I've been on DC for a while now and I havn't really seen any truly freeform games. I've heard dozens of people shout out about their new GTA clones but I've never seen a decent one in the downloads section.
Surely it wouldn't be too hard to make a 2d elite style space game or something simple like that which gives the player complete freedom within a virtual world with GF or MMF.
Here on DC i see loads of people try to make huge RPG's with loads of interaction and weapons and stuff but no one seems to have realised that it would be much easier to make a game where you simply roam around and make money by stealing, trading and killing.
"My game has no particular clone. The only games you could possibly referance are Street Fighter and Little Fighter 2. But my characters, levels and character design is far from theirs. So I'd say my game is pretty freeform."
I think you miseed the point of freeform. Something like Elite (as was mentioned) where you can do whatever you like in the galaxy, as long as you don't crash into planets or get destroyed by pirates/the police. I'm sure it's possible, but it would require a lot of skill and time so that the player could keep on going forever.
i tried to make an escape velocity clone once, except it was set in a post-apocalyptic world where just about everything is covered in water and you had a boat instead of a spaceship, kinda like that waterworld movie. but the ai was way too hard to make. i used to have it on my old mac performa... then my dad erased my HD. I started it when I was around 9... So I could probably finish it in a few years if I tried it now. But I'm really into old-school platformers right now. So I gotta get that out of my system.
"The light which puts out our eyes is darkness to us."
-Henry David Thoreau
Assault Andy Administrator
I make other people create vaporware
Registered 29/07/2002
Points 5686
27th October, 2003 at 01:37:19 -
Tried, Try, Almost, Half-made. These are all the words you hear about clones that were 'supposed' to be better than the real games (Or a near direct clone).
But i mean, in regards to that game I made, it was only a small sample. What you want eventually if a bigger map. I mean 3200x3200 isn't a small map, but i've made games with 32000x32000 sized levels, 100 times the size! But working with such large maps means adding equal detail, and believe me, it takes alot of time to do the maps.
I think the best thing to do before you think before thinking big is establish engines.
Take a GTA clone. Wouldn't be half as fun without other cars driving along, so make an engine that allows cars to drive easily around the roads. Then maybe add a few pedestrians that do similar kinds of things.
Then you might want a movement engine for your cars. So you make that. And maybe add some cops...yeah...make a bit of AI for them.
And lets not forget some nice big guns, 'plosions and general special effects. As well as some cool little things...ie shops, npc kinda people, money system, basis of missions...
...after you've done that, you can start to make your world larger and LARGER. Keep it simple to start off with, but once you've got the coding behind it, its up to you do design level(s) around it.
Doesn't sound too hard in theory eh!
Edited by the Author.
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