Let's team up and create a game together!

Let's be partners and build a commercial-quality game together; we will document the entire process in the "full game" workshop series. If the game has potential we will publish it and we'll split the revenue fairly, depending on the amount of work / content / code / etc that will make it into the final version of the game.

Anyone can participate, regardless of his / her experience. Feel free to get involved offering ideas, advice, etc even if you don't want to be a part of the team.

Let's fire up our brains and come up with some great ideas first! Don't forget that we aren't building a MMO, but a casual game. Read the articles from Aum86...Aum88 to see why.

hmmm, casual? lol... well am not particular fond of that, it'd be more interesting to build something that can really show off the engine, a well designed casual game can do that also though.. any thoughts so far on what type of game your aiming for? puzzle? something new? breakout clone? etc?

just that am tired of seeing games that dont really make use of things such as semi-decent level design, physics of the engine and so on

I'm open to any ideas. A game from a proven genre with a twist or two would be a good solution. Another good idea would be a fresh concept like World of Goo, etc.

hmm i am not good at finding game ideas, but i would love to contribute to such project.

Thank you! I'm sure that we'll put together something incredible

Great Idea

I have to say that I have no ideas - but i'd like to code and make some models

Same here, if there'd be parts that I can contribute, I will (coding only).
As for Ideas, I'll brainstorm a little...


edit: what I'd like to know though: will you feel respondible, George? I think we would need a person who's in charge to get us going and to keep us going.

Thank you, guys! Sure, I'll manage the project and make sure that it reaches its destination.
Anyone is welcome to participate with ideas and / or get involved.

im in!

hmm game ideas eh?

well jump and runs are fun if you have interesting characters

an rpg something like diablo style might be interesting

and of course there is nothing wrong with zombies 1st or 3rd

Thank you for the ideas! Keep them coming.

What is with an extrem ego shooter or a realistig swordfight game or in devil may cry | Kingdom Hearts stil, or an survival island game like, loneley in a island with giant horrible monsters?
Or a tombrider still game, walking throw long dark caves...
What is with extrem ball racing and.....bla....bla....bla...


So I have alot Ideas, but what is realistig?
Do you whant to programm in lite-c, with newton or physx?
And what for game stils do you like?
I like action.

What is with this;

A solider from our time falled in a big war in the dessert, in a big cave.
Afert a long walk throw the cave, ähmmm, the is a portal that teleports him into the futher, let`s say the year 3000.
There is everithing like "megatown" from fallout, and everithing is of course hightech.
After a time walking around and playing there is a final world war against aliens or something like that.
Now the chareckter must proteckt the earth from evil "what evers".

You can mak out of this;
1/4 flight
2/4 shooting
1/4 tomb rider stil

Or we can just make a action racing game with (like) 20 levels or somthing like that.

To give your minds a blow, do you remember these simple games?

http://www.primarygames.com/seasons/summer/games/sliders/summer_slide.htm

And, do you know that Telltale Games used this principle for a scene in the last of their row of Wallace And Gromit games?
(BTW, they are as good as the initial movies with Wallace & Gromit, and worth each cent that you pay for it.)
If not take a look:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsYdROM9WrE

What are the twists they add to the simple slide puzzle?
Each stone becomes a person, and each rejects certain neighbours, and gives characteristic commentaries.
IMO, it seems sort of unfair to grab their idea and form a complete game out of it, but it is quite tempting.
And, maybe, they don't mind, if we develop it further to an origin of its own, do they?

I'm in, and I'll leave the first ideas to the rest

@george after you get enough good ideas you should narrow it down to a few and let everyone vote.

as far as working on the project , i suck at level design

but i can code or model

Thank you for all the help; it's greatly appreciated. My plan is to collect all the ideas, discuss them with the team members and have a poll at the forum to select the best ones.

I wouldn't go for a huge project, with 40+ great looking levels and so on - it would take us 1-2 years to finish it and it wouldn't be the best in its category when it would be done. Apart from that, I'm open to any other idea that would help up get something out of the door in 3-9 months.

Who knows, we might end up having a great team that can produce 2 games each year; I've seen it done before.

Lets to several polls to narrow it down. A too open discussion isn't fruitful. Personally, I vote for narrowing it done to a 2D-esque perspective and a game without expensive animations.

To organize it, you'll need a core team (one steady member for each position) that works if no one from the community works on it. An open repisitory like SVN and a task management system like TRAC should be organized so that people get organized.

Cheers,
-Christian

I don't really like the idean of a 2D game...

even it's going to be a casual game, please 3D


I also would like to see a character clothing like in Little Big planet .

I think to make a useful decision we need to know what skills are available. I bet there are more programmers available than artists. A good first person shooter is really hard if nobody can make animated characters and normalmaps. An RPG in iso/third person suits much better for a bunch of programmers.

I don't say that i want to make shooter or a RPG - i'd like to make à Game like Little Big Planet or other casual Games.

You are right, there aren't much Model artists... But if you give me a Picture from the Side and Front of à Model i could make it( without Animation and any Maps)
- so, i'd like to code, too

What about a game like "Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines" ?

- Top Down View
- Make Enemy's "line of sight" visible (via model or bitmap)
- Setting could be anywhere on the world (maybe during a war between two fictional lands)
- Gameplay focuses on avoiding the enemy, planning safety routes, distracting the enemy with an object (like a stone or cigarrette pack or bottle) and killing him from behind (with a knife etc...)
- Thus there's no gunplay, no grenades or other fancy effects
- If the player comes into the "line of sight", the enemy will directly run towards the player/shoot at him until the player exits the "line of sight". If this happens, a marker will be placed and the enemy will try to reach that marker. If he reaches it, he'll stop and look around (~ 10 sec). If he can't spot the player while looking around, he'll go to his last position/patroul marker and start guarding/patrouling again.
- If the enemy sees an object (like bottle with beer etc...), he'll try to reach it. When he reaches the object, it will be delete and the enemy will play an animation (like drinking ~ 20 sec). After that he'll go to his last patroul marker and starts patrouling etc...
- Also it's a top-down-view, we can build buildings with multiple floors. All we have to do is to create some big, invisivle objects which check if the player collides with them. If for example the player collides with "Floor.2", then "Floor.1" and "Floor.2" will render all the meshes and entities which are also colliding with them, while "Floor.3" and "Floor.4" and "Floor.5" etc... are keept invisible

That's all I could come up with (for now ^^)
If you search for a level designer, I might try to build some maps since I'm mapping for the "Thief: The Dark Project" community for nearly 5 years now. I was also one of the "beta-mappers" which worked on the "The Dark Mod". So, if you need someone who might map you some levels for your project, let me know and I'll see what I can do.

I'm all for steampunk themed games; A "Warlords: Behind Enemy borders", Bug's idea, but where one battles steam-powered automatons and bio-engineered air krakens would give me great pleasure.

But I'll be flexible . Can't really tell if this theme is appealing to mainstream players or not. Anything historic has my preference as well. But I won't walk away from sci-fi or anything else. Just less motivation ^^.

The gameplay is all fine by me.

i suggest a multiplayer game, why? because they are the only indie games that really survive for any amount of time, i suggest games similar like what torque does... some simple arena based or level based games with about 8 players, we could make a very exciting multiplayer tank game with just a terrain, few buildings and 8 players, something that could be worth playing, am not fond of aiding any singleplayer game, not that its not possible but it gets stale real quick...

so my ideas:
-8 player tank game [terrain, block based buildings, items, powerups]
-8 player plane game [same as above]
-8 player tps/fps shooter, doesnt have to be a clone... it could be unreal style and use open doors level.. so imagine:

8 players, terrain, few buildings, few fast paced weapons simple movement and animation, fast paced fun, take a look at legions made with torqe, am sure we can EASILY get that quality

I understand this that George is looking for an idea for a casual game, right?


Let me talk about the idea of a "slide puzzle", again.
Sorry for throwing in my idea in my first post without further explanations. Did anyone get the idea at least a bit?

The substance of the game is a number of equal squares that fill a certain rectangle. Only one square is left, and the player can use this free space to move a square beside the free space. This is as well the rule, you can shift only one of the squares into the free space, you can't lift them or 'jump', and only vertical and horizontal moves are aloud.

Now, the addition in the Wallace and Gromit Sequence from Telltale Games to this rule is that you can't certain squares, if they come near certain other squares.

The goal is traditionally to puzzle a picture that is printed on the squares, or to reach a certain combination of numbers that are printed on the squares.

The goal in the Wallace and Gromit episode is to place a certain square at a certain place, Wallace has to reach the bared window to call Gromit for help.

I think it might be a worth modificating these rules and goals.

Let's say one square has to cross the rectangle from one end to the other, when the square reaches the square at the other edge the level is won. But, there are certain squares that you have to avoid touching. Others have to stay in an even bigger distance. Then, there are other squares that have to go in front of the player's square to sort of 'prepare' or 'clean' the way.

Let's say we increase the size of the given rectangle and thus the number of squares from level to level, let's say, we increase the number of different properties of the squares, this might lead to the need of more free spaces than one, and this decision leads to further rules.

So much about the substance, now, let's talk about the design.

The main idea is already realized by the W&G episode: the squares are personalized, each square is a person.
The restriction of the person's movement is rectified by the fiction that the persons stuck in sand.

I think the persons have to be combined with the squares to make it sort of plausible - that's what design is about, right? Making rules and conditions and goals of a game plausible and obvious.

Okay, here my idea for a game design:
The rectangle is a sea, the squares are monsters without legs, who swim on square formed platforms, sort of rafts.

Some of the monsters are fire monsters that could melt the player's platform of the player, some parts of the sea have acid on its surface which has to be cleaned off by other monsters first before the player can cross them... and so on - I'm quite sure that, after we have a first prototype the ideas for further features are coming.

As long as the project isn't overly complicated and massive, count me in.

I'd like to say, though, that I don't really like slow-paced puzzle games very much. After a while they just get boring.

This is a nice one...i'm willing to take part also as long as isn't overly complicated.. count me in!

Hi everyone,

I'd really like to say this is a great idea. If there is anything I can do to help I will.

I can make pretty nice animated models, but mostly prefer making simpler fun ones.

I have had many game ideas here's a few.

A two player run and jump game with kangaroo rats combined with a casual game like tetris where you collect marbles with your rats and try lining them up like tetris on a separate sides of the screen. Rat model already done.

A four-player king of the hill chess game with 3d models battling for their game-board position on the mountain.

A game that builds sand castles like with wet sand falling with physics to build spikes.

A music memory game like Simon where a model grows in geometric shapes to the music.

Well there’s my eccentric list but the truth is a simpler game design like the new Super Mario Brothers might be more realistic.

I would be happy doing any simple art or modeling for this game if you want me.

Good luck with the project.


Guardian

PS: One last game a endless motorcycle ride game where you get off the road once in awhile at a biker bar to have a few beers and kick some…

Some isometric fantasy action/adventure stuff (sort of a smaller "Landstalker", but maybe going a bit of a different way in order to make sure the task is not too big) would be neat and in this case I would be highly interested.

But in order to join soemthing there has to be a well laid out plan which shows me that this is - unlike many other communtiy projects - is going somewhere.
also my availability is quite irregular, but I'd like to improve my skills concerning team work.

I expect at least SVN, Doxygen, a bug tracking tool and clear assignments/requirements. I'd also appreciate some general coding rules concerning module interfaces. This way I see it possible to distribute the work properly and this might indeed work out.

I like the idea from pappanheimer

we could implent à System that allows the user to load à pic and then He Must puzzle it like in your idea


I also like the idea of à 2 player jump'n'run where the Player can Jump on each other and kill them so

i also like Tower Defense Games, we could make one with Co-op modus.

Just my 2 Cents,
Marian

Thank you all for the good ideas; please keep them coming. We'll allow any forum user to vote several game ideas, and then the team will choose the best one. I'd like us to stay away from projects that require a lot of work; some people can lose their motivation if they don't see too many results after several months of work.

Bug: thank you for the generous offer; I liked the Commandos games a lot.

I'm not sure if any of you guys has ever played Z but it's an RTS with a twist that's got lots of great reviews back then: Z on Wikipedia

I'd like us to keep the ideas flowing, without trying to demonstrate why our ideas are better than others' ideas for now. We can then get lots of useful game concept twists from any comment that any user posts here.

@George: I never played the original Z, but I have Z: Steel Soldiers

It was a cool game, but not for a long time...


Edit:my 1000 post :D:D:D

Don't have any nifty ideas right now, but wanted to let you guys know, that i'm in if there's any need for shaders. I could also do some intuitive gui/hud (if needed).

cheers

What about an adventure/action style game.
Remember Space Quest/Police Quest or even good ol Larry Laffer from Sierra Games.
Those type of games could show of 3DGS engine, Lighting/Shadow/Physics etc.

Sounds like "Pixel Junk Monsters"

Let's see what ideas people come up with. There are some genres where I'm out for sure, but we'll see.
I think I can support as scripter.

Well, I don't like the 2D style of this game and I don't think this game has a co-op, has it?

Old school platform jumper. could be done in 3dgs with a thin level and player movement that is only side to side and up and down.

Oh and by the way I can kick out any seamless textures needed.

Anything simple is fine with me. I like the idea of a small, arcade platformer. A fast paced puzzle game like Tetris would also be cool.

BTW, I didn't mention this in the last post, but I can help with the programming here. I can program nearly anything (besides shaders), just give me a keyboard and I'm happy.

Of course it can be played coop.

I suggest a multiplayer "duel" game (for example with magicians or something else) like the multiplayer mode of Jedi Academy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlUNUvaq-OQ

That looks cool

Rei, Z: Steel Soldiers was the worst sequel ever. I was a huge fan of Z so I have tried to play it but I couldn't.
Thank you for the generous offers to help and for the game concept ideas, guys.

oh, okay


and i have an other idea:

An "emo"-shooter:

not a big shooter project with 1000 weapons, no, just with the flower-power of you and your friends. the emos hate light and flowers

small piece of story:
the world has been taken by the emos, just a small group is against them, and is doing all to get rid of them(mu hahaha). The whole game should look toony and with SPLATTER!!11!1!

hope you like it,
rei

You have my sword

I have to say - I don't understand this

maybe he is voteing for a lord of the rings game

its the scene in lord of the rings when frodo is asking for help on the adventure and aragorn (sp?) says he will help too... hes referring to helping with the game.

EDIT: or he could think he is viggo mortensen... not sure

congrats on your 1,000 posts, (and in less than 10 months)
I think I'll leave the "and my axe" alone to avoid confusion

I'd be able to help with scripting if the project is well managed with designated tasks. I've worked on enough projects where people disappear, work doesn't get done, or the project gets forgotten about.

How you will sort out who'll get what, depending on what they contribute will undoubtly cause arguments. Who'll the project belong to, who owns which source, what will be made available if people leave, etc... would like to know how you'll tackle this.

Other than that, would like to see a game similar to the original Baldur's Gate

@Rei_Ayanami:
Please, no more shooters... We have way too many of those right now, and I'm already working on two.

hmmm this thread looks very interesting, so I throw in my idea:

What about a economy simulation game like the settlers series?
- a lot of models, animation
- difficult pathfinding
- many functions and 2D Panels
- AI

maybe far to much work, but its only an idea!

I'm all for simulations. But this sort of AI is most difficult. Perhaps a step too far...

could be done if enough experianced coders were in and worked together i geuss

I think we are going to have PLENTY of coders, both experienced and not.
Artists are our weak point, or so it seems to me, they appear few to be
and far between in these forums...

So I feel we should aim for a game with a low importance on model quality.

By preferance, I would like to see "Z"-like game with a bit more focus on the
resource-building side (lke settlers).
Or maybe you could say a Settlers-like game with more strategic combat control.
But with a zoom-able playfield of 3D models like Dawn-of-War series.
The actual "time-zone" of the entities is not important to me, but ...
A "command and conquer" style RTS of "humans vs zombies"? Ive never seen that...
(that also make the enemy AI easier to manage, zombies are pretty dumb)
And it can be 8-player multiplayer both co-op and competitive.

It would be especially cool if we can implement it through the
(apparently soon to be developed by conitec) web-interface.
I'd love to give Evony and its spawn a good kick in the face...

They say that for years now, wouldn't bet my money on a release anytime soon.

The webplayer has been removed from the forecast.

Awww, now that sux... I was looking forward to that...
Thanks for the heads up on that guys, even though its bad news.

Ah well, everything else I said still stands though.

I agree with darkinferno - multiplayer games have the greatest potential if it comes to commercial indie games...
So if you do want to sell something, go for multiplayer...

I'd say lets keep it simple, no next gen fps or something of course, maybe an isometric/third person game, that would make content creation easier as less details are needed.
I'd vote for some rpg, maybe Diablo style? Diablo was hell fun in mp.
And its simple, resources can be created rather easily, several styles are possible... Steampunk, classic fantasy, hell knows.

first of all, sorry for my bad english :-)

what about a space-multiplayer ? with focus on econommy, trading,researching and crafting an not so shooting and destroying.
The players should group together to build a spaceship or spacestation and help together to grow and become better.

Sounds like star sonata. But that was a nice game.
After a while, when a player or group becomes emperor of the universe, the universe resets and everyone could capture planets again and build bases and defend their piece of universe.

How about an adventure game? I know the genre is dying and I don't expect much sales, but I don't think anyone here is in this for the money. It may get us some nice reviews on some sites, maybe get our demo in the dvd-rom of a magazine, etc. It's easy to do, everyone can contribute (people who can't code or model can still pitch ideas for dialogues and puzzles) and if nothing else, it would be a fun ride. This could be about a boy trying to make it to the game-dev world (like in MI3 Guybrush wants to make it to the pirate world and needs to find a ship, a map and a crew) or maybe you could play JCL in the quest for his lost data files that have been stolen by a warez user:).




Uhhh.. I was kinda hoping for a combo...

I once thought of an adventure game, tell me what you think:

"Go to bed, NED!"
Yep, the title is lame, but keep listening, you might find it interesting:

"You are NED, a little boy who lives in Nobodyville. One night, as Ned is about to pass into a deep slumber, he wakes up and exclaims: 'I'VE LOST MY TEDDY!'. Yes, that's right: Ned is missing his favorite bear, Ted, and he's not going to sleep without it."

The whole adventure would be based on Ned's adventures, trying to find his teddy bear. The game would be mostly situated at night, so 80% of all the town's residence (including his family) will be asleep. You know it's hard to interrogate someone about your teddy when they're trying to sleep...

Anyway, for every place you search for teddy, you get more points. You never find your teddy in those places, though: after collecting a certain number of points (you'll have to search a number of places and interrogate a number of people) Ned finally returns to his room, very upset at the loss of his Teddy, only to find it under his bed, where he never would've looked. I can imagine the player's surprise when he searches all over town for this dumb bear, just to find it under the kid's bed...

What do you think?

honestly, if we have an opportunity to make use of so many talented users, why would we do a puzzle game? or some simple, solve this, roll the ball here game?

i think we can easily pull off any of these:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8k-V3czlXQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEbU-DspSfg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qubvoZnaYKk

these games are nothing more than a few terrains with basic movement and some netcode

something simple yet makes use of some of the engine elements, terrain, basic movement, blocks, something that'd make someone wanna take a look at GS

i was actually going to give "my bow", but it was too late, combo was already dead.



Completely agree with you darkinferno. that's also what i think.

community has many talented programmers, we could do a lot more than any puzzle game with that talent. Gameplay wise, we should use this talent, and go for something more complicated than simple puzzles and causal games.(but not so complicated.)

I agree that small puzzle games are not really handy to do for us, but only because those games are focussed about artwork! Not because they're easy to make. We have only talents in programming as far as I see, and that will result in a less appealing game to see. Yet that need not to bother if we think of something technically "amazing" that's visible to the user.

A climbing, running and hanging dummy model isn't really good though.
We can't do the first link for we probably have no good models or levels.

The second video is less about environment but more about particles. Particles is an art too. Yet that can be overcome.

The third video looks bad . Quite a low standard if we'd be content with that. It's equally hard to make a bad looking puzzle game. I'm sure we can do better.

i would love to be helpful here. Adventure games, like LarryLaffer said are dying, it's a challenging genre to create, we could revitalize the genre(i don't mean a zombie shooter either,lol, no disrespect to anyone creating one). i have great ideas and can write incredible storylines. the idea of a game with action, and great puzzle elements with a good storyline, somewhat historical fiction, would be cool. like an adventurer time jumping to different time periods exploring each level, completing missions, collecting artifacts of that time period to activate another time portal to access the next time period. also knowing that he has a limited amount of time to complete the mission or be trapped in that time forever. here is the mission: you are chasing an insane scientist that created this technology to go back in time wanting to change history as we know it, and here's another problem, he is you in the future, and you have discovered his plans after witnessing his first time jump into the past. the cool thing about this project is, there are many talented coders and modellers here and experts at shaders. I can write a full storyline, if anyone wants to try this idea. it would be a great game idea, if you want to try an adventure.

Sounds nice. Villainous mad scientist are always good. I hope the modelling position can be filled.

Is "adventure" 3d... top view? or first person?...

As for the many-coders-problem:
What would be a fun task (I think) would be the coding of random-map-generation (for any type of game). Given a few parameters (percentage of land/water, density of forest/hills etc).

I don't want to make a shooter, but I think we've almost agreed on that.

http://blurst.com/blush/
This is a good game.

What I'd like the most would be something like (firoball's? was it his?) four little warriors, if I remember it correctly.
Choose you character(s), equip him/her, go and solve a mission, bird perspective. Click to move to a spot, right click to do something special at that spot (hide behind a rock/pick something up/open a door). As simple as possible. Maybe in the style of settlers 3, but 3d.

Preferably Multiplayer. I can do multiplayer-character movement (prediction and interpolation), i'd like to do it in ANet. 4 Players max would be better than 8, I think.
Something as fast and intuitive as jump 'n bumb:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8b84SrwgDU

Co-Op mode has always been the most fun to play (diablo II, halo) in any game, I think.

Edit: For more inspiration:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lKAJEzV5vc&feature=player_embedded
Simple design, yet they've done so much with it!
Lots of programming, only 2d art, still looks great... Intuitive controls from what I gather, drag-and-drop-equipping...

well, third person is cool i think. when he is interacting with the level it should be third person, but when he is on a level where he has to solve a puzzle, the perspective switches to a top down view. what would be cool is making him have to use tools of the area he is in to make weapons just to make sure there is no unfair advantage of futuristic weapons, thats if my idea was a game.

-we also have a few modelers, we dont want AAA quality and a block based level under some good lighting can definately pull off what was shown in that video

-video 2 could also be simply done with basic character models, all that game has is terrain and models, no shaders, we could easily do that with a multi texture terrain, some blocks and just 2 player models [assuming its a team based game]

i have no interesting a puzzle game or a puzzle like game, no that they arent good but its kinda the standard for the indie market, how many times will we get so many talented users on one project, i say focus on something that can display something good from the engine, so my vote:

- very stylized single player [great story and great artwork is the only way to do this]
- multiplayer arcade game [mostly code and some pretty standard artwork]

The only shooter game that comes to mind that would remain a hit is making a game like Team Fortress. The humor is mandatory.

Multiplayer has my vote as well.

I love this... So many puzzles that can be made with this concept..




I was thinking third person static cameras. So it looks like an old fashion 2d adventure, but it will all be 3d. And of course, point and click.

yes thats true, a comedy style would also excuse most graphical flaws / glitches, doesnt have to be ton but somewhat comedic, 8 players would also do nicely and could use standard expected shooter weapons which wouldnt be hard to code, the movement could be done client side since it isnt that much of a major title.. i planned to do a game like this anyways after my current project.. so if its not done here.. i'll do it with Anet and my own team

A cooperation game where one solves puzzles while others defend him ignited my interest as well. Maybe not very very practical but at least we can all work on the parts we personally prefer ;D.

Imposters hacking their way into the enemy base by solving puzzles, buccaneers to defend, and horsemen to launch an attack.

ya but also remember the work load.. lemme explain why i said multiplayer, a complete professional multiplayer game can be created using:

- only TWO character models, ONE if the game works off colors
- block based maps and some 512 textures
- 8 players
- few gamemodes

either weay, the post will go on forever if a POLL isnt made to vote on the favorite idea/genre/w.e

Yes, the workload would be more, but as nobody has a view on how many will participate with which skills it's hard to say whether or not it's too much .
Indeed we need a poll.

Sounds like a great project.

My idea for a group project:
Co-Op, sci-fi, Diablo-Gauntlet type game.

Art Pros:
Alien worlds lend themselves well to the diversity of contributers where art cohesion could become an issue.
Sci-fi would be a good choice, Diablo has done hell/demons and Gaunlet has done fantasy/dragons.

Code challenges:
Co-Op Multiplayer.
Random map/dungeon creation ala Diablo.
Prefix- Suffix based loot tables for endless variety in loot (Diablo, Borderlands, etc.).



Lots of great ideas so far.

The same poblem as always...
Too high plans for a first project. In my opinion it should be finished in less than half a year, for everything after this first step. It has to be simple and to progress fast, otherwize people will stop working on it and it will never be finished. And if the whole project actually end with not just george doing everything, then there still won´t be more than a samll "core team" with maybe 6 people and with some luck some donators, creating some very small parts.
Thus a quite simple puzzle game or maybe also a very linear hack and slay game could work, but everything else is just completely unrealistic. Yes, there are enough able to code complex things, but how many projects did you already finish? And how many of them have been big? I am pretty sure that the number isn´t high. And if we already fail on small projects when working alone, how should we then be able to finish a big game in a big team?

I btw, could probably help with some Lite-C and HLSL code...

I see the word 'multiplayer' get thrown around too often in this thread but I'm not sure if there's a single lag-free multiplayer game in existence so far, made by A7. I'm not following the forums so much lately so I'm not sure if that's true, but do we have a demo of a working multiplayer internet game yet? I've heard of Anet but I'm not sure if anyone has already utilized it successfully. Over the years I've kinda lost faith in GS multiplayer projects so I would only see differently if I can play a game (made with a7) with any of you online without it being choppy (like I can play Team Fortress 2 with 20+ other people and feel like I'm playing on LAN). The only actual game I can remember is Marble Madness 2, which was pretty fun, but really really choppy

So, if this was the UDK forums, I'd be very open for a game like that, but not here.. Hopefully, with jcl's pet project, or someone mastering Anet, this could change..

well i know that the engine can handle a smooth client-side multiplayer game and i currently work with Anet and know alot of smooth running projects in the works... and if your gonna say a 8 player online game with 4 levels, 2 character models and some basic weapons is aiming too high then this entire thing is already pointless, i've seen one person do that, we could use levels already existing and retexture them, we can put ppl to the test and say create levels and we implement the ok ones, am quite sure we can find 2 decent character models and the rest is code, whether Anet or Native, am only familiar with Anet however...

either way, whatever you guys pick is ok i guess but i dont think we should take and opportunity like this and do a simple puzzle game, we've seen in enough, the market has seen enough and unless you have great artwork thats doomed to fail also, create something that can capture the interest of the majority, a stylized shooter, some arcade like game, a survival game where players hold out against waves of mindless zombies, an old styled multiplayer game where you use bows and such...

Irregardless of this project, I'd really love to play any kind of half finished game like that, if it plays smoothly with 8 players on the net. I'm free to test it now, if you have it on your hd.

well you should be hearing of one real soon and my project is playable but away from public viewing atm but i know its possible.. and smoothness is not a problem in a client-side game really, the main problem you may have left is good hit detecion and there are immense tricks to doing that and theres a multiplayer demo from germanonkul using Anet, its a demo so 4 players but we tested that at 4 players and it was very smooth..

I wish you good luck with that. I know Anet is pretty low level so you have the burdain of making all 'smoothing' functions yourself. Like you said there are immense tricks for doing that and you'll need to utilize all of them for a game that needs the precision of an FPS to be playable. Just slapping a Dead reckoning algorithm won't work. I've read so many reviews of AAA game developers where they state that most effort has been made into making the networking work stable and smoothly.

I'd love to try that germanonkul's demo if it's available for download somewhere..

I think a first person RPG similar to Lands of Lore (LOL) or Double Dungeons (DD) might be interesting and achievable in a few months time frame. While both games are immersive, LOL has a more advanced storyline, level/character artwork, and GUI. DD, with very little of the aforementioned, still draws the player in and is more casual; the controls are very simple.

I've developed a quick method in creating levels for these types of games, which are essentially "mazes" filled with enemies, items, and loot. A maze can easily be translated from a sheet of graph paper into 3D Gamestudio. I'm thinking that anyone within the Gamestudio community who wants to contribute can make a maze or dungeon on a piece of graph paper, scan it , save it as a .jpg and upload it to a central web page that can perhaps be created for this project. From there, someone(s) assigned to translate the jpegs can enter the info into Wed and add it to the overall project. I would be willing to do something like this.

George, Thank you for proposing this initiative; I'm sure our community will grow stronger as we work together. It should be interesting to see what comes of it in months ahead. Good luck to everyone involved.

I think a single player puzzle solving 1st/3rd person game is a good mini project to see if this team is able to create anything.

The models created for this project can be used in RPG/FPS like games if the style fits.

To start with an RPG you would need (technically) inventory, text engine, ... which is complicated enought
But more important: a great story and a story teller who is able to transfer the mood, to keep the player in the game...

On topic:
I'm also against voting in a poll now: we need more talking first, there hasn't been enough precise propositions, just brainstorming mainly.

Ok, here's my (final?) idea:
Small arenas in which the Player battles AI with a few characters he can choose and equip (with a drag-and-drop style equipment system). After a quick initial deployment phase, you start controling your units (around 5, depending on how you equipped them, they have different abilities) and using cover to avoid enemy's attacks.
+ Small arenas would mean little art work, so we can focus on code, a nice GUI and a nice style.
+ As slin said, anything big is unrealistic. I think this type of game would give us the opportunity to try mutliplayer; Two people could try coding multiplayer-code for this game, and if that fails then there's still the actual game that works.
+ Arenas could get created randomly, meaning more code and less art work and more fun.
+ no need for a huge long story line, no need for big explanations, the game would be small. no need for many different models.
- we would need to settle on a style. I really don't care what it would be but I'd like "cute". Sort of like the warsheep from ICQ: they think themselves to be real cool...
- balancing and the item-equipment is a little hard in this one.

Reference:
http://www.4warriors.de/shots/shot7.jpg (four little warriors)
http://www.nokia4me.ru/uploads/posts/2009-10/1255857805_bezimerprni-1.jpg (icq-warsheep)

LarryLaffer: here you go.
The demo can now be downloaded from Peter Soxberger's site:
http://www.anet-plugin.com/downloads_eng.htm (shooter example)
Please also read the forum thread (link on the site, just under the download). There's some mistake I made when writing the readme, I mention it somewhere in the thread, I don't remember what it was though.
Note that this is no good for a shooter. It's a simple demo thrown together in a day or two. I am against making a shooter because a) there's too many and b) if done in multiplayer, it would only be frustrating, as people have said. Precise prediction would be needed which is totally unrealistic for a few indies who have their own projects to work on.

Some years ago I was working with Rhuarc on a project with lots of people from all around the world.
We used dotProject as management tool.

It is a great way to list all assets we need for the game (models, textures, sounds, functions) and assign them to team members. If someone leaves the team - and this will happen - we can see which assets are still open and needs to be assigned to someone else.

Together with subversion and other tools it would be possible to build the required infrastructure for an international online project.

I am happy to see that so many talented people want to get involved in this project. Let's keep the ideas flowing for a few more days.

"How you will sort out who'll get what". It's the amount of work that makes it into the final version of the game that will help us decide that. The project will belong to its creators; if people leave they'll get a smaller share, provided that their contributions make it into the final version of the game. Right now I'm more interested in seeing us producing a game from start to finish; I think it's going to be a very useful experience for any Gamestudio user and especially for all the team members.

I wouldn't go for a big project; I'd rather have us finish something of small proportions instead of dumping an ambitious project after 6 months of work.

i still think a single player, short missions, collect items and weapoms for protection and off to the next level with a goal at the end. it would be easy to put together. even if the action was a bit arcade like with lots of enemies to avoid or attack, and then go collect items and solve a puzzle to complete the level.

if i can help with non-organic models, 2d artwork(humanoid model concept art), sound effect, voice acting, or story writing, I am in! i can probably help with animations as well.

I could help with textures, non-organic models and some level design.

Germanunkol: Thanks. I'll try setting this up when I have some time. Any chance you already have an executable out of this? It would save me some time from gathering all required files and publishing it for my friends that don't have GS installed.

I had this idea about a co-op adventure since I played Legend of Kyrandia on the Amiga. How cool would it be to have two or three people in the world trying to solve the story? Maybe in a fashion like The Lost Vikings where each person has his unique abilities. I'm not aware of any game that has done this and maybe there's an obvious reason for that that I fail to see, but this idea always intrigued me. It might be possible with GS since adventures don't require precision accuracy multiplayer, but again... multiplayer just complicates things. The whole code needs to be written to conform with the network code. Pathfinding, Movement, Ai, it will all need to go through the server if we want to reduce traffic. I really see this as a project doomed to fail.

@larry,
in obscure series, that coop characters with special abilities are used a little.

in this game, you generally use 2 characters thought the game, if you play coop each player controls one, if you play alone, one character is AI controlled and one caracter is under control of the player, player can switch active character by pressing a button.

in some parts of the game you need ceratin characters to be together.

i.e. in a puzzle there is a ventilation cover(if that's what it called) on a wall, but it is too high to reach, there is no ladder or something, you have a screwdriver and it's certain you should be going thru the ventilation duct.

To reach the cover, you need to be playing with the most muscular guy with lightest girl. Girl steps on the guys hand, guy raises her up, she uses screwdriver on the cover, then goes in. from that point girl keeps going alone. I dont remember how it continued but probably, we re sending her some items thru the duct, and by controlling her, we were trying to find some way for others to get to the other side.(probably unlocking a locked door or finding a key.)

@Quadraxas
Yeah! such a game would be cool!
i played obscure 2 and it was great. the coop mode was really great!

I found it..




Check out the guy looking at her butt . Nevertheless, I really like the idea and may try that game sometime, but I'd still be a little shy at trying to create one. Especially on a project like this. Everyone must be completely aware of how our network framework works in order to contribute their code snippets. Otherwise, all the work will fall onto the one-two poor guys that will try to build that network framework.

yeah,yeah actually it was not my sugestion to create a online coop version of such game. In fact, imo multiplayer can wait for second project and also little puzzle games are too small.

we could create a 3rd person adventure/puzzle with a little action and probably with a dark,mysterious story. It doesnt have to be very long, 2-3 hours playtime is ok imo. Downside of such game is that we need good voice acting and musics, and alot of models/levels of same consistent art style. because of that this could also be hard for such group.

the game we are creating should be focusing on gameplay and game mechanics imo, this is what our group can do best. We can follow a easier to create art style.

or

we can go for arcade with things like online highscores and leveleditor etc.(Aaaa! of Dejobaan was a very successfull indie-arcade game ) This could sace us from thinking about a great story,scripting the story, voice acting, too much level design fitting the story etc.

IF you think about it the game should be completed in 6-8 months at max. and none of the group members are doing this as a full time job.

I don't think voice acting and music would be too hard to find. It might be tough to make all the levels required by an adventure game and make them look ok (adventure games require decent graphics). Which is why I proposed this to be 3rd person point and click, so the camera will be far enough for the levels to look good and the level designers can also focus on working on the levels only from a certain view perspective.

a co-op game sounds prety cool. if one player plays it, he can give commands to the ally or switch bodies to have control of that character, or two people can control each character, and there will be a cooperative effort between them to solve certain puzzles. if there was a game where one person who was stronger had to lift an item, then the other person could reach under the item and aquire something needed to complete the puzzle.

the co-op being described above seems already too much, multiplayer right? theres alot of work to tie those systems together, i still think a single player system may be a bore as like most created so far and i think everyone should take a look at the demos from torque game engine to see an idea.. i dont care much for creating a game based on what i want, but everyday this community talks about getting good looking demos for the engine... i say now we have the chance, we can definately create something moderately good for even a team of 2 people so i dont see why 5 or more should be working towards something too basic..

if you try a single player game, then you have to put alot more work into animations, sounds, models, all aspects, we mainly have coding skill... and dont see why we should aim to create anything less than what i've seen from one man teams of this forum..

For a co-op game, how about this idea?

You awake and find yourself and your teammates in a kind of control room. They tell you that they seem to be an a abandoned space ship which was lost during the last big war 200 years ago.

Your mission/sub missions:
- find the master control room to enable the emergency energy
- find the systems video log, to understand why this ship is abandoned and what kind of problems might be in your way
- disable the autonom intruder detection systems on your way
- find the "energy crystals" (bio gel packs/nuclear battery) to power the lower space ship section
...

This way we could introduce several puzzles, autonom security bots, ...

---------------

This game could be played as
- single player with npc team mates
- hot seat (switch between persons)
- LAN mode (without chat system)
- split screen (two cameras) using joysticks for input

EDIT
Currently I try to make a deal for a texture + model pack for such a game. This could give this project a big boost

the amount of artists / assets available, although most think dooms the project, only hinders the project, any artist worth their salt would make models / textures / animations if they can see something that already exists, working, and playable

in this community there may well be fewer artists than coders, but it's a lot easier to find an artist with reference for the game that models are needed, than to find a coder to make the game for the models that already exist

people in this community can code with the engine, artists from any engine can make a model

once the infrasturcture is made of what we want to do is agreed and in place, then should we worry about getting models to go with the game

__________

coop would be good to make, but MP isn't exactly GS's strong point. we should find what's possible, idealistic and sell (whether for free or paid), and approach it from there


(i always used to think i was the only person who played LoK! :P)

final note: if this community project isn't what people want to create or work on, then let people know too, if there's 20 people who want to work on an FPS, but 10 want an RPG, doesn't mean the 10 people can't team up and make what they want

Some sort of puzzle game, where a specific task has to be accomplished each level with co op(!) multiplayer where you need to support each other in order to reach the goal sounds very tempting....

My idea was to get environmental art very soon into this project and try to get some artists from game-artists.net or moddb.com into the game once we have something to show.
To start with 50 static models and 100 textures could help the artists to concentrate on animated models, custom objects, etc.

It is just an idea and I asked the company for a way to use their models and textures in a community project without getting into legal trouble.

May it be a Sci-Fi, fantasy, medieval theme... was not part of my request. Just if it would be possible to find an arrangement for this project.

i can do programing (shader ,ai script , etc) and some music composing and i'll be very happy to contribute in this project.
after that i have some gameplay and story ideas.

i think some sort of action/adventure game with an sci-fi story is one we looking for and it's easy to finigh.

one of my story ideas :
the game starts with this :you awake in a cave. you know nothing about yourself. you dont know who are you or where did you come from. yous cloth look new and clean and your skin and hairs too.
you start to walk.feel like you was asleep for many years down there. continue to discover your new life. finally (after an hour of action/adventure gameplay) you arrive at outside.

and then in a metal-gear-like story you find out that you are a robot that manufactured 300 years ago and planted in that cave to awake 300 years later(now). after that you discover your mission:

save men from aliens.


(300 years ago a group of scientists predicted that aliens are going to capture the planet and they arrive in 300 years so scientists started a project called "JEPHETO project". the goal was to manufacture an advanced robot to defeat aliens. and now you are that robot. but... but something is wrong. there is no alien or spaceship in or near the planer. actually aliens are not exist. and the real enemies of man are themselves.

now you must complete your mission and save the planet and man. save them from another world war. and its up to you to help which side of war or even kill all man and build a robotic world.

end

i hope you understand the idea and forgive for my poor english.

Dr Black, your story made me recall an old adventure I've played called Beneath The Steel Sky. Anyone played it? It had one of the best plots I've ever seen in an adventure game. It also had a very original concept for that time; to have a friendly npc robot follow you around, which helped you accomplish many of the puzzles.

A friend of mine (a writer) also told me of a very nice similar concept once. He had created a whole fantasy universe for some sort of Table RPG game, and in one of the planets the story went as follows:

The humans had built robots which in time the became completely depended upon. The robots that were in charge of security had only one mission inscribed in their boards. Protect the lives of the humans of that planet at all costs. One time, a major war started at that galaxy and the military force of that planet was insignificant compared with other major powers of the galaxy. The robots estimated that their masters (the humans) would lose the war if one of the major forces decided to attack the planet. So, they forced all humans to board ships and moved them to a smaller inhabitable planet where they dug tunnels and lived underground. The life on that planet was miserable and the conditions were extremely poor but by the robots' logic the quality of life was not relevant as long as the humans were safe. Now, all humans were enslaved by the robots and no-one was allowed to leave the underground tunnels, even though the robots were acting out of the very own rules they have been programmed to (kind of like The HAL in space odyssey). Obviously, you play a human character in that planet, trying to figure out a solution. There's no clear cut solution since even escaping the planet would put the inhabitants in risk due to the galaxy wars, but at the same time the life the character is living is not worth living anyway.

However, if we'd put all plot ideas mentioned here in a poll, I think I'd still vote for the one about you fighting your future evil self . I think that one was a real winner.

PS: Other Adventure games we could use as inspiration for a plot: Another World, Flight of the Amazon Queen, Time Tunnel and, why not, Leisure Suit Larry Also, Flashback was a great example of an adventure with Arcade elements (I think that genre was called Action Adventure then. Kinda like the original Prince of Persia). But then, we can't use point and click movement any more, and I'm not sure it would be very straight forward and simple to attempt a movement system similar to the modern Prince of Persia games. Maybe a little too ambitious for a first project.

Also, another idea. How about a game exactly in the style of Another World? Side Scroller, but you'd have to solve puzzles to go through levels and with a good story to back it all up. I like games where the camera perspective still looks like 2d, but it's rendered with a 3d engine and uses actual models. You still get nice 3d graphics, but the 3d element is not pushed in your face, and the camera view is much less confusing which enhances the gameplay. Kind of like the camera in Age of Empires III, as opposed to the camera at Populous III.

Other games that scream for a remake: Syndicate, Moonstone, Lazy Jones (Lazy Jones is ideal since each programmer can make his own mini game).

thank you Larry, I didnt think anyone actually read my post for a game idea. I thought it was a good storyline myself. I would be more than willing to completely write that storyline, I came up with the idea while reading about this proposed project. there is a lot of talent in this community, and i am sure if we delegated the tasks, we could get it done quickly and completely.

larry, 3d Side Scroller is a good idea. we can merge action/adventure and puzzle elements into it. as you said "flashback" is a great example. while other games like another world can be a good source (of gameplay an story)

Blink, i read all your posts. your game ideas are crude and need more details. i know, its a prototype but it will be better if you explain your gameplay ideas in more details.

and after all, i think that we must focus on gameplay and story. and dont try to built a game like high end games, its not capcom or EA. its a team going to create its first game.and there is an independent game developing proverb that says :
limiting your vision is one of the important keys to a successful project.

that's not only true with indie games, that's the financial backer and producers role at the moment we're all designers and no producer

sorry Blink, I loved the idea too, but didn't want to start commenting on each individual post saying yay or boo, would really like the idea of the whole idea set in totally different eras, even going back to the dinosaurs and future space age



yup also played that, along with Flashback, Syndicate, and Leisure Suit Larry series. I'd be happy to see the LSL cartoon element in a game, though don't think it'd really fit this storyline, although, the who says Larry would never be a hero!

Todays final note: Personally, to get a game done, with: easy concept; easy level creation; easy implementation; achievable timeframe; but rewarding enough for 'a pat on the back', I'd opt for (as LarryLaffer pointer out,) a 3D updated version of Syndicate or Cannon Fodder

I am not sure if a 3D side scroller would limit the use of shaders and great light effects to show what can be done with Gamestudio.
While it would be possible to use postprocessing shaders to get a uniqe look or even use scanned watercolor textures to get a different mood compared to hightech glas/metal shiny environments - I think side scrollers are a bit "retro" and limit the player in a forward/backward trap.

EDIT
But leave this for later...

A great story can be implemented in different styles (side/iso/3D...)

slacer, its true, 3D side scroller(or any other kind of game) would not limit use of great light effect. and its possible (and great) to use postprocessing shaders to make a uniqe look and feel.

but i dont agree with "side scrollers are a bit "retro" and limit the player in a forward/backward trap". even in a side scroller we can let the player to move all around our world as we saw in Batman:arkham asylum (scarecrow levels) or early nes versions of ZELDA.

for example we can add a top-view camera to game and active it every time player reachs at a multiway crossing to let the player choose his/her way and after that we switch to side-view camera again and follow player. isn't that great and easy/fun to play. also this can be base for some puzzles.

Some ingame cinematics or scripted cut scenes could be in full 3D even if the player cannot control the camera. Just the idea of a pure side scroller is what I would not expect from a 3D engine.

cutscenes could / should be made with an external program, that would look better

(like C4D)

If we have someone who is able to do that. But you would want to have highres models and environments in this case, too.

Do you have the skills needed to create story telling clips?

A clear no for prerendered cutscenes. It's a lot more work and does not really show off the capabilities of the engine.

If cutscenes are necessary (I think it needs capacity which will lack the game later), then I think it would be better to do them ingame, so you have a smooth transition between gameplay and movie sequence instead of a hard cut where the video starts playing.

and low-res prerendered cutscenes looks like sh*t. Because your game can't be 4-5gb in size you can't have high resolution high quality prerenedered cutscenes. It also kills the atmosphere. It can be done with great detail in-engine cutscenes. See mgs,dmc4 and wide range of other games using engine for cutscenes. Prerendered cutscene thing died years ago

@DR_Black, I don't think "crude" is the appropriate word. maybe just "incomplete" would be better, crude has an insulting tone to it. it has a lot of possibilities if completely written.

i do like the 3d side scroller idea. i played one called heart of darkness, it was fantastic! it would make it easier to do environment backgrounds and would save time during level design, and the action could be confined to the immediate area. puzzle elements would have to be well thought out though.

forgive me blink. thats true "crude" is not a suitable word. "incomplete" is better. but at the time i didnt remember the word "incomplete" so i used a rare one("crude"). anyway, forgive me. its my fault

i haven't play heart of darkness ever.

four years ago i decided to build such a game. then i tell this to one of my friends who was an artist and programmer.we started writing story and doing storyboard. three month later my friend has moved to a little city 1000 miles away without any internet connectivity. and game project was fail.

i still have codes,arts,etc from that project. they are very poor and pure and simple (i was 15 then) and i think we can use them in this project.

Heart of darkness was great
I don't think we can use the code, though, for we'll be doing this in lite-c I may hope.

i found this great video that may help us keep a bit of perspective. it talks about video games and the storyline.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jdG2LHair0&feature=related

I like the whole "Let's team up and create a game together!" idea.
In my opinion the best way to finish such a project is to set on simple but good and entertaining gameplay. Some people develop the gameplay and especially the movement in 1-3 weeks and spend a year on the rest. This is not the way to go.
A fresh multiplayer game would be great but (too) hard to create. The better option would be a 3d side scroller, I think, as mentioned above several times.
There should be more A7 side scrollers, too. Competition is good for business!

I could do some scripting too i think. But if we really want to pull this off we should work are little more organized now.
Maybe creating a separete thread where people can say that they participate in the project and a thread for the concept would be a good start?

Flashback was a great game indeed. Oh, and The Lost Vikings has kept me in front of the computer for way too many days
Let's keep the juices flowing for a few more days and then we'll open a separate thread to see who wants to participate and how many hours of their free time they can spare each week.

Lost Vikings indeed is nice. Recently played it using DOS Box. I think it is abandonware now.

Problem for such a game is, that you need a lot and very well thought out levels.
This is an additional time factor which should be considered.
But that is true for many genres, especially jump'n run, RPG, shooter...

how is that hard to create exactly?

@darkinferno: i know you are working on a real multiplayer project and know about it's downs and ups better than those who did not worked on a "real" multiplayer project.

actually it is not hard we just need dedicated and experienced individuals to work on multiplayer.

also, no offense, i would like to try your current game with users from Germany and other europe countries to see how it works.(though, i would undertand that if it is not optimized yet). I play games from Turkey, f.i. cod mw2, source engine games, tf2,l4d etc and i dont feel "lag" when i am playing with european players. If someone ever creates a project(*hint*) that can perform this good, people will have more faith in multiplayer gamestudio games.(doesnt matter if it's anet or native dplay)

If we'll do a multiplayer project I'll make sure to finally finish that lite-c sql plugin of mine. It may prove useful, as it does for me now, again. We'll see.

Wait for my christmas contest entry

yes i understand, currently the testers are from Israel, Italy, Australia and me in Jamaica, one of them in particular gets pings of over 250 and its still running smoothly and un-optimized, i just think that instead of creating our own personal "great idea", create something that can bring people to the engine, looking at the examples from torque and unity should show what i mean, users always talk about demos/projects to represent the engine and i see a chance here but see where more personal ideas are being issued, also, the survival game using the native gs mp functions ran pretty smooth and the author himself knows exactly how it could be made smoother...

You may not understand the problem, I know that you are working on a multiplayer game, but it is very, very hard to create a smooth (!!) and playable multiplayer game (like a shooter for example) that runs fine over the internet. Have a look at Valve's Counter-Strike (Source). They are very talented people and they invested a lot of time in that issue. Just google it. Old positions of all objects are saved and when you shoot, the server calculates your shot depending on the time it takes for the information to get to the server. Btw a ping >= 100ms is almost inacceptable when you play a 5on5 war or likewise.

I hope you can prove me wrong with a working example, though!

i am aware of how the CS does their system and theres a game called urban terror that i play and it runs really well with 8+ players at pings of <200, and client side movement gives us our smooth movement, the only problem is hit detection and there are countless methods to do this, one is also to trace for a few frames per shot, rather than a single frame...

the biggest thing to draw people to the community is a decent looking MP game, SP doesnt deliver that so easily, plus, theres no need for perfect hit detection in certain styled games...

in terms of assets, i still believe MP is easiest, thats where we need coding strength, SP needs alot more resources and in most cases hardly pull any major attention..

look at this game:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4t0p50Hj1Q&feature=related

15,000+ views

a few models and a multi texture terrain

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHQiz_pM2Pk

if we're saying we have more coders than artist and cant do that? then.. i dont know where this is all going.. am not saying the ideas listed above are bad, but study the indie market and you see that the main survivors are:

- very stylized and unique SP games [alot of artwork used]
- multiplayer games [mediocre artwork in alot of cases]
- that one random stylized game that god knows how it turned out to be fun yet we love it [aaaAAAaaaaA...]
- you'll hardly see any story based indie games that really go far, we just dnt have the assets to tell the story correctly especially in such a harsh industry

pretty reasonable, i also agree mp shooter type game require less artwork, apart from that you can always add new maps to such game after it's released.

there are alot of ideas floating around, for multiplayer,if there are experienced people willing to code mp system for the game, why not?

I would not make an MP shooter. Tthere's too many around we can't compete with, and who'd wanna play a 3dgs mp shooter if he/she can play CSS or Halo?

MP, sure. I'd be willing to give that a try. Shooter: no thanks. Too much prediction + interpolation, as Superku mentioned: Too much requirement for precice position.

I'd go for top view or even side scroller. Click-and-Go sounded good, as someone mentioned earlier.
We could make Blink's video link into a game: You're the developer in search of THE story.

Or not.

ya but i didnt mean shooter as in FPS or some standard gun game and also indie shooters do have good fan base, for example, i love urbanterror and combat arms more than CS which is supposedly a AAA title right?

well i do understand the reason fa not wanting to do a shooter but dont throw shooter in the category of the standard fps, i dont care if its solely a shooter, it could be a racing game, a marble game or whatever, i just know that multiplayer indie games in most cases survive longer than SPs but oh well... whatever is fine i guess, either way i still have my MP coming along

I'm also in for a multiplayer game, though I won't be able to commit much time. I'd also avoid a shooter game, with the same reasons as Germanunkol gave above.

A "click and go" type of game is fairly easy to programm, hack and slay action like diablo, or it could be more puzzle-oriented. It just happens that i'm currently programming a "click to walk" prototype which is developed into the MMORPG direction, but I could simply remove the login/account management code and we'd have some code to look at or even start from. I'm currently using the Anet plugin which we should not use as it's not free and we'd get into licencing issues. lets rather show what the native system can do. I've done it before in C-Script, maybe I can dust off that old code again and get it into lite-C. As said before, we could create the the basic level geometry from prefabs if its indoor, and then add details through models or decals. That's pretty much what my plan is for my current project, though
you can check out my blog (see signature), but there isn't much info yet.

on the other hand: singleplayer can be a lot of fun, but telling a story can be really difficult, as we just can't compete with the AAA story titles. the game shouldn't take itself too serious.

we can keep going back and forth here, but we dont seem to be getting too far. the way it looks, we are pretty divided. everyone knows where i stand, and we all have to be willing to work on the project even if it was not our choice of projects. thats going to be the key to it, actual commitment. so, lets ask George what he thinks, and let's move ahead. i think if we look at what each of us has to offer, then decide on how our workflow should go, we should be able to knock this out in no time with minimal effort. the reality is, it's not all about AAA graphics or competing with other games, its about fun and showing 3D Gamestudios ability to make a fun game that could be commercial quality, isn't it? with the tools and the talent, we can make some great games here. look at what realspawn and spike was able to do, not to mention the great David Lancaster and mp_developer with preva, and a host of others, here is our chance!

I was just thinking the same thing, Blink.

George, you're the arbiter here. Everyone who's interested in this idea has already pitched their ideas, so go ahead and choose...

Choose or Poll, whatever.
Im not fussed which as long as we start going forwards...

I thought it would be fun to do an adventure game as Odysseus or Hercules fighting the Minotaur with the maze and all those cool ancient creatures and such. Someone here did a mini back alley fighting game some time ago that was real fun to play and the Ideas of ring or cage fighting sound fun as well.

I guess what I’m getting at is what kind of game art style should we do? Dark, Light and upbeat, comic? I basically agree its time to get down to it, at least that’s my vote.

Also if this is going to be sold, it might be a good Idea to look at the marketing side of things in an equally serious way.


Just my last two cents


Guardian

I think we are actually getting somewhere, cause the "divided" part you mention, Blink, is, I believe, just what george was waiting for: Some ideas that crystalize out from the others. (Is that even proper english? O.o)

As for where I stand: I'll gladly help with a game even if it does not go into the direction I'd vote for.

If it's possible to join, then I'm in (Can do what needs to be done, except producing music )

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

My little idea

It's a stealth + action + "puzzle" + more interesting things

We are 1 person, who fights for honesty in the town.
We can control up to 4 team members and give them commands what to do (alert if something is coming or something else)
There is a possibility to talk to pedestrians and maybe giving money(if he accepts the deal) give some commands what to do.
One secret person will give information to us and we will equip our team and go for the goal+(Making a plan how to do it - stealth or action)

-Demo Level
<
We need to get documents from a person in the 4th floor
There are some possibilities how to do it (During the game you can think what to do or how to mix it up)
Some of the possibilities:
- Get on the roof and by the house side get in the room
- Be a delivery boy and knock out the bad guy by a sleep pica that he will eat
- Jump from side building roof to the room where is the bad boy(your team members can help you by alarming if he is near the window or someone can ring at the door while we are jumping in the room)

And of course there comes the getaway to the bus station
>

That's only a rough idea
(Sorry if the text contains grammar errors)

I think this is a great idea and no matter what type of game you choose, with so many serious GS users involved in development, it will surely be very representable project. One thing to keep in mind is that everyone will expect, maybe not big, but surely complex game that will use all of the GS advance features. This could be GS project that gives a good impression on what can be done with A7.

My friend and me (Blade Of Power team ) would like to be a part of this project if you find our abilities to be sufficient. We can offer help in four segments: leveling (designing,modeling and shadowmapping), character models (designing and animating), music and sound effects.
I have uploaded the examples of our work at FileFront here:

http://www.filefront.com/15196129/Examples.zip/

In example ZIP you can find clips of animated characters from Blade Of Power, that doesn't really represents my animating abilities anymore but can be a global guideline, and one exe file: two-room level that is taken from a new project not related to Blade Of Power. This level also contains music and audio effects originally composed or recorded by my friend.

There is also important ReadMe file placed in ZIP that explains all modeling, animating and audio-related limitations.

That's all. I hope you like our work and consider us for some segment of this project. Thanx.

ok, now we are pulling things together. we have modellers, scripters, and a general idea of what type of game. most seem to like the idea of a 3rd person action/adventure puzzle game(maybe when this game is completed we can step up an tackle a multiplayer project, let's crawl before we walk). and i think we should maybe combine story plots, like my idea along with other story ideas, chasing your future self through different periods in time, and add a puzzle every level that only your character can solve because your "future" self created the puzzle. add some stealth in there (we can't really be seen, can we? we might have to knock out a guard or two now and again)and some much need action(after all, your future self isn't going to want to be stopped,eh? so he will probably assume a position of power to be able to alter history), and now we have a hot game. lot's of fun, challenging puzzles, some danger, what a wild ride!

don't forget I offered to do seamless textures.

I am very thankful for all the people that want to get involved. I have read all your posts and these are my thoughts:

- It looks like we’ve got many more programmers than artists, so we should choose a project that doesn’t focus on great looks, but on gameplay. If we’ve got great artists among us, we will end up having a project that looks and plays great.

- I don’t want us to create a tech demo of the engine; there are lots of great demos, youtube videos, etc that showcase Gamestudio’s power. I want us to create a full game from start to finish (even if it is a smaller game) and try to sell it if it has chances to become a commercial product.

- I’m afraid that we can’t have a multiplayer-only project this time; there are lots of free, great looking multiplayer games on the market already. We’ll go with a single player or single + multiplayer if it fits the game concept and we’ve got enough manpower.

We can’t beat EA, Capcom, etc when it comes to level design, models, etc but we can beat them when it comes to great gameplay. If you want to be a part of the project, please write a post telling us what you can do and how many hours per week you can get involved in this project; I have started a separate thread inside the Aum section of the forum. All the people that will be a part of the team can come up with ideas that follow the guidelines above; we’ll choose the best project and use ideas from this thread to improve them.

In my case, i only keep my attention in games with a direct competition whit other gamers. I think it is the clue but i also love all kind of games.

I have not a rounded design for a game but i have one special (i think idea. Last months i have been looking for an idea that turns out to an easy design and a more complicated coded 2D scenary/player movement. ie: When the player collides with the ground, it vibrates, player math based animations and things like that.

I found Bezier curves maths and i think it fits perfect with my idea. The player can move into the curve and the curve can change dinamically. I have tested (push F2 to toggle 2D/3D mode) it with collision bitmaps and modifing a simple collision model for the physics engine and it looks funny. This way you can modify the escenary moving simple reference points in 2D or 3D mode. I want enphasize that this idea comes from a dynamic scenary search and it can fit with your puzzle or side scrolled game idea like a visual core based trick.

In other way, looking for a coded solutions for a 2D player instead of animated sprites, i made a complicated doll with many panels and windows for player orientation changes animations. I drawed it with a basic line mode and a full colored kiddy style thinking in an easy design. This way we can transfer design efforts to coding efforts but sincerelly i prefer 3D games.

Just some ideas, sorry for my english
Salud!

pd. i'll be maindfull for this proyect!

These are 2 impressive projects (especially the Bezier one). Something like that could easily be turned into a fun, physics-based casual game.

Hi George!

The idea came to me with this very good arcade game:
Cosmic Guerilla © 1979 Universal.



Note:
"For some reason you have 2 of your ships placed in the middle of the playing field and aliens all around them.
Luckily, they're protected by 6 rows of barriers and you're on the bottom, doing your job to protect them."

Ok, this is a very nice gameplay to remake it as 3D Game and my idea is follows:

- Terrain level with random structures, like Procedural buildings and textures creation etc. that never repeated at the beginning of the game.
- Terrain as valley, around the center eg. walls with barbed wire, barriers etc.
- Enemies as robots, spiders or similar with AI, sometimes larger vehicles such as from the "Mars Attack" movie and in the center of level, buildings of player lifes as energy in capsules with shield barriers where the player must protect them.
- From time to time some power-ups falling from the sky, like ammo, first aid, energy, etc.
- Player on a free platform, but with distance moving limit.



Artwork in progress...



Of course, all in style of sci-fi, like next-gen game, maybe tomorrow I'll post more 2d artworks like humanoid models, concept art, etc.

This is a good idea! Unfortunately I am still learning the Gamestudio, and all I could currently do, is test it. Do you have a software company to host this, or not, because I may be able to help you with that. Message me if you have any questions.

I've been very busy the last few days, but I'd like to get some feedback on my first idea.
If you're interested in the details, then I'll post DD too.

Update:

New Concept for the Player and Level



Level Concept in Progress...






Thank you for your interest, but if I've finished the Design Document (DD) and I also have a prototype then I'll post a message to You.

Looks good! If you have a prototype already it's going to be even better.

Thanks George, but at the moment not yet available, I'm currently working on Design Document.

Please take your time. You'd be the only one with the prototype anyway

Hey George!
I´m also in this project, I can offer doing some modeling and texturing work..

Edit:
Sry..forgot to mention that I have about 3-6 hours a week time for this project

Cheers

KIND OF A CRAZY IDEA...just trhowing it out there...but what about an MMO? havent read through all the posts yet and dont know if this has been proposed yet. But it's worth a shot. I know its a dangerously competitive market we'd be stepping into, but with things like iridium and Shade-c at our disposal 3dgs is becoming more powerful and has potential to compete with some of the current mmos. I have absolute faith that we could construct a game that looks better(visualy) than world of warcraft.

BTW: if this create a game together idea gets rolling i want in.

We probably could develop something that visually looks better than WoW. If we spend 6 years on it, invest large amounts of money and quit our jobs.
And then we wouldn't even have any of the movement and interaction code yet.

No MMO please. People have even voted against ANY type of multiplayer.
I's like us to concentrate more on style and gameplay.

Hi George,

In case you are still open to ideas, how about a third/first-person safe-cracking or robbery game?

Have any of you guys seen the old movie "Return of the Pink Panther" back in the 60s (with Petr Sellers)? Unfortunately, it is not on youtube.

There is a really nice scene at the beginning where we follow the thief dodge lightbeams, use crossbow to go on roofs, and various contraptions to pick a diamond at a distance without triggering the alarm. It's a bit like that stuff in Ocean's Eleven, but better filmed and more suspenseful.

As a third-and-first-person game, it would be a mix of tombraider navigation, puzzle (the room where the safe/gems are), and the physics engine would be used too to simulate stuff not to knock over, and what not.

Minimal AI for guards and alarm, minimal/simple levels and models, but lots of programming for the pysics engine, interfaces and the whole dynamics of levels.

I think it would make a decent casual game, with a clear storyline, beginning and end, but requiring reflection and manual skills and reflexes.

I am not much of a artist, and am no match for the programmer on this thread. But I can do decent particle programming though (for what it's worth).

Thomas

Note: I am not talking about a "Pink Panther" game!!!

Thank you for your help, guys. Please check out the other thread in about 1 minute for fresh info.

Sorry, we aren't building MMOs. We want to finish the game.

ngisiger: your idea sounds interesting, but we'd need an army of level designers to implement it. I'll let the entire team decide the idea, though.

I didn't know this initiative...
It is cool, what a pity i can not see any result of that.
I would participate gladly in this project. Or in other project like this.