J.P.'s Game Design Challenge: FPS Bonus Challenge

[jillduffy]

Discuss your questions and ideas here for the bonus challenge of the Game Design Challenge on designing a new FPS gun.

[EvilLlama]

For the bonus challenge, one attribute you can change what the gun shoots out. Who says a gun has to fire bullets? Since this is a sci-fi/fantasy game, the gun change shoot out mutated vampire squirrels if you want it to.
You can also tweak the gun shape/add blades so it doubles as an effective melee weapon, kind of like a bayonet.

[TimMaly]

An attempt at the bonus list?

Guns that fire bullets and other discrete objects
Damage per bullet
Bullets per second
-(combined to get DPS)

Primary damage type (kinetic, fire, etc)

Bullet Speed
Bullet Lifetime
-(combine to get range)

Bullet trajectory
Bullet accuracy pattern
Does the bullet home in on things?
Does the bullet bounce?
Does the bullet die immediately upon collision?
Can the player control the bullet after firing?
Does the bullet attach to things?
Does the bullet have a detonation timer?
Does the bullet have a proximity sensor?
Does the bullet have any special properties before it dies?

Does the bullet have an area of effect?
-What is the secondary damage type (is there more than one)?
-What is the shape of the area?
-What is the size of the area?
-Does the bullet leave behind anything when it dies (an area of fire or ice or the like)?


Guns that shoot something other than bullets
Is it a flamethrower type weapon?
-Size and shape of cone
-Damage type
-Rate of ammo consumption
-Ask all the questions from area of effect above.

Does it launch autonomous fighting units (turrets or drones?)
-What is it armed with (see above for relevant questions)?
-How does it move (can it move?)
-What is its AI (target aquisition, aggresssiveness, follows player or no)?
-What is its health?
-What it its lifetime?
-Is there a limit to how many can be active at once?

It is a special case gun (portal gun, grappling hook, gravity gun)?


Universal Attributes
Clip size
Maximum total ammo that can be carried by player
Reload Speed
Firing pattern (hold to spray, bursts in which case we can ask about number of shots in a burst, speed of bursts etc, one shot per button push)

Does the gun have a secondary weapon? If yes go through everything above for that weapon as well.

Can the gun be upgraded in any way? What areas can be tweaked?

[TimMaly]

Question for James:

Did the marketing team ONLY kill the machine guns? Like do we still have pistols and rocket launchers and BFGs? Or am I being asked to redo the entire gun ecosystem (can I redo the entire gun ecosystem)?

[TimEdwards]

Alright, so here's what we've already been given!

• Damage
• Clip Size
• Bullet Type
• Bullet Speed
• Accuracy
• Area of Effect
• Rate of Fire
• Bullet Trajectory

And here's a few other tweakables considering we've got a sweet design team and physics engine.

• Bullet Lifespan (How long the bullet travels or ricochets)
• Reload Speed
• Gun Jam Frequency (How often the gun will jam up)
• Weight (Heavy, Medium, Light - Heavy affects your walking speed, medium is regular two hander and light one handers)
• Recoil

Well there's a few ideas, hope that I'll inspire more, and if I think of any more, I shall return!

Good luck Everyone!
Tim Edwards

Edited - Geez, before I could even finish typing I already have 4 posts ahead of me! Sorry if there are repeats here!

[SPECTER]

Can't forget about the ammo:

Incendiary ammo?
EMP effect ammo?
Armor Piercing ammo?
Caseless or fleschette ammo?
Is it a dart gun?
Gas powered, traditional gun powder?
Electro-magnetically fired (like a rail gun)?
Does the Caliber of ammunition cause severe back blast (kind of how you can't stand behind a rocket launcher)?
Is it two part-special impact ammo (like a Savo tank round)?
What about basic High Explosive rounds?
Is there fragmentation?
Is the round toxic or made of hazardous materials such as active uranium?
Do you require special safety gear of a suit hook up to use this weapon?
Can it fire alternate types of ammunition or fit other weapon's magazines (like how the SCAR H can take 7.62x51mm NATO magazines and 7.62x39mm AKM magazines)?
Does the weapon's ammo guide to a target?
Can you paint a target for guidance purposes?
Can you spend all the ammo at once in a pinch?
Can you ditch the gun and booby trap it or set it to self destruct?
Can it act on it's own as a turret or bot (like Perfect Dark's Laptop Gun)?
Can you lock the weapon down when ditches so no one else can use it?
Is it to heavy to move around?
Does it require a stand, tirpod or bipod to be manageable?
Can you breech load it with a rocket or grenade (like the FAMAS with the RPG attachment or the M-1 Garand or Springfield 1903 with their grenade attachments)?
Do you have to re-charge (****) the weapon after blank ammunition is fired?
Does it a require a battery to operate the gun or it's features?
Are there separate sights, iron, optical, or digital, to aim and operate the weapons additional features or alternate ammunitions?
Can you get upgrades for the weapon or it's ammo?

The list continues, but I've got to run.

[ronnoc10]

Well, there's always the option of liquid ammunition, and all that it implies....

This list is gonna be huge

[SPECTER]

Originally Posted by ronnoc10

Well, there's always the option of liquid ammunition, and all that it implies....

This list is gonna be huge

Brilliant! I thought about that when I walked away from my computer!

Liquid ammo, what chemicals produce what effect (Corrosive, flammable ect.) and can you mix chemicals?

Gas ammo and same questions?

What about molten solids?

Can you build a barrier by shooting an area?

Seal a door shut?

How long do the effects last?

What about mutations? Can you turn an enemy into one of your minions?

Teleport an enemy away from you?

Can you blind an enemy with the ammo?

Is the flash powerful enough to blind someone?

Is it loud enough to deafen you or those around you?

Are the gun's shell casing hazardous? Super hot or raido-active?

Are the magazines of any use empty?

Does it even take magazines?

Can you construct anything with the gun, it's ammo or magazines? (ADDITIONAL PYLONS!!!)

Can you lean on the gun if your leg is injured?

Can the gun take abuse?

Can it reflect shots?

I think the list is infinite!

[james.portnow]

Originally Posted by TimMaly

Question for James:

Did the marketing team ONLY kill the machine guns? Like do we still have pistols and rocket launchers and BFGs? Or am I being asked to redo the entire gun ecosystem (can I redo the entire gun ecosystem)?

They only killed machine guns. Everything else is fair game.


***This should probably get moved to the main Challenge thread***

[zero1328]

Specter, I think you're approaching this question the wrong way. I've actually seen this mistake happen somewhere else, so it's good to catch it early. I guess confusion is from there being two meanings of "attribute". One would be the category of different properties there are. The other would refer to the property itself. This Bonus Challenge refers to the former.

For example, seeing the image from the Design Challenge page:



Look at the "Accuracy" category. "Accuracy" can be called an attribute, but "wide dispersal cone" is also an attribute. There are many other properties that fit into the "Accuracy" attribute, such as a smaller cone of effect, or always the direct center of the crosshair.

"Incendiary", "EMP", and "Armour Piercing" would be the "bullet type" attribute.

Corrosion, and Blind would be "Short-term effects", and Mutations could be either short or long term, depends on how you want it.

Look at TimEdwards' post if you don't know what I mean. Suggest things like that.