Looking for collaboration (game)

[Deathworks]

Hi!

After getting way over my head time after time again, I have come to the conclusion that changing my approach may be helpful.

The thing is, there are a lot of game engines and programming tools available on the Japanese internet as freeware and I have collected quite a number of them and am confident that I have understood how they work. The reason I haven't finished anything yet is that I get bogged down by drawing the graphics and designing the content (well, mostly it's the graphics).

Currently, I am experimenting with J-RPG again, and am quite optimistic; still I am not satisfied with the situation.

Therefore, here is my proposal: If you have the content, graphics, and sounds (if required), I can do the programming for you.

There are, however a few conditions I have to insist on:

- ALL content must be provided by you. Because of my extreme preferences, it is quite likely that your concept will probably not be in accordance to my tastes. That is no problem as far as the programming is concerned, but it will keep me from adding to the content. However, depending on the situation, I may make suggestions or offer help/material. Just don't count on it.

- You must hold the copyright for ALL the material you use or have permission granted by the copyright holder. That is something I have to insist upon, because I don't want to take responsibility for failures in that area. If I find that you misled me about this, the collaboration ends immediately.

- Basically, I decide which programming tool will be used depending on the concept of the game. For instance, if you wanted to do something like Markie's Alien Goddesses, I would suggest either Comic Maker 3 or Kirikiri. Most likely than not, it will be a Japanese tool (^_^;; . However, I am willing to the discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the different tools.

In addition, I must point out that I am relatively slow and have only limited internet access during holidays. Still, I will do my best.

And I am also not as experienced as for instance Duamutef, so even although I know how things work, it may take me a little trying to get the best results.

Ah! As long as you are using common graphic formats, I will do any conversions that may be required by the engine.

Finally, I am a beginner in many ways. So, it's better not too expect too much. Something like Markie's game should be no problem, similarly a straightforward cardgame, but writing a proper RPG like Duamutef's VRPG from scratch would be bound to take quite some time and may require us to accept some limitations in order to get it finished. (It is a different story, if we can use SRC, ERPG, LQSH or J-RPG, of course)

I invite people who have the ideas and believe they can provide the content material, to initially give a rough description of their idea here in this thread.

My reasoning is, that this way I can first see whether this is something I believe I can do. If I feel it is beyond my ability, I can tell you here so and we can consider alternative routes. In addition, starting out public may result in other people lending support or adding content.

So, if you are interested or have any questions about this, please feel free to add to this thread.

Deathworks

[PassingStranger]

Tempting... I've tried to make games in the past and I run into the exact same problem. If you're still looking for an artist and a proposel by the 8th, I'll pitch something.

[PassingStranger]

This may be to hard or to simple, depending on how you comfortable you are with networking, but I was thinking of a multiplier hide&seek/tag kind of game.

Each player would select a furry or anime face to represent them . These face would follow around their perspective play's cursor. One player would be randomly selected to be 'it.' He would then attempt to click on the other players. If he hits one, the game would play a brief, vorish animation sequence involving the two characters, and the player that was hit would be eliminated from the game.

In addition to these floating heads, there would also be various hiding places; bitmaps of beach balls, tables, and other house hold objects. The players that are not 'it' would be able to hide behind these objects. The player that is 'it' wouldn't be able to click on the other players while they are hidden, but he would be able to move the objects and, if he goes fifteen seconds without clicking someone, destroy an object with heat vision!

Obviously the game would end when the person who is 'it' clicks all the other players. This would open up another brief vore related animation sequence.

[Deathworks]

Hi!

PassingStranger: First of all, thank you for your support. I didn't respond at first for fear of saying something wrong and scaring off other people who are interested (I seem to have a knack for blundering (^_^;; ). Sorry.

I have to admit that I failed to mention one more issue: My personal computer is not connected to any network or the internet. I am using my university's public pcs to connect to the internet. This means I can't use anything that requires me to be online. So, I am sorry, but I can't do any networking games since I can't test run them. The only thing I can do are single machine games like RPGs or Digital Novels, Shoot'em ups or Jump'n Run. Multiplayer games could only be good old turned based things like board games or war games.

In addition, the tools available to me also mean different conditions for different game types:

Digital Novels: There are more engines than you can count, and some are extremely powerful, so this is the genre where virtually anything can be created easily. For instance, programming a game structured like Markie's game should be piece of cake with Comic Maker 3.

Simulation RPG: SRC. That virtually says all. The disadvantage is that you don't create stand-alone games but rather scenarios, so the player needs to download the engine separately (it does not install into the registry, I think.). In addition, there might be one or two menu entries that can't be changed and would remain Japanese text, but that should be no problem with a proper readme which I would also provide. The great advantage is that SRC is incredibly flexible. It has a very good script language and you have great access to all units on the map, so you should be able to do a lot of weird things.

Text Adventure: Mostly forgotten by many people today, this is also a great genre. There are some very fine English engines around, especially Inform, which is by far my favorite. There is probably nothing as flexible as a text adventure :) :)

RPG: There are not that many freeware engines around, probably due to the success of Enterbrain's commercial engines. Most noteworthy are probably J-RPG, ERPG, and Like a Quest Hyper. Each one of them has its own strengths and weaknesses. However, all of them have fairly hard-coded combat routines, so vorish content would probably be limited to stomach dungeons. There is also Queek, now in its second edition, which is a fake 3D RPG engine (quarter view). I haven't checked out the second, improved edition much. The first edition was quite limited in many respects, but the second edition seems to have undergone major changes, so it may be a bit more flexible.

Action: There is an engine dedicated to Jump'n Run, Shoot'em Up, and other action games by the name ZGE. I have to admit that I have little experience with it due to the large amount of graphics you need for an action game of any kind. It does seem quite powerful, though.

Strategy: Ah, I want to mention Faren Touga, a kind of strategy game. In a limited fashion, you can create your own scenarios for it with your own field map. There are many restrictions on what you can change as far as the core rules and races are concerned, but you can create triggered events and the like. Just like SRC, the player needs to download the game proper separately.

For things beyond the abilities of the engines above, I would probably first turn to Kirikiri. Basically, that's like C++ with graphic and sound commands and without the 300 errors upon compile syndrom. File handling seems to be slightly limited, but it supports game pad input, keyboard input, mouse input, and uses proper graphics layers and windows. I don't think it has networking ability (can't say for sure), but it does support plugins, so I guess something may be done via that route.

I have also been tinkering around a little bit with Parafla!, so Flash games would also be possible, although I would probably be relatively slow in the development since I have extremely little practice there.

I hope this information can help and encourage people to speak up. My apologies if I disappointed your expectations.

Ah! Since there seems to have been quite some discussions about card games, depending on their complexity, they may even be programmed using Comic Maker 3. If they are more complex, though, Kirikiri would be first choice.

Deathworks

[Jurodan]

I'll do what I can. Where's the link to your work so I can work on basic designs for content? Or am I misunderstanding the term concept here? (I wasn't getting that vibe, but it might be because I'm tired)

[Deathworks]

Hi!

Jurodan: Thank you for your interest.

I am not sure whether I was able to adequately describe what I had in mind.

Basically, I am looking for someone who says: "Well, I have this idea for a nice little game, I can draw the graphics or have friendly artists who can help, but I know nothing about programming and wouldn't even know where to begin with it."

As I mentioned it before, I don't have any finished projects to show for credentials since I always ran into the content issue (well, C++ killed my project with its setup, mumble mumble), so I suppose there is only my honest belief that I can pull it off. However, if you have no one else who can do the programming for you, I think it would be better than nothing.

A little while ago, you presented an interesting concept for a card game, didn't you? I didn't investigate further because it looked as if you had a physical rather than a computer game in mind, but if you are interested, I would actually like to try to program a single-player computer version (probably Kirikiri based).

If we were to follow that road, it would basically look like this: I would do the programming and you would clarify the rules for me if needed and design the cards.

The fun thing about Kirikiri is that the only external raw data file type (I am not talking about graphics or sound/music) the manual properly explains is text, so if external card data or rule data was to be realized with Kirikiri, it would be in text format, just as with Duamutef's games (although I don't think I will be able to do an engine as versatile as Cartomancer).

Please tell me what you think. I hope that I hadn't misled you by what I wrote earlier.

Deathworks

[Jurodan]

*blinks* That would work perfectly, to be honest. I don't know how to program at all, so this would be an absolute godsend.
Right now I'm working on the game, retooling the character system (arguing if I should change it to a D6 or D8 system, or keep it as a D10 system).

[Deathworks]

Hi!

As things are, I will commence work on a single machine computer version of Jurodan's vore card game "Survivore: The Card Game". Therefore, for the time being, I will be busy as far as programming is concerned, so I won't be able to accept new assignments. Still, I want to keep this thread open for people to exchange ideas, and once the current project is finished (yeah, I am optimistic, believing that this will be soon :) :) :) ), to put it to its original use again.

The work on Jurodan's game will be coordinated via a new thread in the suggestions forum: Survivore - Computer Edition

I am open for support and suggestions, so feel free to visit that thread as well and drop a comment or two :) :)

Deathworks