Maybe you could make it a competition of sorts? Set a few different tasks for people to have a jab at. Give prices on good execution.
Thinking overly complicatedly, Joe's whole idea of the crowd being the "lives" also lends itself to multiplayer co-op: on the plus side, you might get things done quicker; on the downside, your crowd would diminish quicker. I think this might have legs
Absolute zilch. Going through a MSDN beginner tier, I took forty minutes to create a box with buttons in it. I need someone to suggest a more relevant tutorial for creating a simple platformer or something. As I said before, I'm a complete code newb.
How about....your the good guy initially, etc etc, get framed for something, then you become a fugitive, throughout the game you have to solve puzzles or collect information on why/who framed you etc, so you have sections which will be slow paced and fast paced such as running from police officers through different areas, and slow paced when your free to explore offices to gather information. Furthermore you would have a limited selection of weapons, and would have more hand to hand combat and melee, so it wouldnt be as simple as shooting down a police officer, you would literally have to outrun them and/or hide. Just a few thoughts
I'm pretty sure that if Valve had really wanted to keep the Hydra in the game, they could have done. Scraping six months of work because "it had to be underground" (why?) and abandoning it because they only had one animated attack and as "it was supposed to be this energy impaling monster" they thus couldn't change it? Since when as something like monster description been a good reason to scrap half a year's worth of work? Surely simply changing the monster description to something else (they made it all up themselves anyway, they're not bound by anything) would have been far more sensible. There's LOADS of stuff in HL2 that doesn't make sense. How do the barnacles get where they are? For that matter why are they even in the game? The combine brought them with them for their good company at dinner parties? You can speculate about a lot of this, but truth be told you take huge amounts of it at face value, you have to, and no-one expects otherwise. So them saying they scrapped the Hydra because it didn't quite fit in the story is rubbish if you ask me. What annoys me is Valve always make it out it was this, unavoidable thing they had to get rid of the Hydra, and they tried but they're sorry, and everyone's like "awww, poor Valve, they had to scrap all their hard work!". Personally I think this one guy really pushed for it, but everyone else at Valve just thought it was a crap idea and told them to stop. I imagine it was far more to do with internal wranglings than anything outside of their control, and they just don't want to admit they're not one big Valve happy family. Meh, I call foul with it all, it just doesn't make any logical sense. If they genuinely wanted it in the game, it would have happened. I may be totally wrong on all this, but I just think there's more to it than Valve have let on.
It didn't 'have' to be underground like you make it seem I said, true - but it did at the same time. It was a case of this was what Valve wanted the monster to be -this huge ghostly snake beneath the ground which would attack you by reaching through the floors and walls and stabbing you with its energy arms, throwing stuff around. That's what they wanted it to be and, when they found it would be too difficult to incorporate that idea fully and that the plot for the game had moved in other areas to make that monster superflous anyway, they gave it a mercy killing rather than diluting or changing the idea to accomodate the whole thing. I've read interviews with that specific designer and he talks about how they tried other ways to make it fun to fight - making it so it would bash into certain things and create noise so you saw it coming, but he admits they never got it working just the way they wanted. Load up the restored beta model in Garry's Mod and you'll see why too. They could have worked to keep it, sure, but as a group they decided to come up with new ideas to fit the refocused game.
back on subject, i'm no good at coding (read: I can't code) but more than happy to help play test/pitch ideas brainstorm whatever! on your side joe! but i'm still project manager/director/ceo!
Sounds like HL2 coulda been nearly 100 hours long had they left all that in and implemented correctly and what not.. Maybe HL3?
Truer than you know. The original plot only started in City 17, then had Gordon fleeing into the wastelands on a train, meeting Eli (who then wasn't Alyx's father) and Kliener in a junkyard lab, meeting up with Alyx and Colonel Vance (her father) at a place called The Air Conditioner which was sapping all the oxygen from the planet. Gordon led a massive assault on the AC, fled by jeep to a new location and met with Barney, travelled by plane to the Antarctic to meet a character called Odell (later turned into Odessa Cubbage) and breach The Borealis which had been infensted with Zombies, he then returned to City 17, fought through Traptown (which became Ravenholme), met the Mad Monk (Grigori) and fought his way through the Combine to The Citadel, which he then scaled and demolished, killing Breen. The canals were in there somewhere too, but with a jetski instead of a hoverboat. So, loads of aspects of the plot have since been re-used in the Episodes. They've hinted too that if they ever get it right then The Hydra will be reintroduced too.
i just cried when i read that. I would have been more than overjoyed if they served that to us for Half Life 2.
Making a game sounds fun! I can make sprites and beeeuutiful background vistas! Also, I'm pretty handy at animation (2D) and cool effects. Basically, the arty non-codey side of games.
Well, having spent most of the weekend and bank holiday looking at XNA, I've come to the conclusion that even that is beyond my ability. I can probably make a multiple choice adventure with it (and plan to), but that's it. I've been able to pick things up with Acron's help, but the rate I'm learning at is so slow it infuriates me. I have no patience. However, I'm still up for making a game with people here. I can write, direct, design (a tiny bit arty) and publicise obviously. Throw in Will.'s artiness and the willingness of others and we can maybe have a punt. Other's comer-forwarders sign up below if you're serious (we still need a coder mainly, I'd think) and we'll see.
