Profile for Kaenash
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Displayed name | Kaenash |
| Member number | 5810 |
| Title | Apprentice |
| Postcount | 4 |
| Homepage | http://www.thescarletcrusade.com |
| Registered | Friday, May 13 2005 07:00 |
Recent posts
| Author | Recent posts |
|---|---|
| Game Programmer Wanted (will pay) in General | |
|
Apprentice
Member # 5810
|
written Friday, May 13 2005 17:44
Profile
Homepage
Okay, I will definitely look into that. Thanks. In retrospect, posting the entirety of my initial ideas was probably off-putting. I should have shortened it. Posts: 4 | Registered: Friday, May 13 2005 07:00 |
| Star Wars! in General | |
|
Apprentice
Member # 5810
|
written Friday, May 13 2005 17:38
Profile
Homepage
its been so long since anyone has made a Futuristic CRPG. I remember the original publishers of Might and Magic did one. I can't recall the name. Then there was 'Traveller'. That was probably early 1990s. Sure you can count the KOTOR series, but I'd like to see a Spiderweb Avernum style game, except set in more of a "Starflight" setting. (Bonus points if you actually remember Starflight I and II). I get tired of elves and dwarves. I'd like to see a Star Frontiers RPG. That would be really novel. Posts: 4 | Registered: Friday, May 13 2005 07:00 |
| Game Programmer Wanted (will pay) in General | |
|
Apprentice
Member # 5810
|
written Friday, May 13 2005 17:33
Profile
Homepage
This was my first thought, because this is a place where people who probably enjoy coding games, might be found. I'd also rather see a hungry college student get some work, rather than toss it to someone who is fat and happy. I must admit, my skills lay in game design. I am a numbers cruncher. I currently work as a Business Analyst, but I have held a lot of roles in Strategic planning. Therefore, I seek someone who has the skills to code. As I mentioned above, my goals are to do it for the love of the game. I don't intend to make money with it. If that happens later on, so much the better. After searching around the web, I found a site called "Rentacoder.com". I am going to check that out and see what comes of it. I'll start working on some more detailed specs and screen mockups in the meantime. I am not sure I really need any collaboration in the design perspective. In fact, I've got more ideas than I "need". The goal will be to carve those ideas down to what is essential and keep the scope small. [ Friday, May 13, 2005 17:35: Message edited by: Kaenash ] Posts: 4 | Registered: Friday, May 13 2005 07:00 |
| Game Programmer Wanted (will pay) in General | |
|
Apprentice
Member # 5810
|
written Friday, May 13 2005 15:54
Profile
Homepage
Okay, I realize this is my first post to this board. That may seem like 'spam', but my intentions are pure. You see, I have been a big fan of Spiderweb games for ages. In fact, I have purchased a few. I love the fact that he includes tools to make your own games. Unfortunately, they are still not 'wizard' based enough for me to use, and ultimately I do not think they would do the kind of game I Truly want to make. While, I'd like a mixture of strategy and adventure and they would do the adventure just fine, the truth is, its the strategy peice I cannot hope to do in the Spiderweb editors (Blades of Avernum) without having tremendous skill at programming. So I resolve to consider native VB or Access as a possibility. I am seeking a programmer that can assist me in creating a strategy game engine. I can pay, and will discuss with the candidate how we can work this out. I will also offer Credit for the game engine, and all future games produced with it. I have had this idea for quite some time, but I am willing to collaborate on the design and compromise so that the effort will be as much mine as yours. So many game engines out there these days to create "RPG" where you play a single character or party of adventurers who go into a dungeon and slay the monsters. This is really over done. What I am looking for is a strategy game, although there will be elements of roleplaying. The ideal candidate for this collaboration has some understanding and interest in turn based strategy games. They should have skill in either VB.net or VBA. Ideally, I am seeking a college student or some one who does it for the love of the game. Once the engine is complete, I intend to release freeware games, and eventually shareware games -if they become popular and as they increase in scope and complexity-. The programmers name would be displayed as the developer of the engine in all game credits using this, and I may be able to pay you for your time as well. I have two possible versions of the engine, and I am going to describe them both. These engines will either be in VB.NET -with the source open and commented-, or in Access where we are able to distribute an mde -Executable- so the user does not have to have MS access installed. I only intend on doing games that support Windows. Gameplay: Summary: I'd like to create games using the same 'engine'. This would be a very low graphics/sounds game -almost nothing moves-. It would be what I call a "Spreadsheet Game". By that I mean lets say you are a King, you set the tax rate, distribute land to your peasants and lords and click "End Turn" at which point the game responds to your choices and tells you what happens next. It sounds dull, except that not only do I want random events that are passive i.e. "Thunderstorms reduce your harvest this season, my liege" Harvested Food -20% But I want to introduce a system of events that you respond to i.e.; "My Liege, we have caught the bandit who has been for months now eluding and taunting your sheriff in the Kings Forest, he has waylaid many merchants, besmirched some ladies of their honor, and poached your royal game. What should we do?" and the player is given a choice of three or four options IE: A- Execute him at once. B- Bring him to me, I wish to speak with him C- Make an example of him, have him publicly executed at the fair And then use logic to make options change or be included/excluded, so for instance if the player had previously been visited by the bandit, then option D might be available to him. The system will then record that this event occurred, along with the turn number, and the decision of the player, and a random number from 1-100 which I call an 'event tag'. The system events can have a requirement IE: You must have < 500 Iron Ore OR event #30 must have already occurred. The system events can also have a exclusion rule IE: Must not have had event #29. The use of OR and AND here is key, because a lot of them might be complex. I will use the random number in the event tag to drive decision trees. So lets say the player chose option B in the event above. I do not want to be forced that if he chooses B the player will always get the same result. I'd like to be able to use the random number in the event tag to say something like "If the Random Number in the Event Tag is less than 50 then goto Event 75 next turn, otherwise go to Event 76 in 1-10 turns". Mini-Games: I want to define the term of 'mini-game' so that you understand its purpose. In addition to these events, I want to introduce mini-game objects into the game. The mini-game can be called by an event result, or because of something the player has chosen in another part of the screen. I'd like to be able to make the mini-games modular, so that I can introduce several kinds of minigames. The end result of the mini-game should always be communicated at the end to the system in a very similar format. A mini-game will be used for things like combat, gambling, jousting, and add a level of flavor and realism to the game. A good example of a mini-game is that the players army is represented like pieces on a small chess style game board, with the enemy on the other side. The player then moves each piece according to some parameters that have been predefined about how that piece moves and the game responds. Another example might have no graphic at all. It might just be where player army is shown on the screen, three tactics are selectable A- Pincer attack, B- Encircle, C- Wedge And then based on those answers, a battle round is processed with the results displayed to the player. He continues with some additional options such as 'retreat'. I have some idea on these mini-games, but I am very open minded there. I think that whats great about this concept is that as long as we have some basic mini-games, those can be added later. The first game I intend to make will be on where you play a Medieval English Noble, and you have Knights and Serfs who do your bidding. However, I want to be able to change the text strings and events and then make a game where you play a Planetary Governor in a Space sim. I can do this by making Gold change into Galactic Credits, and Iron become Strontium -72. I will replace the graphics files, etc. So in many ways, the engine and game play will be basically the same. The events -which is the meat and potatoes of the game- will be different. I would also like to be able to use this engine to create what I call those "Pick a Path" adventures. If you are familiar with the "Lone Wolf" books that came out in the mid 1980s, you will know what I am talking about. If not, then imagine a book where you answer a few questions, write down the values. Then you read the first entry and it directs you to make a choice. When you make that choice it tells you to go to another entry in the book. You may have to roll a dice to determine if you are successful, and again the result will be provided to you by going to an entry in the book. In essence, the computer is the book, and it handles the dice, the values recorded on the paper and keeps you from peaking at the wrong entry. If you think about whatever the player controls as their Kingdom, IE: I have this many serfs, knights, gold, then this is whatever the player is in control of. So in more of an adventure game, the players "Kingdom" would perhaps be his stats "Strength, Intelligence" and how much gold and whatever is in his backpack. Ultimately, it's the players "Stuff". The first event to the player would be predetermined "Must occur on turn 1" and it would be something like "You are a crossroads, you can head left to the town of Hommlet, or to the right to the ruined keep". The player would then answer the questions, and proceed to navigate to the next event -without pressing 'End Turn'- Basic Game play would flow like this -I will provide more detail later. This is the high level summary- . 1. The Player would be presented with a splash screen allowing them to start a new game, load a game, view credits, etc. They will select New Game. 2. The Player will answer a series of questions that will determine their attributes. There may be a requirement to take a collection of points and distribute them across several statistics with minimum and maximum scores. So for instance: As an Example "Take 20 points and divide them between these four statistics, where no score can be lower than 1 or higher than 10. The four statistics being Leadership, Charm, Dread, and Personal Combat. 3. Once the player has created their initial character, the game will be played using several tabs/screens. Some screens will be set to invisible based on certain circumstances in the game. For instance, lets say I make a game where you are a young mage who is exploring a dungeon, I may make the resource screen and subordinate screen invisible until event 200 occurs when I allow the player to take over the dungeon and run it as his own. Screens: I have 8 screens in mind. Player Screen: The basic screen that shows the answers to the questions in character set up -Stats, Name- and various statuses, that will be set during the game. For instance, if your player is married. Inventory will accessed here -although that may be a subscreen- and character development -Subscreen- will be accessed here, which provides the ability to increase your characters skills and statistics. Resource Screen: Here the player can see how many total resources that they have. IE: Gold, Wood, Iron Player can use sliders to set various policies -Tax Rate, Production, Research etc-. Some of these sliders will be linked to each other, so that a total amount of production gets divided in Research, Production, and Commerce for instance. If you think about "Inventory" as it could be a Sword, or a Rangers Guild, its essentially an object with attributes. This would be listed here. Although we could apply a attribute to a sword as =Personal, and a Rangers Guild as a "Structure", so that the inventory of certain types is displayed appropriately on the screen. This is where it would be shown. The player may have the option to create certain types of objects or 'buy' them. Here you could do that, such as you can say that you want to create a new structure, craft a sword, or buy an ale. Subordinate Screen: Here the player can see headshots of up to 8 NPCS and some basic statistics on all of them. They can also use a drop down control to assign them to positions. They may be able to select the character to open a subscreen to provide more information about this character. They may also be able to select other characters from a list box to replace one of the other 8 if they do not have a position assigned. So for example, the player may have a collection of Knights and advisors that he can select. He may be able to recruit more in the course of the game, which is why I would like to let the player replace some of them. The player might set the position of one of his knights to "Knights Marshall", a special title that makes this player his commander of knights and trainer. Events can be driven by something like "IF Subordinate 131 is in Position = "Knights Marshall" or not. Events may also feature the player graphic at the top of the event message box in a certain position, giving the player immediate feedback this dialogue is coming from his knights marshal. This may sound a little strange at first, but essentially all these subordinates are is a collection of statistics -Some of which will be invisible to the player or on an array that translates 1 = poor, 2 = good, 3 = excellent-. They could be henchman to an evil genius, adventuring companions or advisors, I will use them to flavor the events and make it seem more personal. Diplomacy Screen: Here the player can see relationships with what I will call a Faction. I will want to store two relationship values, one that the player perceives and one that is true. Sometimes the relationship perception will be set to whatever is true, but the perception is what is shown here. A faction might be internal IE: The Peasants, The Church and The Nobles. The faction might also be another kingdom, Mornia. For our purposes it doesn't really matter. I will also want to store and possibly display some additional values for a faction, a relative strength, aggression value, etc. Again, I want to have a perception and a true value for each of those just like relationship. These values will drive events. For instance, the Invasion by Mornia will only occur when the relative strength of the faction = -Some way of comparing player strength against mornia by 120%- and Mornia Aggression <=50. On this screen the player will have ways to interact with these factions. The screen should have no more than 12 factions. You click on a faction to bring up some additional information about it in a subscreen and the options such as for peasants you might be able to click on "Throw a Fair in the countryside" for Nobles "Throw a Courtly Tournament". These options will possibly kick off a mini-game, and store a unique event tag so that we can use game logic to run the event, or after a certain number of tournaments kick off a special "The Black Knight has heard of your reputation for throwing tournaments" event. I would love to be able to put a simple system of diplomacy, where the player can use dialogue choices much like events, but that is more of a nice to have. Military Screen: Here the player can review his current military forces, recruit additional ones, set training and patrol via sliders -like the resource screen- and initiate combat if there are any valid foes. Combat will be a mini-game module. Initially, all I want is something textual that will let the player select a tactic, and see the results of their decisions. I may also want some events to occur in battle "You see the enemy general through the smoke of battle, do you?" A- Run up and fight him in personal combat, to inspire your troops B- Order your archers to bring him down C- Realizing you are far too exposed to be this close to the enemy general, take up a more tactical position to ensure the safety of you and your officers? Who the player can fight will be based on conditions as well. Just like event rules: Can only fight Mornia if Event 29 occurred AND relations Mornia =>0 Map Screen: I had this idea for a dynamic screen if there is time. However if there is not, this screen will just show a graphic map that is simply a .jpg If there is time, I'd like to divide the screen into sections 4X4. Then be able to replace each .jpg based on player actions. This would allow me to create a psuedo dynamic map, that would for instance let me build a secret base, or design a dungeon, or show how much of the map the player has conquered. System Screen: Here the player can save and load games. The player can also delete a saved game. The player can set certain options -such as 'warn me before I end my turn-, difficulty, and all of the answers are simply stored as values. End Turn Summary Screen: Here the player can see a summary of their empire, and select End Turn. Essentially a static report with a single button to end the turn. End Turn will be configurable so that I can actually trigger an end turn with any event, and I can also trigger a warning box -optional-. Once a turn is ended, I will want to be able to customize the logic with a series of ifs and arrays to do the following: 1- Determine if there are any passive events and the result. 2- Determine resources for the Kingdom by applying any event results, and the players decisions. 3- Determine what new inventory has been created 4- Determine if there are any special event tags that need to be created because of the players decisions, using a series of rules. IE: If Subordinate 171 is set to Position = Seneschal then event tag 120 is created. 5- Determine if there will be an event next turn, based on the valid events using a dynamic array. Keep in mind, I can provide a lot more detailed specifications. All of the objects above would have attributes. You may be thinking "Well how do I know which ones to use, if this is an engine?" Some of these attributes would not be visible to the player, perhaps ever. So lets say for instance, we are doing a game where the player cannot build structure type inventory -Buildings-. That's fine. The inventory type structure just wouldn't be created in this game, but the attribute of inventory type, even if there is only one type would be used. In other words, we'll create all the attributes even though we don't intend to use it. We will reuse the attribute differently depending on the type of object in the code. As an example, lets say you had a "Strength" attribute. I could use strength differently for Weapon type inventory, and for Structure type objects. TWO DIFFERENT METHODS OF GAME ENGINE DESIGN: I have two different design ideas, that I would like to summarize for you. I call the first one Alpha and it is admittedly the most simplistic of the two. Beta is the other more detailed version and it would accomplish the same end as Alpha, except it will be designed from the ground up as a strategy game creator tool. Alpha: This is the Rapid Application Development Method. We'd start with the example game "Medieval Kingdom" as our finished product in mind. I design the forms above, and put the details together with you of the needed attributes for each of the objects. I'd include graphics, so for instance, I'd include the initial splash screen, headshots of all of the subordinates, event graphics, a map, etc. You put the code together to create the basic game with comments. This is basically where you are done. You create a few example events, a few example inventory objects etc. Keep in mind, I'll need a couple simple mini-games that kick off to represent combat. Again, I will give you the details on these, but we can work together to make them interesting. I then go back in and add more objects, add events, and eventually compile the game and distribute it. I am doing this for the love of the game, so I do not intend to make the game something you register and pay for. Eventually, if the game design catches on, I would be happy to do that, but if someone pays me money then I would have to support it, and I am not sure I want to do that at this stage. In any case, you would still be on the hook to help me through some of this, and so I would need to consult with you. If you would like to actually work on the game with me, that's always welcome. BETA: Just like there are RPG game construction kits, what I envision is a tool that lets you create a strategy game. Its wizard based, so that the game designer need never learn to code at all. Since this is a labor of love for me, and I recognize there are others like me, who aren't programmers, but want to create and tell interactive stories but don't just want to focus on "So you kill the monsters, get the gold, pocket the loot" repeat engine of most of these design kits. There would be a Designer Kit, there you would create a 'project' which would set up a folder structure with all of the screens and objects and use generic splash screens, and other graphics. The player would select from a collection of themes -looking at a preview graphic for each-.The number of themes is up to us, but at least two, one would be essentially the same graphics from the alpha project -Medieval-, and a second one would be a Planetary Governor of a Space colony. The player is given a choice as well "Use default content or start fresh?" If they use default content, essentially the first game I intend to produce will be available for the player to edit however they want, with all the events already laid out, and all the subordinates. If they start fresh, then they will not have that additional content, and get a bare bones game. The designer is then presented with the forms in the game, except unlike the VB.NET or Access design interface, right clicking on any object brings up only the actions and attributes that a designer can take with the object. IE: If you right click on one the Subordinates screen, you can set the attribute of when to make the screen visible or not, what to name the tab too. Change the background graphic. You can rename the caption of the attributes in the game. For instance, when I create the subordinates, I might use: Type IE: Knight, Wizard, Herald Ability: -1-100- Combat: -1-100- Age -1-12,000- Charm: -1-100- Dread: -1-100- Loyalty -1-100- If you click on a subordinate, you can add, edit, or delete a subordinate. The event builder will be dynamic, in that the player uses a simple tool to add attributes to an event object like "NOT If Player.Strength >50" and then they can add an AND, OR, NOT attribute and keep adding statements like this. The use of drop downs though will result in if the player changes the name of Player.Strength to Player.Combat then, the events will change along with it. The designer can also edit certain 'about' attributes, to take credit for their game. The designer will select certain mini-games to use and when. Here we will need many mini-games and the ability to link them to key attributes. Its not enough to just start a mini-game and play. The mini-game must read from the players inventory and be able to apply the results back to the inventory. So for example, the player completes the mini-game with a success rating and so he earns a pre-defined object or one chosen from a random list. However, the player lost a certain number of soldiers in the game, so that must be deducted from the players troops. We'll work out the details on this as we go. Each mini-game module will be different. We can use the same mini-game though if the context is changed. For instance, if we design a naval ship-to-ship combat, we could change it from Pirates to WWII to space. A great way to think of this is the classic Sid Meirs game "Pirates!" it had what I call "Mini-games". One was ship to ship combat. If the player successfully boarded during the combat it initiated a second one, which was a dueling/ship battle game. The same dueling mini-game was reused if the player completed a land battle, a ship invasion of a city, or during certain events such as dueling the evil Spaniard who knows the whereabouts of your sister. Basically, another way the game can pass my test, is if I can create a non-graphic -textual- version of Pirates that is playable. The designer should also have a 'Test' screen where he can set attributes, and click "Load" and load a saved game, and see what those attributes are in the game at a glance. If you are familiar with certain saved game editors, this is basically a mini version of that. The player can see the values and edit them to test his game out. -essentially setting up any scenario they want, or trouble shooting unexpected game results-. The designer will select "Package and Distribute". Here the application will have to compile. This is the part I am not entirely sure we can even do, so it may have to pseudo compile -In other words, it creates an .exe type file that can be distributed to install and play the game, but the game was always compiled, its just that putting it in this format, makes it less messy to distribute-. Clearly, this design will be a little more ambitious. However, it can still be done basically the same way as I described in alpha. We'd go ahead and build Alpha just as described. I'd put together the Designers interface and then you would use the alpha finished game as the first template. Essentially, any variable that can be set in the game, would be an attribute of an object. I would put together the basic package with all my notes. You would code using the first game as a theme. I would also work on a second game as a second theme that we could include in the first version of BETA. By the time you are done with Beta, it should be possible to create more games with it. To fully pass my test, I would want to create a game where the player is exploring the new world, and once they reach a certain point in the game the player manages a colony in the new world. Once the game reaches another point, the game switches to allow the player to manage the 'new world'. -basically the map changes and the types of events- perhaps new positions become available. A Phased Game. One of the best game design 'tricks' I ever saw was done in Microprose's "Sword of the Samurai" this game is ancient by most peoples standards, but I've not seen it done since. The player began as a simple samurai and eventually he gets strong enough to challenge his daimyo, once he becomes a daimyo the game play changes. Now he wants to become Shogun and the game play changes again. This has a lot of potential to make money, but again the first few versions would be free. That is not to say I would not pay the programmer, its just from my perspective I will be making the games because I enjoy it. If they become commercially successful later, so much the better. Any constructive thoughts about this would be much appreciated. Don't remind me how long the post is, I realize that. I did that to show you I am not just dreaming. I've been formulating the concept for this game for the last 6-7 years Posts: 4 | Registered: Friday, May 13 2005 07:00 |