So I have created a game set in the world of metro 2033. Originally I never planned on doing more than playing it with family and friends but a year later we are still playing it and love this game. I know there is a original metro 2033 game published and am looking for opinions or options on how much I need or should change. The game is nothing like original and uses no character names. The game is great because of the mechanics and game play more than story but I like my world as is. Mine is closer to a rail game where players use a metro train to travel the subways fighting mutants with dice and gathering supplies for a battle to take over the metro. Its been titled simply "Metro" as well.
This is my first step before hopefully going to kickstarter someday.
MY Metro 2033 game..............I could use your help.
I'm not an expert on this by any means, but here's my thoughts.
I've played Metro 2033 on the PC, so am somewhat familiar with the story and background. I'd say if you are concerned about having it seem too close to the Metro 2033 world, that you avoid the following
- references to near future Moscow / Russia - perhaps basing it in a different country, at a different time (alternate history London or New York, where maybe there was a nuke / chemical attack during WW2 that forced people to live underground, or a 1990s post cold war communist attack against Tokyo or Washington DC)
- telepathy monstrous dark mutants - mutants can come in lots of different shapes and sizes, maybe try to avoid anything that looks / feels like the dark ones,
- communists / fascists / nazis - if factions / groups play a part, maybe try and avoid the same ones that exist in the eastern Europe / Russia area of Metro 2033. Maybe go with Capitalists, Libertarians, Green Party, an old Religious faction, or a new "mutant lover" religious faction or something like that.
However, it may be possible to try and get the game published as a licensed product (although I have no idea how this is achieved). I think they are working on further sequels to the video game, and possibly a movie, and I think there are other novels / short stories published that exist in the same universe (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universe_of_Metro_2033), so it sort of seems like this might be an intellectual property that they are trying to grow and develop further. There very well may be room for a second board game, especially if the game play is different enough from the existing one, but still plays well with the Metro universe.
To be honest, I've never heard of this particular universe, but I have a few suggestions I can toss your way:
First: it's often best to develop a game without any ties to intellectual property. In fact, this is often a benefit, because it lets you think of ways to come up with your own creative ideas and not have to worry about whether or not it'll reach the right audience, or whether or not the mechanics you're proposing fit into the universe.
As for the story, there are any number of possible reasons why you might be underground in the old metro system fighting bad guys. It could be that you're an underground resistance against a corrupt empire (like the Pinochet regime in Chile). You could be a special forces team rooting out a terrorist organization or an evil genius. You could be a team of genetically altered persons, trying to gain their freedom. You could be htere because of a disaster, like Nuclear Fallout, Ozone Layer Destruction, Volcanic eruption, carnivorous wildlife mutation, or the downfall of a major government power (Like civil war in the United States after the economy collapses in a dystopian universe). (Can you tell that I enjoy DMing in D&D a little bit?)
I think that the familiarity of an intellectual property will attract some people to play it, but I also fear that it would keep people like me away from it because they don't know the storyline. But, if you create a universe that's similar, one that can be related to by most any gamer, you've got a much better shot of selling the game.
Plus, it's YOUR story. You don't have to do battle against preconceived notions and character identities to do what you want. You get to decide those things.
Who knows, maybe your story will be better?
There is already a VERY, VERY POPULAR game called "Metro" (Circa 1997):
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/559/metro
This game has several awards and I have personally played the game. It's pretty remarkable how the game plays out (actually). It's about connecting railways and scoring points when you do so. Your other objective is to throw your opponent's railways for a loop - so that they cannot score points.
So you'll have to find another name - that one is already in use.
As far as I know and understand the creator of the Metro series doesn't mind that there are spinoffs to his story and he actually encourages it.
There are already numerous other writers using the same setting to create Metro-stories set in their own country.
There's an interview with him on Giantbomb if you wanna hear what he has to say.
There are already numerous other writers using the same setting to create Metro-stories set in their own country.
There's an interview with him on Giantbomb if you wanna hear what he has to say.
Spinoffs and fan fiction is one thing, but a commercial product is another. No matter how much the "creator" says he's ok with it, the power lies with the PUBLISHER to get money out of people who make money out of that copyright/trademark/whatever.
Just change the theme, don't share any names, don't even use the word "Metro". There are PLENTY of other words to use. Don't be restricted to other people's IP for no good reason. If your game is good on its own, it's good on its own.
Will check it out.