I have recently begun a module on connected game development. The assignment for this module is to create a online multiplayer game as part of a team. My team consists of myself, one other game designer and two programmers. Upon forming our team, we engaged in a brainstorming session, in which we discussed our backgrounds, interests and skillsets in order to decide what type of game we would like to create and how we should organise ourselves. After this session, I did some additional research and ideation, and came up with two game concepts which I then delivered to the team. Here they are:
Trickshot
Team-based first person shooter
High mobility (dashes, wallruns etc)
1 shot kills
High skill weapons e.g. sniper rifle, throwing knife, boomerang etc
Points for kills based on difficulty. Just shooting an enemy = 1 point, jumping off a roof and spinning then killing an enemy = lots of points.
Inspired by: COD , Bulletstorm , Unreal Tournament , Tribes Ascend
Knock-Off
Team-based third-person shooter/platformer
High mobility (dashes, wallruns, double jump, slide)
Weapons don’t deal damage but apply physics effects instead. An explosive weapon could knock enemies around, frost weapons could slow them down etc.
Levels contain many platforms, pits and traps. Being knocked off the level or hit by a trap kills the player and gives a point to the other team.
Inspired by: Splatoon’s Vibe and look, Smash Bro’s knocking off objective , Fall Guys platforms and traps
I had had the idea for Trickshot for a little while and had been waiting for the opportunity to develop it. As it is a multiplayer concept, I have hesitated to try and develop it in the past as that would involve me learning to implement online multiplayer, a somewhat daunting task. As we have two programmers on the team, I thought this might be a good opportunity to turn this design into something real, without me having to spend lots of time coding alone. As such, this was the first idea I pitched to the team during our brainstorming session. They enjoyed the notion of a high-mobility arena shooter but felt that the high-skill gameplay and potentially violent imagery would make the game too niche. In response to this point, and the various other ideas the team and I tossed around, I came up with Knock Off. This concept retains the mobility-focused shooting of Trickshot, but is much more light-hearted and accessible, appealing more as a fun party game, rather than a hardcore competitive shooter. The team really enjoyed this concept and so we decided that we would use it as a starting point for our game.
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