Community Project?

[Benton]

Well my *excuse* is that I am waiting for my copy of Photoshop CS5 to get here cause then I can edit model textures right on the models.

[tjheldna]

Hmm I think I'd need more detail about the project and what the actual game is etc. Being a community project and having plenty to do on my own project it would have to be a game I have an interest in. If that all matches up then i'd probably offer some modelling services for sure. I can code C++ too, it's just my 3D math that is developing. Working on a project like this could help develop my skills further.

 

What type of game did you have in mind?

[DigitalHax]

Not sure yet. I guess that is the next big question. What will the game be?

[Benton]

Let's use FPSCreator and do an RPG!

 

 

 

 

No I actually have an idea. Let's make a FPS but bow and arrows instead of guns, with cannons and horses!

[DigitalHax]

How about a future fps sorta like Unreal Tournament. (but less ridiculous )

[Pancakes]

Whatever you decide to do, might I suggest you find a way to take full advantage of all the very experienced programmers that you have? It would be best to limit the amount of characters (which require animation and textures) to an absolute minimum. Even with some experienced artists onboard you're going to have to decide on what you want, then build a concept, and then actually make it.

 

I would suggest a game like ICO or Shadow of Collosus. Sparse enviornments, very few characters. Lots of emotional impact with minimal cutscenes. This will give your music composer and story boarder something to think about. While all the complex climbing and object interactions will be something to keep the programmers busy. Puzzles for level designer etc.

 

But I look forward to seeing what you guys REALLY decide to do.

[DigitalHax]

How about a post apocalyptic survival adventure game? Something like in "The Book Of ELI" With a destroyed civilization and few people left. A bit like fallout but subtly different.

 

Not too many characters. Maybe only the main character and a few other travelers you meet along the way.

[Flexman]

How about some small and simple to get the hang of the workflow? Maintaining the pace in a long project is hard, really really hard, don't dismiss it, it's on a par with swimming the English channel hard. That's the level of dedication you'll have to face on non-trivial projects.

 

Please see the following "State the obvious" chart

 

Keep it simple:

Simple = greater chance of completion

Completion = enjoyable <- You want to be here

Non-completion = disappointing.

[AggrorJorn]

I like that idea DigitalHax. The only thing I would like to add to that is that we make use of the most powerfull features off LE:

• Large terrain
  
• Outdoor
  
• Dynamic weather, night/day cycle (Lighting)
  
• Rich vegetation
  

Inspiration sources:

• Book of Eli (movie)
  
• The last road
  
• Rage ()
  
• Fallout ()
  

Also agreeing with Flexman. Walking and shooting people would be a nice start.

[DigitalHax]

I like that idea DigitalHax. The only thing I would like to add to that is that we make use of the most powerfull features off LE:

• Large terrain
  
• Outdoor
  
• Dynamic weather, night/day cycle (Lighting)
  
• Rich vegetation
  

Inspiration sources:

• Book of Eli (movie)
  
• The last road
  
• Rage ()
  
• Fallout ()
  

Also agreeing with Flexman. Walking and shooting people would be a nice start.

 

 

You are just reading my mind That about sums up everything I had to say.

 

and add to that features list, a simple hunger/thirst system would be good.

[ChrisV]

How about a post apocalyptic survival adventure game? Something like in "The Book Of ELI" With a destroyed civilization and few people left. A bit like fallout but subtly different.

I like this idea too.

 

Let's make a FPS but bow and arrows instead of guns, with cannons and horses!

As for characters, I would also keep them limited. Making horses is not something everyone can do.

Best to sit down and talk with the group members, discussing what is possible, and what is not.

 

As for cutscenes, you also should decide which way to do them. Either by comic story telling, by ingame cutscenes, or by movies. This will also depend on the skills of the members.

 

Cheers

[shadmar]

Zombie killing spree idea, simple game idea :

1. How many can you kill before you are totally overrrun and killed. Get score on kills.

2. Or can you get from A to B alive in X minutes, get score on time and kills, pickup weapons on the way. (this will be doable in many levels as you increase range and shorten time or both)

[Naughty Alien]

..hmm..unfortunately, ideas presented, indicating that such projects will not see a daylight..i was hoping to see something rather simple and intuitive, from gameplay standpoint instead of something what has all signature of rather large and massive projects..

[Rick]

I like that idea DigitalHax. The only thing I would like to add to that is that we make use of the most powerfull features off LE:

• Large terrain
  
• Outdoor
  
• Dynamic weather, night/day cycle (Lighting)
  
• Rich vegetation
  

Inspiration sources:

• Book of Eli (movie)
  
• The last road
  
• Rage ()
  
• Fallout ()
  

Also agreeing with Flexman. Walking and shooting people would be a nice start.

 

With large terrain we have to fill it and that'll take awhile. I fear that's too big of a task to be realistic. There really isn't any harm in a small terrain to start with.

 

I agree with shadmar. The zombie approach is always a favorite. Getting from point A to point B while zombies are coming at you would be some nice basic yet exciting gameplay. Could be in FP so we don't have to worry about 3rd person character model. We already have a weapon with the LE gun to start with. Involves shooting, and some basic AI. Nice and simple with the ability to expand on.

 

 

 

[EDIT]

Also, the thing I haven't seen yet is language. The language picked could really start thinning the crowd That's actually the one thing I dislike about LE really. We aren't all on the same page with that but it matters when the rubber meets the road. I vote Lua or C++ myself.

[Pancakes]

I still have to say I think that ICO path is best. Effort wise you will get the most bang for your buck. AND, the artstyle can be as surreal/untrained as it wants to be. And any lack of polish can be seen as a stylistic device to convey an emotion. Partially because In ICO emptiness is just as powerful to the experience as having actual objects. A sparsely populated environment, either interior or exterior, with leadwerks lighting could prove very effective without the need of creating very many art assets. But most of all, very many complex art assets. (instead of modeling a rifle, you would be modeling a barrel and a sword just as an example).

 

Also, I thought that the puzzle oriented design of an ICO - like game would appeal to the programmers here. From a technical standpoint, developing such a game wouldn't be any more challenging than making a zombie game. However I feel you'd have more freedom to express yourself from a design stand point.

 

It's not that I am particularly in love with ICO, it's just that in my honest opinion it's the best route to take and very feasible to complete such a game.

 

It's only required features are movement, the most basic combat you can imagine (optional)...and that's it. The rest of the game is conveyed through level design and music.

 

The only issue I see with a zombie game is that of course the feedback that you convey into the zombies themselves. Making the zombies feel satisfying to destroy will be technical challenge seeing as the killing of said zombies would be the meat and potatoes of the gameplay experience I think. I don't like it when so much of the game hinges on just one person, in this case, your animator. With a more impressionistic artstyle, such as ICO, you can allow the programming to stand at the fore because it's going to be the cleverness of the programmers that actually define the meat and potatoes of this style of game.

 

And most of all as I said I think it's doable.

 

For those of you that don't know Ico:

[AggrorJorn]

Brainstorming about this is easier if we have access to some sort of chat tool, with some planning.

 

I would recommend (for now) Google docs, that every one can access (on invite).

 

@DigitalHax, can you make a list of people who want to join? I can send them an invite to the collaboration website.

 

If anyone has suggestions on websites that can be used as a tool, please report them here. thanks

[Guest Red Ocktober]

..hmm..unfortunately, ideas presented, indicating that such projects will not see a daylight..i was hoping to see something rather simple and intuitive, from gameplay standpoint instead of something what has all signature of rather large and massive projects..

 

i must agree with NA here... in spite of the initial energy displayed at the onset, i've seen this sorta thing before... with all the best intentions, the current approach is surely doomed to fail...

 

like NA suggested, i'm gonna also suggest an approach something similar to the approach the guys over at Frictional Games took... simple, smaller pieces (levels) as opposed to the massive, huge encompassing, all in one super sledge hammer approach...

 

the first level in Penumbra was set in a small cabin of a ship... period... no massive terrain, no complex animations... the second level was set outside in a small, frozen, hostile environment... where, through gameplay elements, the range of the player was limited to a small area... it got the point across without a massive amount of stuff...

 

i suggest anyone who hasn't already done so, to go over and download the Penumbra:Overture demo (it's small) http://www.penumbragame.com/ageGate.php and play it, to see what i mean... best to see first hand how a successful small (2 man ? ) team succeeded... i mean, if you want to actually complete something... if all you wanna do though is have fun and go through all the motions of the team game dev experience, then continue as you are...

 

--Mike

[Rick]

I say google docs. Get that stuff setup Aggror and invite me

[Guest Red Ocktober]

at this stage do you really think you need to do this... you're already creating an infrastructure to play around in and you haven't even decided on what you're gonna do yet... what type game you're gonna make...

 

--Mike

[Rick]

That's what I was thinking the google docs would be used for initially. The people who want on the team or are on the fence can use google technologies to do the meetings and brainstorming to make these decisions. Something that's more organized than a forum that'll blow out into 10+ pages which isn't organized in some fashion and will be hard to follow. I agree it's not to a point of actually working on but there are better tools than this forum to brainstorm all these details on is all I was meaning.

[AggrorJorn]

@red octobor: Exactly what Rick says. No big documents are being typed. Just some simple drawing and brainstorming with multiple people.

 

@Rick: Good point about the large terrain. I didn't necessarily mean that we would have to fill the entire terrain, but merely have a large view. Still working on a small mall 256x256 is indeed a better idea.

 

We are getting more input of which can kind of game its going to be, although this is not conclusive right now: What have we got at the moment:

• Environment: Deserted, wasteland, broken buildings
  
• Genre: First person shooter.
  
• Type: Survival -> from A to B
  

 

I will set up a google docs folder and Invite those who are interessted.

[Guest Red Ocktober]

... good luck!!

 

--Mike

[AggrorJorn]

Is it okay if I make a new Topic for this? I can add all the names and general info there.

[Rick]

I would think it would be OK to make a new topic about this idea. A topic created by you gives you full control of the top most post to update over time.

 

• Environment: Deserted, wasteland, broken buildings
  
• Genre: First person shooter.
  
• Type: Survival -> from A to B
  

 

That seems like a good starting point for debate/ideas.

 

 

One of the reasons I want to be part of this is I want to practice working on ideas that I might not 100% agree with. It's easy to work on your own ideas because you love them! It's much harder to work on ideas that aren't you own and you aren't being paid for, but I believe it's a good skill to work on. When it's in a team environment it's even more important to be able to play nice on a compromised idea, since really that's the real world. We probably all do this at work but things are made easier when we get paid

 

That being said I would hope others would see it that way as well. To not just quit or not even start because their idea wasn't used. This process isn't meant to make any of us money, but to get LE some kind of community game and to be a learning experience with working in a team environment for a video game that you might not 100% agree with but still being able to turn something out.

[Benton]

What about more of a horror game? I have played Penumbra:Overture quite a bit, and it is in the top three games that I have ever played. The actual amount of objects in it was sparse, it was mostly good programming and gameplay. I think we could take the IDEA from it and make a small horror game. We only need about 15 rooms connected with hallways to make the game. That's what Penumbra:Overture was mostly.

 

If we do make the zombie game we need just as much art IMO, more animation, stuff like that to make it good. We could make it sparse but it will not look great. If we do a zombie game, it should have a story.

 

You wake up in a small village. It is day 327 of the zombie apocalypse. There are no governments...there are very few people left for that matter. You have been holed up in a small village, barricading yourself in at night, but there is no more food and water in the village. You have no choice but to walk 20 km to the nearest village.

 

You start off in the morning. You need to find a weapon, ammo, and supplies. You have enough food and water for a week. You start walking.

During the day there are zombies but not a whole lot of them. At night however, they swarm. You need to walk 20 km down a road shooting zombies, searching for food and water and medical supplies.

 

Personally I don't see us making either game. They are just too big. For the zombie game we either make it an arena style game or a point a to b game but not too complicated.

 

The horror game is possable, however I think the best thing is to do some type of first person view, so very few animations. Maybe some type of first person puzzle game. Maybe a first person platformer, that would be cool.

 

Actually, the horror game might be good. It is mostly "locked room, i need to find the key somewhere, but to find the key I need to find some dog food so I can stop the dog from trying to kill me when I try to get that key from the supply room".