The last couple of days I have been playing Brutal Doom (Doom 2) and it's the most satisfying, meaty combat and weapon handling I've ever seen in a game. If you are not offended by huge amounts of gore give it a try!

What this game does is it motivates me to try and create a shooter myself, a mixture between the first Turok, Doom 2, Metroid Prime and Superku (which means running on walls or the like). I have tried this multiple times before but I could not get the weapon handling right, however I think I can do it if I invest some time in it.

The biggest problem obviously is the content creation. I'd go for an old-school look with some modern (particle) effects and low-polygon enemies, similar to the following screenshot of Brutal Doom:



The question is, do you think a shooter is doable on your own (in a 1-2 people team), especially as a hobby developer? Why wouldn't you create one yourself?

doom + huge amounts of gore? sounds appealing...

Thought about that aswell (some multiplayer shooter in that style)... but I gave up since I hadn't (and still haven't) got enough experience, esp. with multiplayer programming

the only occasion I thought of making a shooter/slasher was when I planned to put the Recast/Detour navmesh pathfinder to my editor, based on the Peragro plugin, what I postponed (but not gave up) after playing a bit with its source because of my new RTS game ideas. but I rather wanted a 3rd person game. basically I don't like this genre to play, but I found it interesting is to develop a good team working AI.

the main reasons what hold me back to really start it:
- the missing mid/high quality graphics assets, and a good effect package.
- a shooter imo is really fun if multiplayer, and I don't know how to make a multiplayer shooter that has a fast response.
- in other engines it would be much easier as they have many helper stuff ready to use in professional quality I never can reach. not only visuals, but networking, physics, animation and AI packages.
- no story idea.

what you plan can be reachable by a tiny dev team, if you determine the target well, and keep limitations. the very free movement system (with special wall climbing) would really make it difficult to create a good enemy AI. even a jump up/down system can make AI things hard. and if only focusing on multiplayer it is difficult to collect a large enough player community. but if the story defines that the player character is a special hero, and enemy is more stupid race, then it can work

I would go for a pure singleplayer experience because otherwise it's almost the same as developing two different games (and for said reasons concerning multiplayer listed in your post).

(Seemingly) intelligent AI surely will be difficult but I find that interesting as well. Additionally I think not all enemy types have to be clever, one may add stupid cannon fodder to highlight more clever enemies.
I have a story in mind which is simple yet functional, the thing that is lacking though is my level design skill and the patience to create more than a few rooms... and no matter how good the gameplay feels, this is what makes or breaks such a game.

Btw. I've once (about a year ago) tried to make this game (idea) into a 3rd person game, yet I found that to be even more difficult (in terms of good shooting mechanics, player movement and the like).

there are other factors wich make or break a fps i think , the caracter being one of them , the other thing would be that the game needs to slowly progress from "someone trying to survive" towards "a hardened kickass force to be reckoned with" this is apart of what makes the story line i guess .

look at most of these games they mostly started with you being very vulnrable and under equip't for the task at hand and then as you progress through frightening battles and challenges you are rewarded with little perks of better weapons and such untill later you become what the "enemy" fear , the tables turn slowly through progression towards the end of the game , and when your done playing yoy must feel as though you made it through hell and overcame everything , trying to get the player to actually feel some kind of emotion is key .

then theres other things like ambiance take for example the old unreal games with its mysterious exploring music and all of that silence and little sounds adding to the feeling of the game , unreal was a very different kind of experience for me because of this , it wasnt just shoot them up but it had moments where the player felt like being drawn deep into the games world ..

some of the most fun aspects is the physics of bullets or projectiles , getting used to how the weapons behave and being able to feel where the next shot is going to impact makes things so much more fun , i think medal of honour or it was call of duty , one of them had great weapon ballistics (not realistic but fun) a good example were the last wolfenstein i played .

ai does not have to be too smart they have to atleast make you feel you are engaged in a battle atleast and having them positioned at the correct strategical positions along with just enough of them in numbers plus that one surprise enemy waiting for you could help ai seem more fun .

i think when you develope such a game you start with pen and paper , lay down the history of how the player came to be in the wrong place at the wrong time , and create the world and its history and story and caracters all before actually stepping on to concept art , code when you think you have everything planned out ..

Absolutely! The whole progress of going from zero to hero, not only in terms of story but especially in terms of gameplay is what I cherish most about those games. The Metroid series, 2D and 3D, (which as a result is one of my favorite game series of all time) does this extremely well, you start really weak and can even die to snail like animals and the like but over the course of your adventure you gain not only more powerful weapons and hitpoints but especially game(play) changing abilities. Even when you can fly and kill almost anything you touch at the end of a game the developers still manage to make it challenging.

I don't see fps being more problematic to develop than other genres that are generally a domain of triple A studios, it all depends on the scope. Most so-called "indie-teams developing an fps" have the problem that they target the same gameplay and similiar scope as the Call of Duty or Battlefield series. Most fps games you see in the unity forums, UDK forums or similiar forums look like they are trying to clone the multiplayer portion of these games, and that is simply the wrong approach, because even when these teams manage to reach a very high level of quality, the result will still be unsatisfying when compared directly to its source of inspiration, and as pure multiplayer titles rely on a strong community, they fail, as the audience they are trying to reach is already completely bound by the big games that the devs were trying to clone.
That being said, superku, your approach is basically the right approach. The main reason why we see few singleplayer-only, old-school fps coming from indie studios and being successful ist that most teams that have potential to pull something good off waste their time and resources with the clone type games I've mentioned, while they could produce much more unique games if they only tried.
I for my part would be rather interested in seeing what you'd come up with, considering the splendid work you're doing with your jump'n'run project.

EDIT: I'd also like to see more indie studios rolling their own tech for an fps game, the only decent one I know is this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-imkXWYTtc
The setting and general idea is rather lame imho, especially because it's basically the OTHER kind of game that every indie studio doing an fps tries to do, but the technical execution is rather awesome. One man doing the programming afaik. I think when working from scratch one could do some pretty interesting stuff with an fps.

i agree , trying to create the same thing would not pan out for you , it is like music in a way , dont you just hate it when someone tries to cover an old song you love . the thing is we are different as individuals and that is what produces something different .

i have playd a couple of crappy old graphic games in my time and the thing that pushes some of these games above some of the best looking big productions is the gameplay , you know most newer games today have a really short amount of overall gameplay time wich makes even the fact of its beauty dissapear fast when i want to smash my head against something for paying so much for basicly a waste of time , there are low quality games that wil stand the test of time against most new AAA productions .

i think if someone ,yes even a single person, really wants to make something great and fresh it would be tottaly possible , a great idea coupled with some people that could drive that idea home normally ends up a winner in my book .

I'm not a MOBA player and I find it pretty ridiculous how many games in that genre are already out and/ or are still yet to come, however I think one could still create some casual but fun experiences in that area.

What I imagine is for example a top-down tank based 5v5 or 7v7 MOBA, without item(s builds) but some abilities, or battle ship based (modern/ antique) with small islands as obstacles.

there are several such a tank games out there, but usually with a 3rd person view (I tried only one what is frequently played by the son of my brother, where you fight in teams, and you can select new armours, weapons, or features resulting in new abilities like higher speed, as your points are increasing). I only know one futuristic battle ship game, but an ancient Greek-Persian or Roman-Carthaginian would be cool (the latter would have more development possibilities).