Reminds me of The Borrowers

If what you're against is linearity and story-telling, why not make it an open-ended RPG/adventure a la Morrowind? All the joys of MMOG world design and exploration sans internet connectivity issues and annoying nerfs! :) I really like the idea though, haven't really heard of it before and it's catchy (as evidenced by the responses thus far) so go for it!

This makes me wonder why no one makes a Fragglerock game... did anyone ever make one before? That would be cool...

Vopisk

It sounds awesome!

What about a side-by-side multiplayer game? This sort of comedic situation has potential for party game written all over it. Just picturing a group of overzealous players trying to complete quests while trying to avoid being crunched into the carpet by a dog's paw or baby's bootie sounds like a hoot.

I actually think it has potential as an MMO.

It would certainly be a refreshing break from the norm - and there's good 'believable' cause for spawning items as (full size) humans wander around dropping stuff like sweet wrappers etc. You could end up with different 'tribes' fighting for resources (the kitchen has food, the bedroom gets material for clothes for example)...

There is one major drawback of the concept - in order to convey the sense of scale, the draw distance would effectively have to be very large, meaning that multiple levels of detail would have to be applied to individual (large) objects- such as a sofa - nearby you have a high LOD, but effectively the same object further away must be lower detail.

Then you have to consider what happens if someone gets stepped on.

I'd like to see the idea fleshed out a little more, but it's certainly intriguing. Good luck with it.

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Original post by _winterdyne_ I actually think it has potential as an MMO.

I agree. While any MMO idea has a very step hill to climb in terms of dev.
It reminds me a bit of "The Littles" cartoon.

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Original post by Sneftel Seems fine. But what you're describing is not inherently an MMO design. Why are you assuming that this needs to be MMO?

While "classic" MMO design has been done and doesn't fit all base ideas, that doesn't mean that someone can't make a MMO that doesn't follow the "classic" model.

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Original post by Tocs1001 I wouldnt want to make a single player game. I find AI to be very boring why follow a story when you can create your own with a MMOG? Just depends on the person i prefer a setting where what every u can do is up to the player, thats a MMOG, versus a Game where your guided though a story with various missions.

I think its a good idea overall, but it would be *way* better as an open-ended 3d adventure game than a MMO imo. I mean, sure, you can fight against dumb AI in a single-player game, or you can fight against super-dumb AI in a MMO.

Single-player does not need a rigid story-line development (missions and such). Check out the Gothic series, Elder Scrolls series, Fallouts. After a short intro, you get thrown in the world and you can do pretty much what you want. I love that!

Wow great responces conterary to my last idea about making the game with Dragon Tamers. I seeked an idea that was more original and i think i hit the mark. A Morrowind style would be fun or maybe even a multiplayer where you must complete the objectives without being eaten or squashed like Matrix Cubed said. I was thinking about LOD winterdyne. I saw a DX sample that involved dynamically reducing the polygons of a mesh if i was to make the number of poly gons dynamically based on the distance the object is the problem should be solved... i thought about the LOD of objects before i posted that i try to find the downsides to an idea before i take them too far and hit a wall. I have several options use that dynamic mesh, Have 2 versions of the models high res/low res or Grouping objects by size and not rendering small objects from far away. I should hope the Dynamic reduction of poly gons works because that would use the full power of DX. That is if i get that far right now im writing base classes for things like clients and servers, GUI, Meshes, 2D objects. Im only 15 so i work on it in my spare time. Im set on the MMOG idea i want it to be one because i have always admired them and i have great plans for some heck i might have a working beta (with no server cuz they are too Xpensive for me right now XD) by my seinor year of highschool. But I like everyone's responce to the idea. Its a good goal for the road ahead, I'm not takin detours ;). Besides this is all great practise for me... Makin 3D modles, 2D art, and most of all programming.


As for where i was inspired by the idea. I saw one of the littles books in my basement the otherday, I was looking at my old army men plastic soldier games, Chibi robo for gamecube is comeing out, and just looking at how much a challange my messy room would be for a tiny human being. and Honey i shrunk the kids gave me some ideas too!


P.S. I love how helpful this forum is!!

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Original post by cvg_james Reminds me of The Borrowers

That's exactly what I thought when I read his description.


I've got a few ideas for it of meh own...

The player could (if he chooses) find a place to make his "home" and he would have to guard it from enemies and keep it stocked with supplies (emergency food, spare weapons, etc). Also, he would have to make sure that no human sees him (just like in The Borrowers), lest they try to catch/squash him. This mean that means he's got to watch/listen for signs of an approaching human and move stealthily across wide open floor spaces. With this in mind, it would be possible to defeat an enemy by leading him into the sight of a human so that he gets caught.

I would recommend watching The Borrowers for some extra inspiration (that is, if you haven't already seen it).

One idea, what if in addition to playing a "little folk", you could try playing as a regular sized human being?

If tiny people had access to special items or abilities (ie. magic they could use to become invisible, change shape, find gold etc.) it could become an intesting battle between human and Borrower.


Idea:

As a "Borrower" your mission is to search for useful items within a humans house like food, items, and if your lucky gold and jewels. If you have gold or jewels you then cast magic (suppose gold is a sort of magical power source and the more you hoard the more power you have access to).

If playing as a human, you try to catch the borrower using traps or someting. Either in order to get the gold, get your stuff back, or get rich from getting proof of the existince of Borrowers.

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Original post by Tocs1001 ...I was thinking about LOD winterdyne. I saw a DX sample that involved dynamically reducing the polygons of a mesh if i was to make the number of poly gons dynamically based on the distance the object is the problem should be solved... .... Im only 15 so i work on it in my spare time. Im set on the MMOG idea i want it to be one because i have always admired them ...

Ok. Stop. Just stop.

Firstly, your concept is fine. Better than fine. But you're not going to make an MMO by the time you leave high school. You now need to spend a long time learning what you'll need to know to simply organise the work on one. Don't be a Timmy and think that you can learn everything in a week, or a month, or a year. You can't. You'll work on many other projects before you can attempt this one. A cookie-cutter solution like 3D game studio et al probably won't provide the required features for a game of this concept (the LOD problem) to work well in quite some time.

Note that I mentioned multiple levels of detail being used *in a single mesh*. This is not trivial. Look at geomipmapping and similar algorithms if you want a taste of what I mean.

I have to say, I was expecting (given the nice concept and the obvious LOD problem) someone with a little bit more knowledge to back up their plans. You've got to go learn stuff now.