Koenig and Smirky's Project: "FPS Party" (Kinda Secret)

Summary:

Project "FPS Party" is a game meant combine the gameplay of action heavy multiplayer FPS with collectible initiative and family friendly content.  It is essentially a cross between the Collectible, First Person Shooter, and Party genres. All unlockable content in the game is provided via collectible digital cards that the player can mix and match for various effects within the modes offered by the game. It employs a stylized aesthetic instead of photo-realistic graphics in order to appeal to a broader audience and reduce development costs, likewise it takes several creative liberties with its tools, weapons, and characters while retaining a clean game-play field.

So it's like a hybrid of a FPS and Mario Party?

Mario Kart might be more accurate.  Essentially it is a FPS with an age friendly aesthetic and design.  The game would contain three different kinds of modes:  Competitive, Cooperative, and Mingames (Which would be labeled "Battle", "Adventure", and "Arcade" respectively); each adhering to their own rules but with persistent unlocks and awards that benefit the others.

Collectible Cards: One of the main aspects of this game are its collectibles. Every game mode makes use of unlockable content that is tied to collectible cards that the play will accumulate over time. These cards are given to the player for playing the game, completing awards, buying booster packs, and participating in special events. There are several different types of cards, each of which dictates what cards can be used in which modes. The card types in question range from cosmetics to weapons and abilities. Likewise some of these cards are used to unlock special content such as mirrored maps and custom game modes.

Competitive mode & Customization cards

The competitive mode is loosely based on the arena-multiplayer style used in most FPS today, IE game-modes such as Team Deathmatch, Free for all, and capture the flag along with perk and rewards systems that allow for customization.

Character customization is dictated largely by the cards the player has collected, However all of the cards used in customization follow a strict hierarchy in order to provide a fair playing field. The hierarchy is comprised of these 8 card types:

-Master Class
-Weapon
-Armor
-Custom
-Item
-Skills (Red-Blue-Yellow)
-Bonus
-Aesthetic

Master Class cards are the primary factor in determining what other cards can be used to customize your character, for example a "Ninja" class card would prevent you from using several non melee weapon cards, however it would also allow you to use several cards that are specific to the "ninja" class.  Likewise, each Master Class card has a limited number of points attributed to it that are compared to points added when other cards are used with this class; cards that are more powerful will add more points to the Master Card.  players cannot exceed the number of points on their master card, thus preventing an imbalance.  In addition the type of the master card, each card may also have different numbers of slots open. For instance, one Ninja card might allow the player to carry several weapons at once while another would limit you to one weapon but would have other customization options that first card did not.

Weapon Cards are fairly self explanatory,  they determine what weapon you character will use along with its attributes; likewise some weapons have additional slots that can be used to further customize the character via-subset.

Armor cards typically involve force shields, helmets, chest plates and other defensive equipment that is used to protect your character. Different types of armor provide different types of protection.  For example a breast-plate would provide minor defense against bullets and melee attacks, but would do nothing to protect against energy and abnormal status-effect weapons.

Custom cards fill any special slots left over in either the Master, Weapon, or Armor slots. They are used to further alter the abilities of the cards they are attached to.

Item Cards are just that, items. They run the gambit of uses from support to offence and defense.

Skill Cards are split into three different sub-types that relate to the specific kind of skills they provide (Red, Blue, Yellow) They are for all intents and purposes the "Perks" scene in most FPS today.

Bonus Cards are much like score streaks used in FPS today, however they are used differently; something I will cover in a later post

Aesthetic cards allow you to customize how you character looks, and can be classified into several different sub-types (Head, Chest, Waist, Arms, Hands, Legs, and Boots, along with miscellaneous 1 and 2) These cards are also bound to type master card, meaning you could not wear clothing that contradicted your class. (for example, Only snipers could wear a gillie suit, but that would not prevent them from wearing other more conspicuous gear if they wanted to provided it was not exclusive to another class)

Character Models:

In order to keep a family friendly appearance and maintain its own aesthetic identity, I want to replace human models with puppet like marionettes.  ultimately making this a non-violent game by comparison.  Having puppets blowing each other up would be far less violent than having human character doing the same, Likewise this could be tired to the games often nonsensical choice in equipment and clothing (Rubber chickens, throwing star, fireworks and the like are all things I would like to see incorporated into the games combat)

Possible examples:





The coloration and features of the mannequin could be further edited by the player.

Coins:



Coins are the in game currency used in both Competitive and Cooperative modes, however a separate currency is used in the menu screen.  For the time being I will discuss how coins work in the Competitive modes.


Coins are classified into three types:  Bronze, Silver, and Gold.  Bronze coins are worth one point, Silver is worth five points, and Gold is worth ten points. These points stack together in the players wallet and can be used for various functions.

In every match players will earn coins by killing enemy puppets, finding them on the map, and completing objectives.  The number of coins players earn depends on how they perform.  For example:  Killing an enemy puppet would be worth 1 bronze coin, but getting a headshot kill would instead be worth 2-3 coins. Completing objectives designated by the game mode or special missions would also give the player a varying amount of coins; for instance killing a puppet who has a bounty on them would reward the player with additional coins depending on the size of the bounty, likewise killing the same player over and over while they had no coins of their own would eventually result in a 0 coin bonus. (This would prevent players from over-feeding the other team)  The map would also have several coins lying around it, encouraging the player to roam the map rather than stay in one place.

Player will lose coins when they die, but the amount they lose depends on how they died and is relative to the number of coins they had in their wallet.  Getting killed by a normal attack with result in a 25-50% loss in coins, where as getting killed by a mine would cost the player less (10-25%).  On the flip side getting killed by a joke weapon or by killing themselves would result in a 50-100% loss.

Coins can be spent in a variety of ways, however the most common uses would be on bonus cards, map specific items, and hazards.  In the case of bonus cards and map specific items, the player would be able to buy them as long as they were in his or her mobile shop (IE like the killstreaks used in most FPS today)  however because these are bought rather than automatically earned, it means that the player could spend their coins on several cheaper bonus's or risk losing more by saving up for a much more powerful bonus; this would add a bit more strategy to the game.  Map hazzards on the other hand would have to be accessed at specific spots, but would alter things on the map in favor of the player who payed to use them; likewise there are other map-bonus's like vending machines hidden paths that could be used in exchange for coins.

Side note:  I am also considering making it so that some of the coins lost when a player dies would be dumped onto the map for others to pick up;  the inclusion of this feature depends on if it could be balanced or not.

Tickets are the currency outside of standard gameplay and are used to purchase
both the collectible and unlockable content in the game.  There are four different types of tickets (Red, Blue, Green, and Gold) and each are used to buy different kinds of unlockables (Though in some cases tickets of two or more different types are needed to unlock the content) Tickets are awarded to the player each time they play either Adventure, Battle, or Arcade mode; the number of tickets awarded depend on the players performance.  The different colors come from different modes while Gold tickets are earned by completing awards.



The ticket mechanic is modeled in part after fun houses like Peter Piper Pizza and Chuck e Cheese in order to distinguish itself while remaining easy for kids to understand.  Changing the currency into tickets will also further bolster the games aesthetic identity.

Now that we have the basics of customization and currency out of the way, lets cover the basic setup for the online version of Battle mode.  Battle mode is divided into three separate categories for players to choose from; Standard, Featured, & Special.

Standard game modes are always available and consist of modes common in most FPS today (TDM, FFA, CTF, etc)  Game-modes can be added to or dropped from the standard list via DLC.  The goal being to bundle the most popular modes in one section for easy access.

Featured game modes are comprised of less popular game modes and change on a weekly basis.  Featured games offer extra tickets and card rewards in order to entice players to try out new modes.

Special game modes are comprised of custom games that are setup by both players and developers.  Modes made popular may become permanent additions to the Standard playlist.

Wow... you really thought this through.
The only issue I have with this is the fact that you want this to be realistic yet family friendly. I keep on picturing TF2 for some reason.

Also, you might want to think ahead and make it to where the player don't get the coins and stuff for spawn camping, just to be safe.

I have been toying around with this idea for some time now.


Team Fortress 2 is a good example of the style I am looking for, but I want a little bit more color and context.  I don't know where I posted that I wanted it to be realistic, but that was a typo on my part; though I do want to find medium between realistic and creative.  In this case "realistic" roughly refers to proportions rather than textures. Cell shading will undeniably age better and would lend more to the aesthetic, but I do want to avoid black outlines as that could cause some minor game-play problems.

This image taken from Battalion Wars is a good example for the proportions I am looking for.



One idea I have for spawns is to give all newly spawned players extra health for a very limited time; this means they could fight back despite getting attacked during a spawn (Though ideally the spawn system would be able to prevent them from getting attacked instantly to begin with)



So...  Any questions or suggestions?  There is still a lot I want to cover and refine.

Random Idea for the Bonus's and Coins: Bonus Machine

One little touch I would like to see is a chance system that activates every time a player does something important such as completing an objective or going on a kill streak.  In this case I would like to see a miniature slot machine that would spin when these conditions are met.  It is not guaranteed to give the player something good, however it would still have the chance of triggering a bonus or coin reward for the player (Or maybe even a penalty for players who trigger anti-camping failsafes?)

Because the Bonus Machine would spin more often for players already doing well, the odds of getting a good reward would have to be put through an equations to make them less common; likewise players doing badly would receive the opposite effect with machine and be more likely to get good rolls.

PS: This machine would pop-up on the players HUG when triggered and vanish finished.

Ill admit right now, this also borrows heavily from Mario Karts item box's and Paper Mario own slot machine system; however I feel its inclusion would add a n important element of chance to the game.

Unique feature:  Map Shuffle.

One feature I really would like to see in the battle mode is something I call "Map Shuffle".  Rather than randomly generating a map (Which would probably be dissaterous for a competitive FPS) every map would instead have a number of assets and sections (Doors, Tree's, Small walls, Ramps, etc) that would shuffle locations with each other on a pre-existing template.  This shuffle would take place every time you played a round, meaning the map would be slightly different each time (Within a limit of course; you would eventually encounter the exact same lay-out if you played the game enough)

The goal of Map Shuffle is make it impossible for players to rely on crystallized memory to control the map by changing parts of its layout in each game while still retaining the balance of map that has been designed rather than generated. Essentially it would make it so that players would have to explore the map in each game before they could start controlling it by memory. On the fly memorization would help level the playing field between new & old players and give the advantage to those who could adapt on the fly rather than rely on habit.

Do you have any idea's or questions? I would like to go over the Battle mode some more before we move onto either the Arcade or Adventure modes. Having another person review the concept will likely bring to light potential flaws that I have missed, in some cases it may just be a case of asking the right question so that we can put the answer into form.

I guess ill cover an aspect that coves all aspects of the game: Festival events~

One thing I would really-really like to add to the game is seasonal events that temporarily unlock special game modes and collectibles for the player to enjoy. Ranging from world-wide hollidays like Easter, Christmas, and Valentines to regional holidays like the 4th of July; I want these times of the year to become a bonus for players who still play the game.

During these holidays some textures could be swapped to match the festivities associated with it and special collectibles that also match it would become available during the event.

Whether this content is already built into the game or made available via DLC, I think this would be a great way to reach out to the players and show them a little courtesy.

Award and Rank Systems:

There are two types of award systems in the competitive mode, however they share the progress that players make in them so there should be no repetition.

The first award system is a series of grid-box's that contain various goals or objectives.  Each time an objective is completed its corresponding block will be checked off and small reward of either tickets or an unlockable will be given to the player; the real draw however is filling out an entire row across the box, as doing so would trigger a "Bingo" bonus and give the player a much larger reward.  Only one bingo is allowed per box, but a second greater award is also given to the player when the entire box is filled out.  

The second half of the award system is the rank system; each player is given a limited set of objectives to complete that overlap with those in the Bingo Boxes, after completing enough of these objectives the player will rank up and be given a new set of achievements.

Note:  Not all of the achievements have to be completed in order to rank up, but rather a certain percentage.  This would make it so that players could still level up even if some they could not complete some of the objectives given to them.

Time for a self Q & A session:

Q: How many cards are there?

A: The number of cards in the game is currently unknown, however roughly 200 base cards would be a safe assumption. However keep in mind that I say base cards because they are the cards that all other variations are based on. There might only be 200 base cards, but their could be up to 10x that amount due to different skins, augmented variants, and rare versions of the base cards.

Q: Is voice chat in the game?

A: I would very much like to include voice chat in the game, however its public use would most likely be turned off my default in order to keep the online environment a little safer. Ideally it could be toggled on and off for both friends and public players. A gold mic icon would be displayed on all players who had public chat turned on (meaning they could hear you) while players who only had friend chat on would have a green mic icon(Meaning they could only hear their friends) Players with who left the mic chat turned off would not have a mic icon and subsequently could not hear any chat.

Q: Are micro transactions in this game?

A: I personally dislike the idea of micro-transactions in purchased video games, however I do acknowledge their potential use to help maintain the game. If micro-transactions are added to the game they will be limited to content that can be acquired by playing the game normally and can only be used on certain cards. This means that even though micro-transactions could help those interested in getting certain collectibles, it would not give them any advantage over other players who did not use them.


Q: Will the game have split screen multiplayer?

A: Ideally, yes. The game would offer split screen in all parts of battle mode and some parts of Arcade and Adventure mode; however the latter two are designed differently and would most likely have very few options for split screen multiplayer. (Even though I would like to see it done in both of them, I doubt it would be possible from a software perspective)

Possible addition: Crafting Cards.

While I am still on fence about this, I think the game might benefit from a limited crafting system.

Essentially players would earn a surplus of special cards in addition to the various collectible cards from buying booster packs and wining rounds.  These special cards could be traded together to purchase and create new cards or to alter existing ones.

It's really annoying to force myself to read this dribble. Where are the guns?
GIVE ME MAH GUNZ.

(I like the map shuffle thing)

xXJus10Xx wrote:It's really annoying to force myself to read this dribble. Where are the guns?
GIVE ME MAH GUNZ.

(I like the map shuffle thing)

Thank you very much for reading it, I am sorry I have not made it very interesting.

I have not worked on many gun concepts yet because I wanted to lay down the basic mechanics in use beforehand, though off the top of my head I can tell you that there will be at least nine types of main weapons:

-Pistol
-Bow
-Shotgun
-Sniper
-Blade
-Rifle
-Laser
-Rocket
-Tool

However I think a name change would be advisable for most of them.

Each weapon type has it own stats and abilities based on how it is used (Hipfire, Vs Aiming for example) However the skills shown to the player will be different depending on the weapon used.  Take the "sniper" type for instance.  This weapon would only display information relevant to shots taken while the player is aiming since hip-fire or standard use would by design be much-much worse; A rifle on the other hand would display more stats that relate to both normal and aiming shots.

In the case of Aiming the following stats would be displayed:

-Accuracy
-Recoil
-Grip
-Speed
-Sound

keeping in mind that some of the stats such as Recoil, Speed, and Sound would also be displayed on weapons that used the hipfire/normal settings.

I guess I should start going over some of the basic stat information. For this post I will cover the "Sound" stat and how it effects the game. While it may seem vague, sound is exactly what it is named after. Every time the player uses his or her weapon it creates sound, however as a stat it has different degrees. A weapon that has a high sound output will paint you on the radar from any distance, where as a weapon with a lower sound output will only give away your direction as compared to your exact position. Likewise, if your sound output is very low and you are far enough away you will not show up on the radar at all.

Different custom & item cards can alter both the players sound output and his or her ability to detect sound. Likewise some Master Class cards have inherent abilities that also affect how is used.

aww man just when I thought I had read everything you add more, lol, ok I'm loving it so far, it's so unique and sounds so fun. one question I don't remember if you mentioned this when I was skimming through but can the player create their own character/character class?

Squirrel500 wrote:aww man just when I thought I had read everything you add more, lol, ok I'm loving it so far, it's so unique and sounds so fun. one question I don't remember if you mentioned this when I was skimming through but can the player create their own character/character class?

Yes. That is the whole point of have collectible cards in the game as it gives the player a way to use them creatively.

Though I the game will also feature default options for players who are having trouble getting the parts they need to make the exact class they want.

Koenig wrote:

Squirrel500 wrote:aww man just when I thought I had read everything you add more, lol, ok I'm loving it so far, it's so unique and sounds so fun. one question I don't remember if you mentioned this when I was skimming through but can the player create their own character/character class?

Yes.  That is the whole point of have collectible cards in the game as it gives the player a way to use them creatively.

Though I the game will also feature default options for players who are having trouble getting the parts they need to make the exact class they want.

that or allow the players to trade for what they need