Atmosphere, Gameplay & Fun?(Space Hulk)

Hello all,

Some of you may know the board game 'Space Hulk' - a now out of print tile based board game about squads of power armoured soldiers fighting in claustrophobic corridors against innumerable hordes of terrifying aliens.

Many people have attempted, including myself, to recreate the game on the PC with varying degrees of success. I've come to the conclusion, not sure how correct it is, that the reason it doesn't really work as a PC game in most cases is that the fun thing about the board game is not the game mechanics but rather the atmosphere. The problem with most PC versions is that they try to recreate the game from a top down perspective in an attempt to recreate the gameplay of the board game exactly, which I feel is not the game's main strength.

Anyway - I've always wanted to make this game, or a game like it, for the PC - but am not sure how it could translate into a fun PC game.

An example of a game I found to have great atmosphere but shallow gameplay would be Doom3 (there are probably plenty of others but I haven't played many games) - it is fun to play for a short while but gets tired rather quickly. Would Space Hulk work as a Doom3 mod? (Substitute any other FPS engine - Doom3 used as example)

I wonder if anyone has ideas how the atmosphere of the board game could be captured as a PC game - what style of play / viewpoint, what level of interaction the user should have with the game environment, whether it would work as multiplayer/singleplayer?

Is atmosphere alone enough to make a game fun?

Anyway enough of my ramblings, what do you think?

they should make a spacehulk game like errr SpaceHulk, on the AMega. Which is a Doom3 forward look, but with ALien head camera view from the other squad members

Well, you talk about innumerable hordes of aliens - that's a stumbling block in itself considering you have a squad of marines there too.

There is only one Blitzer for this project - me. However, I am otherwise tied up, so this perfect 'Space Hulk' game is unlikely to ever see the light of day.

what about an action replay of a turn in slow motion, where you can see the aliens getting torn up by bullets or eating space marines

You can definitely take steps to recreate the atmosphere, or in fact go further. I've played Space Hulk on the PC many years ago.

Your key trick is to use sound and FX, ala Alien/Aliens.

- 'blipping' on the radar
- low rumbling noises
- distant metal grinding
- steam shooting out of pipes

A few of these effects, subtly done over the top of a dark orchestral music track, would definitely ramp up the fear factor.