Is there a way to make text bigger in a game room?

What do you think of this trippy idea for a new video game? Any suggestions welcome.

• Okay, the game's nominal title is 'Fisiks'. It's a sort of Unreal Tournament style deathmatch, but only using 3 weapons that modify the physics of the levels (and are all completely harmless themselves). The goal of the game is basically a fragfest, but the only way to kill other players is by getting them to fall into one of the few pre-defined 'killzones' (environmental hazards like lava pools, spike traps and the like) that are scattered across each of the different maps. You have to get other players to fall into these places to kill them, after which they die and respawn and you get a point. Now there are only 3 'guns' in the game and every player starts with all three, no pickups. All levels are indoors (you'll see why soon). So what are the guns. Well, here they are: 1. Portal Gun: Yep. You guessed it. It's the same gun as the one in the real game Portal. And it works the same way. You fire one portal at a spot and another at some other spot. Then the two portals are connected together so that if you or someone else steps into one, you step out the other.  You can use this on yourself or on others. For example, if you put one portal on the wall behind you and the other at the bottom of a cliff and then you or someone else jumps down into the second portal, you'll emerge from the first one and basically 'fall' across the room (cos your momentum from falling is preserved). You could use this to, say, jump across chasms. Just like in Portal. 2. Gravitic Field Distortion Array: No. This is not the gravity gun from Half-life. Instead, this thing works similarly to the Portal gun, but instead of firing portals, it fires small squares that attach to the wall they hit and change the gravity in that space (the entire space across from that patch of wall - a cuboidal area) so that in that patch of the room (it'll be colored so players can see it), the 'down' direction is towards the spot you fired the gun at. For example, if I fire it at a spot on the ceiling, then there'll be a long cuboidal area in which if you or someone else runs into it, you'll suddenly 'fall' towards the ceiling AND, if you step out of that patch, you'll fall back down towards the ground (the default down direction of the rest of the level). You and others can have as many fields of altered gravity as you want all across the map, but they only last a few seconds each before fading and so the goal is to use them to 'direct' other players to the killzones (no one takes damage from falling from any height so you can't kill them that way). So you'll have to put them just in front of where other players are running in order to catch them. This'll be especially important as some of the killzones might be on the ceiling or other not easily accessible areas. 3. Temporal Manipulation Device: Basically, a time gun. This is the only gun that you can fire directly at other players. It does one of two things. Firstly, if it hits another player, then it instantly teleports them to where they were about say, 5 seconds previously (the amount of time can be changed). This does NOT allow you to keep putting people back into the killzones by continuously hitting them until they go back to the last moment they were in a killzone cos it only works upto each players last respawn. If a player has just spawned and you hit him with the gun, he'll just go back to that spawn point instead of going back to his 'previous life'. Secondly, if you hit an area with the gun it'll create a small 'temporal distortion field', which does the same thing as before, just that it'll affect anyone who steps into it (including you). This field, like the gravity field, only lasts a short time before disappearing. All the fields, portals, etc. will be clearly marked out in the game so you can avoid them while running. So you have to actually 'catch' people in them. Hence it's like one of those tournament style games. You could also have different game modes, such as limited ammunition for example (the default is unlimited ammo). There might also be objects in the game that you can manipulate and move around using the guns. Some of them will also function like portable killzones since if you, say, get one to drop on a player, it kills him. And maybe powerups. The best way to play to play this game would be to string along elaborate traps using all three guns to support each other (sort of like martial arts games combos). However, due to the fast pace of the game, these will have to be improvised on the fly rather than set pieces since any set piece trap can simply be avoided by other players since they can see it in advance. I think the game should be awesome in developing in players the ability to make fast, improvised tactical plans in a (literally!) ever-changing environment. What do you think of it? Would you play it? What would you like to change or add? Thanks

• Answer:

  Sounds pretty fun. I'd play it. Fair warning though, it could end up being very very difficult to code properly. I remember playing a multiplayer version of portal before portal was released. It was in early alpha stages with I think a single or only a handful of developers. It wasn't nearly as ambitious as your idea, but it was tons of fun. It was also extremely buggy and full of glitches. Crashes were frequent and people were constantly trying to break the game. With such large degrees of freedom in the weaponry used, especially in a seemingly quake-paced environment. Things will get hectic and the boundaries of the game will be pushed as soon as people are given the ability to play around. I think this is an exciting idea and there aren't many (if any) games like it. If you do decide to make it, sign me up for some testing! I find the time gun particularly interesting and also difficult to imagine working correctly. Is there a cooldown on it? What prevents people from spamming it over and over so a player can't move anymore? What if 5 seconds ago they were in the same location a player is in now? Do they warp into each other? Do they both die? One of them? Just some things to think about more. Conceptual viability and playability are two different things. Also with as the amount of players increases, the arena will get incredibly hectic and I think it would be nearly impossible to really string together traps without being interrupted by someone else. Though maybe that's the idea of it? Again, I think this is a pretty cool idea. In no way am I trying to discourage you, but just the opposite. It sounds like a good idea, you just have a lot more work to do. Good luck!