Making a game, need some thoughts.

[Pepper]

So I've come to the decision to make a game with possibly a few others. I'm really enjoying the free version of Unity, great marketing move there by them to make the feature packed "basic" version a giveaway.

before you say anything, I know better than to use resources from other games, I am an avid 3d modeler and texture artist.. not a very good one, but its better to be crappy then to be sued.

anyways, I wanted some input on the base idea i have for it. a top down (top down-ish, It'll be 3d) arcade like physics puzzle based shooter. (not like halflife2 in the slightest, read on) the basic premise is about how bullets interact with materials, metal ricochets bullets back at an angle, good for hitting enemies behind cover, but dangerous to you too. wood allows bullets through, and breaks eventually with enough rounds. glass sprays glass shards when shot, that can act like shrapnel and hurt enemies, etc. the physics are "action hero" style aka "hollywood" style, enemies are thrown back by bigger guns too. now heres where the "not like half life 2" part kinda falls out. I wanted to use these material interactions to make puzzles in certain areas, not ones that block your progress, but ones that allow for bigger damage and explosions and etc. this might require more precision aim, ie fps view. although the fact thats its top down and you can switch to fps just screams metal gear solid to me. (mgs2, mainly) I guess I'm just afraid my idea isnt unique, and if so, are there any areas that could be improved?

thanks for your time.

[lionheartuk]

Personally, unless your a programmer or are a NON programmer that can make a solid design document, then this wont get finished, if started.

Its nice to see someone who is willing to make their own work and not borrow it from someone else.

The idea of 3rd person changing to 1st is older then MGS is, a lot of games do it, hell...even Tomb Raider does it, so there are no worries there.

And honestly don't worry about something being similar to another game, look at halo for example...ITS SUPER FAMOUS and APPARENTLY super original in EVERYTHING...when in fact the only differences between Halo and any other FPS, is the super high jumps, the story and a few of the weapons, that's it...halo is not original, Half Life didn't invent a lot of things either, BUT it did bring them to a larger audience and it did them very well.

I think the idea sounds doable, it sounds as-if its best to start off with the ricochet bullets at 1st, as even a game relying on that alone isn't a bad idea, you could make some fantastic puzzles with it, even control the bullet (this is a bit hit and miss though), start off with that feature and if that works go up from there, most of the physics puzzles wont need to much due to unity having its own physics engine, so you'd just be using that a fair bit, possibly with some edits.