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[The Torn]

So, I've been wanting to make a game for the longest time now, and I figured I'm finally sort of ready to give it my first proper shot. But I want you guys' help.
Help how? Well, I'd still make the game myself, but I want your ideas. You would dictate all the design choices, collectively, and progressively, somehow.
This has the benefit of me not going for one of my overly ambitious ideas, as well as giving me more motivation to work on the game, since I'm not the only one who cares at least a bit about it.
To further clarify...
This is the first time I would actually make something that took longer than a couple of days. I definitely don't know everything I need to, and thus the progress would be slow as I need to learn midway, but hey, everyone needs to start somewhere.
I'm going to make the game in Unity, and I can (try to) make some models in Blender. (In a rather crude fashion. I'm more of a programmer than an artist.)
Expect pictures of progress, and perhaps even a few videos. And of course the game itself at every playable stage.

Current to-do list: (in some particular order or another)
Improve obstacle generation. (Are our dwarves moving down some sort of cavern, killing stuff, or are they defending their fortress from a siege, wave after wave?)
Add control over your squad of dwarves.
Add enemies (goblins, for now) with some sort of pathfinding.
Add basic combat.

Somewhere further down the line: (subject to change)
Add proper models of things. (;_;)
Progression. (Dwarves gaining experience, enemies getting tougher. Adding active defensive structures to the map?)

[Neonivek]

Well I could reach into my pocket and bring out my "Not that ambitious" dream games.

One for example is a Monster Rancher-Like game where you are tasked as an immortal trainer of warriors from across time.

Each warrior knows a different form of a real martial art.

It would be 2d with simplified graphics, likely pixel, to give it a colorful atmosphere but also allow it to thrive.

[Orange Wizard]

How about agreeing on an overall theme or main game mechanic first - y'know, what is the game about?

Breeding the ultimate warrior cats to exterminate evil dogs

[ShadowHammer]

How about agreeing on an overall theme or main game mechanic first - y'know, what is the game about?

Breeding the ultimate warrior cats to exterminate evil dogs

+1

[NJW2000]

On a more serious note, how about DF (loosely done) told from the POV of a single dwarf?

Not necessarily roguelike or involving procedural generation, just the experiences of player-run fortresses and encounters with adventurers, or something of the kind. Something more personal, with a less grand scope than DF.

I assume the OP would be interested in that, as most lurkers here play DF, but if not something else would be great.

[Araph]

How about agreeing on an overall theme or main game mechanic first - y'know, what is the game about?

Breeding the ultimate warrior cats to exterminate evil dogs

Breeding the ultimate warrior mice to exterminate evil cats

On a more serious note, how about DF (loosely done) told from the POV of a single dwarf?

Not necessarily roguelike or involving procedural generation, just the experiences of player-run fortresses and encounters with adventurers, or something of the kind. Something more personal, with a less grand scope than DF.

I assume the OP would be interested in that, as most lurkers here play DF, but if not something else would be great.

I would be interested in seeing this. It has potential for both an interesting story as well as for ridiculous dorf shenanigans.

[The Torn]

Glad I decided to wait for a few more answers.

On a more serious note, how about DF (loosely done) told from the POV of a single dwarf?

Not necessarily roguelike or involving procedural generation, just the experiences of player-run fortresses and encounters with adventurers, or something of the kind. Something more personal, with a less grand scope than DF.

I assume the OP would be interested in that, as most lurkers here play DF, but if not something else would be great.

This is indeed an interesting idea. But it's fairly vague, as far as I see it.

I doubt you mean something like Adventurer Mode, as we already have that, so the action must be taking place in a fortress?
But that leaves questions like:
Are there other dwarves around? Those would have to be AI-controlled then.
The dwarves in a regular fortress don't have much freedom of thought nor variety in their life, last I remember. Would our specimen be partially, or directly under our control? It might actually be hilarious to see how far you could bend the jobs you had been given, or how often you could arrange a party, drawing a large chunk of the population with you, but I'm not entirely convinced there'd be meaningful gameplay there. I'm not great with words either, but that doesn't rule out the option of it being a story game with a pre-set path instead. I guess what I'd like to know is...
Is the life of an individual dwarf interesting enough?

Also, if we go with this, would we be using the same tile-based graphics as DF does?

Not criticizing the idea, just trying to provide food for thought, if you think it's good, I don't really see any particular reason why it isn't.

I'd like to get started sometime tomorrow, hopefully we'll refine the thought some more by then. =)

[Orange Wizard]

Glad I decided to wait for a few more answers.

How dare you so casually reject my feline eugenics simulator

[NJW2000]

Ummm. Other dwarves would probably be around - whether AI controlled or something more linear or basic, I don't know.

Graphics depends on what you (and the community, those of us [not me] that get off their arses from time to time) can do, but there's no particular reason to be tile-based, especially if we want to do something more personal.


And the big question - how can it be interesting - well:
 

• Dwarves can move from fort to fort (hard to implement, possibly, but more variety)
• Dwarves can attack the state, try and cause chaos, this could be interesting
• Perhaps some sort of diplomacy/relationship simulator with other dwarves/bodies of government/traders/bureaucrats/nobles etc to add depth (maybe even in a struggle to become overseer of the fort at some point).
• Disaster - everything can go wrong in a fort, implementing the effects of this on the little guy might be fun. Flooding accidents, bedrooms accessible to cavern beasts, stupid constructions, mass prisoner escapes, whatever. Avoiding these (as in running away heriocally, or countering at best, not preventing) could be the major source of difficulty and conflict.
  
  
  Other ideas are needed, though, with this. I'm not totally sure myself how all of it could work, and someone else should chip in before somebody makes an entire game just on my suggestions.

[MagmaMcFry]

Hold the fuck up everyone, we're being way, waaaay too ahead of ourselves here. Torn, you say you have never written a game before? Then you definitely need to start small. Very small. Space Invaders small. Pong small. Checkers small. Anything larger than very small and you'll lose interest or patience 10% through. The game everyone's proposing here would take months even for an experienced game developer, twice as long if you're using Unity, because Unity is not suited for this type of game.

Torn, what experience do you have already? What sort of programs have you written before?

[Araph]

Hold the fuck up everyone, we're being way, waaaay too ahead of ourselves here.

Seconded. My thought with the dwarf game was that it would be fairly linear, with the player controlling one dwarf who has to do dwarf things based on what the overseer tells him to. No simulations or politics or procedural content or living world around them. Just a dwarf, a mission, a few NPCs, and shenanigans involving magma and carp.

[MagmaMcFry]

Hold the fuck up everyone, we're being way, waaaay too ahead of ourselves here.

Seconded. My thought with the dwarf game was that it would be fairly linear, with the player controlling one dwarf who has to do dwarf things based on what the overseer tells him to. No simulations or politics or procedural content or living world around them. Just a dwarf, a mission, a few NPCs, and shenanigans involving magma and carp.

That's a great idea. Standard RPG where you can add content piece by piece. Unity is well-suited for that.

[The Torn]

How dare you so casually reject my feline eugenics simulator

I prefer to think of it being rejected by popular vote.

Hold the fuck up everyone, we're being way, waaaay too ahead of ourselves here. Torn, you say you have never written a game before? Then you definitely need to start small. Very small. Space Invaders small. Pong small. Checkers small. Anything larger than very small and you'll lose interest or patience 10% through.

Torn, what experience do you have already? What sort of programs have you written before?

Thank you for being concerned. And I realize I need to start small. You're not entirely correct though. This wouldn't be my first game, this would be my first game that took longer than a few days. I've already done things "Space Invaders small" or "Pong small", though I can't say that myself losing interest half-way through hasn't crossed my mind, I'm really hoping it won't happen. Making games has been fun so far.
As for what experience I have; like I said, I've done a few couple-day-long (for my skill level) games. I'm far less experienced with 3D modelling (and drawing), especially animating, so I was more concerned with that part.

My thought with the dwarf game was that it would be fairly linear, with the player controlling one dwarf who has to do dwarf things based on what the overseer tells him to. No simulations or politics or procedural content or living world around them. Just a dwarf, a mission, a few NPCs, and shenanigans involving magma and carp.

Well, I wouldn't want it to become an RPGMaker game. =b

[Araph]

Well, I wouldn't want it to become an RPGMaker game. =b

I ain't talkin' about RPGMaker Dwarf Fortress - I mean a game where you have to go fix the floodgates before the fortress fills up with magma, with spacial puzzles that are a race against time. Or you're the miner who opened the circus and you have to escape back up to the surface before the clowns get you, dodging obstacles and trying to figure out the correct path to the surface. Or you have a strange mood and are desperately searching for the materials you need in a fortress that doesn't give a shit about you. Or there's a vampire somewhere in the fortress and you have to talk to other dwarves to figure out who it actually is, all the while knowing that, if you end up alone in the same room as it, you're gonna die. Or there's a kobold somewhere in the fortress that you're trying to track down before it can abscond with your precious stone crafts, keeping a sharp eye out for paw prints and disheveled items that could set you on its trail.

We've got options, man. You can make anything in Unity.

[NJW2000]

The more detective-y ideas above are intriguing. Reckon a sort-of "hunt the criminal" game would work well in DF?