Derik's dashboard

I have actually played the game this time however im still going to drop some idea bombs if any crazy ideas hit me :)

-more in depth post match results.....

who killed me the most?
who did i kill the most?
KO over kills spread...
MVP
so on and so on

it could be just a separate tab that you can switch to by swiping left/right over the results

-controls

the controls are decent and im pretty sure you guys have done extensive testing but......

****heres some brief feedback on my experience with the controls:

the movement virtual joystick (VJ) feels a little too high up on the left side of the screen for me and for look sensitivity I had to increase it the default seems a little tooo slow. I also turned on auto fire and turned off double tap center to zoom would always be steadily trying to lock in auto fire and instead zoom on accident so i just turned that off and turned on auto fire increased the sensitivity and that feels more usable but the VJ still feels like its in an awkward position or too high up on the left side of the screen

***some suggestions:

maybe lower it a little bit? or have an option to configure where the button is placed? idk you don't want tooo many options tho that doesn't help either

also have you guys even tried a virtual wheel (VW) for movement? please at least test it. there might be a slight learning curve to circle strafing with a VW and a VJ since its two different gesture types but still a VW seems almost ideal for FPS movement and if you could tell the difference between swiping in a circle gesture to turn around and sliding in a linear/diagonal fashion to free look in the same space and then optimize it that would be awesome i imagine it would be incredibly easy to circle strafe with a VW locked in for movement and an omni VW and VJ in the same space for turning and free look

would love to test that out

-game orientation

its needs to be able to flip the way i want it......
right now i have to hold it in an awkward position so my palm doesn't steadily cover the speaker of course head phones would eliminate that but still if i could just flip the game back and forth by rotating my phone upside down and vice a versa depending on weather im wearing headphones or not that would be awesome

-maps
i love the maps but an option to veto a map and/or additional game type/modes down the line would be a welcome addition

-plus+ ideas

friend ppl who you play in matches in the post match results page
rematch option where ppl could vote on an instant rematch
1 v 1 challenges

i haven't tested the friend private matches yet because i dont have many friends on the plus+ network with an iphone and with eliminate in their hands so idk if you can customize the rounds, time and if you can just go at it 1v1 or not

-game modes

be able to set up peer to peer matches via bluetooth/wifi?

tournament mode -- no levels or special armor or attributes just basic skill vs skill might even be a few versions of this mode with different load outs to choose from on each one however i understand you have it locked down the way it is in order to maximize the profits from the energy cells and that you have a powerful matchmaking system to compliment not only player skill but character levels and attributes too but i would still like to be able to play some skill vs skill matches sometimes and if your worried about monetization you can set up a business model around the tournaments too where you have to buy badges at various price points before you can enter skill vs skill tournaments once you have purchased a badge your free to join the tournaments that badge gives you access to anytime you like some of these tournaments at the higher price points will be round robin play offs and possibly have prizes for winning such as big credit pay offs, huge energy cell packs special armor ect

i think the additional game modes should revolve around different deathmatch settings like for instance:

-team deathmatch
-one shot one kill
-speed demons
-low grav
ect

rather then a whole mess of generic FPS modes such as CTF territories ect you should stick with deathmatch and just offer modes that revolve around different settings of that mode to optimize the overall experience

and last but not least the game is awesome the online experience is fantastic and i absolutely love it which is why im here making this post in the first place :)

thx for a great game

D

First of all I would like to give some big ups to the dev behind the plus+ product.

its got a clean finger/user friendly interface, it loads fast, the web site is gorgeous and that icon design is a wonderful way to implement plus+ into games with style :)

However now is not the time to rest and celebrate, the competition is heating up with 2 brand-new contenders in this space which is why I have decided to compose a post with my thoughts....Enjoy :)

I'm not clueless I recognize the marketing value in leveraging networks like twitter/facebook and you guys have demonstrated how to pull that off flawlessly.......with style :)

However going forward I would focus more on building out the features and functionality of the plus+ network itself with a priority on implementing features that allow these networks to grow and expand more quickly with emphasis on easy discovery with respect to privacy of course and being able to friend then challenge other people who are playing the game right now or being able to just straight up challenge or rematch complete strangers and of course easily being able to connect, communicate, organize events and invite people playing the game right then and right there weather they are your friend from Game A, Game B or a friend on the plus+ network or not because these users are most likely the ones who will accept your challenges in the first place they are the ones who will play with your for hours and they are the ones who will most likely respond to your alerts and as such social media marketing across this network of self contained networks will have more relevance and a much more higher conversion rate simply because it will reach an audience where a 100% own an iphone and 100% buy games and apps with that iphone......duh!!!!

I mean I'm going to be honest here not all of my friends have an iphone, lame i know most of them dont and while it was cool to be able to easily import the ones that do have iphones right then and there thru the twitter/facebook APIs without having to manually add them i still dont think twitter/facebook is the right medium for me to dish out challenges and post my tops scores on because A) most of my friends dont have an iphone (i think i mentioned that already) and B) posting top scores random challenges on facebook/twitter is lame because on those networks most users are compelled to basically brag about their social live's and how "cool" they are and how drunk they got the other night and anything else is just "un-cool" hahaha that may not entirely be 100% accurate im exaggerating a bit but still......thats kinda how it is

bottom line -- if your going to become the STANDARD social framework on the app store then you need to implement features that make it super easy to build out your profile across multiple games and encourage users to do so thus the network will gain traction hit critical mass and developers will follow and you will end up with network of self contained networks much more valuable to tap into rather then a middle man network that basically forwards everything to and from facebook/twitter......

Word on the street is......

the name of the game here is to bring these users together not a network that depends on a pre-existing connection already established on a third party network

and thats whats up :)

D

Art Style and basic design philosophy

im thinking something along the lines of Vagrant story meets Final Fantasy 7/8/9 with real time seamless combat!!

the reason i mention Vagrant Story is because first off i like their art style and their stylish dialog boxes, i like they way they used the in game engine to tell a lot of the story and the way they directed the scences i like the whole watered down platform concept implemented in an RPG style game too however i think the puzzle platform experiences should be dispersed more thinly in that it should still have all the typical RPG elements game towns, world map, ect with lots of open areas to explore and discover but with the platform experiences limited to being used mostly as an obstacle to get treasure and only on a few occasions should it be used as an obstacle to get to a new area if it is used as such it should be almost blatantly obvious leave the complex puzzle platform experiences for great treasure or a completely optional area/quest/task

enemy encounters

in this game there will be a mix of random enemy encounters and enemies pre populated on the field when the area loads....

the random enemy encounters is like kingdom hearts random enemy encounters but on steroids in that they will be way more cinematic and realistic like proper ambushes should be designed to surprise or scare the hell out of the gamer some of the encounters will be brief quick fast like they are in kingdom hearts while others will be epic drawn out in engine cinematic cut scenes with QTE events where if you have tap tilt shake gestures ect in sync with on screen animations and pop ups if you get it right you will get an advantage in battle, fail and you will immediately enter battle but you will be at a disadvantage this goes for bosses and random enemies too

the pre populated encounters will make up the majority of the enemy encounters that i want the gamers to experience in this game but instead of just mindless entities that freak out and attack when they notice your presence i want the pre populated encounters to be more realistic and have complex situations with complex AI and depending on what you do during each encounter for instances sometimes the enemies will not attack you unless you attack first and if you attack them they will now forever either attack you or run away dont attack them and you can run thru the whole game without having to fight that enemy type. Some enemies will run away if you start pwning the other enemies sometimes they will call for back up or run and then bring back up or you will walk into an area where the enemies are arguing with each other or fighting each other and depending on how you address the situation you can expect to have some enemies types to become short allies that will follow you and become a part of your party until they get killed off and thats just the tip of the iceberg :)

enemy types

i want there to be lots of awesome well designed enemy types that are more realistic then cartoonish and these enemy types will be everything from monsters to humans to humans operating vehicles (some you may even be able to jack then drive/operate until it gets destroyed) and of course both highly skilled human bosses and huge towering giant monsters as bosses too. Some of the types will be like mini puzzles and have immunity to attacks until you jump on top of them or you can only damage them from the front/back/in the air ect or you have to shoot them first then attack them in short range in alternating patterns

combat/controls

i want the combat to be fast paced so your character will have both long range, short range attacks as well as skills/magic

there will be 4 persistent on screen buttons across the bottom of the screen and 1 per instances that shows up when your character can launch skills/magic.

the layout is as follows:

-left/top item menu button (just tap to bring up the menu which will pause the game and allow you to change characters equipments, use items (if you have enough sp which works similar to Rouge Galaxy)

-left/bottom is the virtual joystick, for this game i want to use the virtual wheel

- left/middle of the screen right above the click wheel is where the skills/magic button will appear

- middle/bottom is the jump/dodge interface

- right/bottom is the action interface

Each of these interfaces will have the capacity to recognize multiple inputs in the form of taps and swipe gestures the inputs are as follows:

- virtual joystick -- gestures to move and rapid tapping to block and if you get the timing right you can parry

-jump/dodge -- tap to jump and use swipe gestures to dodge swipe in any direction to roll or flip in that direction ( up/down and left/right)

- action interface is a combination of a wheel and a button -- tap to do melee/short range attacks and combos which will differ depending on what weapon you have equiped and use the wheel and gestures to aim/fire at oncoming enemies like just hold your thumb on the interface and then rotate it to be in the position you want to open fire on

- when the skills/magic button appears slightly above the virtual joystick tap and hold to button bring up a hotkey with 4 set skills or magic (up/down/left/right) then slide your thumb in any direction to highlight the skill/magic then release your thumb to initiate the skill (gamers will be able to assign skills to the hotkey so it will only take secs so no need to pause the game)

this control scheme is awesome you will be able to easily aim/unload long range attacks in any direction a la idracula/mini gore style but when the enemies get close or you get close to them you can just start tapping the wheel to unload powerful melee attacks and since the wheel is already in place you can use the wheel functionality to aim melee attacks as well depending on where you tap around the wheel will dictate which direction you slash your weapon which will facilitate a system where you can attack enemies coming towards you in any direction even multiple enemies from multiple directions which is awesome and cant really be done with a controller that well which is why in 2D side scrolling fighters and action rpgs you have to be either on the right or left side of the enemy if your just a little bit above them and not directly in front of them your basically swatting air in this game you can circle around enemies and attack them from any direction because of the wheel

what do you guys think?

Intro --

I'm very interested to see how auto-firing is implemented with killtest as it is probably the only way to facilitate fluid movement and shooting simultaneoulsy in a natural and intuitive way on a touchscreen device, however with auto-firing you basically knee cap the depth and complexity of a FPS experience and what you end up with is something that is relatively easy to control but lacks skill and competativeness and while it might be fun at first after a while i imagine it will begin to feel shallow as there is really no player skill involved when firing on an opponent as its just basically randomness that gives you an edge over the competition.....thats where i come in :)

Active Reloads --

while i havent actually tested the game or know if there is even a manual reload option i can only imagine that ensuring that you always have a full clip when you get the drop on someone is definitely a crucial part of taking out an opponent effectively....so why not make it even more important by adding a mechanism for active manual reloads that requires some timing and skill to pull off and if you land it right your clip gets a small boost in damage/accuracy but if you mess it up your gun gets jammed for X amount of secs similar to how it works in Gears of War?

blocking

since it is a sci fi based FPS im sure it will not be to hard to explain the concept of blocking incoming fire with a kinetic shield in the background of the story so why not implement a mechanism for blocking incoming fire? especially since auto firing doesn't require that much skill instead effective use of the kinetic shield would and a mechanism like that would add that much needed depth and make it more competitive in nature since the shield itself only has so much charge and basically you control weather you shoot at an enemy or use a shield basically deciding between offense and defense in split second situations can really add a huge level of depth while at the same time you gotta keep an eye on the shield energy levels which deplete when absorbing incoming fire but regenerate after X amount of time

character types/system -- character specific not armor/weapon specific

i think i read/heard that you guys where going to do this on some level via upgrades to weapons/armor however i think instead of an open system where everything revolves around the weapons/armor lock it down to 2-3 arch-types with each only being able to wield a particular set of weapons and wear only 1 kind of armor with X amount of points that can be assinged to specific attributes by the gamer or just automatically assigned if the gamer doesnt want to customize them.

here are some example arch-types

brute -- big guns/ heavy armor slow powerful and can take lots of punishment

fleet-foot -- fast agile, expert in using small arms and grenades

tech -- average speed, average power/defense but is the only class that can utilize both small and big guns simultaneously as well as devices like mines

the way the point system should work --

when you start off you are given X amount of points and you can choose between 2-3 different arch-type characters each with their own base points assigned to certain attributes so the points you have are extra points that you can assign to whatever you want (speed power defense ect), when you level up you earn more points but they are not character specific so if you want to switch it up and choose a brute instead of a fleet-foot all of your points come with you and you are able to apply all of the extra points you have earned on top of the brutes base points and if a brute fits your play style and you want to stick with the brute for a while you can just assign more points as you level up....easy as that

i think a system like that will be perfect and add to the depth of the core game play experience because if the arch types are designed well even tho the cosmetic appearance is comstumizable the gamers will be able to immediately recognize the character types and what they are up against and instantly know what strategy they need to take however if its weapon/armor specific (especially if with cosmetic customizations) it will not be immediately obvious and they will have to memorize each piece of armor/weapon and what each of them do before they can recognize what they are up against in a split second and a system like that is still capable of delivering in app purchases for purely cosmetic customizations, and these cosmetic customizations can represent clans or have a social media/network effect tied along with it...hint hint *

targeting system--

i havent tested the game so again i dont know what you guys are thinking

but what happens when multiple enemies are in your view does it go by where your reticule is pointing or is there even a reticule on screen at all? for situations like that you need a good targeting system

the targeting system will work by tapping the enemy that is in your view to lock the target, to unlock simply tap again to unlock, to change targets simply tap on another enemy to change targets on the fly

there is a few reasons why i prefer a targeting lock system over an on screen reticule driven auto firing system

the first is when you lock a target you can use that as a way to let the gamer set the camera to auto pan/fix to keep that locked target in view, of course you can still manually move the camera around but when you lift up your thumb it will instantly pan back and fix the locked target back into view this will free up that right thumb so you can use it to manually reload/active reload or change/unlock targets and of course while locked on that right thumb can control the shield mechanism

secondly it will be a great visual way to represent when you have an open or good/better/great shot by color or size of the lock reticule and the character will only auto fire when there is an open shot the better the open shot the more accurate or the more damage just a cool way to add more skill to auto firing

lastly i think a targeting lock system will be more efficient for switching targets and tracking/tailing targets then moving a reticule on screen with right thumb/camera pan to drive the auto firing mechanism for switching targets by tapping on them will be much more easier then trying to gracefully guide a reticule to their position and it will be much more strategic, and when trailing/tracking an enemy if you have a reticule on screen you have to avoid landing the reticule on them which i imagine would be kinda awkward and counter intuitive with a target lock system you can just follow the enemy worry free and when you have an opening and just tap on them to lock the target which will then unload on them and you dont have to worry about accidentally landing the reticule on them revealing your position to early but you need to watch out a soon as you lock on a target they will be warned with a lock alert

anyways im interested to see how the auto firing concept is implement.....

will you go with a sticky on screen reticule driven auto firing system meaning you have to actually move a reticule around by panning the camera and put it on an enemy before your character will actually auto fire at them or will you use a targeting lock system like the one i came up with above?

D

combat controls

1) movement -- a choice between between a virtual joystick or a virtual dpad bottom left

2)action/attacks -- handled by a small transparent square space on the bottom right side of the screen

this action space is an innovative way to be able to get multiple input from one on screen interface, this action space will facilitate the following inputs:

-virtual button tap to attack, interact, jump/vault
-slide thumb left to right or right to left for dash/dodge/flips/roll
-tap and hold to bring up a quick hot key menu then slide thumb up and down to select a magic spell then release initiate
-recoqgnizes gestures like drawing shapes/figures for skills or special abilities
-tap memory (more details below)

tap memory is an innovative way to recognize multiple inputs from one on screen interface designed specifically for combos tap memory will work by basically recognizing alternating tap patterns close to one another with in the square so if you want to do a combo just tap in the square to do a couple of attacks to start the combo then tap in a different section of the square to alternate the combo

*gamers will also have the option to hide the virtual pads

3) targeting/switching characters -- just tap on an enemy to target them and to switch characters tap on a character switch to them

4) radar/mini map -- top right there will be a radar/mini map tap to bring up a menu use virtual joystick/dpad to navigate around current menu sheet slide the sheets left and right similar to cover flow with album artwork to switch from map to inventory to equipment and strategies

5) camera icon -- instead of a behind the shoulder free cam in 3D i would suggest using a fixed cam but have an screen icon that you can tap on to toggle between different cam angles in real time

6) last but not least is blocking to block just dont touch anything and your character will automatically block when inactive

open world controls

-bottom left virtual joystick/d-pad
-the action space is also good for 3D exploration tap to interact (talk, interact, pick up) and slide left/right to pan camera

just some more ideas i would REALLY like to see or work on a well designed story driven action RPG from the ground up for the iphone...and when i say action RPG im referring to a formula similar to Tales of Vesperia not Zenonia

ideas/thoughts for an RPG game developed specifically for the iphone/itouch platform....

Scope --

an original franchise from the bottom up (no ports or licensing) with an insanely ambitious scope delivered in bite sized increments say 8-15hrs of gameplay each, with at least 6-8 releases (if not more) in all, with each release being its own stand-alone game, which is a model more similar in approach to T.V shows/series rather then a huge blockbuster budget hollywood film-ish game release approach where you come out with a God of War/Halo/Gears of War/Fable/GTA about every other year or so

im interested to see how this would play out not only on this platform but in general especially in terms of how this model could improve story/gameplay and of course how well this model would perform in terms of revenue and product life...seems like a win-win model to me :)

Story --

needs to explain or at least hint at why there is always hordes of monsters and enemies to fight and why they never seem to roam around in towns/cities except on special occasions ( Tales of Vesperia is a perfect example of this with its barrier blastia concept worked perfectly and made sense)

needs to get a little more creative with the concept of magic and how it is implemented, generic elemental magic with an equally generic MP system has been played WHY out need to come up with something more creative...take Naruto for example or alchemy something that explains the existence of magic and its implementation in a way that makes sense...

needs to be flexible with a massive plot that can go on for at least 6-8 games with 8-15hrs of game play time for each...if not more at least a whole seasons worth of content total

Combat/Game Play --

this is sort of a rough draft version.......just coming up with it as i go ;)

basically the system is going to be real time based not turn based there is no time or waiting between actions/commands/turns and no limit to the amount of actions you can perform or do in any given moment with the exception of items/magics/misc if you run out of items you cant use any items anymore...duh and depending on the concept of magic for this game there will most likely be a limit to the amount of magic you can do in some way shape or form in terms of MP or stock or whatever the concept is, where as attacks are basically a free for all you can endlessly attack with everyone in your party as long as your characters are still alive

characters will block/guard when sitting idle since this is a real time combat system timing is going to be crucial, so when a character is performing an action like attacking, casting magic or using an item there guard will be down and if they are attacked they will take considerably more damage then they would if they were not performing any actions and therefore guarding/blocking

there is 3 party commands -- attack, move and items and you can customize your characters to equip up to 4 commands at a time

party commands --

attack - the attack command is basically a toggle, tap it to turn it on, tap it again to turn it off when the attack command is on your characters will be in "attack mode", and by tapping on the icons at the bottom of the screen that represent the characters as well as shows their HP/MP gauges that will command that character to move and attack the selected enemy or just an enemy closest if no enemy is selected, this will allow you to do character combos, party combos, combination attacks, and power strikes.

character combos - when in attack mode, tap to select an enemy then repeatedly tap on the character you want to attack with to perform a combo, you move close and automatically start attacking. as you level up the combos will be come longer starting at 4-5 hits then going up to 8-10 to beyond at higher levels and of course as you level up the combos will become more powerful and vary depending on what weapon is equipped, when your character reaches the end of the combo they will have an animation or a sound effect signalling you to stop mashing on the icon if you do continue to mash the icon there will be a brief animation in between the previous combo to the new combo before it can begin basically leaving your character wide open for attacks while they are polishing off their sword or stretching their legs or popping their collar, brushing off their shoulders or fixing their hair ect whatever once the animation is over the new combo begins.

party combos - when in attack mode tap on an enemy to target them, then chain attacks from multiple characters in your party to do party combos up to 5hits for devastating effects, to start a party combo, attack with one character by tapping on their icon at the bottom of the screen then immediately follow up that attack with an attack from another character who needs to be close to the enemy and attack within X amount of secs, then follow up that attack with another from another character and another until each character in your party has attacked once with the character that started the combo attacking twice which will be the final blow the 5th attack in the combo the most powerful attack in the chain. party combos only goes up to 5hits and if you double up an attack with a character that has already attacked in the combo that will basically end the party combo, and it will be like each character hitting the enemy once randomly no awesome devastating combo....there will be lots of different combinations depending on what characters you begin the combo with and which characters you switch to next and what weapons they have equipped ect

combination attacks - to do a combination attack you must be in attack mode, select an enemy then tap and hold 2 icons for the 2 characters you want to do the combination attacks with hold for a X amount of secs until each character changes their stance from block to attack then release to launch the combination attack...there might even be an on screen gauge that guides you to when to release to have a damage bonus or lottery bonus (does status effects, replenishes small amount of hp, critical hits ect) although its a combination attack each character doesnt have to hit the enemy simultanouesly for it to work they can still get the bonus even if they hit the enemy a few milisecs after the first character hit the enemey

power strikes - power strikes work just like combination attacks but with only 1 character you gotta be in attack mode then select an enemy and tap and hold on the icon of the character you want to do the power strike with, release to launch the power strike...the longer you hold it the more powerful it becomes especially if you release it to gain a damage bonus or lottery bonus

move this command is a move toggle tap on it to turn on "move mode" when move mode is on simply tap and hold on a character's icon at the bottom of the screen and tilt the device to control the characters movements when that character moves the other characters will automatically follow if they are not carrying out another command

item command - to use an item tap the item party command to pause the game and bring up a nice finger friendly menu to select items, the menu will be in cover flow a cover flow of item type images, browse thru them by swiping left/right, then tap the item type image that you want to use to flip the image backwards showing you all the items of that type that you have in your inventory, select the item you want to use/equip by tapping on it, then tap on the character icon at the bottom of the screen to select the character you want to use/equip the item which will initiate the item use animation which will take a few secs for the character to get the item from their bag and then use/equip it, if your attacked when using an item your character will take more damage so time item usage wisely

character commands -

in addition to party commands each character will be able to equip 4 commands these commands can be anything from magic spells, to special skills or generic skills like steal, scan, or flee ect. to select a character command toggle off the attack party command by tapping on it to get out of "attack mode" (assuming its turned on) then tap and hold on one of the character icons at the bottom of the screen to bring up a hot key menu with the 4 commands you have equipped, select a command by slightly dragging your thumb up, down, left, or right to highlight the command you want to use then release to launch the command.

some magic spells and Technics will be interactive meaning they will require additional input from you after you have launched the command some will basically pause the action show a brief animation of your character charging the command and then allow you to basically tap on as many enemies as you can as fast as you can to rapidly launch fire balls at the enemies you tap on for X amount of secs, some will make you highlight shapes as they fade in and out on the screen the faster you finish one shape the more time you will have to finish the next one

combat strategy --

combat will be real time based so timing is everything, enemies will consistently guard/block significantly lowering the damage of your attacks and combos, the only way to break a guard/block is with a power strike, combination attacks or magic, if you press a combo on a enemy who is blocking the first 2-3 attacks will push the enemy back and do low damage but if you continue to press the combo like an idiot trying to spam them with endless combos you risk getting deflected and losing your balance which will basically leave your character wide open for attacks as your character runs thru the animation for X amount of secs stumbling, regaining their balance or trying to pull their weapon out of the ground or shaking their hands like hand like they jammed one of their fingers or something

there will also be parries or clashes if you and an enemy attack simultaneously the character and the enemy will clash which will randomly turn out in 1 of three ways

1) your character and the enemy bounce back from each other
2) your character counter attacks the enemy and the enemy is wide open for a follow up attack
3) the enemy will counter attack your character and your character will be wide open for follow up attacks

formations --

in typical RPGs you really stuck in a line you can change your characters front row and back row which has subtle effects on damage offensively and defensively but that basically it, in FF7 you can get surrounded or your characters will surround and enemy mixing it up and breaking them into two lines but i want to do something a little more innovative, being that you can actually control the movement of your characters the formations will be more realistic

if your surrounded your characters will huddle back to back and the enemy will come at you from all different directions

if your back attacked you will be ambused which is a brief ambush animation this will basically scatter your characters however they will slowly try and regroup and help each other as they defeat enemies

movement --
moving also leaves your characters wide open for attacks so be cautious when moving

battle fields --

the battle fields i.e running into an enemy (or enemy running into you) and launching a fight will be very different from traditional RPGs, its very similar to Valkyrie Profile 2 Silmeria in terms of size and overall design philosophies.

each battle will have an enemy boss type if you kill the enemy boss the battle is over, but you have to kill the enemy boss to win

there will also be some battle fields with traps that both you and the enemies can trip or just traps that make it more difficult for you

there will also be long range enemies that just sit back and launch arrows or magic at you

and there will be some enemies that are glowing or flashing represented multiple back to back fights before you can return to the open world again

graphics --

cell shaded all the way similar to Tales games like tales of Vesperia

online functionality --

there will be no multi player functionality but what you can do is set up a live feature to aggregate meta data like glowing foot prints of paths random ppl have taken perhaps, or notes that represent where ppl have died where when you die you can leave a personalized message that other games will be able to open up and read when they turn on the live feature and walk over where you died you can also see orbs from other gamers at the exact same level progress as you playing the game at the same time as you allowing you and that gamer to interact ( chat, buy/sell/trade items).

what do you guys think?

leveling up, items, equipment armor rings ect......basic RPG stuff very important to overall gameplay tho

plight of azula is a concept that tries to wrap dynamic and evolving story driven experiences around numerous competitive multi-player game modes matches like death-match, capture the flag ect.

the idea here is kinda of like making 4 parallel epic story driven games complete with stunning cut-scenes, and deep heart-moving dialog but molding them all together with 90% of the core game play experience being some form of competitive multi player game mode slightly modified of course but the majority of the enemies that you will fight as you progress thru the story will be other players or influenced by other players actions playing thru a completely different storyline via seamless matchmaking in the background during cut-scenes.

however the interesting part is evolving the story depending on weather the gamer wins or loses each match as they progress thru the game, since there is really no way to limit or control player skill/cooperation other then very efficient matchmaking algorithms but even then it would not be cool at all if you had to "win" every match in order to progress thru the story instead think of how cool it would be if there were multiple intertwining paths in the story that could evolve as you win or lose each round......basically doubling the replayability by a factor of 10 because no two campaigns will ever be the same and it will take a while for the gamer to play thru each and every win/lose plot twist.

At launch, Azula pronounced "a-zoo-la" which is the fictional game world, based loosely around actual events from the bronze age should have at least 4 separate empires each with their own unique game play aspects, story and reasons for fighting..........

as for DLC im thinking about free and purchasable upgrades that will further evolve the story over time as a way to represent empires that fall or two empires that form an allegiance or new empires that come from newly discovered lands, while also adding even more plot twists to the old story-lines that will allow some of the new empires to seamlessly fit right into all of the old story-lines and plot twists so even tho gamers do not purchase the official add-on their gaming experienced will still be slightly enhanced by the free upgrade to incorporate as much of the new as possible why leaving some of the new out for incentive to purchase the upgrade

players will be able to play the game:

-offline --single payer -- with bots and AI NPCs when they dont have a connection and when a connection is established, the stats and progress will automatically sync with the servers and if the gamer wants they can set it up to automatically start matchmaking seamlessly when a good connection is established and likewise when you lose a connection even in mid game the game will pause and give gamers options such as allowing them to continue the game offline and connect after they are finished or do they want to quit and restart the level online completely.

-locally- you can also play the game with bluetooth enabled and while you play the game it will seamlessly matchmake with other ppl around using bluetooth so any numbers of players can play with each other via bluetooth since it will work just like an online matchmaking service and just fill the rest in with bots and AI if necessary.

online -- of course, do i need to even explain this?....... :)

will update post with more details about what kind of gameplay the game will have (as in 2D, 3D, 1st person, 3rd person), and explain how i think the controls should work to the best of my abilities as well

what do you think?

Zapphy Park is another concept optimized for in-app purchases to put it in perspective its like an app specific xbox live experience that revolves around the various parks that you can purchase via in app purchases....

some parks will have a sports atmosphere so most of the mini games in that park will be sports centric, other parks will have different atmospheres that sets the tone for the mini games some can be cross promotional (harry potter, transformers, anime, disney ect) and others can be unique and original platforms for fun addictive mini games

the parks themselves is basically a platform that you can update and release new mini games, the GUI is kinda like an animated interactive map with some sound effects and music to set the tone, navigation will be be done with the typical map browsing controls to play a mini game just navigate on the map until you find one and tap on the location of the map that represents the mini game to launch it sort of like a game within a game.....you dont actually walk around the park

of course the map is just 1 view you can also have a list view or cover flow view......maybe (i kinda like the whole map view idea gives the feel or the impression that its a park and not a glorified list of mini games)

zapphy is the platform for the parks, you and partners/third party dev can dev and launch parks with in the app via in app purchases

the parks is the platform for the mini games each park will come with at least 8-9 mini games with more available as the park updates

in the zapphy menu or toolbar you will have the following:

parks/shop -- a list of purchased parks as well as a shop to buy new parks when a park gets updated there will be an option to update them in the app from this menu

inbox -- browse message, send messages, browse friends list of random ppl who you friended, and invite/join parties as well as see what all of your friends are doing also when your in a party there will be a party button option added to the inbox that will allow you to text chat with ppl in your party from this interface however when you leave this interface there will be a persistent icon overlapping where ever you are in the menu this icon will animate and make a sound whenever a new chat message is sent and tapping on that icon will drop the party chat interface overlapping whatever it is your are doing and this icon will be persistant in the park menus as well, if you join a mini game you status will come up as busy and the icon will not annoy you while your playing but when you come back it will still be there until you leave the party

settings -- adjust settings

exit

In the parks menus or toolbars you will have the following sections:

home/map -- browse and launch mini games

ppl -- this will be a chat room and ppl list of everyone connected to the park you can chat with everyone here, as well as add friends or invite to party (which you can also do from the overlapping interface from the party icon that stays persistant just tap on previous meet or search and add invite to party from that list)

ldr boards -- this icon will show who the following leaders:

-leaders from everyone currently connected to the park
-global all time leader boards
-friend leader boards showing you how all of your friends ranked in the current park you are in

exit -- tap to exit back to the zapphy main menu

for this to work there has to be great mini games and lots of parks

just humans no alien species or races...................

3 -- factions/sides

1) totalitarians
2) utopian's
3) pirates

The totalitarians believe in law & order, and rule with a strong military and a powerful government.

The utopian's believe in freedom and peace and strive to create a society free of law, government, and control a tru utopia of culture and worlds.

pirates dont care about who wrong or who is right they are just doing what they gotta do to survive.

the differences between the guilds............................

the totalitarains and utopian's are exactly the same, if you choose to be one of them your signing up to become a solider to fight for what you believe in, you will take orders/missions but everything will be provided for you so no need to do any side jobs to make money just focus on the missions to gain rank the more rank you gain the more areas and options you unlock, but lower ranks are very limited once you get to a certain rank you will be able to go quests.

the pirates game play is closer to traditional mmos its more open then being a solider but your still limited by the amount of money you have, the only downside is that you have to make money in order to purchase upgrades for your ship in order to unlock new areas and new jobs, once you get to a certain notoriety you will be able to join the pirates guild and do quests but they will come to you.

missions/jobs and quests...................................

-the missions and jobs are generic and typically involve fighting NPCs and most of them are sort of story driven
-the quests are dynamic and typically involve co-op missions/jobs or PvP experiences that will evolve and change depending on whats going on in the game world.

I will update with more details about specific quest ideas in another post.

game play..............................................................

its like taking a top down space arcade shooter game like the Xbox Live Star Trek DAC for instance and then turning it into an MMO story driven experience.

there will be tons of maps or as i call them "areas" same size as the Star Trek DAC maps except they are not sandboxes you can seamlessly go from one map to another one by exiting either at the left or right sides and for special areas of interests at the top/bottom as well as land or explore objects/planets within the area.

scope...............................................

in terms of scope there will be:

-8-15 areas for each solar system
-3-6 solar systems in each galaxy
-5 or more galaxies at launch with more available via DLC
-of course more is always better these are just at leasts

layout.........................................................................

even though space is 3D the layout here will be very linear going from left to right to get from one planet to the next or one side of the solar system to the middle (sun) or to the other side only exiting at the top/bottom for special areas of interest or there may be occasions when theres an asteroid field or a dead end and you have to go up right then down to get around it tho.

moving from one solar system to the next will require an FTL (faster then light) drive and once you have this drive you can fast travel from area of interest (planet, debris, space stations, ect) to another within a solar system.

moving from galaxy to galaxy requires a resonance key to access the worm hole, high rank officers can get them, and you can can also buy them on the black market if your a pirate but they are not cheap, if you try to access it without a key you will die and not materialize on the other side, there is one relay gate in every galaxy and they all link to each other as long as you have been there before, the gates are located at the edges of a galaxy and they are kind of like a solar system in that you need a FTL drive to get there but its just one area with the gate instead of having to go thru a whole solar system to get there.

planets/stations/cities/towns.........................................................

all movement and exploration is done by ship, so you dont actually walk around at all even in cities or towns, n order to get to a town/city you have to land at a point of interest which will bring up an interactive animated image where you can tap on ppl to talk to them, tap on the tavern to chat, tap on random objects to find money and information you can also tap on a bank to deposit or borrow money, tap on a shipyard to upgrade/repair and launch your ship

Battle system/RPG mechanics..........................................................

very similar to Star Trek DAC you have two gauges an HP, and energy gauge. the HP gauge represents your hull integrity when it hits zero the ship is toast, and the energy gauge represents the energy you use to power your shields, weapons, and speed boosts. So when you are getting hit by enemy fire your energy gauge is absorbing the damage and slowly decreasing but when your energy gauge hits zero your hp meter will start to diminish, also when you use speed boost your energy gauge depletes and as your firing on an enemy your energy gauge will lower its a system that i really like. When you take damage to your hull/hp it will not restore itself until you get to a shipyard or if you have a repair upgrade.

in each area there will be white orbs these are energy orbs you can collect these to refill your energy meter, even though it will regenerate over time.

when you level up your hp and energy gauge will increase, as will the power and intensity of your weapons fire, and of course the amount of energy depleted when using weapons will decrease.

when you level up you earn experience points that can be used to purchase upgrades at a shipyard or station, some upgrades will be repair skills or use of of homing missiles, or launch mini drones that will fight with you, or temporarily create an invincible shield or a proximity blast ect. these upgrades are time sensitive so when you use one you have to wait X amount of time for it to recharge so it can be used again.

PvP

-friendly fire for players on the same side
-turn on cloak to avoid PvP combat, no one can see you but you cant fire or interact with them either once you turn it off you cant turn it back on until you leave the area, or it needs time to charge before you can go into cloak mode again
-also when you come out of cloak your invulnerable and your attacks have no effect for a few secs in order to prevent abuse of cloaks

more details soon

App It

for starters the concept "App It" is a social app recommendation engine, for the iphone and ipod touch platform with 5 key features:

1) search (smart search/search suggestions)
2)home
3) recommendations -- by tags -- and app sharing
4) friends - app sharing - fb connect
5) app list -- history

Search

I want to create an application that aggregates data from multiple sources to provide a one stop shop for getting information about a specific app ( i.e - popularity, ratings, company/app site or blog url, blog/site reviews like appvee, touch-arcade and STP urls, youtube video demos urls, and user comments aggregated from forums, twitter, ect) all in one place neatly organized and well presented, also these aggregates will consistently refresh and update in real time

thats why search is a key feature as it will provide a great resource for consumers who are hesitant or not yet sold on a specific app and want to find out more info they can simply load "App It" search for it and voila they are presented with a ton of data to help them make an informed decision when purchasing a new app.

Home

is a page that aggregates the following data....

-sales and events from developers that you have bought apps from in the past
-big conferences and press releases (E3, WWDC, and more)
-app store top tens (maybe??)

these will be pushed to the app and make a sound and add a number badge when new events hit the home page

Recommendations

App discovery will be a huge part of the underlining functionality of "App It" via recommendations and friends/app sharing (which I will get to in more detail below).

The key feature of recommendations is thats users will be able to set up some preferences (genre, price, developer, art style, popularity, casual ect) and be presented with apps that match their criteria perfectly, as well as apps that meet 1-2 but not all their criteria and of course sponsored apps that they might be interested in (basically ads) that are somewhat relevant to their preferences.

These recomendations will work for old, new and upcoming apps........

When you tap on these apps in the recommendation section you are directed to either a temporary data aggregate page or a company/dev page which will allow the dev/company to edit the look/design of the page as in background images and logos as well as add more content or data aggregate sources to the page however they can not remove content only add.

In this tab there will also be a refresh button that the user can tap on to generate more recommendations......

Friends -- App Sharing

This feature will allow users to share out what apps they have on their phone, it will also aggregate meta data like how many times launched, how long its been on the phone (if thats possible given the limitations of the iphone sdk) as well as manually entered user generated ratings like loved it hated it, or 4-5 starts ect in order to improve recommendations.

The friends -- app sharing feature will leverage fb connect as well as twitter, mypsace, google apis, and more.

This feature is of course optional, users who turn on app sharing will be able to go thru their apps and easily be able to set the apps they have to public or private so they have more control over what gets shared out, and what doesn't, when a app is purchased the app will be private by default, and will not be shared out until the user launches the "App It" app and manually sets the app to public, unless of course they choose to turn on "share all" which will automatically share out all apps and new apps as they are purchased/downloaded with zero effort from the user .

***Users will also be able to share out their app it list too.......

The "App It" List

This feature is sort of like bookmarking apps, a shopping cart and a wish list all in one, when a user is browsing recomendations or browsing apps that their friends are sharing when they get to the aggregate page they will be able to "app it" which will add it to the "app it" list where they will get pushed alerts when new content hits the aggregate page or when updates, sales, new events relevant to this app hits the home page

Implementation

it will be a combination of a web presence and a dedicated iphone/ipod touch app.....

Conclusion

these are just notes a sort of rough organization of ideas that needs to further organize, consideration and definitely need to be discussed and prioritized before going into the development phase which of course I'm in no position to actually accomplish if I was I definitely wouldn't be writing this on your forum ;)

Anyways if you can use some of these ideas to improve your plus+ service awesome go for it, I will not lose any sleep over it and if not oh well at least I finally got around to writing these ideas down been putting it off for the past week or so :)

some challenges or questions that need to be answered:

-fb connect apis and friends -- how could leveraging fb connect help app discovery?

obviously you would want to have status updates for "newly" installed apps that would be the quickest and easiest way

but i really want something like last.fm for iphone apps, where a persistent list of apps that you have installed in the past and/or have presently on your phone will be available for your friends to browse but without needing to set up a whole new social networking presence as in creating another user account, and another profile to add friends to, and yet another profile to facebook connect.

if possible i would like it to just tunnel everything thru facebook connect and then back down to app for you and your friends to be able to see/share all the apps you have just thru the "app it" app or site without needing to post this data on the fb profile without even needing to make a new account at all just using the fb account but if there isnt a way to cut out the middleman i guess the site could have the capacity for user accounts, profiles and app sharing and you could just connect it to facebook as if you could never have enough user accounts.....

app sharing --

is aggregating apps that get installed or downloaded on the phone/itouch even possible? how about previously installed apps? how about being able to aggregate how many times an app has been launched, how long it was on the phone/itouch? ect

what do you guys think?

I'm going to skip everything and just focus on the controls.........

movement --

-moving left/right can be controlled by both tilt and the virtual joystick at the same time

-to jump simply tap on the virtual joystick as if it was an on screen button

-to do acrobatic moves (flips/back flips, somersault, or lunges) simply rotate your thumb around the virtual joystick clockwise or counter clockwise (clockwise goes to the right and counter clockwise goes to the left) as if it was a wheel similar to the iDracula game

I call it an omni button for short!!

attacks --

to attack tap on either the top right or bottom right side of the screen all attacks are directed where your character is facing

top right side of the screen does strong attacks
bottom right side of the screen does quick attacks

alternate tapping top to bottom to do combos, when you level up you will have longer base chains and more combos become available to you

block --

to block tap and hold on both the top and bottom right of the screen, basically tap and hold on the bottom with your right thumb and then use your pointing finger on your right hand to tap and hold on the top right side of the screen. when blocking your movement is basically crippled and if you hold it for long enough you will have to start moving the virtual joystick left and right in sync with a resonating meter to prevent your block from being broken

magic/skills/grab/thrown ect --

to do magic or launch a skill or do a throw you tap and hold on either the top or bottom right side of the screen and do one of the following gestures:

-tap and hold then slide your thumb left and right to do the skill or magic
-tap and hold and slide your thumb up and down to do the skill or magic
-tap and hold then draw a shape (square, circle, triangle) on the screen and tap in the middle to do the skill or magic
- tap and hold and draw an X or figure 8 to do the skill or magic

it doesn't really matter which side you do the tap hold and gesture it will still do the same skill/magic

clashing --

if you and your enemy attack simultaneously there will be a clash instance to break a clash simply tap on the left then right side of the screen as fast as you can, the quicker you tap the faster you break the clash, if you mess up the pattern your toast!!

super or limit breaker (whatever you want to call it)

when you have taken enough damage or dealt enough damage an icon will pop up on the top left side of the screen just tap on it and voila

and thats it for now :)

Davids vs Goliath is a game that revolves around cooperative multi player experiences either local via bluetooth or online thru wifi or 3G....or single player with just AI davids

The idea is that 4 davids will have to work together to take down the Goliath before it leaves the 2D side scrolling level or before you boat/vehicle breaks or time runs out...

half of defeating the goliath is figuring out how to subdue the goliath as you can only damage the goliath when it is subdued, also damaging the Goliath strategically by attacking weak spots or parts on the goliath that will affect its attacks or movements is crucial to defeating the goliath, the rest is dealing with the goliath's minions and avoiding the goliaths attacks and other obstacles.

The levels will be associated with the Goliath, buy/unlock a new goliath to get new levels. On the levels there will be power ups, weapons and items to help you deal with the minoins and do extra damage when you subdue the goliath. To subdue a goliath you have to activate one of the many traps or objects on the level, typically there will be several ways to subdue the goliath, some may work better then others, and some must be done in a specific pattern or sequence in order to subdue the goliath. when the goliath is subdued you can damage it, each goliath will have a few weak spots that will take more damage then others.

Also the goliath will attack every now and then, and if you attack say the legs for instance when the goliath is subdued the goliath will limp/walk slower giving you more time to take out the goliath, also when you do enough damage the goliath will get more aggressive and attack more often.

controls...touch anywhere of course

left side of the screen handles movement/jump slide left right to move down to fall thru or jump down from a platform and tap or slide up to jump

right side of the screen attack and block tap to attack tap and hold to block

interacting with objects...

when you walk up to an object there will be a onscreen pop up that fades in and even though the onscreen pop up is there it will not freeze the movement/actions of your character and when you walk away from it the pop up will fade, most of the traps or objects that subdue the goliath must be mounted like a crank where you grab and then you have to draw a circle continuously to turn it, or a boulder that you have to push off a ledge that will knock the goliath over or stun the goliath, other objects like switches you just tap the on screen icon to interact with it..done

thats about it :)

Intro

Fantasy Football is basically a football soccer hybrid with a little RTS and action game play added on top. However the goal is still the same -- make it to the end zone with the football to score a touchdown.

Some basic details:

-5 players to a team (4 fielders and 1 goalie guarding the end zone)
-still 4 quarters to a game
-no downs or turnovers just consistent fumbles cuz every tackle causes a fumble
-no limit to how many passes you can do

There is also 4 character types:

-gladiator
-mage
-fleetfoot
-ace

The gladiator is a brute big slow powerful and tough to take down.
Special abilities and characteristics:
-requires 2 characters or 1 gladiator to tackle
-can do a ground stomp causing the ground to shake
-weak passing/catching skills

The mage is kinda out of place in a football game but definitely a good character to have on your team.
Special Abilities and characteristics:
-average passing/catching skills
-can cast many elemental spells

fleetfoot is your runner, fast and agile and hard to catch
Special Abilities and characteristics:
-weak passing/catching skills
-very fast and agile
-can jump/flip/dodge tackles

ace is like your football superstar
Special abilities and characteristics:
-great passing/catching skills
-average speed agility
-can do hail marys very accurate long passes that can be easily caught

There is also no defined teams its up to the gamer to decide what character types they want on their team.

Instead of downs there is turns and a turn is not over until a touchdown is scored or until the quarter is finished. At the beginning of each turn or quarter the teams gather in their end zones and the ball is dropped center field.

In the each quarter there is a handicap (unless its a custom match)

-1st quarter -- you can only use your characters special abilities once
2nd quarter you can use them twice
3rd and 4th quarters -- 3 and 4 times
and in overtime the special abilities are unlimited

you also have a few commands that you can issue to your AI counterparts, the commands are as follows:

during the turn/quarter ball drop right before the turn begins:

1) rush to the football
2) set up a defense
3)follow me

when in possession of the ball:

-scatter
-regroup
-follow me

when not in possession of the ball:

-man to man
-go for the ball
-follow me

The commands will automatically change depending on the situation and you can issue/change them on the fly. You can also toggle goalie and have the goalie follow or ignore the commands.

GUI and Controls:

-movement is handled with a virtual joystick on the bottom left corner

-tap on character switch characters tap and hold to pass if you have the ball and tap on the character your controlling to unselect it and go into auto mode

-tap on a button in the bottom right corner to initiate the special move however for mages you have to tap and hold for a few secs to charge the spell up and its easier that way cuz instead of a button the mages will have a sort of wheel menu so you can switch spells by flicking the wheel left or right with the top spell being the active spell that will be used if you tap and hold.

-there needs to be some kind of mechanic to easily issue commands maybe some buttons on top middle part of the screen spaced and big enough to select with a single tap. When you tap the command highlights and gets issued and to switch a command tap another button and to dismiss tap the same button again which will highlight the command and dismiss it when a command is not issued the characters will do their own thing sometimes for the best other times it would have been better if you micro managed them.

-and there should also be some kind of mechanic to toggle the goalie to follow or ignore commands maybe a button to the right of the commands tap to highlight causing the goalie to now follow your commands and abandon defense of the end zone and of course tap the button to unhighlight it and dismiss causing the goalie to rush back to your endzone to protect it.

-since it will be a sort of top down view i want the football fields to be huge and even tho the cam will automatically zoom in out on its own trying to keep all of your characters in view you will be able to manually zoom in out and pan as you would on a google map or like you can on StarDefense.

Also if your not digging the whole fantasy vibe which i think will work fantastic but as an alternative you can still stick to the football formula and have blockers, receivers, rushers and quarter backs each with their own special abilities, and characteristics.

and thats it :)