ID:111740
 
I currently have three game design documents sitting in front of me. They all have a variety of ideas that are quite feasible to be fleshed out into a real game, but the question remains - what game engine should I use, and truly how should I carry this out?

Game 1

In the attempt to bring an RTS-styled game to BYOND, this would attempt to make a cross-roads between StarCraft and DotA-styled RTS platforms. While DotA spawned from the Warcraft series, it wouldn't be necessarily the same - the idea here is there would still be building construction, and one would control a few more than just 1 character (~5 to be a better estimate).

Not entirely sure if this would honestly work out or not - it would require heavy research into isometric pixel movement (Forum_account's library), but also a lot of balancing issues that I'm not sure could be fleshed out within a year (or probably two years, due to my workload).

This could actually be created in a more simple-fashion, with a Legend of Zelda-styled combat similar to the combat system I designed for the RPG I was working on (currently on hiatus for other reasons).

This probably would be better suited in 2-D I imagine. It would also be multi-player, so I don't think HTML5 is currently a probable solution (though I do want to get into HTML5 development).

Ideas?

Game 2

Game 2 revolves around a different kind of orientation. Essentially it derives from one game idea I found to be essentially beautiful, but not for me, and my favorite BYOND game, Casual Quest. DivineTraveller, when this key was provided with its membership, proposed a game idea that was round-based, with the notion that a team tries to face-down with 1 "villain" guarding a treasure, who essentially has the (balanced) ability to do whatever they want to stop the team from reaching the treasure. If the team gets the treasure in some amount of time, they win - if they don't, the villain wins.

This game idea is essentially that - I loved the idea and thought it would be incredibly fun. I also then imagined running around with nothing to do but form strategy is boring (though I may have misinterpreted this part incorrectly) - why not throw in some form of combat? In a Casual Quest-styled manner, players could then roam through these dungeons, both using strategy and their impressive combat skills to fend off foes, where if a teammate is lost, they are done for the round.

This game idea could be 2-D or 3-D. It must be multiplayer, so my inclination is towards BYOND or the Unity engine. I feel due to the nature of the game, this would be better suited for BYOND, but I would like your opinion on this, as well as ideas/criticisms.

Game 3

In the hopes I would eventually get into HTML5 game development, I have actually been considering a turn-based model. It would be filled with a variety of puzzles to keep the user entertained, but the idea of the game is much less the story and much more game-play. While when I create an RPG I want a solid story (and there will be one), I noticed that a lot of people in my workplace play these random, idiotic games to simply pass the time - but they also are quick to change their browser when their boss comes over.

If the game were focused primarily on story, much less people would be attracted to it - it would appear boring, especially because the nature of the browser (at least for the people I know) is to not focus on a single tab, but to maintain at least 6-9 tabs open at a time. Therefore, my notion was create a turn-based (for those situations so you don't NEED to provide hours of y our time to the screen without fear of dying/losing), puzzle game.

However, then I considered the motivation behind this and whether it was truly the best way to handle this. I was considering from the standpoint of an office worker (I actually do work, don't worry - these other people don't), but really my target audience is not office workers. A NEStalgia-type game might appeal to office workers - it's what they (roughly up until my age) grew up with, and that's fine. But if I want to keep an attraction to my game, I know it must be with younger folk - and therefore I also considered the alternative, of porting my combat system from BYOND into an HTML5 engine with more fluidity, and create a puzzle-based LoZ-styled game, and see where that takes me.

As you can see, I love Legend of Zelda - I think it was a landmark game that should never go unnoticed, and anyone who considers themselves a gamer should play.

Anyways, this is Game 3 because it's documentation is nowhere near complete. I'd like more ideas and criticisms really just to build this game up - see if it really could go anywhere, or if it would be just another game that doesn't really have any effect on anyone.

Well, there are a few more...

But these were my 2.5 favorites, the others are either boring or incomplete. I have another one I'm writing up that I really like, but that's for a separate time (because it's significantly time intensive). I'd love any constructive ideas and criticisms one might have, and especially if you have any other engines you think would suit these games better. I think they'd be fine in BYOND - but that second one could possibly work in Unity, so I'm not currently sure where to go with this.
CauTiON wrote:
A NEStalgia-type game might appeal to office workers - it's what they (roughly up until my age) grew up with, and that's fine. But if I want to keep an attraction to my game, I know it must be with younger folk

* The average game player is 34 years old and has been playing games for 12 years.

* The average age of the most frequent game purchaser is 40 years old.

http://www.theesa.com/facts/index.asp
Interesting. Good call, I appreciate it Silk. That will definitely take part as far as what I decide to do with that project then.
I like all three of these ideas quite a bit, and I'd really enjoy seeing any of them finished. Other than BYOND, the Unity3D engine would be my main choice for a lot of stuff, especially if I could do graphics a lot better. Perhaps Games 1 or 2 though?
I definitely vote for #2, but I still don't know whether or not it'd be more suited for 2d or 3d. :D
I'm leaning most towards 2 as well. I don't have much time so progress would be slow, but that seems best-suited.

I'm thinking if progress does begin, then what'll happen is I'll initially create it in BYOND. A 2-D version to see how well it really does flow - on paper, I think the idea is great, but paper doesn't mean anything if not delivered properly.

If it turns out to be semi-successful, at the least, then I'll consider turning the direction of 3-d - even if it fails 3-d wise, the learning experience involved would be huge, as that would entail quite a lot of functions that are fairly standard in almost every game.