The Verse: Universal Econony System

You could introduce a trading system in the Verse game. It would be similar in style to an old 8-bit game from the 80's called Elite. Basically you could buy and sell goods on each planet. each planet would have a different type e.g. the planet's technology level. Different worlds would price goods differently based on their type and world status (e.g wartorn planets, peaceful, etc).
Trading in illegal goods would cause your wanted level status to change. could also add the idea of factions to the game as in the game freelancer. doing missions with one faction causes reputation with that faction to increase and possibly causes your reputation with others to decrease.
also other actions would cause faction rep to go up or down. examples attacking ships of that faction etc.

The Verse working title

A game loosely based on the ideas of Serenity/Firefly. It would be based in the not too distant future maybe 50-100 years from now. We would have made contact with another advanced race which enabled us to gain knowledge that would have taken us 1000s of years to develop by ourselves. This technology allowed us to travel and explore space. Space travel is now as common as normal international flights within Earth.

The game would have a hybrid element to the design, in that it would be a Space game but you would be able to visit different worlds and get out at the city of some world and explore and have missions on these planets.

Goals and more story lines need to filled in later.
Stay tuned!!!

Movie Elements and Familiar Places in Games

Lots of entertaining games use concepts and elements straight out of movies. This can have a very positivie effect for a game as players that have seen the movie from which the element orginated will feel a sense of familiarity in the game adding to overall enjoyment.

These elements need not be limited to just Movies but could also include familiar places and locations. Taking the GTA series of games as an example we have the current GTA IV which gives us the world of Liberty City which is modelled after New York city and includes those noteworthy sites such as the Statue of Liberty. The previous game in the series GTA: San Andres gave us 3 cites of America.

• Los Santos - LA including Hollywood sign but called Vinewood in GTA universe
• San Fierro - San Francissco again including some notable landmarks like the Golden Gate Bridge
  
• Las Venturas - Las Vegas with the bright lights of the strip
  

One of the missions within the current GTA IV game is a Bank job, you are one of 4 men dressed in suits, wearing a balaclava and armed with an M16. One of your crew is killed inside the bank and once ye are ready to go the police and swat have surrounded the area outside. On foot you proceed out the front door with the other 2 members of the crew and each carrying a huge bag of money on your back. The the bloodbath battle begins as you fight your way through the streets to make your escape, it was very much like the scenes from the movie Heat.