My Idea for a Free Roam Star Wars Game

[ZooNamedGames]

For the last month of two now I've come up with a decent idea for an open world (or technically, open galaxy), free roaming RPG type game that could be made for the Star Wars universe. Now that being said, I'll try to explain my vision and idea for this, but before I get too deep into the game I would like to take a step back and explain my history in designing "games" for the Star Wars universe.

To explain a bit of my background on the idea, about a decade ago (2006 or 2007) I decided that for no particular reason, I wanted to create my own entire Star Wars RP system. I also designed by own Star Wars storyline to go with it (which should be noted, in 2007, the best we had as far as "story" were video games. The VII movie was barely even an idea, so remember that as we continue on). The story being what a follow up to the VI movie would be; the empire has taken a massive blow by the rebellion and in all technicality was defeated, however they slowly reformed on outlying planets (might sound familiar) that were unoccupied by the rebels. As such, the empire would slowly begin guerrilla tactics doing precise hit and runs on the rebellion in an attempt to cause them to collapse. The player in all this, could choose many paths. They could be a Jedi, a Sith, an Imperial, aid the Rebels, be a pirate, a smuggler and so on much in the style of the first movie (by first I mean part IV as we know it now, but it will always be the first movie to me). If the player played normally, they would experience worlds from all the episodes, such as Tatooine, Hoth, Yavin Four, and a few prequel planets too, like Naboo, Geonosis, Courscant and so on. The idea being a sort of view by view.

Now if your wondering, what did I have as far as gameplay at this time when I was learning? Well the only games I had to go off of at the time, was Rogue Squadron II and III for Gamecube, and Star Wars Battlefront I and II on the PlayStation 2, with Battlefront 2 likely being the cause for my desire to expand what players can do. In Star Wars Battlefront II, players can lead a "Galactic Conquest" where they can lead their fleets across the galaxy to conquer planets. Along the way they earn money which can be spent on bonuses or unlocking more units. This is bare bones RP technically but it was enough for me to long for "more".

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That being said; now I will explain the idea behind my idea for a free roaming, open world/galaxy RPG Star Wars game.

The base idea would be that you'd be a generic player like any RPG. Explain just enough backstory for the player to understand the circumstances, then you'd let them go. From there they can unlock quests, make money and also a way for themselves. As they explore, they can either make positive ties to known forces or negative ones. If the player pursues the latter option, the player will gain a "wanted" level, very similar to the ones seen in Grand Theft Auto. The "wanted" status would increase as the player continues a more damaging streak against said faction. As far as I see it, there would be 3 factions the player would impact; The Empire, The Rebellion, and generic space thugs and pirates. As players gain more wanted status, the more relentless they are in pursuing you, as well as the greater firepower they will bring. Eventually, there would have to be a cap on the maximum level a player can raise, and I would imagine that being of extreme resort (as in, something along the lines of being Luke Skywalker to the Empire, or Han Solo to pirates), where the result would be rather extreme (noting that getting to this level of heat would require many hours of effort to achieve), such as having the Death Star destroying whatever planet you land on, or the Rebels sending their entire armada and ground forces to destroy you and so on. Of course the flip side being that you can gain allegiance from these factions. This can be from allied assistance, participating in these factions, bribing them, and so on. So when you become attacked, you can have allies to help, and possibly even, cause your own Battle Of Endor, if you put in enough effort.

Outside of the wanted aspect, there would also be skills and traits players could increase over time. I wouldn't want this to become too excessive as far as making it into a fully fledged RPG with numeric stats, but rather again go with the Grand Theft Auto idea of having skill "bars". Something more visual for players to see their progress rather than using numbers. These skills can be things like piloting, engineering, accuracy, speed, strength, health, force, and so on. As players increase them, the better they become at performing more difficult tasks and also taking on greater odds.

I'd also like to go back and mention the "free roaming" aspect. As this is something we haven't seen fully fleshed out in a Star Wars game yet (although was put into the works by LucasArts before funding being cut). The idea being, that if a player has means of transport, they can explore whole worlds (whether they be new, or old to the series). As well as travel to others. The point being that there is no fixed objective until a player takes on a mission.

 

Now a lot of this may harken back to other games which have attempted this before (Grand Theft Auto V being the most common), but other notable games might be games like Mass Effect, or Spore. The idea being that these ideas have worked, if not extremely well in the past, and that the Star Wars universe is ultimately dying for expanding upon this very very VERY rich idea. Maybe there's more to be added to this, maybe there's some stuff that needs trimming, but I see it, "as a bold step into a much larger world" for the Star Wars franchise as far as gaming goes.

Anyway, thanks for reading my rant of an idea. Most of these never go anywhere. But maybe this will. Of course Star Wars is Disney's product and therefore independent development is impossible, but maybe someone here on the forum knows the software development leader of Disney? Maybe not. All I ask is that if you share it, please at least let me know how the idea fares. I'm not even asking for credit, just let me know how my insane idea went. Thanks.

^{also, sorry about this line down here... meant to put it up there where the dotted one is but I can't remove it or type under it which is stupid... forces me to create ANOTHER post just to have the software auto post it under? Pretty stupid.}

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Edited December 4, 2016 by ZooNamedGames

[worir4]

It sounds like a really cool game. I just wish one existed. Sort of like the old Star wars galaxies (i think it was called). That game was so good, you could join the faction you wanted. It is quite like how you described but i think they took it down now.

[ZooNamedGames]

Just now, worir4 said:

It sounds like a really cool game. I just wish one existed. Sort of like the old Star wars galaxies (i think it was called). That game was so good, you could join the faction you wanted. It is quite like how you described but i think they took it down now.

Maybe if I get the idea on some sort of indiegogo campaign and show the backing for it Disney will give me and whoever else wants to help make it the rights. 

Its not impossible; just very very improbable a scenario.

[KSK]

14 hours ago, ZooNamedGames said:

Maybe if I get the idea on some sort of indiegogo campaign and show the backing for it Disney will give me and whoever else wants to help make it the rights. 

Its not impossible; just very very improbable a scenario.

We won't tell you the odds...

Bad quotes aside though, this sounds like a lot of fun. A bit like the Knights of the Old Republic series but more freeform in scope and set in Palpatine's Empire.

[Elthy]

EA has the exclusive rights for Star Wars games in the next years, how long exactly isnt known, but its propably >5 years...

[ZooNamedGames]

58 minutes ago, Elthy said:

EA has the exclusive rights for Star Wars games in the next years, how long exactly isnt known, but its propably >5 years...

Maybe they'll lend us the rights if we get enough community backing. 

[DarkOwl57]

22 minutes ago, ZooNamedGames said:

Maybe they'll lend us the rights if we get enough community backing. 

I highly doubt that; EA is an absolute [blank] to their players and pretty much everyone. I don't think that they would give up rights to such a profitable franchise just because a few people from a game's forums wanted it.

[ZooNamedGames]

3 hours ago, DarkOwl57 said:

I highly doubt that; EA is an absolute [blank] to their players and pretty much everyone. I don't think that they would give up rights to such a profitable franchise just because a few people from a game's forums wanted it.

Then we can move to Disney. 

Or worst case scenerio, my group develops it until the rights are up and then pitch it to Disney.

[Maxsimal]

Why not just make it space fantasy without relying on Star Wars at all?   You have a huge number of obstacles in your way.  I'm a game developer who's worked on triple A games for 10 years, and know a lot of people who've worked with the star wars license.  Here is what you'd face.

Star Wars games are nowadays always high exposure&budget.  Disney would not allow a unknown developer rights, that's just not now they work.  They want movie tie in projects, delivered reliably on schedule for the release, or high profile projects that expand the brand.  Even for thieir little mobile RPG, they licensed to Zynga to do it.

As mentioned, EA holds the license to do an MMO, and PC titles, probably exclusively.   You aren't going to out compete them.

Even if you did, Disney would expect a large cut from you for licensing anything to you - which means not only money, but affording the lawyers and IP directors involved in them managing their license.

And beyond that, Star Wars is one of the most nit-picky licenses to work with.  They have a huge world bible, and expect you to adhere to the details of their universe, which can get to be a huge pain in the ass when design decisions conflict with something the IP manager deems doesn't fit with the license, another reason only bigger teams can jump through those hurdles.

By the time you 'waited for the license to come up', if you really wanted to do this, you should have 

A: Formed your own company

B: Released several decently reviewed titles to establish a track record

C: Have a demo and pitch ready.

Good luck with that.

[ZooNamedGames]

5 hours ago, Maxsimal said:

Why not just make it space fantasy without relying on Star Wars at all?   You have a huge number of obstacles in your way.  I'm a game developer who's worked on triple A games for 10 years, and know a lot of people who've worked with the star wars license.  Here is what you'd face.

Star Wars games are nowadays always high exposure&budget.  Disney would not allow a unknown developer rights, that's just not now they work.  They want movie tie in projects, delivered reliably on schedule for the release, or high profile projects that expand the brand.  Even for thieir little mobile RPG, they licensed to Zynga to do it.

As mentioned, EA holds the license to do an MMO, and PC titles, probably exclusively.   You aren't going to out compete them.

Even if you did, Disney would expect a large cut from you for licensing anything to you - which means not only money, but affording the lawyers and IP directors involved in them managing their license.

And beyond that, Star Wars is one of the most nit-picky licenses to work with.  They have a huge world bible, and expect you to adhere to the details of their universe, which can get to be a huge pain in the ass when design decisions conflict with something the IP manager deems doesn't fit with the license, another reason only bigger teams can jump through those hurdles.

By the time you 'waited for the license to come up', if you really wanted to do this, you should have 

A: Formed your own company

B: Released several decently reviewed titles to establish a track record

C: Have a demo and pitch ready.

Good luck with that.

That said; what I'm hearing is "there's a big mountain, you'll never conquer it", so naturally I want to climb that mountain, not because it is easy, but because it is hard!