|
|
 |
|
| Idea Info |
Name:
Boxing Life
Index:
Primary
Category:
Sport
Submitted:
12/18/2002 11:49:09 PM
Written By:
TheNewMan |
|
|
Boxing Life
12/18/2002 11:49:09 PM
By: TheNewMan
Show
all Game Ideas by this Member
Category: Sport Games
Learn Game Programming
DeVry's Game and Simulation Programming curriculum will prepare you for taking on various development roles in the game industry.
Game Art & Design Degree
Westwoods’s game art & design program will teach you everything you will need to know before you apply for a job in the game industry.
Plot (surprisingly important for a sports game):
The game starts with the protagonist being a fat, weak and slow 14 year old bullied schoolkid. After his last beating by the school bully (controlled by the player, but forced to lose), he spots an advert in the paper for a new boxing gym. Scraping together his money, he joins the joins the gym and begins training. Unfortunately, the bully finds out and also joins the same gym. From there, the stage is set for a lifetime of rivalry.
The Game:
Training:
The gym instructor believes that the boxers themselves each best know how to unlock their inner potential- although the coach is willing to provide guidance, the player can choose how much to train in various areas and hence what kind of boxing style they will use. eg do they concentrate their training on movement and jabs to frustrate an opponent into a mistake or do they concentrate on resiliance and strength so they can stand toe-to-toe and duke it out. There are obviously many other options. Even though the protagonist is a right-hander, they can train as a southpaw (left hander) so they can switch their stance mid-fight to throw their opponent off.
Options:
jab, straight, hook, uppercut and blocking technique- normal
against southpaw
as southpaw
as southpaw against southpaw
resiliance- against being winded (body toughness)
against being stunned (head toughness) (harder to improve)
stamina
speed & strength- left arm
right arm
movement- normal
as southpaw
fat burner
note that each option is seperate- speed and strength are two seperate things to be trained, each of which can be subdivided into the two subsections shown to their right for a total of four options.
When there are the options between normal and southpaw, there is obviously some crossover, so someone who has never trained against a southpaw will be able to punch and block to a reasonable degree, but nowhere near as well as they would had they trained with one. Hence the viability of training as a southpaw even when right handed.
stamina training increases the size of the windedness bar (see FIGHT!)
fat burner training is designed to reduce the boxer's weight (see Food)
Life:
The protagonist may be a boxer, but they are also human. The player not only has to organise their timetable at the start of each week to find time for training and fighting, but also has to leave time for life, be it homework for school or going out with a girlfriend. But why would you want to cut into your precious training time? Morale.
Morale:
Everyone has their 'off days', when they are not doing as well as they should. It is the same with boxing- two factors affect the boxers' performance in the ring 'behind the scenes' as it were: morale and dumb luck (determined randomly).
If the protagonist is doing well at school (when young) and having a steady relationship with a girlfriend, his morale (and therefore fighting ability) will be much higher than if his parents are constantly haranging him about the low quality of his school work and he just discovered his much-neglected girlfriend is being unfaithful. The combination of morale and luck gives a certain bonus or penalty to the boxer's stats for a match.
Finance: Another point is that once school finishes and the protagonist moves out, he has to become self-sufficient by fighting for money to pay for food, rent etc. To start with, that will drain the coffers well enough, but later, when the player is doing better and has plenty of money up come other problems- alimony payments, legal fees, child support (that one night stand last year had more repercussions than you thought it would, eh?) etc. Obviously, the worse off the player is financially, the lower their morale and vice versa (although not to the same degree- don't know what you've got till it's gone).
Bully: Another obstacle is your old friend, the bully, who will occasionally challenge you to a 'grudge match' 'to put you back in your place'- both boxer's determination to win will be through the roof in these matches. Should the player win, the bully will go back to the gym and train even harder in preparation for the next match. This could present an interesting oppertunity for the . . more morally flexible player. Should the bully have a girlfriend, she might be rather neglected and ripe for a certain someone to sweep her off her feet. Imagine the devastation to the bully's morale when he discovers- not only will it be rock bottom, but he is far more likely to let his anger get the better of him and throw wild punches and make mistakes. Beware though, even more than before (if that were possible), he will get up from being knocked down time and time again for 'just one more punch on the b*****d'. However, you are not the only one who could try such a dirty trick. With imagination, lots of other tactics, moral and otherwise are possible.
Food: you need to eat, right? But what? Health food? Great for the body, but hardly pleasing to the tongue, and hence low morale. Junk food? Great for morale, but if you're not careful, your nickname will change to 'the balloon'! But then, there is always the fat burner, but then that cuts into the other training. As always, balance is neccessary.
Women: a blessing and a curse in one package, but how to handle them? Steady girlfriend?- fine, but that needs constant quality time to prevent her from feeling neglected, they might be resentful over being dragged all over the country (or later, the world) for tournaments. This method leads to the greatest emotional attachment (if dumped, morale will slump big-time, the longer the relationship has lasted, the greater the effect)
Have a girlfriend, but cheat on her when you go to distant tournaments alone?- great morale, not too expensive, but if the protagonist is caught by their girlfriend, don't expect her to be happy. (hell hath no fury . .).
Playa' lifestyle?- have a woman in each city you visit regularly, no commitments, just spend an evening or two showering them with gifts in exchange for their favour (shall we say), unfortunately, the bills mount up quickly (expensive tastes) and the 'no commitments' part might be tested should one discover they are pregnant. Superb morale while the bubble lasts, however.
Of course, you could give them up entirely (*snorts derisively*), but don't expect your morale to get much above 'rock bottom'.
Mob: gradually less prominent as time passes and less prevalent in professional than amateur, they still exist, especially early in the player's career, ready and able to make them an offer they cannot refuse to, for example, take a dive in the 3rd round in exchange for cash. Don't be too obvious in doing it however, or you might earn the ire of a lot of people from betters to those trying to clean up the sport. Reputations are hard if not impossible to shake off once earned. Of course, the player can choose whether to refuse it or not, but don't expect there to be no consequences. From simple intimitation attempts (notes, telephone calls, pet cat's head in bed etc), to near all-out war (kidnapped girlfriend, death threats, murder attempts in extreme cases). They can be combated by hiring extra security (if you have the money), or appeased by a cash 'donation', or maybe a bit of thug work to pay off your 'debts'- but then watch for police! Things have a tendency to get very tricky very quickly if you don't tread carefully.
Determination: all the boxers have a determination level that changes from match to match. If fighting an insignificant match against an underdog, the protagonist would have low determination, while the underdog might be burning with determination to 'prove themselves', resulting in a shock win. On a rematch, however, the previous underdog might be too cocky and have low determination while the protagonist will be itching for revenge and have high determination. Title matches will always have high determination on both sides. The more times a boxer has tried and failed to get that title, the greater their determination (even more so if they had it and lost it), conversely, the longer a title holder has held that title, the less it means to them and hence their determination decreases the longer they hold it.
Time: aging happens to us all. As the game progresses, you are not the only boxer getting older- champions fall, veterans get over the hill and young guns rise to take their place. Don't be surprised when yesterday's champion falls in round 3 and yesterday's wannabe becomes a genuine contender. Your contempories are improving along with you- expect to fight each of them repeatedly in your career and maybe develop friendships or grudges on a par with the one you have with the bully. Other possibilities involve niggling injuries from particularly powerful or lucky punches, possibly developing into serious medical conditions ('oh f**k! More bills!')- think Rocky's gummed-shut eye in 1 developing into partial blindness in 2 (I think). As you get older, your body changes, initally for the better, but gradually you get old and your stats deteriorate until you need to retire. How you end your career is up to you. Do you wait until you lose whatever title you might have gained, then bow out gracefully? Do you challenge the usurper to 'one last match', then leave if you win? What if you lose? Do you hang on tooth and nail until you have lost so often no-one will fight you any more? The choice is up to the player.
Note: This covers a boxer's life. If they lose a match, they do not have to restart from the last save point and try again- they maybe lose a bit of morale, but they chalk it up to experience and carry on (or train intensively and grind the winner into the ground in a rematch). The game is only over when the boxer retires, whether they defended the world heavyweight title for seven years before bowing out or were kicked out through old age having never broken out of amateur boxing or even tragically killed in a freak 'accident' (they did warn you about your mob debts!). Anything could happen.
FIGHT!:
After all that outside the ring, now we deal with the inside. Each boxer has two bars- one for health, or more accurately, consciousness and one for windedness.
consciousness shows how far the boxer is from being knocked unconscious. Blows to the head will deplete this one fastest, although strong blows to the body do damage it to some extent. When it is at 0, the boxer is KO'd. Should they get up from the KO (which will be more or less difficult depending on the character's determination) , the health bar will refill a certain amount also depending on the character's determination. The health bar regenerates slowly while the boxer can avoid being hit.
windedness shows how winded the character is. When it is full, the character is as fresh as a daisy and ready to fight. When it is empty, the character is struggling for breath, punches are slow and without much power and the character's blocking is poor. Blows to the body reduce this quickest, although throwing strong punches (not jabs, basically) also drains it quickly. However, this bar regenerates quite fast regardless, so the boxer only needs to stay out of trouble (perhaps keeping the opponent at a distance with jabs) for a short time before being back to normal, although the regeneration rate slows down the fuller the bar is.
Other than that, it's fairly self-explanitory. Jabs are quick and do little damage, straights are slower and more powerful, hooks are even slower and leave you more open, but have even more power, can catch opponents moving around the boxer and are harder to block and uppercuts are slowest, leave the boxer open the most but are the most powerful punches. All can be aimed at either the head or the body.
To avoid being hit, the boxer can either block, step out of the way (beware of hooks if moving sideways) or bob and weave (moving the head either down then up or back then forward to avoid a head shot).
So there it is. Hope you enjoyed reading it and like it. Comments welcome.
|
Add your comment to this Game Idea
great!
7/6/2003 2:35:18 AM
Comment by:
solidsnake
i love boxing and this sounds like it would make a fantabulous game!lol but I didnt read the whole thing I just skimmed through it but it was great! keep up da good work
|
OK, this is pretty good!
9/13/2003 3:02:39 AM
Comment by:
sparda590
Well, you've stumped me. I don't have much to criticize! That's quite a decent plot you've got going there, and the morale ideas really rule. It sounds like you've got to keep you're act balanced in this game, or you're history. By the way, you've read my idea Fraction haven't you? I also used that "eat healthy" theme, but I never thought of pairing it up with the morale theme! What you have here is quite an interesting piece of work.
|
HA!
9/13/2003 2:23:37 PM
Comment by:
TheNewMan
Your comment made me laugh, actually. I thought you'd stolen the idea in fraction from my game when I read it LONG after I submitted this game. Guess we both just thought along similar lines there.
|
I guess...
9/13/2003 8:50:56 PM
Comment by:
sparda590
I'm not the type to copy, and I have never read this idea before yesterday. I guess we were thinking along the same lines for atheletes eating healthy!
|
Wow. . .
9/15/2003 11:50:32 PM
Comment by:
DrmDiver1983
I never thought beating people over the head could be so deep. You seem to have thought of every facet of this type of lifestyle. I can't really see anything to criticize. Great work.
By the way, I'm braced for whatever you have to say about my Dream Diver games. I've been warned.
|
Add
your comment to this Game Idea
GameDiscovery.com : Sport Games : Boxing Life
|
 |
|
|
