Conference Call

GWJ Conference Call Episode 387

Project Spark, South Park: The Stick of Truth, Thief Update, Tower of Guns, Icarus Proudbottom Teaches Typing!, Diablo III 2.0 patch, SSX, Pitchin' Game Ideas, Your Emails and More!

This week Shawn, Elysium, Julian and Allen pitch their game ideas and the world they would take place in.

To contact us, email [email protected]! Send us your thoughts on the show, pressing issues you want to talk about or whatever else is on your mind. You can even send a 30 second audio question or comment (MP3 format please) if you're so inclined.

Chairman_Mao's Timestamps
00.01.55 Tower of Guns
00.05.44 South Park: The Stick of Truth
00.11.29 Diablo 3: Patch 2.0
00.19.00 Project Spark
00.26.20 Icarus Proudbottom Teaches Typing!
00.28.20 SSX
00.29.49 Thief update: I'd rather be playing Shadowrun Returns DLC
00.31.38 This week's topic: Pitching game worlds!
00.45.36 Your emails!

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Show credits

Music credits: 

Intro/Outtro Music - Ian Dorsch, Willowtree Audioworks

Coactive (Over My Shoulder Mix) - BigBot Audio Drop - SGX - http://sgxmusic.com/ - 31:05

Die Anyway (Game Edit) - BigBot Audio Drop - SGX - http://sgxmusic.com/ - 45:02

Comments

OK. The LMO idea is golden. Golden! Someone get on that STAT!

I'm going to need a link to that book series. It sounds like a great thing to dive into once I'm done with the Quicksilver, Baroque, I don't even remember what it's called anymore...

Malazan Book of the Fallen is definitely one of the best series of books ever. Chain of Dogs itself could be a full strategy/tactical campaign game, see how many people could beat Coltaine's legacy.

Malazan game idea: an impossibly hard rogue-like strategy game about the chain of dogs.

you are Coltaine, you win if you can get 1 of your 50,000 survivors through the gates at Aren.

Edit: haha, took me too long to write this up, well..great minds think alike =)

I would love to see a Black Company game. Something that would combine the real time combat of the Total War series with either a turn based or real time tactics game for squad based stuff. I'd play that in a second.

I'd love to see an RPG (either traditional or Skyrim-style) set in Garth Nix's Abhorsen Series. The basic idea is that there are two kingdoms (at peace) on a single landmass. The one in the south is heavy technology (right about industrial revolution era), and magic does not work. The one in the north is the exact opposite, where magic (called the Charter) works, but technology tends to fail.
There are, of course, many more world elements than that, such as the Abhorsen (which is a person tasked with taking the undead to their final rest), but you get the idea.
I think that world is ripe for games.

I'd love to see a party focused turn based RPG set during the 1760s Colonial America, but with Lovecraftian overtones. Basically Call of Cthulhu in pre-revolution America.

Game play wise it might be something of an amalgm of Darklands and Wasteland 2 (lots of skills and depth in character creation, cover based X-COMish combat, etc.) It might even work well with that old school RPG mechanic where you can make tons of characters and swap them in and out of your party (and with death and/or madness abounding, you might need to.)

I'm also picturing a largely open world game with tons of factions. You can gain reputation or enmity of any faction, and there is no morality meter. The main plot contains supernatural / horror elements with a strong Lovecraftian flare, and the tone of the game is incredibly dark.

padriec wrote:

I would love to see a Black Company game. Something that would combine the real time combat of the Total War series with either a turn based or real time tactics game for squad based stuff. I'd play that in a second.

This was basically Myth: The Fallen Lords

I'd love a proper Amber game; I think I mentioned this once before, in a DayZ conversation; people were hopping between servers to get behind their opposition; it would be a really good analog to the shadow-shifting between dimensions.

It sounds like Project Spark is trying to monetize with a similar model to what RPG Maker XV Ace is using on Steam. Except Sean's AAR left me with the impression is that Spark is a lot more limited or railroaded than RPG Maker which can be used to make commercial projects.

PyromanFO wrote:
padriec wrote:

I would love to see a Black Company game. Something that would combine the real time combat of the Total War series with either a turn based or real time tactics game for squad based stuff. I'd play that in a second.

This was basically Myth: The Fallen Lords

And what a great game that was!

I am not a fan of any soap operas, but I absolutely love Allen's idea of a Soap management sim. There are so many systems you could have at play, really interesting and meaningful decisions. Just think, corporate is pushing you for a mega-ratings month and will slash your operations budget if you can't reach the quota: do you kill off your star actor and deal with the long-term consequences? What if they will be offended and their agent will steer their clients away from your show in the future?

I figure the game would have to be tilted towards chaos, where you're always trying to create a movie-star type personality but they keep breaking the hearts of other cast members or forcing PAs to buy them cocaine. Someone do this game and do it right.

I'd pay top dollar for the game pitched by Sean (the Dune game in which you play as one of the Idaho gholas). Just sayin'.

I'd love to play a game in the Dresden universe. Hell, it could be simply be a T-Rex riding simulator and I'd pay top dollar for it. "YEAH BABY!"

I'd also like to see something like Nexus: The Jupiter Incident done up in the Lost Fleet universe.

I recall thinking a certain film would be really interesting if done by Telltale. I think it might have been John Carpenter's The Thing, though in truth, that universe has already been revisited twice. Once in video game form as a sequel (some neat ideas, but holy crap not the franchise to turn into a shooter), and then the film prequel that was the worst money I ever spent on a movie ticket (okay, hyperbolic, but you get the idea). It might be a universe best left as a stand-alone film.

Other than that, I'd be curious of a game based on the TV series Arrow. I'm not so familiar with the comics, but the television show basically has him behaving very similar to Batman. However, I think it would be more interesting to fuse the Batman games as they are with a bit of Assassin's Creed. Focus on stealth and not being seen, but with enough gadgets and vantage points to take foes out with ease. Avoid direct confrontation sort of a thing.

If we're just going strictly books, then, well I can't help but think of The Death Gate Cycle. True, there was an adventure game made for it back in the day, but I'm thinking something a bit more limited. The Labyrinth is the perfect set-up for a Dark Souls style of game, focusing on brutal, punishing difficulty. Hell, maybe even throw some MMO elements into it so players can work together.

Of course, Carpenter's The Thing was a remake of an adaptation of a short story..

If we're talking Weiss-Hickman, I'd love to see a Banner Saga-esque game set in the Darksword universe.

Isn't the "private server" option being pitched for Star Citizen almost the same thing as an LMMO?

In any case, I'd be totally down for that.

Tanglebones wrote:

Of course, Carpenter's The Thing was a remake of an adaptation of a short story.. :P

Yeah, seen that with and without the MST3K. However, from what I've been told, John Carpenter's is much more close to the novella.

ccesarano wrote:
Tanglebones wrote:

Of course, Carpenter's The Thing was a remake of an adaptation of a short story.. :P

Yeah, seen that with and without the MST3K. However, from what I've been told, John Carpenter's is much more close to the novella.

Wait, MST3K did The Thing? The Howard Hawks version?

Tanglebones wrote:
ccesarano wrote:
Tanglebones wrote:

Of course, Carpenter's The Thing was a remake of an adaptation of a short story.. :P

Yeah, seen that with and without the MST3K. However, from what I've been told, John Carpenter's is much more close to the novella.

Wait, MST3K did The Thing? The Howard Hawks version?

This one? Yeah.

ccesarano wrote:
Tanglebones wrote:
ccesarano wrote:
Tanglebones wrote:

Of course, Carpenter's The Thing was a remake of an adaptation of a short story.. :P

Yeah, seen that with and without the MST3K. However, from what I've been told, John Carpenter's is much more close to the novella.

Wait, MST3K did The Thing? The Howard Hawks version?

This one? Yeah.

Huh. Is there a video link somewhere? I can't find it, and I know I'd watch the hell out of that.

I personally would like a FPS in the Punisher Max version, the garth ennis one, with a tactical edge, not only shooting, preparing the operations, investigating, i would also like a game version of the Hitman DC comic, also by Ennis, with the crazy humor and the deep emotional blows.

i´m all in for the Dune game, that universe is great i´ve grown fondly of the Emperor leto novels and Duncan idaho is a great, great character, i´m curious of what you think of the modern novels and how it closed the story

An RPG in the Hyperion and endimion universe of dan simmons could be cool too, and RPG with the magic sistem of the mistborn trilogy of Brandon Sanderson would be great, also maybe Elantris could have posibilities in that regard, the ending hinted to a lot of posible scenarios . And a Ender´s game version an RTS or turn based, i don´t know there´s a lot of universes i would like in a game

The foundation books would make an awesome RPG too, and i guess the bourne movies could make and awesome action game.

And regarding to the discussion about AAA games with free to play mechanics and the mid tier games, lately i´ve been thinking that the big companies are forgeting that before monetizacion, and free to play mechanics and the like, the most important thing is to try to make a good game, that seems to be getting behind as a priority if you make a good game the posibilities of making money increases, the last assasin creed is a good example, almost nobody has faith in that game, but it ended being good and it succeded, and not triying to say that anyone is making bad games on purpose, but it seems that the big publishers are misguiding its priorities at this point, i don´t know

Rifftrax did Carpenter's version of The Thing, but MST3K never did either, to my knowledge.

jonnypolite wrote:

I hate to be that guy, but MST3K never did The Thing, they did do Being From Another Planet.

Huh. I know I'm not confusing the movie, as I was pretty flabbergasted at the villain pretty much being a Sentient Space Carrot, but I could have sword I had seen it with those familiar silhouettes on the bottom of the screen.

Maybe that's how I coped with it?

Tanglebones wrote:

I'd love a proper Amber game; I think I mentioned this once before, in a DayZ conversation; people were hopping between servers to get behind their opposition; it would be a really good analog to the shadow-shifting between dimensions.

Would be awesome.

I loved the game ideas. Elysium's was a bit difficult for me to envision, but I like the idea of the setting. Allen's would be a combination of Soapdish and The Movies.

The other two basically speak for themselves, I would buy any of the 4.

I have yet to even see a Highlander game of any kind.

Grenn wrote:

I have yet to even see a Highlander game of any kind.

Jump to 8:13!

breander wrote:
Grenn wrote:

I have yet to even see a Highlander game of any kind.

Jump to 8:13!

[link to segment on the Atari Jaguar]

So you're saying there's a reason Grenn never saw it.

I've got the entire Tomb Raider series on my pile as well.