Well I've been thinking about doing this, but others are rather busy(I just love to start something new! Strike Swiftly, Vietnam: Special Ops, Arrakis and The Last Kingdom never had much application of use outside of myself (Strike Swiftly been the most used by what 4-6 people)) so...
I'm thinking a FPS, because it's easier then a RPG etc and more popular at large... but it hasn't got its female market as closely as an RPG or the like would so, what can be done to mix in some elements to make it as fun for both genders.
Glore, blood etc is something of a debate also. Myself I like to run around and to blow up to gibs as much as I can.
But does this turn the female market around from titles such as Quake 3 Arena and Unreal Tournament? This also has to be a feature to the Torque game engine (an extra projectile is created and sent to the floor which then leaves a decal and splaters with some sprites Or it could be done like the how the demo has the crossbow explosion have extra models falling away from the first hit, these could stay on the ground and thus create the gib look).
After I got some LED HeadLights from Steve (His a very generous person! a bit too really I feel guilty been given things) But they would look very cool on a player because they have multiple LEDs in them and give a hexagon look and a bluish light. Maybe the computer room which you get in to hack the code, could be pitch black so you need LED headlights! Shame its more of a Shader(Hardware GPU Programming, Vertex, Pixel and Fragment Shaders e.g. Bump-mapping, Heat-Haze) effect required but may still look very good as maybe a Volume or spotlight (Which would be a "fxLight" entity).
It can't be too childish etc as there are "mature" students etc some aren't some may not be keen about computer games? The age group is about 17-47 as the main market for computer games. So the speed of the game can't be too hard to have fun. And can't be too hard to be good at.
We want to grab the people and keep them!
I was talking to Joe about weapons/firearms he likes Sniper Rifles and a submachinegun as backup, so large areas of landscape to use and cover... So the Torque Engine is well suited. But large areas require more players.
Also that suggests Classes gameplay... maybe... again that focuses for large player design.
Classes, maybe hard, as all need to focus on learning so all need the skill of "hacking" that sort of thing is usually for a single class. Like an Agent.
Player models, well I'm no artist but I think the first Torque model would suit better (not the Orc in current ones).
Weapon models I can do plus simple skinning and animation, simple no hands (Has to be the player model anyway). Sounds are fine I got a whole collection of them!
Need more input from the players... as that means that they are in more control and thus then you have input which is real and then they are keen to fix it myself also, so its an open minds project and then we get real learning for how to do things outside the normal, from graphics to scripting to modelling to landscaping to level design to sounds to user interfaces, positioning and design.
As you can see there are a huge amount of things that need to be thought about. But at least we can start to design things like the player and weapons and the levels. Get it to a stage where everyone can see something and then enter the 3d world. Gathers thought!
I thought we could have something to add scripting types and the like so it could be changed for people who are learning C or even UML (By having images and text as the question dialog boxes)!
