, the core foundation of it is that you get to create everything to look, sound and feel the way it is envisioned. Furthermore, with things like TV shows and movies, you’re limited really to time. Video games, however, can have 50, 60 or even more hours worth of content, which can be different from the first time you play it. Being that video games have such flexibility in the creative way of telling the story, I feel that for the story I have had in my head for close to a decade, THIS is the most effective way to tell it.

Now, I’ll give some background on the story, since, if it were ever to become a game, it’d be a strictly single player game and that means the story is important. With this, also let me put in that I drew a lot of inspiration from the original Halo and Mass Effect trilogies, as I think they both do a lot of things well.

So, without really giving much away, it essentially would be another SciFi story, one where there is a dark force/being (like the Reapers and the Flood) that is a problem for the galaxy, but again a threat no one knows about. (I don’t have all the details worked out yet so I’m still kind of trying to figure out what that dark force is and what their reasons are). What I do know is that the dark force would have something to do with the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of our own. Their discovery will be accidental by the races of the Milky Way. This force will be destructive and try to kill whatever life in the galaxy (their reasons I still don’t know yet). You’ll play as a male character, in this.

Now, a common theme I see with most SciFi games would not be in this one. In games like Halo and Mass Effect, humanity lives together, unified without any division that you see today. Not in this game. There would not be humanity united under one species. I’m fact, most of the problems of today could carry over into it, as the setting is about 100-150 years in the future. In it, I would plan to still have issues in the world like terrorism and countries like North Korea, and mutually ensured (nuclear) destruction. In fact, wars on Earth would spring up related to these during the course of the games that would have potentially huge impacts on the Milky Way.

Now, speaking of this galaxy, let me further explain where the story would take place in the galaxy itself. It wouldn’t be a galaxy wide one like Mass Effect, but instead a small third of the galaxy would be populated by serveral intelligent species, and them forming a galactic UN sort of governing body, which is reminiscent of the Council in Mass Effect, only because I feel it’d make sense for there to be a multi-species governing body.

Now I want to say one thing before continuing. I really didn’t know quite how to explain my story, being that I’m still thinking of a lot of it. My problem is more that I have a beginning and an end already determined. But very few things i have thought about for the middle of the journey. So it makes it hard to describe, really. So excuse the piss poor explanation of it. I’m not sure how to describe it. In all honesty, if I were to turn this into a game, a writing team to come up with ideas would be so beneficial. I’m not sure I could think the story up all on my own, which I realize is a flaw of my own. Oh well.

Anyway, let me explain the gameplay. It would primarily be a third person shooter, but you’d have a choice to use either first or third whenever you want, sort of like GTA V but actually not crappy in one person and good in another. I’ll explain why I want it that way in a little bit. Next, the story would be a RPG similar to Mass Effect. Though, this is where I can see some criticism of it if it were ever to be a thing. Why? Well, here’s the controversial part...

Presentation of a game is extremely important to me. This means graphics and animations need to be on point. This means I’m a huge fan of motion capture, especially facial MoCap. And that’s the thing. I want the game to be fully motion captured, including facially.

Now I know what you’re thinking, a 50 hour RPG that is fully facially MoCapped? Impossible. It’s way too much work, too much money, etc.

Yeah, it’s insane. It’s ambitious. It’s unrealistic. But, you know, I find it that if someone thinks it’s crazy and not achievable, you do it and prove people wrong. Look at NASA with the moon landings. People said they were crazy. But they did it. Same with the Space Shuttle. And finally, same with Elon Musk. He’s coming up with ideas that are crazy, things people said couldn’t possibly ever happen, and he’s doing them and proving them wrong. So I take the mindset of if someone says it’s impossible, you do it and you prove them wrong. So that’s my thought with that.

So yes, a fully MoCapped RPG with dialogue decisions and story altering choices. That’s the idea. But, this wouldn’t be the most controversial part, at least to me. The most controversial part would be this; there is a love story that is just as important to the game’s story as the dark force is. You would not be able to choose who your character would get in a relationship with. And furthermore, your character would not be faciallly or physically customizable, mostly for the purpose of the MoCapped stuff.

For fans of games like Mass Effect, I can understand that would be a turn off. But, that’s the story and how it’ll go. So that decision I had to make with it. Either way, it still would have huge decisions that would impact the next story, perhaps even having decisions that lead to different levels in the following game than another decision the player could make. Either way, huge decisions would be present that would impact the game both short and long term.

Next, the characters will need a ship, obviously, to traverse the galaxy. The ship would be similar to the Normandy in Mass Effect as you could walk around it, talk to crew and squad mates, upgrade it, and so on and so forth.

Crafting would be a huge part of the game. And, in particular, weapon and armor customization and crafting would be huge. Now, I’m a gun guy. I own and shoot firearms. It’s my hobby. Being that I know a lot about firearms, I want there to be a crazy amount of customization with them. Not only that, but the ability to build guns from different parts, mixing together different types of firearms to make crazy weapons. Also, I’d include historical firearms into the game, because I feel like in all SciFi games, history and weapons of the past are always left out. I want to bring historical guns (from all species) into the game that your character collects, and give them actual reasons to use them, making definitive pros and cons. Also, there’d Be things such as bullet drop, damage drop off, bullet velocity and so on. The crafting would seem endless and limitless. Because of this limitless sort of customization, I feel like it’d be good to have a first person option so you can see and use some of your weapon’s attachments and such in ways you can’t really in third person. For example, different scopes and red dot sights with different reticles, which are really used more in first person than third person games. Because of this, I think it’d need an option for first and third person.

Finally, I want to speak on the some personal matters on the main character. The character will have a close tie in with his parents and his family, and they’ll be a very present and well known family in the galaxy. Because of this, the relationship with them will be developed and well fleshed out, and as I plan with every character, you’ll care about them. Now with the love interest, that is so crucial to the story, particularly that to your character, that I can’t understate it.

How the two will meet up I haven’t decided yet. But, their relationship will grow and progress through the games, and for once, a well written and thought up love story will be present in a game, one that shows them meeting, flirtation, beginning of the relationship, the issues they have with each other, then getting closer through adversity, and so on. It’ll be well written and acted, MoCapped and voice acted. It’ll be a relationship that feels real, one that the players want to see more of. However, the girl will be broken. She’ll need her own saving. In ways, they’ll save each other. They’ll go through a lot, grow and develop as characters and a couple.

The story is also meant to be a personal one rather than a big one that is just about the universe. It’s a personal one, about your character and the squad around them, and the relationships they have with each other, the adversity they face. But in the end, the story is meant to psychologically break down the main character. He’ll get lost. Things will happen that I won’t say now, mainly because it’s my secret I don’t want to give away at the moment. What the character will go through will be extremely difficult because of a million things I have planned for the middle of the story.

Music is one part of the game that also would be so important to me. It would be fully orchestral, with no electronic music whatsoever. I just couldn’t do it any other way. The music is meant to be beautiful, haunting, expressive, emotive. I hear the music in my head. It definitely will have a focus on full orchestras, with some emphasis on solo cellos and choirs. My musical inspiration really comes from a variety of things, but is rooted in the orchestral pieces of the Halo Trilogy.

I would honestly imagine the development of the first game (which this is again all hypothetical as to if it were to happen) would be a really long one. Like 5-7 years long. And, to cut costs where possible, I’d be doing as much as I could in development to get the game going. But, I already would know a game like this would require a big team and lots, and lots, and lots of money. That’s the unfortunate part I know about this dream.

The very last thing I want to touch on is the current state of the gaming industry. We all know how publishers are forcing games to be rushed, have microtransactions and all of this annoying crap. I would make sure none of that got into this game. I wouldn’t let the big publishers *cough, cough, like EA, cough* come in and make people pay to progress in a game. I’d have none of that. In fact, I’d make DLC free if I could. That also reminds me, DLC would probably include one more “funny” one that would be similar to the Citadel DLC because I loved that idea so much. It was great for Shepard and the other characters. There’d Definitely be one like that per game. But, anyway, back to what I was saying. I wouldn’t let those publishers ruin the game. If I made it, I’d probably have to be my own publisher, but I don’t know anything about that. I just would not let a publisher rush the game or ruin it to get money. The game would need to be as close to perfect as possible.

Granted I didn’t forget anything, this is my idea. I know odds are 99.9% that it’ll never happen. But I needed to write this for others to see, and even have some feedback if possible. It really is a dream of mine to make this. I don’t know how to explain how badly I want to. But yeah, I’d you read through this mountain of text, you’re awesome, and deserve a cookie. Any feedback or ideas, or want to even learn more, feel free to ask. But that concludes this huge post. Thanks, y’all
 
Oh well, I've finally read the entire thing. Now, I'd like to start by saying that I'm not American McGee, John Carmack or Scott Miller of our time. I'm neither a gifted programmer nor an artisan game designer. I've gone through 7 years of naive passion and corporate jargon and learnt how to bankrupt fledgeling companies, drive away influential business partners and mess up your magnum opus in a couple of months. I've dealt with musicians, grumpy industry veterans and overambitious graduates. Although my 5 cents are far from sophisticated and dwindle in comparison to the passages of wisdom a 50-years-old Assembly sage would put out, I reckon my scribbles might help you out and shed some light on a matter or two.

  1. Icarus Syndrome. Coined this one during my stay at now-defunct Red Lagoon Studios. It's when you start big, think everything's going to be just fine, and plunge into darkness a year later. It's not an individual thing -- many smaller businesses and indie teams suffer from this terrible pathogen. Even though you've already acknowledged your chances of success, I have to pour even more salt on your wound. Projects of such proportions *never* end up even remotely close to the original concept. Unless you're an independent enterprise backed by the community, your vision will be thrashed and left on the market to be forgotten. Huge games require huge resources, conjuring the management to take the safest and most profitable route possible more often than not. That's applicable to every game developer, not just a major player like EA or, say, Activision. Back at my place, we would always leave EA as a last resort for that reason. Dealing with them is akin bargaining with the Devil. Yes, the premises are alluring, but the consequences are unpredictable. I've listed a handful of potential routes below, but I still urge you to start small and advance slowly.
    1. Crowdfunding. This one's a two-sided coin when pulling off AAA titles. MoCap and orchestra all share one thing in common -- cosmic horr~ prices. Not to mention that an average Joe on Kickstarter never supports an over-the-top project. You have to *prove* that you're able to deliver on your promises, you have to assemble a convincing team, schedule, donation offers and plans to convince Joe to pledge a dollar or two. Not only that, but your magnum opus has to be relevant and interesting enough to draw everybody's attention. In short, a ton of business and marketing considerations is obligatory for your campaign to be successful.
      1. I'd like to cite my last project: The Puppet of Tersa, (Ch. 1) - A Point & Click Adventure (Canceled)
        1. We had everything baked properly -- from our merch to the carefully laid out course of action -- but we failed to interest enough people to reach the set milestone.
      2. And here goes a successful campaign: Hyper Light Drifter
    2. Big company, many opportunities. Get hired as a game designer and gradually ascend to the leading seats atop the hierarchy. By that time you will have proved your skills and wits for the management to allow you to found and lead a brand new project. Now, this one is the least plausible albeit not impossible scenario. The amount of freedom you obtain depends entirely on the company. For instance, at that point Valve would let you corral people and put together a flick of your own., whereas DICE would rather stick to the formula.
    3. Self-funding. This one is downright silly. It's the "Elon Musk" way. If you and your partners have got enough coins, you have a chance to found a company, grow a talent pool, license all the mandatory technology and delve into big game development right away. However, keep in mind that savings are not enough. You will need a stable source of income to pay your partners, a bunch of confident investors and an extra million for good measure. You have to understand that, unlike you and me, Elon Musk possesses an abundance of personal *and* corporate resources, and had just as much when he founded SpaceX. He too started small; he started from PayPal to be exact.
  2. Building a team. TBA.
  3. Planning ahead. TBA.
Pardon me for posting a half-witted reply. I have yet to cover a plethora of time-consuming subjects, and it's 12 AM over here.
 
Oh well, I've finally read the entire thing. Now, I'd like to start by saying that I'm not American McGee, John Carmack or Scott Miller of our time. I'm neither a gifted programmer nor an artisan game designer. I've gone through 7 years of naive passion and corporate jargon and learnt how to bankrupt fledgeling companies, drive away influential business partners and mess up your magnum opus in a couple of months. I've dealt with musicians, grumpy industry veterans and overambitious graduates. Although my 5 cents are far from sophisticated and dwindle in comparison to the passages of wisdom a 50-years-old Assembly sage would put out, I reckon my scribbles might help you out and shed some light on a matter or two.

  1. Icarus Syndrome. Coined this one during my stay at now-defunct Red Lagoon Studios. It's when you start big, think everything's going to be just fine, and plunge into darkness a year later. It's not an individual thing -- many smaller businesses and indie teams suffer from this terrible pathogen. Even though you've already acknowledged your chances of success, I have to pour even more salt on your wound. Projects of such proportions *never* end up even remotely close to the original concept. Unless you're an independent enterprise backed by the community, your vision will be thrashed and left on the market to be forgotten. Huge games require huge resources, conjuring the management to take the safest and most profitable route possible more often than not. That's applicable to every game developer, not just a major player like EA or, say, Activision. Back at my place, we would always leave EA as a last resort for that reason. Dealing with them is akin bargaining with the Devil. Yes, the premises are alluring, but the consequences are unpredictable. I've listed a handful of potential routes below, but I still urge you to start small and advance slowly.
    1. Crowdfunding. This one's a two-sided coin when pulling off AAA titles. MoCap and orchestra all share one thing in common -- cosmic horr~ prices. Not to mention that an average Joe on Kickstarter never supports an over-the-top project. You have to *prove* that you're able to deliver on your promises, you have to assemble a convincing team, schedule, donation offers and plans to convince Joe to pledge a dollar or two. Not only that, but your magnum opus has to be relevant and interesting enough to draw everybody's attention. In short, a ton of business and marketing considerations is obligatory for your campaign to be successful.
      1. I'd like to cite my last project: The Puppet of Tersa, (Ch. 1) - A Point & Click Adventure (Canceled)
        1. We had everything baked properly -- from our merch to the carefully laid out course of action -- but we failed to interest enough people to reach the set milestone.
      2. And here goes a successful campaign: Hyper Light Drifter
    2. Big company, many opportunities. Get hired as a game designer and gradually ascend to the leading seats atop the hierarchy. By that time you will have proved your skills and wits for the management to allow you to found and lead a brand new project. Now, this one is the least plausible albeit not impossible scenario. The amount of freedom you obtain depends entirely on the company. For instance, at that point Valve would let you corral people and put together a flick of your own., whereas DICE would rather stick to the formula.
    3. Self-funding. This one is downright silly. It's the "Elon Musk" way. If you and your partners have got enough coins, you have a chance to found a company, grow a talent pool, license all the mandatory technology and delve into big game development right away. However, keep in mind that savings are not enough. You will need a stable source of income to pay your partners, a bunch of confident investors and an extra million for good measure. You have to understand that, unlike you and me, Elon Musk possesses an abundance of personal *and* corporate resources, and had just as much when he founded SpaceX. He too started small; he started from PayPal to be exact.
  2. Building a team. TBA.
  3. Planning ahead. TBA.
Pardon me for posting a half-witted reply. I have yet to cover a plethora of time-consuming subjects, and it's 12 AM over here.
I completely see the points you’re making. I know deep down the game would never happen. I’m going to med school after college, so I’m not going anywhere near the gaming industry after college. While doctors make a good amount of money here in the states, it’s nowhere near as much needed to make a game of the size and scale I imagine.

I’d never have the money to do this project, as much as I wish I could. And I sure as hell would not want to have myself under the wing of “the devil,” such as EA and the others.

Bottom line really is that I know it won’t happen. But, I still felt compelled to write it. Perhaps writing it was just to see my own thoughts written down, additionally for others to see. But I unfortunately know, in the end, it’ll never happen, as crushing as it is and how badly I want to do it. I don’t have the money, a team, etc. to do it. I’m not sure I ever could.
 
I completely see the points you’re making. I know deep down the game would never happen. I’m going to med school after college, so I’m not going anywhere near the gaming industry after college. While doctors make a good amount of money here in the states, it’s nowhere near as much needed to make a game of the size and scale I imagine.

I’d never have the money to do this project, as much as I wish I could. And I sure as hell would not want to have myself under the wing of “the devil,” such as EA and the others.

Bottom line really is that I know it won’t happen. But, I still felt compelled to write it. Perhaps writing it was just to see my own thoughts written down, additionally for others to see. But I unfortunately know, in the end, it’ll never happen, as crushing as it is and how badly I want to do it. I don’t have the money, a team, etc. to do it. I’m not sure I ever could.

Still, there's no need to throw your concepts out of the window just yet. While your present vision is unreachable so long as you lack the needed resources, it's still possible for you to rehash a few of your game elements -- ranging from ME-style encounters to the setting -- in a slightly different manner. Games like Hyper Light Drifter, Hollow Knight and Ori are all praised not only for unique visuals but also for superb storytelling. You don't necessarily need a fully-fledged photorealistic environment and solemn tunes from Hans Zimmer to tell a decent story. Cull the overambitious portion of your idea and wrap the rest up into an affordable package, e.g. 3D is out of the question, but 2D or even 2.5D is most definitely a worthy substitute.
 
Still, there's no need to throw your concepts out of the window just yet. While your present vision is unreachable so long as you lack the needed resources, it's still possible for you to rehash a few of your game elements -- ranging from ME-style encounters to the setting -- in a slightly different manner. Games like Hyper Light Drifter, Hollow Knight and Ori are all praised not only for unique visuals but also for superb storytelling. You don't necessarily need a fully-fledged photorealistic environment and solemn tunes from Hans Zimmer to tell a decent story. Cull the overambitious portion of your idea and wrap the rest up into an affordable package, e.g. 3D is out of the question, but 2D or even 2.5D is most definitely a worthy substitute.
See, that’s kind of where my mind just is too stubborn.

I’m the kind of guy who needs to have things perfect if I’m doing them. I just wouldn’t be able to take away those elements. While you’re right that you don’t need that to have a successful game (in any category mentioned), I just couldn’t find myself being able to drop it. I’m too stubborn with that.

While I certainly won’t drop these ideas, I do know it won’t happen. I’ll be in so much debt from college, med school, then buying a house and bills and whatnot in the future that I wouldn’t have the money to do that (or the time when I’m a doctor). But, I certainly would develop the story further. But if honestly want a writing team to get this story fully fleshed out. I feel it’d help. But, these are just dreams of this lad. I wouldn’t say this would ever happen. But hey, thanks for offering insight or ideas. It’s nice to hear them, my d00d. Thanks for that ??
 

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