Game Theme Survey: Rome or Fantasy?

[Godzilla Blitz]

I’m messing around with creating a gladiator/fighter text sim and have a general question for people as to a preferred game world. Thematically, I’m not sure whether to loosely set the game world in ancient Rome or in more of a fantasy setting, something along the lines of Conan’s Hyborian Age.

Basically, the game—if it ever gets finished—will allow you to manage a stable of fighters, train them, and enter them in matches. You win cash, improve their armor and weapons, and enter in tournaments of greater challenge. Conceptually, I’m thinking of Coliseum, but with a heavier tilt towards hardcore text sims like Front Office Football, Fast Break College Basketball, Championship Manager, and Out of the Park Baseball, etc. Monster Rancher’s tournament organization and fighting tactics are also providing some inspiration.

In case in helps, I’m not planning on incorporating magic into the combat system in any significant way. Also, if I went with the Roman theme, I wouldn’t tie the game closely to historical accuracy: gladiators died too frequently to make any long-term fighter management interesting.

In short: would you be more interested in a game that is set in ancient Rome or in a fictional world? Would it matter? Is there some other setting that would be more interesting for you?

Thanks in advance for the input!

More details on the project are available in this FOFC thread.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Ancient Rome, by a fairly narrow margin.

[Bee]

I think either would be very entertaining, but I think one "loosely" based on Ancient Rome would be better.

Edit: eek....I agree with Jon...I may need to reconsider.

[Danny]

You're working on the same type of game I am looking at Godzilla except mine will be set in a sci-fi world.

My personal preference is a fantasy setting, perhaps based on something like LOTR where you have Humans, Orcs, Elves, etc...

[CamEdwards]

Rome (if you want to).

[Celeval]

Configurable.

[Raven Hawk]

All of the above.

Make it so that players can train humans, elves, dwarves, lions, tigers, ninja war elephants, the Kraken, etc . . .

But if you want to concentrate only on humanoids, I would go with the Rome theme.

[Kodos]

Release ... THE KRAKEN!!!

[NevStar]

Just make "robe & wizard hat" an equippable item.

[rkmsuf]

how about a Fantasy Rome

[albionmoonlight]

Rome.

It's going to be hard enough creating the game from scratch. Make it easy on yourself and don't try to create the whole world in which the game operates from scratch, too.

[Honolulu_Blue]

Fantasy!

[Franklinnoble]

Why not make it a cricket fighting sim?

[rkmsuf]

Originally Posted by Franklinnoble

Why not make it a cricket fighting sim?

someone in Hong Kong is way ahead of you. It will be out on PS2 in a matter of days.

[Franklinnoble]

Originally Posted by rkmsuf

someone in Hong Kong is way ahead of you. It will be out on PS2 in a matter of days.

No, I mean a text-based sim, not just some mod pack for Virtua Fighter 4...

[Danny]

Originally Posted by albionmoonlight

Rome.

It's going to be hard enough creating the game from scratch. Make it easy on yourself and don't try to create the whole world in which the game operates from scratch, too.

That's some of the main fun IMO. It also greatly reduces the need to make something conform to the users pre conceived notions about Rome.

[jfbbis]

A cyberpunk world with fighting androids would be nice too But to stick to the proposals, I would say fantasy. It would allow more variety in opponents.

[Godzilla Blitz]

Thanks for all the feedback! Great ideas, too. Well, I’m not so sure about the cockroach idea. I’ll save that one for the second version of the game.

Celeval’s “configurable” idea, combined with rmskuf’s “Fantasy Rome”, influenced by Albionmoonlight’s “go easy on yourself”, and the mix of people siding with Fantasy and Rome all have pushed me towards this...

I think I’ll loosely base the game on ancient Rome at first and use only human fighters, as this is easiest for me to do (“easy” is critical) and gives the gamer a solid frame of reference to work from. If I ever can get that working, I'll add in an option for a “Fantasy Rome” that allows the gamer to fight against and/or train other fighter types like elves, orcs, animals, etc. It should be relatively easy to change the game background screens, and if I can get the game system working adding different races should be possible.

Once again, thank you very much.

[Sharpieman]

Theres too many fantasy games out there, they aren't tangible, you can't relate because its stuff that is too foriegn. Go with Rome, it's cooler, everyone still loves the movies and history of it.

[Draft Dodger]

Originally Posted by CamEdwards

Rome (if you want to).

ugh.