Idea: Lets make a game

[Albino Boo]

I was playing Apotheon, a great game by the way, and it occurred to me that something similar should not be that hard to develop. I thought rather than fight the culture war on the forums, we could do something collaborative that includes as much of the Escapist community as possible. We have lots of budding artists, programmers, musicians and more than a few professionals. The development process could also be a source of a few articles about the reality of small scale development.


Now what I propose is that we aim for something achievable. Apotheon is set in ancient Greece and its art style is based on classical Greek pottery. This allows a highly stylised but simple graphics that reinforces the story. You could easily do something similar with ancient Egyptian art or willow pattern pottery. Both are highly stylised and associated with a particular setting.

I dont think we should aim for 30 hour epic but something short, maybe 2-3 hours in length. Perhaps using episodic development if there is a will to keep going.


I have said my piece, what does everyone else think?

 

[BloatedGuppy]

It's a nice idea but a collaboration involving tens if not hundreds of disparate people, all with wildly differing skillsets (if they offer anything practical at all) isn't going to be anything but a howling mess. Might be interesting as a cautionary example, but I can't imagine much else coming of it.

 

[Elfgore]

Fucking Total War: Elder Scrolls. Set the main story during the unification of the Empire. Two expansion packs could be the Akavir invasion and Aldermi/Empire War. Roving bands of goblins, necromancers, and vampires would act as the rebels. I could go much more in-depth, yeah I've thought about this a lot, but I'm too lazy right now.

 

[senordesol]

I could see recruiting a team from the Escapist, but for a title to gain any traction; you need a team with specific skills.

You need a producer to guide the project, including it's parameters and design goals
A game designer to handle more minute details of gameplay
Artist(s) to realize your vision aesthetic vision and visual design (including UI)
Engineer(s) to tie everything together, and testers to work out the bugs.

...And that's just making the damn thing; to say nothing of marketing and distribution.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

(if they offer anything practical at all)

Ugh... Yeah not to sound like a dick but a project like this sounds like it'd end up with 50 people wanting to be the "ideas guy" for every person with usable skills.

 

[Haerthan]

Fucking Total War: Elder Scrolls. Set the main story during the unification of the Empire. Two expansion packs could be the Akavir invasion and Aldermi/Empire War. Roving bands of goblins, necromancers, and vampires would act as the rebels. I could go much more in-depth, yeah I've thought about this a lot, but I'm too lazy right now.

YEEEESSSSSSSS. We totally gotta get in on that. But a dfferent name then Total War. But we gotta get Bethesda in on that and something tells me they might be receptive to it. Also we gotta get some of the mechanics from the King Arthur: The Role-Playing Wargame series. I mean come on. The first game was GREAT> I FUCKING LOVED ITTTTTTTTTT. 'nerdgasm'

Captcha: souffle girl. Elfgore you might wanna shoot Captcha, it might be spying into your life, like it did earlier this morning for me.

 

[Zhukov]

It's a nice idea but a collaboration involving tens if not hundreds of disparate people, all with wildly differing skillsets (if they offer anything practical at all) isn't going to be anything but a howling mess. Might be interesting as a cautionary example, but I can't imagine much else coming of it.

Believe it or not, it can work.

Once upon a time I was tangentially involved in a little open-source game called Battle For Wesnoth. (I contributed the odd bit of pixel art and animation.)

It was hex-based, turn-based strategy game with pixel art graphics. It was developed by a bunch of strangers who'd never met each other coordinating on a forum and IRC channel.

There was no real timetable and only the most basic of organisation. There was a project lead (although he was pretty hands-off) and several directors of the various areas (art, programming, map design, gameplay design). Contributions were done on a sort of, "You do it, we'll take it" kind of way. Some people would put in steady, dedicated work for years while others would show up, throw in a few art assets and then never be heard from again. Others would beaver away on their own related projects, custom factions, campaigns, maps and so forth.

And, well... be damned if they didn't turn out a perfectly functional and actually quite fun little game. It had online multiplayer and everything.

The major factor that probably allowed it to get off the ground was that it was originally a two-man show. One programmer, one artist. Between the two of them they got a solid base down on which everyone else could expand.

 

[Albino Boo]

It's a nice idea but a collaboration involving tens if not hundreds of disparate people, all with wildly differing skillsets (if they offer anything practical at all) isn't going to be anything but a howling mess. Might be interesting as a cautionary example, but I can't imagine much else coming of it.

I have been involved with various voluntary organisations and I am more than familiar with the problems. When you don't have the ability to say do it this way or you're fired, then things do become like herding cats. I envisaged a team of no more than 50 but preferably closer to 40. I thought 5-10 people max on each area, hopefully with someone with real world experience in that area.

 

[SnakeTrousers]

Now what I propose is that we aim for something achievable. Apotheon is set in ancient Greece and its art style is based on classical Greek pottery. This allows a highly stylised but simple graphics that reinforces the story. You could easily do something similar with ancient Egyptian art or willow pattern pottery. Both are highly stylised and associated with a particular setting.

I dont think we should aim for 30 hour epic but something short, maybe 2-3 hours in length. Perhaps using episodic development if there is a will to keep going.

I've been thinking about something like this for a while, though my idea was based in a different culture and genre - a top-down ninja stealth game. I'd be willing to draw up some concepts if anyone was interested.

I've also been looking to branch off into animation, so this seems like as good a reason as any to dip into it.

 

[Prince of Ales]

Have you any rough idea of a genre? I can't offer you much, but I've theory crafted a bunch of games from MMOs to MOBAs to dungeon crawlers. If you need combat formulas based on some sort of stat system, I can do that.

 

[PreDefined [deprecated]]

I might be interested in contributing to this.

It is doable but...

Here are some ideas and tips from having worked on a few small amateur things by myself or in small groups with timelines from a weekend to a month to a year.

1) Instead of one mega project, maybe several smaller teams?
2) Have teams do smaller proof of concept demos first?
3) More experienced volunteers might be able to roughly integrate the concepts? e.g. a team making a three-card draw game can have their work appear as a mini-game within an action/adventure/rpg setting

In my experience time is against you if you don't set small manageable goals first to gauge what's realistic. Without a clear idea of deliverables there is too much opportunity for feature-creep and burn-out.

 

[Danny Dowling]

I had an idea for a video game (actually I've had 2 main ones, but EarthNight took the gameplay aspect of two button platforming for one not long after I thought of it).

You play an explorer in a cave armed with a flash light. The aim is o get out alive. You can climb, run and jump, but you can't do anything to hurt the enemies that one shot you. Your only defense is your ability to run and hide.

Side scrolling, but with the option to sink into background caves to hide (kind of like Lone Survivor).

The actual game could have multiple exits which have varying levels of difficulty to reach, but there are different artifacts placed throughout the game world that can be collected, making it near impossible to get every single one in a single play through because that would require constant back tracking etc. that would be shut off by enemies or high drops/climbs.

Multiple exits, multiple playthroughs, a nice looking shadowing system for the torch... would make a fun little game.

 

[Danny Dowling]

It's a nice idea but a collaboration involving tens if not hundreds of disparate people, all with wildly differing skillsets (if they offer anything practical at all) isn't going to be anything but a howling mess. Might be interesting as a cautionary example, but I can't imagine much else coming of it.

I have been involved with various voluntary organisations and I am more than familiar with the problems. When you don't have the ability to say do it this way or you're fired, then things do become like herding cats. I envisaged a team of no more than 50 but preferably closer to 40. I thought 5-10 people max on each area, hopefully with someone with real world experience in that area.

I believe that if we have a few people dreaming the ideas up and one or two people coordinating to the artists to make those things happen we could have something.

providing the artists are willing to do as the dreamers dream with minimal issue and the dreamers are willing to take what the artists perceive through description... bish bash bosh

 

[ArcaneGamer]

I like the idea. Tell me more about the story. What's the setting? Is the captain a cool captain like Aveline or Cullen?

 

[TheArcaneThinker]

You guys really dont need to worry about funding , engine , etc . Just do what the rest of the world does... Get RPG maker... If your making a rpg game or a adventure game..... Rpg maker is quite a famous engine.... Even the upcoming MGQ Paradox is using it.... Hundreds of people make their game using it . All assets , sounds , etc are present and even a single person can do it....