Toying with making a game

[JamesB]

So, I've been noodling over the notion of making a game. What I wanted to do was put a description up here and hopefully you guys either say "Yeah, that looks like something that would be good" or "No, stupid idea. Leave and never come back". I get its a little hard to decide whether you're interested in a game purely from an incomplete description, but I don't want to start work on something that has a fundamentally boring concept.

The general concept is that in a fantasy world people play some ultra-violent version of American Football - Games Workshop's Blood Bowl is my inspiration here but there are other examples, anyone remember an old game called Speedball? Anyhoo, the regulars at the tavern your father owns and you barmaid at decide to form a team. You sign on as coach/trainer/manager. Games occur every week and are procedurally generated by comparing the stats of your players, adjusted for their position, with your opponents'.

The week is where you come in. Using a time management system similar to Slavemake or something you need to raise your players' stats through the medium of sex. A long session to raise their stamina, using their fingers on you to increase Dexterity, maybe a bondage session for aggression. Stuff like that, details are still rather vague. You'd have your own set of stats - blowjob skill, etc to determine how good you were at raising there plus a set of attributes - big boobs, say - that if they match Player preferences would grant a bonus to the increase. Bob the player likes big boobs, you have big boobs, Bob the player gets more of a raise for interacting with you.

There's many other stuff that could be put in as well. Different races - once you start winning an ogre might join your team (or any race really), competitions, other actions you can perform (shopping? wearing out the opposition? all sorts of options)

I've put this here in Non-Flash because I'm a Java programmer and that was my first thought. Animations might be tricky and it may be worth my while learning AS and Flash, but I have a lot more access to Java than Flash so work would be slower in that.

As I say, I get that its tough to decide just on a bare bones outline, but does that sound interesting? Fear not, you're not signing up to anything by saying "yeah, that could be fun depending on how its done"

[rakgi]

The premise sounds good in that BJ etc giving stats but, since its a sports theme management I just don't see the point of sex in it. I just like immersion and it doesn't go together in my opinion.

[JamesB]

The premise sounds good in that BJ etc giving stats but, since its a sports theme management I just don't see the point of sex in it. I just like immersion and it doesn't go together in my opinion.

That's fair enough. I'll be honest, the idea is built on the back of the mechanic rather than vice versa so if there's a setting you think would work better then I certainly won't be crying myself to sleep over adopting it.

[YummyTiger]

I think the idea sounds interesting, but it would require a serious amount of work to do right. My first advice would be to worry less about what other people will think and figure out if it is something YOU want to create. Trust me when I say that you will be playing test versions for hours upon hours, if it is not something you are seriously passionate about, the project will not finish. There is a reason nearly every game project fails.

As for your idea, I do like it. I agree with your last post in that it seems like the game mechanic is the core component and the sex is tacked on, and that is not necessarily a bad thing. There are plenty of good games that adopt a similar style--Kamidori Alchemy Meister for example. Is it just the barmaid servicing the team or are you planning on doing something like a sim brothel where you can hire a number of women? Are they slaves, or just employees?

[JamesB]

I think the idea sounds interesting, but it would require a serious amount of work to do right. My first advice would be to worry less about what other people will think and figure out if it is something YOU want to create. Trust me when I say that you will be playing test versions for hours upon hours, if it is not something you are seriously passionate about, the project will not finish. There is a reason nearly every game project fails.

As for your idea, I do like it. I agree with your last post in that it seems like the game mechanic is the core component and the sex is tacked on, and that is not necessarily a bad thing. There are plenty of good games that adopt a similar style--Kamidori Alchemy Meister for example. Is it just the barmaid servicing the team or are you planning on doing something like a sim brothel where you can hire a number of women? Are they slaves, or just employees?

Good point about my own passion/interest for the topic. Fortunately I'm "in the trade" as it were so more used to hacking away on other people's stuff, but if I'm going to be giving up my own free time then, yeah, you may well have a point.

I'm gonna keep things simple for the nonce and just have one barmaid servicing. If things go well, if I stick with the project, if have a hundred other unpredictables come right then sure, other girls are something that could be added. Cheerleaders or whatever. But for the moment, just the one. She - the barmaid - would be an employee (or technically the team owner and the players are employees if we want to get pedantic). But hypothetical other girls could be slaves, sure.

Hopefully in production the sex won't feel too "tacked on" but - I dunno, I go back to Slavemaker and similar games. The simple "level up your girls" mechanic is there and the sex is the medium (one of the media) through which that is done. This is just a gender swapped version of that. So I'm not overly concerned about that right now, as you say there are numerous similar examples.

[Adelhart]

It doesn't sound terrible, but it looks like it's just a mix-mash of ideas right now. That isn't fundamentally bad per say, but I don't see something that gives it its own particular flair. Something to bind everything together into achieving a goal that's easy to get behind would be nice - that can be done either through the details of how you make the gameplay work, or by the plot you want to try and convey. But as it stands right now, if a game magically appeared with just exactly those things, I wouldn't be too interested.

It's important to consider what you want to do with the game - Do you want it to actually be a stand alone game with a cool plot? A game where you focus on getting all possible achievements? Fapping material? I think if that aspect is clearly defined and conveyed through your game, you'll find people willing to play it with what you've described so far.

[Zeus Kabob]

Because this lacks a playable demo, it's been moved to Creative Discussion from the Non-Flash Projects subforum.