Game Idea, is it good? (Sending in Idea to get possible scholarship.)

[zfactor]

Sounds like Mass Effect: The Proper One. (not that ME was bad or anything, it could be better)

Good luck programming it, though. That questAI sounds neat, but might wind up being a random quest generator. (like you program in some conditions and rewards and it randomizes the associated variables - what type of reward and how much in addition to how many enemies to kill or what to bring where, etc)

 

[schrodingerscat]

I'm skeptical of all these open world games because the sheer amount of quests in them means that not too much time was put into developing each individual quest. The reason Mass Effect was so memorable was because they put a lot of effort into the main quest. It was written, coded and animated extremely well. It also sucked the player in. The world was beautiful and foreign, the dialogue was extremely well written and it just felt like you were there in the world.

My fear is that your game will be big, but not really inspiring. It's a great idea, don't get me wrong, it's the game of my dreams! I would just like every quest in it to be as immersive as a game like Deus Ex. And that's too much to ask of anyone.

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

It sounds excellent, but...

HOW MUCH HARD-DRIVE SPACE WOULD A GAME LIKE THAT TAKE!?

Truthfully, the only reason that hasn't (necessarily) been done already is space requirements. That game would be FREAKING ENORMOUS.

Not at all really. Here's what you'd do.

First, you would have a team of artists create the various structures, objects and the like that you'd place in the game world. Then they would create a series of terrain maps (a voxel like implementation can achieve very good results without a lot of memory usage). If you wanted a "crafted" experience, the artists would then place the objects onto the terrain map. This is, essentially, how maps are made for games like StarCraft 2 and Oblivion and you really don't need much drive space. There might be a thousand examples of a particular hut but you really only need one copy of what the hut looks like at a time (and even then you only need to load that hut into memory if there is a reasonable chance that the player could see said hut). For a more open experience, you could simply write an algorithm that places objects onto a terrain map selected based upon what planet (or area of a planet) you choose to visit.

The idea could be implemented easily enough, by which I mean you'd need a fair number of artists working for quite a period to produce the content but both the means of execution and examples of similar works (technically) already exist to demonstrate that it could be done.

That said, there are parts that would be difficult (to say the least) to program. Procedural worlds are all well and great, but the problem is that it becomes difficult to ensure the user has any particular kind of experience when playing. Without a narrative thread to pull the player with, you'll have to rely on having a fun mechanical experience for the player to enjoy and I'm not entirely convinced I've been presented with a game concept that is innately "fun" in terms of its basic mechanical systems.

 

[Bravo 21]

sounds very difficult to create, and to create a game with that projected level of difficulty would be imensly time consuming, however, if you managed to make it work, I would play it, and as a more hypothetical thing, then its good, if you do end up making it, let me know, at the very least, it is quite intruiging.

 

[Atticus89]

I would love to play something like this, but it does sound pretty big and not at all easy to program in comparison to other games similar to it.

 

[Vaccine]

I feel you need to go into a bit more detail, you've gone pretty broad and therefore lack any key selling points, think of it from a companies point of view.

 

[Skeleton Jelly]

Sure it sounds great. On paper...on screen...

But imagine the immenseness of the game. Multiple ways of playing, each having it's own unique storyline and major events? That alone would be massive. Even if you do implement the side quest generator, what's the say that's good what so ever? I'd rather have 1 side quests with a good storyline, than 5 that say "GO HERE, SHOOT SHIT, THEN COLLECT SOME MONEY". Unless you can...randomly...generate....good storylines that make sense.

It'd be more than just cutting out voice acting and make it Fallout 3 graphics. Most likely, we're talking 2D or very primitive 3D. Then you need good sound effects...good programmers...good animators, artists and they all have to be willing to work on a project that would take a damned long time. And since I doubt you're a professional company, you'd have to convince them to do it, for free.

Just give up. Don't waste your time. The goal is reachable....arguably...but certainly not for an Indie Dev. Hell even Devs with millions of dollars would find this a substantial challenge.

 

[hamster mk 4]

There are scholarships for game ideas? I was under the impression that ideas are worthless without the time and talent to make them a reality:

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_221/6582-Why-Your-Game-Idea-Sucks

More power to you for finding a way to make something from it. If you want to get more respect for your ideas you must be more descriptive in how they differ from existing games.

Give examples of your game's unique features. The quest generation AI, give us a sample of a quest it would generate. The factions, explain how they differ ideologically an in game play. The planets, describe the steps it would take to conquer or colonize them. What types of planets are there? How will the player progress in the game. What choices must the player make as they progress? If there are character and item statistics what are they. Will certain types of armor be stronger against certain types of weapons? These are just the design questions you will have to put down on paper.

If you want to lead a development team, you will also need to figure out what art assets you need. You should list them and describe the purpose of each, as well as possible sources of inspiration and visual reference. On the programming side you will have to distill your ideas do their mathematical components. You will also have to describe how game objects interact with each other in precise detail. Speaking as a programmer, we are a lazy breed. If you give us a task we will find the easiest way to implement it according to your instructions, that way we can collect our money faster and move on to something more fun. So if you leave any wiggle room in your description we will find the easiest (lamest) way to implement it and move on.