How many game titles do you know where you must push a button in order to continue with the story? I know a couple games that come to mind are Deus Ex and Bio Shock. And one thing that I have always wondered about is what it would take to make a game where you actually have an option, or some choice, when it comes to Pushing-The-Button.
Modern engines definitely look pretty, but because it can take many man months to make a single level, developing content that players might not see is becoming increasingly taboo. Has anyone ever played SIN? I can remember playing it a couple years ago, or last year, and discovering a level in the game that I never knew existed, based on my actions and completed objects in the previous level. I was floored! Here is a game that was released in the 90’s and I’m still finding new things about it. Whereas a game like Bio Shock one I’ve played through it once, the only thing that’s left is playing through it again with a different set of plasmids, but I’m pretty sure I’ve seen all the levels.
So the more powerful the technology, the more linear things get? That seems almost counter intuitive. So how far back would we need to go to create a game like SIN where, based on what the player chooses, the game and even the story will change?
Obviously we can’t go as far back as choose your own adventure games, or even text based because the player will simply lose track of what is going on. But what about making a game like that in the Doom engine, or at best, the Quake engine? I can remember pumping out a level in a matter of hours in Doom, and days for a Quake level. Naturally these engines are old and a lot of extra features will need to be added. But with what we know these days, why couldn’t we plug in advanced AI and scripting into these old engines? They’re free too!
The way I see it, making a game from start to finish takes 100% of the development time and resources. But if, like in Deus Ex, where the player chooses option B instead of option A half way during the game, it shouldn’t add another 50% development time, to a total of 150%. If anything it would add maybe 25%, especially if the developers are smart and reuse levels and assets which take the longest to make. What’s left is scripting, dialogue, maybe cinematics, etc.
The first half will always stay the same, but in the second half you could be on the hunt for faction A, instead of being hunted by faction B. The levels can easily be reused, just move the spawn points, change a couple of assets, and new scripting.
Something like this really excites me, because using the right technology a game that really gives the player story options can be developed. Don’t like your allies? Take the offer to defect then take them out in the next level! Did you fail at that too? Maybe it was all part of the plan to play as a double agent. Eventually you meet up in a warehouse. If you stuck with your allies you will be the attacking force, but if you defected you would be defending. Or maybe you’re really part of the third faction, sneaking in to steal the goods while the other two are fighting it out. How cool would that be? :D
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