Hey guys, if you have got a minute, we would love your input on two things , - Which characters have you found to be the most entertaining in other similar sandbox style shoot+drives? Do you guys enjoy, for example, the tongue in cheek approach of Grand Theft Auto 3 or the more gritty approach of LA. Noir, etc? Do you like the balance of characters types in games like Saints Row? Which were the most memorable characters from these games and why? - Which are the most entertaining 'areas' to explore in sandbox drive+shoot games? As you have seen, we have been mocking up canyon, dockyard, city, etc type areas, but would you like to, for example, explore a nasa-type space station? Or would you like to explore more airport, army bases, etc? One of the cool things about San Andreas was the wilderness in the bottom left of the map, did you enjoy this mix of city and landscape? Or would you prefer city-only environment, like in the original Car Jack Streets? Finally, this might look like a bad thing (but if you know a little bit about game's development, you'll know this is a very good thing because it means a lot of the work is out of the way) here is one of our designer's reference walls which they put up yesterday: (of course, I had to edit the picture a lot so that we don't give too much away! )
I find gritty characters to be more memorable. As for landscape I would love a mix of city and wilderness. Exploring an airport would be great. What cities are the cities in the game modeled after? Also I would love to have airplanes in the game and multiplayer for sure. How far off would you say we are from release day? Hey, this migh be weird but if the game is in third person I'd love an observation deck like the one in gta iv.
I would definitely like to see a 50/50 split between towns/cities and wilderness. Maybe some weird stuff thrown in for good measure like an alien crash site with critters for example.
I really liked the humorous approach in GTA3, but I think that GTA4 had the perfect balance of seriousness and humour. And I TBH, I really prefer a city or town environment to a wilderness environment. Because to me, the wilderness just feels...empty. Unless there's a good reason of going out there (hunting, searching for surprises, etc) then I never go to wilderness environments.
There is one particular American city which keeps coming up in conversation, but I will leave you to guess which one that is . Don't worry, it hasn't been done before! Having an Alien Crash Site (maybe a secret, not put on the map? Or surrounded by a fence and army guys you have to sneak past?) would be really cool! It would also be a good way to spice up a wilderness environment. One of the ideas we are batting about to make wilderness areas more interesting is having comic-based quests. Comics could be found, bought or even traded in the game (sorta like the books in Skyrim), or read on our communities, and they would tell little mini stories. So, for example, one comic could tell the tale of a bunch of gangsters making a farce of burying a 'hit' in the desert, the player could then go to the location using clues in the comic and receive a reward. That's just one of many many ideas though. I agree that in San Andreas I only really entered the wilderness areas in order to complete missions (most of my time was spent in the city being a bad a** on my FCR-900 ), so giving inherent value to any wilderness areas included in the game is a necessity. If you could have a tv show or tv show characters parodied into a sandbox drive+shoot, who would they be? We appreciate all the feedback guys, it is helping us a lot, so keep it coming please !
I really liked the crazy characters in Saints Row The Third. With your art style I think doing serious characters will be a real challenge. There doesn't seem to be much grit. Besides I like the craziness more then the realism.
Regarding the wilderness areas, in SA I spent most of my time there. I don't like the city areas much at all because every other game has done them to death. I think there is a ton of stuff you could include to spice up the rural areas: Bigfoot hunting, clay pigeon shooting, viral/zombie outbreak on a farm, WW II plane or bomb discovery with secret documents also being tracked by Russian spies, a corrupt sherif terrorizing the locals in a tiny village, an escaped Tiger near to a populated area, dodgy farmers contaminating the water board with pollution. Just some things to think about perhaps? So to sum up, the more wilderness the better in my eyes.
My money is on Cheyenne, Wyoming. America's finest city! Who hasn't wanted to play a GTA-like game there? Spoiler A better question is who even knows that city exists.
Agreed, with the CJS2 style we've seen thus far seriousness just seems out of reach. Go for over the top characters. Vice city nailed that best in my opinion though. On the wildnerness I would say maybe. 1 of the reasons that it works in San Andreas is that it links the 3 cities more realistically. It took ages to drive from 1 to another. I'm not sure how well it would work with just 1 city, if that is what CJS2 has. But yeah spicing it up as suggested sounds good.
The comic book idea sounds great. I can't stress to you enough that there needs to be Multiplayer. You would be the first open world crime game on ios to include single and multiplayer. And like I stated before I would love a tall building with an observation deck your guy could go to. Possibly a photography mini game of the city from the observation deck?
Yes a landscape with variety leaves the game fresh and fun I would LOVE to go to a desert type place and find something like an area 51 and be able to explore it and secret vehicles or secret weapons hidden there would be nice since area 51 is known for its secrecy maybe like a sci-fi gun hidden in the base of area 51 would be nice
No doubt this game looks amazing. Is there any way you can update us release date? Are we likely to see it in Q2 or more likely Q3? Or alternatively how complete is it % wise? A rough idea would be great.
Wow, blown away by all the responses.! Let me address each of you in turn in my the next reply underneath .
Yes, I actually agree, the artistic style is very clean and may not lend itself as well to gritty characters as we may want it to. Either that or the contrast will make gritty characters more memorable, if not believable. I want more crazyness too . These are all awesome ideas Bluewomble. It is curious that you spent a lot of time in the wilderness in SA, as I noted I only went there to get missions done, but I guess this highlights the fact that CJS2 should be as balanced as possible so that everyone loves it! Ha, I must admit, being Scottish, I had to Google to get Cheyenne's exact location sussed - I had heard of it though! Or maybe I was thinking of Cheyenne Kimball, hmmmmm . Think more southern though . Given the modular design of CJS2 (where we can add new map elements and update user maps at will) it probably will be the case that if there isn't a multi-city environment with bridges/wilderness in between on launch, there will be very soon after. I cannot confirm this however, so don't quote me, but looking at our design wall and having been to a number of CJS2 design meetings, that is the feel I get . We are just curious as to what balance would you guys prefer, heavily urbanised, or more 'woody' with patches of subtle urbanisation, or a balance. Inb4 "BAZINGA" The issue with multiplayer is that what constitutes an 'acceptable' mulitplayer mode may not be possible. Currently serious talks have surrounded asynchronous multiplayer modes, but whether there will be a 'true synchronous multiplayer mode' is something I cannot say and certainly cannot promise. I agree though, it would be awesome and would make the game stand out a crazy amount. How does this sound though: You develop your character into a 'tank' class and get him into a beasting gang with your friends, then, in your game, you realise you need a sniper type character for a mission (something you just suck at), so you 'hire' one of your gang friends' characters into your game to help you on that mission. Your friend isn't 'actually' playing, but his character is there playing with you under you instructions and under AI? Or maybe you could swap characters, like in Rainbow 6? Large scale beta testing is very very difficult on iOS because Apple limit the amount of UDIDs a developer can allow use of unreleased games. As we develop a tonne of games for big international clients most of our UDID slots are taken up (they have tonnes of devices they want to preview games on) meaning a true 'non release beta stage' is impossible. However, there will be a softlaunch period in select territories . There will definitely be a desert area and desert map segments have and are already being drawn up, so because of you guys, there might just be an area 51 . It's certainly a suggestion that is going right to the designers. I like the idea of a SciFi gun. Did you ever play the game Vigelante 8? That game had a tonne of wacky SciFi guns which you got on the Area 51 level. They didn't last long, but they were SWEET! At the moment I cannot give a date, and on the basis of previous experience, it's probably best that we keep mouths a little shut for now. Don't worry, it's coming and when I have an absolute definite release date, as in, the big boss man has said, the game is launching on THIS day, you will know .
Denver, Colorado with parts of New Mexico? Las Vegas/Nevade Area been done before. As for the multiplayer is there a way just to do online races/death matches through a certain area?
The location is dallas! Look at the top picture. In the top area of that you see the Dallas skyline! It also has forests and desert nearby so it's a good location!
