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thoughts/ideas on FMV game(s)...

Started by loki1985 Oct 19, 2004 at 7:09 AM 7 replies 2.5k views

Original Post

loki1985

Oct 19, 2004 at 7:09 AM

hi folks! i am currently developing a 100% FMV-based game. the engine (script/video) is already 70% complete, but there is no content yet (i know, content is the more important part). it is coded platform independent, using the SDL. now, when starting with ideas about content, it is really hard deciding which features etc should be used and which not... the main idea: the game is inspired by (mostly old) FMV shooters, known e.g. from American Laser Games (Mad Dog McCree 1+2, Crime Patrol. Drug Wars etc...) and especially inspired by "Hardline". first of all, i think the clientele for FMV games in general is really limited. but personally i really love this genre, and hope some others do love it too. i think the bad thing about American Laser Games titles was that there is no protagonist character which you can identify with. hardline did this much better, it had lots of pure non-interactive movie sequences. i want to design my game much more story-oriented, like hardline did it (perhaps even more heavy on the story). basically it should be a shooter, but i really want to avoid to have 100+ enemies during 5 minutes of playing, like seen in Hardline... and there should be a not too small amount of adventure/exploring elements, i just don't know right now how exactly they will look like. another thing: hardline for example had not-so high resolution video, but i think it was good enough. is really high resolution essential today? or is it okay as long as the story/ambience is good? personally i think i really could live with a SVCD-like resolution (a little lower than 640x480)... (at the moment the engine uses MPEG1, but as soon as Ogg Theora gets more stable an better documented, i will switch to that)... so, what do you think of the idea, FMV (shooter) games in general, etc... ideas are really welcome. and is there today a chance of finding a publisher for such games, or are there other ways of selling it? perhaps it will need to settle in the budget titles area from start on... plus: does somebody know if license fees need to be payed when using MPEG1 in a commercial application? tell me your ideas and thoughts! ---loki [Edited by - loki1985 on October 20, 2004 9:13:30 AM]

Beige

Oct 19, 2004 at 2:26 PM

What exactly do you have planned for the gameplay?

loki1985

Oct 19, 2004 at 3:54 PM

as already said, it will be comparable to ALG titles and "Hardline"...
that means you shoot enemies in a video.
such games are often known from arcade halls...
they are basically a rail-shooter (like e.g. house of the dead series, virtua cop series), but using real/pre-rendered videos.
take a look at mobygames, perhaps they got some screenshots of ALG games.

sorry for not describing it better, but my english is somewhat humble :(

---loki

loki1985

Oct 20, 2004 at 9:12 AM

here are some screenshots of the old american laser games titles (most of them were taken from the old DOS versions and are really bad quality):

Crime Patrol
Drug Wars
Mad Dog McCree
Space Pirates

much better game:

Hardline

btw: seems like you people dislike FMV (shooter) games? :(

Beige

Oct 20, 2004 at 11:23 AM

Hmm, you're talking about games like Lethal Enforcers... Area 51, Revolution X?

Or more stuff like Daedalus Project and Dragon Quest?

I'm suddenly reminded of that one holographic SEGA game, it was an all white cabinet. Forget what it's called.

loki1985

Oct 21, 2004 at 3:56 AM

yep, but more "Area 51" than e.g. "Lethal Enforcers" (which is somewhat "static").
don't know which "holographic" game you mean, sorry...

nev

Oct 21, 2004 at 10:01 AM

first, i want to say that i only know this type of game by looking over some kid's shoulder at the arcade. (don't know any of those listed), so this is totally my own prejudiced opinion.

second, i don't like them at all (to the point of hating them) because IMO it's the dumbest kind of entertainment. it's only shooting -> reflexes and some aiming, just like counterstrike without moving.

maybe i only saw the really bad ones, you'll have to know for yourself if this applies to the games you meant.

my big question is: how interactive is it going to be?
since you don't want to render it in real-time i fear it will be very limited.

as for the technical side: is it for playing on the PC Monitor or on a TV screen?
if TV, i'd say svcd is enough, more is just a waste there.
if it's for PC monitors, i'd recommend at least 800x600 or more, depending on resources. downside is that this will eat a lot of cpu time.

Onemind

Oct 21, 2004 at 10:10 AM

Was Tex Murphy: Pandora Directive an FMV game? Locations looked very prerendered, but you could walk around them like it was a 3D Polygon envirnment.

Acapulco

Oct 21, 2004 at 5:12 PM

Quote:
Original post by Beige
Hmm, you're talking about games like Lethal Enforcers... Area 51, Revolution X?

Or more stuff like Daedalus Project and Dragon Quest?

I'm suddenly reminded of that one holographic SEGA game, it was an all white cabinet. Forget what it's called.

The SEGA holographic game was called Time Traveler (sic).

I'll be honest with you - I think gun games are my favorite type of arcade game, but the FMV games generally sucked for me. Their failing was not so much having no protagonist to identify with (Time Crisis? Virtua Cop? GunBlade?) but more the lack of any variation at all. Even in Time Crisis there are subtle differences in how you are rewarded when you shoot enemies at different times and in different locations. In FMV games you just get the footage of a bad guy falling down. God bless you though, for attempting such a niche project.

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