Beastie Baiting

[aerosuidae]

Guys, anyone know of games out there with something like the following theme?

"Beastie Baiting", MMORPG and PBBG, (idea comes from a Peter F. Hamilton SF novel, in case anyone is interested)

Think of this as a cross between an RPG, a pet game, and a mafia/prison game.

Game centers around creating, enhancing, and fighting your genetically engineered animals in clandestine matches. Over time and matches, your beast levels up and gets further enhanced. The overall aim is to fight your beast to the top of the tournament ladder by any means necessary, fair or foul.

Fair means:

- Winning a match rewards you with in-game currency prizes, as well as experience/skill/hit points.
- Spend your winnings (or real money) to enhance your beast genetically or artificially (within limits).
- Increase experience/skill/hit points to take on higher ranked opponents.

Foul means:

- Sabotage other teams' beasts or equipment (random events offer you time limited opportunities for this).
- Lean on other teams to take a fall in fixed matches for a share of the match earnings (and massive points/reputaion penalties if you're caught at it).

People can play solo or in small teams, as:

- Pilot, controlling their beast in the fights (probably turn based combat in matches).
- Medic, controlling and/or choosing beast genetic or artifical enhancements.
- Manager, organizing fights with other beast teams based on your experience/skill/hit points.
- Roadie, team security and general tasks assigned by the manager.
- Investor, sponsor or financial backer of the team taking a profit margin from each match.

Perhaps people can also play as:

- Match Hosts, build your pit/tavern/club up as a premier fight spot.
- Bookies, watch the managers talking and the teams' reputations, and take bets using in-game currency.
- Punters, bet on teams when you're short of currency for your own beast, or just because you like it.
- Spies, infiltrate teams (probably as Roadies?) and steal information on beast enhancments/vulnerabilities.

Beasts start off as a basic animal model. Different animals would have different intelligence/strength/stamina/size/speed/upkeep ratings, etc. Bear, dog, cat, snake, bird, dinosaur, etc. Beast enhancements can be almost anything. Genetic enhancements, PSI control, reinforced bones/skin/horns, multiple hearts/brains/spines, extreme strength/stamina/speed. Armour is allowed. Weapons not physically or biologically part of the beast are NOT allowed.

Game is monetized through in game currency purchases, and/or an upgrade path to a members only tournament with extra beast models and enhancements.

Just playing with ideas here, so please feel free to throw in your thoughts or critique.  What do you think?

[Chris]

The biggest problem is that Pokemon/Digimon is copyrighted, so it is troublesome/dangerous to use these. The players that like this type of games will google for "pokemon game" (or whatever it is the currently most famous serie called). By not using the proper brand you will lose a huge portion of the market. You could say you want players that do not watch these, but why people who don't like Pokemon serie liked a game about beasts tournaments? Quite unlikely...

People can play solo or in small teams, as:
- Pilot, controlling their beast in the fights (probably turn based combat in matches).
- Medic, controlling and/or choosing beast genetic or artifical enhancements.
- Manager, organizing fights with other beast teams based on your experience/skill/hit points.
- Roadie, team security and general tasks assigned by the manager.
- Investor, sponsor or financial backer of the team taking a profit margin from each match.

It means making 5 separate and completely different games and an average player will see no more than 1/5 of the game content. It is a suicide from developer's point of view.

[aerosuidae]

The biggest problem is that Pokemon/Digimon is copyrighted, so it is troublesome/dangerous to use these.

Fair points, thanks, Chris.  I'm not thinking of using Pokemon (though obviously the idea is similar the way every game is similar to something or other )  I agree the code would be complex to have all the different character roles.

As for the theme, I'm thinking of something more brutal, raw, and weirdly biological. Less "Pokemon" and more "Island of Dr Moreau". A dark and shadowy underworld with heavily modified beasts like those on Pandora in the Avatar movie.

The art work could be expensive 

[Chris]

Yes, more dark theme would be probably better.

Or you could make mecha tournament game. Rather big audience (at least definitely bigger than dark beasts tournament genre) and easy to promote (target "mecha game" keywords and you should acquire players since there are no big "mecha" anime series right now to my knowledge, so general keyword would be sufficient).

[Shrapnel]

Yes, more dark theme would be probably better.

Or you could make mecha tournament game. Rather big audience (at least definitely bigger than dark beasts tournament genre) and easy to promote (target "mecha game" keywords and you should acquire players since there are no big "mecha" anime series right now to my knowledge, so general keyword would be sufficient).

I'm a big Battletech fan, so I'd love a PBBG mecha style game that closely resembles the Battletech gaming system.  If for whatever reason you decide to go that route in your game, aerosuidae, I'd appreciate if you keep me updated on your progress.

[Harkins]

As for the theme, I'm thinking of something more brutal, raw, and weirdly biological. Less "Pokemon" and more "Island of Dr Moreau". A dark and shadowy underworld with heavily modified beasts like those on Pandora in the Avatar movie.

Keep a lighter theme and you'll have double your playerbase by attracting female players.

[jannesiera]

What comes to my mind is experimenting with AI to create some interesting breeding / mutating options. It's not an easy topic so creating it would cost a lot of time and effort but it might be worth looking into.

Has anybody seen the Full Metal Alchemist anime? The most emotional part in the series to me was when some nice guy studying chimeras created a chimera of his daughter and his dog. It was unexpected and sick.