Virtual World Idea

Idea: Giant Robot Battles Online

Target Users: Male gamers from age 13 to 25 with high-speed internet access

The story of this game would be set in a sci-fi post-apocalyptic future overrun by giant monsters of varying appearance. Humans have been isolated into various domes all over the planet in order to continue living without fear of monster attacks. Teleportation devices allow mass numbers of humans and objects to travel from dome to dome, but traveling outside of the domes proves extremely dangerous due to the monsters. In order to reclaim the planet, armies of giant robots from every dome are created to participate in missions to wipe out the monsters.

Players would all create fully customizable human avatars, which serve as the pilots to their giant robots. All giant robots will have the same build at beginner levels, but when players gain more experience, they are able to upgrade and customize parts and weapons for their robots with in-game money (earned from beating monsters). Every server for the online game represents different domes to which players and their robots can teleport. Their robots are only used outside of the domes, where they either gain experience from fighting monsters or take on quests assigned from various non-player characters inside the dome. The only exception to this is in player-versus-player battles, which are done by having two or more players enter the training simulators inside the domes. Within the domes, players' avatars are free to interact with one another and form groups for missions, monster fighting, or player-versus-player simulator battles.

List of Challenges:
-Creating an entire 3D game engine from scratch
-Working out the most effective HUD
-Designing for both the human environments and the robot environments
-Making avatars and robots capable of interacting with each other
-Clarifying what actions players can take when in or out of their robots
-Figure out how to make customizable builds for robots and avatars while still using the same basic animation models for all
-Testing and balancing battle mechanics
-Creating and balancing in-game economy
-Determining learning curve of game and adjusting it to make it more reasonable for new and experienced players
-Determining values for the powers of different weapons, attacks, and parts without making any of them broken
-Creating methods of player to player communication (i.e. chat system, headset use, etc.)
-Creating moderation system to address player complaints
-Testing for fast and smooth loading of the game with large numbers of users online