gaming Idea I had for a time travel video game

[Mand'alor Dash 2,224]

So, I have this weird idea for a video game. It's sort of based on Doctor Who, but with an original story.

 

The idea is that on January 1, 2000, aliens arrive and spark a nuclear war, destroying all life on Earth. You play as the Doctor, his TARDIS trapped in a timelock in a small suburb outside of Washington DC between 1850 and 2000, which just so happens to be where all of the action takes place.

 

The catch is that between these two points, and within this suburb, the player is freely allowed to travel to any day that they desire, be it to complete missions, or just to explore. The town will develop and change as the years pass, the townspeople will react to current events, and you can even see a few events firsthand.

 

The ultimate goal is to stop the aliens, but the player is also free to stop a great bank robbery in 1934, influence the Kennedy Election in 1960, root out communist spies in 1955, or free the town from Confederate ocupation in 1864. You can even go to the end of the timeline in 2000, if you want to see how long you'll last in the wasteland against the aliens.

 

To make the design simple, there will be a simple timeline describing when each building in the town is being built, renovated, or demolished, and when technology or historical events are advancing. So, for instance, a supermarket could be established in 1874, and stand unchanged until the 20s, at which point it will renovated. It will then be demolished in the 40s, and replaced with another supermarket, and etc.

 

The elegance of this timeline design is that the designers wouldn't need to design every day, or every year, or even necessarily every decade. Simply design every building, and a few alternate versions of them as the timeline advances. It's similar to recording a game of SimCity and then scrubbing through the recording to see what your town was like at a certain point in time. This will allow the player to go whenever they want and having it all make sense without every little detail having to be made by the designers.

 

What do you think?

[Guest]

That sounds pretty solid man!

 

I'm still waiting for a game that mixes elements from TimeSplitters, TimeShift, Darkest of Days and Prey.  -_-

[Neutral 1,185]

You know what the game sounds pretty cool honestly

What ever you do never let ea get involved

[Mand'alor Dash 2,224]

You know what the game sounds pretty cool honestly

What ever you do never let ea get involved

Might have to, actually. The suburb would have to be populated somehow, and I was thinking that the citizen AI would work best if it was similar to The Sims, but with procedural generation.

[Neutral 1,185]

Yeah but ea has fucked up a lot since 2011 I believe and if you play fifa I has some stupid glitches and bf 4 had a terrible release

[A Black Circle 1,585]

Yeah but ea has fucked up a lot since 2011 I believe and if you play fifa I has some stupid glitches and bf 4 had a terrible release

They are evil.

The embodiment of all evil.

[Neutral 1,185]

You said it my mane ayaze

[Larkybird~ 734]

Hmm. Not really into Doctor Who, course that's irrelevant but it does sound like a rather great idea.

But yeah. Just don't get EA involved. I'm sure there's other companies out there who can do Ai the way you want.

[Guest]

Meanwhile at EA, following the release of Battlefield 4.

 

[zaqwert11 70]

well sounds like a nice game, but might be to complex. If you would be able to travel to any day over a period of 150 years. thats 54787 days. which means 54787 different maps with npc. first of all that would require a lot of space on your pc. second a lot of time to develop and last a lot of money. im not saying its a bad idea but maybe a bit overkill. but anyways if you ever make the game then i would buy it. no questions asked

 

and ea in a nutshell

Meanwhile at EA, following the release of Battlefield 4.

 

[Mand'alor Dash 2,224]

well sounds like a nice game, but might be to complex. If you would be able to travel to any day over a period of 150 years. thats 54787 days. which means 54787 different maps with npc. first of all that would require a lot of space on your pc. second a lot of time to develop and last a lot of money. im not saying its a bad idea but maybe a bit overkill. but anyways if you ever make the game then i would buy it. no questions asked

 

and ea in a nutshell

Like I said, the timeline system would allow it all to be generated by the computer. In reality, it would only need to be one map with a bunch of variables.

[zaqwert11 70]

Like I said, the timeline system would allow it all to be generated by the computer. In reality, it would only need to be one map with a bunch of variables.

well that may be true, but as time goes by you would have to change the map completly but still make it historically correct and for that you would need a premade map which the computer would be able to load. im not saying your idea is bad or anything just a tiny overkill. to begin with maybe you should only take 50 year. that way it would be easier to know as a player what to do, and as a developer you wouldnt have to make that many premade maps. boom every one is happy

[Mand'alor Dash 2,224]

well that may be true, but as time goes by you would have to change the map completly but still make it historically correct and for that you would need a premade map which the computer would be able to load. im not saying your idea is bad or anything just a tiny overkill. to begin with maybe you should only take 50 year. that way it would be easier to know as a player what to do, and as a developer you wouldnt have to make that many premade maps. boom every one is happy

Again, the buildings will be premade, and the variations will be premade. The point is that it's all one map that changes over time.

 

Back to the SimCity example, it's about designing the changes to the map that the computer will extrapolate the date from. When you design the supermarket, you program in events that include its renovation and demolition. The computer only needs to "scrub" to that point in the town's history and find out whether the supermarket was standing, and what it looked like.

[zaqwert11 70]

Again, the buildings will be premade, and the variations will be premade. The point is that it's all one map that changes over time.

 

Back to the SimCity example, it's about designing the changes to the map that the computer will extrapolate the date from. When you design the supermarket, you program in events that include its renovation and demolition. The computer only needs to "scrub" to that point in the town's history and find out whether the supermarket was standing, and what it looked like.

well seems like you got everything covered  now you just need to make a system like that and make sure EA doesnt take any part of it. I wish you the best luck in the futher