Game design assignment 2

Tom McQueen

Life RP
Multiplayer Role-Play
Cops vs Robbers

Together
Virtual Reality
Social game

Nations
First person multiplayer civilization builder

Game Ideas
Government
Multiplayer government simulator
coop/multiplayer

Attack
First person multiplayer strategy game

World War One fps

Multiplayer/single-player
Trench based combat

Life Role-Play

City life
Multiplayer tycoon game

Nations
A PC video game
(Working title)

Nations

First person, multiplayer only, open world roleplaying game.

Players join a server, they start as nomads and can speak to other citizens using proximity based voice chat.

Servers are 200 players large.

Initially, players must focus on finding food and clean water. If players dont find food they will become skinny and eventually die, if players eat too
much they will put on weight.

Groups of players can establish there own settlements/cities by becoming builders and miners. All items/building supplies must be brought using
transport wither in carts or in bags (no typical inventory sytem). Building is a difficult process, this will help prevent building spam.

Nomads can apply for citizenship, then go to a job office in the town and request a new job (e.g. Police, Mayor, shop owner, drug dealer etc.), this
should encourage roleplay and social interaction.

Upgrade system advances city through ages, starting stone age, ending modern age. The town government has the power to upgrade buildings to the
next era using money collected through taxes. The more players roleplay/work together the faster your city advances.

Politics, wars ect can occur between cities. Players can build military fortifications (castles, forts, trenches (depending on era)) and equipment/vehicles
(horses, siege engines, tanks, aeroplanes)

Traders can move supplies between cities on ships and caravans.

There are particularly dangerous areas of the world, these Wilderness areas are difficult to survive in because of a lack of food/water or the areas
are full of dangerous animals.

Eventually particularly powerful nations can subjugate other nations and create empires (empires will be displayed on the game map with a colour),
these advanced nations may also colonize and exploit wilderness areas for extra items and income.

Settlement eras
Nomad age: Civilian: Basic huts, campfires Military: spears, bow and arrows. Aesthetic: barbaric
Stone age: Civilian: Wood/stone houses, farming, large cities can build monuments (e.g. Stone circles, tombs, pyramids) can build
dirt tracks. Access to rowing boats and horses can be tamed. Military: Cavalry, wood shields and wood forts. Aesthetic: Viking
Classical age: Civilian: Roman era, advanced housing, trading enabled, able to use larger boats, able to build wagons and caravans,
cobbled roads. Military: Large shields, pikes, testudo formation, phalanx formation, can build army camps (for sieges). Aesthetic:
Roman

Medieval age: Civilian: Similar to classical with different building aesthetic, able to build castles, siege equipment, religion
unlocked (players can build holy sites and choose to become priests (priests can pray for blessings boost other players stats, can
baptise and marry other players, high level priests can pray to change weather (as well as other effects). Military: Siege equipment,
steel armour, horse armour, crossbows, castles. Aesthetic: Medieval

Colonial age: Construction: May build ships capable of reaching wilderness, can build colonial settlements linked to home
settlement. New trading and artists jobs available. Can print newspapers. Sewage system. Military: Muskets, line/square
formation, cannons, can create navy. Aesthetic: British empire

Victorian age: Construction: Can build factories (factories increase tax income and research rate), cars and biplanes. Can build
railways. Can build gas lamps and telephones. Military: bolt action rifles, howitzers, can dig trenches, barbed wire, gas, military
biplanes, early tanks. Aesthetic: Pollution
Modern age: Construction: Can pave roads, radios, TV, lights, passenger planes, sky scrapers, subways, ferries, governments may
choose extremism. New job role: rock star. Military: Aesthetic: 1950s America
Atomic age or Space age (depending on city choice): Construction: Nuclear power plants, fallout shelters, helicopters, Military:
Napalm, Nuclear missiles, tomahawk missiles, helicopters (transport, attack), hex walls.Aesthetic: 21st century

End game
If a civilization reaches 50 players and all tech and buildings have been fully
upgraded (this would take several months of intense teamwork), then the
community of that civilization will have to make a moral choice.
Either:
Launch a rocket to the moon (a separate biome). The astronauts will be able to
explore the moon and then return home. The civilization that reaches the moon
will then be able to manufacture satellites/space stations.
The civilization can build a maximum of one nuclear missile. This nuclear missile
can be launched from a missile silo to anywhere in the map. These missiles have
the ability to wipe out entire cities. If more than one city reaches this point a
cold war may ensue in which mutual destruction would (hopefully) dissuade
war. In some situations however war may occur and cities will be destroyed,
leaving behind an irradiated wasteland and resetting tech to the nomad era.

World
Large open world, several different biomes e.g.
(Forest/Grassland/Desert/snow)
Several massive islands and smaller islands (each island has its own
unique features (rivers, mountains, lakes ect.) and items for trade),
expansive sea in-between islands.
Small wilderness areas will exist in each biome, there will be one large
dangerous island wilderness on the map that will be no players can
spawn in. This area can be colonized by civilizations in the later
stages.

Concept art

Game
World
Biomes
Snow

Note: Some areas of

the snowy biome will
also contain forests
The biome you
spawn in will
effect your
physical
appearance

Jungle
Sand

Grassland/Forest
There will be
bonuses for
cities built
along rivers

HUD
Aside from the game menu which is loaded when launching the game
(and pressing escape), there will be no HUD at all. All information in
this game will be conveyed using animations, sounds and other in
game techniques. For instance, if you are wounded badly you will
bleed leaving behind a trail of blood. If this goes untreated you will
pass out. If you dont eat you will look famished.

Image: Medieval era helmet HUD concept

Nomad era character 1

(Forest race)

The race of your character is

randomly generated (based on
user ID).
Players cannot decide what
race they are, it is based upon
the region you start in
(Grassland/Forest, Jungle,
Desert, Snow) although they
can decide there gender (so
that roleplay immersion is not
ruined when using voice chat).

Nomad era character 2

(Jungle race)

Weight of character
randomly generated
(based on user ID).
Players can gain or loose
weight by eating more or
less and doing more
physical activities (like
running, swimming and
mining).

Space age character 3

This character is piloting the moon
landing rocket. The player will likely
be chosen for his talents/abilities as
he is picked from a large group of
people (minimum 50).
Once the pilot reaches the moon,
new rockets can be built by the
civilization and space stations/moon
stations can be built.
If the pilot fails and burns up in the
atmosphere the civilization will have
to re-build the rocket.

Custom
Player
civilization
Name

Market research

Focus Group
Question 1: A game releases on Steam, it is a civilization builder in the first person perspective, it is multiplayer only
and requires a mic and team work. Does this idea interest you at all?
Four of those who asked said that they were interested in the concept of this game, some of them began to imagine
scenarios (like running from city to city robbing homes) and seemed genuinely engaged by the idea.
The fifth person said he would only be interested if he saw a trailer and that the game looked polished and delivered
on the concept.
Question 2: What weaknesses do you see potentially with this idea?
One person said that hackers may be a problem, another said that actually creating a stable version of this game in
engine would be incredibly difficult. Some people were worried about the nuclear bomb option at the end of the
game.
Question 3: Do you enjoy social games?
Two people said that they had played some social games and enjoyed them, but the rest of the group said that they
non-social multiplayer games and singleplayer experiences.
Question 4: What would be an acceptable price range for a game like Nations?
Four of the people agreed that they would only buy it if the game was under 20. The other person said that he
expected it to be expensive at first, but that the price would decrease with time.

Market results analysis

In order to get more results, I posted my questionnaire to a anonymous video games forum.
Because the results were anonymous, people were not afraid to give their full opinions which I was
glad to hear.
The majority of the people polled were serious PC gamers, this is the type of audience that I hoped
would play the game. However, the group played a wide array of games and clearly had differing
tastes. 60% of those polled played video games alone, roughly the same amount preferred
singleplayer experiences. These people are not the target audience of Nations which relies heavily
on teamwork.
Many had put the most hours into single player, non social games like Skyrim and Dark Souls. Most
of those polled preferred spending time and effort in video games, rather than instant gratification
games (like Candy Crush). Furthermore 50% of those polled do not enjoy other survival
multiplayer genre games.
It is no surprise then that my game idea was so controversial (6 yes, 6 no). Although a few people
who chose other stated that they would be interested in the game once they had seen a trailer or
had seen that it wasnt messy. Some clearly did not like the idea, while I see why they wouldnt be
interested I still believe that this game type would be popular amongst more social gamers who
frequently play with friends. I included the question about games feeling rehashed because I
wanted to gage peoples desire fore new concepts (like this one).

SWOT (Strengths weaknesses opportunities

threats)
Strengths: Unique, fun to play with groups of friends, the player can craft his own
story through interaction with real players.
Weaknesses: It would be very difficult to create this game and to network the
servers efficiently, may have to sacrifice player count or game features to help the
servers run more smoothly. It may be very expensive to create. Solo players may
have a hard time having fun and finding a civilization.
Opportunities: Would be popular on Youtube as many channels specialize social
games (because they offer new stories and events each session) this is a good
form of advertisement, if all the concepts work and the game is
completed/polished/balanced it could be very popular.
Threats: If not balanced properly it may be open to griefing by players. Potential
for hackers to exploit late/end game content.