Let's Make A Game 2012

@Chaser324: @Fattony12000: Thank you Fattony for uploading those documents. Chaser, please don't run off with the team (or if you do I still want to work on this project so please invite me). I am closing sign-ups for ideas people. I will make a game design document with invite-only editing. I'm not a fan to be honest of the GB theme, that was never my intention, I just wanted to work with the GB community and they steered it in that direction. If you want to make a private repository on your own account, then do so. I don't see the problem with having other people see our code. If we remove the Giant Bomb stuff from the game, then I can understand making the code closed-sourced. Then we could think about actually selling the game, but that would introduce arguments over who gets what share of the money. I'm leaving it up to you, but I still want to be involved.

@Srah: Welcome to the team.

@Lysergica33: You're our last musician we are adding. Welcome :)

@afrofools: I feel that we really need to nail an idea down and then flow with it. Right now we decided on a 2d characters in a 3d environment right? I think we should open some type of chat for the duders on this project to set in stone some stuff and if a decent game do comes out of this, I think we should sell it. I'm sure we would all agree on who gets what share of the money.

First off, I think this project should be non-profit. I also think sharing the source code is a good idea so I have no issues using the public GitHub.

It's a project that involves plenty of people and has no company driving it or anything, so monetizing it is honestly a terrible idea. I've ran my own company for a few years and had to deal with foreign employees, sorting out payments and such and it's just too much paperwork and legalese. Additionally, fights would break out about who deserves how much money and yadda yadda... best to keep it free and open source.

I don't like the idea of a strict GB Theme. I'm all for adding GB references left and right, and maybe using some of the P4 X GB art ( if the artists agree ) in some places, but I think making the whole game revolve around the GB crew would easilly make it slip into the "creepy fandom" territory.

Finally, it seems most people here are totally expecting too much for now. Be aware. The first prototypes are gonna consist of a box traversing simple levels. Gameplay mechanics will be gradually added, but as programmers we will be relying on spriters and modellers to actually make it look good. Pre-alpha is setting everything up, alpha is gradually adding gameplay features, beta is polishing them.

Also, it'd be really helpful for us if we'd get a design document outlying the pure basics of the game, so that we can actually put down some code. You are saying paper mario, so I suppose I will look at a gameplay video and see if I can prototype that style of game ? But I need to know if that is what is decided for the moment. Sure, it's prototyping stage so I expect we'll change things around quite frequently, but I also don't want to spend a couple of hours working on something that isn't actually what we want ( i.e. a result of miscommunication )

I would like to join as Programmer

GitHub: EderEnciso

For some time I've been working on a Unity game and this will be great practice.

I know Javascript, Java, C# and ActionScript 3.0

@Eder: Sent you an invite to our group on GitHub. Welcome to the project.

Are we splitting up in to two groups?

Should probably set a time so you guys chat and come up with the basic idea/mechanics so we can get to prototyping.

@Bio2hazard How do you think we should split the code work, Layout everything out and everyone pick a task?

@SexyToad: Yep. People are getting restless but we have actually worked out a few important things. There are a few managers now, so if something isn't being worked out it isn't my fault.

@w1n5t0n:

We should probably make use of either the "Issues" in GitHub or something like Trello to track those responsibilities, and yes, we should have a group discussion of our objectives at some point soon.

@w1n5t0n:

Hm I'm not entirely sure yet. Ideally, I'd like to make it as modular as possible, so that each of us can kind of pick a area to work in independently. I have a bit of time now, so I was gonna look into making a super-rough prototype in Unity and upload it to GitHub. I'm a unity noob so it won't be fancy but so long as it's something to build upon, it'll work.

I'll get started now and see what I can whip up.

I don't see why the project is splitting up, that's just lame. This thing had community project written all over it. Why couldn't we just work it out?

Who is breaking off from our group?

@Fattony12000 First of all, I think we need to get everyone's summary pitch for the game and then release another survey to decide what this game will be about. Also, your script doesn't seem to account for the fact that would be a 2d game with 3d elements in the essence of paper mario.

@afrofools Did the results from the last survey come in? The one that determines if we are doing a side-scrolling vs 3rd person, etc.

So I am an amateur in every possible way.

I can make music but im not great at it.

And my most recent

Then there is my recent foray into art on the computer for a game concept I will eventually do somewhere else(i mean I wanna develop this on my own, so for this piece of art work i do not give permission to use but it makes a good example of my most recent skills)

And Finally, there is my ability to program which something i have been trying to kick start for years now. I know things as i have taken classes in highschool(where a videogame was the final project, and i totally made one) . I know Java best, but can slide into c++ if i need to. I have been playing around in unity and tried to work with sdl...and that was sadness. A community project like this might be what i need to really get me going. Oh ya, i recently fell into trying to learning a bit of HTML ( i even have a very weak website), so i know enough to continue learning.

I am an amateur, everything i have done so far was in times when I was inspired to do so. I would love to help program for you, as it is a cool way to learn and i ABSOLUTELY ADORE THE IDEA OF COMMUNITY PROJECT. As for my music, the above tracks are available for use, icy smooth has a phrase said in it, i can try to remove it. And i would be more then happy to make more music. And for artwork, I feel like this might be my weakest area since I spent the least time with this and always had a little trouble. But again, I would love an oppurtunity to flex those art muscles. And remember, i did not give permission for the above image, its just supposed to show what i did most recently.

@tariqari: I stopped the split by closing the drive to non-members, stopping accepting new ideas people, and some other things.

We are doing a side-scrolling game like Paper Mario, though we mightn't make the graphics as flat as we are not doing in the same way as Paper Mario (gimmick). On the 7th page you can see the perspective that was picked by the community (sideways). I'm thinking after we get the game finished then we could talk about potentially extend it by allowing the player to rotate the world 90deg to walk down alleyways and side-streets. The game takes place in a 3D engine anyway, it wouldn't be too hard. Sure a coder could get over their head writing convoluted code, but with some thinking it could be done with very little.

There's a working draft in the 'brain dump' 'ideas' subfolder.

@super2j: Welcome to the team.

Do level designers count as "ideas guys?" I have spent the last seven years as a D&D level designer, and I'm interested in designing levels for this game.

Hey there, just heard about the project, and I thought I'd lend a hand. Sounds like there's maybe more than one project, but I'll see what I can do.

I'm a computer programmer with a focus in computer graphics, and I mostly work in C/C++ but I have strong understanding of C#, Java, Javascript, Python, PHP, Perl.

I can also do decent cartoon art, but I don't have much experience with pixel art, if that's the goal.

GitHub: Lokno

@super2j: You definitely seem like you could be an asset. If you'd like to involve yourself on the code side, send me a GitHub username.

@Lokno: Sent you an invite to the org on GitHub.

@Little_Socrates: Since you're an experienced professional I'll make an exception. I don't see why you would lie about that so I'll take your word for it. PM me your email for access to the Drive, where we keep our stuff.

Welcome to the team :)

@afrofools: Oh, super-sorry, I didn't mean as a professional, I meant as a DM who makes his own adventures for his players. I can see why you read it that way, though. That's what I get for typing this as I listen to an art & architecture lecture.

As you're more interested in experienced professionals, I'm happy to bow out. Maybe next time.

@Chaser324: hmm, github wont let me create an account. I'll try again later.

@Little_Socrates: Is on the team as lead level designer, everyone reading this thread.

@afrofools: Could you let me know if you can use a guy like me or not? Description is at the bottom of page 7. I'd like to start planning for it if so.

@BSw: Must have missed you. Since you're business-minded maybe think about things like how to split the royalties up among all the giant bombers, and which download platform should be supported. Since we are not using any copyrighted material anymore (thank god), we can sell it, and platforms like Steam Greenlight are possibilities that maybe the group should consider. It's too much to think about at such an early stage in the process of making the game, but if someone wants to think about it, there will be less friction when we're done.

@afrofools: Sure, I'd like that. Looks like a very dangerous job to start making decisions about royalties with so many (to each other unknown) people, but that'll be an interesting challenge for me then. The other parts shouldn't be too hard to figure out. I'll work on a general plan for everything next week.

I take it that all people and the roles they have are/will be listed somewhere? I haven't checked any documents yet, but that'd be too early anyway. Let me know once the team is complete (safe for the occasional later removal and addition), and I'll start looking into it.

@BSw: Welcome to the team then :) Best of luck.

I would be happy to help with the coding part of the project, although I don't have much experience working within Unity. I do however have experience with C/C++ and Java, with some native 3D api i Java and alot of DirectDraw in C/C++. Github: LassieME

Whoever put that tree in the texture pack, I'm liking it! Just the looks of it. I say the game might look cool with that sort of style.

Oh and I will be working on a plot soon.

Hey, I PMed afrofools with it, but I figure I repost it here

I made a super simple tech demo executable just to get the initial perspective and such down. Link is http://tut.chapterfain.com/test.exe ( uploaded it before I had access to the google drive, further iterations will be uploaded there ).

It's 10 MB, contains a single corridor with a red cube representing the player. I slapped some simple free-to-use textures on the floor and walls mostly for testing purposes and made the red player cube affected by gravity.

As far as actually programming goes, I put in simple player movement ( currently with a floaty / smooth / slidy movement style. A more "stop on a dime" style is available as well ... not sure which to use yet ) and a simple Camera script.

I set up the camera to follow the player left to right, but stay stationary when the player moves along the Z-axis. I also have working code for a camera that follows along the Z-axis as well .. but just not sure what exactly we need.

You can use arrowkeys or wasd to move around. I also enabled the mouse-wheel for zooming in and out. If you dislike the current default zoom-level please post a screenshot of a zoom level you prefer.

It's really not much and nothing more than some testing around, but hey, it's a start!

@ Other Coders: For now I have no idea how to split up the work. Once we have a clear idea of what needs to be done, such as whether battles will take place in a separate view and such we can probably start splitting up the work. One person responsible for battle, one person responsible for world map, one person responsible for exploration and another reponsible for gui / menues... or something.

Also, Unity and GitHub appearently don't work together all that well .. I've tried to read up on how you can share Unity projects via GitHub but it's been kind of shitty. I guess we can upload the Unity project in a zipped / rar'd format to the google drive while keeping script files and such in GitHub ?

@Fattony12000: Sorry, didn't know unity required that folder.

I zipped and uploaded it ! http://tut.chapterfain.com/test_Data.zip

Gonna head to bed for now, hopefully it works!

Hey everyone, I saw there were some images etc. posted on googleDrive and thought we could move any concepts and discussion to our alt forum and made a post with some art to get us started http://giantbombgame.phphope.net/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=7.

Google drive should be used for WIP or final assets for the most part.

@Fattony12000: It'll take at-least a month, I'm expecting two months.

@Bio2hazard: That's exactly what I was hoping for :). As in the video Fattony uploaded, perfect.

@LassieME: Welcome aboard. Send your github username to@Chaser324

@Bio2hazard: Yes you can put prototypes on the Drive if you need to share them. Technical > Prototypes

I don't have any skills in making games, but if you ever need somebody to edit a trailer/other video, I could help out. I'm not the best, but have a bit of experience with it.

Here's a MC video I recorded/edited together for someone

And here's quick intro for a Community MC thing that Reddit had going on that I threw together with pictures that the community had taken.

It's cool if you don't need someone like me, just offering my help :)

@afrofools: As much as I love the idea of making a GB game, I think that building this game with the full intention of selling it makes things a lot less fun, less open, and promises things will get ugly at some point. I would love to provide 2d animated character and BG assets, but I don't want to start a new thread and create some kind of schism or rivalry between the "official" and "unofficial" games. When this gets finished up, would you or anyone else mind if some people got together to create a completely different freeware version? It just seems that at a certain point, what would make this GB related if you cant use logos, people, or references to anything BG related? Apologies if this was addressed already and I completely missed it.

Regardless, I would love to toss some animation tests into the fray if you're still accepting animators!

What? did you say a complete 180?!

I added a song to the music folder, it's upbeat and jazzy. If people like it I'll make a version that loops so it can be proper background music.

@verysexypotato: I don't think we're going to sell this. I think most of us wants this to be open as well. I don't care either way.

@Fattony12000 said:

@verysexypotato: As a person who has done things in/for/at this project, I feel confident enough to put this out there as a thing that should be done:

We should all vote as to whether or not this game is to be a commercial work.

What say ye all? Should we hold another one of those sweet sweet surveys @afrofools?

My personal feelings are that we should not be looking to make any money from this, keeps things light and breezy and mostly legal, the resources that we do have to spare among us are great people and time. Adding money into the mix seems to me like it'll just create room for bad vibes.

I could not have said it better. When money is involved, egos become inflated and people get bitter. This I can say from personal experience. Plus it's no longer a thing of wild and playful, communal beauty. As a guy who's just hopped in an hour ago and has nothing to do with the project as of yet, I vote that we keep it FREE and CRAZY. Though I wouldn't count me until I've contributed something.

Okay, I've been busy for the past few days. What's been going on? Have we decided on anything significant? I see the Game Design google doc has been revamped but it seems like there isn't anything real/specific in there.

So, someone update me with where we are at if that's okay.

I'm finding it very hard to keep tabs on the discussion here. The Forumsseem like the sensible place to do all the discussion, rather than the Google Docs which is what's happening. Maybe we should push that link out there more? Maybe link to it at the top of all the important design documents.

Anyway, here's something I just put together, since I haven't contributed anything yet. It would be a great help if we had more defined key points about the project. As it is, I'm not really sure where to look for that.

@mscupcakes: I like your music. I feel that your piece would be great as the main menu music!

@DoctorWelch: I think we're going with a rpg game. We're trying to set some stuff in stone.

@mandude: I'll check out your music in a bit.

Also for everyone else, I have started an idea in the brain dump folder. Tell me what you think!

@mandude: That is also some great music! I can see that being in the game.

@mandude: I like it.

@mandude: Hey, would I be able to add some percussion to that track? As soon as I listened to it I had something in mind.

@SexyToad: Thanks a lot! :D I'm glad you like it.

@mscupcakes said:

@mandude: Hey, would I be able to add some percussion to that track? As soon as I listened to it I had something in mind.

@SexyToad: Thanks a lot! :D I'm glad you like it.

I'm not mandude, but I say do it. I think it'd be cool if people posted their music and others added or reworked it and later on it can be decided which tracks are used.