Game idea

[stormwind]

Hello.

I have recently played Need For Speed Underground, Hot Rod: garage to glory and Monster Garage.. i really love games where you can build stuff and create your own custom things.. Cars or anything else.

has anyone seen the series on discovery called "junkyard wars" or "scrapheep challenge"? 2 teams with access to a junkyard builds everything from egg-catapults, battering rams, radio controlled airplanes and more.

A game where you have access to a junkyard and build various machines/vechiles would be cool. Or why not a garage-business-game? where you design/manufacture cars? I remember an old DOS game where you could build your own car and test it.. Let me know if you want me to tell you more about the idea.

I don't have the time or skills to make these games right now, but it would be really cool if someone liked the idea.. I would absolutely help to design the game if you're interested in making it.  

[Mutos]

Hi all, hi stormwind,


Same dream but w/ starships, Elite-like

[stormwind]

Sounds cool. I loved elite+ on my c64, and played Frontier on the Amiga. Hmm. i feel old.

[WEst]

Nice Idea but a real huge project! (Too Huge for me )

[Mutos]

Hi all,


It also remind me 'bout mecha games where u were scanvenging the remnants of ur opponents after a combat. Particularly the very first game v/ 3D-animated mechas that I played, was CGA at the time (oooooolllllddddd), very first Mechwarrior, mechs were 10-20 polys of uniform colors And many more after, including Shattered Steel, EarthSiege, Heavy Gear and of course all the Mechwarrior series...

[Dan]

Hi Stormwind,

 My daughter and I love the scrapheap series (The new series is currently being aired on Channel 4 on sunday afternoons here in the UK). They have to come up with some barmy schemes to solve the tasks.

The thought of capturing all thats good and condesing it in to somthing playable this side of the next centry scares me though. It would be a huge undertaking. There was a PC game of 'Robot wars', I never played it. using that as a bassis at least you have some gameplay in that robots would have to be built to cost and weight constraints. and weapons are limited to flippers, Choppers, spinners or Cutters.  

How do you simulate searching for a 'Big' engine in a scrap yard? How would the 10 hour time thing have any relivence?

There is another game that springs to mind, I think it's called somthing like the incredible machine. Where you have parts you place on the screen to solve a puzzle. for example a mouse in a wheel attacjed by a rubber band to a fan would blow a ballon across the room and flick a switch that provided power to the blender with the frog in.

Again, This game works because the number of parts are limited. A game like the one your suggesting means the number moving parts required could be huge.

I like the idea , but I think it would take too long to come up with any sort of playable game.

[Slider]

Hi all,


It also remind me 'bout mecha games where u were scanvenging the remnants of ur opponents after a combat. Particularly the very first game v/ 3D-animated mechas that I played, was CGA at the time (oooooolllllddddd), very first Mechwarrior, mechs were 10-20 polys of uniform colors And many more after, including Shattered Steel, EarthSiege, Heavy Gear and of course all the Mechwarrior series...

Sounds like an interesting idea  
Especially when it's being a multiplayer arena.

Now, all I need are some mechs  

[stormwind]

Hello.

yeah, i played Robot Wars when it first came, was a bit disappointing, but still an ok game.. The incredible machine 1 & 2 was very fun. Even though the machines was really wacky sometimes.

I get your point when it comes to the scrapheap... I was thinking about 50-60 vehicles or such with quite similar parts, all parts removable and all parts defined in a compability list.. Part A matches Part B, F, G, I.. Part B matches A,P,Q and R... The scrapheap would be random.. ex: the scrapheap consists of 80 machines in different states, with random parts missing/broken.

You are right though, might be too much of a mammoth task.... The heart of the game would be the physics, which has to be defined for each part.. And all connected parts would have to use different type of joints to interact if you are to build freely.

It would be impossible to let the player cut everything to make it fit. i have a 75 cm wide door, and want to fit it inside a 90 cm frame, sure, in real life i guess i could weld a plate to extend it, but that would be too much for the game.. Some limits must exist..

About searching for parts, i guess that would be simpified, just navigating the area, clicking on a vehicle to use.... once back at the "garage" the user can checkout the engine. Broken parts displayed in red, good parts in green. Similiar to "Hot Rod", some parts can be repaired, some cant.

Feels great to get some feedback.. thanx.

[newborn]

with the new physics engine integrated withing TV65, it's gonna be possible t do all that and even more!

[aliasx]

Sounds quite tricky. There was a 2d 'game' which I think was called 'The incredible Machine' many years ago where you had to put various pieces, conveyors, fans, rockets, springs etc. together to solve a certain task such as bouncing a basket ball into a bucket. It was quite entertaining. What you're suggesting sounds similar but way more complex.

[Dan]

Yea, There is no denying that the physics can't be setup for such a game. The Newton physics is very easy to use and produces very realistc effects. Its tje scale and number of potential objects that would the problem

I think the goal could be achieved if the design could be broken down in to small playable chunks that could be expanded upon. Not only do the components need to be designed but the scenario's/challenges would also have to be fun and the possible solutions varied. If the game was to be based upon 'scrapheap' then the mechanism for achieving somthing within the timelimit would have to be simulated. maybe by having jobs take time that you allocate to the team members to complete.

Damn you stormwind, You've got me thinking  :lol: But the more I think the more I see that it would entail a whole shed load of work...

[Dan]

Me Again

I was thinking about a few of the challenges  I've seen on the series and one that springs to mind is the one where they had to build Jet dragsters. How could the parts for this be mimmicked in a game.

Jet engines are not somthing that you could find on the heap. but the experts knew how to build them if they were given a pipe, an expansion tube, a wizzy bit and one of those metal things that spin around. So it could be that experts for a challenge have schemas to make a complete jet (Like starwars galaxies schema's for making stuff). experts could have multiple schemas for items that would all result in a jet engine, Just with varying degrees of success, It would also be possible to make the end result as good as the sum of its parts. So if a 10mm steel Tube was required but only a 10mm tin tube was found it could be used but could result in the machine malfunctioning. ie, reduction in performance or component not working. The probelm that springs to mind now is that the game then simply becomes a treasure hunt for the best parts.  The gameplay of hunting the heap should lean towards players choice and skill rather than potluck.  Chassis and wheels are basic joints and would be simple to sort out.

Another Challenge, Launch an egg in a rocket and allow it to be recovered.

Flippin hell. ok, Rockets - again aren't somthing found in a heap, and on the series thay arn't either. they tend to be hidden amongst the junk. so we hide the in our virtual heap and allow our virtual heap hunters to wonder around until by chance they happen upon them. Rocket bodies, An expert schema? parachutes - These would have to be modeled. flight characteristics such as wind and body friction would also have to be modeled.


Then there is the challenge areas, Each challenge would need it's own test zone and probably code in which to control the 'experimental creations' to achieve the goal.

I'd love to make somthing like this, but the more I think the more I am put off by the overwhelming number of uncertainties.

[stormwind]

hello again.  

There could be a book with schematics/instructions on how to build certain objects. In the game "monster garage", you can buy pipes, angle irons, metal cylinders, sheets of metal, grills, sprockets, hydraulics (spelling?), electric motors and more, when you click one of your teammates, you can browse everything he is able to build from the parts you have in stock. One thing which would be fun, was if the teammates had different skills. ex:

John:
Weld:90
Cut: 60
Repair:30

Henry:
Weld: 30
Cut: 95
repair:90

So henry would weld 2 pipes in 30 minutes, while john can make it in 10. Could add some strategy to the game, And being a rpg-fan, who likes to develop characters, why not let the team get skill points the player could distribute after each competition to his team members?

The question is how freely the player should be able to build, i think it would be fun, but extremely difficult to let the player solve the problem on his own instead of doing it the "monster garage"-way and use predefined designs, you just select which of the 2 swamp buggy-designs you want to use, and then try to build all the parts.

Thanx for your feedback and ideas Dan! As i said before, if you want to make this, i will help in any way i can.