Game about ocean exploration, need feedback
by talkman · in Game Design and Creative Issues · 11/08/2006 (12:15 am) · 8 replies
Hi everyone. For some time, i've been searching for interesting game ideas, but the problem is that i can't go any further than the basic idea itself.
This game is about exploring ocean in search of famous ships wrecks and stuff like that. Starting from exploration of wrecked ships of 15 century, and ending with exploration of last century catastrophes like "Socrpion","Kursk" and other submarines. There could be also search for drawned airplanes, atomic bombs, and kind of stuff that is unusual for ocean.
This is where my ideas end. lol. I can't find a way to integrate that idea into a form of gameplay, or story.
It will be trivial if a player will just go to a location, find the ship and take some pictures of it.
From engine point of view, i see this game having a FPS part, this is when you are under the water guiding your bathyscaphe to search the target, and a kind of tactical one where you select on the map where to sail with your scientific ship.
Please if someone has any interesting ideas in helping me to trasform this idea into a form of gameplay (general suggestion), or any kind of thoughts about that, reply.
Thank you.
P.S. One game session should last 1-3 hrs. I mean that you don't have to find all the tresaures of the world to win it. It is enough to score a given amount of points (maybe to pass the AI oponents somehow), finding maybe several ships, so that in another session of game, the player could try to find something else.
This game is about exploring ocean in search of famous ships wrecks and stuff like that. Starting from exploration of wrecked ships of 15 century, and ending with exploration of last century catastrophes like "Socrpion","Kursk" and other submarines. There could be also search for drawned airplanes, atomic bombs, and kind of stuff that is unusual for ocean.
This is where my ideas end. lol. I can't find a way to integrate that idea into a form of gameplay, or story.
It will be trivial if a player will just go to a location, find the ship and take some pictures of it.
From engine point of view, i see this game having a FPS part, this is when you are under the water guiding your bathyscaphe to search the target, and a kind of tactical one where you select on the map where to sail with your scientific ship.
Please if someone has any interesting ideas in helping me to trasform this idea into a form of gameplay (general suggestion), or any kind of thoughts about that, reply.
Thank you.
P.S. One game session should last 1-3 hrs. I mean that you don't have to find all the tresaures of the world to win it. It is enough to score a given amount of points (maybe to pass the AI oponents somehow), finding maybe several ships, so that in another session of game, the player could try to find something else.
#3
The first thing that came to my mind was learning how to navigate to a spot in the middle of the ocean and then set up search patterns. Finding the wreck may have more to do with finding clues. Perhaps the Area has a history like the Sargasso Sea or the Bermuda triangle.
What were the ships carrying? Is there a link between, an item(s)? Are all the ships tied to a much larger, centuries spanning plot ala Da Vinci Code? Are all the pieces being collected but what they "make" incomplete and where are the final pieces?
Anyway, just some ramblings. Perhaps that will spark someone elses imagination :)
11/08/2006 (6:24 am)
I guess my first question to you is: What is it about the idea that fasinates you?The first thing that came to my mind was learning how to navigate to a spot in the middle of the ocean and then set up search patterns. Finding the wreck may have more to do with finding clues. Perhaps the Area has a history like the Sargasso Sea or the Bermuda triangle.
What were the ships carrying? Is there a link between, an item(s)? Are all the ships tied to a much larger, centuries spanning plot ala Da Vinci Code? Are all the pieces being collected but what they "make" incomplete and where are the final pieces?
Anyway, just some ramblings. Perhaps that will spark someone elses imagination :)
#4
Today one of my friends gave me the next idea. The player is an editor of a kind of magazine about sea exploration or something. The goal is to publish interesting material in this magazine.If interesting materials are published, subscriber base is growing and so the profits do. Having more money, you can now purchase advanced equipment, and explore more dangerous areas. And of course, there are other magazines (AI), which are also involved in exploration. The popularity of your journal directly depends on what you've found.
Let's say every new month a new number of your magazine is published. So you have one month to find something interesting to keep your business alive.
Still there is the problem about how do you get information about your next target. How do you find out where it is located.
Any thoughts, suggestions ?
Thank you.
11/08/2006 (8:52 am)
Thanks for feedback. Well first of all it's not like Hiddent Expedition:Titanic. I didn't play it, but from what i've read, it includes detailed exploration of titanic's interiors (fake), and objects. I think the main point of proposed game should be searching and locating of the target. And it shouldn't be very trivial. Like James proposed, it may be a search for clues. Today one of my friends gave me the next idea. The player is an editor of a kind of magazine about sea exploration or something. The goal is to publish interesting material in this magazine.If interesting materials are published, subscriber base is growing and so the profits do. Having more money, you can now purchase advanced equipment, and explore more dangerous areas. And of course, there are other magazines (AI), which are also involved in exploration. The popularity of your journal directly depends on what you've found.
Let's say every new month a new number of your magazine is published. So you have one month to find something interesting to keep your business alive.
Still there is the problem about how do you get information about your next target. How do you find out where it is located.
Any thoughts, suggestions ?
Thank you.
#5
11/09/2006 (10:47 am)
I would suggest reviewing the Tomb Raider games but basing the gameplay on and underwater. You're after the goal. There are indigenous challenges, whirlpools, sharks, stingrays, depth, etc. Ships have traps or puzzles to get through some of which are things like "brace the door the broken beam or it will collapse after you go through". There may also be competing adventurers after the treasure.
#6
Go for funding, someone wants his pay if you find the wreck but sponsors you a ship, someone else wants the treasure for his museum and sponsors the submarine or anything like that.
11/16/2006 (2:09 am)
I would add an adventure story to it. Think of "relic hunters" or what it's called. So let the player travel around the world, collecting clues and items that may help to find a wreck. Like ancient sea maps, a log book, letters or what ever. Make it even more interesting with opponents, who try to reach the wrecks first.Go for funding, someone wants his pay if you find the wreck but sponsors you a ship, someone else wants the treasure for his museum and sponsors the submarine or anything like that.
#7
01/05/2007 (9:41 pm)
Sounds like Aquanauts Holiday, an old Playstation 1 game.
#8
01/06/2007 (9:20 am)
Should add a researching team so that you can google the various wrecks and get their histories, and clues to their whereabouts. 
Torque Owner Stephan - viKKing - Bondier
May be a nested market.
STef