Let's Make A Game 2012

@afrofools said:

@Mordi@CH3BURASHKA Thanks for the support...

It is going to be done because I could do it all by myself in 2D, and we have around 60 members with a diverse range of skills and backgrounds... Sure, not everyone is contributing yet, but there are more than I can count on both hands actively working in their free time to make this happen. But yes, there are a couple of problems at the moment, though nothing which will kill the project. On the coding, audio, and graphics side of things everything is good, but we can't start until all the idea stuff is sorted. Some of the gameplay design ideas are either too ambitious, or too vague, with people reading things differently (all expected behaviour). Luckily the game design is still on schedule, and should be done by the date I have set the team. Between now and then either myself or someone will go through the ideas with the leads of each technical area and go through a process of elimination on the game design. Over the past couple of weeks the team leads have steered around several hazards, and we have our ways of sorting things out. So don't worry, it's happening, and it will be finished.

Project Benefits:

• Wannabe game developers who have participated can put this in their portfolio with mention of what they did
• Everyone will better appreciate how a game goes from having no concept to a finished product
• Improve technical skills
• Have something to be proud of.
• Teamwork. Everyone learns how to cooperate :)

You forgot one important thing!

@tariqari said:

@afrofools said:

@Mordi@CH3BURASHKA Thanks for the support...

It is going to be done because I could do it all by myself in 2D, and we have around 60 members with a diverse range of skills and backgrounds... Sure, not everyone is contributing yet, but there are more than I can count on both hands actively working in their free time to make this happen. But yes, there are a couple of problems at the moment, though nothing which will kill the project. On the coding, audio, and graphics side of things everything is good, but we can't start until all the idea stuff is sorted. Some of the gameplay design ideas are either too ambitious, or too vague, with people reading things differently (all expected behaviour). Luckily the game design is still on schedule, and should be done by the date I have set the team. Between now and then either myself or someone will go through the ideas with the leads of each technical area and go through a process of elimination on the game design. Over the past couple of weeks the team leads have steered around several hazards, and we have our ways of sorting things out. So don't worry, it's happening, and it will be finished.

Project Benefits:

• Wannabe game developers who have participated can put this in their portfolio with mention of what they did
• Everyone will better appreciate how a game goes from having no concept to a finished product
• Improve technical skills
• Have something to be proud of.
• Teamwork. Everyone learns how to cooperate :)

You forgot one important thing!

I want to see this finished as much as anyone, but for me even if we get halfway done and it falls apart I'll have learned a ton, and I'll be happy. I'm in it for the experience.

Just came across this thread on accident. I love this idea. It's something that I have wanted to be involved in for quite some time.

It's late, so I'll get around to reading the entire thread tomorrow, but I wanted to throw my hat in the ring. I am a composer in the real world. Most of my work is band and orchestral, but I do other jobs on the side that expand towards rock, jazz, etc. I have experience scoring commercials as well as some short films, and I have a pretty decent setup of audio tools and libraries. I also run a small music publishing company, so it's possible that I can take care of some of the basics with ASCAP should it get that serious down the road. I've also done my share of voice acting when needed, and I'd like to think I'm a half decent writer/story teller.

All that aside, I'll power through the thread and get caught up on things, hopefully there is a place for me to fit in.

@Fattony12000: That's super handy! Although I already own FL Studio, and there are a sea of free VSTs out there.

I need drum samples! And I see some free ones there that will likely find their way into a few of the tracks.

@Fattony12000 said:

There's this thing I saw over on Tested.

http://www.tested.com/forums/makers/449366-making-music-on-the-cheap/

SPOILER WARNING: Click here to reveal hidden content.

Barta Oct. 13, 2012 | 2 days ago

So another thread has basically concluded that making music is included in the "Making" category. Therefore, I thought I'd post a few of the virtual tools I use to create electronic music without spending a fortune on samples, vsts, DAWs, and whatnot. There is SO much you can do without spending any significant money, or pirating software, or hacking. It is an amazing time to be a musician. Here are some of the best bang-for-buck things I've found and used:

DAWs:

FL Studio: $200 for the 'producer' edition, this is by far the most expensive thing I use. It is incredibly powerful and especially shines when working with samples in their built-in step sequencer or MIDI data in their piano roll. The real beauty is lifetime free upgrades. Unlike Ableton, ProTools, Cubase - you will never be asked to shell out several hundred dollars in a few years for the new features. You get them for free. Lifetime.

REAPER: Free, unlimited, unrestricted demo. All you get is a splash screen that asks you to buy when you start up. If you do buy, it's only $60 for a personal license. This software is a little intimidating to use, but is very good at handling audio clips and traditional track-based mixing. It's sampler and piano roll aren't great for EDM styles, but hey, its SO CHEAP. It is also extremely light-weight in terms of CPU usage and HDD space. Great program.

Samples:

www.drumsamples.org (free)

MPC60 samples (I use v1 & v2, $30 each)

VST instruments:

http://www.tweakbench.com/ (lots and lots of free, great sounding 8-bit style instruments and effects)

Togu Audio Line - amazing stuff here, NoiseMaker is the best free synth I've used, and the effects are great

Pocket Limiter and Maximizer can be found here, they are both free and amazing

Ambience - great free reverb

GSnap - free autotune! Not super intuitive, but powerful

endorphin - great sounding compressor, free

DR-Fusion 2 - it's not amazing, but I love this free drum machine plugin

A ton of this information comes from Zircon, an awesome producer who gives a lot of great advice and has super helpful tutorials on his website and YouTube. To get all your music onto iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, Google Play, and a ton of other stuff, check out CDBaby.

Cheers

Thanks Fattony! Very useful link! :D

As we're going to be using Paris as a location (presumably as the hub world from which we access the CERN battle/objective/dungeon area) I'd love it if we could throw in a nod of some kind to 'Broken Sword', as I have great memories of playing it in my early teens.

The game wasn't released until '96, but it was conceived in '94 and was being researched from '92 onwards (or so Wikipedia reliably informs me).

The reference could be something literal - giving a broken sword to a man named Cecil, who we meet outside a Paris Bistro. Or just a little thing - the player arrives in Paris and remarks "Paris in the fall, the last months of the year", etc (or a riff based on this).

I know it's too early to be nailing these things down but I thought I'd mention it now while it's still fresh in my mind.

@Chops037 said:

As we're going to be using Paris as a location (presumably as the hub world from which we access the CERN battle/objective/dungeon area) I'd love it if we could throw in a nod of some kind to 'Broken Sword', as I have great memories of playing it in my early teens.

The game wasn't released until '96, but it was conceived in '94 and was being researched from '92 onwards (or so Wikipedia reliably informs me).

The reference could be something literal - giving a broken sword to a man named Cecil, who we meet outside a Paris Bistro. Or just a little thing - the player arrives in Paris and remarks "Paris in the fall, the last months of the year", etc (or a riff based on this).

I know it's too early to be nailing these things down but I thought I'd mention it now while it's still fresh in my mind.

I'm a big, big fan of Broken Sword (best adventure series in video game history, in my opinion), so I can at least promise you that I'll try to put something in there :)

@afrofools said:

It is going to be done because I could do it all by myself in 2D, and we have around 60 members with a diverse range of skills and backgrounds... Sure, not everyone is contributing yet, but there are more than I can count on both hands actively working in their free time to make this happen. But yes, there are a couple of problems at the moment, though nothing which will kill the project. On the coding, audio, and graphics side of things everything is good, but we can't start until all the idea stuff is sorted.

I volunteered to do props for levels but I didn't contribute to the art style debate yet because there are already so many cooks in the kitchen. As soon as the art style is sorted out and the design leads put up asset lists, I'll start designing stuff. Hope that's okay.

@afrofools said:

Some of the gameplay design ideas are either too ambitious, or too vague, with people reading things differently (all expected behaviour).

Yep, that's the thing that currently concerns me a little bit. We should keep it simple. I see all these ideas thrown around of hubworlds, different views for battle and exploration (both of which would require their own assets) etc. Some of these ideas are definitely too ambitious for such a project.

But anyway, here's my two cents about what kind of art style I think would work for this project. It needs to be both, as little time consuming as possible and it should make effective use of 2D and 3D artwork. What comes to mind is something like Deathspank. That game's world is built in simple 3D but littered with alpha-textured 2D objects.

Is anyone else getting a general error message from the developer forum?

@Thoseposers: I was earlier, but it seems to be fixed now

@CptBedlam: I agree with your whole post and also think that's a great idea for an art style that can incorporate both 2D and 3D artists.

Hello everyone! I've been using giantbomb since it's inception, but I've never gotten round to creating an account, and this project seemed like such a fun idea that it's finally inspired me to make one :)

I'm studying music and physics at university - don't know if you'll have much use for theoretical physics in the game, but I'd love to help out with the music, if there's any space. I'd like to think I'm an alright composer - either electronic, or with "real" instruments - and more focused on melodies rather than ambient stuff. There seem to be quite a few people signed up for "music" in one capacity or another already, though. To be honest, I don't really mind if no-one ends up using anything I contribute, I'd just love to have a go, and see what everyone else is doing. So, room for one more?

Hm. According to their terms, I apparently can't profit from the Trial version of Unity Pro, nor can I use my Pro assets in Unity Free (and assets created in Unity Free can't be used in Pro, believe it or not). So I guess my little shadow experiment is over for now. Bummer.

@Immortal_Guy: Hey there!

Welcome to the team, any help is greatly appreciated! Be sure to contact our music lead @mscupcakes and check out our alt forum where our other musicians are sharing their work. You'll need to pm fattony12000 for access to the forums. We look forward to hearing your stuff!

One thing that seemed to work well in my experience was having one or two guys be the leader. A project director that everyone reports to, and that makes sure everything is glued together somewhat coherently. I didn't read all of first post (lazy bum) so I'm not sure this is already established.

Good evening friends --

Just joined up on this project, still reading the thread to see what direction everything is headed. I'm a 2D animator by trade, but not professionally. That said, I'm more or less looking to be a between-the-lines grunt for this project - coming up with crazy monster and encounter designs or perhaps dabbling in some level design. I'll be keeping my eye on this project, and when the call out for crazy ass "Giant Eyeballs with thirteen hands and forty-five mouths that spit acid blood" comes my way, rest be assured I'll be on the scene.

@afrofools

Which ideas are vague, specifically? I'll see if I can explain. *edit* if you were referring to something I wrote, that is.

@tariqari:

• How does the player get caffeinated drinks?
• Does every battle involve trying to take someone's treasure?
• Rock paper scissors doesn't sound good. Does player fight with a menu of actions or by mashing buttons?
• When can we save? Saving the state any time may not be feasible.
• Why should the enemy numbers be limited to no more than 3?
• Needing quest items in a fight? Would such items be weapons? Would the player know in advance they need these items to beat the enemy?
• Are lethal point awarded via experience? Does this create grinding? If we gave enemies permadeath, and if there were experience points, then how would we measure the required stream of experience over the course of play?
• Would the signature moves that combine moves require creating animations that go in between for each move for every other move?
• Do you think we should have alleyways or side paths that act as RPG villages where all the shopping, talking, and accepting of quests are done?
• I approve of the fire escape climbing and other occasional vertical exploration. Think of how in Tokyo Jungle you can ascend the skyscrapers.
• Can Luchadeer say, "yip" like a certain mysterious animal?
• Dialogue is good.
• Is collecting items going to be of benefit? Or is it just the satisfaction of scoring loot?

Well done with the game design. Here is all the questions I could think of right now that you may want to make clear. Also, you are the team leader for the game design so we will do most of what you say, but some things may need to be changed for technical reasons or for game balance. Could you wipe out the main game design doc in the "ideas" folder and copy paste your WIP document there. Thanks.

@afrofools said:

@tariqari:

• How does the player get caffeinated drinks?
• Does every battle involve trying to take someone's treasure?
• Rock paper scissors doesn't sound good. Does player fight with a menu of actions or by mashing buttons?
• When can we save? Saving the state any time may not be feasible.
• Why should the enemy numbers be limited to no more than 3?
• Needing quest items in a fight? Would such items be weapons? Would the player know in advance they need these items to beat the enemy?
• Are lethal point awarded via experience? Does this create grinding? If we gave enemies permadeath, and if there were experience points, then how would we measure the required stream of experience over the course of play?
• Would the signature moves that combine moves require creating animations that go in between for each move for every other move?
• Do you think we should have alleyways or side paths that act as RPG villages where all the shopping, talking, and accepting of quests are done?
• I approve of the fire escape climbing and other occasional vertical exploration. Think of how in Tokyo Jungle you can ascend the skyscrapers.
• Can Luchadeer say, "yip" like a certain mysterious animal?
• Dialogue is good.
• Is collecting items going to be of benefit? Or is it just the satisfaction of scoring loot?

Well done with the game design. Here is all the questions I could think of right now that you may want to make clear. Also, you are the team leader for the game design so we will do most of what you say, but some things may need to be changed for technical reasons or for game balance. Could you wipe out the main game design doc in the "ideas" folder and copy paste your WIP document there. Thanks.

I will answer all of your questions shortly and I will paste all of the ideas into the design document, using the template that DrFlapjack provided if possible.

In the mean time, I have started a thread in our design section of the alt forums. I encourage all design time team & ideas people to check it out and use that as our way of organizing our thoughts on gameplay.

@tariqari: I thought the game design team was going to discuss the ideas, rather than decieding on who 's game mechanics idea we like best or perhaps I'm mistaken? Since I would like to add on to your and other's ideas.

@SexyToad that's why I started the thread. we can debate on pre-existing ideas or come up with alternatives.

@tariqari: Okay, will do! As soon as I'm able to post @afrofools

@SexyToad: @Fattony12000 runs the forums. There's a free-for-all thread where you post asking for permission to post.

I keep getting a "general error" when trying to register over on the dev forum. Anybody else having issues logging in or registering?

@SexyToad said:

@tariqari: Okay, will do! As soon as I'm able to post @afrofools

sorry, I didn't realize it was limited access.

@ everyone who is on the design team, please register on the alt forums and post here for access to post in the design section! that goes for anyone who wants to add their ideas as well!

Well, I can't for the life of me get the registration on the dev forum to not crap out on me, so I'll just throw this here for now.

A couple samples of my work musically. Both of these were originally written as original music for competitive high school marching band, but I'm already in the process of extracting them into a larger orchestral work. The first is the last half of a show called Metamorphosis. What I've linked is pretty much the cocoon into the butterfly portion of the show. The other is a much older file that still has some rougher brass patches, but I think is a pretty great track. It's a show based on The Divine Comedy and represents Purgatorio (Limbo). I'll have much more to offer once I'm on the dev forum and not clogging things up here.

Metamorphosis

Purgatorio

What's difficult for you coders? Afrofools has saids some things may not be feasible, then what's feasible?

Hope I'm not too late to get in on this. I'd love to help any way I can.

@shaftwaxer: Hey shaftwaxer, I really like the vibe of Purgatorio. I was also having problems with the alt forums earlier, but it seems everything is works now. Good to have you!

Welcome new members, I have given you all access to the drive.

@SexyToad: Things that haven't been seen in games before, or only appear in games with large paid development teams.

• Signature moves will be cool, but it will require a tonne of animation work, and the coders will need to create a queuing system.
• Reversing time during exploration will require clever scripting work, maybe even for each situation that it occurs. (coders chime in)
• Some minor things I can't remember. Overall the game design @tariqari has proposed is pretty decent.

@afrofools: @tariqari: @SexyToad: I've expanded a little bit on the "worlds" concept. I will try now to come up with some ideas regarding mission structure. I've also uploaded some ideas regarding mission structure. Have a look at both docs and see if any ideas are worth pursuing.

Just submitted an application -- I'm a newbie coder with a bit of experience with quite a few languages (but no real skill in any of them), and a decent musician with a great grasp on the rules of theory and notation, and I'd love to write, score, or perform/record music. I probably won't be of much help to the code compared to some, but I'd love to just lurk and watch it go up and help where I can.

Edit: I also like to consider myself a funny guy with decent grammar and spelling, so if the team needs another writer I'll jump on in. I'd prefer to be involved in the other areas I mentioned, though.

Perhaps I can assist in some kind of PR way...

I do have a youtube channel that a ton of duders/gamers love...

I'm not totally sold on the premise of a time-travel, but I'm willing to help with story if the storycrew is serious about telling a good story.

@Winternet: Thanks! Be sure to check and post here where we are discussing design. A link to one of your documents is in that thread so be sure to link to the other for quick access.

@BitterAlmond Good to have you. You can check our alt forums where some musicians have started to show their work. You'll need to be sure to post here to gain access.

@TurboMan That would be a great help once we get something to show!

@TrafalgarLaw I'm sure @Fattony12000 would love your help, he's our story lead so be sure to get in touch with him.

@lanerobertlane All help is welcome! Right now our programmers are in limbo or messing with their own ideas as we nail mechanics down. As stated above, check out our alt forums for further info.

@DrFlapjack: I still need to get permission to post in there.

As do I. I've mistakenly used the nickname DrTrafalgarLaw, lose the Dr prefix when mentioning me in the list (I'm not a Dr. (yet))

@Winternet: @TrafalgarLaw: No problem guys. @Fattony12000 is the admin so he'll have to grant you access, it usually doesn't take too long.

@DrFlapjack: Ok. Anyway, it's uploaded on google drive for people to take a look at it.

Hey, that's weird. Maybe application did not go through...? What is the alt forum?

@Fattony12000 Also, did you get my PM?

@Fattony12000: Oh yeah, I signed up like half an hour ago. I was not complaining :)

@DrFlapjack@Fattony12000: Thanks, I've just registered on the alt forum and have been reading what people are saying and seeing where i could best lend a hand. I have lots of c# code i've wrote that never got used in my indie game that i could dump into the google drive or in the dev forum for reference or for people to blatantly copy/paste when i get access to them. Mainly its code revolving mechanics such as player stats and code for inventory management (weapons, consumables etc). I may also jump on the music team if the coding team is over populated, like i say i can float to where i'll most benefit the team.

@lanerobertlane: That sounds great! I'm not a coder, but I believe that's what Github is for (check the first post in this thread).

@DrFlapjack: sorry, didn't see the github link hiding under the the google drive one. i'll PM one of those dudes my github username and get cracking. cheers

@afrofools said:

Welcome new members, I have given you all access to the drive.

@SexyToad: Things that haven't been seen in games before, or only appear in games with large paid development teams.

• Signature moves will be cool, but it will require a tonne of animation work, and the coders will need to create a queuing system.
• Reversing time during exploration will require clever scripting work, maybe even for each situation that it occurs. (coders chime in)
• Some minor things I can't remember. Overall the game design @tariqari has proposed is pretty decent.

I can't imagine implementing Signature moves being difficult. It's just a matter of making sure a variable has reached '100', and if so, execute signature animation. But then again it's just one more mechanic to tack on the wall. Best to get the foundation set first.

Reversing time? Are we talkin' just reversing a clock, or rewinding the action like a VHS tape? If the former: easy. If the latter: a whole world of trouble.

@afrofools: ey, I'm left out of the Who Is/What Do post! I guess put me in as a coder, with Javascript and almost non-existent C# skill. Also I'm kind of confused which place the Dev Forum is. Do I have access yet? There's the Google Drive thing, and the phphope thing... is that all? Not to be a nuisance, but if so, I don't think I'm seeing it.

@SexyToad

@SexyToad said:

What's difficult for you coders? Afrofools has saids some things may not be feasible, then what's feasible?

Eh, that's an impossible question to answer. Unless you have experience implementing something, you really don't know how difficult it is. There's always hidden hurdles you never think of. Generally speaking, the larger and more all-encompassing something is, the harder it is to implement. And with Unity, to do anything remarkably impressive graphics-wise requires access to the Pro version, so forget any hopes of a fantastical journey through the lost city of Blackreach-Atlantis.

I'm having difficulty accessing the google drive, mainly because I'm an idiot and only created a google account after signing up on the list here, so I think I got missed out when people were added to access the drive. The username is still "Immortal_Guy", and I've clicked "request acccess", but I'm not sure if that's done anything. I'm not 100% sure who I should be adressing this to, so I'm just going to throw it out here. If anyone could lend a hand, that'd be much appreciated :)