[gameprogrammer] Re: 1 and half year project

Good point, also Dungeon Keeper was AWESOME

Charlie Lobo wrote:
Hmmm, let me give you a couple of ideas,
RTS may seem overdone, but I believe there are areas that haven't been explored, you can see Dwarf Fortress or Dungeon Keeper as an example of another way to think about an RTS.

I think that you should try to think of an idea of something that would be "fun" and then work on it, see like which genres it seems like and start growing from there. Think: how would Portal be able to be imagined if they had started "we should do an FPS", Prey comes to mind. You don't have the resources to make a established genre, so form your own.

A couple of ideas that I'm just gonna share:
A game where you are a character in a Soap Operan and you win by making the most drama A game about betrayal and politics, where it's all about saying the right thing and the right time, and making sure the right actions are done to mantain your power. This could be about modern nations in a cold war like scenario, medieval guilds, japanese ninja tribes, or 13 year old girls (OMG did you see what she's wearing)

I'll just let those two ideas for you to take them beyond.

On Tue, May 26, 2009 at 10:35 PM, Jake Briggs <jakbri@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:jakbri@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>> wrote:

    FIY there are plenty of RTS games around, you may be better off
    spending time on either their engines, or their games, rather than
    reinvent the wheel.


    ®£$ǖ"v@M$Ħ ¢© $. <theamericansushi@xxxxxxxxx
    <mailto:theamericansushi@xxxxxxxxx>>" wrote:

        Advice is always welcome and it looks like you too some time
        off to to actually give me that...Thanks a lot again..So
        people who are interested ..I will create a list for us so we
        can always be in contact.. So What i thought was let's try and
        develop a RTS game because the RTS industry is ruled by a
        couple of games like AoE or Warcraft, CnC3...So i actually
        believe  we shoudl trya dn create an rts game..So those who
        are actually interested please email me in private and tell me
        what part of the project you would like to take part
        in..Everybody is welcome .....

        On Wed, May 27, 2009 at 8:47 AM, Alan Wolfe
        <alan.wolfe@xxxxxxxxx <mailto:alan.wolfe@xxxxxxxxx>
        <mailto:alan.wolfe@xxxxxxxxx <mailto:alan.wolfe@xxxxxxxxx>>>
        wrote:

           oh another word of advice!

           How i like to divy up tasks is i work with my buddy who is the
           head of art / design and we work together to come up with
        what the
           next milestone will be and break it into tasks (art tasks,
        coding
           tasks, scripting tasks, etc)

           and i list them out so everyone knows what needs to be
        done, and
           basically people volunteer for whatever tasks they want,
        but the
           important thing here is that it's public knowledge who is
        working
           on what.

           We had some issues early on where multiple people were
        working on
           the same thing and didnt know until they were finished :p

           no bueno.

           anyhow good luck!!


           On Tue, May 26, 2009 at 8:14 PM, Alan Wolfe
        <alan.wolfe@xxxxxxxxx <mailto:alan.wolfe@xxxxxxxxx>
           <mailto:alan.wolfe@xxxxxxxxx
        <mailto:alan.wolfe@xxxxxxxxx>>> wrote:

               Hey Sushi!

               Some advice if you want it about running / organizing
        your team.

               I'm workin on a game right now myself where im the single
               programmer, there's 2 scripters (lua is great!) and
        like 6 or
               7 artists.

               anyhow... what i did to start up this project

               #1) get an SVN server set up (my buddy is hosting mine) so
               everyone can check in / check out work, and SVN keeps
               histories of all the files which is really nice.

               #2) I went to freelists.org <http://freelists.org>
        <http://freelists.org/> and got a

               mailing list for my project (seriously its easy to get
        one its
               really nice) this way we have all of our conversations
        on the
               mailing list and we are all on the same page about design,
               art, code, etc.  It really is great for keeping everyone in
               the loop and keeping everything organized

               #3) We have a wiki set up to put all the ideas we want
        to keep
               around.  people havent been using it as much as i'd hoped.

               #4) I made one person head of design and art while im
        head of
               tech.  It's really nice to have one person being the
        head of
               the creative stuff because I've worked on games in the past
               where there were just too many chiefs and nothing got done
               (seriously thats whats killed all of my solo game
        projects up
               until now).  You may say that sucks because everyone should
               get to design, and that is really true.  You want to pick
               someone who has good ideas, but is also fair and able to
               recognize good ideas in others (and isn't going to ego or
               power trip!).  I think the best way to come up with
        design is
               to get the basic design figured out with just the main
               designer before the project starts (well too late in your
               case!) and then from there, once the "skeleton" is
        built, then
               all the other people working on the game have an idea
        of the
               direction of the game and can work on the details and
        improve
               the core game ideas, but everyone has a direction and
        can stay
               focused towards a defined goal (very important!)

               #5) Break tasks up into milestones.  Even if there is
        no time
               limit for reaching a milestone (our milestones are done
        when
               they are done - no time limit) you want to break making
        your
               game up into bite sized chunks and make sure everyone is on
               the same page and working towards the same goals.

               For instance, in our game we are making an RPG.

               Our first milestone was to make a mine/cave with enemies in
               it.  You could walk around and fight with a very basic
        combat
               system and there are a few scripted events.  We've reached
               that goal and the cave/mine is about 90% done (lots of game
               features still missing so we are leaving it 90% done
        for now)
               and we are moving onto the next goal.

               If you have a lot of people working on a game, even if you
               have a clear design, it's a very daunting task so
        milestones
               are great for breaking it into bitesized, do-able,
        organized
               peices to make sure you can get to the finish line (:

               anyhow, you didn't ask for it but there's my 2 cents, i
               thought i'd share some things i've learned (:


               i still have no clue what we'd do about dividing money
        if/when
               this game sells... i think that is something we should have
               figured out early on but we are leaving it til the end lol.



               2009/5/26 ®£$ǖ"v@M$Ħ ¢© $. <theamericansushi@xxxxxxxxx
        <mailto:theamericansushi@xxxxxxxxx>
               <mailto:theamericansushi@xxxxxxxxx
        <mailto:theamericansushi@xxxxxxxxx>>>


                   I'm located in india...And to all of you have have
                   responded positivly let's get started right
        away...I would
                   like to knowwhat kind of game would be realistic and
                   something out of the box and also wat game engine
        would we
                   be using or how we would go about it..Please reply
        and we
                   can get started ...It would be nice if we could have a
                   group chat sometime...If ou all have yahoo ids can you
                   please give it as well...


                   On Tue, May 26, 2009 at 11:32 PM, shiqiangchen chen
                   <violinchen@xxxxxxxxx <mailto:violinchen@xxxxxxxxx>
        <mailto:violinchen@xxxxxxxxx <mailto:violinchen@xxxxxxxxx>>>
        wrote:

                       Could you give me more information, such as
        where you
                       are location. How it works. Have you had any
        IP... etc.



                       2009/5/26 ®£$ǖ"v@M$Ħ ¢© $.
        <theamericansushi@xxxxxxxxx <mailto:theamericansushi@xxxxxxxxx>
                       <mailto:theamericansushi@xxxxxxxxx
        <mailto:theamericansushi@xxxxxxxxx>>>


                           I would like to start a project ... Obviously a
                           game...I would like to know about any
        interested
                           people....Hopefully for about 1 and a half
                           years..... I would like to discuss about
        what game
                           ,what engine and everything else..Yes i
        understand
                           this looks a little general....But i would
        like to
                           improve my game development skills so i would
                           lprefer to work ina group where i can create a
                           game and get help from others who cna help me
                           create this game....Please reply and
        hopefull we
                           can have fun.....


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    Systems Engineer

    Core Technology Limited
    Level 1, NZX Centre
    11 Cable Street
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    Phone +64 4 801 2250

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Jacob Briggs
Systems Engineer

Core Technology Limited
Level 1, NZX Centre
11 Cable Street
Wellington
Phone +64 4 801 2250

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