(a) All out carnage versus large amounts of dumb AI - Serious Sam or Painkiller
(b) Quake/DOOM3/EW:SOL gameplay where the emphasis is on fighting enemies in tight corridors; basically leave the formula unchanged
(c) More melee oriented - Two most recent Jedi Knight games and Rune
(d) Strategic - Halo
(e) Realistic - Far Cry and Rainbow Six
(f) Squad gameplay where you're part of a team of AI (who are actually useful...)

2. Development emphasis for Multiplayer:

(a) Basic features: CTF, DM, etc
(b) Team Warfare: BF1942 and Stars Wars Battlefront
(c) Cooperative (special CoOp only campaign or something)
(d) Team Objectives: Assault, Team Fortress

3. Level Design

(a) Continuous areas where you're traveling within an intertwined complex
(b) Surrealistic
(c) Quake-like (basically the level designer just makes whatever he feels like). That pretty much summarizes EW:SOL level design.
(d) Dramatic action "set pieces" with a lot of non-interactive action occurring all around - Call of Duty and Medal of Honor
(e) Include "railway" levels where player is constantly moving forward or flying - See Star Fox 64 with its tank/flying levels and, more recently, the pteradon flying levels in Turok:Evolution.

4. Graphics features emphasis:

(a) Large open areas - Half Life 2 or Far Cry
(b) Shadows - DOOM3 or Splinter Cell
(c) Rendering speed and level complexity with a few nifty features - Call of Duty as an example uses very little recent technology
(d) Per-pixel Dynamic lighting (not precalculated lightmaps). Negative: high system requirements.
(e) Full-screen PostProcessing effects: Motion blur, High Defenition Rendering, Night Vision, Blur Effects ("Bloom" in DeusEx2, Thief 3, and SW: Battlefront)
(e) Other features: bump mapping, particles, water effects, etc.
(f) Non-realistic rendering that is more "stylized".

5. Sound Emphasis:

(a) Randomized metal core background music, basic sound effects
(b) Dynamic soundtrack that changes depending on events in-game (Jedi Knight 2, Acedemy, and Halo did this)
(c) No background track except for certain sequences and emphasis is on realistic environmental sounds (the first game to do this well was Marathon 2: Durandul; viva la Bungie!)

6. Minimum PC specs for playability:

(a) DX7/OGL1.3 features only. Does not require the most recent video card.
(b) High end system of today.
(c) Medium end system of tomorrow (we go all out).

7. Interaction with environment:

(a) Touch stuff and it moves - Quake, Unreal 1, and EW:SOL
(b) Basic one button interaction like most games
(c) Popup menu for multiple options - Operation Flashpoint and Hitman
(d) Multimedia Flash-like interaction - DOOM3
(e) Virtual "arm" - Trespasser

8. Angelic Powers:

(a) Specific weapon types that are "unique". Accessed via the normal number keys.
(b) "Basic" powers that can accessed via normal FPS controls and no extra buttons. Example: double-jumping (wing flapping), freeze in air by crouching mid-air, float slowly down by holding jump key (wings extend but are not flapping)
(c) Jedi Knight-like. Have to scroll between powers. Extra button to use the selected power. Function keys (F1, F2, etc.) assigned to certain widely used powers.
(d) Mix of B and C.

9. Prayer Mode

In the game Halo an element of strategy was conceived in the rechargeable shielding system. In Eternal War 1: Shadows of Light we almost had something similiar in the form of prayer mode. The problem with it was that the recharge time was so slow and the health pickups so plentiful that for the most part there wasn't a reason to use it. I suggest we tweak the prayer mode for the sequel, making it faster and thus more useful, and also remove the majority of health pickups so the player must rely on prayer. The player would also have less health and armor in comparison to a Serious Sam/Painkiller type of game and would be able to die quickly under a hail of demon attacks. This would require the player to think more tactically when approaching a fight with demons and use objects strewn across the landscape as cover.

What do you think?

(a) Good idea.
(b) Good idea. But like Halo I want the healing to be automatic.
(b) Good idea. But I don't like it how in EW:SOL I am defenseless and incapable of moving while praying.
(d) Bad idea. State a reason why.

10. Character movement speed:

(a) Same as EW:SOL (basically the speed of most Quake games).
(b) Depends on class type.
(c) Slower paced - Halo, Call of Duty, Unreal 2
(d) Rocket up the butt ala Catechumen...

11. Installation Size:

(a) One CD.
(b) Multiple CD's.
(c) DVD.

12. Price point at which you would buy the game:

(a) $55 - $65
(b) $35 - $50
(c) Bargain bin
(d) content subscription with annual fee
(e) "Steam"-like system that delivers content via the net

13. "Darkness" in levels:

(a) DOOM3: I can't see!
(b) High Contrast
(c) "Normal" amount of lighting
(d) Bright enough so you can't miss seeing the enemy

14. Saving Games

(a) Save anywhere you want like most PC games.
(b) Limited amount of saves dependent on difficulty level - Hitman and Operation Flashpoint
(c) Checkpoint system - Halo
(d) Save anywhere on low difficulty; checkpoints on high.
(e) I am L33T. I don't need no stinking saves.

15. API:

(a) OpenGL
(b) DirectX
(c) Huh?

16. What is your current video card:

(a) ATI 7xxx
(b) ATI 8xxx
(c) ATI 9xxx
(d) ATI X800 Pro or XT PE
(e) Nvidia Geforce 2 or GF4 MX
(f) Geforce 3 or 4
(g) Geforce FX
(h) Geforce 6200, 6600, 6700, 6800
(i) Other: name it.

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3rd Day Studios

"So many laughing at Jesus,"
"Well the funniest thing that He's done,"
"Is love this poor stubborn rebellious world,"
"While the hate for Him just goes on."

[This message has been edited by brandon (edited October 26, 2004).]

1.) I'm not sure how some of these options are all that different from each other, but here goes
d,f,c
e
b
a
2.)
c
b,a,d
3.)
d
a
b
c
e
4.)
b,c,d,e
a
f
5.) This might fit into whatever you have enough time-and-resources-for category
b
c
a
6.)
b
a,c
7.)
c,d
b
a
e
8.) I'm of the opinion that every game needs to find its own balance between the skill of the player and the stats of the character. Hence, why I like option b so much (although I'd like to see the control for the character be more dynamic).
b
a
c
9.) Not sure, I'm supposed to be a programmer, but how about when you clear out an area, a shaft of light (symbolic for dispelling the darkness, I don't know) appears and if you're in it, you start to regenerate. The light shaft disappears if an enemy approaches. This would help you keep track of where you've been (something that really confused me when playing Halo, especially the Library level) and alert you to a new enemy threat (kind of like a radar). This would be a good chance to show off all those 'leet pixel shader effects that are requisite of AA titles these days.
10.) I'd say go one further than just having static classes, maybe have upgrades like the SpeedBoost from the Metroid series scattered throughout the game that the player gets to keep from level to level.
b
c
a
d
11.) This might fit into the whatever your duplicator-charges category
c I am unorganized and keep my discs out of their cases, it'd be nice to have just one to keep track of
b
a This might work if you go the Steam-route. Even though I bought the big CS,Half-Life package from Best Buy I still had to wait an hour to download everything (but that kind of stunk anyways).

12.) I'm intentionally leaving out option c, because for this to work you're going to end up having to charge customers within the a or b range (if you want to make even). Option e is a lot like options a and b as far as the amount of money that exits a customer's bank account goes. Of course, you might just go distribute on-line anyways depending on how unsuccessful you are in breaking in to the Wal-Marts of the business. However Valve spent a whole lot of time and resources getting Steam to the state it is in today, you might not be able to do the same with your time and resources. Maybe you could get something going if you just concentrated on an ordering+delivery mechanism; where the delivery is the DVD itself via FedEx. Anyways, back to the poll...
b, a, e
d

13.) Ummm, configurable with the default set to the where your designers and artists think it should be set.

14.) No preference, but d sure looks like a good compromise
d
a,b,c
e

15.) OpenGL has the portability you'd need if you want to expand your audience beyond just Windows, otherwise just use DirectX if that doesn't concern you.
a
b

16.) Radeon 9700 Pro (128 MB), AMD 2700+, 1 GB RAM DDR, Dual-Screen Monitors + Linux (Primary OS), Windows (Secondary). Alright so you didn't ask for that other stuff. Yet it seems to me that it'll become useful eventually.

c

That was fun, thanks for the opportunity

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joeG

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Soterion Studios

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sory bowt mi speling

[This message has been edited by chickadoo (edited December 03, 2004).]

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Brian

--D-SIPL

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If at first you don't succeed, destroy all evidence that suggests you tried

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I dont like siggys. They are to hard to think up :(

+) In a class/objective-based team multiplayer mode, do you think that players should be able to play as Demons?

A) Yes
B) No

[This message has been edited by Mack (edited December 23, 2004).]

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Karl /GODCENTRIC
Visionary Media
the creative submitted to the divine.
Husband of my amazing wife Aleshia
Klumsy@xtra.co.nz

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If you let your faith go cold enough, there might come a point where you don't want to turn back to God. That would be tragic. -- Quote from Keith Green

3rd Day Studios

--D-SIPL

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If at first you don't succeed, destroy all evidence that suggests you tried

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Jeff McArthur. Creating Nak'Urij
BlueGill Studios Games

Oh, and EW:Nightmare's graphics are already significantly better than EW:SOL's graphics. Considering our level of funding I doubt we'll be able to match the lushness of Far Cry but I think we'll be capable of better than Jedi Knight Acedemy and Call of Duty. Though that really depends on the level designers (and not me! heh, heh, heh...).

[This message has been edited by Gump (edited December 23, 2004).]

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I dont like siggys. They are to hard to think up :(