This is a idea for the main character of a first person shooter. The game play has hints of horror and gore. (also posted at voodoolabs) Some sort of scientific experiment or virus has infected you with a rage. You have the ability to totally flip out and go nuts. You have a 'rage level' probably represented by a bar on the side of the screen. You rage level is always increasing and to decrease it you have to go nuts (by pressing a button). You go mad and run and punch and jump at people, bite them, pull their heads off, pick up objects and throw them etc. Pressing rage against a wall causes you to run into / through it. If you don't use your rage and it gets to the top, your head hurts and you clutch it, weird things start happening around you, start seeing things, screaming, delusional. You can also decrease your rage by taking tranquilizers / injections. When you are in rage you don't get hurt as much and are much stronger. Sometimes you will not want to rage, so you have to take drugs to stop it (don't want to be found / sneaking around). A lot of games have reasons why you can't get killed as easy, which makes a game more believable (or at least the unbelievable things are more believable) and means that you don't die as much. In Halo you are a cyborg, in quake and doom you are a Marine and in Half-life you have a HEV suit. This game you have the rage. The story of the game needs to explain your rage, and it probably needs to be a large part of the storyline. I was thinking about coupling this idea with a zombie virus (zombies are always cool). For some reason (needs to be explained) the virus gives you the rage instead of killing you. This also explains why you can't catch the virus. Also to turn this into a bit of a psychological thriller you might, not wanting to but the rage makes you, kill your best friend towards the start of the game. It would give you a reason to want to find out how you became this way, and punish who did it to you. And the same person / organisation is responsible for the zombies. Revenge. I was thinking about having the 'too much rage' time the self beating up part. You start hitting your head against walls, falling over and if you leave it for too long, you just start running and keep running until you hit a wall. This could be because you killed your friend - self hate (Thanks Nambuk). Health regeneration is definitely an option, probably would happen while you were 'raging'. You are practically invincible while 'raging', unless you run into a spike, or get squashed. Any thoughts?

Quote: Original post by umbrae
I was thinking about having the 'too much rage' time the self beating up part. You start hitting your head against walls, falling over and if you leave it for too long, you just start running and keep running until you hit a wall. This could be because you killed your friend - self hate (Thanks Nambuk).

Health regeneration is definitely an option, probably would happen while you were 'raging'. You are practically invincible while 'raging', unless you run into a spike, or get squashed.

Any thoughts?

Have you ever played Vampire: The Masquerade - Redemption? Vampire characters in VTMR had a similiar 'rage' while fighting. AFAIR it also depends on thier Humanity, Bloodlust and maybe Intellect.

Sweet, it has been done before. Does that mean that it will work?

I haven't played either of these games, does the rage work well within the game? And what type of games where these? It sounds like they might be rpg's, do you think it will work in a fps?

Do you think it would be a good idea for the main character to be a vampire?

I always thought that games that make you a vampire or a scary character aren't as scary - you are already a demonic being, the other scary things aren't as scary. There is something to be said for a normal person stuck fighting off demonic spirits.

Quote: FPS players would probably hate losing in-game control.

Quite true. I was thinking about 'directed' rage but that still might be too much loss of control. What ever you are looking at gets the full brunt of your aggression.

Is it not enough that they are holding the rage button? In some fps games that have edge weapons (thinking the lightsaber in jedi knight as an example) the character sometimes does a spinning combo when you attack, this is a little loss of control but the player still can control the start and stop of the attack.

My thoughts were that if the player is holding the rage button, and can direct the attacks then that is enough control to keep the feeling of control. Of course not everyone will like this, but is there another way of showing that you are in an uncontrolled rage but still keep the player in control? I suppose having the normal melee attacks more wild, but still user controlled would be okay. But that would detract from the totally out of control feel. Maybe there is some mid-ground that works?

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Quote: Do you think it would be a good idea for the main character to be a vampire?

You probably should work a bit harder than that if you want to be original. And given that such games already are blood baths, you're probably going to have a tough job getting players to feel much about, 'unintended' deaths.

I sometimes really enjoy becoming a killer in a game - sneaking around and murdering people can be fun!

Originality is an issue, can someone incorporate zombies or vampires and be original? In the matrix I think that the twins were a original take on the vampires thing. In fact I think they were the best new characters in the sequels, them and french guy.

I like the 'night killer' idea. Your character can jump around a dark city, swoop down into an alley. Apart from not being a great movie, I really liked the 'feel' of underworld. I think the feel could make a cool game (if it hasn't already)

Vampires - cool.
Automatic Weapons - cool.
Evil stuff - cool.
Swords - super cool.

I think if the deaths are done well realistically then the player will feel them. If the bodies slump right, if there is a normal amount of blood then the death looks 'solid'. Also if you only wound someone and they flail all over the place in obvious pain, you would feel like you want to put them out of their misery.

If the main character was a vampire or similar I would want the player to relate to the victims more than the main character. Seeing themselves as the victims.

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Quote: There is something to be said for a normal person stuck fighting off demonic spirits.

That it's cliché? Or that it actually never really is an entirely normal person (man, what a short-lived game/movie/story would that be).

I was more thinking that you can relate to your character, you come from the same situation having not seen supernatural things before (not that they are a generic person). If your main character is a vampire you expect that they have seen weird things before - but you as a player have not.