A New (Top-Down, 3D) Game

May 05, 2023 (IST)

I like coming up with game ideas all the time. Well, I come up with bizarre ideas of any kind. Here’s my rambling about a game idea I had last night:

This one was prompted by me watching a compilation of several sci-fi/cyberpunk (indie?) games. I liked the story bits in some of them, in the sense of your actions building up over time, and contributing to a larger narrative. The only game I play right now is a battle royale with some friends. It would be nice to have a co-op experience.

But then I fear they may get bored soon. There’s only so much story content you can add to a game. Perhaps you could make emergent behaviour using complex systems, but there’s just something else about competitive multiplayer games. That’s a whole different universe of emergent behaviour.

So, that means a multiplayer element as well. And why not. Why can’t you have an interesting top down multiplayer experience. Some already exist, in fact. Furthermore, it would be more performant and flexible than the higher resolution first-person/third-person 3D games.

Ah, yes. The 3D was also a decision to manage appeal, even though I personally enjoy pixel art a lot. Imagine the game in low-poly 3D!

Anyway, some top-down games are already in the popular market, and some of them are even battle royales. So we could implement some fun mechanisms for various weapons and items, as well as environment interactions.

A fog of war system (?) for limiting vision to a certain distance and through certain materials. Imagine blasting open doors and hitting people in the face with it. Imagine spells, perhaps. Imagine camouflage items, flamethrowers, mines, drills, missiles — the whole gamut! Melee combat of all kinds as well! You could have a character class that’s simply larger and stronger than others who just slams other people.

I think people would appreciate the art style of Xenowerk. As a more varied PvP and PvE experience.

A 3D character also creates more interesting UI opportunities, such as a rotating model in your character selection screen.

My note from last night:

Any story based game will eventually run out of gameplay, unless it has the foundations for making your own games, as well as content updates.

And multiplayer modes with unpredictable outcomes, with some requirement of skill.

Top down is best to include mobile users as well.

Test out mechanics for multiplayer as well and maybe tweak the balance for pve modes.