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4X

10 (28.6%)

RTS

6 (17.1%)

Fortress

3 (8.6%)

Idc what you say I want that one you can't do

5 (14.3%)

I'm voting for the lolz

11 (31.4%)

Total Members Voted: 35

[engineer13]

Being an imaginative person I have dreamed up a few game ideas that I would like to see created.  Also, seeing as how I have some pretty good programming skills, I can make some of these games a reality.  Now I need some help.  I'm going to list these game ideas.  I want you guys to pick which one you guys would like to see the most (out of the ones I can do) and also if anybody wants to make these games themselves then great.  Also it would be great if anyone wanted to help me out with creative ideas or programming skills or other needed skills like graphics or sounds.  Anyways here is the list of games I can make:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

• Basically Aurora 4X, but with a better UI and potentially more detailed stuff as well as a better AI.  I also would love to implement a special way of researching I have thought of
• An RTS where every race is different from the others and requires a different strategy and I mean very different, to the point of not having any similar units or buildings and not even using the same resources.  I have already thought up like 6 races for this
• A dwarf fortress like game.  It would have a bit less detail (for instance not having a million and one types of the same item), but it would have a friendlier interface and better graphics.  You would be able to expand your fortress beyond your starting area and the AI would be more "realistic" meaning that it would simulate everything going on allowing for caravans to be ambushed or armies to move around attacking each other (potentially choosing your area for the battlefield) and entire civilizations to be built right before your eyes potentially even encroaching on your land

If you want more details on any of those games just ask me or have it chosen in the poll.  I don't quite know when I will decide the poll is over, but I'll let you know when I do.

There is only really one game I'd like that I can't make:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

A game where there are three players to a team.  It's all set on a 3D landscape.  One player is the commander, he plays an RTS where he builds buildings to manufacture and upgrade robots or defenses so on.  Another player is the spec ops, he plays an FPS where he is superior to the robots due to his arsenal and skill.  The final player is the hacker, he plays a hacking game where he cannot see the battlefield directly but can influence it as well as influencing bots of either team.  Each player helps the others in different ways for instance: the commander helps the spec ops by building an arsenal filled with weapons and ammo and the spec ops places sensors allowing the hacker to affect things in a radius around that sensor.  It would be a giant cooperative game where everybody does their own individual part, but can help the others in doing so.

[Nirur Torir]

A game where there are three players to a team.  It's all set on a 3D landscape.  One player is the commander, he plays an RTS where he builds buildings to manufacture and upgrade robots or defenses so on.  Another player is the spec ops, he plays an FPS where he is superior to the robots due to his arsenal and skill.  The final player is the hacker, he plays a hacking game where he cannot see the battlefield directly but can influence it as well as influencing bots of either team.  Each player helps the others in different ways for instance: the commander helps the spec ops by building an arsenal filled with weapons and ammo and the spec ops places sensors allowing the hacker to affect things in a radius around that sensor.  It would be a giant cooperative game where everybody does their own individual part, but can help the others in doing so.

I'm pretty sure that this is by far the easiest one to make, unless you're some sort of game-balance or AI savant.

Please list out what about seems beyond your skills.

[engineer13]

Please list out what about seems beyond your skills.

Mainly the 3D portion.  I have a lot of difficulty in 3D programming.  That and networking programming, I'm a bit of a beginner in networking.  I understand that the other games may well require networking, but with those it would be something to be implemented later on whereas this would require it immediately.  As far as the 3D portion I would most likely use Unity which I am not extremely proficient in.  I could potentially make this, but it would be much more difficult than the others.

unless you're some sort of game-balance or AI savant.

Now I can't say I'm a game-balance savant, but I do highly enjoy AI creation and if you enjoy doing something, even if it is difficult, it is much easier than something you don't enjoy.  Now I do enjoy programming in general, but especially things that require more intellectual thinking and understanding such as AI's and detail-oriented mechanics.

I find it funny that the first, and so far only, vote is just for the lolz.  I made those last two options as a joke, but it seems I should have expected something like this.

[cerapa]

What games have you made so far?

[Araph]

I'm going to be completely frank here. All four of those ideas are big-ass projects that would take a whole lot of time. It's great to be ambitious, but I would recommend trying something a little more manageable.

What games have you made so far?

I second this question.

[bahihs]

I'm going to be completely frank here. All four of those ideas are big-ass projects that would take a whole lot of time. It's great to be ambitious, but I would recommend trying something a little more manageable.

What games have you made so far?

I second this question.

My thoughts exactly and I third the question.

[engineer13]

Alright I'm gonna be honest with you guys.  I was trying to be all confident and everything with this post, but the real reason behind it is more complicated.  I have been learning programming for somewhere around 5 years now.  I understand a lot about all kinds of different parts that go into game programming, especially 2D games that are more based around strategy and detail.  I understand database management, namely creating a database of dynamic information (whether through some kind of file or in the program itself) or having a static database of information already stored.  I understand pathfinding.  I understand the massive amount of functions and mechanics behind even the simplest of RTS games.  I can program any of this stuff.  I have the knowledge to do it and at different times throughout these 5 years I have programmed different parts of these different things for random programs I was making, for instance a program capable of clicking hundreds to thousands of times per second.  I have done a lot of this stuff throughout my years.  The problem isn't with the knowledge or the experience in using this knowledge.  My issue is that every time I begin a project in game creation I will work on it for a while ranging from a few hours to a week or so, but then something will happen that distracts my attention and suddenly all my drive to complete the project disappears and I never finish it.  The closest I have ever come was when I was working in C++ I was creating a chess game that was supposed to simulate every possible game and give me the best strategy.  I managed to almost get the entire game working (not counting the simulation part).  It was able to understand what a legal move was and what it wasn't and it could do capturing and the such and it even understood check, although it was wholly un-optimized.  The only things it was missing was checkmate and a few other moves like castling and that weird french one (which I could have implemented easily).  I unfortunately got stuck on the checkmate mechanic.  I tried so many different methods for doing it and spent weeks up to like a month trying to debug this thing and eventually just gave up on it because it never worked.  Don't ask me for the code behind this program because this was in like the first year of my programming and I have gotten a new computer since then and don't have any of that stuff anymore.  I digress, I'm basically saying I can create any of these (and I know I haven't listed all my experience in programming related to the creation of these games), but I just don't have the drive to finish it.

Now I know what you will say.  Create a smaller game and work your way up to these larger games.  Well unfortunately I only understand two types of game creation.  Creating a tiny little platformer where you can jump on a few platforms and collect some coins with some enemies floating around and creating these large games that are really awesome.  The only way I can create something in between (which I have made some of those tiny little games, though I don't still have them because I made them a while ago and didn't consider them any much of much so I deleted them when I needed more space on my hard drive) is if someone tells me what to create.  This is where you guys come in.  I wanted someone to tell me what to make (in this case I had a poll for some ideas I had made) and then to hold me accountable to creating it, because that's the only way I will ever finish it.  Also I was looking for a bit of help because I know that extra programmers makes it easier and because I can't make any graphics or sounds.

So in the end I don't really have any games to show for things I have previously created, but I am, as you said, very ambitious and would love to create something awesome even if it does take a lot of time.  If you guys want something more manageable than I would be more than happy to create that as well, I basically just want a game that is more than a tiny tutorial for a programming language that I can create and people will enjoy playing.

[dorf]

TL;DR: make games you love, be aware of your capabilities, push yourself.

Ah yes, to be 17 again... (It's when I started to have this same problem, and I still have it now, but to a lesser degree).

The problem was that I wanted to make games I really couldn't do because of insufficient (game) programming knowledge.
Over the course of few years I've been developing complex games (about a dozen). I've never finished a single one. For me it ended because of my poor design skills. All my games ended up in spaghetti code.

I've learned quite a lot (mostly frameworks, libraries and technical stuff about gamedev) because of attempting complex games, but I never finished anything.
So, when I was 20 years old I got back into gamedev. But this time I started with the easy games: pong, tetris and similar clones.
By then I've realized I'm just not that into gaming anymore. I was more into algorithms and science-ish software development.

When I was 25, I went back into gamedev. This time I've set some ground rules for myself:

• Start with a simple game which you know you can develop quickly
• Develop increasingly complex games (technical or/and design-wise)
• The next game may have at most one new difficult problem, you will need to solve
• Each game must at least attempt at being innovative
• Your may ONLY start on a new game, when you've FINISHED your current game!

These rules try to motivate & guide you, but not restrict you too much. For instance, you'll notice that I haven't defined what a "finished" game is. Some things are left up to you.

I'm now 26 and I've finished three games. One text game, one simple 2D tile-based game and one multiplayer (turn-based) 2D tile-based game.
Note that they aren't really impressive compared to what's out there. But I have to say that the joy of finally finishing and publishing a game or product to public is really, really inspiring.

I've had some ideas and partial designs for my next game, however I haven't started on development yet. That's because the rules guide me into making games that I will find worthwhile and ultimately finish.

[engineer13]

First off let me just say it's really nice to know that I'm not the only one who has had to deal with this problem.  Of course I'm sure we have differing issues, but it kind of ends up being a similar issue.  I also want to say that your rules to fix this issue are actually quite interesting.  I especially like the rule that states it must remain innovative despite being a simple game.  I do know that I am very interested into game development.  I also have other interests in programming, but game dev is a big one.  I'm gonna see if I can kind of follow your idea and see where it leads me.

[bahihs]

I second the simple but innovative game.

I've always wanted to see a simple RTS game with an AI that doesn't depend on arbitrary advantages to be challenging (i.e it actually uses higher level strategy and tactics to win).

[engineer13]

Yeah one thing I have always disliked about RTS games is the fact that the programmers had no ambition to actually improve the AI with difficulty.  It always just gave the AI's units a boost or downgraded yours or maybe just changed the resources you and/or the AI started with.  I've always wanted to have an AI that actually is able to understand strategy and tactics at a higher level with higher difficulty levels.  For example: at easy mode you have an AI that understands a simple swarming strategy and possibly some tactics with understanding what units are good against what units.  When you move up to normal mode, the AI begins to understand flanking maneuvers as well as diversions and so on as difficulty levels increase.  I think this would be a really cool (though difficult to program) AI that would really make the game more interesting.

[dorf]

Seems like you have a cool game idea, but it may be too difficult to develop.
The solution? Break your game in multiple major milestones. First milestone should be a functional but not fully featured  game. Treat each following milestone as a way to introduce a large feature. E.g. complex AI.

[Retropunch]

This is the most useful thing you will ever see on game development: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvCri1tqIxQ

Keep it really, really tight and FOR ALL THAT IS GOOD AND HOLY DO NOT DO MULTIPLAYER FIRST!!!!!

I'd say to do a simple version of Aurora 4x but based on something a bit more grounded. How about being a commander of a base which is constantly under attack every night by robots/aliens/zombies. You have to organise the defences and keep things running from an Aurora type perspective. This could become really, really complex, but you'd only have a few inputs and outputs to deal with, and all the rest would be balancing variables:

This kind of game is easy to make a MVP of:
1)Assign men and resources to defences.
2)Aliens attack
3)resources and men are depleted
4)credits gathered from attack
5)buy men and resources with credits
REPEAT!

You could have all of this on one form, and it shouldn't take more than a day or two to hack together. After that, you can go crazy with it and add all sorts of interesting complexity. Maybe your base is made up of four(8,16,24!) quadrants, and you could send scouts out to see which direction the aliens are attack from so you can bolster the defences there more. Then they might get it wrong or get captured/killed. Perhaps you have various resources that you need to balance - fuel for turrets and fuel for men (and so on).

You need 0 graphics and it's very easy to build on.

[engineer13]

That's actually a really good idea Retropunch.  I will probably try that out and see what I can do with it because graphics have always been a big stopping point for me.  Also the video was pretty nice.  I find it funny how I'm still watching people vote for the lolz on the poll.  I've thought about closing it, but it's kind of interesting to see how many people end up voting for the different options.

[Retropunch]

That's actually a really good idea Retropunch.  I will probably try that out and see what I can do with it because graphics have always been a big stopping point for me.  Also the video was pretty nice.  I find it funny how I'm still watching people vote for the lolz on the poll.  I've thought about closing it, but it's kind of interesting to see how many people end up voting for the different options.

Glad to help. Doing a game without graphics or any 'moving parts' (character movement, animations, and so on) makes things a lot easier. Doing this sort of 4x game, where everything revolves around basic variables and pretty simple logic (at least to start with) is a great way to test and improve on your coding skills as well and you'll easily be able to see where you've gone wrong.

Let me know if you need a hand, and please share with us what you get done (so we can hold you to account!! )