What is the community's interest in fan created games?
 

Hey Everyone!

I was just wondering what people expect from Oddworld games and interactive applications.

It would be great if you would like to answer the following question:
What is the community's interest in fan created games?

While answering please include details like:

1. What hero's should be in it? (Abe, Munch etc.)
2. What area's should it be about? (Rupture Farms, Paramonia etc.)
3. What is the game about?
4. Is it singleplayer or multiplayer?
5. Any idea or concept you might have!

I think this would help the many game artists on this forum focus their attention on what you really want instead of wasting time with games nobody wants to play.

Multiplayer mini games located in a village/tribal settlement where users can socialize and have their own character, which they can customise by hunting creatures for fur. The creatures to be hunted each have their own level of rareness and hunting dificulty. The hunting could involve setting traps and waiting (maybe leave the trap and return another day). Would it be possible to create something like this where you can simply add updates of new missions (ie. new scenes, new characters), and the missions can be either single player or multiplayer..

Edit: The hunting creatures for fur bit... I mean more than just hunting for fur :P.. maybe funting for food.. hunting for creatures with special bone, (like elephant's ivory tusks) which they could sell for points or whatever currency oddworld uses.

The hero is the highest ranking user. This can change. When someone is the Hero, they have special authority over how the tribe is run. For example, their vote in diplomatic decisions might count as 4 votes whereas everyone elses would count as a single vote (there might be a vote to go to war with another tribe for example).

The tribe members can form relationships and have children. A child will be AI-controlled, and u may choose to permanently swap your adult character for the child character who will then become a young adult and you can train him up to become specialised in certain areas, such as battling, socialising, hunting/tracking, cooking, knowlege/science.

There will be missions where up to 5 ppl can join over an internet connection, and complete the mission. If a player dies, he will remain dead until a checkpoint has been reached, at which point, the dead characters are ressurected and can continue the mission.

An Oddworld RPG, like fallout 3, you roam the world looking for a main quest but there are lots of other side quests which earn you XP, karma and moolah. I can see this being effective as an isometric because it's easier than making it 3D 1st person although 1st person would be more fun.

Because that wouldn't be overly complicated...

He wants a realistic answer.

Fair enough, a small platformer that would take a few minutes to play, good graphics is all I'm looking for

The more accurate the gameplay is to the originals, the better. I'm not fussed over graphics.

Yeah I wouldn't mind seeing a platformer that's loyal to the originals (e.g. extra levels/locations to AO or AE). Graphics arent really important as long as the gameplay is solid and balanced.

Thank you guys :) It really helps me to get a perspective on the community's expectations and wishes and I hope it does the same for other developers. I hope there wil be many more opinions etc. :)

Graphic-wise, I like to see things that use images that are coherent in style. It's no good using AO backgrounds if you use fan sprites. That and they have to look decent. Something that looks like it twelve seconds to draw does not sit well with me.

In gameplay, I'm open-minded. I like to see whatever people think will work. Of course, that doesn't always make it fun.

The plot behind a game doesn't have to be strong, because in fan games, there is little chance to show it all properly. However, that doesn't mean it should be ignored. It should be there, but it doesn't have to be great.

I have no real concepts to share, but I would like to say what I want in a fan-game. I have yet to see a very good fan-game reach completion, but maybe this brings us one step closer.

1. Abe AND Munch.
2. Some sort of industrial environment.
3. Molluck wanting vengence against Abe for the destruction of Rupturefarms.
4. Multiplayer bewteen Abe and Munch would be cool.
5. Some sort of homage to the original 2 games such as puzzles and difficulty to receive a good ending.

1. A platformer with an albino Slig, a Mudokon, a Chronicler
2. Paramonia, Monsaic Lines, Scarabinia, Slig Barracks, some new fanmade area, perhaps a jungle in the mountains or a swamp or a river or something...
3. Mudos is on the brink of war... while 3 characters struggle to stay alive -The young albino Slig is in trouble because he's an albino at Slig Barracks and the others don#t accept him, a Mudokon wants to escape (he's a revolutionary and a member of an organisation who fights for equal rights and freedom etc... he stole an ancient Mudokon weapon from Vykkers Labs) but got caught - the Mudokon and the albino Slig are sent to a prison close to Slig Barracks, they need help of a Chronicler - who also needs their help...for some unknown reason (they will find out later that the chronicler is in trouble because of some money related issues etc...)
4. a singleplayer that can also be played in multiplayer mode.
5. The graphics and the style of everything should be similar to the original games so that it still feels oddworld-like...

I know the plot is probably too much for a fangame (and perhaps a little illogical ^^;) :p but still it would be a cool game :D In all Oddworld games the plot was always very meaningful after all.

I can draw so I could help with level backgrounds and characters :D (but I don't have much time) but the graphics still should be like in the other oddworld games ^^

More than anything I would like to see something that is consistent in design with original oddworld games to tie in the universe, and stories that reflect the ideas of the games. Consider the conflicts of the natural world v's the industrial world and take your game idea from there.

As far as characters go, I would steer away from using existing characters, as they are fully formed in your audiences mind already and have been for many years. Start with an unknown Mudokken, or even a new species of your own design!

As you probably know, a lot of thought went into making Oddworld than making other games at that time, so even if it is just a fan game, think of these things, and I would be encouraged to play!

I like Avenging Gibbon's Idea, but I have one of my own.

1. One mudokon that got trapped in Rupture Farms after the events of AO.
2. The game will be played inside Rupture Farms that is partialy destroyed,locked down, and all around innaccesible.
3. The game will be like AE and AO and you find your character lying in a pile of debris from the lockdown. You are trapped in Zulag 2 with the transit system in ruins, you must find another way out.
4. Single Player.
5.No concept art, but the mudokon can't chant because he isn't as spiritually connected as Abe, but he can use a butcher knife to fight to surviving personnal and the life stock.

Just for nostalgia I prefer Abe games in an area of AO / AE in single player. The rest I suppose is up to the developer to share ideas and gain feedback from the forum to build and structure their story / gameplay .