[newtonx]

Hello

I hope you can help me.

I am a game developer. I will develop a FPS (first person shooter game) something like DOOM or QUAKE. When I finish the game, I will publish it on the net free of charge.

I will tell you what I want:
The probes showed the remnants of an old and advanced civilization on Mars. an expedition is sent to explore the ruins. But that expedition sent a distress call to Earth and the spaceship is destroyed due to an attack from something on the surface.

The High Command of Space Exploration (HCSE) sent a rescue team to the plant. But their ship was attacked and felt down to the surface of Mars. One of the team, Admir, survived but injured. After curing himself, he moved out to explore the area around him trying to reach the ruins to explore what happened to the expedition.

Now what I am asking for is what do you think that Admir will face? What happened to the expedition members: are they alive or dead? Who built that civiliation? What happened to them and where are they now? How old this civilization is?

The game will be fast-paced action with violent encounters.

Any idea different from mine is welcomed.

Clear?
I hope so.

thnks

[malek77]

I'm hoping you want to go beyond the Quake pattern - it's valid enough, and a comfortable trope for the action genre, but it misses many opportunities.

Rather than have him the sole survivor, why not have the rest of the team injured, and it is up to him to gather the resources and be the medic in order to save his team mates? The healthier they get, the better they can help him secure the crash site. It also invests the player in working toward a time critical goal - saving his buddies! The 'Lone Gunman' has no true motivation but vengeance, and that is a very better mental space.

The Martian opponents - wouldn't it be a nice change for them to be civilized and competent, rather than barbaric and demonic? They can still be evil if you wish - but as 'Alien' proved, a sophisticated opponent is infinitely more frightening than an unthinking one.

As an immensely ancient, intelligent species, the shoot-down of the heroes might not be noticed by them as autonomous defence systems do all the fighting. As the player goes, they may get hints that someone is helping him, and by the end, reveal that the Martians are terribly sorry about all that stuff, they've rather left their targeting systems on and forgotten about them over the millenia. Help the Martians shut down the rest of the system, and they'll get the Diplomats out ASAP.

The Trope itself has interesting subtexts - that human expansion is bound to descend into violence early and hard, that Earthly political structures will project into space, and that resources are only to be sourced through exploitation or defeat of 'the Other.'

For an all out fighting game - why not having competing mining corporations securing high value sites with combat teams, exploiting the site under fire, and pulling out before the operation starts to cost more than it's worth?

You have an immediate 'League Table' of mercenaries who can secure a site cheaply and fast, strong reasons to protect squad mates (make "Medic!" really important - have a slow death/Golden Minute system to allow battlefield rescue) and an escalating conflict.