Tackling the surface environment

Game environments are particularly challenging, especially when I hope to make them random.  I have already talked about the three levels of caves, and how I hope to randomize the cave system to be unique for every hexfield in the game.  The part that I am now concentrating on is the surface level from 60 meters to 100 meters.  To help illustrate what I plan to do for this I have made a simple diagram.

As you can see, a set of equilateral triangles can be skewed to fit the standard square tessellation pattern.  This means that I would be able to translate a standard height map to this field.  If I divide the surface area of the hexfield like this:

 I can then create a surface that is reflected in triblocks.  While it is true that some of the more unique facets of a triangular tessellation will not be reflected in this type of initial setup, players will be able to add blocks to this environment utilizing the full spectrum of possibilities.  The height map will need to have area's that are flat where bases can be created as well as guaranteed low areas that could intersect with cave levels.  In order to still keep the sense of randomness each area could be taken randomly from one giant height map.  

Control systems

I recently tried out another popular title called "League of Legends".  It is free to play with micro transactions that allow players to unlock various heroes and looks for said heroes.  The first thing that I noticed was the control scheme employed.  One does not control ones hero directly, rather one clicks a location where one wants the hero to go and the hero responds accordingly.  There are 4 skills per hero which can be activated via keyboard or by clicking on them with the mouse.  I found the experience to be more along the control scheme found in RTS (Real Time Strategy) games where one acts as a commander who tells the troops where to go.

Since the majority of the player controls in my game will be based on the standard FPS(first person shooter) control system I'm thinking that when it comes time to market the game I will need to say that it is an MMO FPS game.  Yes there is the commander position, but that position and the control scheme when in a commanding ship (which will be more similar to the RTS control scheme) will be a very small portion of the game that many players may not even experience.  While commanders also won't be able to control anything directly like in RTS games, they will be able to set waypoints that all under their command or even in the faction can see,  they will be able to set a wireframe equivalent of the structures to guide the ground troops, and they will be able to sound alarms in a given hexfield if they find an enemy force is present.

I find that people have spent years developing skill sets in these various schemes,  which is why I don't see them going away any time soon

Simple Games

During the summer my kids have had a lot of free time.  Aside from driving me and my wife a little crazy, they have spent a lot of time playing various flash games.  Now of course being a fan of video games I have kept all of my old video game systems and video games, so there is no shortage of good high quality games to play.  So I'm asking myself why they are favoring these somewhat annoying games online.  I think the answer lies in simplicity.  They don't have to give a lot of white matter work to understand the objectives of these games, and I just have to say that I am glad I'm not a tron.

I think that Zynga's recent success with similar types of games really shows how this principle is not only popular, but profitable as well.  There is a lot of copycats out there though, which makes sense since it is really hard to come up with new kinds of games.  I have been impressed by a few the innovations I have seen, but even most of those borrow heavily from various predecessors.  In looking at my game design it also borrows heavily from previous game types, which is why I'm so confused why no one has ever made a game like it.  Well I'll just have to keep at it.

Maze landscape

So I thought I would jot this idea down while I'm thinking about it.  In landscape design I plan on having 3 levels of caves which go from 1-20 meters from the bottom, 21-40, and 41-60 and then a surface level which is from 61 meters up to 100 meters.  So one possibility of the surface landscape would be similar to a hedge maze with occasional open areas where bases can be built.  While it might be frustrating for some, I think that others might really enjoy trying to navigate such a maze.  This could be in an area where there are higher quality materials, just as an additional challenge to get them back to base.

Intellectual property

So somewhat related to what I post here on this blog is a question of intellectual property.  I recently listened to an NPR interview entitled "When Patents Attack", and I realize now that virtually anything I do in regards to this game will technically encroach on someones patents.  The short version is that there are companies out there that hoard large amounts of patents, and then they do the equivalent of a mafia shakedown saying that they will sue unless you pay large amounts in licensing fees.  These companies do not use the patents, indeed many of the companies don't even have employees and probably consist of the lawyers doing the litigation.  It's clear to me that intellectual property laws need to be rewritten.  The thing that scares me the most is that if I am even moderately successful in this endeavor it is possible that one of these companies will come after me.  After all this game concept borrows heavily from many other games.

Also as you can see by having this blog public and sharing all of my ideas openly anyone could conceivably take all of these idea and make this game.  I personally wouldn't have a problem with that, and all I request is that you make me a part of it.  That being said though I don't see it really happening any time soon.

For those of you who are willing to take the time, please take some time to let the government know why and possibly how intellectual property law should be changed at Regulations.gov before July 25, 2012.  Let's make it so the little guy has a chance of making it too.

Laser pointer function

So I know that I mentioned that I wanted to have a laser pointer function in the past, and this post is to elaborate on exactly how it will work.  I think that there will be 2 modes which will be changeable via a right click.  The first mode works just like a normal laser pointer in that one will only see the dot at the end.  The other mode will be the same as when one fires a laser through smoke or steam and the whole beam is illuminated.  This mode will obviously draw more attention, and so players will be able to communicate quickly by essentially pointing something out.  It will also alert enemies that you are close.  As far as appearance goes I think that it will be just a slight protrusion from the multipurpose handle

Idea for my Masters Project

So as many of you have seen over the course of the posts I have created over the last year, this project is not a small undertaking.  I have researched a lot of different game engines (set's of programming that one can build a game upon) such as Unity3D, Unreal, Cry Engine, C4 Engine, and a few open source ones as well.  The problem is that each one of these tools has their own little quirks that must be learned in order to make a game with them.  So the thought that I had was why not propose to the college the possibility of creating/finding an open source project that students could work on and add to for college credit.  This has been done successfully at other colleges with programs like UCOSP, and this is apparently a rousing success.  It gives students an opportunity to work on a real life project very similar to what they will experience in a job after college.  I find that combining teaching and as close to real life experience is one of the optimal learning environments for students, and it will give them a taste of what it will be like once they graduate.

Proposing this will need to be put into a well organized plan of action so that I can show the powers that be that not only will this be beneficial to students, but it will enhance the learning experience of the University and therefore make it more successful.  So along with making a game, I think that something I will attempt to work on is organizing and setting up such a program at UCCS.