Creating 3d video games 2 - Story and concept

Before we begin making our video game we need to have a story or plot to set the game to. Since we are creating a small simple game our story will also be short and simple. The background for our game begins when a hostile alien race lands on earth and plants a virus onto farmer Jenkins dairy cows. The cows are now transformed into bloodthirsty killers whose only goal is to wipe humanity off the face of earth. In an effort to contain the killer cows you have been employed by the local authorities to destroy all the cows on Jenkins farm.
Now we have our story we can work out the basic concept and game setting. Since we only have one area for our game(Jenkins farm). Our game will consist of one stage. A farm setting will also be easy to create. Only few structures such as barns and some fences will be needed. Now is a time when you will want to rough draft your stage design on paper. I already have my stage design laid out. A rough draft doesn't need to be super detailed or fancy this is just an abstract blueprint for your game. Here is my first draft of  Jenkins farm.

Red = barn
Yellow = hay bail
Green dot = tree
Brown = fence

I have a simple rectangle shaped farm surrounded by a fence. Inside the fence I have a couple barn structures and hay bails. I added a few trees for extra detail. This is the basic layout for the farm. More detail and structure can be added as necessary.

Now we have our plot and a basic layout for our game stage we need to determine what type of game this will be. I chose to make this game in the style of a first person shooter. This will require less character animation and first person shooters are overall easier to make.

Finally we need to determine the overall objective of the game. We want to kill all the cows but to make the game more competitive I will have a reward system. You get money for each cow kill and a bonus for completing the stage fast. You will also receive bonus money for accuracy. The more shots you land the more money you receive. The goal of this game will be to complete the stage as quickly and accurately as possible.

Some optional things you can add into the game will be power ups or different weapon types. Since we are trying to keep the game as simple as possible for learning purposes we will use only 1 weapon and no power ups.

Now we have a story and game concept let's start creating our farm stage. In the next lesson you will get a crash course in basic 3d graphics.