fan created videogame

[Ralackk]

I would just like to add you should probably get a really good composer if you don't already have one. Its all good and well haveing a scary darkly lit corridor but without a good music score it just wont have the same effect.

Im sure everyones heard that violin strings being plucked thing that thriller/horror movies use now.

 

[Bakery]

I've always had this idea for a really fucking sweet moment in a survival horror.

You're in a fairly safe seeming room, maybe you've been there a few times (could be a save point or whatever) and somehow about six billion [insert scary bad guy]s manage to find you.

The lights go out.

Pitch black, like you can see NOTHING.

The ONLY source of light is the muzzle flash from your gun for which you have very little ammo.

Escape. Alive.

I kind of feel like I'm giving away a million dollar idea here though so maybe this scene should occur in a bakery or something.

 

[aussiesniper]

Make sure that nothing dies instantly. Let infected thrash around and move for a few seconds after they have absorbed 100% damage. NOTE: this does not apply if you have done something that garuntees instant death, such as decapitation.

 

[smallharmlesskitten]

Depends on the character really for weaponry but I would recommend a chainsaw in one level (or a bonus fun level)

 

[waffletaco]

Survival Horror eh?

Hm... Make your characters rather fragile. No respawning health bars, and medkits take time to restore health, not just instantly give you a chunk of health.

Put the player into somewhat comprimising situations. Like having to kill zombie children. That really fucks with you. Especially if afterward you find out you were hallucinating and you really just slaughtered a day care.

Wow...you're sick. I feel I have no choice but to firebomb your house. On topic...

Make it super scary. If you're going for a survival/horror theme, you have to keep ammo scarce (as to not turn it into an FPS), maybe have flickering lights and dim corridors, and make enemies pop out at you from around corner. Overall, keep the players on their toes, and never let up on the spooks.

How about creatures that move faster when it's dark? Combined with the flickering lights, they can really just jump out at you.

 

[phlewidthoughts]

free ware game engine called "neo axis" all our 2nd year game students are using it to do thier majour project game mods, quite good,

supports normal maps, real time lighting, multi sub textures, physics, quite flexible code modification, easy to import mesh and texture assets. decent AI and pathfinding. Supports first person, 3rd, side scroller and rts camera modes. decent forum community/support/info and tutorials available.

If you want to make money a full commercial license is around $100-200 i think. (entirely written by 1 savant genius that dosnt like money? hehehe


IMO Horror survivor genera:
Audio and Colour pallet are Very Important.
dont get hung up on pretty modles and ubber partical effects.
build your placeholder assets first. if you run through a placeholder level
filled with crappy boxes and you feel spooked caus of the lighting / colours and audio
then you are on a winner.
The most awesome 3d art in the world will never make shit game play a good game.

 

[fedpayne]

How about enemies that you can *only* see when it's dark, and then not very well. Like, if you go with the light/darl, breakable lights mechanic, force the player to cut out the lights in order to see these weird, dim, shuffling forms, and then in later levels have these encounters followed up by regular enemies.

Also, include some sort of defence level. I love zombie defence.

Give the player some sort of relaistic motivation, like trying to reach a safe house or safe spot. Even if you then take away this place that s/he's been trying to reach the whole game once you get there.

Towards the beginning of the game, have Max Payne style tv's scattered about, givign you updates and information as to how the zombie menace is affecting the rest of the world, but as the fighting gets more intense for you, make it so for the rest of the world, untill eventually all outside contact is shut off, and you don't know what's happening.

Well, there's a mix of ideas there, for a more sort of 'haunted area' type game to the global Z-Day Apocalypse. Feel free the use any. But I want a creative consultant credit.

 

[beddo]

Visual 3d.net is in it's beta stage. It's quite a nice visually based 3d engine. It's got a basic AI creation tool where you just enter the values you want and click create. Might be worth a look.

Alternatively there's always Torque Game Engine or TGE Advanced. Conitec's 3D Game Studio A7 has a few versions, the free one doesn't have any advanced shaders though.

Of course for modelling there's Blender which is free but quite complicated. Silo looks like a nice polygonal modelling package. Zbrush isn't ideal for base mesh modelling is really good for adding high level detail to your mesh as a normal map.

I've been trying to make a few games and it takes so much dedication, seriously! Make sure you have planned your game before you start creating assets etc, it will speed up the whole process so much.

 

[Uncompetative]

Ok. Here's a free idea:

Separate the point of view from the player's control of the character.

The game is set 'somewhere' which has some moving and some static (and some half-broken) Closed-Circuit Television Cameras in rooms.

You divide the screen into nine, each of which is cycling through a pattern of TV feeds without your control. You have four characters which you switch between by pressing the face buttons. Therefore, you can only use the analog sticks to change their compass heading and speed of movement. So, if you move Up on the Left Stick the character under your control faces North, but you have to move the Right Stick Up to get them to walk/run in that direction. Moving the Right Stick Down will get them to retreat, Left will have them strafe left. However, if the Left Stick is pushed to the Right your character now faces East and all the mappings of the Right Stick rotate in harmony with it, so you now have to move the Right Stick Right to walk/run 'forward', Left to retreat and Up to strafe to the character's Left.

The Left Trigger does crouching (and if it is an analogue control it will make use of this as an incremental posture rather than a 'switch'). As aiming a weapon from a 3rd person point of view is troublesome (and given that you probably would have restricted ammunition in order to heighten tension) I'd suggest you look at Condemned on the 360 to see what you can do with 'found objects' in the environment that wear down and break with use. If you do insist on having a gun it would be better if it had a laser scope that put a line 'out' to a spot on the enemy, then implement real-time target specific damage - i.e. shoot an armored opponent in their wrist to force them to drop a club. This would probably require entering an aim mode when you held the Left Bumper (which would stop the Right Stick from moving you and make it into a character-focused light-gun-like 'look' stick. The Right Bumper would be have to be 'Reload' as the face buttons are used.

So, with that explanation out of the way... the gameplay would centre on you guiding your four friends out of 'somewhere hazardous' like a zombie infested lab against a deadline as the zombies first went after them and then figured out where you were hiding and regrouped 'en masse' to break into the security room that you had barricaded yourself in. Your only hope would be to get your friends to the armory and then direct them back for your rescue before the door behind you got beaten in by the horde.

So, the sound effects would pertain only to you (and your friends when they returned with weapons to free you) and the early part of the game would be played in eerie silence as there would be no audio to accompany the CCTV.

It would be a puzzle to coordinate the changing video feeds with your friends movements (in teams, or split up - it would be your choice), but so that it wasn't close-to-impossible-to-play there would be regular overlap between the cameras from different angles/distances.

As far as I know this is completely original, but you are welcome to use it without further explicit permission or credit.

 

[klc0100]

Survival Horror eh?

Hm... Make your characters rather fragile. No respawning health bars, and medkits take time to restore health, not just instantly give you a chunk of health.

Put the player into somewhat comprimising situations. Like having to kill zombie children. That really fucks with you. Especially if afterward you find out you were hallucinating and you really just slaughtered a day care.

Wow...you're sick. I feel I have no choice but to firebomb your house. On topic...

But its true that would fuck with your mind quite a bit.

 

[hamster mk 4]

we havent made it far enough to start making the game yet because money is also a problem... We are looking for an afforable program to use... If you could suggest one it would be great help. We are right now finishing writing the story. We are now just making weapons, levels , enemies, And charicter designs... We are hoping to start actually making the game soon... as soon as we get a program to run it...

Torque is probably the lowest cost professional game engine you can buy. There is also Game Maker which is not as professional but easier. Alternatly there is always the make your own engine with C++, C#, or (god help you) BASIC.

Before you get too deep into design make sure you know what your technical limitations are. Will this be 2d or 3d? How will the user interface with the game? What will the game play screen look like? You should ask your self these questions before getting too deep into the ingame scenarios. You may find some other the things you want to do are impossible or too costly.

 

[FLSH_BNG]

You need to give the enemy's varying levels of intelligence based on their level of infection... and finding yourself in a few well hidden fight-of/for-your-life traps would kick up the adrenalin rush too.

Instead of only a health meter, you should also have a second meter that monitors your condition regarding whether or not the player will become a zombie too... in later levels you can provide an antidote of sorts that is limited in supply but can render you immune to the effects of being bitten, and can double a the most powerful weapon in the game, making quick work of any tough bosses... if you happen to have any still when you reach them.

 

[PxDn Ninja]

Go for actual Horror and story, not shock value like all the other Horror games (RE, Silent Hill, ect)

Look at Fatal Frame for a good place to start.

 

[demonwaffle]

k

 

[Jolly Madness]

Creepy music is always a plus (Vietnam FUll Metal Jacket style, no, not the tank scene). Bludgeoning weapons are also fun, baseball bats, gas tanks, TVs and such. Make risky envinroments? Having a huge gas tank in the corner will make you think twice about using the shotgun.

 

[GoldCrow]

I approve of that 'zombie-children' idea pitched in. But here are some suggestions:

Make the weapons vary on the environment (if you're including any). So, for example, you won't find a machine gun in a mansion, but you might find a hunting rifle. Also, make ammo scarce, using the aforementioned logic because you won't really find stacks upon stacks of ammo.

Because medkits and such are 'medicine', give some sort of hallucinatory (is that even a word?) effect, so after using one, you might start imagining enemies and such.

Give the player a choice: gun or flashlight? (Well, I guess you could carry a flashlight in one hand and a crappy pistol (again, if you're including them) in the other).

Include a 'moral choice' system maybe? Well, sure, you're trying to escape from truckloads of zombies, but are you really prepared to use an orphan as a distraction?

 

[Simski]

The shock tactic is effective but gets old fast.
If you do decide to have shock moments, don't do them often and don't make it too obvious.
In Doom3 where the shock moments come often, you're pretty scared of them in the beginning but after a while you get used to them and learn how to avoid them.

Music plays a great part in making the environment scary, just don't make things too obvious.
Make the player think they know where something's going to happen and where they are going to be safe, then use it against them.
Make a place where they feel at home with npcs they can rely on, and an area they have to go to that feels scary, then surprise them in their home when they've returned from the scary area.

Force the player into areas they don't want to go is also a classic thing to do, make sure the player knows that they don't want to go there but have no other choice.

 

[Simski]

Include a 'moral choice' system maybe? Well, sure, you're trying to escape from truckloads of zombies, but are you really prepared to use an orphan as a distraction?

Actually, yes.
Killing kids in games are rather uncommon, so when such opportunities comes along...
You damn sure well take advantage of them.

Rather make it an ally NPC that you actually have use for, not the classical kill stealing bastard nor the 'hurr hurr, I must survive yet I kill enemies with my fists' npc.
Someone you might want to protect for cover, or if you rather sacrifice him for the extra time.