I'm intending to make a computer game, and would like some feedback on the core idea.

[YesConsiderably]

What do you mean "Grammar and spelling aside"?!
My English is great, it isn't perfect but it certainly ain't THAT bad!
I got (using the English scoresystem, the Swedish one is a bit diffrent) a B in English A & B Courses and I plan on taking English C -_-****

Just because teachers pay close attention to you doesn't mean you can't flip them off and go do something else.
So what happens if you go below 1 in your stats?
Will you start ranking up minus scores instead?

Your English isn't great. I'm not a native speaker either (i'm Russian) but my English is borderline perfect, so that's no excuse.

Generally speaking, the closer attention a teacher pays to you, the more likely they are to react to any minor infringement. You need to ace the test, so simply walking away isn't a viable option.

And there is absolutely no need for attribute scores to fall into the negatives. If you can't do something, you can't do something. 0 is sufficient.

 

[The Great Sage]

I think a lot of it hinges on the game mechanics. In the above example will you design a sneaking, a fighting and a bartering mechanic or will it be a text adventure. If you have a lot more episodes with a greater amount of options that is a lot of work for a short game. Also punishing people if they see an option that's better that was missed out or if they believe that you have wrongly punished them for a decision could turn off people. Other than that it sounds like an interesting and novel idea.

 

[Funkiest Monkey]

What do you mean "Grammar and spelling aside"?!
My English is great, it isn't perfect but it certainly ain't THAT bad!
I got (using the English scoresystem, the Swedish one is a bit diffrent) a B in English A & B Courses and I plan on taking English C -_-****

Just because teachers pay close attention to you doesn't mean you can't flip them off and go do something else.
So what happens if you go below 1 in your stats?
Will you start ranking up minus scores instead?

Your English isn't great. I'm not a native speaker either (i'm Russian) but my English is borderline perfect, so that's no excuse.

Generally speaking, the closer attention a teacher pays to you, the more likely they are to react to any minor infringement. You need to ace the test, so simply walking away isn't a viable option.

Well aren't we Mr. Egotistical. You should lay off, no-one is perfect.

OT: Ego-Boost: The Game. It seems like a genuinely unique idea, and if implemented correctly; it could be a good game to play.

 

[YesConsiderably]

What do you mean "Grammar and spelling aside"?!
My English is great, it isn't perfect but it certainly ain't THAT bad!
I got (using the English scoresystem, the Swedish one is a bit diffrent) a B in English A & B Courses and I plan on taking English C -_-****

Just because teachers pay close attention to you doesn't mean you can't flip them off and go do something else.
So what happens if you go below 1 in your stats?
Will you start ranking up minus scores instead?

Your English isn't great. I'm not a native speaker either (i'm Russian) but my English is borderline perfect, so that's no excuse.

Generally speaking, the closer attention a teacher pays to you, the more likely they are to react to any minor infringement. You need to ace the test, so simply walking away isn't a viable option.

And there is absolutely no need for attribute scores to fall into the negatives. If you can't do something, you can't do something. 0 is sufficient.

Spoiler

Oh, then all English-knowing.. You!
What is it about my English that isn't great, since you seem to be the ONLY one I've ever met who claims that!
I admit that I make certain typos here and there and that my sentence buildup can be at some cases be rather goofy looking, but if you're going to blantantly insult me about it then I dare you to point ALL of my errors out to me so I can either;

1. Prove you Wrong
2. Learn and correct my misstakes in the future.

I'm sorry, I don't get your point.
Minor infringement? I guess this means that you, as the player, don't really have any other choice than to follow the storyline from point A to point B. Correct?

EDIT: Edited typos written in annoyment.

You don't seem to know when it is appropriate to use the word "an" as opposed to "a". For future reference, "an" is used when the proceeding letter starts with a vowel. Otherwise just use "a".

 

[Funkiest Monkey]

What do you mean "Grammar and spelling aside"?!
My English is great, it isn't perfect but it certainly ain't THAT bad!
I got (using the English scoresystem, the Swedish one is a bit diffrent) a B in English A & B Courses and I plan on taking English C -_-****

Just because teachers pay close attention to you doesn't mean you can't flip them off and go do something else.
So what happens if you go below 1 in your stats?
Will you start ranking up minus scores instead?

Your English isn't great. I'm not a native speaker either (i'm Russian) but my English is borderline perfect, so that's no excuse.

Generally speaking, the closer attention a teacher pays to you, the more likely they are to react to any minor infringement. You need to ace the test, so simply walking away isn't a viable option.

And there is absolutely no need for attribute scores to fall into the negatives. If you can't do something, you can't do something. 0 is sufficient.

Spoiler

Oh, then all English-knowing.. You!
What is it about my English that isn't great, since you seem to be the ONLY one I've ever met who claims that!
I admit that I make certain typos here and there and that my sentence buildup can be at some cases be rather goofy looking, but if you're going to blantantly insult me about it then I dare you to point ALL of my errors out to me so I can either;

1. Prove you Wrong
2. Learn and correct my misstakes in the future.

I'm sorry, I don't get your point.
Minor infringement? I guess this means that you, as the player, don't really have any other choice than to follow the storyline from point A to point B. Correct?

EDIT: Edited typos written in annoyment.

You don't seem to know when it is appropriate to use the word "an" as opposed to "a". For future reference, "an" is used when the proceeding letter starts with a vowel. Otherwise just use "a".

Spoiler

Yes, I am well aware of that part since it mostly just sounds wrong to me.
Anything else?
Preferable something more serious.

Wow. This guy is 10x worse than any Grammar Nazi I've encountered, and snarky-as-shit to boot!

 

[EightGaugeHippo]

It sounds good, very original. One thing though, I think there should be some leveling up. Rather than starting off maxed, I would recommend starting off 3/4 of the way there and have the option to improve. If you start off completely maxed then there is no room for personal improvement and the game would get very old if you are smart enough to progress without losing points.

 

[Evil the White]

Sounds like an interesting idea. It'll have to be implemented well though, or else it could fall apart. Poosibly every now and again you get a choice that 'boost' one of your stats up, temporarily or permenantly, and maybe at the expense of one of your other stats. Maybe you could have a couple of stats that start off at level 1, and have them build up to level 10, for example, a respect or fear rating (so in your example of the yo-yo, if you chose to beat up the kid yourself, then your 'authority' rating may go down (change the name maybe, it's a bit confusing), but your 'feared' rating would go up, so you would choose to be able to bully other kids into doing what you want them to do. (So you could force a kid to let you copy his answers)

Also, Make sure that there are different options. Although this may be based on your life, think about some alternate senarios, and whether your decisions may have been the best ones (so for example, you might meet a friend later in life from earlier in the game, and she would react differently depending what choice you made. So if a choice leads for you two to go out, you could have 'dates' that may or may not have happened, but if you choose to stay friends, then she may hook you up with someone else, or have a different senario, such as a party, giving her advice about her boyfriend, etc). I know it would be harder to programme, but I think it would give your game that little extra kick if it works.

 

[YesConsiderably]

Wow. This guy is 10x worse than any Grammar Nazi I've encountered, and snarky-as-shit to boot!

No snark intended. I just felt he should be made aware that his English isn't all that good. You can tell he's not a native speaker, which is never a good sign.

It sounds good, very original. One thing though, I think there should be some leveling up. Rather than starting off maxed, I would recommend starting off 3/4 of the way their and have the option to improve. If you start off completely maxed then there is no room for personal improvement and the game would get very old if you are smart enough to progress without losing points.

This might be a good idea. Perhaps you start off on the peak of human ability, and additional points could grant super powers. Such as the ability to become invisible for short periods of time.

This is something to think about. Thanks!

 

[Hiphophippo]

I hate that you're so active on these forums. You ninja my posts all the time. Clearly it's a conspiracy.

But yes, *this* /grumble

Sigh, all right, you got me, I'm you from the future.

Incidentally, don't eat that bagel. You'll know it when you see it. Just stay away.

Man, I'm substantially older than you too. Clearly at some point we get involved in some skynet / terminator time travel shit.

Awesome

 

[Drexlor]

If done well it seems like it could be a great concept for a game.

 

[dfcrackhead]

Wow. This guy is 10x worse than any Grammar Nazi I've encountered, and snarky-as-shit to boot!

No snark intended. I just felt he should be made aware that his English isn't all that good. You can tell he's not a native speaker, which is never a good sign.

It sounds good, very original. One thing though, I think there should be some leveling up. Rather than starting off maxed, I would recommend starting off 3/4 of the way their and have the option to improve. If you start off completely maxed then there is no room for personal improvement and the game would get very old if you are smart enough to progress without losing points.

This might be a good idea. Perhaps you start off on the peak of human ability, and additional points could grant super powers. Such as the ability to become invisible for short periods of time.

This is something to think about. Thanks!

Say no to the supernatural, it would break everything. It seems like a good idea, but don't include superpowers because if you get the ability to fly/turn invisible then there will not be any more challenges that can't be solved by going invisible and flying away.

Out of curiosity, what style of game is this? point and click, sandbox or choose your own adventure type of thing("You reach a door. What will you do? A. Kick it open. B. Knock. C. Turn around and go home")

 

[CrazyMedic]

so this is a lot like alpha protocol, except more so?

 

[andeve3]

Sounds great! You have what most game devs lack; an original concept.

Good luck!

 

[LawlessSquirrel]

I would be very careful about how to implement such a system. I do like that it's not something I've seen, though. Remember that one of the biggest draws to videogames is their ability to reward the player for a job well done. Forgoing that for punishment seems like it would put off a majority of players. Then again, if you're going for a sort of art-house game or an equivalent, that might not be a problem. I'm not saying it can't work, just that you'll have to be careful to reward players in some way too.

Also, you should be cautious about using yourself in any work beyond an autobiographical piece. I'll assume you're familiar with the concept of Mary Sue characters. It's easy to end up making an idealised form of yourself that people won't find believable or relateable, so it's often reccomended to avoid delving too deep whenever possible. Again, if you're going for an art-house or satirical game you can probably disregard this.

Some things to think about before jumping into a design doc:

How does the game's difficulty flow? Is it a constant base difficulty, with the choices determining how hard it becomes, or does it get easier/harder to balance for the losses/gains?
How often and how severely are stats affected? Every decision by a little? Only bad decisions by a lot?
What kind of audience do you expect to like the game? For example, will it appeal to fans of Monkey Island style games, or more Interactive Drama?

 

[Harlemura]

1. Simply walk up to Michael, kick his ass, and take the yo-yo.
2. Try to steal it from his backpack, unnoticed.
3. Pay the Cannon Brothers your lunch money to kick his ass (even harder) and retrieve the yo-yo on your behalf. This is what i actually did.

I'm not entirely sure about this bit.
None of these options seem to be particularly good ones. If they are, you'd have to go far too much into why each one is good and bad to explain it.
Granted, it'd be nice to have something different from;

-Ask politely for the yoyo
-Stab him

...but it's a little too vague for my tastes.
Saying that, I'm not sure this'd be the type of game for me. I'm not saying it's a bad idea, just saying it's not my type.
So feel free to accept this as a criticism or not. It might only be affecting people who aren't even going to play it.

 

[YesConsiderably]

The game is going to be a third person action/adventure/roleplaying game, with a very unique art style. The game is only going to be between 3 and 4 hours long, so i think the need for the playable character to improve is mitigated somewhat, but i will need to find a way to give the player some sense of being rewarded as the game progresses.

The idea still needs a lot of fleshing out, but right now i'm happy the core concept. I believe it to be a wholly original idea that many gamers will have a little bit of fun with.