Which of these ideas do you prefer? [PLEASE HELP!]

Game Development
1

1st Idea

  • A game similar to broadsides in structure, where the player will play a conscript (legionnaire), Centurion and eventually General of a Roman-esque army. You’ll go through a variety of events, moral decisions and endings, depending on your choices.

Some Example Choices

Do you capture, execute or release those of any enemy army who surrendered?

Will you overlook your officer’s insubordination, stamp it out of them or have them executed for treason?

You know your superior officer’s plan is suicide, but for the sake of honour and duty will you lead your men into the jaws of death at his behest or risk your rank and life by opposing his decision?

Will you allow your army the spoils of war? Loot? Land? Women?

2nd Idea

  • A game about contrast of interests, morality and loyalty. You play as an Orphan.(still debating on the time period) long From a young age you were brought into a cult/guild/society of “righteous” assassins who dedicate themselves to purging their city hierarchy of tyranny and corruption. As the story progresses you’ll develop your character, his strengths, his weaknesses and his ideas and his morals, both his physical and mental attributes. The questions before you will be many and varied:

    Will side with your guild, your friends or you long-lost family?
    How much does your loyalty to the guild mean to you? Will it drive you? Will it blind you?

    Whom will you trust? The old alchemist, the young girl or your mysterious Mentor?

    How do you kill? Poison? Blade? Quick? Brutal?
    Do you kill because you must, because you’re expected to or because you like to?

    Who will you kill?
    An assassin can’t be everywhere at once, your decisions will affect your life, your friend’s and your fate.

3rd Idea

  • At the crux of the Greenskin war, you’re conscripted into the standing Orc army. Formerly a Mercenary, your morals and motives are questionable, as is your commitment to home and country, still, for some reason or another you are given command of an elite tactical squad and sent on a classified excursion, deep into Goblin territory. A lot rests on your shoulders and you’re not entirely sure why.

    Form, name and lead a team of “Incredibly Hulkish” Orcs deep into the hostile scrublands.
    Name your squad, name your team and choose who will accompany you on each mission.

    Options open to you are entirely dependent on your squad configuration.
    Got your tracker? Ambush the patrols. Got your big brute? Have him punch a hole in the enemy armour/tank.

    Between missions form a relationship with your team, romantic or otherwise, but be careful not to tread on any toes, an Orc’s temper is thin and his memory long, bad karma will bite back in the long run.

    Finally discover the ploy, the plan and decide where you stand.
    With your squad, your country or your life?

4th Idea
Siri’s Choice

VERY “meaty” and VERY branching, nowhere near as linear as a standard c/s game.

This is a very difficult one to put into words.
The idea behind it is to feed off Character relationships.
Most choicescript games have relationships in them, whether romantic or otherwise, but it’s never the focus of the game.
I decided for this one, I think it would be interesting to design something ENTIRELY around your relationships with characters. To have a lot of dialogue and a lot of decisions that will affect other character’s and in turn, their relationship with you.

The main plot revolves around your relationship with a girl/woman called Siri.

Depending on your gender you can choose what kind of relationship you have with her at the start:

  • You can be her Father/Mother

  • Brother/Sister

  • BFF (Best Friend Forever)

  • Or her lover

This will change the default dialogue path and make Siri treat you in a certain way.
Throughout the story she’ll confide in you based on your relationship.
If you’re her father (mother) you’ll have to comfort her about the death of her mother (father) or her feelings towards other members of the group. Will you be the controlling father (mother), the protective father or something else entirely?
Normal.

If you’re her brother or sister, both your parents will be dead and that will be a topic she’ll often discuss. She’ll also probe you, ask you about your own relationships with the rest of the group and tease you if you’re in any relationships. You’ll find it hard but necessary to make many decisions between her and the rest of your group.
Normal.

BFF, is somewhat of a “hard mode”, you’ll have to work a lot harder to get her to open up to you. Siri will try and be strong in front of you but with no family left she’ll feel very lost and alone. She needs a friend now more than ever and depending on your choices, you may or may not be that friend for much longer.

Being her lover is probably somewhat of an “easy mode”, Siri will confide in you from the start and you’ll get a lot of information about her very quickly, a lot more choices will be available and a lot of ideas, directions and consequences will become more clear. The primary downside is as a lover, you’ll need to spend a lot of time with her, which may have a negative on the rest of your relationships.

I’m still mulling over the setting, but I’m definitely thinking end-of-world cliche kind of thing, either that or a more political/social ideal, perhaps a school life? I’m not entirely sure yet, totally open to ideas though :slight_smile:

And why is it called “Siri’s Choice?” - Because my favorite part about this is that right at the end of the playthrough, you’ll be faced with an extremely hard decision with a twist, it’s her decision to make, not yours. All your choices and actions throughout the game will affect her decision. Did you control her? Comfort her? Ignore her? She’ll make a final decision and give you an ending accordingly, if you’ve made poor decisions before, you’ll learn what it is to regret. :0

5th Idea

VERY “meaty” and VERY branching, nowhere near as linear as a standard c/s game.
Probably the “biggest” idea here, very long. Probably broke up into parts.

This is a more story-based idea, there aren’t so many choices, but when there are, they’re very big, as are their consequences.

Set in a Final-Fantasy-Esque world where magic, technology and medieval weaponry coexist, mages and scientists have found a way to cheat death, to obtain immortality. By destroying the soul, a husk is made. A living shell of the person, retaining their past thoughts, their feelings and their memories but rendering them unable to feel present emotion.

The risk of over-population, the fear of takeover and moral-arguments against the practice are escalating into something bordering a war and at that, one with clearly undefined lines.

You play as a young mage several hundred years into “the war” and find yourself journeying to the capital as part of a Pro-Mage mercenary team. Once there you’ll be faced with an armada of brutal combat, heart-breaking decisions and resolve-sapping truths. You’ll have to choose not only a side but an ideal. Will you help the government destroy the husks or control them? Will you adopt the mage’s cause for self-preservation or pro-creation? Or something else entirely.

Will you make friends? Will you expect their betrayal or better yet, be able to betray them, when the time is right?
Will you talk to a husk, will you see their side of things? Will you fall in love and if so who with and… For what reasons?

If anyone actually read all of that, bless you :’)
And if anyone can give me their thoughts on an idea, or suggest one to pursue, I’d be hard pressed to find words that’ll portray my gratitude!

Regards,

CJW

2

Been thinking much about this one? :slight_smile:

I’d be impressed to see Siri’s Choice come together well. Like you say, that would really be something unique.

3

…I have to pick? Either 4 or 5. I really like choices having an impact (the kind of RPG CYOA is getting old), so they both sound good.

4

Dunno how experienced you are with writing and coding these games, but to be honest I would like to see the orc idea the most.

Just something about being a huge green guy hating his enemies to death I never get tired off.

5

WHOA! I didn’t read the 2nd idea very well. Add that to my votes.

6

Thanks for the comments guys!

@Havenstone - You don’t know the half of it! :stuck_out_tongue:
I’d love to do Siri’s Choice, that is the most ambitious of my ideas, I feel. It’ll be the hardest to do though, without a doubt and I’m still uncertain as to what the world/environment I apply the mechanics should be. Any ideas on that front?

@noogai - I’m experienced with writing and coding separately but this will be my first venture into Choicescript :slight_smile:

And yes… That is exactly the point, what isn’t cool about a squad of 8’ masses of rippling muscle kicking the -ugh, rubbish - out of things? :slight_smile:
There’d be a lot of dry silly/dry humor in this one too, which I feel can prove a light-hearted change.

@Shintaro - I always strive to do something different to the next person, not necessarily better, just different.
Variety is the spice of life after all :slight_smile:
What caught your eye about idea No.2?

7

Alright. First of all, I’m male. Second of all. You mentioned assassins. 'nuff said.
But really. I adore games that test morality and honor…even though all these games seem to have that.
…
I’m going to go cry now.

8

@Shintaro - xD

It’s all about the lesser of two evils I guess.
There’s nothing particularly moral about killing and there’s nothing very honorable about doing it stealthily.

But what are your intentions? What are your methods?
Do you do it as quickly as possible or kill him slowly in order to garner information (or pleasure)?

Do you kill just your target or do you butcher his guards and household staff along the way?

Do you leave your victims bodies as they fall or take the time to close their eyes and pray for their peaceful passing and your own forgiveness?

There are many types of assassin :stuck_out_tongue:

9

@CJW Are there any of these that you would particularly like to write?
I think it’s best if you work with the one that is something you think you would find most enjoyable, not the one that the masses want.

10

@noogai I thought that question might crop up… ^^
I’d love to write them all, but sadly that’s not going to happen, not anytime soon anyway.

I guess if I had to answer, I’d say I’d be more at home writing about the 5th or 3rd idea, they’re the kind of Genre’s I enjoy, particularly five.

I do however writing something like Siri’s Choice, the 4th one would be enjoyable in its own right, there’s nothing quite like working towards something so different, it tends to feel - to me - like my work on it has more purpose.

The Roman one would be nice and easy to write in comparison to the other four, but it probably wouldn’t be nearly half as interesting for me. Still interesting enough though.
The Assassin one caused me a few problems, I think with more planning and thought I’d enjoy writing it but right now I feel like it’s probably a little under-thought.

So… Five or Four, possibly Three. I think is as much as I can narrow it down to and I’m not ruling the others out there; interest in ideas makes me interested in them return, so if people give a lot of feedback for the other two that would definitely make them viable options.

11

@CJW - one slight variation to what you suggested would be to do it as a sort of Rashomon story, where (in a single game, not on replays) you see the same week in Siri’s life through the eyes of her parent, sibling, best friend, and lover, not necessarily in that order. That way, the choices you made as her parent in Chapter 1 affect the choices you’re offered as her sibling in Chapter 2, etc… until the end, when she makes Siri’s Choice ™ based on the cumulative effect of all the most important people in her life.

If the point of the game is influencing Siri’s big choice at the end, it might be hard to get the dynamics you’re describing in the sibling/lover sections, where you need to make the player care about investing time and choices in “the rest of your relationships” as well. It could easily be like, who cares, they’re not my “real” friends, this game is about Siri.

Maybe if Siri’s choice at the end has to do with the social group – she has to decide whether to do something that will likely hugely alienate most people around her, and you have to then decide whether to join her – then the number of friends/sympathizers you and she have left at the end will depend partly on whether you spent all your time with Siri, or maintained connections with other friends as well?

Don’t know what kind of setting would be best, except it would have to be one that doesn’t distract from the core of the game. So something most readers will find familiar would probably be ideal.

12

I think 2, 4 and 3 would be the most interesting to me in that order.

13

@CJW,
The ideas are good but the ones i liked best were the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and the 4th ones.
P.S. The second idea sounds a lot like The Assassin’s Creed series but without the Templars. Took some ideas from Ubi Montreal did you?

14

@Havenstone - That’s actually not a bad idea, it would be hard, but different… And damn I will never be able to express how much I like different!

Maybe if your choices didn’t just depict her final decision but her entire life? As you say each chapter affects the next. If her parents decide to ground her in Chapter 1, then she’ll not date a guy who would otherwise appear when you’re sibling in Chapter 2?

I like the social group/choice aspect too. I was leaning towards a school environment but I wasn’t 100% sure, particularly with parents involved (I even toyed with them being her teachers, lol), how that would work. With your perspective idea it could work quite well. Infact that social group could be the perspectives, so you don’t worry too much about other people, you worry about Siri’s relationship with each of them? o.o

That’s deep man. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: Thanks!

@shoelip Four is definitely proving popular…!

@Zed
I have only actually played the first AC but due to its popularity it is very hard to discuss assassin games without people comparing them.
This doesn’t involve an animus/ancestors or evil - take over the world - organisation it’s very much just about the assassin, his life, his habits and his ideals. It’s a personal story - a simulation if you like - What kind of an Assassin would you be? What life would you lead? I’m also still debating on the era, it would probably be set a lot earlier than the first AC, in Rome or Ancient Greece perhaps. :slight_smile:

15

@CJW,
I wanna be the type of assassin who is a butcher and slaughters everyone in sight or an assassin who kills quickly, efficiently, and silently.
PS Play the other ACs; I skipped the second one and went to Brotherhood but it’s awesome, hven’t played Revelations but wnt 2 and i’ve preordered AC3 B-)

16

@CJW #1& #5 are my favorites, although of the two, I think you’d find a bigger audience for #5. I love having to deal with moral dilemmas and choices that both matter and have consequences.

#2 is potentially interesting, but there are a lot of assassin stories out there these days.

The idea of role-playing a brute as in #3 isn’t particularly appealing to me personally, not unless there is a great deal of slapstick humor involved. Then I would enjoy it for the amusement value.

#4 sounds like quite the daunting challenge to pull off well, as you’ve already recognized. Nevertheless it’s definitely unique, and worthy of further thought and exploration. I’m not going to have much of an opinion on this one until it’s further fleshed out.

17

Yea… Number 2 for me please :stuck_out_tongue: . I have something like a crush on anything assassin like :E . And all that kind of moral choices are actually more difficult to make then most of other. But if you would chose it as your story, you should make it serious, maybe even grim kind of story. The best author for this kind of things would be Stephen King. So if you didn’t read any of his books, I sure can recommend it.

Number 3 would be my second choice. I don’t know if you saw any trailers of the game called “Of Orcs and Men”, but something like that would be a little bit more… let’s just say, interesting. Basically, Orcs and Goblins are showed as the bad guys in almost every book/game/movie. And it becomes a little bit boring for the good vanquishing the evil. It would be fun if for once the evil would win :stuck_out_tongue: . You could then situate it in something like “Overlord” (funny game :D) kind of world.

18

@Zen
You can do that, hell. Carve demonic symbols into your victims’ corpses if you so desire :slight_smile:

@P_Tigras
I concur, as popular as No.4 seems, I think maybe for my first Choicescript game I should choose something a little easier to structure. Number 1 I think would end up a lot like Broadsides, which as far as I know is relatively popular, so I’m not sure there.
I think I could definitely write a more moving/detailed story with number five, I’ve got a lot of ideas for that.

@Polonium
I’ve actually never had the pleasure of reading any books by Stephen King, the Orcs were largely inspired by Stan Nicholls’ “ORCS” series, where they are portrayed as the protagonists. As for Overlord, that is a legendary game and that is very much the type of humour I was considering too! ^^

19

Never read or heard about Stan Nicholls, but I do like orcs.
Gonna hit up my local library and see if I can find him.

20

@CJW, SWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEETTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!
PS. OVERLORD 2 Was Awesome