Deciding upon theme of first project

[Discipline]

Ok, I haven't officially started a project before this point in time because I thought it would a more intelligent decision to thoroughly learn about warcraft editing before taking on a project bigger then my boots. I didn't want to be just another forum member to post a brilliant idea before I considered the follow up of actually having to make it.

Now after spending a couple of months learning the world editor through tutorials and via reading & solving peoples world editor problems I believe I'm more then capable of starting my first major project. On top of that I have taken time to learn modelling and skinning to a reasonable standard.

Problem is, I'm keen on 1 of 2 ideas. It's not so much the gameplay elements I am worried about, those I can suitably iron out along the way, but it is that I'm getting excited over two possible themes and I don't know which one Warcrafter's would appreciate more.

Here are my themes -

THEME 1

THE DARKMAN

Concept: The concept behind this game is survival horror, with a mini-game twist.

Story: A powerful psyker, known only as THE DARKMAN, has escaped a maximum security prison and gone into hiding somewhere in Sector xi66... the location of an abandoned city where only the desperate and depraved seek refuge. As one of 9 Special Forces marines it is your duty to hunt down the fugitive and bring him to justice.

However, this is easier said then done. According to reports, tNhAeM KdRaArDk mEaHnT is said to inspire the greatest of fear into those who oppose him, bringing the darkness forward from their souls... and using his victims nightmares as his weapons.

Gameplay: 1 player is the darkman and up to 9 others are marines. As the darkman, the player must hunt down and kill all the marines to win the game. His method of killing is much more then just your usual method of warcraft battle....

The Darkman's abilities are based to inspire fear into the other players, and draining their mana (courage) to zero. Once completely drained it allows him to use his ultimate psychic ability, The Nightmare.

First and foremost, the nightmare abilitie's effect will depend on the location of the victim. Once under the nightmare spell, the player/s will be initially trapped in that location. As well as being trapped, the world will change into one of a hellish nature (I've been toying with some cool tricks and ideas to make this work) and depending which area it is, it will open one of many horror inspired minigames for the victim to complete. The darkman himself will have influence over certain aspects of each minigame.

If the victim fails the minigame, then that player will die under the nightmare spell. However if the minigame is passed, then the darkman will be momentarily stunned, allowing the marines to dish out some damage and flee.

The marines will have various other objectives to complete during the game that will weaken and alter the effect of the nightmares, as this will keep the game interesting and keep people moving.

THEME 2

SURPRISE!

Concept: I don't think I really need to explain my inspiration behind this theme... basically I stumbled across a box of my old toys and thought it'd make a great warcraft 3 project. I'll let a picture do the talking, because if you like the picture then I'm pretty sure your mind is made up ;P

Surprise?

DINORIDERS

.... So what do you think?

 

[Zypher]

I like them both. The darkman seems more inspired and creative although it's a mild twist on a find the killer game. The dinosaurs with mech? Well any thing that has mech dinosaurs has potential to be freaking ausome. Either way you go I would love to help out on this. I have skills in the following. Triggering, Making abilitys, Making loading screens/Minimaps/Pictures, and if I really like it I'll even do some item making for you. Basically I'm your perfect match because I suck at skinning and I can't model.

If you are really going to make me choose then it depends on the plot/gameplay of the dinosaur map.
It's a very close tie at this point.

BTW did you make that picture?

 

[Discipline]

LOL no I didn't paint that picture, I'm not sure if it is official or fan art tho. Dino-rider's is an old school cartoon I used to watch when I was a kid, not only because the concept of dinosaurs with lasers was cool but because the toy range was the most incredible thing ever. My favourite one was my massive T-Rex... omg it even walked.

Anyways, the basic storyline behind the dino-riders is a futuristic human race (the Valorians) escaped their conquered home planet which was under attack by the evil Rulons (humanoids with amphibian/insect/reptile heads). The Valorians tried to time jump to escape, but due to a tractor beam from the rulon ship the whole lot of them were pulled back in time to earth during the dinosaur period.

The two groups now battle in the past, with the good guys using telepathy to tame the dinosaurs and the bad guys trapping the minds of dinosaurs with brain box headgear.

As far as gameplay goes I'm really open with this theme. I'm thinking of making it just a co-op game, not competition, where players just work together to fight the Rulons in a semi-rpg format. It'll mostly be about cool systems like taming and training pets, aswell as meching them up. I'm not really concrete about anything else, as far as I'm concerned any wikid ideas I would have during the modelling process could end up fitting into this game.

The darkman seems more inspired and creative although it's a mild twist on a find the killer game.

Well no it's not really anything like the killer game, although it's easy to misinterpret with the info I gave. It's not actually about finding out who the killer is or tracking him down. That concept is more of an obscene mix of UA2/DOTD, Vampirism and Uther Party. The survival games influenced the Co-op side of the marines & dark theme, with vampirism influencing the more solo nature of the darkman.... and ofcourse playing uther party 2 quite a bit has made me realise how addictive minigames can be. So basically the concept summary behind that game is 'A darker twist on the minigame genre, complete with a Game Master in the form of the darkman, and ofcourse some sexy squad based combat to fill in the blanks'.

The idea behind that is that the mini games won't just be randomly cycled, but rather the location of the contestants will decide upon what is going to happen next... also, letting a player have loose control over the minigames will add replayability. Finally, the storyline and extra objectives for the marines will hopefully hold the game together as a solid package, instead of just feeling like random moments of fun.



I'm not currently looking for any help with this project, but thanks for offering. It's going to take me a while to get some models pumped out, so I'm just taking this opportunity to query some hive members and find which direction I should be going.

 

[Zypher]

Ahhhhhh O well, they both sound equelly great but I would start with dark,am because for me that would be a cooler new genre where as dinos is just plain new and not a genre. If you get what I mean. DARKMAN GETS MY VOTE. Seriously tho I would not hestate to help if you ever pm me cause these games sound great!

 

[Formula1]

Number 2

Make it a choice between co-op or free for all

I think your taking up alot in terms of quality...
There better be a LOT of explosions....

 

[Discipline]

Thanks for the replies... although it's sitting dead on 50/50 atm (lol 2 people)... so I'm still in the same position I started in.

I've added a poll so atleast if people have the time to read the thread but not to post, atleast they can just tick a box and hopefully point me in 1 direction

 

[Discipline]

aha wow, I didn't realise the traffic in the idea's section was so slow, but that's cool. Atm even though I haven't had alot of feedback (and the feedback I've been given has left me at 50/50 lol) I guess I'll just combine my favourite concepts from each theme into something dark, wild and with robo dinosaurs.

Jurassic Parkemon meets Silent Hill anyone?

 

[Zinive]

the first one sounds better i just can't image how your second idea will be new and unique.

 

[Skudgemuffin]

Mech Dinosaurs for the win.

 

[Zypher]

Whatever you do do not combine them, that would completely ruin the storyline and turn it into an average game. Both perhaps?

 

[Discipline]

Whatever you do do not combine them, that would completely ruin the storyline and turn it into an average game. Both perhaps?

Haha I get what you're saying, but I'd do it in a tasteful way

Darkman being about nightmares, well I see no reason there can't be a mecha-dino nightmare. I've personally had a couple.

...but it looks like it doesn't matter, most are in favour of the DARKMAN so it seems I'll be taking that direction.

I can't do both because of the limited time frame I have to work on it. Struggling to balance work, girls and other personal projects I'm doing to actually make some real money in this world. To top it off I have a few resource requests in dire need of completion before I tackle this.... so once they are done it looks like the darkman is the direction I should be taking.

Thx for your interest guys!