We together on the Escapist, are gonna make the greatest game on earth

[someonehairy-ish]

Ah, good. Now you're providing input and not just putting down people's ideas... I apologise for calling you a troll.
I've given it some thought and yes, something like 'steampunk vampires' does just sound like two ideas randomly mashed together... so I'll forgive you on that as well. BUT- some more thought and it actually works. In my mind, vampires are often associated with archaic and victorian/edwardian etc elements.
Dracula in particular, with the elegant but old fashioned clothes and so seems very victorian styled. So it's not a huge leap to cross over from victorian to steampunk. The advantage is that technologies that could not normally be found in a kind of old england (1700s to 1900s?) setting can be justifiably included in the game, and from an aesthetic standpoint steampunk holds a lot of potential for just looking... awesome. So don't write it off completely.

But for what purpose would a vampire need technology? There's a reason vampires work so well in Victorian ages and such. They have natural abilities. Few people can do steampunk well, most people are terrible at it and from what I've been seeing in the few posts that mention it, the people who like that idea are the type who probably couldn't pull off a decent steampunk if they tried. But what relevance would steampunk be to a vampire? An ageless being that gets by on its own natural prowess. Vampires and Steampunk both work well in games if done right, but they're retarded when shoved together like fish and chocolate. Potentially great in their own right but a chocolate coated fish would probably taste terrible.

Its not the vampires themselves that need the technology- vampires often seem a little overpowered, portrayed as super strong, regenerating, fast as lightning killing machines. So if the humans in the setting had access to some decent technology that might even things up slightly. But I suggested steampunk more as a visual thing; games set in a fantasy/old england/medieval setting often end up fairly boring or straight up stolen from tolkien. Done properly, steampunk worlds can look stunning. Occasionally, your 'chocolate and fish' is actually closer to peanut butter and jelly/jam... which sounds like it shouldn't really work, but does.

So you want to choose it for the visuals? Congrats on making that mistake. Choosing a setting or style for purely the visual rather then molding the world around it or it around the world will leave you with a bland, poorly done setting as opposed to something interesting and well done.

Wow I give up. I don't even know why I'm defending a game WHICH IS NEVER GOING TO EXIST. This is purely for the fun of it.

Hang on... no...
You can slot in a visual style so long as gameplay and mechanics can justifiably fit into that setting. For example, as Yahtzee pointed out, BioShock is what you get when you slot System Shock into a steampunk visual style and then adapt some elements to fit. And Bioshock 1 was brilliant.
Another example. The various races in Star Trek are basically just fantasy races (elves) slotted into a sci-fi space opera setting. But because you can justify them being there by saying they are alien races, they fit.
One rule is that the visuals have to suit the 'tone' of the game. Anything suitably dark and dreary could suit a stealth game, whether that setting is medieval, futuristic, cyberpunk, steampunk, post apocalyptic...

 

[zehydra]

Ok, here we go.

You play as an astronaut who is equipped with nothing but your bare fists and the occasional "Space Stick" that floats by. You have recently been abandoned by your crew at X-4503, as the recent alien invasion has left the Human earth-worldplace ravaged and in dire need of personnel. You start the game drifting through space until you reach a meteor. This meteor is your new home planet. You strive to find some meaning or purpose to this game until you lose your sanity in real life and the game accidentally ends when lightning strikes your house during a storm and the power gets knocked out in your house.

 

[someonehairy-ish]

Ok, here we go.

You play as an astronaut who is equipped with nothing but your bare fists and the occasional "Space Stick" that floats by. You have recently been abandoned by your crew at X-4503, as the recent alien invasion has left the Human earth-worldplace ravaged and in dire need of personnel. You start the game drifting through space until you reach a meteor. This meteor is your new home planet. You strive to find some meaning or purpose to this game until you lose your sanity in real life and the game accidentally ends when lightning strikes your house during a storm and the power gets knocked out in your house.

Yeah we could just do this.

 

[Tsaba]

The lead character since a vampire should be hunting an army errr castle full of knights... evil knights, hell bent on domination. You spend the whole first chapter chasing down the leader of these knights, scratch that, it's around the 1500's in Italy, your an evil vampire hell bent on killing an order of vampire slayers, you spend the whole first chapter killing these knights and their order, at the end of the first chapter you kill the leader his family save his only son who you turn into a vampire, and thus the game will carry on from this point you being the son in moral crisis being the thing he was raised to hate, but, you can't kill yourself because you have to stop the vampire that destroyed your family, so chapter 2 and on is you forming up a party and making moral decisions slowly working your way towards defeating this vampire.

 

[Tsaba]

the second chapter should have our new "hero" constantly tormented with the voice of the one who changed him into a vampire, constantly hearing the voice of the evil vampire in his head through out this chapter, trying to find some moral ground to hold onto or find a way through this tough time, upon the end of this chapter he finds out there is a way to get the evil vampire out of his head so he can plan on how to kill him without the evil vampire know what he is doing. The third chapter should be spent working towards this goal with the evil vampire finding this intriguing doesn't directly intervene but indirectly.

 

[Sneaky Paladin]

It should be fully voiced and the vampire should be able to turn into a bat.

 

[EHKOS]

We need to make bearable QTEs. Like the one in Dark Void where you wiggle the stick left and right and it was easy to do.

And we need to focus on the story.

And we need to have great loot. Loot is what drives alot of players and there is a primevile thing where we just HAVE to have that awesome gun.

 

[someonehairy-ish]

Ah, good. Now you're providing input and not just putting down people's ideas... I apologise for calling you a troll.
I've given it some thought and yes, something like 'steampunk vampires' does just sound like two ideas randomly mashed together... so I'll forgive you on that as well. BUT- some more thought and it actually works. In my mind, vampires are often associated with archaic and victorian/edwardian etc elements.
Dracula in particular, with the elegant but old fashioned clothes and so seems very victorian styled. So it's not a huge leap to cross over from victorian to steampunk. The advantage is that technologies that could not normally be found in a kind of old england (1700s to 1900s?) setting can be justifiably included in the game, and from an aesthetic standpoint steampunk holds a lot of potential for just looking... awesome. So don't write it off completely.

But for what purpose would a vampire need technology? There's a reason vampires work so well in Victorian ages and such. They have natural abilities. Few people can do steampunk well, most people are terrible at it and from what I've been seeing in the few posts that mention it, the people who like that idea are the type who probably couldn't pull off a decent steampunk if they tried. But what relevance would steampunk be to a vampire? An ageless being that gets by on its own natural prowess. Vampires and Steampunk both work well in games if done right, but they're retarded when shoved together like fish and chocolate. Potentially great in their own right but a chocolate coated fish would probably taste terrible.

Its not the vampires themselves that need the technology- vampires often seem a little overpowered, portrayed as super strong, regenerating, fast as lightning killing machines. So if the humans in the setting had access to some decent technology that might even things up slightly. But I suggested steampunk more as a visual thing; games set in a fantasy/old england/medieval setting often end up fairly boring or straight up stolen from tolkien. Done properly, steampunk worlds can look stunning. Occasionally, your 'chocolate and fish' is actually closer to peanut butter and jelly/jam... which sounds like it shouldn't really work, but does.

So you want to choose it for the visuals? Congrats on making that mistake. Choosing a setting or style for purely the visual rather then molding the world around it or it around the world will leave you with a bland, poorly done setting as opposed to something interesting and well done.

Wow I give up. I don't even know why I'm defending a game WHICH IS NEVER GOING TO EXIST. This is purely for the fun of it.

Hang on... no...
You can slot in a visual style so long as gameplay and mechanics can justifiably fit into that setting. For example, as Yahtzee pointed out, BioShock is what you get when you slot System Shock into a steampunk visual style and then adapt some elements to fit. And Bioshock 1 was brilliant.
Another example. The various races in Star Trek are basically just fantasy races (elves) slotted into a sci-fi space opera setting. But because you can justify them being there by saying they are alien races, they fit.
One rule is that the visuals have to suit the 'tone' of the game. Anything suitably dark and dreary could suit a stealth game, whether that setting is medieval, futuristic, cyberpunk, steampunk, post apocalyptic...

If it would exist or not, it'd be nice if people could actually think in the mindset that it might, because then perhaps we might get some ideas going ahead. There certainly are enough wannabe developers and such on this forum that if people had enough ideas and drive there probably could be something going on.

But the bioshock setting wasn't chosen purely for the visuals. It's story and design was carefully tailored to work well. As was System Shock's. The characters, the set pieces and the story all works together with the base aesthetics to create the environment and setting. There is far more to a setting and design then "HURP I LIEK DIS".

Have you ever heard of creative criticism? No? I didn't think soooo. What you're doing is just knocking down ideas without giving them any chance to be explored or improved upon. If you said 'don't do steampunk, do X' and then gave good reasons why X setting is better than steampunk that would be fine. In fact, adding anything at all to the discussion would be great. But your entire contribution has been saying 'this idea sucks.' and then using lolcat spelling to satirise what I'm saying... ala 'HURP I LIEK DIS.' Your wit astounds us all.
I'm getting some sleep. And tomorrow I'm completing this first draft for a stealth game with a vampiric protagonist, set in a living, breathing steampunk environment; with a plot and gameplay designed to create serious tension and scares as well as some heartwarming moments and at least one 'crowning moment of awesome.'
I have a working title and 3 pages of pure 1st person story as well as notes on ideas for mechanics and design elements compiled already.

Goodnight.

 

[Judgement101]

One where you play as a batman villian armed with freeze rays and jetpacks and it all leads up to you making some sort of doomsday weapon shaped like a top hat or something and then you get beat up by batman because you forgot to tie him into your overly elaborate slow moving death trap and then you evade capture to do it all again next week. (Yahtzee has the best game ideas ever, doesn't he?)

 

[Sacred Squirrel]

Ok, here's my idea using some of what I've heard so far. You play as a vampire in a steam punk world where the other vampires have activated ancient steam driven war machines created by a race that mysteriously disappeared millenia ago without a trace. There would be moral choice of either good, evil, or combined, where you base your powers respectively on the sun, moon, or (and don't give me grief about this it used to be, and still is a cool time of day), twilight where you become human on the good path, necromantic vampire on the evil, and half vampire on the combined. the game play is a mix of shadow of the colossus and god of war where there are massive, rusty, monolithic steam powered war machines as bosses along with hordes of smaller rusty war machines and plenty of dungeons as this is still an rpg all the while trying to stop the vampires resurrecting the ancient technologies either for justice, or so that you can use them for yourself. At the end, whoever becomes your last enemy activates the final war machine, which turns out to be the planet your character is on, destroying everyone youve either protected or chosen not to and starting off a massive boss battle in space. After you defeat it, there are many endings, but are mostly this, neutral:the world stays destroyed, you don't have enough power either way to do anything, but you suddenly get an old telepathic message from the ancient race left to play when the creature was destroyed telling you that that you've done the right thing then fades out with you stranded on an asteroid,(at end of credits suddenly shows another clip of you finding a fragment of stone with runes that say simply, "restore" flash of light, then fades out. Evil: taking the power of the destroyed enemy you remake the world in your image and rule it(at the end of credits shows your friends undead slave to you, and whatever love interest your queen but cuts out with him or her looking sadly at you and jumping off a tower if you were mostly evil, otherwise they are also completely evil. Good: You use the power from the machine to restore the world to its former glory when it was not plagued by the dark powers that possessed it while you were there. In mostly good ending your love interest is still dead because they threw themselves into a portal of the ancients to close it and save you and ends with a look over the world you restored. after the credits ending with a look at you standing on the hill staring at the marker you made in their memory. If you're completely good then after the part that the after credit scene would end a portal opens and they step out along with a runed stone that simply says, "thank you". and now thank you for bearing with me through this long writing, once again, just an idea.

 

[voetballeeuw]

I'm pretty sure Cthulu should be involved somehow. Can the main character be Dutch? And what if he's like the Dude from underworld Half werewolf and half vampire (The Wolfman saved werewolves from Twilight but I haven't seen a reedemable vampire flick recently. Oh crap nvm Day Breakers as long as it is one of those vampires I'm good.

 

[Savagezion]

First off, I will also add I don't like the idea of vampires personally. Never really have been a big fan of them and I can't stress how much I hate the idea of "good" vampires. As in vampires that hold some weird sense of reverence for humanity. Vampires are horror and anytime they step out of it with the exception of comedy, it is cheesy and lame on a multiple levels. (Including Blade)

Tossing all your favorite aspects of RPGs you play is ok until you look at what you have. First off, the structure of this thread for any type of think-tanking is terrible. (Just offering constructive criticism) I think we all know that the best video game ever is not going to surface here nor probably anywhere as personal opinion is going to be a nagging problem forever off the very nature of it. This all despite that the first idea pitched solidly was an open ended twilight RPG, modified to steampunk just to say it is different than twilight. /facepalm.

The whole is greater than the sum of its parts comes to mind. So I would say first off, would be that it has been decided this is to be an RPG. The setting will be the first thing that should be hammered out. Ideally, it would be best to get more than one idea for the setting. Get a setting that everyone agrees on if this thread ever wanted to get into game vague game design and not simple thread of "pitch your idea for the best game ever" thread with about 120 pages where at about 10 very few people read it anymore but they just pitch theirs in hopes someone reads it and agrees with them.

I personally, am just going to stick to the vampires thing and basically toy with it. It is simple enough and vampires, I guess, is as good a topic as any. A great game can be made in any setting really I belive. Without even having played it Psychonauts seems to be a good verification of my last statement. SO vampires it is.

-No steampunk.
-Colonial America with powdered wigs and all that.
-You are a vampire in the New World in the islands of the gulf. Europe and Asia have been fully "domesticated" by the vampire factions but the New World has opened up a territory war as much in the vampire factions and werewolf rites as it has to governmental control for the humans.

The ideas I threw out earlier is just what I would do with a vampire RPG where you yourself are the vampire. The factions system is more about a choice system than feeling obligated to fill all the bars. I would actually make it so that you couldn't fill all the bars. EVery quest you did that raised your respect with another vampire faction would hurt your relations with another faction as it would be a quest against that party. Nothing i this game would be "fetch" quests and the like. It would be "go here" and do this act against that faction to prove yourself and your loyalty. In a time of struggle for power, your loyalties will be tested by any side that you are trying to "woo". AN act against a faction would give you more negatives than positives with the assaulted faction than with the favored faction.
For example: The Malkavians want you to infiltrate a Ventrue hideout and kill a certain vampire who has been rallying many in the Ventrue hierarchy to declare war on the Malkavians. If you do the quest, you would get like +10 with the Malkavian faction but -17 with the ventrue. So you would want to persue quests against the vampire party you want to have as your enemies that game.

Your experience is gained from battling other vampires, werewolves, demons, apparitions, vampire/witch hunters, and men of the cloth. (The last of these are total bad asses and tough to get to and kill.)
Feeding does not provide you with experience but rather blood which in my system would be its own mechanic. First off, lack of feeding will kill you. A full day/night cycle would take 2 hours of gametime. SO you would have to feed once or twice every 2 hours. 4 human feedings would fill your blood capacity whether it be blood points or a blood bar or whatever. This bar works like your health.
Getting shot by a gun early on will do damage to your blood bar and can even kill you. However, when you level a perk you would be able to obtain would be minor invulnerability that stops things like firearms, melee weapons, and minor explosions from harming your blood bar. Many similar perks would come in like super strength, major invulnerability, various shapeshifting perks, hover, etc.

Additionally, your blood bar will slowly lower at a constant rate. However, non-passive perks like shapeshifting will lower your blood bar by a set amount. Passive perks just make your natural blood bar decrease naturally faster. The more powerful you become, the more insatiable your feeding habits.

I would have a main plot similar to mass effect but with a world that can be explored and I would have the story offer times for the player to explore. The main quest would have plenty of moments where you are not pressured to continue on. Think along the lines of GTA for this. The main quest would rarely say "hurry and do your next mission now that you have completed this one." Casual story would come in with your ultimate goal being to bring a conclusion to the conflict of the forces at work. I don't really have a story prepared as this is all just spewed out. But these mechanics could have a decent plot tied into them that does not have the vampires "redeem themselves to humanity" and I think it would be a pretty fun game. Perhaps you have tbecome the elder vampire kind of like 'overseer' to the clans as step one. Perhaps have the vampires reach a certain level of dominio over all the other factions in the new world. (Except for demons.)
I don't like the idea of it being open ended. I wouldn't be against letting the player continue to roam the game after they have already beaten it as top dog. But leaving a game open ended always seems like the game is unfinished to me and most open ended games are rarely "gripping".

I have also considered rest being brought in and how sunlight, garlic, holy water, crosses, etc. effect you in this system. But I have already typed enough I think. So yeah...

 

[FretfulGnome]

What is with the obsession with vampires?

 

[Mr. Gency]

Vampires. The main story is based around the fact that you are a vampire. And it's Bethesda-style sandbox.

^ For me, same legos, different combination. The vampires would be an underground society (kind of like a gang war) You play as the leader of one such gang of vampires (who is Scottish, because how many Scottish protagonists are there?). There is some one trying to reveal the vampire's existence.

As for game play. It would be open world (but not the Bethesda kind). Hanging out in enemy territory is dangers because it is littered with enemies. Hanging out in your territory on the other hand is almost completly safe, enemies will still show up, but they'll be easy to kill. You would be very resistant to damage (So taking 100 bullets to the face before going down would make sense for once). You have a limited ability to heal on your own, but you can heal fully by drinking blood (in other words, brutal melee kills). You can run fast. You wear hoods to combat the sun (if you don't have one then you have a few seconds to get out of the sun before you burn). Super strength lets you dual wield anything and everything (yes that includes RPGs).

I just want to write the story my self. Every thing else I would change if you have better ideas.

 

[Mr. Gency]

What is with the obsession with vampires?

I really don't know, I don't get it either. Of all the not-real things out there Vampires are some of the lamest.

This reminds me, I also have an idea for a story based on demons and stuff, in modern day China.

I also have an idea for a bat shit crazy twist ending.

 

[Darkblaven]

My one thing I want to see which NEVER happens in games, I f***ing mean it! The people in the game must actually feel like they're people, I want the world around you to evolve, civilians marry other civilians, they raise families, and you slaughter them all in their old age. Like kinda a sims thing I guess, and you can even start a little story for the civilians so they can feel like they have a meaning in their digital lives, like if you kill their uncle they will become a vampire hunter just to extinguish your kind! Think about real meaning for these people. And if they don't see you do it someone maybe realize "Oh a bite mark on his neck looks like two large fangs, lets research this up shall we? Oh look, vampires have large fangs and bite necks, I hope this information is good for you little Jimmy". Jimmy then goes off and practices the ways of the vampire hunter.

It doesn't happen because that's just too complicated to program. What you're asking for is real AI, an actual evolving and emoting artificial intelligence that is capable of reacting to anything and everything. We just don't have that kind of technology to make that happen in video games reliably.

Alright, thats true but that just means I've got to wait ten years before someone attempts it, fails, someone else improves it, and there we go real AI.