Worklog for Glenny-boy

Co-operative FPS

Why co-op?

(Posted 2008-03-21)

Yes, it's that time of year again. Summer is coming, and I've come up with more ideas. Following past form, I'll likely do all the hard parts and then stop once things get boring in the programming department.

Nevertheless, for the time being, I'm working on a specifically co-operative First Person Shooter. I know what you're thinking: give a monkey a game development language, and he'll write a poor FPS. Which is why I've always steered clear of them. The amateur scene is full of examples of why not to even try.

I've always known that I don't know what really makes a good FPS, and that I could never match up to the best examples. It's a crowded genre, and you have to be at the top of your game with a big team behind you to produce something worth the time.

Co-operative games, on the other hand, are a little less regular. Having played an awful lot of Terrorist Hunt on Rainbow Six: Vegas, I've gotten a great feel for what I enjoy about that game, and what I don't.

So, I've been thinking of ways to enhance that sort of gameplay, such as mixing up the roles a little more. Maybe one player is in a surveillance drone, and can spot for other players. Or there's more of a commander role such as in Battlefield 2.

My thinking is that multiplayer games are fun, but there are advantages to single player games. In single player, I am enjoying an experience that has been carefully crafted from start to finished. In multiplayer, my enjoyment is entirely at the whim of the legions of players who are better than me, but it's a more social experience.

Co-operative play has the best qualities of both multi- and single- player. It's social, but myself and a group of friends can play through at our own pace, talking and kidding around at the same time we shout instructions at each other. If we lose, we lose together, and try again together.

This time, I have an artist working on the 3d models for me, so hopefully this project will be more of a team effort. In the meantime, I've got a simple multiplayer TCP environment working, and right now I'm working on switching over some of that to UDP, and making it a little lest host-centric. I hope to bring screenshots to the party next time.

Till then.

Seeya, folks!