an Ender's game that might be multiplayer on Xbox Marketplace? that would be cool. to the battle room!
Posts: 813 | Registered: Nov 1999
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I hope they don't just toss us another book/game/movie tie-in with a low budget and poor programmers. So many games have the potential to be great because they come from a really interesting story, and so many of them are complete garbage because nobody cares enough to make them playable.
Posts: 3950 | Registered: Mar 2006
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i had never heard of Chair before this. so we'll see. i think OSC has been involved with gaming for a while now and might just be trying to find someone to make his famous story a game. please dont let it be garbage.
Posts: 813 | Registered: Nov 1999
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Chair was founded by a core of people who worked on Advent Rising, which OSC wrote or co-wrote. They're also doing the video game version of Empire.
Posts: 2907 | Registered: Nov 2005
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Speaking of games based on the works of Mr Card, does anyone know if the Alvin Maker MMO is still in development?
Posts: 2437 | Registered: Apr 2005
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If Card likes his work, he'd want to see adaptations of his work in other media reflect the quality of his own work.
If a human wants something, he will pursue it at necessary costs within all capabilities.
Card likes his work.
Therefore, he will want to see the adaptations of his work in other media reflect the quality of his own work.
If Card is on good terms with the company that is to adapt his work, he will be capable of overseeing the project and making sure it fits his video gaming tastes.
Card is on good terms with Chair Entertainment.
Card's video gaming tastes are good.
Ender's Game is high quality.
Therefore, Card's position in respect to Chair Entertainment will ensure that the video game adaptation of Ender's Game will be a delicious high quality game.
Posts: 1029 | Registered: Apr 2007
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Blayne Bradley
unregistered
posted
the mind-screwing game on the portables in EG 'can' be done, take a little creativity but with procedural prgramming I think I could be done 99% as described and meant in the book, you could even get some psycology algorithms in it to screw with people's heads, the battle room is an obvious FPS title, i predict that it will be good, as itll have zero-gee fps fighting, a rts title could be easily made as well. Then you have a homeworld series of games as well for the fleet combat.
Heck you could make this all one game with all of them parts of it, even have a nonlinear plotline, the avatar of course cant be ender but I can see a Player's Shadow kind of story can work, you are a unnamed and prviously nonexistent toonleader who follows ender around.
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It's been discussed endlessly how an Ender's Game game might work out. I just hope it does.
Hopefully the project works out better than Advent Rising did. Of course, I think I've read that a lot of problems with that game were directly due to constraints and deadlines imposed by the publisher, and didn't have to do with a lack of talent on the part of the developers.
I wonder what system(s) they'll put this on. Honestly, after playing Metroid Prime 3 and Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition, I could see a battle room style Wii version of the game working out well. On the flipside, it could crash and burn just as easily.
Posts: 290 | Registered: Sep 2002
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Another article on this says that it will be developed for "all next-gen" platforms, which probably includes the Wii. At least, I hope it does. On one hand, LucasArts used "next-gen consoles" to just mean PS3 and 360 for Force Unleashed until a second party announced it for the Wii.
Does anyone else think that the downloadable online stuff could be compatible with the upcoming WiiWare feature? I don't see why I should be left out of the ultimate fan gaming experience for choosing the better console.
Posts: 1029 | Registered: Apr 2007
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quote:Originally posted by C3PO the Dragon Slayer: If Card likes his work, he'd want to see adaptations of his work in other media reflect the quality of his own work.
If a human wants something, he will pursue it at necessary costs within all capabilities.
Card likes his work.
Therefore, he will want to see the adaptations of his work in other media reflect the quality of his own work.
If Card is on good terms with the company that is to adapt his work, he will be capable of overseeing the project and making sure it fits his video gaming tastes.
Card is on good terms with Chair Entertainment.
Card's video gaming tastes are good.
Ender's Game is high quality.
Therefore, Card's position in respect to Chair Entertainment will ensure that the video game adaptation of Ender's Game will be a delicious high quality game.
That's what I thought, but you put it so much nicer than I could have.
Posts: 1766 | Registered: Feb 2006
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I don't know about the battle room, but I always considered Homeworld to effectively be an adaptation of the latter part of the book. But that's just me.
Heck, given time and complete disregard for income I'd help write one...
Posts: 3486 | Registered: Sep 2002
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Blayne Bradley
unregistered
posted
I think its rather easy to mod the homeworld engine, though personally I would rather write my own engine for the learning experience, I'm taking calculus this semester and object oriented programming so I'm well on my way.
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Not to derail the thread much, but Calculus has actually very little use in game design; the mathematics are too expensive from a processing standpoint.
Geometry, Trigonometry and Discrete Mathematics, though... You'll use those extensively.
I always forget, where do Matrices fall in to? Is it considered Geometry because of their relationship to vectors and three dimensional space?
Posts: 3486 | Registered: Sep 2002
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posted
haha, i actually opted to take AP Stats my senior year in HS instead of calc. i wanted an easy last year. When i did take Calc in college it was actually fun and i enjoyed doing the derivatives (sp?).
So lets make a list of what would be included in an EG game.
Battle Room. Space Battle cut scenes from the Giant Drink Game thingy
umm, if there is this exact same thing in another thread someone please link.
even if it sucks i would still buy this game because im such a big fan. let's hope it doesnt suck. go Chair!
Posts: 813 | Registered: Nov 1999
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This is just a Battle Room game. I wonder if they'll let you play as whatever army you want (in a free play mode) and have a story mode where you play as Dragon?
Posts: 1029 | Registered: Apr 2007
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I don't think the FPS genre is the best to use to capture the nature of the Battle Room. IMO, most of the glamor of the battle room was in the tactics. An FPS has precious little of that if you're only controlling one character. I could better see it as an RTS esque game with FPS possibilities.
Actually... the perfect model of it, in my mind, is the Simulator from Command School. You have several different levels that you can set. You assign the entire army with a basic strategy. Zoom in to single toons for some advanced tactics. Perhaps half toons wouldn't be out of the question. Then when things are in motion, go to your solitary character and light em up while maintaining the option to change your orders on the previous levels.
Throw in some Waypoints, Some basic AI scripts (Defend, Assault, Cover, Scout, etc), and maybe some pre-game programmable macros to give the player the ability to be innovative (To stay true to the nature of the Game), and you have a very interesting game with enormous replay value.
This also gives you several variables from which to scale difficulty. When you start out, you can set a very basic battle plan and play the level mostly in first person mode blasting away. As you scale through the levels or difficulty settings, you are forced to multi-task more efficiently or be more creative in you macro use (Formations?). Just like the Simulator, you have a learning curve that gets ever more complex.
With downloadable content (player/army skins, new stuff to put in the Battle Room, "Cheat" scenarios, etc), Multiplayer (This is a must), and a level creation tool (maybe even open source to allow mods ala-Halflife), and you will have a game that nobody is likely to get sick of- until the sequel, that is.
Posts: 636 | Registered: Apr 2002
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The trick is to give the player enough ability to look around at his surroundings and be able to quickly bark orders to a group.
If I were to make a 3D version of the Battle Room (I already made an algorithm for a 2D version), I would have a player start out as an ordinary soldier, advancing in rank after reaching certain milestones. An ordinary soldier would not have to worry about commanding others, but worry about taking orders. The gameplay could adapt the style of the book; you have the option to do what your leader tells you, but if you see something your commander probably doesn't, you could disobey at risk of your commander not liking you (and therefore having to work harder to get to the standings needed to be promoted, or being traded off to an unfamiliar army), though what matters is not whether you hit your objectives, but whether your team wins.
Once you become a toon leader, you will have several tactics available to set to a button scheme (example: function keys on a PC, D-pad on PS3, Wii, POV hat on 360, touchscreen on DS) for quick reference. If I remember correctly, toons typically have 8 soldiers, so that makes it perfect to set to the 360's POV hat or the Nunchuck's analog stick. Imagine this example: Move the analog stick to the extremes of the direction corresponding to the units, then press C, then select the order. To select all units, simply make a circle with the analog stick. An expert player could be efficient with that, giving out commands in a fraction of a second. After all, isn't Ender's Game about quick thinking, being able to outwit your opponent?
The tactics to use (I imagine they could be more diverse than eight) could be pre-set before the battle as you survey the room before you pass through the gate. The time you take to set the tactics is the time you give to the enemy to get positioned in the room.
Same deal for commanders, but you talk to toon leaders instead of individual units. The toon leader subordinates just tell their own units what to do based on what you told them. To make a realistic game, the toon leaders and their units could have the same opportunity to defy orders as you, but only if they have good reason (not actually hard to program; I've done AI programming for games and I speak from experience).
Essentially, the commanders would say "where," toon leaders would say "what," and the individual units would figure out "how."
If that's the case (and it would by far be outstanding as a single-player game; it adds goals and a sense of reality to the game, and would not wreck the book) I wonder how it would be approached with online play.
Knowing what Mr. Card has written about video games, I think he would very much like to see a game that gives the player freedom to be creative. And he knows the number one rule of making a player happy: Give him control. That is, after all, what made Civilization such a good game. The adrenaline from a fast-paced shooter, the freshness of a zero-gravity physics engine, the freedom to experiment, and the realistic control over your allies can combine to make just about nature's most perfect non-Nintendo video game.
Posts: 1029 | Registered: Apr 2007
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I just can't picture how to go about making a 3D RTS.
As for making it a FPS, if I had a machine that can run HL2 decently, an abundance of spare time and someone else to do some of the artsy stuff, I might give it a go.
Creating a "zero gravity physics engine" in Half-Life 2 consists of commenting out two lines of code. But HL2 has some issues regarding full rotation movement (normal POV stops when you're facing straight up or straight down; you can't do a complete roll easily. Believe me, I had to go through a lot to do it in The Opera).
And it might give me a personal excuse to re-read Ender's Game again.
Posts: 3486 | Registered: Sep 2002
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3PO: I got it because Microsoft made it free for download. It just isn't any fun. You are underwater, capturing bases.(similar to star wars battlefront, but not as good) The characters are mostly useless. The worst thing is has truly awful cut scenes. The story is a waste of time. Undertow is the only game I have seen from Chair, so maybe they are good.
Posts: 1287 | Registered: Apr 2006
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You swim. It's not so bad like other games thought because you can boost, so you aren't super slow. Another reason I don't like the game is that every level is almost exactly the same. It seems like they would do this for the Ender's Game too.
Posts: 1287 | Registered: Apr 2006
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I suppose the "stars" would need to play a big role in gameplay if they want to add variety in that respect.
What if they had "stars" of different shapes and sizes?
Super Mario Galaxy, which is the best game I have ever played, is centered around mostly one concept: platforming on planets that have their own gravity. The variety of the planets, however, add so much to the game.
Now here's my experience with first-person-shooters (mostly Battlefront II): I play on Hoth all the time online. It's always the same course, but the the beauty of the Hoth gameplay is that you can play so many different roles to achieve your goals. This should be attempted in the Battle Room game. Find ways to make it so your objectives can be more diverse than just shooting your enemies. Figure out means of diversifying the gameplay. You could have sniping spots between two close stars or special handholds that can be grabbed with feet in addition to hands. The lighting should matter just as much as in the book. Perhaps once you progress to a certain stage in the Dragon Army story mode you can unlock the deadline, which can be manipulated in all sorts of ways.
For replayability, which has been stated by Card himself as an attribute he wishes to focus on in this game, you need variety. To get the players love your game, give them the power over the varied features in a free play mode. (That's what makes Super Smash Brothers a good game; you can play the way you want.)
Posts: 1029 | Registered: Apr 2007
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Ideally, the Battle Room game I'd love to see is a turn-based strategy game, like X-Com or Jagged Alliance.
Sadly, I recognize that the genre is all but dead, and the likelihood of it being chosen borders on the nonexistant.
Teammate AI in First-Person Shooters remains one of the most problematic areas for games that choose to use it. You can read hundreds of reviews online that complain about AI teammates standing around doing nothing, or wandering blithely into line-of-fire, or shooting the player in the back, or standing in the way when maneuverability is critical. If BR is going to go that route, they need AI with varying levels of ability that can be commanded in a manner that makes the way they are commanded as important as their individual abilities. That's not going to be an easy task.
Real-Time Strategy suffers from the same difficulty with AI to a lesser extent. A recent PC Gamer article noted the amount of babysitting most units in RTSs require to do simple things like move out of the way of incoming artillery fire. Soldiers in BR have to have a degree of autonomy, and balancing that with making the commander's orders important while making their independent decisions meaningful and at least quasi-intelligent is also not going to be an easy task.
I like the idea of a role-playing element with the player's reputation and relationship with their army's commander.
Posts: 3826 | Registered: May 2005
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quote:Originally posted by TomDavidson: You had trouble with Homeworld?
I guess I didn't play it enough, or don't remember it. I might have to acquire it again just to refresh my memory. But something about it made me not want to continue playing it, and I don't remember what.
quote:Sadly, I recognize that the genre is all but dead, and the likelihood of it being chosen borders on the nonexistant.
I wouldn't say it's "dead". There's a new Warhammer 40K game for the PSP that uses that same method, and the demo wasn't bad all things considered.
Posts: 3486 | Registered: Sep 2002
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quote:Originally posted by Juxtapose: Training an army was an important aspect of the BR that I'd like to see incorporated in the game.
I have no idea how, though.
It would be neat if, instead of leveling up a character like you do in a normal role-playing game, you could level up a whole army. Maybe include certain key characters such as Bean and allow the player to develop them along with Ender (maybe provide attribute or skill customization). There's a hero system like this in Guild Wars and it works very well. That would allow players to customize their army to their own playing style and would provide for enormous replayability (if that's a word).
Also, I think the game would actually be better if we weren't forced to follow the storyline to the letter. Certain key moments such as the transfer to command school and the ending should be included, but, in general, I hope that players have a lot of freedom in customizing their armies. Let us make our own Enders.
Posts: 1327 | Registered: Aug 2007
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Customization certainly would add tons of variety and replayability. Citing (again) my experience with Battlefront II, it is annoying when they have a story mode that adds a story but breaks the rules of the game. However, the fact that the story of Ender's Game is all ABOUT breaking the rules of the game, this could be very interesting.
Customizing skills... what skills would there be? Jumping, I suppose. Sharpshooting. Quick aiming, spinning, wall-sliding, dodging. And of course stopping.
If there really is a story mode that has you play as Dragon Army, there would be about thirty people who aren't named in the book, which adds plenty of potential for variety. It's really just the toon leaders and a few others that are named and described in the book, so that allows the player quite some freedom in training units.
In the story mode, I suppose you could have a certain amount of practices to "level-up" your soldiers and then get told what battles to play. The story covers a span of a couple weeks, and only a few battles are really described in depth. So wouldn't it be awesome if the ones in-between were different every time you played? Either they could be randomly generated (for full variety), or set to a seed based on the skills of your soldiers (which would be tougher to program).
Posts: 1029 | Registered: Apr 2007
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