Hi!
Even though I got a place on a game design school in Norway, I might give it up, so why not share (some) my ideas?
I've been thinking of a first person (changeable) MMO game base on a huge island, where people can make their own houses - just like in The Sims, but more advanced tools and possibilities - and earn money in different ways to buy everything from building materials to yachts and jewelry. As I'm a fan of some of the
Japanese Shinkansen trains, and different types of architecture and older
Scandinavian/ Icelandic and Japanese gardens, aswell as modern architecture - I wanted to see elements of all that stuff on different places on the island, so you can choose what theme you want to live in. Plan was to make the whole thing very ambient and pretty, because I wanted it to be like Test Drive Unlimited too. Drive wherever you want, and enjoy the landscape.
I was already playing with CreEngine 3 SDK, and read about a game called ArcheAge, based on CryEngine. It sort of like World of Warcraft, but graphics and possibilities are way better. You start out in premade cities, but you and your clan conquer land, grow trees and grain, cut and harvest. You could make boats and houses too, but they were not able to customize. I've played EVE Online for a while too. The game is so advanced and player driven that I'm just going to give you this:
Then(!!!) I saw Outerra at
Kotaku. I got the same idea as Anteworld is about - people create everything. Just as you, I love Minecraft, because I can create what I want, but as the world is so huge, people would have to link together somehow. Trade? Just trading? My idea is: Well, yes if you want to "just" trade, you can. But why not specialize on making tanks, airplanes or farming? Make something unique, something that makes players want to come to you to trade. Maybe you're making better airplanes than other. But what if you don't want to trade, but see the world? Fly an airplane, drive a train or sail a boat. How do you earn money on that? Well, taking passengers (NPC, filling houses in a player created village/ town/ city?) or selling goods (trading).
Oh, well, I've been playing ArmA II too.
An idea I had about zombies, would be a zombie event, where the world players have created, gets cloned (so you can play normal too) and filled with zombies. Your goal is to use whatever you've produced and get to random safe spots on the map, before a week or two has gone. For example: Are you going to take the tank, airplane or the boat? Tank would be fun, but got limited range, and so on...
Why would you have tank and other weapons? Other players might want your area.
Peacemode should also be an option.
Friends or groups cooperating on making a village, town or city? Yes, definitely, if they want.
Why a (more advanced than) The Sims style of making houses? Because you create them yourself. Why do people play Minecraft?
Skills? Physical skills? As your character becomes stronger, you will be able to do thing faster, for a longer time, etc. Achieving advantages is always fun.
- Skills making stuff? Yes and no/ to a certain degree. I think that should be up to the player to know a bit. Research skills to obtain better blueprints, but the players own skills should be more important. Of course the game couldn't be too heavy for the player, so skills doing some part of the job making stuff. Vague explanation...
More to come... I'm thinking of a space game too. Fascinated by EVE Online.
