Working on a Fan Game. Maybe.

Buckle up fellas, this is gonna be a long one.
Pre post tl;dr: I’m inexperienced but want to make a bionicle game, here’s three different options I’m thinking about doing
To be totally honest, I only have a marginal amount of experience in game development, so this project will be a very slow burn as I figure out how to, well, make a game. I have three different ideas for potential games I could make, but regardless of which one I settle on I’ll either be doing this in godot or unity (3d), if that helps put the scale of these projects in perspective.

Game #1: Bionicle Heroes Remake

As my title implies this would be my attempt at making a game inspired by bionicle heroes, but with a much more Destiny-like twist. (this is the one I’m voting for)

The game world:
I imagine that the game world would be a series of open areas connected by a hub, so instead of having a series of linear levels, each area would be open for exploration with multiple objectives, loot, enemies, etc. spread around. Think of it as a series of micro open worlds, one for each area of Voya Nui, and by extension, the Piraka.

The Player:
Combat would be completely different, no longer turning crossbows into shotguns and axes into rocket launchers. This game would have a much larger focus on melee combat (Kongu an Nuparu(and hahli, kinda) being obvious exceptions here) with the zamor launchers working as a limited ammo secondary weapon. This game would still be third person, though I imagine the camera being backed off a bit from it’s over the shoulder perspective (once again, kongu and nuparu being exceptions for ease of aiming) to a more zelda-ish distance. I imagine the player would have a fairly standard set of movement abilities for exploratory and combat purposes: Walk/Sprint, jump, crouch, combat slide(maybe), ledge climbing(maybe). A lot of this depends on how the game world unfolds, and vice versa the game world depends on how much movement the player is given.

Story:
I intend this game to be much closer to the canon of 06, no more random characters from prior years shoehorned in. That said, I never actually read the 06 books, so I kinda gotta do that. Or just have someone explain it to me/ write out a timeline of important events. Most of my knowledge comes second hand from things like eljay’s reviews, or the vnog(which i never finished)

Enemies:
As previously mentioned I don’t intend to just have vahki, visorak, and bohrok running around with no explanation, so these are probably gonna have to be like the vnog did it, lots of nektanns, rahi, and maybe the occasional antidermis possessed matoran. As for bosses, I’ve got at least Nine to work with, the Piraka, Axonn, Brutaka, and Vezon(and fenrakk).

RPG systems:
I imagine a loot/leveling system, but I’m not certain how I want to do any of this. Just kinda keep this in the back of your mind and pretend it’s not there when assessing this idea. That’s what I’m doing

Multiplayer:
maybe.

Welp, that’s about as efficiently as I can describe that, so we’re gonna call that good.

Game #2: Glatorian Arena Remake

(I’m really stretching the term remake with these games aren’t I?) An open world game taking place in Bara Magna, you play as an amnesiac glatorian belonging to no village, and do glatorian things.

Game world:
Roughly based on the bara magna map we have, with a lot more stuff because god almighty the bara magna map is barren. The big challenge here is making the game world interesting, because bara magna is kinda a desert, and deserts tend to be empty and boring. All the landmarks we know would be present, and maybe some new ones if they aren’t enough.

The Player:
Once again a zelda-like camera is what I imagine. Due to the nature of being a glatorian, lots of gladiatorial combat will be present, there are two ways I could go with this, Dark souls, or Mordhau/Chivalry/For Honor. Neither seems fun, but I’m leaning towards Dark souls.(cuz mordhau kinda sucks ngl) There would also be options for vehicle/rahi combat I’d imagine. There would be a lot of quests and other various activities to engage in, from engaging bone hunters, to gathering thornax fruit.

Story:
What story?

Enemies:
Yes.

RPG systems:
Very Yes. Lots of character customization, armor, weapons, stats, crafting, etc. This is why I said amnesiac glatorian, so the actual game character can stand as a proxy for the player. This would also be a major amount of work. Not only to make multiple movesets and stat changes, but to have to make models and animations for dozens or hundreds of pieces of armor and weapons.
Multiplayer:
I’m thinkin nah.

Ultimately, this is my least favorite of the three options, it’s just so much work, and even with all that work, I don’t think I have what it takes to make this a good game, please don’t vote for this one, please someone more skilled steal this idea.

Game #3: G2… thing

A G2 focused game that draws major inspiration from G1 and my own headcanon, because let’s be totally honest here did G2 even really happen?

The Game:
Notice how this one is “The Game” and not “The Game World,” that’ll be important later. Now is later, so, the game as a whole will see the player playing through a series of zelda dungeons as each toa to get the golden masks, before tackling the final challenge of the city of the mask makers as any of the toa. Each toa will have their own set of abilities with a temple built around these abilities, and during the course of these dungeons, they will get items that allow them to progress. Think of each of these areas as a larger than normal zelda dungeon, or a small metroidvania.

The Pohatu:
Player… I meant player…
except i kinda didnt
The only part of this idea that I really thought through is Pohatu’s stage. Pohatu will enter a desert temple (pyramid maybe?) to find his golden mask. His primary abilities will be his ability to make sandstorms and dust devils to maneuver, as well as his boomerangs which allow for long distance puzzling(plus rock telekinesis?). Combat will be present, but not a focus. In combat, pohatu can do some simple melee(see also; Skyrim) combined with boomerang throws, etc. His miniboss item will be the ability to strap his boomerangs to his shoes, which will give him super speed. Kinda imagine it looking like hermes’ shoes, and it’ll work something like a metroid speed booster, with some time trial esque puzzles, floors that cave beneath you, etc.(am I using etc. too much?)

Story:
Like I said, a fusion of actual G2 canon, mixed with a little G1, and some of my own headcanon to make it actually function as a video game.

Enemies:
Yes, also.

Multiplayer:
No, the scope of this game is the smallest of the three, and I don’t think it would have any place here. The only way I could shoehorn it in is by making it possible for a second player to take control of the protector and play as them… That’s actually not a bad idea… and then I’d be able to make the final area co-op too…
Maybe.
No.
Maybe.

In conclusion:
I’ll check the poll after a bit to see which of these yall want to see happen. Or if y’all even want one of these to happen at all. Before anyone asks, no I don’t want any help, I want to do this on my own. Questions, comments, concerns are always welcome.
I don’t really know if this is the right place to put this thread, but we don’t exactly have a “Fan Games” section anywhere, not that we’ve ever really needed one. Also not sure if this counts as promotions/advertising, in which case I’m probably not allowed to post this, which would suck, because getting all this typed out took like two hours, and was three and half pages in google docs.
If this does turn into something, I’ll probably make a youtube and discord for development updates.
For the meantime, I’ll just blare cryoshell and bang my head against the desk to distract myself from the massive task I’ve set out for myself.

  • Game #1 Bonkle Heroes
  • Game #2 Glatorian Arena
  • Game #3 G2 Nonsense

0 voters

Update: I’m planning to close the poll Saturday the 11th, I’ll start working then

6 Likes

Well, as promised, I’ve closed the poll, but I’m not certain about the starting development part. The main reason I decided to go with a poll here wasn’t to drum up interest, it was to see if the community was interested a project like this at all, and at the time of this post, this topic has 145 views and only 19 votes. That’s… not a whole lot. This tells me that the community as a whole isn’t interested in a project like this, and if nobody cares, why should I bother? This is coming out a lot more depressing than I mean it to, but honestly i feel kinda depressed over this result. As it stands, if I were to continue with this project and actually make this game, I would have to force myself to do so. If I can’t motivate myself to work on this, then the game will suffer, and I will suffer making it. I’m sorry to anyone who may have been looking forward to this, but I don’t think I’ll be making this after all.

I don’t think it’s that nobody is interested. I think they simply don’t expect anything to come of this.

Let me be clear up front: I’m not saying you can’t make a game, or that I expect nothing from you. I, for one, did vote in the poll. But I want to point out why many people probably didn’t.

I, and many others, have seen so many ambitious projects over the years. People come up with big ideas, lofty goals, then it turns out to be more work than they thought and they give up. I’m not saying you would give up; I’m saying that people expect ambitious projects like this to never see the light of day. Especially when you have nothing to show other than ideas. If you had some assets you had made, or a basis skeleton of a game, even just the beginning, I guarantee more people would show interest. As it is, people see this and think “eh, I won’t get invested in this, chances are it won’t go anywhere.”

So, TLDR: if you want to make a game, and you think you can do it, go for it; I guarantee people will be interested, if you can make even a decent game, even more so if you create something as big as your ideas here. But hey, I’m not here to push you into anything; if you don’t think you could make something like this, or simply don’t want to, that’s fine.

Hope I’ve helped cheer you up, at least. :slight_smile:

3 Likes

honestly, felt really good to hear, and i know that i know what you mean about ambitious projects in the past, i mean, look how long biocraft took (even if it did happen in the end) and I understand where you’re coming from with the whole “if you had something to show” part, but I can’t really do that due to the fact that I was proposing three different potential projects at once. It’s just discouraging to put something like this out there and get such a minuscule response. honestly just seeing any posts on this thread seems to be what I needed, thank you for trying to cheer me up, it worked

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Hey, if you do make this game, I’ll try to find a way to play it. I’ll take any new Bionicle content I can.

Just doing some… Research…
I swear…

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Why are you wanting to make a big game when you’ve never done it before? Thats like saying you’re going to sculpt a greek statue when you’ve never picked up a hammer before. I think people aren’t interested because you don’t even know what you want to make, there’s no vision

I think this whole thing could be awesome - both the prospect of new Bionicle games for the fans to play, but also the experience you’ll have making it (if you choose to do so)! :smiley:
As part of my university studies, I have made quite a few small games, some of which are set in the Bionicle universe - so I can say from experience that it’s a great universe to develop games within, regardless of their scope (I obviously haven’t published any of mine, as they’re just small learning projects for myself :sweat_smile:)
So if you like playing around with games, I can almost certainly guarantee you that you’ll have a lot of fun making a small game such as a 2D platformer set in Mahri Nui, or an Ussal racing game set in Onu-Koro, just to name a few ideas that come to mind :slight_smile:

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Don’t be rude, he can always learn how. He can even enlist the help of people that actually know how to make a game like this.

Exactly, Toa Gua. Even if he doesn’t get far with this game project, it can still be a practice run for games he wants to make in the future.

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That’s what I’m thinking :grinning:

Well, I wanted to put out a little update here, my computer kinda crapped out, and I may have to wipe my hard drive. I don’t know how long this will take to fix, so I’m definitely not working on the game for now.

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I know this is a quite old post, and for sure you know about the most recently announced Bionicle game, but from the reactions that project got, I’m really sure people will be interested in your game, even if a small one, whenever will it be done.

And for myself, I’m gonna try it when it’s done :smiley:

3 Likes