Gnomes

Okay, here it is... the outline for my very first game project.

I don't know if any of you guys played Bolo, but it was probably the best multiplayer game to ever come out on the mac pre-1997 (imho). You basically drive a tank around a little world filled with mines, pillboxes and natural obstacles. It was pure multiplayer, and your goal was to destroy neutral and enemy pillboxes and carry them to your home area where you could build roads and walls and such to create a defendable base. the Winner was the one with all the pillboxes. Now, the creator of this game seems to be a little touchy about theft of his ideas, and I don't blame him, so he shot down the development of a PC version. Before I explain Gnomes, I should point out that Bolo is only the initial spark for this idea, and I do not expect any copyright issues. But, dowload Bolo, it is killer!

Anyhoo, my idea...

The game world is a simplistic, possibly cell-shaded, and cartoony environment. I plan to max out the actual map size that torque can handle and make a HUGE playable area, unbroken by load times. Forests, mountains and hills will be randomly spread around the world. These forests and mountains are inhabited by tons of ill-tempered, smart little gnomes. When you join a game world (hosted by a private server owner), you will start with a tank and a tame gnome and a basic base. Basically, like Black & White, you will only manifest yourself in the game world through your gnome, whether he is running around or driving a vehicle.

Throughout the game world are defensive weapons manned by wild gnomes. There will be engineering gnomes who manage the defensive guns and bases and warrior gnomes who attack you with all manner of primitive and advanced weapons. Your goal is to kill the enemy gnomes and take the defensive guns and items back to your base and build them with resources you obtain from gameplay. When you "kill" an engineering gnome, he goes to your base and mines and defends from it. To keep the aquired gnomes there, you must supply them with food and jobs. Food will be a cost you must meet by looting and mining. When you kill a warrior gnome, he follows you and fights with you, but you must return to base when your gnomes energy is low to feed them (If you dont have enough food when you get to base, prepare for serious insubordination and revolt!). You can raid your enemies' bases and take their gnomes, food and defensive guns (after you destroy them), and the goal is to control the gnome population. Once you get about 3/4 of the gnomes working for you (in a 2 person game) or half in a 3 person game and so on... you will have pretty much won unless the enemies team up and take down your empire. When you do "win," the gnomes will revolt and run amok through the map destroying all player related structures in a sort of gnome jihad screaming, "revolution." and the map will either re-create a random terrain or just randomly place all defensive elements and gnomes around the map for another round. I am not sure how long I will balance this process to take, but I am thinking a god round will last from 45 to 90 minutes. My idea is one of manipulating a simplistic population through force and building an empire with their work while fighting other dictators... Anyway thats the basic premise so far...

All ideas and concepts in this thread (c) Andrew Mayer, Ajax Games.