Looking for help with a new project!!!!!!
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optimisticdancer
- Posts: 9
- Joined: June 3rd, 2005, 8:25 pm
- Location: Birmingham, UK
Looking for help with a new project!!!!!!
Hi there, I have an idea for an open source game.
It's a squad based tactical ZOMBIE game set in a war torn England in the near future. The aim of the game is to control a small band of survivors, developing their class, skills, abilities and equipment, turning them into first class fighters, medics, engineers etc. Everything in the game has to be fought for... clean water, food, weapons, ammo, cigarettes etc etc. Characters would start off with very simple weapons, finding and purchasing more deadly military weapons as they progress. The survivors are not only fighting zombies, other bands of survivors are searching for the same resources and will do anything to obtain them. I imagine the game to look quite dark and gothic, a look not that different from Battle for Wesnoth. Players will be able to utilise any kind of weapon and use various civilian and military vehicles. Not only are there regular zombies to combat, but darker more terrifying creatures lurk in the darkness. Anyway I have tons of plans and ideas.
I'm looking for a development team to take up the challenge of creating the game. I am not a programmer and have very little IT experience. I have an art based background and can contribute any art requirements. I have a folder full of details, history, sketches and background.
If you can contribute in ANY way to this new project, please email me and we'll join forces. I am essentially looking for people that have created and programmed games before but if you can point me in the right direction, that would be great!
If you would like see DARK LEGACY (working title) turn into a game, or just want to support the idea, email me at... m.sammut@talk21.com.[/b]
It's a squad based tactical ZOMBIE game set in a war torn England in the near future. The aim of the game is to control a small band of survivors, developing their class, skills, abilities and equipment, turning them into first class fighters, medics, engineers etc. Everything in the game has to be fought for... clean water, food, weapons, ammo, cigarettes etc etc. Characters would start off with very simple weapons, finding and purchasing more deadly military weapons as they progress. The survivors are not only fighting zombies, other bands of survivors are searching for the same resources and will do anything to obtain them. I imagine the game to look quite dark and gothic, a look not that different from Battle for Wesnoth. Players will be able to utilise any kind of weapon and use various civilian and military vehicles. Not only are there regular zombies to combat, but darker more terrifying creatures lurk in the darkness. Anyway I have tons of plans and ideas.
I'm looking for a development team to take up the challenge of creating the game. I am not a programmer and have very little IT experience. I have an art based background and can contribute any art requirements. I have a folder full of details, history, sketches and background.
If you can contribute in ANY way to this new project, please email me and we'll join forces. I am essentially looking for people that have created and programmed games before but if you can point me in the right direction, that would be great!
If you would like see DARK LEGACY (working title) turn into a game, or just want to support the idea, email me at... m.sammut@talk21.com.[/b]
Last edited by optimisticdancer on June 4th, 2005, 1:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Elvish_Pillager
- Posts: 8137
- Joined: May 28th, 2004, 10:21 am
- Location: Everywhere you think, nowhere you can possibly imagine.
- Contact:
Sounds cool. I could probably help the project by being a loud mouth and saying how everything should be. 
Anyway, you need some basic ideas. You have the plot down well, but there are a lot of things far more basic to the gameplay:
2d or 3d?
Real time or fake time?
Randomly generated or consistent maps?
Randomly generated or set initial forces?
Ability to restock on members if killed, or death is death, or any death is instant loss?
Walls and open space, or varying terrain?
Et cetera or etc.
Anyway, you need some basic ideas. You have the plot down well, but there are a lot of things far more basic to the gameplay:
2d or 3d?
Real time or fake time?
Randomly generated or consistent maps?
Randomly generated or set initial forces?
Ability to restock on members if killed, or death is death, or any death is instant loss?
Walls and open space, or varying terrain?
Et cetera or etc.
It's all fun and games until someone loses a lawsuit. Oh, and by the way, sending me private messages won't work. :/ If you must contact me, there's an e-mail address listed on the website in my profile.
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jonathantan86
- Posts: 57
- Joined: February 26th, 2005, 9:26 am
WML has [intentional] limitations with inventory management that would make it hard to manage several types of resources.
Hope springs eternal.
Wesnoth acronym guide.
Wesnoth acronym guide.
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optimisticdancer
- Posts: 9
- Joined: June 3rd, 2005, 8:25 pm
- Location: Birmingham, UK
Zombie game!
Sorry, I should have made the game specifics a bit clearer.
- The game is going to be 2d
- Turn based (fake time)
- Consistent maps set all over London, with variable terrain
- Randomly generated forces of zombies & scavengers
- If you lose a team member, you lose their abilities, sills etc. You can recruit new members for a set price after a game. I imagine the game to have a resources screen inbetween missions to manage your team. If you lose all team members, the game is lost and you will need to restart. There will also be the opportunity to trade with other players online for weapons, food etc.
- Most maps will be urban, set in London. Other areas will be loss common but still available.
lets make this idea happen...
- The game is going to be 2d
- Turn based (fake time)
- Consistent maps set all over London, with variable terrain
- Randomly generated forces of zombies & scavengers
- If you lose a team member, you lose their abilities, sills etc. You can recruit new members for a set price after a game. I imagine the game to have a resources screen inbetween missions to manage your team. If you lose all team members, the game is lost and you will need to restart. There will also be the opportunity to trade with other players online for weapons, food etc.
- Most maps will be urban, set in London. Other areas will be loss common but still available.
lets make this idea happen...
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Elvish_Pillager
- Posts: 8137
- Joined: May 28th, 2004, 10:21 am
- Location: Everywhere you think, nowhere you can possibly imagine.
- Contact:
Well, there are three ways this can turn out: A great game, a mediocre game, or no game.
In any case, the definition has a basic layout, now some more specifics:
What do you walk on? Is it terrain, as in Wesnoth? Walls and floors, as in Blades of Exile? All floors, as in Majesty?
What do you do each turn? Move all characters a certain amount? Move all characters once? Move your group once?
When is combat done? Is there a combat mode that is entered and left?
How is combat preformed? Do you have a wielded weapon? Do you have a set of weapons of which you can use any? Are the weapons worked into the interface?
When do the zombies appear? Randomly over time? A randomly generated set upon entering a map? A preset set over time or on entry?
In any case, the definition has a basic layout, now some more specifics:
What do you walk on? Is it terrain, as in Wesnoth? Walls and floors, as in Blades of Exile? All floors, as in Majesty?
What do you do each turn? Move all characters a certain amount? Move all characters once? Move your group once?
When is combat done? Is there a combat mode that is entered and left?
How is combat preformed? Do you have a wielded weapon? Do you have a set of weapons of which you can use any? Are the weapons worked into the interface?
When do the zombies appear? Randomly over time? A randomly generated set upon entering a map? A preset set over time or on entry?
It's all fun and games until someone loses a lawsuit. Oh, and by the way, sending me private messages won't work. :/ If you must contact me, there's an e-mail address listed on the website in my profile.
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optimisticdancer
- Posts: 9
- Joined: June 3rd, 2005, 8:25 pm
- Location: Birmingham, UK
Zombie Game
Here are some more ideas...
- I imagine the game to have all floor surfaces such as walls, floors and natural terrains etc.
- Each player takes it in turn to move their team. In a single turn a player can move, shoot, fight, heal, lay boobytraps, reload etc with each team member. Each character will have a certain amount of Action Points that can be spent on all of these actions every turn, the points being refreshed at the start of each turn.
- The weapons interface would be similar to that of UFO Enemy Unknown where you have an in-mission resource screen where weapons and equipment could be allocated. Close combat weapons could be improvised from anything, pipes, axes, chains etc and can be found anywhere. Ranged military weapons are harder to get hold off and can be traded for off-screen but the ammo will be hard to get hold of. So a player could shoot at a zombie or scavenger or get up close and personal, launching an attack. If the target isn't killed in his turn, that target will have the chance to attack back in it's turn sequence.
- Zombies (all diferent shapes, sizes and strengths) will appear from set points on the map such as drains, sewer points etc and randomly spawn during each mission at different points on the map. So playing online, a player would face computer controlled zombies and other player controlled humans.
- I imagine the game to have all floor surfaces such as walls, floors and natural terrains etc.
- Each player takes it in turn to move their team. In a single turn a player can move, shoot, fight, heal, lay boobytraps, reload etc with each team member. Each character will have a certain amount of Action Points that can be spent on all of these actions every turn, the points being refreshed at the start of each turn.
- The weapons interface would be similar to that of UFO Enemy Unknown where you have an in-mission resource screen where weapons and equipment could be allocated. Close combat weapons could be improvised from anything, pipes, axes, chains etc and can be found anywhere. Ranged military weapons are harder to get hold off and can be traded for off-screen but the ammo will be hard to get hold of. So a player could shoot at a zombie or scavenger or get up close and personal, launching an attack. If the target isn't killed in his turn, that target will have the chance to attack back in it's turn sequence.
- Zombies (all diferent shapes, sizes and strengths) will appear from set points on the map such as drains, sewer points etc and randomly spawn during each mission at different points on the map. So playing online, a player would face computer controlled zombies and other player controlled humans.
I think this game idea sounds kinda cool.
Unfortunately I think it's rather difficult to start a game project unless you have one really dedicated programmer (i.e. preferably yourself, but apparently that's not an option).
My honest opinion is that unless you know someone willing to do the coding it'd be really hard to get this off the ground.
One thing you could do though is try drawing some good graphics for it even before you have any programmers, and show them off. There might be a programmer who would be willing to work on an Open Source project that actually has some nice graphics, with the dearth of such projects around.
David
Unfortunately I think it's rather difficult to start a game project unless you have one really dedicated programmer (i.e. preferably yourself, but apparently that's not an option).
My honest opinion is that unless you know someone willing to do the coding it'd be really hard to get this off the ground.
One thing you could do though is try drawing some good graphics for it even before you have any programmers, and show them off. There might be a programmer who would be willing to work on an Open Source project that actually has some nice graphics, with the dearth of such projects around.
David
“At Gambling, the deadly sin is to mistake bad play for bad luck.” -- Ian Fleming
I reiterate these comments.Dave wrote:My honest opinion is that unless you know someone willing to do the coding it'd be really hard to get this off the ground.
One thing you could do though is try drawing some good graphics for it even before you have any programmers, and show them off. There might be a programmer who would be willing to work on an Open Source project that actually has some nice graphics, with the dearth of such projects around.
Check out GemRB.
It's a remake of the Infinity Engine that runs the Baldurs Gate series and other games by BioWare.
Whilst not complete yet, GemRB covers a good portion of the requirements and is still in active development. It would mean you'd need very little programming to get started as you'd basically be pumping art into the engine rather than writing an engine to cope with the art. The kind of isometric display is very conducive to the RPG nature of the game you suggest (rather than the tactical nature of Wesnoth, for which flatter overhead 2D is more appopriate).
It's a remake of the Infinity Engine that runs the Baldurs Gate series and other games by BioWare.
Whilst not complete yet, GemRB covers a good portion of the requirements and is still in active development. It would mean you'd need very little programming to get started as you'd basically be pumping art into the engine rather than writing an engine to cope with the art. The kind of isometric display is very conducive to the RPG nature of the game you suggest (rather than the tactical nature of Wesnoth, for which flatter overhead 2D is more appopriate).
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optimisticdancer
- Posts: 9
- Joined: June 3rd, 2005, 8:25 pm
- Location: Birmingham, UK
Zombie Game
How hard is it to learn a programming language? Just considering a plan B if I can't get anyone to champion my vision!
How long would it take to programme a game that is similar to B4W?
How long would it take to programme a game that is similar to B4W?