How Would You Do A Green Lantern Videogame?

[Saint]

The problem with a Green Lantern game is that you're simply not going to able to do anything with the ring that isn't pre-determined. The power ring just can't be properly realized in a video game. Want to make a jet? The game designers didn't put that in the game, so you can't.

However, if the designers were clever enough, they could use a pre-determined power set in a way that at least makes you feel like Green Lantern--allows you to be inventive. The power set, I imagine, would be something like The Force Unleashed meets Prototype. Those are two games that succeeded better than most others at making you feel powerful. The Force Unleashed had the sort of envionrmental control you'd expect a power ring to grant you, and Prototype gives you such a wide range of powers and abilities that combat becomes a freeform experience, allowing you to play in a lot of different ways, and take whatever approach you like. The attack powers (blade arm, claws, wrecking-ball hands, augmented strength, and whip) and defense powers (shield and full body armour) in Prototype would translate well into a similar set of attack and defense powers created via a Green Lantern ring. If each power had the sort of depth and variety available in Prototype, then you'd have a decent approximation of the abilities of a Green Lantern.

 

[dnno1]

You know, a lot of these new games coming out now (especially the first person shooter and real-time strategy games) with expansions sets and map editors. I knew of a game called Cosmic Blobs where you could imagine and shape objects and then animate them so it is possible to do. What I was thinking of was to have a basic set of properties (like physical, mechaical, and energy based) that you could apply to a vast library of constructs. The constructs in the library would be parametric in that you could control their size, shape and atack strenght base on earned experience or aquired tokes/merits. The constructs could be of any shape so long as it is in some format (like VRML, STEP or 3DM) that could be read in by the game software. That way if you had the ability to creat a your own construct you could and then load it into your library. The selected construct would fall in one of the basic categories (like a truck could be physical mechanical or energy) and then would have that basic effect. For example a physical object (like a fist or a block) would do kinetic damage (like a punching or hitting would) based on the amount of damage points it had; a mechanical object could do some type of work (and that would be subcategorized) like lifting, towing, or moving; and an energy based construct would eithe explode, melt or cut other objects. This would be for a more advance user, but there could be a vanilla out of the box library with some basic constructs in it along with expansions and a library creator's kit that could be offered to those who are feeling brave.

 

[NightBeetle]

''Double Helix creating Green Lantern game with sheer will.''

Warner Bros. and game developer Double Helix have partnered to create an action-based video game slated around the comic book hero Green Lantern, VentureBeat has learned.

The video game is believed to be linked to the official Green Lantern movie scheduled for a June 17, 2011 release. The movie is to be directed by Martin Campbell (director of the Casino Royale and GoldenEye films) with a screenplay penned by screenwriters Greg Berlanti and Michael Green.

Both Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of the game are in the works. As far as we know, there has never been a video game that focuses solely on Green Lantern, which is one of DC Comics’ oldest superheroes.

Double Helix, a twin studio comprised of two studios dubbed Shiny and The Collective, is currently finishing work on G.I. Joe (due August 4) for Electronic Arts, and has started work on Green Lantern for WB. Double Helix itself is a division of Foundation 9 Entertainment.

Superhero games are perennial bestsellers in the video game industry, so it’s only fair that Green Lantern character should get his shot. With the 50th anniversary of the original Green lantern (a.k.a Hal Jordan) being celebrated at this year’s Comic-Con conference and the straight-to-DVD movie Green Lantern: First Flight arriving shortly to retail stores, Green Lantern seems to be having a revival. Comic artist Geoff Johns is leading the comic book revival with a series dubbed Blackest Night. Buzz about this subplot in the Green Lantern storyline has been building for some time.

“The current Green Lantern comic story arc has been getting a lot of attention,” a representative at DC Comics told VentureBeat. “Geoff Johns has done an amazing job with the Blackest Night.”

A Warner Bros representative declined to comment on this story, citing it as “rumor and speculation.” But multiple sources close to the project who asked not to be mentioned by name, said a Green Lantern game concept has been bandied about for more than a year, but hadn’t seen much development progress until recently.

 

[Wesley Dodds]

"Comic artist Geoff Johns"... Idiots

But, yeah! FRIGGIN' GREAT NEWS! I was actually going to make a post earlier asking if you guys thought there'd be a videogame tie-in.

This is great news INDEED.

 

[Grommers]

The problem with a Green Lantern game is that you're simply not going to able to do anything with the ring that isn't pre-determined. The power ring just can't be properly realized in a video game. Want to make a jet? The game designers didn't put that in the game, so you can't.

However, if the designers were clever enough, they could use a pre-determined power set in a way that at least makes you feel like Green Lantern--allows you to be inventive. The power set, I imagine, would be something like The Force Unleashed meets Prototype. Those are two games that succeeded better than most others at making you feel powerful. The Force Unleashed had the sort of envionrmental control you'd expect a power ring to grant you, and Prototype gives you such a wide range of powers and abilities that combat becomes a freeform experience, allowing you to play in a lot of different ways, and take whatever approach you like. The attack powers (blade arm, claws, wrecking-ball hands, augmented strength, and whip) and defense powers (shield and full body armour) in Prototype would translate well into a similar set of attack and defense powers created via a Green Lantern ring. If each power had the sort of depth and variety available in Prototype, then you'd have a decent approximation of the abilities of a Green Lantern.

Actually, I think it'd be possible in the sense it'd be sort of like Banjo Kazooie nuts & bolts, where you can make your shapes with the ring before hand..out of different parts, you would need basic animations, but some of them could be pretty cool, like just as basics..

a pushing one,
a bubble one,
an animal type one.
etc.?

 

[dnno1]

Or maybe train to a level where you could create such a construct.

 

[dnno1]

''Double Helix creating Green Lantern game with sheer will.''

This is good, but we will need to wait until after all the contracts are signed and the movie is officially green-lit before anything like that will happen. We will see what develops by the time E3 comes around.

 

[protocida]

Cool beams.

 

[The Bruce]

Just make a Nintendo DS Green Lantern game and have people drew anything they can come up with right on screen.

 

[Ace of Knaves]

Who plays the DS though?

 

[The Bruce]

RPG geeks like me

 

[Wesley Dodds]

Having played the demo for that new game, Dark Void, I wouldn't mind having a GL game a little bit like that...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3IkorRgYdE&feature=fvst

The main character is even quite Jordanesque...

 

[greenlantern248]

See for the constructs I was thinking along the lines of like Arkham Asylum where you start the game off with like one basic construct and each time you level up you can choose from a farely good size library for your next two or three constructs at each level up. From different catagories, that all fall under three catagories, Defence, Offence, and then Both. Yes the programers would have to program code for every item but it could be worth it

 

[The ?ion]

For a power set like the Green Lantern, the game would have to utilize RPG elements. Particularly, there would have to be the implementation of a skill tree. However, unlike the typical skill tree that forces you into a branch, I think a Green Lantern game would be best served by allowing you to choose a branch from the skill tree, each time you go into mission. Each branch would deal with different types of focuses on constructs.

For instance, one branch may be deal with defense related constructs, while another branch may deal with weapons based constructs, while another branch may deal with multi-tasking (e.g. manipulating multiple construct types on the fly via analog stick switching). Characters will always have an attack and defense option regardless of the branch that they choose, but certain skills choices will enhance those abilities as well as open up a few extra options.

From there, you would need experience points, perhaps in the form of a will power bar) so that as your character develops, so does their mastery over constructs and creativity.

The game would be open world to an extent, while also being mission based. Allowing the Green Lantern to fly around open space or fly around Coast City (or the respective city depending upon the Lantern) is almost a must. However, you don't want the play to be so free that it is boring (e.g. Elder Scrolls Oblivion) or so limited and empty, that it has no real point (e.g. No More Heroes, Superman Returns). To keep things brisk, full on missions will be mixed, as opposed to the typical objective style mission lists that have cropped up in open world games. In this way, you can bypass the open world in some cases, but still explore it in others.

 

[GL1]

Some hybrid of the last two suggestions. Too many RPG elements will lose the ADD/twitchy/console-y crowd, but too few will make the game bland, and honestly, not representative of all that Green Lantern is capable of.

Start the game with the 'basics:' Beams, Forcefield Bubbles, Telekinesis and Flight. As the game progresses, open up new 'trees' or construct groups that you put points into to increasingly master. AI Constructs (things that move and attack and work on their own), Molecular Manipulation (Alchemy, phasing, etc), Immense Constructs (Big Fists or Huge Jackhammers), and Lantern Skills (FTL Flight, Faster Ring Recharge, Ring Recall Range) might be such trees. Switching which tree you're using would be like switching weapons in a shooter and change all but your basic buttons (flight, shield, TK, beam), but you level up each tree as you spend experience, opening up new moves and more powerful moves in that 'tree' or 'mode' or 'weapon'

A mix of open world (Coast City) and missions (distant planets) could be awesome. The open world could/should serve mostly as a hub, the 'city' in your RPG experience. From there, several distant missions could serve as the bulk of gameplay, but returning to the hub gives you an opportunity to spend exp, 'purchase' things, and generally just engage the story. Using Oa as a secondary or late game hub could be cool too. Of course even the hubs would come under attack in the late game, making them missions zones. Even without that, especially in Coast City, there'd always be minor criminals to foil for cheap easy exp, fun and practice.

 

[The ?ion]

I like that last idea. Using Coast City and Oa as two separate hubs, would really work well for game flow. At least as far as plot is concerned. The first half of the game could use Coast City as a hub, with a mix of open world and missions. Then as the plot progresses, you would have Oa as the hub, with open world and missions. It reminds me of the island switching in some of the Grand Theft Auto games.

 

[The Bruce]

We knew this but it's cool to see for real

 

[The ?ion]

We knew this but it's cool to see for real

Double Helix has a very spotty track record. If I were to pick a company to develop a Green Lantern game, I'd either want Rocksteady (Batman: Arkham Asylum) or Bethesda (Elder Scrolls).

 

[misjuevos]

as long as i can fly in space and fight like this i will be happy

 

[GL1]

I'm not a fan of the guy standing on space, but it does look cool. What is this from? A 3D program?

 

[Hypestyle]

hopefully the combo codes to create different weapons/shapes won't be super-complicated...

 

[The Bruce]

I need to see something from this game

 

[BH/HHH]

Are there any plans for a Green Lantern game?

It could rock if done right

 

[gkokujin]

i say make it like SCRIBBLENAUTS and you can make ANYTHING.

 

[misjuevos]

I'm not a fan of the guy standing on space, but it does look cool. What is this from? A 3D program?

it was a picture from the dc universe online. was in a room i just put the people in space, did it on my iphone.