game developers directory ?

[massive27]

Hello everyone,

In the many topic we have out there, many talks on behalf of their own skills, in order to give wise advice or help someone, which is always much appreciated.
[edit] So, if you have skills in any fields involved in game-making, feel free to add it here!
Thus any game creators out there could ask for advice more directly (and discreelty) if needed !
Skills like : programmer, 2D graphic designer, 3D , flash animator, sound designer, music, level designer, lore/concept , tester ...

Darkevilme: Programmer - post
Journeyman: Programmer/Media guy - post
Massive27 : Programmer/Sound - post
Nekomaru: Low-poly 3D Artist - post
r0nniel0ng : Sound fx - post
Seifens : Programmer+opt+dbg - post
Wolf_Seisenbacher : 3D hi-poly/Cinematic - post
ImaginaryZ Programmer/3D/and more - post

It may be too formal, or some ppl may not want to promote themselves, or prefer create dedicated topic... many reasons, many ways, none wrong ofc!
[edit] thx for the input so far!

[darkevilme]

What the hey it'll get us closer to an actual collaborative vore game perhaps so I support this and will even chip in with a starting pointer.

Darkevilme: Programmer
Skills (ranked):
C++(1st)
Blender(2nd)
Directx(3rd)
Gimp(4th)(Primarily texturing)
Passing familiarities(Things I've only done one project in or not used extensively):
OPENGL
C#
XNA
Gamemaker
Irrlicht

Current project: Space Odyssey
http://aryion.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=79&t=28012

Things I'd like to experiment with in future:
Unity (toolset)
Multiplayer games
Fully 3d games
Procedural level design
More C#

Crazy ideas:
Porting Space Odyssey onto openGL.

[Journeyman]

Decent idea--might be able to fill in the missing jigsaw pieces. I'm also going to list skills I'm missing, that I've specifically encountered a desire to have while trying game dev.

Journeyman: Programmer/Media guy

Skillset (in order of mastery):
~Photoshop (Design work, GUI, Manipulation, Image prep)
~Game Maker (All areas)
~Adobe Premiere (Video editing)
~Web site coding (Client-side)
~Daz Studio (3D posing, set design, pre-rendered gfx)
~Java, C++, Python, Basic, Pascal --been a while for each, need to brush up before engaging

Weaknesses (no particular order):
~3D programming outside of Game Maker
~Online Multiplayer outside of Game Maker
~Drawing
~3D modelling
~Server-side web dev (very limited php knowledge, no perl, ruby, sql, etc)
~Flash (experienced with many of the basics, still find it too time-consuming to make a game in it)

[massive27]

Thx for the reply. I agree darkevilme, having a quick glance on overall community skill available should let us know how close of a full dev team we are. Altough the purpose of the game dev directory is not to forcefully recruit anyone

Massive27 : Programmer/Sound

- VB6 (api,directx too)
- website dev (html/js/php/sql stuff)
- sound design (record,edit,adapt)

[Nekomaru]

Please delete this post~

[r0nniel0ng]

I can do sound fx.

[Seifens]

I do a little bit of everything that isn't art.

Skills:
Programming - The general skill, applicable regardless of language.
C/C++, Java, C#, Lua, ActionScript, Perl, and others - Listed in order of proficiency.
OpenGL, SDL - Between the two of them, there's not much you can't do.. They're cross platform, too!
General optimization/Polish - This is sort of what I did with my VGame client.
3D Math - Stuff like building transformation matrices, frustum culling, 3d collision testing/physics, etc.
Debugging - Nobody does it right the first time.
Writing - I haven't done much of the Vore persuasion, is all.

[Hooligan]

This thread should come in handy. Myself being a novice in the process of learning 3D modeling with Blender, can any of you suggest or link me to a few helpful tutorials for creating maps and animating models? Also, what are the limits on just what can be done in a MMO? How many playable races can there actually be? What's the highest level of graphics one can use in the actual game? Would a MMO world be able to be on par with Crisis 2 or would it better off more along the lines of WoW or Witcher 2 level of graphics?

[Nekomaru]

Please delete this post~

[Wolf_Seisenbacher]

I'd add my name!

SKILLS:
3D Modeling (3DS MAX)
Character Rigging
Animations
Game Ideas
Stories (Backstories, not just "OMG VORE OMNOM HAHA" kind of games <_<)
Torque 3D WYSIWYG Editing (Working on learning how to tear it down)
Torque 3D Environment Design
High Poly Detailed 3D Animation (for cinematic scenes)

Can't think of much more, it will come to me. Notice I CANNOT do 2D art, that is my roadblock! I am still learning programming, havent really sat down to try it. in SL however I am an advanced scripter, C shouldnt be too huge of a step. it will be a lot more than I am used to . If I get modelsheets, I can make whatever you want in whatever detail, minus 3D Texturing, that I still have trouble with. Probably cause it deals with 2D art .

[Hooligan]

Myself being a novice in the process of learning 3D modeling with Blender, can any of you suggest or link me to a few helpful tutorials for creating maps and animating models?

Try talking to ImaginaryZ about Blender. He seems to have experience with that program ^_^

Also, what are the limits on just what can be done in a MMO? How many playable races can there actually be? What's the highest level of graphics one can use in the actual game? Would a MMO world be able to be on par with Crisis 2 or would it better off more along the lines of WoW or Witcher 2 level of graphics?

Unfortunately, it entirely depends on the engine you're using. There are many variables involved in making that kind of decision - it's one of those 'there's no right answer' situations. Helpful, I know XD. I don't believe number of playable races are an issue outside of disk space requirements.

That being said, there are a number of reasons why modern MMOs have never been (to my knowledge...!) graphically equal to modern 'campaign' games...correct me if I'm wrong, but as I understand it, every player connected to the game would be creating 'draw calls' (receiving the information about the world and other players' whereabouts, etc), which could cause intense strain on the server. The server could be doing this for thousands of players at once. Single-player games don't have this issue so much. There's the whole issue of crowded market-places

But, even without the technical reasons, it would be unwise to develop an MMO with incredible graphics, as it would severely limit the number of potential users (not everyone has a supercomputer in their home to run Crysis).

In short, it would be much smarter to go with simpler graphics for an MMO. WoW's graphics engine is quite dated, however, so you could safely achieve visuals quite a bit better than that.

Oh, ok. Thank you greatly for that info! I figured high lvl graphics would be massive lag issues, just wanted to know the limit of what actually be possible. Some a little better then WoW huh? Sounds good. Don't want the graphics to be too out dated looking, but also not computer killers and server crashers. >.<

As for races. With my MMO idea I pretty much have 40+ Races listed that I think users here would love. Having gone through many forums, galleries, and playing other games. I think people will love what I have planned. Just a matter of getting a team together and putting all of our ideas out on the table and see what sticks.

[ImaginaryZ]

Try talking to ImaginaryZ about Blender. He seems to have experience with that program ^_^

Very true. I'm more than willing to help! PM me or something. And that goes for anything, because I'm very forgetful about things anymore. Thanks for the ref, Nekomaru. ^^

I'll add myself on this supposed list; though we need to collate this sucker into a cleaner form...

Name: ImaginaryZ
Status: Full time employment, 6am-6pm GMT M-F. GMT -6 central time.
General: Universal Developer, strong professional interest in programming, 3d, simulation/game work.
Formal Training: College 4 year, B.S. Electrical Engineering, Career Aerospace Engineer
Formal Products: N/A NDA & Security agreements. Check out my downloads section or webpage for crap I've made off the grid.
Programming Ability: Expert, 15+ years (C,C++,C/C++,Python, PHP, Java, Javascript, ECMA*, Lua, PL/SQL, i*, SL, ect...)
2D Graphics Ability: Novice/Hobbyist, 14+ years (Web pixel artist, sketcher)
Vector Graphics Ability: Novice/Hobbyist, 10+ years (Flash fanatic. Obviously.)
3D Graphics Ability: Expert Technical Modeler,rigger,animator,scener. Novice/Hobbyist, 9+ years (Mid-high level modeling and expert technical modeling, graphics programming. Poor texture ability)
Sound Effects Ability: Beginner, 10+ years (Hobbyist)
Music Ability: Novice/Hobbyist, 16+ years (Amateur, lacking mastering skills)
Communication Skills: Lacking; Relies heavily on frequent online skype/venting or IM/status messages

Programs And Tools (in order of best to least competency):

Blender 2.49 (5+ years)
Macromedia Flash 5 (not free) (10+ years)
Macromedia Flash 8 (not free) (5+ years)
Paint Shop Pro 7 (not free) (12+ years)
FruityStudio 7.x (not free) (9+ years)
VLC (2+ years)
CreativeWaveStudio (not free) (9+ years)
Blender 2.59 (<1 year)
Audacity (5+ years)
OpenOffice.org (7+years)
LMMS (1+ years)
GiMP (<1 year)
Sculptris (<1 year)
InkScape(<1 year)

These are some of the more common tools I end up using. There are many I made myself not listed.

Languages + Apis with high skill levels(in order of best to least competency):

C/C++
C
ASM (many many flavors, x86, x64, vector, RISC type, shader type...)
C++
MFC (Yes, it's still there. ugh.)
Python (Mainly for blender)
OpenGL 1.2 -> OpenGL 3.1 + WebGL + OpenGLES, ES2.0, + GLSL, GLES, ect...
Native OS Development (Win32, OSX, Linux X-Windows) + GHOST kit (see blender source code)
wxWidgets (Linux, Win, Mac mainly)
OpenAL (gotta have something like this)

And many other things I've forgotten over the years. If it actually works, I've probably tried it at some point.

Skills(in order of best to least competency):

Development and Programming, any language, any environment
Hacking. If it exists, I can steal it. (for educational purposes only)
Audio processing and music creation
Games and Designing. Ideas are nice, but ideas with the implementation nailed down are actually used.
Animation, I can animate fairly well in 3D or 2D. However, I make efficient animations in 3D for games.
Hardware level driver programming and interfaces
Graphics. If it's drawn or sketched, I can copy it in 3D or 2D. Designing things myself tends to not look as good (imo)

Common things that piss me off:

Noncommital when the work gets hard
Refusing to learn new tools or techniques
Proprietary toolsets or formats with no exporting/importing from common formats
Ideas but not willing to do the work required
Emo/Whining/Trolling/Wasting forum space. Those bits could have gone to better things!

Common things that make me really happy:

Independent work. Seeing someone come up with an idea and getting into at least some sort of form.
Promotion of opensource tools and open well-defined formats
Well written out ideas with rough sketches to accompany them. Well thought out ideas are the best.
Technical correctness or at least acceptance of technical limitations
Animated Vore (well, duh. XD)

It's fun to write about yourself. XD lol.

Not sure how we could organize all this really; It's a great idea, but it kinda needs to be something like a Name: [projects] [currently] [skills] or something table, so we can update our status/workloads.

Good idea though! It'll be great to know who's actually out there.

-Z

[Hooligan]

Oooohh...Just watched some game play of Tera Online. That is the lvl of graphics I think we should aim for.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QH86XuPRO04

It's a hack and slash MMO, not hotkey. May want to looking to that play style. But yeah, I think this is the model we should work towards. Maybe not as high quality but as close as we can get to it. We really need to make a forum of our own in order to better organize and share ideas as well as come up with a working title.

I've already a few ideas for locations, lore and rather fun dungeon which would lead into the cursed/plagued area. I can post that later though. For now we can take this discussion to this thread. viewtopic.php?f=79&t=24914