The Long Vacant Chat Box Game

[Zoo]

I've explained this idea before, but no one's ever tried implementing it or taking it anywhere. Seeing as we've had a recent surge of people wanting to make stuff, and that summer is coming up which should free up time for most of us, I figured it was about time to pitch the idea again. At any rate: here it is.

The main idea behind the chat box game is to not only make the forum a better place to hang around and have ideas, but also to encourage more people to visit the site. The chat box was a hugs success, but we've never had a permanent game.

As many of us who have been around since its beginnings (so, all of us) will remember, the most fun we've ever had with the game was the simple tag game. So I'd like to take that idea and expand upon it. We've already determined that huge games can be pretty laggy being online.

The idea I'm trying to make a reality is fairly straightforward: online games that are both fun and simple, like arcade games.

Here's how the engine would work: it would have a pool of simple games (a race, tag, maybe some other neat little things), and after one round of a game ended, it would have 5-10 seconds taking a vote of which game to have next. If nobody voted, it would play the same one again. In the event of a tie, it would choose randomly between the two tied options.

So what about the games? They'd be comprised mostly of squares and circles. Imagine that tag game, but in different forms. Say, a top down racing game, a top down shooter (circles shooting cirles at other circles and hiding behind squares), we'd have tag, and anything else we could come up with.

I think this idea would be simple to implement and would serve the purpose of the chat box game: to have a game which connects its players, not one in which you can throw footballs around the screen.

I'd like to hear your feedback on the idea, and I'm open to any suggestions of where we could go with this.

[Gan]

Definitely plausible. HTML5 front end, Node.js backend. It wouldn't be the fastest, or the smoothest but would work splendidly for 1 to 20 people playing together on a simple(non-graphic intensive) game.

I have a work PC I can use to host the game server 24/7. Though my internet isn't the best. There'd probably be noticeable lag.

I suppose I can bring the tag game back online tonight.

Edit:
Woh woh woh!
Websockets now supports binary data transfer and you can call C++ code from Node.js server code.
This means we can have epicly optimized data transfer for a super lag-less experience and use C++ code for highly intensive mathematics!

[Zoo]

Neato! If we put games in one by one, starting with tag, and adding one every once and a while, we'll end up having a lot. I like the idea of games with 1-2 minute long rounds that switch up to keep it interesting.

[Gan]

The simple chatbox game is up. Right now you just move around.

[Chamez]

This could be taken much farther.
You could create private rooms for people, with maps. These maps would have blocked areas. People could pay for their own sprites.
You could have tons of game modes, with custom game modes.
People could forge their own worlds, with an online map editor.

This could become something pretty big, if done correctly.

I mean, you could have custom soundtracks for rooms, and everything.

[Zoo]

Sky Arena Push Battle Thing:

Top down perspective, a box on which you spawn. Everyone runs around on top of the box trying to push each other off the edge until the only one person is left on top of the box thing.

I'm too lazy to draw, so I'll just give you a description.


or whatever. If you can't imagine it, a picture probably won't help. If one person runs into another, they push they pust the person back about twice the size of their body. You try to push people off the edge. Simple enough

[Zoo]

Cops VS Robbers


Top down perspective of a city-like area (squares being buildings.)

When a game starts there's a city that's roughly 9x the size of the screen (scrolling map)

everyone gets a minimap that shows where the others are.

It splits you into teams: cops and robbers

the robbers spawn at a hideout which spawns in a random location of the city

the cops spawn at a bank at a random point in the city

if a cop catches a robber, the robber becomes a cop

the goal is for the cops to catch all the robbers or for the robbers to get to the bank, get the money, and get back to the hideout (like Capture the Flag)

cops are blue, robbers are red (and they're both circles)

buildings are squares that you can't walk through, the hideout looks like a child's drawing of a house (square+triangle) and the bank looks like a greek-style building with pillars or something.

[Gan]

For the robber game, just stay at the bank and robbers can't win.

Sky Arena, won't entirely work cause 2 forces cancel each other. With 2 people left, they just have to oppose eqch other and no one moves.

[Zoo]

There's a certain radius around the bank where the cops can't go or something?

If two people run directly into each other, whoever started running first overrides the other or they both bounce backwards?

[Gan]

I don't think either game is plausible.

This could be taken much farther.
You could create private rooms for people, with maps. These maps would have blocked areas. People could pay for their own sprites.
You could have tons of game modes, with custom game modes.
People could forge their own worlds, with an online map editor.

This could become something pretty big, if done correctly.

I mean, you could have custom soundtracks for rooms, and everything.

Too ambitious. I have no plans of making money of this.


It's probably best to think cliche and simple.

[Connors]

For the sky game you can most likely make some unique movement controls that make it require more skill. For example perhaps you can lunge forward by tapping a button but this has a short cooldown. Nice and simple.

We could also make a turn based game similar to billiards with which involves pushing circles around.

(These ideas would use Box2D but it's OK because they don't require a ton of objects.)

EDIT:
For the pushing game, the guy should move towards your mouse when you click and sprint when you r-click. Would the sprint be in a straight line or no? Might be fun if you could steer it a little.

[Connors]

The following is based on Zoo's idea and my previous post.

The Sky Arena is a Box2D minigame where players (THE CIRCLES) try to push each other outside the boundary so they fall off. Gameplay is that you click to impulse towards your mouse, and right click to charge. The charge has a cool down time till you can use it again, displayed below your guy (the green bar). Players may tend to bounce off each other and sprinting recklessly may be dangerous. Players should probably be allowed some steering while they charge. The Arena doesn't have to be square, a circle might work well!

We could control them with the arrow keys but then steering is less fun.

POSSIBLE VARIANTS:
 - Projectiles
 - swinging weapons
 - deadly fall is in the middle rather than at the edge.

[Zoo]

I was thinking maybe arrows to move, space to charge? Mouse controls would be a bit difficult for the player.

[Connors]

Gan and I discussed things for a bit and decided mildly awkward controls would make it a lot more interesting. It would be fun to watch and it would take longer to get good at it.

[Zoo]

Awkward controls are never a good thing.