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[Endorya]

I have to say your edit addition to the first post is actually more useful than most of the rest at giving people an idea of what they'll be getting into, so good move with that. ^_^

And this is why I need help from people, so they can give me those little pushes in the right direction. Sometimes I do loose focus with details! My wife keeps complaining about this...

Generally one has to earn commitment and incentivize any sort of dedicated interest. This sort of attitude is... not attractive. It might not be your intent, but it feels a bit like you're trying to keep it secret so that you maintain a position of power in later negotiation. And also like you're trying to get something for nothing. I'm assuming that's not your intent, at least for now, but I figured I'd let you know how it looks. I'd very much question whether I'd trust any level of commitment from someone offering it for such a thinly defined project (ad it is, right now, thinly defined) , for someone who doesn't have much in the way of reputation to build on. You might get some people who are enthusiastic... but who's enthusiasm fades once they see what's actually involved. And you'll miss out on the people who'd actually be an asset to your development team, because they dismissed the offer out-of-hand. Maybe this will work for you, but it doesn't seem an effective way to get results. In fact, you've even mentioned that this is a problem you already have, in your original post! The way you're pitching this, people with a bit of spare time are those who you're likely to get interested, because you haven't really given much of a reason for anyone else to get involved. For all someone reading your first post knows, they'll be putting in long hours of effort for absolutely nothing, and you'll retain full rights to everything they create. That's not a lot of incentive, and it would be good to disabuse people of such thoughts early on if possible.

And I fully understand that.

Sure, they count! Since you'll be programming this as well, they don't count towards your qualifications there, but they do support your ability to lead a small team, understand and implement mechanics and systems, and carry a project through to completion, which is arguably much more important. Could we have links?

You mean about the table games? These table games were done with a couple of friends long ago. Though the futuristic strategy submarine game seemed really nice, it never got into the printing phase and the whole project fade away as we got married and moved towards different paths. The only thing I have from all projects is an excel sheet containing the model cards I designed. They look pretty damn good if I dare.

Also:
What systems will you be developing for?

I'm developing it in Visual Studio C#, which will grant Linux and Mac the ability to play it through MONO, which is awesome!

[Grek]

I'd be interested in designing a game, but this seems like more of a simulator with a roguelike interface than an actual game.

[Levi]

I'd be interested in designing a game, but this seems like more of a simulator with a roguelike interface than an actual game.

When you put it that way it sounds pretty awesome.   

[Endorya]

I'd be interested in designing a game, but this seems like more of a simulator with a roguelike interface than an actual game.

What you see is actually the editor that will give life to a roguelike game. I have the feeling you didn't read the whole post.

[Grek]

No, I read it. My issue is that a large number of key gameplay mechanics (skills, skill trees, material dependant item quality, socketing, the health system etc.) are all defined by the editor in a way that is very simulation-y but not particularly game-y. Which is all well and good if you're writing a simulator, but not very good if you're trying for balance, enjoyable gameplay and other such design goals.

[mastahcheese]

Well, I personally would like a more simulated environment to a game environment.
I just finished looking through the screenshots. I do really like the way it looks, it seems to be rather intuitive, but that is just coming from a look of a still picture, not sure how it'll play in motion, and how easy altering the individual data structures will be, but from a glance it looks good.
Also, witchcraft damage type. Genius.

[Endorya]

No, I read it. My issue is that a large number of key gameplay mechanics (skills, skill trees, material dependant item quality, socketing, the health system etc.) are all defined by the editor in a way that is very simulation-y but not particularly game-y.

It is actually and editor, which has nothing to do with a simulator or a game. I'm sorry to ask but do you know what an editor is? And if so could you explain the purpose of this editor and how it connects itself with a roguelike?

Which is all well and good if you're writing a simulator, but not very good if you're trying for balance, enjoyable gameplay and other such design goals.

The game play is the last component to treat in the game, that's why there are beta testers to test a game for bugs and balance. It really doesn't matter if you input data from an editor or directly in code, you will always need to test it. All that you put in a game or any of piece of software will need to be tested. You speak like if you input something into this editor and there is nothing you can do to change it. The editor is there actually to make things easier to change and balance and all this at the distance of a mouse click. I will need to run the game as many times as needed to achieve perfect balance. This is something any game coder experiences despising the method he uses to input date into its own game.

Of course that, all this only really matters if you actually know what you are doing. If you just inputting data inside the editor or directly in code without having a clue of what is happening, then the chances of creating something balanced is next to none. And it seems this is what in fact is happening when you look at the editor's screenshots, you are unable to foreseen its outcome so you really can't tell if the data inserted there is balanced or not, which is totally acceptable.

[Endorya]

Well, I personally would like a more simulated environment to a game environment.
I just finished looking through the screenshots. I do really like the way it looks, it seems to be rather intuitive, but that is just coming from a look of a still picture, not sure how it'll play in motion, and how easy altering the individual data structures will be, but from a glance it looks good.
Also, witchcraft damage type. Genius.

And all that can be changed to anyone's convenience.

[Endorya]

[Duplicated post]

[Grek]

Sure. I've worked with editors before. Pretty much everything from Bethesda has come shipped with either the TES construction set or GECK lately, and the same was the case for all of Blizzard's RTS games. They have the basic engine of the game pre-made for you and let you construct levels, a plot, scripted events and so forth within that engine. It's the tool that you use to build a game within a given engine.

The reason I'm uninterested in this project is that the engine you're designing for your editor is not the sort of engine that I would use for a roguelike. Having attributes, skills, an action system, a notion of items and so forth are all good ideas, as is having an over world map as your basic method of travelling around (rather than having a nethack-esque slog through emptied levels), but a lot of the things lower down on this list are either irrelevant to good roguelike gameplay (detailed change item quality over time, quests, dialogs, dynamic text) or actively harmful (detailed internal structure for each creature, hardcore materials simulation, procedural world generation, seasonal changes).

Maybe it's just a different design philosophy, but I've always thought gameplay should come first - come up with an interesting mechanic, pick an engine that can handle it, code that mechanic in, then build a game around the result. The success of Portal isn't because of the engine they used - the fact that I couldn't name which off the top of my head shows that - but rather that they had a unique and innovative mechanic for people to play with: the portal gun. You see the same thing with Prince of Persia and the Time Travel mechanics, with destructible environments on Cataclysm: DDA and Caves of Qud, even with unique car driving mechanics on DDA.

[Endorya]

The reason I'm uninterested in this project is that the engine you're designing for your editor is not the sort of engine that I would use for a roguelike.

Your seeing an engine in this editor when there is NONE. What you are seeing is an editor for a huge database of information that a FUTURE engine will be created to process all its generated data. There is now way you can know how the game will unfold unless I explain it. Since some people so far have fully understand the concept I can rule out the possible of my explanations being completely misunderstanding.

I'd be interested in designing a game, but this seems like more of a simulator with a roguelike interface than an actual game.

This first comment of yours tells exactly how you are misinterpretation things up. You are looking to the editor and somehow seeing a game there. The editor is not a game. Think of the editor as a note book where I'm taking all notes down to build the real thing. But as consequence, as I develop the editor parts of the engine are also being done but it won't work until I assemble all together in the game's main executable which does not exist yet. But feel free to see there whatever you want in it. I need to relocate my time some place else.

[Endorya]

I finally understand the whole trouble thanks to some other post in another forum.

The editor is for developing purposes only! It is not what the player will download in order to play the game, but what I and those interested in the project will use in order to produce the game!

[Endorya]

I guess I need to update that in the opening post

[hops]

So it's like Dwarf Fortress on steroids?

[Endorya]

So it's like Dwarf Fortress on steroids?

I prefer to let people decide what it resembles. All I can say is that is a roguelike with some unique features. But then again, each roguelike game does tend to have its own unique features.