Aliens...space...invasions...yaddy yadda yadda...
by Aaron Weingartner · in Game Design and Creative Issues · 07/05/2006 (11:25 pm) · 7 replies
I was actually designing this as a movie,not a game, but then I thought "games are more interactive than movies, and I like games more"...I'm a simple thinker...
Anyways, The plot is that you are a human member of a small band of rebels racing between planets trying to rally the inhabitants from a growing threat. You warn that an invading race is coming for the other races planet, pointing to places as earth to prove their capability for destruction (insert short story of how earth was taken over slowly by this species and all resources drained) and that this race has been skipping from planet to planet taking everything and destroying all in it's path.
Eventually your travels across the galaxy/whatever scale it is garner enough people for you to command a fleet and face off against these invaders. Well...I would like to say you win, but in the movie I was writing all the rebels, including the main carachter, dies. You do however get to learn that this invading race is actually the human race.
Thoughts?
Anyways, The plot is that you are a human member of a small band of rebels racing between planets trying to rally the inhabitants from a growing threat. You warn that an invading race is coming for the other races planet, pointing to places as earth to prove their capability for destruction (insert short story of how earth was taken over slowly by this species and all resources drained) and that this race has been skipping from planet to planet taking everything and destroying all in it's path.
Eventually your travels across the galaxy/whatever scale it is garner enough people for you to command a fleet and face off against these invaders. Well...I would like to say you win, but in the movie I was writing all the rebels, including the main carachter, dies. You do however get to learn that this invading race is actually the human race.
Thoughts?
About the author
#2
08/14/2006 (9:27 am)
I was thinking third person tactical for most ground things, then you get a dropdown map menu where you command the rest of the troops for land battles. If there was space combat it would probably be set up kinda the same way with you in main conrtol of one ship and commanding the others via a map.
#3
08/29/2006 (3:30 pm)
Actualy, and incidentaly, this basic plot was used in the Roger Corman produced Battle Beyond the Stars...which borrowed the plot (with a sci-fi repolishing) from the Seven Samuri.
#4
09/08/2006 (1:12 pm)
Aw, and I thought I found an idea that was original... :P
#5
09/11/2006 (9:47 am)
Dont let it get you down, everything is going to be a little like something thats been done before, just make all the details your own and it wont matter if some parts of the story are similar. I think its only bad when you set out to copy something like "Im gonna make a game like half life" but if your doing your own thing dont worry about similarities.
#6
If you're going to be doing something like this, then you'll want to read a *lot* of sci-fi and general science. Science fiction attracts geeks, if your lore or pseudo future tech/science isn't even remotely based on fact (or humour, but most good sci-fi humour parodies real scicnce so the knowledge is still necessary IMHO), you'll be in trouble. Research is a game designers/writers #1 asset.
If you're looking for a starting point, I'd suggest the you read Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card, a must read for anyone thinking about any kind of space strategy as packed with lots of musings about strategies and psychology that'll really get you thinking.
09/26/2006 (2:42 am)
The greatest creative feats are almost always a recombination of ideas, experiences and cultures -- for what are we if not the aggregation of our life's experiences.If you're going to be doing something like this, then you'll want to read a *lot* of sci-fi and general science. Science fiction attracts geeks, if your lore or pseudo future tech/science isn't even remotely based on fact (or humour, but most good sci-fi humour parodies real scicnce so the knowledge is still necessary IMHO), you'll be in trouble. Research is a game designers/writers #1 asset.
If you're looking for a starting point, I'd suggest the you read Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card, a must read for anyone thinking about any kind of space strategy as packed with lots of musings about strategies and psychology that'll really get you thinking.
#7
My ideas come from Scientific American and research proposals. :P
Philosophy and Social Structures are my other two fields of study for making things up, religion is more an observation...
Think the problem more lies in my affinity to pick at an particular issue till all that remains is the dead horse's skeleton remains to be beaten...
That and I really want to touch upon something more original as opposed to something that may just be a retelling.
Speaking of which, is there a story that involves a group of people seeking political and ethical freedom to research and develop their own ideas as they wish without the worries of a corrupt government using them for war and otherwise, which inevitable results in a new nation that becomes the world superpower though inevitably falls due to everyone's fear of the power they have obtained, with three main characters, one of which is destined to become a god, another being an accidental god, and the last just being a being with comparable powers but sympathy for all living things leading to the rebirth of the world though inevitably still falling prey to entropy. All this being wrapped up by us finding out that the deities really do exist, but more in the sense that they all exist in a nonmaterial and eternal form unbound to the limits of a single universe and capable of altering the very fabric and rules of the physical world but exist without simply for the fact that they understand no single being that is not part of the natural cycle of a universe or otherwise should ever interfere with it?
...Or did that not make any sense?
09/30/2006 (2:52 pm)
The problem definitely is not my knowledge of science :P I know too much about current developing technology and the general prospects of near future development. I base pretty much anything I can in hard science, only veering away when I can truly establish a scientifically plausible though relatively unexplored field of study or when I end up combining it with certain religious beliefs and philosophical concepts.My ideas come from Scientific American and research proposals. :P
Philosophy and Social Structures are my other two fields of study for making things up, religion is more an observation...
Think the problem more lies in my affinity to pick at an particular issue till all that remains is the dead horse's skeleton remains to be beaten...
That and I really want to touch upon something more original as opposed to something that may just be a retelling.
Speaking of which, is there a story that involves a group of people seeking political and ethical freedom to research and develop their own ideas as they wish without the worries of a corrupt government using them for war and otherwise, which inevitable results in a new nation that becomes the world superpower though inevitably falls due to everyone's fear of the power they have obtained, with three main characters, one of which is destined to become a god, another being an accidental god, and the last just being a being with comparable powers but sympathy for all living things leading to the rebirth of the world though inevitably still falling prey to entropy. All this being wrapped up by us finding out that the deities really do exist, but more in the sense that they all exist in a nonmaterial and eternal form unbound to the limits of a single universe and capable of altering the very fabric and rules of the physical world but exist without simply for the fact that they understand no single being that is not part of the natural cycle of a universe or otherwise should ever interfere with it?
...Or did that not make any sense?
Torque 3D Owner Jesse Liles
Space combat sim? RTS? Turn-Based? RPG? Some kind of mixture?