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m4marksman

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Posted: 24th Jul 2011 10:19

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Ok so I have an idea for a game and I don't want to start it if it sounds bad and I don't want to spend the $125 on model packs until I know other people will be interested in it.

So youre part of a task force team and you start off training but something goes wrong and you and your team are called in for a possible terrorist attack and you enter the building to find that its no terrorist attack but the building is inhabited by aliens doing tests on humans and its now your job to clear the building with your team.

Obviously I'll put in twists and things but my setting will start in a destroyed town moving to the building and the building you fight in will be post apocalyptic looking and all destroyed.

Before I take the time and spend all of that money I'd like to know that my idea interests others and get ideas and opinions from the public so post what you think please

John Rink

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IntRepid Bullet

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Posted: 24th Jul 2011 10:28

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Sounds awesome! But perhaps you could start the game off with terrorists, and slowly ease into the aliens, add signs of alien life as the game progresses, then have your character confronted by one? Just an idea. Apart from that though, sounds awesome!

Yeh, I'm a noob. <3

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maho76

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Posted: 24th Jul 2011 17:13 Edited at: 24th Jul 2011 17:15

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a good story is nice, but far more important if a first-person-shooter is interesting gameplay (sorry to say, but lets face it: it will be a more or less stupid SHOOTER, not a conversion of miltons paradise lost^^)

sounds nice. have you ever seen the series "the visitors", the old one from the 80s? it get its time since the main characters discover that the enemies are aliens. personally i like story-twists like the post before this one says, and its raises the gamers wish to go on with the game a second time, so motivation to go on is raised immensly.

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m4marksman

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Posted: 24th Jul 2011 19:04

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Ok I was thinking about stating it in a war actually so thats good that you guys like that idea too. Well I'll get started as soon as I get my new Laptop hopefully it'll look as good as it sounds

John Rink

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Captain Coder

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Posted: 26th Jul 2011 00:56

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FANTASTIC!!

I was actually going to make my own alien game - but different.

For the record, there is, in fact, a much bigger history behind aliens and UFOs than most people are aware of. Here is some information I know that you might find useful in creating a good backstory for your game. Please note that this is what I REMEMBER from reading, I do not guarentee this stuff to be correct!

UFOs, as I recall, began to pick up some fame during WW2, where glowing orbs would chase fighter planes on both sides. These orbs were called "Foo Fighters". Oddly enough, both the Allies and Nazies thought the orbs were enemy craft. After the war when Nazi documents were being looked over, it was discovered that the orbs were not German fighters.

In 1947, a UFO is said to have crashed on a cattle ranch in the western US. The ranch manager was very unhappy, knowing that the scattered metal could harm the animals he was in charge of. So he asked people, and they couldn't figure out what it was. He finally went to the Sheriff's office, and he couldn't figure it out either. He finally went to the Army Air Force (this was before the Air Force was established as a separate branch) and showed it to the base commander, who couldn't figure it out and sent some soldiers out to the ranch the next morning to recover more of the material. Eventually, he dubbed it a UFO, and told the press. And reported it to High Command.

US High Command quickly put a tight lid on the press and those who had seen the metal in order to keep the public from panicking, and the incident died away until decades later private investigators begin looking into the incident, not believing military press releases.

During the '50s and '60s, UFOs became a widely seen phenomenon. During the '60s, alien abductions were being reported, and about 2 million people in the US claimed to have experienced an abduction. The odd part of abductions is that all abductees report similar experiences. The aliens would put them in suspended animation, bring them onboard the UFO, inspect them, and them drop them off after putting a memory block in their mind. These experiences were extremely traumatizing to many, and they would be reffered to a psychiatric clinic for treatment. Much more detail could be given here, but for the sake of time and space, we will not go there.

As time progressed, UFOs were sighted less frequently, particularly after the Cold War between the US and USSR. UFOs are still occasionally reported today, but not often.

Although there is no scientific evidence for aliens or UFOs, it is nevertheless fun to dream about them and what they would do.

AGAIN, this is WHAT I REMEMBER, and I DO NOT GUARENTEE ANY OF IT TO BE FACT, nor am I claiming aliens to be real. Call me crazy, but this stuff is cool to read about in the library, regardless of whether or not it is true. I used to read a lot about UFOs in my spare time before I got into making games. They always amazed me, ever since I learned about them when I was 7 years old.

Nice story idea, I hope it goes well!

This is Captain Coder, over and out.

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Le Shorte

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Posted: 26th Jul 2011 04:31

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Quote: "UFOs are still occasionally reported today, but not often. "

There's an average of one alien abduction report in California every day

Cheesehead for life.

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NIlooc223

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Posted: 26th Jul 2011 19:22

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you mean every night le shorte?

Your signature has been erased by a mod - no affiliate links thanks

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Captain Coder

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Posted: 17th Aug 2011 19:15 Edited at: 17th Aug 2011 19:24

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@m4marksman: What do plan on doing for the alien characters? Are you going to model them from scratch?

Just was wondering.

Captain Coder

EDIT:

Do you think you could make the war a nuclear war? I just remembered that the number of UFO sightings went up exponentially after the US developed the atomic bomb.

Hey, I just thought it was kinda funny how UFO sightings declined significantly after the Cold War, when the build up of nuclear arms stopped. It's almost as if the aliens were worried about our build up of nuclear weapons - like we could hurt them

.

One of the most humbling days in your life will be the day you discover you AREN'T the best at what you love to do.
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Wolf

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Posted: 17th Aug 2011 20:26

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I just wrote an entire review on that, but I accidentally pressed the wrong button and deleted it ...so in short:

NO! Why is the general reaction to this "Awesome"? Is this the first effect of the latest michael bay films on the human conciousness?

Quote: "So youre part of a task force team and you start off training but something goes wrong and you and your team are called in for a possible terrorist attack"

I would suggest to make your character a new guy that just has been assigned to the team. That way you can have some short dialogue parts where the player gets to know the protagonist and can relate to him. Just having some "special forces guy" being the maincharacter doesnt leave a big impression on your audience.
So what does actually go wrong? "Something goes wrong" is not a plausible cause to send in special forces people. Military Intelligence (lol!) is usually more precise about these matters.

Quote: "and you enter the building to find that its no terrorist attack but the building is inhabited by aliens doing tests on humans and its now your job to clear the building with your team."

So what happened? why do people think there are terrorists in this particular building? What kind of terrorists did they expect? And how did they notice?

So in this building are aliens that make tests on humans. Its going to be a shooter, so I guess these are the bad aliens that do the creepy teststuff. So yeah...why are they in a destroyed building? All abduction storys usually have...a spaceship involved. I doubt that any aliens would seriously concider to get all their equipment into a building to do tests there instead of the spaceship...also, how do they get away in case they get caught. And now that the special forces dudes where moving in the building without knowing what is going on...surprise! Aliens!
Didn't these aliens have some security stuff to prevent people from entering the building?
And now comes what is just wrong with this idea. They discover Aliens that somehow manage to get here doing tests on humans. This basically tells us that they concider us to be some kind of disposable labmonkey...which inclines that they concider us primitive...which means that they are more advanced then we are. (I'm assuming here) ... so... now we send in armed guys that ...should kill them all? Couldnt that cause an intergalactic war?
Wouldn the army surround that building and evacuate the area to find out what these aliens want and get better insight on the situation. These aliens could even have a doomsday device to blow everything up in case something goes wrong.

Quote: "

Obviously I'll put in twists and things but my setting will start in a destroyed town moving to the building and the building you fight in will be post apocalyptic looking and all destroyed."

Why is this town destroyed?

Quote: "
Before I take the time and spend all of that money I'd like to know that my idea interests others and get ideas and opinions from the public so post what you think please"

It sounds slightly random and not well thought through. I would suggest to take a half hour, sit down and actually THINK about the whole story and concept...maybe take some notes. Then concider buying anything.

-Wolf

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Captain Coder

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Posted: 18th Aug 2011 19:05

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@Wolf: A lot of your points make sense. However, I also disagree with you on a lot of points as well. Let me explain:

I agree with you on...

Quote: "I would suggest to make your character a new guy that just has been assigned to the team. That way you can have some short dialogue parts where the player gets to know the protagonist and can relate to him. "

That makes perfect sense and will make for a great game if the player can establish a more-or-less personal connection - a reason for them to care about who they are playing as.

Quote: ""Something goes wrong" is not a plausible cause to send in special forces people. "

True. I know sometimes the military does not tell the soldiers involved what they are specifically doing/where they are going in order to protect intelligence should the soldier get captured, so maybe that could be what happens here.

Quote: "All abduction storys usually have...a spaceship involved"

That is true. There are very RARE occasions where the abduction was not onboard an alien ship and instead was in the person's garage or something. That is an important thing to think about. Maybe it could be the precursor to a new alien base or something.

Quote: "I would suggest to take a half hour, sit down and actually THINK about the whole story and concept...maybe take some notes. "

I COMPLETELY agree. I am just wondering what you meant by "take some notes."

I do not agree with you on...

Quote: "NO!"

YES YES YES!!! Aliens I think would be a nice break from all the zombie games in the WIP and Showcase forums.

Quote: "Why is the general reaction to this "Awesome"? "

Because it is AWESOME!

Quote: "So what does actually go wrong?

So what happened?

Why is this town destroyed?"

There are a lot of probing questions in your post, IMHO. Are you trying to steal his idea?

Just kidding...
But I don't think this was meant to be a WIP thread, and since he hasn't even started development yet (as of his last post), it might be better to not give away all of the details, get everyone excited, and then decide not to finish, for one reason or another. That can make for a bad forum reputation.

Quote: "how did they notice?"

To make a long story short, aliens need light to see like us humans (based on abduction stories), so they would bring in artificial light sources. The building is destroyed, so I assume it has lots of holes in it. Maybe somebody saw light from one of the buildings and called the military. Or better yet, have a soldier dissapear when he went over to check out the building! That'll get the military's attention.

Quote: "Didn't these aliens have some security stuff to prevent people from entering the building? "

Based on what I've read from abduction stories and UFO encounters, security staff was generally not provided. Any alien with telepathic capabilities, which was pretty much all of them, had the ability to easily subdue any human via coersive mind-control techniques. However, security would probably be a good element to insert, because an FPS with no challenge from enemies is BORING.

Quote: "Couldnt that cause an intergalactic war? "

An excellent sequel to an already cool-sounding game!

Well, that is all my opinion. Please don't take offense by it, I mean to hurt no one.

Sincerely,
Captain Coder

One of the most humbling days in your life will be the day you discover you AREN'T the best at what you love to do.
- Me

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Wolf

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Posted: 18th Aug 2011 21:16 Edited at: 18th Aug 2011 21:27

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Quote: "I am just wondering what you meant by "take some notes."
"

Write down some general ideas on a sheet of paper and create a story around that. You know... like a creative ideas pinboard thing.
English sucks

Quote: "Aliens I think would be a nice break from all the zombie games in the WIP and Showcase forums."

Not if it has similar quality. And this story is just too unplausible to me to result in a really good game. Why not making it a spaceship? And that one special forces guy has really strong mentalabilitys and is able to resist the aliens? That would be kinda cool...

Quote: "subdue any human via coersive mind-control techniques"

Must be a cool shooter game with enemies being able to do that

No more further questions

Quote: "
Well, that is all my opinion. Please don't take offense by it, I mean to hurt no one.
"

Aliens abducted me and explained to me telephatically that we are all one conciousness that is experiencing itself and there is no such thing as pain. So you can't actually hurt me. They also chose me to mate with the female aliens because their males can no longer reproduce...and the female aliens do all look heather carolin. But I think there where some mushrooms involved somewhere... like on my pizza. Does anyone want a pizza roll? E-Mail me if you want a pizza roll.

-Wolf

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The Storyteller 01

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Posted: 18th Aug 2011 22:27 Edited at: 19th Aug 2011 01:56

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Quote: "Wolf: NO! Why is the general reaction to this "Awesome"? Is this the first effect of the latest michael bay films on the human conciousness?"

Quote: "Wolf:So what happened? why do people think there are terrorists in this particular building? What kind of terrorists did they expect? And how did they notice?So in this building are aliens that make tests on humans. Its going to be a shooter, so I guess these are the bad aliens that do the creepy teststuff. So yeah...why are they in a destroyed building? All abduction storys usually have...a spaceship involved. I doubt that any aliens would seriously concider to get all their equipment into a building to do tests there instead of the spaceship...also, how do they get away in case they get caught. And now that the special forces dudes where moving in the building without knowing what is going on...surprise! Aliens!Didn't these aliens have some security stuff to prevent people from entering the building? And now comes what is just wrong with this idea. They discover Aliens that somehow manage to get here doing tests on humans. This basically tells us that they concider us to be some kind of disposable labmonkey...which inclines that they concider us primitive...which means that they are more advanced then we are. (I'm assuming here) ... so... now we send in armed guys that ...should kill them all? Couldnt that cause an intergalactic war? Wouldn the army surround that building and evacuate the area to find out what these aliens want and get better insight on the situation. These aliens could even have a doomsday device to blow everything up in case something goes wrong. "

I was going to write an elaborate answer....and halfway through it scrolling up, I realized that the Wolf allready has said it all

I couldn't agree more.

And here are some do's and don'ts for everybody who tries to come up with an original story for < EDIT: > his or her FIRST FPSC game:

- DON'T create a story where you'll need a lot to explain because either you'll have to work countless hours to produce a cool intro with cutcenes or you'll bore your players to death with 10 pages of text. DO create a story with a reason for the player not to know too much or have too much background. OBLIVION was one of the hit games of the last century and still it used the old "prisoner gets involved with things he doesn't really understand" intro.
- DON'T make the enemy intelligent and organized. If you do, the player SHOULDN'T HAVE THE SLIGHTEST CHANCE. Instead DO make the enemy dumb, unorganized and unable to react to a threat in an intelligent way (it will also be a LOT easier to write scripts for them, that match this behaviour). Zombies, malfunctioning (hostile) androids and escaped madmen are good examples.
- DON'T choose a setting in a functioning settlement. Trying to keep the story and map belivable and logical is near to impossible. The bigger the settlement the worse. DO choose a setting in derelict, isolated areas (yes, I mean whole areas). A given-up military base near the north pole comes quite close to an ideal place.
- DON'T involve whole organizations in your setting. The FBI/CIA/USMC/Foundation sent you? BAD idea, because you'll have to elaborately explain, why the player runs into certain death instead of calling for the cavalry. DO make all the people the player might meet as clueless as himself. Hostages, prisoners, half-dead victims and malfunctioning (friendly) androids are good choices.

In case you find my grammar and spelling weird ---> native German speaker ^^

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Wolf

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Posted: 18th Aug 2011 23:11 Edited at: 18th Aug 2011 23:16

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Edit: While thinking of it, I came to the conclusion that the storyteller is absolutely right and I do not need to add anything to his statement.

I make serious coffee - so strong it wakes up the neighbors.
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Captain Coder

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Posted: 20th Aug 2011 05:40

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@The Storyteller 01: I was going to protest your advice when I saw your post first come out but I had to go. I see you've made an edit, and now I agree with what you said. Good advice.

@Wolf:

Quote: "Not if it has similar quality."

Ah, yes, you're right. The thought dawned on me but not until later. Good point.

Quote: "Must be a cool shooter game with enemies being able to do that"

Yeah, but I am not going to do that in my game; would be too hard to play. That would be pretty hard to script as well. I think

...

Quote: "Aliens abducted me "

You need to see a doctor. No no no, you'll freak out when you go to their office, if research indicates anything. Go to a hypnotherapist, they'll straighten you out.

Captain Coder

One of the most humbling days in your life will be the day you discover you AREN'T the best at what you love to do.
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maho76

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Posted: 20th Aug 2011 11:09 Edited at: 20th Aug 2011 11:13

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totally agree with wolf and storyteller, but...

i think to use the janitor of that building as player-char would be a good idea. you can explain everything of the story ingame, starting with terrorists take the building, you have to run so they dont catch you. special forces enter and get shot > weapons for you when you come out of the funnel > the die-hard-hero-janitor who doesnt know whats going on and see some alien skin while police locked the house because of the tv-called-terrorists.

everything in to get it quick and dirty:

no big text at the beginning.
high-tension.
isolated area.
you can use dumb terrorists and dumb special forces so its believable that a janitor can kill aliens with picked up weapons.
....
finally dont use an invasion but simply a crashed stupid alien-gangster-gang that fall into that building, looking like a bomb-explosion for tv and police when inhabitants running out, screaming "they are still inside!!! aaahhhh"

basic idea packed into the limits by wolf and storyt.

gz

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The Storyteller 01

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Posted: 20th Aug 2011 11:37 Edited at: 20th Aug 2011 11:41

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Quote: "maho76:i think to use the janitor of that building as player-char would be a good idea"

A good idea indeed and a very clever one too!

- the janitor is clueless and has to find out what's hapening first - as does the player (one could give him a slight injury and make him an ex-soldier/cop of some sorts so he knows how to use weapons he finds)
- he knows the building inside out including vents and unused parts and he's got most of the keys which gives him an advantage over everybody else. He's got even the "power" to cut/restore the electricity where he wants or disable/enable the elevators.

PS: My advice has always been meant for first-timers but I only realized, I somehow managed to let that slip, when I revisited the thread. I didn't get to read the pre-edit post by Wolf though, maybe it was in regard to this

In case you find my grammar and spelling weird ---> native German speaker ^^

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Wolf

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Posted: 20th Aug 2011 12:32

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Quote: "i think to use the janitor of that building as player-char"

But I had that idea already

I make serious coffee - so strong it wakes up the neighbors.
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FPSC Classic Product Chat / Alien Game Opinion