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[yamamushi]

Hello Everyone,

I'm just stopping by to mention a project that a few friends and I are working on, and to maybe find a few people interested in helping to develop our little game :-P

We're currently building the framework for the project, and implementing development tools and project organization tools for everyone who comes onboard. We're working around the clock to start publishing and to get us into an alpha release asap.

Feel free to stop by our website and drop into our IRC for more info on how you can help :-)

Main Page:
http://www.theasciiproject.com/

You're probably looking for an overview of what this project is all about:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The goal of "The ASCII Project" is to develop a Unicode-based MMORPG, based on a persistent world driven by a player-run economy.

The interface will resemble existing rogue-like projects, such as Dwarf Fortress and Nethack, with the heavy use of a text based interface - thus allowing for more development time to focus on engine features without the constant overhead of interfacing with a heavy (3D) graphics front end.

It's difficult to assign the project to a specific genre, as the "Tech" research portion of the engine allows for the game world to move forward from a fantasy based game into a sci-fi based game as (much) time progresses. However for the purposes of describing the initial state of the game world, "Fantasy-Based" will suffice.

Players will be able to form relationships with each other as well as NPCs to establish tribes, villages, cities and perhaps even entire nations. All of this will be driven by a server-side "Relationship Engine", allowing for evolving NPC relationships without requiring player interaction.

The relationship "level" between characters and NPCs will be used to determine procedural generation parameters for the evolving state of the game world. For instance, an NPC who is enemies with a given alliance may be more willing to assist players with an attack or may even pursue an attack on their own without player interaction being necessary.

The server-side code is to remain closed source until further notice, however an API will be published allowing for the development of open source clients. This will allow for clients to be written in several languages, facilitating a portable interface without the need for developers to worry about the internals of the server-side engine.

Other important links:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Wiki:
http://www.theasciiproject.com/wk/

Forum:
http://www.theasciiproject.com/BB/

IRC:
http://www.theasciiproject.com/irc/
freenode
##asciimmo (note the double hashes  )

Seeking Open Positions:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

* Right now we have an abundance of programmers, but we won't turn down interested parties* - Programmers (C , C++, Python, SDL knowledge a +)
- Concept Artists
- Sound Production
- Game Mechanics (World builders, Pen and Paper RPG-ers, people who can get into extreme detail with their work)
- Forum Moderators
- IRC Mods (likely a shared role with Forum moderation)
- Web Designers (the game is going to interface with a web frontend, more to be discussed in IRC)
- Story Writers (fits in with Game Mechanics)
- Linguists
- Anyone familiar with Unicode

[Eagleon]

So... You're making a MUD

Just kidding. Kinda. What kind of theme are we talking about here? Fantasy, sci-fi, generic? What's your target audience? Roleplayers, WoW-friends, roguelike fans, all three? FTP, semi-FTP, subscription? It'd help people who might be interested if you provided some detail, such as goals other than ASCII MMO - that could mean a lot of things, some not so good, hehe.

You say you want a web interface - this would be Java? If so I might be interested in maintenance work for the chunky bits (I wouldn't trust me with anything database- or authentication-related, but I can bugfix like anyone else, and I actually enjoy it, which is a big plus if you ask me), and my mommy says I'm a passable writer. I also like making for-reals programmers tear their hair out with difficult suggestions. I'll hop into the chat.

[yamamushi]

:p

I'll just try to answer your questions in the order you asked them...

- Fantasy (but the world allows for future-tech, depending on civilizations researching tech and working together to share resources, more to be discussed in the forums/irc).

- Our audience is pretty much what you described, with a lean towards people who enjoy complex systems with a player run economy.

- FTP , no plays for subscriptions at the moment.

- Web interface could really be anything, java or html or php based. We're working on a designing an open framework API so that people can write anything from their own web tools to their own graphic interface.

[squeakyReaper]

I'd be game for playing something like this.  The economy thing could be fun, as well as some dungeon delving.  Good luck on finding staff, you have quite a few open positions!

[yamamushi]

Thanks for the support, we do have quite a few open positions :3

There's two of us, who would rather be writing code, that are working frantically to get all of our community tools online for the project members. We're not really limited to the size of some of our project groups, ie our story groups are going to be a growing team as the project continues.

Git repo's, forums, irc, code browsers, a wiki and a few more tools are awaiting anyone who shows an interest :p

[squeakyReaper]

Get something up and running and I'd love to help with a wiki.  Least I could do.  G'luck!

[Sensei]

Sound production?

[Normandy]

I'll help with debugging, unit testing, and general programming. I'm fluent with Java, but I do know C++ (I'll just have to dust off my knowledge a little bit).

[yamamushi]

If you guys are interested, hop into the forums or the IRC :-) - I'd prefer the IRC but it's whatever

All of the info is provided at http://www.theasciiproject.com , and the site will be updated as time goes on. For now our priorities are organizing people and getting people the tools they need :-)

[yamamushi]

Sound production?

Music, both for the game and the website. Sound effects for the client, if the client devs decide they want to pursue them.

Edit** Really these are things that should be discussed on our forums, rather than using up bay12's forum space :p

[klingon13524]

I just started learning C++, but I can't even understand my compiler at this point.

Maybe when I figure out how to correctly type in the simplest C++ script in the world (literally!) I can help.

EDIT: I could kinda translate it into Estonian. An obscure language that is only used by Estonians (population 1.3 mil).

[getter77]

You would probably do well to check out Hordes of Tarshish and SilverQuest as relevant fellow travelers to ponder on:

http://www.indiedb.com/games/silverquest
http://tarshish.us/

Tarshish likely has a major step forward going public in a week or so, and SilverQuest semi-recently came back to life after appearing in an earlier form a year or so back.

[yamamushi]

You would probably do well to check out Hordes of Tarshish and SilverQuest as relevant fellow travelers to ponder on:

http://www.indiedb.com/games/silverquest
http://tarshish.us/

Tarshish likely has a major step forward going public in a week or so, and SilverQuest semi-recently came back to life after appearing in an earlier form a year or so back.

Thanks for the heads up!

[Askot Bokbondeler]

dis dead?

[yamamushi]

Nope, you just can't see the rest of the forums until you register :p

A lot of us have been back in school, but the two of us that started the project are still coding for a release.