Contest: GameDev.Net - Four Elements IV

[savage]

Definatley needs some serious and innovative brain storming.

[Sly]

Robot Ninjas vs. the Pirate Zombies

A swash-buckling tale of two periods in history colliding, where the evil Robot Ninjas from the future are sent back in time and come across the equally evil Pirate Zombies. The Robot Ninjas must adapt to unfaniliar surroundings as they battle the Pirate Zombies aboard the tall ships of the Pirate Zombie fleet.

A worm-hole opens up and the Robot Ninjas are sent back to their own time, but in giving chase the Pirate Zombies are also sucked through the wormhole. The swash-buckling continues but now it is in the world of the evil Robot Ninjas, but now it is the Pirate Zombies who are in unfamiliar territory.

Will the Robot Ninjas be able to silently prevail, or will the Pirate Zombies "arrrh" their way to victory?

[cairnswm]

I will almost certainly be participating Oh you knoew that already -then why did you ask

My brainstorming so far - not much yet but some ideas and game genres:

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Ninja - Oriental - Swords and Bows - Secret Agent
What about a software virus called a ?¢_~Ninja?¢_T?¢_¬¶

Pirate - Swords/Bows - Space Pirates
software Pirate

Robot - Modern - laser weapons ?¢_" Space
Robots are often computer controlled.

Zombie - Dead - Fantasy - Swords and Bows ?¢_" Magic
Isn?¢_Tt there something in Software called a Zombie Process?


Reiners TileSets
Ninja: Ninja
Pirate: Captian, Red, Blue



What about:
Space Pirates raiding a Space Ship manned by Robots while you the Ninja must protect the Space Ship.

RTS game where each element is a faction in the game. Ninjas and Pirates are human - need food etc. Robots need metals to make new robots - movable buildings etc, Zombies are undead - dont need anything but can only grow by killing the other factions.

Vertical 'shooter' where you a soldier must traverse various levels crewed by the elements. You need to get somewhere/rescue something etc.

RPG where each character is one of the Elements. Unique powers etc.
Possibly four story lines that intercross one another.


?¢_oPirate of the carribean?¢__ story line where some pirates are actually zombies and some robots are actually ninjas or vice verse...

Is there possibly an idea around Software Pirates, Viruses and combating Zombie Processes?


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My wife stopped using her PDA so I stole it am now using it. So far this brainstorming is the only file on the PDA

[{MSX}]

eheh i was considering some kind of rpg too.. but the idea is not that easy to expand One should create 4 "worlds", and design a whole lot of models and levels..

I've thought of some unit for an RTS too. I considered giving 6 unit to each race with this schema:

weak unit
normal melee unit
normal range unit
big unit
magical unit
machine unit

So it could end up in this way:

NINJA:
thai chi fighter
ninja katana
ninja shuriken
samurai
shaolin monk
siege mobile tower
PIRATES:
ship-boy
pirate sabre
pirate pistol
captain
cooker
cannon
ZOMBIES
skeleton
zombie
zombie fleshtrower
giant spider
lyche
catapult
ROBOTS:
scout
robot1
robot2
armored robot
repair robot
tank

The only problems is that this design require 24 models just for the units, plus all the buildings etc etc.
So i think i wouldn't go into this

I'll try to think of a gameplay that just needs one models for each element

[cairnswm]

I want every race to be different

Robots - what resources do they need - only metals to make new robots - they dont need food at all.

Pirates/Ninjas become human races with farms etc

Zombies - do not need resources but cannot create new units except by killing enemies and taking their bodies to the graveyard.


Robots need high tech buildings to convert metals and build units.

Humans need low tech buildings, with later options to make high tech buildings for space pirates etc.

Zombies only need a graveyard. - possibly thay can make graveyards by collecting 10 or more corpses together.


Robots : Repair/Work Bot, Combat Bot, Tank Bot
Humans: Pirate Captain, Pirates, Ninjas, Builders, Gatherers
Zombies: Skeletons, Zombies, Mummies


Zombies place corpses in the graveyard, the longer the corpse remains in the graveyard the stronger it gets (10seconds = Skeleton, 30seconds = Zombie, 60 seconds = Mummy).

Robots need regular repairing else they start losing health automatically.

Humans are the only ones that need food, and therefore have a limit on the number of units based on the farms they have.


Another option would be to have a Human race but with Pirates and Ninjas to be special units that humans can have. Or special missions where the humans are only a pirate group, or a number of ninjas.


What about Elves as a race - one of their special units could be a Ninja. Maybe a key unit - maybe the only elven unit that can leave the elven woods - make it a specially sneaky unit that hides well and basically acts as an assasin unit.


How do you balance a zombies mindless attacks with the high tech combat abilities on the Robots? Ninjas typically are also low tech.

[Daikrys]

i like to do an rpg and adventure mix

i dont really do an brainstorming
i have an A4 paper with notices and drawing
i dot need more stuff

the end date on 31. october is quite long
i think the game must be big

[cairnswm]

I think a small RTS counts as a big game

[Traveler]

I must say that getting my creative juices to produce [size=9px](hmm, somehow I wrote that as procedure first :?)[/size] an interesting gameplan is an entire challenge to itself. Especially when it has to involve such odd game characters.
So far the 'juice' hasn't really done any good for me though; the ultimate gameidea is still far far away.

I have been keeping an eye out on the gamedev forum to see if the competition out there is giving some pointers, but somehow the main point of discussion seems to be the rules. Save a few 'space pirates' and 'ninja robots' (pretty much what we've seen here too) and an occasional 'I'm gonna do a 2d platformer'', they're not giving that much away.

Too see what we all may be up against, I thought it would be a good idea to post this link http://www.gamedev.net/community/contest/.
It has all previous contests listed, including screenhots and files so you can have a peek of the competitions capabilities. To my surprise gamedev's last 4 elements compo had only 44 entries, ranging from guess the number to 3D games. (The winner is quite fun though, definitely worth the download).

The plan to create a RTS game as an entry is IMO quite amazing. My hat off if you can actually pull it off.
But if I may, the gametype itself is already difficult, I wouldn't add more problems to that by choosing all four characters for you game. Rules clearly state that you're okay with just 2 of the four elements.

Also the suggestion to create a world for each race sounds like a lot of work just to get a story. I'd keep it simple: 1 prefered element on the left, second prefered element on the right. Build a base and go for it.
Main problems as far I can tell here is the AI and balancing. Well that and graphics if you don't like using someone elses.

cairnswm: I like your idea of time based unit creation. Reminds me a bit of Z:steel soldiers where after an x amount of time a new soldier was created. Hmmm, hey! That could actually be something....

Anyway, its time to get a few ZZzz myself so I'm off to bed. Hope to see some news thoughts in the morning though

[savage]

After some brain storming with my 7 year old son, this is what we came up with...

The pirates and ninjas have fought for centuries, but for the first time peace is on the horizon as you ( a noble ninja ) have fallen in love with a pirate leader's daughter. The unifaction of the families will finally bring peace to piratedom and ninjadom.

But then, things are never that simple are they?

Someone has stolen the blue prints to a new breed of medical robot ( think the Fifth Element ). It turns out that some evil pirates who are against the peace deal, are behind it and decided to rid the world of the ninja clans ( don't they always ). The original blue prints were for building robots that could perform life enhancing surgery, but these evil pirates have tweaked the design so that it turns people who hold the ninja gene into zombies. They build an army of these evil robots and unleash them on ninjadom. Your family and friends etc are now all zombies and you are the last ninja standing.

Your revengfull mission, should you choose to accept it, is to...
1. Avoid getting killed by the zombies ( forgive them for they know not what they do )
2. Avoid killing the zombies as they are your family, friends & brethen ( remember )
3. Destroy the evil robots, without being turned into a zombie
4. Destroy the evil pirates ( except for the daughter pirate of course )
5. Retieve the original blue prints from the pirate den ( traps galore )
6. Find Bob the Builder who's gone into business with JC the carpenter to build you good robots who will restore your zombified blood line back to it's original honour & glory.

Not sure what style of game it would be though. I think it has to be simple and not over ambitious, but fun and full of humour.

[cairnswm]

savage: if your 7yr old came up with that idea I think something went on in the way you brought him up :shock:

or of course he could just be normal!!

If you remember that Run-A-War took me about 80 hours over 3 weeks I think I can do the RTS idea. I may agree though that using all 4 elements might be pushing it. I might just stick with three (Robots/Zombies and Ninja as a special unit )

You are allowed multiple entries - what simple board game is there that needs two sides - somthing like my Pirates game from my web site....

Isn't there a game - fox and geese - played on a chess board - the fox tries to catch the geese - must look it up because it would make a nice first entry - The Pirates and the Ninja - The Robots and the Princess - oops that wont work

Many years ago when I first saw starwars I though the storm troopers were robots Maybe there is something in that idea also