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[Gameranx] Why a SUPERMAN Video Game Is So Hard To Make

I don't think Superman is an interesting character for a game, or a movie. Kryptonite and also especially Lex Luther are kinda crap tentpoles of that universe. But if done right of course everything can work. Imo the bits were you pretend to be human, ie the Clark Kent costume, could be used for story elements and in between you do something on the scale of Asuras Wrath and God of War. Does not need a lot of filler gameplay against some street gangs. Just some story segments setting the stage of who on the world might get hurt and then some extensive multistage grand battles, destroying houses, city blocks, going into space.
 
I think a game with super cool destruction would be neat. And one gameplay angle you could explore is to try to fight villains while also trying to minimize civilian and structural casualties, while the villains don't give a fuck or even want to destroy and kill everything. Another gameplay mechanic could be saving people or whole cities from some disaster or big accidents. This could be framed as a puzzle section or something that you have to come up a solution for within a time constraint or so. And I mean, for all the flaws Anthem had, the flying was fun. So if you nail down the basic controls and feel of flying around and just fucking punch shit, you are already half-way to a decent Superman game.
 
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demigod said:
Didn't OsirisBlack hinted at a Superman game at the beginning of this gen? What happened to that?
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There was a long standing rumor that Rocksteady was working on Superman before Suicide Squad. Then they confirmed a few years back that they never pitched or worked on one. The rumor was there supposedly because Superman appeared in the Kill the Justice League.

Not sure if that's tied to OsirisBlack's rumor but that was the latest I found regarding Superman. Don't see anything else about any other dev touching the IP.
 
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Angry_Megalodon said:
A godlike character is a walking plot hole, just like OP dragons in fantasy. There is no way to create a balanced experience without fucking up its worldbuilding.
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Utterly bollocks.

Best not to project your own lack of imagination onto the empirical art-of-the-possible that any competent games designer worth their salt would be able to explore in anger.

Making a functional Superman game is no more impossible than it is to make a functional game of the following IPs:

- Incredible Hulk
- One Punch Man
- God of War (Kratos)
- Invincible
- Etc
- Soul Reaver (Raziel)

Any reasonable Superman game has lots of ways to explore making the core game loop work.

At the high level you need to:

- Make you feel super powerful
- Make you feel like the protector of the earth and its people
- Tell an interesting story

And to make the gameplay work you simply need to align the above, with any chosen success <> failure conditions for gameplay mechanics you choose to implement.

E.g.

A Superman game that provides an open world, mission-based narrative and gameplay structure.

Superman is taken on a journey to help various people in the city and to work undercover as Clark Kent to uncover a global plot by a sinister outfit to take over the world. A series of pivotal situations are uncovered over the course of the game that escalate into a global stakes conflict with a secret enemy revealed.

Missions can be varied, from destroying enemy locations and installations, to saving people in varied situations and circumstances, and the gameplay challenge comes from sandbox use of intricate mechanics designed to balance the two. I.e. you can pick up and carry cars, people, bridges etc. use your laser eyes to repair broken infrastructure, cut through walls/barriers to locate civilians etc, use ice breath to slow down or stop hazards from endangering civilians etc.

Example missions could be varying scenarios that require you to save as many people as you can in a time limit from a hostage situation.

Maybe there's a focus bar that makes you move faster as you succeed in certain actions or destroying enemies, and then you can use it simulate super speed (fast flying or bullet-time like actions).

The mission passes or fails based on a threshold of civilians saved.

Then you make this meaningful by taking a leaf out of the Synder-verse and have the world change based on how much collateral damage (civilians killed, destruction caused) Superman leaves in his wake. Either the city loves you, or gradually they begin to hate you (or certain groups do) and this can unlock different types of missions based on your performance throughout the game over time.

E.g. lots of collateral damage and Lex Luthor gains in popularity, gets backing by the major and then rolls out a kryptonite robot army to take you to task around the city. Or make the city love you and he ends up in prison, escapes to the underworld and rolls out armies of gangs of underworld super villains to go after you, but the police and military attack them when you're around (vs attacking you in the alternate scenario).

So many ways you can make something like this work with a bit of imagination.
 
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Would be down for a Batman/Superman teamup game. Just them being bros

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Other superheroes are different that the plots often have giant battles with lots of other super villains, or for filler tons of scrubs and sentinel fodder. Not all DC and Marvel supes are god-like. They can die like a normal person so even though everyone knows they will survive there's always some risk and urgency.

Superman's plot and villains are few in enemies, but involves something more diabolical like Lex Luthor doing some weird shit behind the scenes, or for the millionth time Superman gets nailed with kryptonite. Superman stories are more half romance and drama.

To make past games have more action you got tons of dumb shit like endless random enemies or Superman 64 flying through ring BS like it's always constant action. That's not Superman. And unless every enemy has similar god tier powers like him or fodder equipped with kryptonite rifles, Superman isnt getting hurt. But they resort to jamming in weird shit for sake of dying like he's a wimp.
 
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Gambit2483 said:
That would be extremely hard to pull off....maybe if the "Old Rocksteady" team were at the helm I'd have more faith in a project with that level of ambition.

Highly doubt they could pull it off today, but I'd still like to see someone try...
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The "Old Rocksteady" team would be able to pull it off, I wouldn't want the people currently hired at the conpany to take a crack at it, they would screw it up
 
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