   A fighting game
  If you've never seen the short movie Dead Fantasy by Monty Oum, then you should [smile] I was thinking of a fighting game which handles alot of those mechanics. Basically, a game where the players are playing on a 2D plane, but can, in certain situations, move the camera to a different angle and therefore attack and send an opponent anywhere in the 3D arena. Slow down would be a novelty (ie. bragging rights) for replay. For instance, you knock someone in the air and then you slow down the action. You on the other hand are still moving at normal speed. So while your opponents fall back to earth slowly, you can attack them (while the slowdown timer is still ticking). Now when you replay the match, the whole replay will be at normal speed. You will look like a blur on the screen. Beating the crap out of your opponent for about 3 to 5 seconds. So you think this doable? Interesting? Brings anything to the genre at all? *the SF4 thread and Dead Fantasy were the inspirations for this post [grin]   
  That's a good video.  He's very talented.  Haloid is still my favorite, though.  Samus should have rocket boots in Smash Brothers from now on.So you're describing a set of connected arenas, with an opportunity to teleport from one to another, and an overal graphical theme that gives the impression that they're all one unified location.  Am I right so far?Here's how I envision it.  No HP bars, no "KO" victories, you win fights by scoring style points and pushing a meter one way or the other against your adversary.  When you get it into their "critical zone", you can perform a certain combo to advance to the next playing field.  Kick them through a wall, throw them down a hill, launch them into the background, then follow.  Then the fight effectively restarts.  Everyone gets a DBZ-style "second wind" and gets back to it.  When you get them all the way to the "goal post" arena and defeat them there, there's some kind of final defeat.  You throw them into the sea, or through a mystical portal or otherwise kick them so hard they can't get back.But really, all that does is make for one huge arena with concrete sections and extra rules about where you can and cannot go.  Want to get into the next room?  The door's locked, you have to lose the fight and get thrown there.  Want to move to a tactical position by the river?  You have to knock your opponent out of this tree before you yourself are able to climb down.Why not just make huge levels and let players get far away from one another.  I'll go ahead and cite Smash Brothers again.  Levels like the Hyrule Temple are so vast that you can have four plays on it and still avoid conflict almost entirely.  Sometimes you get kicked through the roof and resume the fight up there, sometimes you get smashed into the subterranean tunnels and carry on in that environment.If you're looking for a more cinematic experience, the I think you'll find that you have to compromise heavily on gameplay to take that control away from your players.   ;  Not so much cinematic, but more along the lines of finding new ways to kick butt. The playing field won't be need to be unlocked, but viewed (if you go by my camera scheme). I'm thinking that the slowdown mechanism obviously would be timed but also have 3 to start with. Then when depleted, they'll be a 30 second wait. Then the slowdown will replete itself one at a time every 15 seconds.*How does anyone feel about certain moves that knock a player in different directions? Like toward the camera, away from the camera, above or below you. So again your field of view changes and therefore the playing field.Also, going along the lines of ICC's idea, fights should be scored. By different factors (but not necessarily taken altogether), such as number of combos, knockdowns, consecutive hits, amount of energy, victories without special moves (or combos), and/or style (in my case, slowdowns with extreme punishment). All of this timed of course.   ;  There are people who compare The Club to Halo 3.  Those same people will compare your idea to Dead or Alive 4.  Ignore those people.   ;  I'm not familiar with The Club nor have I played DOA4, but in any case, I cannot tell if you're being sarcastic or not.   ;  To flush out the overview (yeah i do this):Slowdown: a mechanism where the opponent and the environment move at one quarter to half normal speed. The initiator of the slowdown moves at normal speed. quarter-speed slowdown is equal to 1 full use of the slowdown. half-speed slowdown is equal to half use of the slowdown. velocity after impact (ie. an attack) will be normal speed. slowdowns are timed at 5 seconds and 7 seconds respectively. damage however from attacks however will be decreased by half.Camera: camera is free floating and user-controlled during slowdown. the player after slowdown is initiated can move camera in any direction and then attack the opponent. the opponent will then move direction the camera is facing. after the slowdown/attack is finished the camera will resume normal 2D positioning.  Directional Attacks: Each player can knock in the directions of the +/- x, y, and z axes. the camera will then reposition itself. Scores: Player will decide on determining factors for victory. These are: amount of consecutive hits, perfect match (ie. not getting hit), number of combos, use of slowdowns, use of no special moves, and knockdowns. energy will not be a factor because there are no life bars. all matches will be timed. Environment: Objects in the environments and the environments (ex: pillars, bridges, stone floor) can be used to attack the opponent or dramatize an attack.;  Those all sound pretty cool, except the "scores" idea needs some fleshing out.  They do something like that in King of Fighters XI, and it's really annoying.  There is a meter at the top of the hud that swings back and forth, depending on who is "playing better".  If the match end in time-expired, the player with the meter pointing in their direction wins, rather than the player with the most health left.  It's annoying because the criteria of who is "playing better" is totally subjective to the game designer and not clear to the player.I think it's an idea that could work, but you're going to have to come up with some unique ideas about how to present the system logically to the players.   ;  Well I thought about a bar like you described, but then scratched it. Instead, I was thinking more Mark of the Wolves, where you get graded. I'm not sure if I need "unique" when presenting this idea. I mean how many games do you know do this? Some games have done what I've stated to some degree. But definitely not put all those things together. This is more "put up or shut up" fighting. Cheap tricks, crazy combos, bragging rights all belong in this type of game. Honor and Energy be damned. Little Billy: "you're not fighting fair!" Roofus: "Fuck you! Take this 5 hit combo and mega punch to yo dome! Sucka!!" Why stop fighting because the little red bar went poof? If I'm gonna fight for 30 seconds, then let me kick his ass through 2 or 3 floors (i mean this literally), bounce him off a pillar or two, and finish him off with a 15 hit combo with a slowdown finish. And watch as the roof falls on top of him. Then I drop the controller and let him know who's my bitch [grin]   ;Quote:Original post by Alpha_ProgDesWell I thought about a bar like you described, but then scratched it. Instead, I was thinking more Mark of the Wolves, where you get graded. I'm not sure if I need "unique" when presenting this idea. I mean how many games do you know do this? Some games have done what I've stated to some degree. But definitely not put all those things together. Yeah they have a grading system in SF3: 3rd Strike that is terrible.  You can kick all sorts of ass and then it's like "You = F+".  I hate it because during the match there is no indication of how your grade is being adjusted.  Plus you only get graded well if you play the game like the designers want you to.  Like every time you do a parry I think you get knocked up like a whole letter, but doing something sick like finishing a huge combo with a super-cancel does nothing to the grade.What I meant by "unique" was you should design some sort of UI element that would inform the user when they did something that positively or negatively affected their grade.  Like a big green '+' when they did something good, or a big red '-' when they did something dumb.Also if your game is going to be based on bragging rights, you have to include some Halo-style teabagging moves :)[Edited by - the_dannobot on February 5, 2008 10:22:28 AM]