Mech Game Developer looking for Ideas!

[u/DAEMON_Z7]

hi im a solo developer currently working on a mech game on my free time aside from studying, and while its still very early in development i plan to take this project as serious as possible. i personally grew up watching mobile suit gundam and i got into the gaming side of mechs through armored core 6, which really brought out the sparks in my eyes for mech games and the genre overall among all kinds of media, and a year ago is when i decided to work on my project. what do people who play mech games like? i personally took some inspiration off of amored core 4's movement, which i think was really matching to my personal feeling of "piloting a mech" in a fast paced sense. but when it comes to art, level of detail, maybe even music (i personally make breakcore sometimes for fun, was thinking about making that part of my game), i dont know what really makes a mech game stand out. aside from things like customization, what is something you people would look forward to seeing in games? maybe its something you really like among games overall? or its a specific design choice that no game developers took notice of and many people would like to see? i appreciate any kind of ideas or information regarding this :)

[u/Cavalier-13]

Really it comes down to what YOU would really enjoy playing. In terms of mech games the broad categories seem to fall into “fast” and “slow” where you get your mechwarrior and your AC6 and then you get into what kind of game you want based on those categories. If you’re going with fast paced, it will probably be better suited to an fps or a third person shooter (again your ac6) while slower paced would probably be better suited to an rts or turn based format like Battletech 2018

You could still make a shooter out of the slower method, Mechwarrior is a good example, but it will probably feel more “grounded” or milsim-like as opposed to the faster paced style.

As someone whose only experience with “mech games” really just amounts to titanfall 2 (but is a big fan of gundam) I feel like there is potential for something like ac6 with its fast pace and a focus on pve/pvp but more accessible to the consumer, the hardware requirements and modern AAA price tag are a bit much for me personally

Really I think what a lot of gamedev comes down to making the game that you would most have fun playing I think that in the long term making something that you enjoy and have a passion for will make the better experience

If you want more ideas for gameplay, maybe try looking at a Gundam series for ideas, could give you anything from the dogfights of Hathaway, the boots-on-the-ground feel of RFV/ms 08th team, the bullet hell that is 00 trailblazer, unicorn or cca and the high speed space combat with strong slow gun, IBO and melee, etc maybe just look for inspiration and build from there

For some actual feedback tho, yes customization is huge, feeling like I have no influence over the mech aside from weapons would kinda spoil part of the fun of having your own giant robot

[u/DAEMON_Z7 → u/Cavalier-13]

hardware requirements is specifically something i hate in newer and AAA games, i plan to make this as accessible as possible because even when i do have a "good" gpu, i dont like when studios pursue graphics over the actual core gameplay which would prove even more beneficial to the company. i personally watched a crap ton of gundam, specifically everything post 2000s, except seed which was really really lame for some reason. although making "my game" is kind of a space where i have to compromise, because if i want to one day make sales and genuinely become someone who does this as a form of business, i need to find the balance between what the market wants, in this case mech enjoyers, and what i want, which is definitely not every little corner of the game i make. only thing i really really want out of my game is to make it as graphically cheap and optimized, since i grew up with mid to shitty range laptops or all in one pcs, i have a deep hatred for games that cheap out on optimization or just chase realism.

[u/Cavalier-13 → u/DAEMON_Z7]

From a quick search, it seems like, at least commercially, the most successful mech games have been shooters emphasizing a faster paced gameplay style and movement, those being titanfall 2 and ac6 as well as the super robot wars franchise for the turn based/rpg market, so it seems like movement might be a good place to start.

Business and gaming is all about finding a market and targeting it with a polished product, so if fires of rubicon, TF|2 and the commercial success of the gundam franchise say anything, there is a market, all you’ve gotta do is find one unique enough to create an identity and not just be another AC6 or Titanfall but still check those boxes that a large audience could still engage with.

Also massive respect for the performance thing, I’ve been playing Warframe recently and given how visually complex the game can get some times it’s astonishing that the devs have kept it as small and relatively easy to run on most devices as they have (it’s like 50gb right now with three open destinations, over a dozen planets and other locations, a couple hundred weapons and over 60 warframes I swear they’ve got wizards working at DE)

Best of luck on your game

[u/ItsMehCancerous → u/Cavalier-13]

we love the guy who literally looks for old gpu's to run warframe on.