Uprising: inspired by Children of Men

[Ennui]

First, this mod is not in development yet, nor have I decided if I want to pursue developing it. This isn't a recruiting thread because I'm not nearly at that stage yet; I've barely begun laying the conceptual groundwork.

Children of Men spoilers present in thread so if you haven't seen it, leave!

Now that that's been said, on to the idea. Seeing the Stalingrad-esque state of the Bexhill Refugee Camp in the movie inspired me something awful, and I'm pretty into the idea of a mod inspired by that setting. Obviously, for IP and creative freedom reasons, the mod wouldn't be officially a Children of Men mod, but would derive much of its setting/background from the movie. The idea is a multiplayer mod, set in the same situation, as rebel immigrants vs. the military, with the same infertility problem and whatnot as in the movie.

Obviously, it wouldn't stick to the movie's plot really at all, since it's multiplayer, and I'd probably change a lot of the background, both because I don't want to be limited to the movie, and also so that there's a bit of creative deviation.

I'm always terrible at explaining my ideas, as I haven't verbalized this yet, so I'm going to continue working on a more proper explanation. In the meantime, what do you think, and is anyone interested in helping out with development (if it ever gets to that point)?

 

[Majestic XII]

And what about the most important thing, gameplay?

 

[Ennui]

I just want to know how people respond to the idea itself, I'm trying to get the gameplay part down on paper right now but it's not well-rounded enough to post yet, plus it's very open for discussion.

What I was thinking was multiplayer-only (because SP is unfortunately quite a headache), two teams, resistance and military. I'm not sure on the exact gameplay yet, because I can't decide which is most appropriate. What do you think of these:

- Generic control-point gameplay. Important places in the map must be taken for either side to win, things of strategic or political importance. This could also allow for attack/defend play.

- Territory system that Angry Lawyer and I thought up a while ago for another mod. Essentially, the map is split up into territories, similar to Company of Heroes (except they're not resources), and all territories need to be taken to win.

- Elimination, IE the other team must be annihilated. Not too keen on this because it promotes camping, so maybe objectives would be necessary, like an assassination style game mode?

 

[Majestic XII]

Those ideas aren't anything new though (in my opinion). We've seen it done many times before in both real games and in mods. If you want to go through with this, you better think up an idea that isnt so well used right now. Since we have loads of multiplayer mods around, you need something new to stand out.

Gameplay first, then setting. The exception is when you have a setting that invites you to come up with new game mechanics, then it can be the other way around. But that's not the case here, imho.

 

[Ennui]

I have the unfortunate problem of being entirely smitten with the setting, though.

 

[simon]

If you ask me, CoM looked a lot like HL2 already, so making a mod out of CoM would be to kinda... make HL2 again?

 

[Ennui]

I think they were similar, but not that similar... you can say that for a lot of mods, almost anything remotely cataclysmic or orwellian in nature

 

[jondy]

I have the unfortunate problem of being entirely smitten with the setting, though.

How will the setting affect the gameplay? Children of men is no doubt a true deity among regular demi-god movies, but you're describing gameplay that's been done to death - you really need a gameplay hook that ties in with the CoM universe.

 

[pomegranate]

I'd go with your second gameplay system, but I don't see how you'd be able to make it feel like CoM and make a mod that isn't very similar to what had gone before... It's not like the battle in Bexhill was part of an ongoing conflict, it was a one-off siege/invasion (? - it's been a long time since I saw it) - so for a start you need to be more certain about what it is about CoM you want to carry over to your project.

 

[Jerry_111]

You know a brilliant yet amazingly complicated idea I just had after reading this thread?

Imagine a game where there's military vs rebels, but the twist is that both teams are trying to capture a girl with a baby, who is guarded by an escort.

The girl with baby and the escort are real players trying to reach from point A to point B in a map. The military and rebel teams (also played by real players) will try to capture them, and at the same time capture specific points on the map (think battlefield 2).

Hard to do? Yes. Impossible? I dunno. Sounds doable, though.

And it would be original.

 

[jondy]

Kindof like VIP, but with three teams.

 

[63]

*Goes and watches CoM for the 9th time*

 

[Jerry_111]

Kindof like VIP, but with three teams.

Yeah! But in this case, you can kill the escort but NOT the woman w/ baby. Have to figure that out.

And a scenario idea for any gameplay ideas in this thread -- the siege of seattle was briefly mentioned at the beginning of the movie..