Awesome.

:)

The game would be a dark sci-fi steampunk fps with a focus on environment based battles. A large amount of the gameplay would be around humanoid Automatons and your ability to manipulate and use them, along with other bits of machinery. Instead of being run and gun all the way through they would be a fair number of puzzles, and large parts of the gave would gain a somewhat survival horror feel, with resource management and the like.

Gameplay:

Moving around would be an interesting mix of realism and insanity. By default you move like a normal human, with the ability to walk and run with stamina or whatever. You have options to use some sort of machine that clamps onto you and helps you do superhuman feats, but at the same time wears down other aspects such as maximum health. You also have a jetpack with limited fuel which can help you navigate, but in deathmatches can be shot and destroyed.

There would be a ton of interactable objects and machinery. For example you might be able to turn the gas on in a kitchen with a faulty piece of equipment and it'll explode. Or try and crush other people with pistons in a factory.

Along with this would be the ability to "reprogram" (I'm not sure what the steampunk equivalent word is, like when they move around the physical gears and pistons), machines to do things that anyone else who uses them wouldn't want.

Along with this would be humanoid automatons, which you can command to do things or collect items. Some automatons have control over certain parts of whatever level your on, which can reorganize parts of the level or send out other machines to try and fix damage. So you might damage a part of the level, then the automaton might send out a machine to fix it, which you then capture and use for some other purpose. This would require a fairly complex script set-up, but I managed to do a simple one in the prototype so I don't think it'll be too hard to expand upon it.

Of course it wouldn't be an FPS without some guns, and fitting with the steampunk style they're going to be pretty cool :D. Here's an image of one, for those who haven't seen them before. If possible I think gun upgrades would be kind of cool, but not really necessary seeing how open the rest of the game is. Along with guns would be an assortment of knives and other things you might be able to loot from corpses or find in the environment. During large parts of the game the weapons may be used in different ways, such as knife being used as a lever, or a gun to break a rope.

Some more specialized items would exist as well, such as a gasmask, but for brevity sake I'll stop here.

SinglePlayer:

For the single player campaign you'd go through many different environments, from towns to plains, factories, blimps and even a hallucinatory dream-world. The steampunk universe this is set in contains a large number of automatons which fulfill menial tasks such as janitorial duties or being a waiter, with the lower class having been wiped out by a bunch of extremists a few decades ago. There is still crime, although a diminished amount, and barely any seedy business going on since everyone is known and has an impact.

It'd follow a standard gun faring steampunkian as his or her life is interrupted when a glitch in an automaton causes them to be arrested for ____. Sentenced for execution, the player breaks out and is on the run from the police. The automatons also want the player though, as their work on mechanical human hybrids has altered him enough that the automatons may be able to use his body as a vessel, since they become complex enough to believe they should be conscious a while back. The player slowly looses more and more weapons, health etc until blah blah blah you get the idea :). And of course all this can be changed :).

MultiPlayer:

I figured the multiplayer mode could still add the story while adding an entertaining variant to standard deathmatches. Whatever map the players on would be separate from the world (Like a blimp, or way underground, or on an island :D), in an area completely controlled by an automaton. While already having the jetpack and environmental weapons, there would be another interesting spin. Whatever the map, the area your in is failing and will result in you death unless you do maintenance on different parts, as commanded by the AI. Failure to do so can result in the AI starting to change the level and attempt to murder you as well. These tasks can be small or large, and may require some spontaneous teamwork.

Graphics:

I would prefer a semi realistic style, Half-Life2 for example. If not possible then any style that isn't cartoony would fit (That doesn't cancel out shell shading btw).

Anyway, thanks if you slogged through all that, and if you like the idea then please let me know! :).

Steampunk fps with lots of interactable environment and machinery. Hal9000 and other crap and blah.