Need help to see if this is original.

[Stratosphere]

Hello, I've joined and I can't wait to be a part of the community here. I'm keeping my noob questions to myself, so you don't have to worry about idiot posts from me. I really need some help here, I've come up with an idea for a game, but I'm having trouble seeing if it's original.

As most people know that are into gaming and game programming, most fps (that’s the type of game I'm making) games are run forward and shoot everything that moves. Typing in the topic of my fps only gets me lists of popular first person shooters, and I know the stories behind most of them. I feel like this :wallbash:

You see, I’m making a more emotional first person shooter, your focusing on the relationship between the two main characters, then the main plot comes in where the two main characters are separated. Then there is the adversity between you and the antagonist character and its minions. There are cut scenes going into more detail about the relationship between the two main characters as the player progresses through the game.

It's basically a game about love and the things you do to rescue it.

I'm intentionally not going into specifics here, It's my game and I'm developing it, and i don't want people stealing my ideas :angry:

Have you ever heard of a game that uses that type of storyline mechanic that was popular, or at least partially popular?


Thank you for helping me in advance :happy:

Edit: Okay, I'm going to soften up and tell you my idea; I'm too paranoid about things like this.

You are a male character (name undecided) that has taken your girlfriend to the fair. You know you shouldn't, but you use your psycic powers to help win games and generally make the experience as fun as possible for you and you girlfriend.

A secret organization has been looking for you for some time, wanting to experiment on you and find out exactly how your brain works so that they can use it as a part of their weapons research. Your careless use of your abilities has given you away. They know you have a special some one now, and they have kidnapped her, and it's the goal of the game to rescue her and hopefully stop the organization from trying to find you or your loved ones ever again.

Are there any games like that that have been made as well as being fairly popular, cause if it wasn't popular then there is still room for me :lol:

[poita]

A few things:

1. No one cares if your idea is original.

2. Your idea isn't original. I can't think of any specific instances of that particular storyline that has been done, but the whole "kidnap your girlfriend to get at you" and "some organization wants to use your special powers for evil" has been done to death.

3. It doesn't matter if your idea is original. The most important thing about a story is the execution. Even if you had some amazing, original, mind-boggling idea, if you don't develop the characters right, or don't pace things right or use the correct literary devices then it will just fail.


Summary: Stop worrying and just make a good game.

[rouncer]

So you want extra story element, thats tricky... they say how much did that million dollar warcraft3 cinematic take? just paying peoples fat bank accounts.

[Mihail121]

So you want extra story element, thats tricky... they say how much did that million dollar warcraft3 cinematic take? just paying peoples fat bank accounts.

Yeah pretty much. Tricky story element in the 21st century? Write a book then, don't make games. Making games is about making sales and you won't make much without zombies to shoot at and big guns to shoot with.

[starstutter]

About the paranoia of ideas being stolen, I'll let you in on a little secret about that :)

No-one is going to steal your idea. Why? Not because an idea could be bad or unorigional, but because they are extremley hard to communicate accuratley. Without a detailed (and I mean like 40 page long) design document, it is quite difficult to have your mental conception be communicated to someone in a way that they get the "Oh Awesome!" feeling that you get when you think about it. This is especially true for story elements.

Don't belive me? Take some of your favorite games and write the ideas and premises down on paper, including the key parts of gameplay and story. If you do this enough you'll find that not only do most of them sound very similar to eachother (thus seemingly unoriginal, L4D is a great example of this), but many of them sound quite lame. Try explaining the idea of a Big Daddy from Bioshock and see if it still sounds cool lol. Oh yeah, and Zelda, does the name "Twilight Princess" sound bad-ass to you? ;)

Even if someone tries to steal your idea, they're most likley going to fail because they don't have all the components of your game in their head (and you obviously do). Plus, a games success depends on its execution, not on its ideas. Unless you've come up with some sort of earth shaking breakthrough mechanic, you don't have to worry.

[fireside]

I'd have to agree with most of the other replies. It's not particularly original in concept, but no stories actually are. Someone said you can briefly summarize every story written in about 30 or so plots. I think it's important to add story into a fps because they get pretty plain jane without one. Try to incorporate as much as possible without using cutscenes. Things the player sees, picks up, and over-hears are more immersive. Story is only one way of increasing game interest so don't get too carried away with it. You need weapons upgrades and possibly other forms of game play to make it more interesting. Being able to use the special powers in the game would help.
The problem there is that it's a pretty big project for a what you call a noob. If you had to do all your own modeling and everything else you would probably be overwhelmed. Without finding a fairly large team, I don't think it would ever see the light of day. Trying to hold together a team on a free or el cheapo budget is next to impossible.

[alphadog]

LOL.

How old are you? I ask because almost every 8-bit game ever created had the "Save The Princess" concept! :) Want a recent analogue? How about Braid?

And, of course, you layered hero abilities under a psychic/mind power flavor, instead of the more common Magic or Big Guns.

Hardly original, but then again I don't think there is an original plot device left uncovered thanks to mass media, speedy networks and availability of content.

As others have said, it's not just a good plot, or a good artist, or a good engine that matters; it's more about creating a good whole game where the parts combine in ways not seen before, even if each individual part has, and (here's the kicker) marketing the shit out of it... :)