Anyone else wish that a new game would be made using animorphs? I played the old ones for game boy and psx, but I would really like a game where you could actually get all the morphs you want. Its one thing to read it, and i always thought that the show was cheesey, not to mention that so much more could have been done with it, and the effects were cheap. But I would like to play the game where you could go and pick your morphs and they all have different abilities... Like a open RPG game. Any thoughts on this?
Yeah,
senter.pat, the way games are being done now days (I too am thinking GTA-style and those first person shooters), the amount of detail and game play is astonishing in comparison to the old Animorphs game, which left so much to ask for.
If only the series would pick up again, or if a movie indeed is made, then we Anifans can be CERTAIN a new game will come up.
I'm planning on going into the game industry, so if there's no big Animorphs game in the near future, I definitely would work towards making one a reality sometime in the long-term future.
Someone commented about the series' fan base being too limited at this point for it to be feasible. That's not really the case. The original fan base is no longer entirely relevant. A big-budget Animorphs game would absolutely be designed to draw in a new audience unfamiliar with the books, not just the kids from the 90s. So the target audience could fairly easily be nudged up a bit from the middle school level, as long as it stays within certain parameters. Sequels are huge in the game industry, so the pitch for the initial game should absolutely make a point of showing that the series has huge potential for sequels and side games (Chronicles) if it's successful.
I'm not into MMORPGS, so I'd prefer making a single-player, maybe cooperative multiplayer action-adventure game. The story and its themes are very important to me. The books don't need to be directly translated of course, but I would be committed to preserving the fundamentals and key points of the story.
Morality issues seem like they could be interesting to work with. First of all, straight up good vs. evil choices would be totally out-of-place here. They're overused in gaming, they're boring as hell, people don't approach them as they would real life decisions, they're unrealistic, and on top of all that they betray a major thesis of the Animorphs story, which is that "You don't get a lot of straight-up good vs. evil choices. You get shades of gray." (Book 53)
The big moral question of the Animorphs story is "How far into savagery do you descend to defeat the savages?" (Book 17) The gameplay mechanics should be designed with that question in mind. How do we let the player explore and feel the ramifications of that question? Not, "Hey player, do you want to make the good choice or the evil choice?"
"How far into savagery do you descend to defeat the savages?" This is a great game concept,
Hylian Dan.
With your talent and already made stuff, you oughta thing about keeping an eye out for this thing, because we all know this is potentially good material to have a good new game in the making. You would do real well, man!
Personally, I would love an Animorphs game that was more directed at an older audience, emphasizing the 'conspiracy' concept of the series. Or something new that wasn't done in the book series, but still following the storyline. Like a new plot that could have been inserted somewhere in the series, but not a repeat, you know.
Scratching completely the platform game type. Making it an RPG-like single-player thing where you get the false-impression of making free choices throughout the story. Think
MaxPayne or the
Assassins Creed and so on.
One could make their own character and selectively pick animals and through morphing changing the style of the perspectives. Though I do think there should be some sort of a limit thing, or it will undesirably end up like some
Pokemon gotta catch them all thing.
So one would pick ONE wild animal as their battle morph, like the Anis had mostly throughout the series. The other animals like the birds, the insects and other smaller ones would be freely acquired.
A bunch of player COULD MAKE A TEAM on an online or a LAN game thing.
Then of course comes the different environments. Any of you played that
Deadly Creatures game?!
It has some brilliant scenes, of the miniature scapes where the animals fight in. Sensational!
...it would be cool if you gain points for accomplishments and stuff, and then those points can be used to buy new morphs, like you go to the zoo and theres a menu of different morphs for different prices
So certain missions involve getting staple morphs like bird of prey, dolphin, bug etc. So the gameplay will give you the morphs you absolutely need, but then if you want better morphs they'll cost you. Like you go through a mission to get a red-tailed hawk as your basic bird morph, and then you can buy a peregrin falcon for speed or an eagle for power and you get a dolphin but then you can buy a shark. And maybe for battle morphs you start with a wolf and buy more powerful or different morphs.
It would also be cool if you could level up your morphs, so if you use the same battle morph throughout it will get progressively stronger and you'll learn new moves and stuff...
The health thing would have to be regained via morphing or demorphing, in order to be realistic with the series. Like, NOT HAVE any chocolate health bars or whatever for raising health.
Earning points in mission and all is a great idea for augmenting the resistance and strength levels in the morphs, though I am not sure about the 'cost' thing. But the 'missions to get greater morphs' is sound.
...yea this game could be absurdly cool lol
Yeah, dude! But just the stupendous amount of programming and work behind such a thing is seriously challenging!!!
what kind of like mini quests or stuff do you think it could have? like gta has gang wars and stuff like that thats extra gameplay outside the main story. Maybe you could have like busting up sharing meetings, free hork bajir and bringing them to the valley, and maybe you'll just come across a random stereotypical yeerk plot to stop right then and there, like logging in the forest or something. Cause the key to a good sandbox is replayability and being able to just run around the world doing stuff without having to play the story
These are great ideas.
I think being 'Sharing'-related and starting off 'quietly' and 'avoiding detection' type missions that inevitably turn into battle situations sound excellent. Maybe even have them doing missions with The Chee.
There needs to be one with a smart new way of infiltrating the Yeerk pool. A battle in the Yeerk Pool DEFINITELY needs to be featured.
And let's not forget Visser Three's monstrous morphs. He would def have to be the big boss at the end of world stages.
I dunno, I'd be pretty pissed if I came across a rare morph only to see "You can't acquire that, yet!". I mean, that's like coming across a rare Pokemon, and noticing that you have no Pokeballs left. MAJOR annoyance.
The characters never had any limits on what they could morph. If they can manage to get close to it, then they can acquire it. Simple as that. The way you stop people from going on acquiring sprees is to make the animals harder to approach.
And, as has been suggested, have the morphs level instead of the characters. That way, it'll still encourage people to use their "main" morphs, and the rest of them will just be for fun.
Thats why i said, in order to limit the morphs, use leveling as you said, and then id use the gardens and cassies barn for morphs, maybe you can help cassie find wounded animals as a minigame to get new local morphs, and something else to get more at the gardens. maybe more as you level or progress through the story line.
I was thinking about the leveling and it seems that the main char should have some stats that control skills, such as aquatic morphs or aerial, or if you could use weapons leveling those skills to upgrade damage and accuracy. and then your individual morphs could level things like agility or strength or speed.
I would use Cassie as the animal expert that she was and have each level start at the barn or the Gardens or something, with her dictating the morphs your player should acquire. Any new morphs to pick up during the mission, should just be deliberatly directed during the gameplay. Like, the player shouldn't have the freedom to see an ant in the eagle laser-vision and go 'Oh! I feel like acquiring that!'... It would just be too complicated to have that.
I would scratch the weapons idea. Though the alien tech is a big gimmick in the series, guns and that were never really a part of the Animorphs philosophy. It was in VERY FEW occasions the Anis made use of the Dracon beams and such. The thing that made the Anis so great is their melee stuff. The bad guys always had the long-range destructive weapons. Up close and personal in their battle morphs, the Anis had their fair match.
