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Fantasy RTS

elendil67 · 2002-08-18T16:27:14

Last night when i was going to bed I was trying to think up of a good game. I remembered what Sid Meier said in an interview book once about designing games. He said, 'Think of something you would want to be, do, or have, develop what it would all be about, and lastly choose the genre. A lot of people choose the genre first ("I want to make an action game!"), and their finished game ends up to be a clone of some other type of game.' Now this isn't a direct quote, but it gets the point across. So I when I was thinking last night I said 'I want to be an elf in Rivendell.' So I thought 'Now what kind of genre would that be?' The first that came in mind was obviously RPG, and it sounded to generic. So I thought a little further, and I came up with FPS, but that's too hard for a beginner. After a long time of thinking (I had stayed up late the night before and I had to get up early in the morning), it suddenly came to me! A strategy game! So I thought a Middle-Earth/Fantasy/D&D strategy game would be really cool. Because of all the balancing of the races, courtesy of J.R.R. Tolkien and the Dungeons and Dragons people, it would make things very interesting. It would be so different playing with each race that you would have to pick one and develop your skills in that one, and then move onto others. The races would be: men, elves, dwarves, and maybe orcs/goblins. There would be a certain amount of alliance between your race and certain other races. For example, maybe: Men + Elves Dwarves + Orcs/Goblins Dwarves + Men Dwarves - Elves Men - Orcs/Goblins I realize that this is terribly unbalanced, and not totally correct either, but it's just an example of what could be an idea. + would mean that the two races have a few things in common and at times of war it would be easier to ally with them. - means that the two races are not very friendly to each other, and it would be easier to go to war with them. I'm also thinking of adding a +-, which is basically neutral. The +- system wouldn't determine everything about allying though. It would be a factor in many things, but is not the ruling factor. There would also be a widened variation of units between races. This would vary from price, skills, quality, quantity, and moral. Instead of just having things such as an Attack power and a Defense Power, maybe there would also be stuff such as Dexterity. Actually, this would probably complicate things very much. There would also be a variety in the different types of units. You could produce wizards, which would cast divine spells, often in the back of an army providing backup. Maybe you could produce rangers, which would have a larger field of view, could move faster, yet be either weaker or more expensive. Also, bards would be a radical option to boost the moral of troops, thus giving them more power. Bards would also have a little bit of skills in conventional and ranged weapons. Buildings would be different with each race. Not just the look, but also the speed of construction, the cost, and the durability. Maybe certain races, especially Dwarves and Orcs/Goblins could dig caves to live in. I would bore you some more with my idea but I have to go and eat dinner. Please reply on what you think! Thanks! BTW, Am I copying Warcraft? Because I have never played it before. .elendil67 [edited by - elendil67 on August 9, 2002 6:34:50 PM]

Writing for Games Game Design

Started by elendil67 August 09, 2002 05:34 PM

25 comments, last by elendil67 21 years, 10 months ago

elendil67

122

Author

August 17, 2002 02:37 PM

Kylotan: I know I wouldn''t be able to secure a deal with those people, or for that matter actually make a game of this scope, but it just sounds like a cool idea. I was just wondering how copyright laws work with the whole Tolkien thing.

.elendil67

When you go homeTell them of us, and say:For your tomorrow,We gave our today.

Snash

122

August 17, 2002 02:49 PM

I don''t think you will get in trouble if you don''t sell it..

Though I could be mistaking.

mearrin69

122

August 17, 2002 02:54 PM

Nothing''s impossible. Christopher Tolkien or whoever currently owns the rights has clearly recently licensed the rights to a number of entities including 1) Whatever studio''s making the movies, 2) Games Workshop - who have a new line of miniatures games based on it, 3) All of those other gits with merchandising deals around the movies. It costs, though.

One thing, If you base it around the universe as portrayed in the movie you have to go to Miramax or whoever it is. If you base it off the book you have to go to whatever company is managing the rights of the original Tolkein works (not sure who). I know Games Workshop licensed through the movie studio - and all their stuff gets approved through them.

I think all that''s right.
Michael

elendil67

122

Author

August 18, 2002 10:53 AM

quote: Original post by Snash
I don''t think you will get in trouble if you don''t sell it..

Though I could be mistaking.

Thanks Snash and Mearrin. Does anyone know for sure about if you don''t sell it? Thanks.

.elendil67

When you go homeTell them of us, and say:For your tomorrow,We gave our today.

mearrin69

122

August 18, 2002 11:07 AM

Well. You CAN get in trouble even if you don''t sell it. You''d still *technically* be in violation of copyright laws. Question really is whether the owners would see you as a big enough fish to bother frying. Dunno the answer to that one.

A good f''rinstance is Paramount threatening all of the fan-driven Star Trek sites with legal action a while back - even though they weren''t making money from Paramount''s assets (just worshipping them, lol). The story I heard was that they figured they''d have more traffic if they culled out the fan sites.

So, a bit of politics like that could well make your Tolkien clone free game a target for whomever owns the rights. If you have any lawyer friends you could check with them - hate to see you put in a bunch of time on something to see it shelved because of something stupid like that.

elendil67

122

Author

August 18, 2002 02:44 PM

Damn copyright laws get in the way of everything. Too bad his writing isn''t public domain. Does anyone have any link for info on copyright laws or anything?

.elendil67

When you go homeTell them of us, and say:For your tomorrow,We gave our today.

mearrin69

122

August 18, 2002 04:27 PM

Nothing I can remember, though I''ve seen a lot online. Just Google it I guess.

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Fantasy RTS

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