Hi

This is my first post, apologies if it's unwanted or in the wrong section.

THE GAME IDEA:
On my Iphone I log in to the game server. Then on a map, similar to Google maps, other players are highlighted as dots, or targets if you will. If I am within a line of sight of another player and my weapon in in range, I shoot them.

This is done by taking a photograph of them - there is a cross-hair target shape to help me.

Hooray - a kill, the photo is sent to the victim (with the crosshairs), along with details of who shot them, from where etc. My score is updated on the leaderboard with a value based on their score, and indeed the bounty on my head for other players to claim. There's plenty of Stats to play with

Time Between Kills
Range of Kills
Revenge Kills
Geographical Range of Kills (International Kills)
Own Deaths
Weapon of choice etc

Also, to keep things moving certain points multipliers would happen, where bounties on certain people in certain locations would be worth 10x, or something. Or specific mission assignemnts (Kill person X in the next 15 mins - they're within 1km)

Over time I've accrued plenty of points and can now upgrade my weapon, form a handheld pistol, to a high velocity sniper rifle and maybe proximity mines etc. mostly attacking tools rather than defensive things such as cloaking etc.

Players are encouraged to earn upgrades, but an option to buy with hard cash can help even the crappiest assasin get ahead (pun).

Make it to the top of the League of Assassins... then try to stay there.

Maybe there's prizes too, I'm not sure about this.


DISCUSSION:
I have no idea if it's possible to 'see' other Iphones nearby; or whether a line of sight/ distance can be worked out (Google maps?)
I believe the networking/ leaderboard bit is doable
I believe the photo overlay and sending it bit is doable.


MY CONTRIBUTION:
It's my idea
I can draw a rudimentary cross-hair in GIMP.
If someone would like to talk about developing this, I am prepared to invest a cool £1000 to make a working prototype that could be touted to a company with greater resources so that it might one day be released as a proper commercial game. I am based in London UK. I am a qualified accountant, and so would perhaps be able to contribute more to the business/ production/ selling part than to tech/ dev part.

If anyone would like to talk about this with no intention of developing it, I'm up for that too. I think it's a fun idea and fun to talk about.

Iain

I'm not sure if an iPhone has the ability to "see" other iPhones. And player density would be a problem. If you don't have a whole lot of people playing then nobody will ever have anything to shoot.

Might I suggest an artillery game instead? Artillery could have feasible ranges of several kilometers, and can hit based on GPS location. Upgrades could be different types of shots, cluster bomb, mini-nuke, etc. If it could run in the background, and notify you when you're near another player, that would also be good.

You could also add stationary locations to shell based on real-world landmarks. Split it up into "events" of attacking and defending teams. Attackers try to destroy the landmark, defenders try to kill the attackers before that happens.

Just a few suggestions.

I think you're right to identify player density as an issue - it could potentially be very dull. Maybe the game idea could be expanded to make it interesting to more people, so more people come on board, but fun even if few players sign up. How about this:

You are a spy, there are a number of missions for you to complete - essentially a treasure hunt (Worldwide). Along the way other players (spies) would be trying to get to the treasure/ prize before you. If they shoot you, they gain some of the information/ clues you've collected.

The League of Assassins would still exist, but also other Leagues within the game, perhaps a Leagure of Lovers - where instead of shooting someone you kiss them and a consentual agreement where they benefit from you and you benefit from them, but at the outset neither person knows if the information they'll gain is useful. in the same way gain information (like a spy bedding someone to get the security pass etc)

This may help open the game up to female gamers - if it's not just about shooting, but more overall character development - some emotional content such as deception and blackmail, or trust and collaboration.

Maybe at certain points you'd be asked to help someone (Non player) and decisions based on helping them or stiffing them will affect your game later - are they trustworthy, are they valuable to you?

Overall there could be a significant prize, say £1m at the end for the first person to solve all clues and complete all missions. Other smaller prizes maybe offered for other significant achievements.

To raise the prize money one option would be for sponsorship, unfortunately this means that it's likely our super-spy James Bond would have to go to places like MacDonalds, and pizza hut rather than the Monte Carlo Hotel.


You'd buy the APP for a few pounds, and you'd begin with a simple mission, once complete you receive and unlock code for the next mission/s - some would be optional, and there would always be the opportunity to do something - so you wouldn't get stuck, or maybe BUY another clue to skip missions, or get upgrades. Regular reports of other spies would be sent to you to keep a sense of things moving along, keep you interested.


This develpoment into a story/ narrative where each player is the lead role would require more content to be created to keep things exciting (think video briefings like M from bond might give) - and so would require more investment in game assets, but think how much fun it could be - to be a spy.

Any ideas, thoughts welcome. Once again, if someone would like to consider any of these ideas for serious development I'd welcome the opportunity to be involved and am prepared to stump up a cool £1000 to develop this type of game into a fully sketched out game and prototype.

Just writing this and daydreaming about it has made me enormously happy and excited. What tremendous fun.


Thanks

Iain

couple of problems i can see is, shooting people aka taking their picture, really it could be a pic of anyone, which means some form of registration would have to take place, with photo recognition so that moderators could see if you actually shot the person. these pics would also have to be on each players profile, so the player knows who to shoot, not just a randomer trying to get last minute deals from Primark.

Also taking pictures of random people, can land you in some trouble, some sort of terms of agreement would have to be made and e-signed by each player.

other than those slight worries, the game sounds awesome.