I have this FPS/Sci-Fi/Action/Puzzle game idea which keeps coming back to haunt me every once in a while. (I even posted it in the "Help Wanted" forum a while back... that was embarrassing)

This idea is currently a whole lot of fleeting inspiration and "idea snippets". I'm failing miserably at fleshing it into a full-fledged idea of a fun game to play. I therefore solicit your very creative input :)

So - how can I explain this...

Is it only me, or are many of you FPS gamers sick 'n tired of rehashed shooter campaigns, and you're dying for something fresh? Fresh like, think for example - Portal! Wasn't that fresh? "Didn't we have some fun though?" ;)

Is it only me, or are any of you gamers also (not such big fans of repetitive shooting, but rather you're) quite fascinated by scenery / storyline / detail / environment / atmosphere / plot, up to a point where sometimes shooting enemies is almost a chore to get out of the way just so that you can go further and discover more awesome environment & story?

Is it only me, or did it ever happen to you in some sci-fi FPS while wandering around hi-tech environments lined with machinery / computers / robots etc (Like in Doom 3 or such) that you wished you could actually operate these devices and do all sorts of cool stuff? Didn't you ever wish they were interactive and in fact very much a part of gameplay, and not just for decoration (or for the boring occasional push of a button / rotating a knob / entering a code here 'n there)?

EDIT:

Quote:

No I'm NOT talking about making EVERYTHING interactive a la marry-the-hulk. What I AM saying is to make the machinery/technology in the game at least %40 interactive instead of %3 interactive. And at least %60 contributing to gameplay instead of %0.01 contributing to gameplay.

I mean - we all love technology don't we? Gizmos and gadgets and all sorts of futuristic devices & machines & computers that do all sorts of cool stuff... imagine a game which revolved mainly around that, all the tech you could wish to play with - implemented in a game where it's actually 'useful' i.e. it's the actual gameplay that advances the campaign.
Let the enemy not be hordes of monsters and let the challenge not be to gun them down. In Portal for example, your enemies are the surrounding walls. Let the enemy be some big complex puzzle or a computer system or lots of machinery and technology that needs to be operated in all sorts of fun & challenging ways.

That's the basis inspiration for this idea of a game I fantasize. With these ideas alone - the sky is the limit.

Beyond this initial inspiration - here are a few little specific "idealets";

• Environment & Interactive Technology: Computers, control panels, servers, GUI pads, switchboards, levers & buttons, dials & knobs, flashing & blipping lights, Robots & robotic arms and other pneumatics etc, conveyor belts, moving platforms, devices that can be plugged into & unplugged from other devices and machinery, hovering bots, hardware traveling on monorail, mobile sections of the environment, transportation pods,


• Zero-G: So there's machinery all over the place, right? Then why should gravity be a gameplay element? Maybe we're in a spaceship! This way you can navigate in a very unique and convenient way around all of the technology in the environment.


• Cyberpunk: Enter commands into consoles, program computers and devices to do different stuff.
  Learning curve you ask? Hm...how about natural language? Or maybe just lots of tutorial help throughout the game? Or maybe you lookup how to do stuff in some very intuitive in-game reference?...


• Puzzles: Rearrange hardware so that the flow of data goes as desired. Move around sections of machinery to exit to the next room. Find the buggy block of data.


• Tron 2.0: Sometimes you are the player (person? Robot?) going around the machinery doing stuff, and sometimes "Enter the computer" (you're a program or a piece of data) and you play around with bits & bytes, traveling across data streams, searching for a bug, all along seeing all the fascinating stuff happening inside the computer

oh, and talking about Tron 2.0,


• Hi-tech graphic style: In the spirit of a hi tech futuristic scientific environment, the ambient must be all lit up and all the technology blipping looking very....hi-tech.


• Other stuff I probably forgot and will edit in as I remember them.

Some inspirational screenshots;

From Tron 2.0, Graphic feel / tone / setting / mood







From Doom 3, High tech computers / devices / consoles etc that aren't there just to look cool







"So what do you want from my life?"

1. First and foremost - if you've been having similar wishes/fantasies, why not join in the brainstorm! Reply here with your thoughts and ideas, and let's see if we can tame this beast.


2. Survey: Please answer the 3 bulleted questions posted above, those starting in "Is it only me, or..."
   I actually am very curious to know if those wishes/fantasies make sense / bother / occur to gamers at large and if you guys identify with those ideas/thoughts, or is it in fact - just me.


3. Is it fun? I'm struggling a lot with this question... Let me know of your thoughts if you imagine such a game would indeed be fun and interesting and not get too boring or whatever.


4. Help Wanted:
   - Writer: Can you think of some storyline that can pull all these ideas into some fun game?
   - Concept artist: Can you come up with tons of awesome sci-fi machinery & technology art?
   (Yes I know this technically belongs in the Help Wanted forum, but this post is mostly about design)


5. Finally; Any ideas, comments, or other forms of feedback to enlighten me on the subject would be greatly appreciated! (unless you try to totally disillusion me) ;)


6. For the trolls: here is some caek
   
   

[Edited by - kingIZZZY on September 19, 2010 2:50:27 AM]

# Is it only me, or are many of you FPS gamers sick 'n tired of rehashed shooter campaigns, and you're dying for something fresh? Fresh like, think for example - Portal! Wasn't that fresh? "Didn't we have some fun though?" ;)
I am indeed dying for something fresh. I've been going through FPS's (and games in general) like nothing. Everything just seems like the same old stuff (which wasn't very fun to begin with), but with slightly different skin. Games always seem like a small slice of what they could, or even should, be.

# Is it only me, or are any of you gamers also (not such big fans of repetitive shooting, but rather you're) quite fascinated by scenery / storyline / detail / environment / atmosphere / plot, up to a point where sometimes shooting enemies is almost a chore to get out of the way just so that you can go further and discover more awesome environment & story?
I enjoy a game that blends everything together well. An interesting story (which I can take part in, change, help evolve, and not just follow a set path). As well as having a beautiful world that I can interact with. And allow me to kill, or do other things (like fish, make money by buying and reselling), have an interesting conversation with some random NPC, pretty much do whatever I want, to advance the story.

# Is it only me, or did it ever happen to you in some sci-fi FPS while wandering around hi-tech environments lined with machinery / computers / robots etc (Like in Doom 3 or such) that you wished you could actually operate these devices and do all sorts of cool stuff? Didn't you ever wish they were interactive and in fact very much a part of gameplay, and not just for decoration (or for the boring occasional push of a button / rotating a knob / entering a code here 'n there)?
Happens to me all the time. I'm tired of games looking amazing, but more than half of the stuff in them is just there for show, and you can't do anything with. Why have chairs or benches I can't sit in? Or food sitting around that I can't eat? Why have a computer screen or TV repeat the same exact thing over and over, without allowing me to change the channel or volume or something? I've seen games do this partially, but never to the extent that I would like them to.

Quote:

Original post by kingIZZZY Is it only me, or are many of you FPS gamers sick 'n tired of rehashed shooter campaigns, and you're dying for something fresh? Fresh like, think for example - Portal! Wasn't that fresh? "Didn't we have some fun though?" ;)

I am not an hardcore FPS player so I feel the problem on a much less pronounced scale. Also, I played the game about the princess who couldn't jump. Portal still has alot of improvements on the gameplay but the idea was good since the start, and somehow ruined my experience. That is terrible.

Quote:

Original post by kingIZZZY Is it only me, or are any of you gamers also (not such big fans of repetitive shooting, but rather you're) quite fascinated by scenery / storyline / detail / environment / atmosphere / plot, up to a point where sometimes shooting enemies is almost a chore to get out of the way just so that you can go further and discover more awesome environment & story?

Yes, it sometimes happened.

Quote:

Original post by kingIZZZY Is it only me, or did it ever happen to you in some sci-fi FPS while wandering around hi-tech environments lined with machinery / computers / robots etc (Like in Doom 3 or such) that you wished you could actually operate these devices and do all sorts of cool stuff? Didn't you ever wish they were interactive and in fact very much a part of gameplay, and not just for decoration (or for the boring occasional push of a button / rotating a knob / entering a code here 'n there)?

Yes. While I can appreciate the notion of giving a goal to every object in the world, I think interactivity needs to at least experiment this.


With regard to operate complex computer systems to solve challanging problems, I think you could have a look at a flash game called Manufactoria. Codex of alchemical engineering might also be of inspiration (I haven't looked at it in detail yet). Yet another flash game: Bureau of steam engineering.
All those games makes you implement simple programs in a way or the other.
Mention: the old The Incredible Machine series. I always felt those quite disconnected.

I'm more for steampunk. Beware as the steam-powered machines you just turned on carelessly leak out to you, propelling your avatar to death void. Also, steam is made out of water, which is way more physical and visible than electricity.

If the decimal Babbage computer was complicated, marvel at what a droplet-based computer could do (mass, heat, color(RGB) - 5D vector, somewhat convoluted). That thing would be insane by all means.

I once tried to write a Morrowind mission in which part of the challange was in making a machine work. Now, the scripting language in TES3: Morrowind exhausted me before I could finish but given proper architecture and background I think it could have been interesting.

Well thank you for participating in this Aperture Science enrichment activity :)

P.S.
Note the note that i added into the original post;
"I'm NOT talking about making EVERYTHING interactive a la marry-the-hulk. What I AM saying is to make the machinery/technology in the game at least %40 interactive instead of %3 interactive. And at least %60 contributing to gameplay instead of %0.01 contributing to gameplay."

[Edited by - kingIZZZY on September 20, 2010 9:17:44 AM]