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Cool idea for a game?


leech

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Sadly my coding skills at the moment are no where near good enough to do this... but I have this cool idea for something, if someone wants to pick it up, have at it!

You run a sandwich shop.  So you have to make sandwiches and then deliver them.

Part One: This could be getting the ingredients, and you need to go through mazes (shops) to pick them up.  Not sure about how fun this bit could be, maybe something like beserk where you have to dodge other shoppers to get the goods.

Part Two: Orders come in for different sandwich types.  (With Fujinet you could even make this a multiplayer component...) and you have to play similar to Kaboom, grab the ingredients in the sandwich and they drop down onto your 'hand', but don't get the wrong ones, you'll get penalized.

Part Three: Delivery.  This can come in two parts.  Car racing, and dodging random things in peoples yards.

 

This seems perfectly suited to an Atari 8bit game.  It has I think just the right level of variety and complexity that would be perfect!  Doesn't need really good graphics and is the right level of 'goofy'.  Thoughts?

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On 10/22/2021 at 10:50 AM, leech said:

Sadly my coding skills at the moment are no where near good enough to do this... but I have this cool idea for something, if someone wants to pick it up, have at it!

You run a sandwich shop.  So you have to make sandwiches and then deliver them.

Part One: This could be getting the ingredients, and you need to go through mazes (shops) to pick them up.  Not sure about how fun this bit could be, maybe something like beserk where you have to dodge other shoppers to get the goods.

Part Two: Orders come in for different sandwich types.  (With Fujinet you could even make this a multiplayer component...) and you have to play similar to Kaboom, grab the ingredients in the sandwich and they drop down onto your 'hand', but don't get the wrong ones, you'll get penalized.

Part Three: Delivery.  This can come in two parts.  Car racing, and dodging random things in peoples yards.

 

This seems perfectly suited to an Atari 8bit game.  It has I think just the right level of variety and complexity that would be perfect!  Doesn't need really good graphics and is the right level of 'goofy'.  Thoughts?

This sounds like a nice enough idea, with some variety in it. I find that a lot of Atari games tend to only have one game mechanic, not the variety offered here.

 

To spice it up a little more, when you go off to buy your bacon, you could either buy the amount of bacon that you need to serve that customer or you could overbuy. But then you need to manage a budget, and if you can't serve someone else later on as you have no cheese in stock and no money left, you could lose a life and be given another $10 to play with for the next life.

 

Maybe you should also be able to collect petrol for the car. If you drive too quickly, your car uses up the petrol at a higher rate.

 

This could well be fun!

 

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1 minute ago, snicklin said:

This sounds like a nice enough idea, with some variety in it. I find that a lot of Atari games tend to only have one game mechanic, not the variety offered here.

 

To spice it up a little more, when you go off to buy your bacon, you could either buy the amount of bacon that you need to serve that customer or you could overbuy. But then you need to manage a budget, and if you can't serve someone else later on as you have no cheese in stock and no money left, you could lose a life and be given another $10 to play with for the next life.

 

Maybe you should also be able to collect petrol for the car. If you drive too quickly, your car uses up the petrol at a higher rate.

 

This could well be fun!

 

I think the game New York is one of the few that I remember having a variety of gameplay.  Also always makes me think it was the inspiration of Grand Theft Auto.

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4 hours ago, leech said:

I think the game New York is one of the few that I remember having a variety of gameplay.  Also always makes me think it was the inspiration of Grand Theft Auto.

I can see why you say that. It does have that feeling. It was a decent game.

 

I've Googled around, and I don't know if this page is "definitive" or "speculative" in what is said, but you can take a look anyway, unfortunately it doesn't mention New York City the game, though the writer is a big Atari fan.

 

https://www.gamespew.com/2015/07/the-dna-of-grand-theft-auto/

 

 

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41 minutes ago, snicklin said:

I can see why you say that. It does have that feeling. It was a decent game.

 

I've Googled around, and I don't know if this page is "definitive" or "speculative" in what is said, but you can take a look anyway, unfortunately it doesn't mention New York City the game, though the writer is a big Atari fan.

 

https://www.gamespew.com/2015/07/the-dna-of-grand-theft-auto/

 

 

Yeah, it seems 100% speculative.  Calls out Black Ice / White Noise.  Which beyond any shadow of a doubt, would have been the JagCD's 'killer app'.  If only a full team would pick that up and finish it... ha, maybe there is some alter timeline where that game saved Tramiel Atari, and we'd still be getting Cat named consoles...  then again, with how the big ones ended up, they wouldn't have bizarre architectures anymore, and it would be Atari and AMD based.  ?

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2 hours ago, ilmenit said:

This would require coding almost 3 separate games and making each part fun on its own - hard task and rarely works. 

For sure, but it isn't like there are not examples of fun versions of each qlready out there.  It is good as it means it won't be 100% repetitive.

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On 10/21/2021 at 8:50 PM, leech said:

Sadly my coding skills at the moment are no where near good enough to do this... but I have this cool idea for something, if someone wants to pick it up, have at it!

You run a sandwich shop.  So you have to make sandwiches and then deliver them.

Part One: This could be getting the ingredients, and you need to go through mazes (shops) to pick them up.  Not sure about how fun this bit could be, maybe something like beserk where you have to dodge other shoppers to get the goods.

Part Two: Orders come in for different sandwich types.  (With Fujinet you could even make this a multiplayer component...) and you have to play similar to Kaboom, grab the ingredients in the sandwich and they drop down onto your 'hand', but don't get the wrong ones, you'll get penalized.

Part Three: Delivery.  This can come in two parts.  Car racing, and dodging random things in peoples yards.

 

This seems perfectly suited to an Atari 8bit game.  It has I think just the right level of variety and complexity that would be perfect!  Doesn't need really good graphics and is the right level of 'goofy'.  Thoughts?

Maybe as an added dimension-  for the shopping part you have to try to buy the right level of ingredients..   not so much that it ends up spoiling after a few days and not so little that you can't fulfill customer orders (making customers angry and lowering your reputation).   Maybe there's a limited amount of ingredient storage space too that is upgradable as your business grows?

 

I recently been looking on coding my first 8-bit game since the 80s,  but my recent attempt has been producing unexpected results so now I'm not sure if I'm up to take on something like this right now.

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2 hours ago, ggn said:

No idea why this thread reminded me of this one 

 but it did...

"Programmers already have more ideas than they know what to do with" That's not always the case.  There's always the 'writer's block' thing.  In fact there are a lot of coders out there that their full time jobs are basically being told what needs to be coded.  While this is clearly not the way homebrew works, as coders need to really want to be working on whatever they want to work on. 

 

A good example is after some coders work for years on their hobby project, and then it comes to an end.  Do they pick up some other idea, or take a well deserved vacation?  Most who really love to code would enjoy having some ideas they could play with.  I wasn't asking for coders, I was just giving out a free idea someone could run with if they didn't have an idea.  It's all about the intent, vs me saying 'hey coders, work on this!'  I was saying 'here's an idea if someone doesn't have one.'

 

I'd code it my damned self if I had the time to dedicate to learning how to code.  Been trying to slice out time to do so for years...

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37 minutes ago, leech said:

"Programmers already have more ideas than they know what to do with" That's not always the case.  There's always the 'writer's block' thing.  In fact there are a lot of coders out there that their full time jobs are basically being told what needs to be coded.  While this is clearly not the way homebrew works, as coders need to really want to be working on whatever they want to work on. 

 

A good example is after some coders work for years on their hobby project, and then it comes to an end.  Do they pick up some other idea, or take a well deserved vacation?  Most who really love to code would enjoy having some ideas they could play with.  I wasn't asking for coders, I was just giving out a free idea someone could run with if they didn't have an idea.  It's all about the intent, vs me saying 'hey coders, work on this!'  I was saying 'here's an idea if someone doesn't have one.'

 

I'd code it my damned self if I had the time to dedicate to learning how to code.  Been trying to slice out time to do so for years...

Yeah I was really into coding games.   Problem isn't necessarily coming up with the ideas,  but finding ideas with the right "scope".   It has to be interesting enough to be worth doing, but not too crazy that I will never finish it.

 

I had a pet RPG project that I worked on for many years.   It was similar to Ultima.    But I had lots of ideas how I would do it better (changes of seasons, smarter NPCs,  a better combat system and  have spells that could do anything and require basically their own programming language)  it got to the point were the project became too overwhelming.   Plus progress is always slower than you anticipate.  Some days I just don't feel like working on it, other days I get sidetracked by some bug or issue I didn't expect.     I did eventually abandon it and that shook my confidence that I could actually finish something I started.   Although I did complete a few games since then..    It's one thing if you do it for work and another if you do it as a hobby. 

 

So I do find getting ideas from others might be useful to help define the scope for someone like me who finds it too easy to generate half-baked ideas

 

you: "why are there volcanic eruptions in my Sandwich Shop simulator game? I never asked for that!"

me: "uh, well I thought it might make it more realistic?"     ?

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28 minutes ago, zzip said:

Yeah I was really into coding games.   Problem isn't necessarily coming up with the ideas,  but finding ideas with the right "scope".   It has to be interesting enough to be worth doing, but not too crazy that I will never finish it.

 

I had a pet RPG project that I worked on for many years.   It was similar to Ultima.    But I had lots of ideas how I would do it better (changes of seasons, smarter NPCs,  a better combat system and  have spells that could do anything and require basically their own programming language)  it got to the point were the project became too overwhelming.   Plus progress is always slower than you anticipate.  Some days I just don't feel like working on it, other days I get sidetracked by some bug or issue I didn't expect.     I did eventually abandon it and that shook my confidence that I could actually finish something I started.   Although I did complete a few games since then..    It's one thing if you do it for work and another if you do it as a hobby. 

 

So I do find getting ideas from others might be useful to help define the scope for someone like me who finds it too easy to generate half-baked ideas

 

you: "why are there volcanic eruptions in my Sandwich Shop simulator game? I never asked for that!"

me: "uh, well I thought it might make it more realistic?"     ?

Ha, for sure!  That is why I thought this idea was pretty good, as it doesn't really have a lot of out of scope things that can be pulled in.  Just has some variation to string together, and nothing the Atari couldn't do very well!

Feature creep is the death of any project.  Cool thing about this idea is it can be released in phases for testing each level. 

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38 minutes ago, zzip said:

you: "why are there volcanic eruptions in my Sandwich Shop simulator game? I never asked for that!"

me: "uh, well I thought it might make it more realistic?"     ?

Volcanic eruption = Too much hot sauce in the sandwich? :)  Reminds me of https://theoddbodsshow.fandom.com/wiki/Hotheads . Sounds like a fun idea for a game in any case.

 

I do think there is a lot of value in throwing around ideas. As pointed out above, they are especially valuable when they are more than half baked and also realistic for the time and resource constraints. That is essentially the role of a game designer, which is a job on its own for a good reason.

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12 minutes ago, RSA said:

Volcanic eruption = Too much hot sauce in the sandwich? :)  Reminds me of https://theoddbodsshow.fandom.com/wiki/Hotheads . Sounds like a fun idea for a game in any case.

 

I do think there is a lot of value in throwing around ideas. As pointed out above, they are especially valuable when they are more than half baked and also realistic for the time and resource constraints. That is essentially the role of a game designer, which is a job on its own for a good reason.

Ha, that should open a secret level.  Dump too much Sriracha Sauce on the sandwich and you get attacked by angry customers...  Or put on too much Bacon and get attacked by angry Vegans.

 

There definitely is different levels to creating a game.  It isn't always the coders that make all the plans.  For hobby projects of course you can't just tell other people what you want and expect them to set aside time to make something just for you.  But having the design of the game all planned out, so the coders just need to only think about implementation is definitely a useful bit of getting any sort of software to become a thing that users can then use.

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2 hours ago, leech said:

"Programmers already have more ideas than they know what to do with" That's not always the case.

Yes, yes it is. We all have way more ideas than time.

2 hours ago, leech said:

There's always the 'writer's block' thing.  In fact there are a lot of coders out there that their full time jobs are basically being told what needs to be coded.  While this is clearly not the way homebrew works, as coders need to really want to be working on whatever they want to work on. 

Nope, you're confusing it with "lack of motivation". One has to be in the right mindset to realise an idea. Third parties shoving ideas on people's minds.... might probably get them interested for a bit but then if they really don't believe in the idea, they'll just forget about it.

 

Which is another point the linked thread emphasises (and you chose to ignore): If you want to sell your idea to someone who is going to put in tens hours to realise it..... you'll have to do much more than a 5-line text description.

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2 minutes ago, ggn said:

Yes, yes it is. We all have way more ideas than time.

Nope, you're confusing it with "lack of motivation". One has to be in the right mindset to realise an idea. Third parties shoving ideas on people's minds.... might probably get them interested for a bit but then if they really don't believe in the idea, they'll just forget about it.

 

Which is another point the linked thread emphasises (and you chose to ignore): If you want to sell your idea to someone who is going to put in tens hours to realise it..... you'll have to do much more than a 5-line text description.

I didn't choose to ignore it, I just didn't read it.  :P 

 

I didn't post the idea to start an argument.  I literally ordered a sandwich from Jimmy John's and thought it'd be a fun idea for a game that quite easily fits into the style of gaming the Atari 8bit was known for, but like multiple games into one so it doesn't get repetitive, which was the problem with a huge amount of the software library.  Sure they were great for firing up and just playing some quick games until you die so many times you want to throw a controller at the screen (back in the day of course, the screens could take it, now they'd just shatter like so many dreams.). 

 

The thing is, I'm 100% willing to pick up coding and do it myself.  Problem is just getting time to do so, as I have so many other hobbies and work getting in the way.  A good example is the LED replacements for the Mega STe/TT030.  Someone else was working on that idea, and for a while I went with it and built up a bunch of LEDs and 3d printed new holders for them and sent them off to people.  I even designed a replacement part for the HD LED holder.  This was still an idea / request someone else made. 

 

I did buy a physical copy of Atari Assembler, and I have a copy of De Re Atari as well.  I just don't have personal time to absorb it well enough to start writing code.  When I retire, sure.  But that's another 20~ years...

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2 hours ago, leech said:

Feature creep is the death of any project.  Cool thing about this idea is it can be released in phases for testing each level. 

That's true these days-  you can push updates even to 8-bit homebrews

 

1 hour ago, leech said:

Ha, that should open a secret level.  Dump too much Sriracha Sauce on the sandwich and you get attacked by angry customers...  Or put on too much Bacon and get attacked by angry Vegans.

A lot of cooking/restaurant simulators have zero tolerance to you screwing up an order.   I think in real life people are more willing to look past small errors so I like the idea of customers giving a little leeway.   Maybe several levels of customer anger--

 

  level 1:  let it slide (this time)   2: give you 2 stars on "Yelp". lowering your restaurant rating (which affects how busy you get)   3:  come back and throw the sandwich in your face.

 

58 minutes ago, leech said:

I did buy a physical copy of Atari Assembler, and I have a copy of De Re Atari as well.  I just don't have personal time to absorb it well enough to start writing code.  When I retire, sure.  But that's another 20~ years...

I'm considering working on the game logic with crude graphics to start.  I found I have better luck completing games when I do the logic first then build the real graphics on top of that since the graphical part is far more time consuming

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41 minutes ago, zzip said:

That's true these days-  you can push updates even to 8-bit homebrews

 

A lot of cooking/restaurant simulators have zero tolerance to you screwing up an order.   I think in real life people are more willing to look past small errors so I like the idea of customers giving a little leeway.   Maybe several levels of customer anger--

 

  level 1:  let it slide (this time)   2: give you 2 stars on "Yelp". lowering your restaurant rating (which affects how busy you get)   3:  come back and throw the sandwich in your face.

 

I'm considering working on the game logic with crude graphics to start.  I found I have better luck completing games when I do the logic first then build the real graphics on top of that since the graphical part is far more time consuming

Agreed on all of this!  For sure getting the logic working out right, and the game balance so that it's challenging / fun would be best to get right first.  Graphics, I'm terrible with.  Only thing I can draw are boobs.  :P

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