Bafta young game designers competition

[Teabagger9777]

I am in a competition with Perseus as my teammate and we are designing a game and we need your commenmts on it so we can improve the game.

Its about a boy who comes from a nation which is at war with 4 others. They hide this from their people by blocking out contact with the outside world. As far as your character knows there is no world beyond the wall. You meet a stranger that tells you there is a war going on beyond the wall. You do not beleive him but evidence suggests overwise. You manage to escape and organise a resistance in each nation. The stone age nation, The greek nation, The arabian nation and The chinese nation.

[Perseus]

It's going to be a 3rd person adventure game. It's still a WIP, the nations are basically set in different points in time. You start in a steampunk era (Victorian styled but with steampowered technology) and advance through the different nations starting with the least advanced, the Stone Age then the Ancient Greek Age then the Arabian nights styled Age then the Old Chinese Age.
You basically have to try and help the people in that nation reclaim it as it is being taken over by the leader of the Steampunk nation, who's name is undecided but we're leaning towards Desiron. The main character's name is chooseable, like the Pokémon games
You get given a steam weapon by the stranger, kind of like a giant penknife except that you win or buy the attachments and equip them yourself.
There'll be a main quest you have to do for each nation, which will take you around that area and you can help people and fight enemies etc.
The name we have so far is Uprising (though I think it might sound a bit to much like Kid Icarus: Uprising)
More info about the competition can be found here http://ygd.bafta.org/

[Garamonde]

Please post any comments, feedback and suggestions you have for my friends, this is important to them.

Although people may be more willing to say something if you posted some screenshots or a small demo/engine, etc. to show you are working on it. There's my suggestion.

[Perseus]

Oh, we're not actually making the game. We just have to design it and if it wins the competition, EA willprobably make it into a proper game, so we have no screenshot's or a demo engine

[Garamonde]

I thought the point was to actually... hang on, so there's a difference between game making and game designing? No one ever told me this, I thought you were actually making a game.

So what do you mean by design it? Just write a story and make some sprites, or what?

[Perseus]

Just look through this website
http://ygd.bafta.org/home

[Garamonde]

I get the idea now. You guys are gonna do great.

[Teabagger9777]

This is a national Competition so we are up against a lot of people and we need your criticisms to make sure our game is unique and has a fighting chance in the competition.

[Kitsu]

Well, right now, there isn't really enough information for me to provide crit. I mean, all you have right now are a very rough storyline (which has relatively little to do with game design) a few sentences that briefly touch on what your game will include:

1. 3rd person adventure
2. Customizable weapon
3. 1 main quest per area
4. Help people; fight enemies

From this, I can get a small list of verbs that seem to describe the player's actions in the game: explore, fight, and customize (perhaps talk as well).

However, we need to know how the player will be doing all this. Will the player be exploring any sort of overworld? If so, will he do so on foot, in a vehicle, or maybe even using some other way to travel?

How does combat work? Does it rely on timely button presses, strategic attack placement, or some other specific style? How will enemies respond; will they close in on the player one at a time or will they all surround him at once? Will there even be more than one enemy at a time, and what would be the average strength of the enemies?

How will customization work? Will the player simply buy upgrades and/or extra features, or will he have to construct these himself? Will these upgrades somehow change how the weapon functions (and therefore change the structure of the combat system), or will it simply increase some set of stats?

These are just a few of the questions you might want to ask yourself.
Either way, until you have more information, I really can't provide any critique at all. So, good luck, and I hope you can really give it your all!

[Rosencrantz]

* Do you like video games?
* Are you aged 12-16?
* Then you can become a Young Game Designer today!

>>aged 12-16


well, fuck.

[Eagallowglass]

Wow! I just looked up Bafta because I have no idea what it is. Good luck I hope you do really well!

[Teabagger9777]

To answers spolder questions yes it is a third person open world game. You can customize your character by giving him new weapons and new things to wear. We are also thinking that you can build weapons from things that you find on your journey. There will be several quests per area and we do not know the controls for fighting yet.
Anyway sorry I replied late I have been busy.

[Koopaul]

I don't think 12-16 year olds can make anything good anyway. Well honestly I don't know these days, they probably could.

Kids these days are shockingly good at stuff that adults are known to do, its actually a little sad really. These kids are being taught and told things that they don't need to know and they got the pressures of adult tasks being... Oh wait this is going into a completely different discussion. Never mind.

[Alex IDV]

I don't think 12-16 year olds can make anything good anyway. Well honestly I don't know these days, they probably could.

Kids these days are shockingly good at stuff that adults are known to do, its actually a little sad really. These kids are being taught and told things that they don't need to know and they got the pressures of adult tasks being... Oh wait this is going into a completely different discussion. Never mind.

AFAIK, most 12-16 years olds don't design games for a living. They do it as a hobby, aka by free will, and no "pressure".

I don't know what you mean by "don't need to know". I didn't need to know how to draw when I was a kid, but I learned it anyway because I thought it was fun.

[Garamonde]

I don't think 12-16 year olds can make anything good anyway. Well honestly I don't know these days, they probably could.

What do you mean 12-16 year olds can't make anything good?

Me, I don't know how to code, but that's because I never cared to learn. I could make an awesome game if I wanted to. Being a kid/teen doesn't justify whether you can or can't do something.