Random Idea # 239014006

If you know me at all, then you know that I tend to get some random ideas for stories/games/etc that I rarely act on. Today's idea: a first-person-action-adventure game! XD There's no title yet, but I've worked out a few of the basics: our hero is a police detective in an unnamed American city in the year 2189. This is a sorta post-apocalyptic future... there was a big nuclear war, but that was at the start of the 22nd century (over 70 years earlier). The Detective (I still don't have a name for him...) is assigned to investigate what is initially assumed to be a tragic case of murder-suicide: a man murders his family and then himself. Digging a little deeper though, the Detective finds that this was no murder at all, and that the man has links to the government and a mysterious experimental drug...

Gameplay will be very freeform and open-ended. The player is given a city to wander around in and interact with, sorta like a first person GTA. Only less gratuitously violent (cars can't be jacked, combat is Rainbow Six-level lethal thus discouraging shooting sprees). As the Detective, your job is to interview witnesses, collect clues, report your findings to your Lieutenant and the DA, and ultimately crack the case. Since this is a freeform game, though, you're also given the opportunity to simply wander, or go through side quests (work other, less complicated, cases for example). Rather than straight conversation, all dialogue will be branching, meaning you'll always have three or more ways to respond to any single comment. This means conversations can go in various directions (just like in real life), possibly leading you completely off track from what you're trying to learn from the individual. In the spirit of the free nature of the game, there will be multiple endings based on your success in completing the main quest and your standing with other characters by the end of the game. Also, I want to avoid using cut scenes... I like the method Half Life used with having all major events have during gameplay, rather than stopping the game to show it.

Now, if I were to actually make this, how would I do it? More likely than not, I'd use the Game Maker program, since I've used it before and its fairly easy. Because of this, I'd aim for graphics and gameplay mechanics similar to those found in Duke Nukem 3D. I know for a fact that Game Maker can do Wolfenstein 3D and Doom type graphics, but unlike those I know that Duke Nukem can produce city environments and more modern style gameplay, so this is more of a hit or miss thing. I HOPE it can produce Duke Nukem mechanics as well... but, ah well. As I said at the beginning of this post, this is yet another random idea that I know I'll probably never act on, just like the million and one other videogame ideas I've had.

Or maybe this'll be the one. *shrug* We'll find out.