Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Gatleos]

Pokemon Orthoclase and Microcline - A Community Pokemon Game based on the world of Dwarf Fortress and the internet.

Nuff said.
Anyone can add to it, but USEC and Glyph pretty much have final say.

That thread was one of the things that convinced me that this had a chance of working. This is sort of the next step from that project, in a way.

I remember trying to start something like this off way back when, so let's at least start with proposals for the game. This being Bay12, if it's going to be made by the community, then it'll have to be playable by the community ie, if you can run Dwarf Fortress, then you should be able to run this game. So lets get the details in an easy to read way down:

-Multiplatform: playable on macs, PCs, and Linux. We'll prolly have to use Opengl for this.
-Low on the graphical end (Though I'll be suprised if we hit that)
-Free

-That should be easy to achieve.
-That would be preferable, too.
-Obviously, this is our only choice. I'm not dealing with the legal trouble of properly compensating everyone who contributes, dealing with people suddenly revoking their content, etc. Everyone will be credited, of course, but this will be a freeware production.

Anyway, it might be best to vote up a genre next, now that we have ground rules, so here we go:

-platformer
-RPG
-Puzzel
-Shmup

This is all I can think of off the top of my head, so others will prolly be able to suggest more.

And before we're done, we'll also need to figure out a general idea of how the game ought to be conducted, and the kinds of emotion we want to evoke in the player, aswell as a general playstyle.

As for something I'd like to see,

Genre: Platformer, with RPG elements

I really liked spelunky, but after a while it felt same old same old. Being able to expand on that game, and add more complexity might be fun, at the expense of slowing the action down a smidge to encourage more thinking and less reacting.

In the meantime, I can see if I can make simple graphics for Hitpoints and Defence, since we'll prolly need them no matter what the game we're making is going to be.

Actually, I was thinking of something similar. What does everyone else think of this?

We'll prolly have to use Opengl for this.

OpenGL, you say? Why, I just happen to have a working SDL+OpenGL generic application engine ready to go! I didn't come into this completely unprepared, you know.

[Fniff]

I vote that it should be a platformer.

How does this story idea sound: set directly after a nuclear war, a man slowly hallucinates that he is saving a fantasy kingdom. The main point would be the switching between the reality (scavenging for food, fighting bandits and extremely depressing) and the fantasy (gaining coins, fighting dragons and robots and extremely bright and cheery) and how the two worlds become completely inseparable by the end. The ending varies whether or not you faced the reality of the situation or retreated into your own mind.

[Shook]

You could also ask Shook if he wants to join in, he's a pixel artist. He's pretty damn good and he doesn't seem to be doing too much.

I SENSED SOMETHING. Anyways, while that's usually true (though i wouldn't go 'round calling myself good, that would be directly against my principles), i'm actually fairly busy here in January, since i have multiple exams coming up, and one of those is downright terrifying to me.

Anyways, might pitch in later, when i'm less occupied. Not gonna make any guarantees, because i usually only do art when i get an idea myself, and because i have other projects going. I hope this turns out nicely, though. c:

[Gatleos]

I vote that it should be a platformer.

How does this story idea sound: set directly after a nuclear war, a man slowly hallucinates that he is saving a fantasy kingdom. The main point would be the switching between the reality (scavenging for food, fighting bandits and extremely depressing) and the fantasy (gaining coins, fighting dragons and robots and extremely bright and cheery) and how the two worlds become completely inseparable by the end. The ending varies whether or not you faced the reality of the situation or retreated into your own mind.

Ooh, maybe it could switch between a 3/4ths view in the scavenging segments and a side-scroller perspective in the fantasy segments? Or maybe the scavenging segments are procedurally generated while the fantasy parts are traditional platformer levels?

Also, we'll need to think about the visual theme. We want it to be thematically consistent, so the music, sound and graphics need to match. I was thinking of going for an NES-style game, since NES chiptunes are the easiest to produce. But it could be something else, if we have the resources.

Anyways, might pitch in later, when i'm less occupied. Not gonna make any guarantees, because i usually only do art when i get an idea myself, and because i have other projects going. I hope this turns out nicely, though. c:

Feel free to contribute any time you want, for any reason. I'm promoting spontaneity.

[chaoticag]

I vote that it should be a platformer.

How does this story idea sound: set directly after a nuclear war, a man slowly hallucinates that he is saving a fantasy kingdom. The main point would be the switching between the reality (scavenging for food, fighting bandits and extremely depressing) and the fantasy (gaining coins, fighting dragons and robots and extremely bright and cheery) and how the two worlds become completely inseparable by the end. The ending varies whether or not you faced the reality of the situation or retreated into your own mind.

Not sure if I like the exact idea as is, since the game might just come off as bipolar. For now, a consistancy of style would be nice, though a dual world idea might be fun.

For now though, we'll prolly want to keep it simple, get a proof of concept out the door before worrying too much about a story, although if writers want to organise themselves, that'd be pretty nice.

[Gatleos]

Well, here's a crappy little tech demo for a platformer engine I've been working on for some time now. It's far too general right now, and needs to be focused to one type of platformer so that I can start adding real features to it. But the basics are there. Oh, and z jumps.

If anybody could test cross-platform-ness, that would be good too.

[Fniff]

Well, being bipolar is half the point... Kidding. But, it'll be easing into it. You can definetly assert your reality but you can just as easily slip into the fantasy.

But anyway, I already drew the protagonist (The one in reality, that is) if we go with my concept.

[Darvi]

Is it a featherless bird? Looks like one.

[Fniff]

Any suggestions on how to make it better?

[The Fool]

@Fniff: Maybe we should wait until the writer gets back with a story before we draw characters. If you want I'll draw one. I just need to know who your character is.

Well, here's a crappy little tech demo for a platformer engine I've been working on for some time now. It's far too general right now, and needs to be focused to one type of platformer so that I can start adding real features to it. But the basics are there. Oh, and z jumps.

If anybody could test cross-platform-ness, that would be good too.

It doesn't work in windows 7, but I'm missing map1.txt, map2.txt, and bullet.jpeg. I'm not sure if I'm missing anything else, but it stops running when it attempts to access map1.txt

[Fniff]

I just kinda wanted to draw something related so I could get a reply on how I should do this.

[Gatleos]

@Fniff: Maybe we should wait until the writer gets back with a story before we draw characters. If you want I'll draw one. I just need to know who your character is.

Well, here's a crappy little tech demo for a platformer engine I've been working on for some time now. It's far too general right now, and needs to be focused to one type of platformer so that I can start adding real features to it. But the basics are there. Oh, and z jumps.

If anybody could test cross-platform-ness, that would be good too.

It doesn't work in windows 7, but I'm missing map1.txt, map2.txt, and bullet.jpeg. I'm not sure if I'm missing anything else, but it stops running when it attempts to access map1.txt

Did you get those messages from stderr? That's really strange that it wouldn't work, I've already tried it on another Win7 machine and those files are definitely in there.

I just kinda wanted to draw something related so I could get a reply on how I should do this.

The Fool's right about getting the story and art style established first, but also the sprites must work a certain way for animations and such. I'll explain that when the need arises.

[GlyphGryph]

While I support this sort of project, we've already got a lot of people working on Orthoclase. If you really want to get this off the ground (and get our support), what would be really cool is if you joined the Orthoclase team first and helped us finish that. Once it's done (which, admittedly, will take at least a couple more months), you'd have a bunch of people with no project probably looking for something fun to do, who you worked with and know are reliable, and experience working with them.

And honestly, even a small game is a big project when your getting the community involved, and managing/crowdsourcing a game is some hard shit. You might have some general enthusiasm at this point, but every time you narrow it down you're going to end up losing people. And it's very easy for these sort of things to die unless they start with a clear concept in mind and have a good, dedicated core team.

[Enzo]

And it's very easy for these sort of things to die unless they start with a clear concept in mind and have a good, dedicated core team.

And, generally, a leader. It's much easier to get onboard with "I am making this game and I need assistance", than "So I was thinking we could make some kind of game, if anyone has any ideas or wants to help". Especially if you're sharing individual tasks like coding/art/etc it's important to have someone designated to coordinate and guide the process. It's usually the person who proposes the project by default, since managing multiple workers (or worse, artists) is never a fun job that people will spring to volunteer for. I guess it's less the case when you have a small team with a clear, shared vision, but let's face it that's not what's happening here.

That said, I always observe these sorts of projects with interest and may offer assistance should I ever get temporarily frustrated with my own current project.

And good luck.

[Gatleos]

Hmph. You're both right... well, maybe I will get involved with Orthoclase.

But first, I want to suggest a downsizing of this project. Eventually I want to plan out something ambitious like the suggestions that have come up so far, but I think we might need... a small practice project first. And when I say small, I mean simple and arcadey. Would anyone be willing to contribute to something like that?