Alien game

#1 Depends on the way the alien looks. but i'd have to go for the monster looking alien as long as it looked cool.

#2 The idea of playing an evil alien certainly fits in with a lot of current trends of letting the players be the bad guys... and that is popular with good reason.

It might also do to make it an option... you can be a good alien or a bad alien, each with a different set of abilities.

#3 If you give the player a choice, give him interesting choices. Most games that give the choice, the one that's more fun and interesting is usually blowing the head off of the innocent person rather than saving them. So you virtually don't give the player a choice merely because they quickly realize that being bad in the game is more enjoyable. It can be in real life too, but with repurcussions. But when you present the consequense of force in a game, this is almost another reward, the reward of a new and interesting challenge. SO....we are presented with the question of, HOW do we make it so that the two options both have and equal reward....well, I don't have much of an answer for that, but if you DO have an answer then I say charge on ahead with that idea.

But if not.... make him an evil alien, well, not necessarily evil, but not a nice pussy, cuz that's just going to end in his compliance, leading to interrogation, disection.... and all that great stuff, since humans can't stand not at least TRYING to understand something. Maybe make it so that he arrives peacefully but is quickly tazered, tied up, and taken to a research lab, then he has to make his escape or have his stomach opened, his entrails removed, seperated, and placed into jars, his skull sawed open, and his brain scanned and examined repeatedly. Can't forget the chemical tests likely to be carried out on skin samples.... and you get the idea....

So I say have him break someone's neck, throw their corpse at a guard, take the guard's gun, blow off the heads of the other guards, promptly jump to the cieling and wait shortly for troops to arrive with what will soon be HIS assault rifles :D Of course, maybe he doesn't need guns, that's up to you, this isn't MY game, i'm just posing an idea....maybe he absorbs brain matter and can learn new things, but first he has to brutalize the victim and consume his brain before he can use the victim's gun....or maybe he's perfectly capable of ripping through all human opposistion, with effort of course....otherwise their's none of the above mentioned 'chellenge' and what fun would a game be without some challenge to oppose your goals??

I could say loads more, but I have to eat lunch ;-P
Hope I was helpful.

#4 How 'bout this: the alien absorbs the essence of whatever it kills. So, the more (evil) guards you kill, the more evil you become. Of course, you'll need to balance that in some way for the "good" alien approach.

Maybe the Good Alien has nonviolent powers: shapeshifting, chameleon, and the ever-popular Jedi mindfog ("I'm not the alien you're looking for..." "You're not the alien I'm looking for... move along.")

The Evil Alien has big teeth, big claws, and a psionic whammy that turns your brain to Jell-O.

So, you can play the stealthy, cunning approach, or you can go for the all-out killing spree.

#5 Kind of a cross of Alien Hominid and The Suffering? I had not thought of ever combining those two. Might be interesting!

#6 Hello

Thanks for posting guys,
I really like all these ideas .
And Anquel has let me realise how much fun the game can be (thanks!)

I am doing this game on my own and it would be my first game with Torque so all help is welkom.

Ideas

I thought of cartoony shaded graphics and i have already made some early level and character skeches (not for the evil alien , doing soon) and listed some weapons.

Before the evil alien was brought in i was thinking of non-lethal weapons such as
- stungun (stick)
- tasergun
- rifle with sleeping darts or (crossbow)
-some non-lethal granades
- ( a gun that shoots net (a bullet with a net attached that deploys on impact) )
and some lethal weapons : automatic rifle , submachinegun, pistol , heavy pistol , rocket launcher , bazooka , shotgun ,... alien rifle ? (instant gib)

But should they try to capture the alien or kill him : in the early levels catch him with non-lethal weapons
And later on with heavy weapons blast him to pieces.

But what about the powers he becomes better ? aha he becomes more angry and by killing more humans he gets more insane and his dark powers take control , he gains strenght and power .

So starting with peaceful skills and when they try to cut him open he starts killing (maybe like in X-man the guy with his claws that come out when he is angry (wolverine))

And something metioned in the post before : killing(or draining the brains) of a soldier will give u more experince with weapons , combat . thus enables to use heavyer equipment (its become a modern diablo-clone lol). and u also gain knowledge of the human world , body and are alowed to control the human brain better.

I have many more in my mind but its hard to discrive all of it (in english) , i will start a blog , plan soon.


Problem already !

one problem : third person , first person or both , problem with the hand that will be shown when holding the gun firstperson , alien and human dont have equel hand (damn) and i need them both as playable


Team?

This game would be verry cool but for 1 person it will be : taking to long and eventualy canceled or ugly fast made everything = crap.

So someone to team up with , hum a teammeber far far away would be weird but what the hell , look at mod teams they bring very nice mods , played by thousands of people.

#7 To address your first person vs. third person dilemna, in my opinion I'd say ya gotta go with third person... the player will otherwise feel disconnected from the fact that he is an alien.

Now, of coz, that's just my opinion...

#8 I agree with Cliff, the player will kind of forget that they're alien in FPerson. I also say go with a rifle that shoots sleeping darts over a crossbow, I personally don't see HOW you could logically justify a crossbow.... you could, but I also don't think you SHOULD....just cuz I think it's too funky.

#9 raughhh ruuuuahhhh!!!!! ruuuuuughghghh!

#10 Good point, but Wookies were somewhat primitive, like cavemen in the future. How would THIS alien get to earth and NOT have something more advanced than a crossbow?? The only Wookie I can recall that ever flew ANY sort of space craft was Chewbacca. He could find a crossbow, but if he has any real physical murdering abilities, he'd probably best use those over a crossbow.
Whatever, it's Robin's decision.... if you really wanted to justify it, maybe there could be a hunter in the woods somewhere?? You could aquire a shot gun, crossbow....maybe a normal bow even....you could get a Steyr Elite Rifle.... people have access to all sorts of goodies these days....

#11 The first person view in the Aliens vs Predator 1 and 2 was done very well, when playing as an alien or predator it's not really possible to forget you're not human. I think the HUD, glimpses of your appendages whilst attacking etc, various sounds you make, and your abilities all factored into that. So I would say that decision should be made on the style of gameplay you want rather than anything else.

#12 Well, I somewhat disagree, I played a small bit of the second I believe it was, and have to say I SOMEWHAT disagree. I only recall the alien.... but I actually specifically felt like I was in a suit, seeing the jaws close in front of the camera reminded me that I was an alien, but it just didn't feel right.... You obviously could use UI to help remind the players, i'm not saying it's not possible.... but I just personally feel that a 3rd person point of view would be much better, or maybe that suddenly more popular 'second person' with the camera following tightly over the shoulder.... then it follows closely, you have that tight feeling that your mouse is directly moving your weapon and your player, and you can still see some of the player model and what it's doing.

But in the end, gameplay is what it's all about, and it's Robin's decision. So, the best course would be whatever makes the gameplay more enjoyable. It's not hard to move the camera position.... i'd say just experiment with each method and see what seems to work best. Environment and atmoshpere are good, but don't let your gameplay take a hit for it.

#13 Am I the only one seeing this already exists? checkout "point of view" mod for half-life

#14 How about let the player choose? Instead of having set abilities for good or evil, have one set of abilities and allow the alien to use them however he wishes! THat way, the players can be the evil sort of sneaky, the good sort of sneaky, the evil killer, the good killer, or whatever else.

#15 This project is currently canceled.

I need more experiece with the engine first and need to buy it .
Now I am working on a very simple teambased shooter .
Just as training . It contains 2 teams and some basic weapons.
The game will be scripted in tge but i also need some enginechanges
- hitboxes
- visual updates (hdr,shaderwater) maybe a toon and glowshader if possible.