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3D Crafting/Survival Game Idea

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1 comment, last by tryck 7 years, 2 months ago

Before I start I should mention that this is already in development by myself and am a game developer of over 4 years now.

The idea of the game I'm currently developing is that you wake up on an abandoned and dying spaceship and you have 2 minutes to scavenge as much supplies from one of the stations(Mecha, Engineering, Ag, Hydro, Sci, Health, Comm, and Supply) before it detonates, After the two minutes you must enter a drop pod to a post apocalyptic earth with mutant creature, overgrown forests, and many things that are very deadly and also those that are extremely interesting. You must then survive through the world in a a crafting/survival type game with many upgrades and the ability to create items that even surpass those on the ship.

-You only get to choose one station

-You may not have the ability to see which station you are picking (Not sure)

-FpS with interesting BlackSmithing and GunSmithing Mechanics

Any ideas on how to add, improve, or better my game idea?

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There are two things that immediately scratch me the wrong way. The weird choice of stations you have and the idea that the player won't have the ability to see what station they pick. If the player can't see what station they pick, it undermines the idea of giving them that choice to begin with. There is no good reason for implementing such a vapid and annoying restriction (even if there's context behind it), especially if they can only pick one.

As for the stations. I'm guessing Ag means Agricultural, Hydro means water, Sci means Science, and Comm means Communication. If Hydro is water, I'd recommend you use water. Someone might confuse it for hydrogen or another chemical otherwise. So you have Mecha, Engineering, Agricultural, Hydro, Science, Health, Communication, and Supply. Most of these are very redundant/vague and it seems like they could cross paths way too often. What's the difference between Engineering and Science? Science encompasses pretty much any field of engineering. What kind of Engineering/Science are you referring to? Both of those words are incredibly broad meaning that you could be referring to millions of things. It would do you well to boil things down and find something far more specific.

Same with Mecha and engineering. If you're thinking mechanical engineering, wouldn't mecha fall under engineering? Or is the Mecha station supposed to be a vehicle bay? What about Agricultural, Hydro, and Supply? What is "supply"? Ammunition? Chemicals? Materials? Components? Why aren't food and water considered "supplies"? Why are there separate wings for water and food? This could go on forever. Then there's communication. Unless the player can recruit other survivors or find a way to "communicate" with some kind of HQ he came from, I don't see a point for communication. If there's no one else, who are they communicating with?

TL;DR - My first suggestion is that you focus on having fewer and more precise stations (each of which have items consistent with that station) that the player can choose from, rather than a bunch of vague ones. This makes it much easier to decide what kind of items should be in each station and how items should be classified in your game. Personally, I'd have four stations: Medical Wing (Medical supplies), Supply Dock (Food, Water, and Components needed to craft items), Vehicle Terminal (Vehicles and Drones) and Arsenal (Firearms and ammunition). These aren't perfect and they're pretty generic, but they're far more precise and it's fairly obvious what you'll get from any of them. You're going to want to make it clear what the player is getting if you're going to give them such an influential decision early on. My second is that you tell us what kind of mechanics you have in mind beyond that, otherwise not much else can be said.

Thank you for the insight, this is exactly why I jumped on the forum.

The 4 stations Idea does make more sense and I might tweak the idea of those stations but they seem pretty fair.

As for mechanics, I'm going for a more realistic survival type game. Build a shelter, survive from animals creatures and people that may still live on the planet. Most of the game will be collecting resources, exploring, and will be heavily combat, hunting, and farming based.

I'm still deciding on how futuristic and impactful I want the stations to provide, but I want it to give a fair start and adds more of a replayablity factor. I'm also deciding on how I want the planet to look, whether it takes the broken city radiation look or the overgrown trees and cities look. Development is just starting so I'm going to get others opinions and let it sway my decision.

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