Agreed, but it's much harder to develop a new system than just throw together content for an existing one. Some systems (likely any that could become popular) can involve multiple other aspects of the game, and as a result require tons of testing and code-tracing before being released. If you happen to overlook one little bug that ends up breaking the entire system, you're in trouble.

I'd rather go with something slightly different.. Old Republic, but during the New Sith Wars and not the KOTOR era. It spans a millennium and has massive armies of both Sith and Jedi, which should allow the developers plenty of leeway with their game.

You also missed both classical and jazz.

Issues I've found are highlighted in yellow, my comments are in red, and green highlights are references used in my comments. Bold yellow indicates a different problem in a larger section.

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Originally posted by grafh
DeVry University Online

Concept Document

Title – Eternal Nightmare.
The game is about a boy who has strong psychic powers who has been picked on and made fun of his entire life. He then decides it’s better if he never wakes up and so he places himself into a deep coma. You’re an empath who is pulled into his comma (typo) by chance. If you ever want to wake up again, it’s your job to wake him up. But who knows what demons lurk inside the hearts of men and manifest themselves in dreams! (it's a question, not an exclamation) Your mission is to go inside his nightmares and try to wake him up or will you let him remain sleeping? (two separate thoughts together) The choices you make effect whether he wakes up or you wake up. (contradicts previous statement in green)

Description/feature set – what (capitalization) makes my game unique is the beautiful graphics that it will have along with the fear of classis (typo, easily caught in any spell checker) games like silent hill and fatal frame (proper nouns). With the unique story and characters, you won’t be able to compare it to any other game. No one game I have ever seen has been able to come up with so many alternate endings with long game play. 50-60 hours is what I’m shooting for here. (informal) I feel that the public misses games with great stories and character development. Part of this Is why the final fantasy series is so popular. Nowadays it’s all graphics with very little story. (The first thing you mention in this section is the graphics.) I want to give people the best of all worlds if possible. I know it can be done. No other game will be able to compete with this title when it hits the shelf’s. besides, doesn’t the idea of being able to go into another persons dream and change their memories sound cool to you? (Nearly the entire section is dedicated to how awesome your game is and how much better than every other game it will be. You only mention specific features or details of the game twice.)

Purpose/application – The purpose of this game is to evoke feelings and emotions from people. There are a lot of games where is just shot (typo) and kill and its (typo) fun, but you don’t really feel anything. (That's a rant unrelated to the purpose of the game.) I want to bring back fear,love,hatred,anger. (add spaces between words) Any human emotion that I can think of I want people to be able to feel when they play this game. But the number one thing I was them to feel is empathy and fear.

Premise/high concept - can (capitalization) you save someone else, while trying to save yourself? We all have our fears and demons that we must face in order to live in this world. But (informal use of a conjunction) can we conquer our own fears in order to save someone else when the time comes? Even if the fear is so great that your heart feels as if it’s going to jump out of your chest and run a triathlon? (very informal)

Genre – action, fantasy,rpg, horror. (capitalize, probably change RPG to role-playing, add space between words)

Platform- playstation 3, xbox360, pc. (capitalize, capitalize, capitalize) The reason I have chosen these 3 (informal, traditionally any number less than eleven is spelled out) systems as platforms is because of the power they are able to produce. While the xbox360 and playstation 3 (capitalize) are beautiful (in this case, you're talking about the physical consoles and not the graphics that they can produce) they have a limit that can be reached. This limit has more than enough power to produce the beautiful graphics that I want for my game along with cut scenes (didn't mention these in the design/features set) and sound. I also chose the pc (capitalize) because it is upgradeable to produce even better graphics and sounds that the playstation3 and xbox360. (Being upgradeable has nothing to do with it; the PC is simply more powerful.) While this is more costly people will still do this for games they love. Everyone wants to play at the best graphics they can get it. (You're putting words into people's mouths with this statement.)

Audience/market – the (capitalize) target market for this game will be yound (typo) adult and older males and females. The reason behind this would be because people these ages probably would have been bullied befor (typo). (Only a small number of people are actually bullied; another section of this age group were the people doing it.) I want people to actually be able to relate to some of the problems both characters go through while playing this game. By the people in this age group being able to relate to some of the hardships they have had to go through from bullying, I feel the will be immersed in the game. While relating to the characters I want to pull emotions from them. Happiness, fear, anger, love, etc. by doing this, this game will dominate the market. (informal, again talking about how good your game is going to be)

Rating - the (Capitalization again, which I won't even bother with anymore.) game will be rater (typo, same) mature because I want it to be as graphic as possible. I want people playing the game to feel real fear. As if it was their life on the line. Doing so would have to include blood,guts,violence, (spacing, again I won't touch it from now on) mature language. I feel if I have to tone it down to teen then people won’t be getting the full element of the game.

Player mode – this will be a single player game. There is a work in progress of a multiplayer version of the game if it sells really well. (Will this be bundled with printed copies of the game in the future? How will players access it if not? Is it co-op, MMO, deathmatch?)

Time interval – it will be in game time. (What is game time? Equivalent to real time?) There will be save points where you can save your progress and come back another day, and continue from where you left off.

Rules – The rules are pretty simple. Fight to wake up or stay asleep in a nightmare forever. It will be a single player rpg style game. I want to make the game long so I would say about 30 hours (see previous green highlight) roughly, would be the amount of time taken to beat the game. To win you have to view all of the locked up memories and defeat their demons. Once that is done you will have the chance to wake up.

Challenges – You’re an empath who is pulled into his comma by chance. If you ever want to wake up again, it’s your job to wake him up. But who knows what demons lurk inside the hearts of men and manifest themselves in dreams! Your mission is to go inside his nightmares and try to wake him up or will you let him remain sleeping? The choices you make effect whether he wakes up or you wake up. (copy and paste = bad; this also has nothing to do with the section) There will be powerful bosses guarding each memory that you are suppose to unlock. Puzzles that need to be completed in order to move on. Nightmares that must be conquered before you can wake yourself up.

Audio – I intend to have music and voice overs in my game. I would like to have symphony’s play and then record their sounds (As a conceptual document, this is fine. If you intend to actually do this without a large budget, good luck.) and incorporate them into our game for maximum effect. For the voice overs I would choose people with how have (???) a history of voice acting for this part. I need my characters to sound how they look like they feel. There will be no slacking on this part.

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I cut out the sections I didn't bother with. Simply put, it's awful even if it's not supposed to be a formal document.

What kind of graphics will the game use? Anime? Hyperrealistic? Sprites?
What kind of environments will there be? Is it all just a dark cavern where you see different dreams?
What is the flow of the game? Is there a hub world where you visit different areas? Is it linear where you progress through his life?
What are the puzzles like?
What are the nightmares? How are you supposed to defeat them?
You never once describe the gameplay except for the fact that it has puzzles. Is it turn-based combat? FPS?
The game's purpose is to evoke emotions. How?

At best, it's a half-thought idea for the setting of a game. The game itself I don't know anything about.

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Originally posted by throckmorton
There's a good chance you will not like EvE. It's a good game, but it's not for everyone.

Always try out the trial before you buy.

I have no idea why you didn't do this.

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Trials exist to give you a feel for the game, and EVE's is 14 days for a reason. I'd be willing to bet that at least half of the people that try EVE don't continue with it.

You could easily break down Instrumentalism into different instrument categories, at the very least Strings, Winds, and Percussion. Add Instrument Crafting.

Weapon skills could be divided up a dozen different ways. I personally like the idea of having skills for different weapon types (swords, axes, etc.) but giving a small bonus when using a weapon that's related to but not your primary weapon type.

Other skills I could think of/stole from other games:

• Acrobatics (flips, cartwheels, etc.)
• Cooking
• Fishing
• Trapping (catching animals/players)
• Animal Handling/Riding
• Sculpting
• Climbing
• Swimming
• First Aid
• Skinning
• Tanning
• Appraisal (valuing items)
• Teaching (if you want players to be able to teach other players skills)

Everyone has ideas. It's hard to get those ideas realized unless you're already in a position of power.

Someone in a different thread around here mentioned a very insightful (in my opinion) site of advice:
http://www.sloperama.com/advice.html

Read through at least the first couple of items there and you'll get an idea of what the reality of the development side is like.

I think having a persistent multiplayer world is a large part of the appeal of MMOGs. I like randomly running into other players out in the middle of nowhere.

You can still play with your friends there, particularly in instanced dungeons which are prevalent in nearly all persistent worlds as well. You just aren't the only people competing for space in the world at large.

Edit: since this is the developers corner, I'll get into the devs' side of it as well.

An instance-based game is easier to design. You're going to have a cap on the number of players in there at any one time, so you can customize the content for an individual or a small group. Specific triggers can be set to drastically alter the game world, cutting off previously accessible areas or opening new ones. Guild Wars even got rid of one of the problems Diablo had by using towns as lobbies, allowing players to trade and group together without breaking the immersion as much.

On the other hand, in a persistent world you can give the players an opportunity to change the landscape themselves with housing or other things like that. PvP without consent is possible, including large-scale invasions or raids.

A Zelda MMOG using the same gameplay elements from the series.

Imagine what a one-on-one battle between two Links would be like. Lots of flipping, parrying, blocking with shields, and that's not even using any items.

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komarr wrote:
For me it was Asheron's Call. I've played a half dozen games since then, but parts of AC still stand out. I'll never forget finding a new dungeon with a buddy, the WTH is that chittering sound, followed all too quickly by the Oh SH*T as a swarm of olthoi had us for dinner.

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The thing is, Asheron's Call has some elements that are still unique out of even the moderately popular MMOGs. A large, completely open environment where you could literally run from one end of the continent to the other through dozens of routes. No classes, but instead just allowing the player to pick the skills they want their character to have. The allegiance system, which gave the higher ranked characters some of the experience that their vassals gained.

Are these systems perfect? No, especially with allegiance, but they can be taken and updated, getting rid of the flaws while allowing more flexibility.

I'm still waiting for the unique mechanics and possibilities that set a game apart from the crowd. As other people have said, pretty much everything since Everquest has been a clone of it. EVE Online is one of the few exceptions, and is outstanding for what it does. Unfortunately, it just isn't my game.

Pirates of the Burning Sea is a very light version of EVE set in the Caribbean, while Stargate Worlds appears to be the same thing on various planets instead. From what little I've seen of Warhammer and Age of Conan, they both seem to be evolutions rather than revolutions.

Darkfall and Hero's Journey both sound great, but have nothing to show for it. I guess I'll have to keep waiting for them or something out of the blue.

It can't/shouldn't be allowed at the same level as the developers simply because of quality control; in current games it would be next to impossible to implement. However, you could develop a game from the ground up to allow the *character* (not the player) to do those things within the boundaries given by the developers.

Examples:
A monster master casts a spell that creates a monster based on the spell components included; the higher the character's level the tougher the creature. Depending on what the player wanted to do, he could then release the creature in the wild and let it terrorize a nearby town, kill it himself (easier for him since he knows its weaknesses) for even more experience, or tame it as a pet. Three high level characters could combine powers to make a boss mob, etc. They could then buy a special magical token that makes it respawn after it's killed; someone of the a higher level could then destroy the token.

As far as equipment goes, replace the equipment-based combat systems with skill-based ones and it would be easy to allow craftsmen to create unique items. Leave it as equipment-based and everyone goes for the best item without considering how it looks.

Houses, boats, and other small-scale buildings wouldn't be hard to implement and I think it's already been done in some games. If you want to get really customized, make an interface like The Sims for construction.

Large-scale projects like cities or dungeons could also be done with large numbers of characters cooperating and working individually on smaller projects. A number of architects could make the buildings which are then populated by the creatures created by other characters, containing loot also made by other characters.

Add an alignment system and a death penalty worth something, so you end up with fewer griefers working to destroy, rather than create, and you have a complete game built by players.

That was rather long-winded, but I think you get the idea. Let the systems be designed for the characters, not the players.