I got an idea :)

[Selz]

Hello Dual-Boxing.com

It has been a long time since I've posted here, I had some time away from World of Warcraft
Especially afer 5.2, I believe I don't have to explain why :)

Insted of playing games I have started to develop games, or at least as much as I can, and quite honestly, that's not a lot... but
I find it more entertaining to actually develop. Imagin'ing running around controling 4 characters simutaniously.

For a long time I have been thinkin' perhaps I'm not the only one missing something.

Perhaps some of you, talented people, would be interrested in game-development? ((( As a hobby )))

Perhaps, let us come together, on a big, hard, and extreamly tough road, and let us walk together?

This won't be a fulltime job, we start slow, we talk together, and enjoy what we do.
eventually at some point, we can walk around each other, and sooner or later, we plan GUI, AI, and so on.

I can't stress this enougth, I know this is a big challenge, and some of you might be afraid of doing it
just because of that.

But givin' up is never the solution, it is alright to make mistakes! eventually they become lessons anyway :)
So don't be afraid.

I'm still a beginner, but I can imagine the posibilities this forum could have, (we all love the same thing)

Let us merge our passion, and be positive, and enjoy this whole trip

Let us create, our own multibox friendly MMO.

In general, I am interrested in everyone around here, because I know you all love this sandbox element to mmo games.
unfortunately not every themepark can hold a sandbox.


Game Idea:

The game is based around our solar system, each planet has its own race, planet earth has earthlings, mars has marsians and so on.
But the battle for resources has begun, even between individual species, noone can be trusted, noone are hostile. every player, is an enemy.
unless you form a party or raid to hunt and slay other parties or raids.

The game has no PVE content, it is only a PVP game, "no flying mounts".

Each planet, has its own resources, and useable goods (remember the herbs from felwood) something like that.
which is also how you get "level" there is no level, like in world of warcraft, only proffesion levels.
you also get abilities though proffesions. which also means there are no classes, only different races.

Each planet has a specific amount of gold, honor, xp and loot that you can get, which I like to call the 100% zone's

However, the sun, is a 500% zone, meaning you will get 5 times as much gold, honor, xp and loot if you play on the sun
BUT::: Be aware, if you die, you lose everything that you carry, you're gear, you're gold, and you're inventory goods.

The game will have an auction house, where people can sell gear they craft or loot. but it will also have bounties
forexample: (Bring me the head of Kruschpak, and I will give you 1000g)... sorry krusch <3
now if a player has a bounty on him, and you don't know it, then you will still loot the head, and be able to bring it
to the auction house, to collect you're reward.
And yes, those bounties are created by other people, obviously.

Now I have to tell you about the gear system, in this game, you wont kill a wolf that somehow carries a sword.
Nooo, everything is crafted out of materials you gather, or steal from other people "PVPing" and every item you create
is randomized (like in Diablo)...

I think this sums of the main idea, without making this thread 100 pages long, obviously I have a lot more to tell, because I've really used my imagination a lot to try and get out of the themepark
based MMO.

But first, I wanna know if people dare to take up this challenge with me :).

Let me know if you are interrested, and I'll make sure you have a good time.

What We Need
Zone Developers
Story Developers
2D Artists
3D Artists
Sound Artists (including voice artists)
C#(client) & Java(server) Programmers --- (My programmer corrected me)


/Selz

PS: To inspire you, I will show you how far we can go!
(I have not made this, but together we have no limits)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=SksljyTz8LM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=qbP7Z4btVvc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=ipln2a7jrqs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=lKrdObxjwl8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=4qjtWIWThWU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wsq1oWThCLY

[Kruschpakx4]

actually a leveling system without level but gearing would be good start to get away from the usual mmo's these days, sun sounds a bit too much hardcore mode though :D, maybe lose x amount of gold when you die instead of uninstalling the game

[Selz]

Hehe, it is suppost to be tough, here it is important to state that you only lose the amount you carry, don't have wow in you're mind, you will have a personal bank.
But obviously you also want to have some gold on you, I can explain that later :)

[MadMilitia]

Dark Souls publisher FROM IMO will rule the roost in the coming decade. They will be eating Blizzard's lunch in the next 2-3 iterations. You watch for it.

They have what I'd consider the smoothest controls, best lore approach and best Art team in the ARPG business today. If they move that to an MMO it can only be big news. It's still a relatively small company so it'll take time and recognition to get there but they have all the promise in the world.

Blizzard is going down the tubes because despite having an extraordinary team of developers and Artists, they are being muscled to the ground by poor designers. It just goes to show a handful of guys can screw the pooch in a major development outfit. So more or less, it isn't about money. Look at what Derek Yu did with Spelunky. It's all about ambition, talent and having your nose to the ground on what makes a good game. Nothing else matters.

[zenga]

Blizzard is going down the tubes because despite having an extraordinary team of developers and Artists, they are being muscled to the ground by poor designers. It just goes to show a handful of guys can screw the pooch in a major development outfit.

What are you talking about?

[JohnGabriel]

Blizzard can get their act together as easily as anyone else. If they have poor designers then maybe next quarter management starts investing in designers, or maybe the investors replace the CEO.

I really dont think a few problems here and there means the end of the company. Only sometimes.

[Selz]

MadMilitia, Zenga, JohnGabriel

I would appreciate if you could keep this thread on topic, i'm not interrested in what other companies do, and I don't wan't a Fan/Hater war out of this post.

[MadMilitia]

Selz,

Someone will inevitably try to steer it that way but that's not why I posted it here.

Game development is very serious work and it will take as stated plenty of ambition AND knowledge of your demographic to move it anywhere. Not to be a hardass or anything but if you're floating it as a hobby you may want to do something else with your time. Maybe get into Art in general to see what kind of goals you could set and accomplish.

[Selz]

I know you mean this in a positive way, so i'm not "blowing my cooldowns on you".

I am very well aware of the challenge this trip will be, but I am not going to spend my time elsewhere without takin' the first step, and let me advice you never to do so either
because that only leaves you with regret.

Secondly, I hope you take this in a positive way, and keep this thread positive and open minded for other people, I don't want people to imidiatly
walk away just because of negativity.

Thirdly, There is a reason this starts as a hobby, in theory, everything does.

(I don't quite believe "having your nose in the ground" is as important as putting your nose into the ground) :)

Thank you.

[JohnGabriel]

You can always pick up software such as Unity 3D (http://unity3d.com/unity/), or 3D game studio.

[Selz]

Yep, I am using Unity 3D and have so for about half a year now, I do have some expirience :) additiononally I am using SmartFoxServer, because the Unity scripts for the network sittings are terrible, but can be enhanced.

[Oldboxer]

My guess is that the next big thing in gaming is going to be virtual reality, once you get a consumer version of the Oculus Rift on the market. I think if you get an MMO that does VR right, it could be as big as anything we've seen up to this point. (Of course, what do I know?) I think Everquest Next is hinting at VR support, but I think it's going to take something built around the idea of VR from the ground up. I think it will have to be built into the game, deeply part of it, not just a feature. I don't think it will be an easy thing to do, there are a lot of ramifications to it. For example, I don't know how you'd do an user interface that wouldn't destroy immersion. But I think somebody will figure out how to do it, and they'll be the next Blizzard. Or Apple. (I'm not sure about multiboxing in that kind of environment, though.)

[Selz]

Yes, surely it is going to change the gaming industry, but it is no reason not to create a MMO game without VR :)

[Blubber]

Is there any particular reason for your c# + java choice?

[Selz]

Not really, but because we use Unity, my programmer want to use c# for the client part of the game, and java for the server, which is SmartFoxServer :)

Are you interrested in helping in anyway?

[JohnGabriel]

An android mmo? Lets play from our cell phones.

[Selz]

Hehe, Unity support most platforms, obviously the MMO in plan, will take place on windows, mac and linux
and one of the reasons behind the choise of Unity is also based in the simplicity of converting from a platform to another platform.

[Blubber]

I'm not sure how portable client code in c# would be to other platforms. I personally don't have experience with the .NET platform.

[Selz]

It is not the .NET framework, it is the Mono/Unity 3D

[Zub]

An android mmo? Lets play from our cell phones.
There's heaps of MMOs on phones already!

[Mickthathick]

My guess is that the next big thing in gaming is going to be virtual reality, once you get a consumer version of the Oculus Rift on the market. I think if you get an MMO that does VR right, it could be as big as anything we've seen up to this point. (Of course, what do I know?) I think Everquest Next is hinting at VR support, but I think it's going to take something built around the idea of VR from the ground up. I think it will have to be built into the game, deeply part of it, not just a feature. I don't think it will be an easy thing to do, there are a lot of ramifications to it. For example, I don't know how you'd do an user interface that wouldn't destroy immersion. But I think somebody will figure out how to do it, and they'll be the next Blizzard. Or Apple. (I'm not sure about multiboxing in that kind of environment, though.)

There are 2 mountains VR needs to climb first before it becomes mainstream like the wii did.

1. Stop the glasses causing motion sickness in people
2. Not require physical glasses be worn

Other then that, good luck with your project! Sounds like you are pulling together elements from a lot of games which could be interesting, as long as it's not grindy I'll play!

Also there is a new game out on consoles atm that has you control 2 characters at once using the paddles that sounds quite interesting (sorry I can't remember the name).

[Khatovar]

Also there is a new game out on consoles atm that has you control 2 characters at once using the paddles that sounds quite interesting (sorry I can't remember the name).

Probably the one Alge posted about - http://www.dual-boxing.com/threads/49886-A-game-with-multiboxing-built-in

[Selz]

But I would really appreciate if more people are up for the challenge, especially 2D and 3D artists :)

[Mickthathick]

Probably the one Alge posted about - http://www.dual-boxing.com/threads/49886-A-game-with-multiboxing-built-in

Yep, that's the one!

[Shodokan]

But I would really appreciate if more people are up for the challenge, especially 2D and 3D artists :)

You'll likely get more design concepts/philosophies from this community rather than actual help for an end product.

It is very hard to find people interested in working on a project that have any real idea what they are doing (especially artists and modelers) with no real guarantee that much will come of their time/effort.

I worked on my own game with a group of talented people for a while, but in the end people will either be super passionate about it or not... the trick is getting people to be passionate about your idea since a majority of people only are passionate about ideas they have or participate in fully.

Before you worry about art AT ALL, you need to design EVERY little fundamental detail about your game. From the worlds to the races to the crafting systems etc. Absolutely everything and be as thorough as possible.

Art is the absolute LAST thing you need to worry about. You need a pen/paper or board game version of your game idea before you even really go forward with looking to make it an end product. (this is where my group is at now)

Game design 101;

Full game description + ideas + planned out all aspects > board game version/text based version > concept art & engine choice/work > rendering, coding and model design> tweaks of game concepts > internal testing > tweaks of game concepts> alpha product > beta product > finished product.

Or something along those lines.

Best of luck.

[JohnGabriel]

You'll likely get more design concepts/philosophies from this community rather than actual help for an end product.

[..snip..]

Yes that sounds right, along those lines I think here you'd find beta testers who would want to play the game, but help making it you'd need to visit game design forums.

[Selz]

Yes, which is also why I need 2D artists, most of the idea is planned in text, but in order to make some concept art I need a talented 2D artist, which I don't have at the moment.

[Shodokan]

Yes, which is also why I need 2D artists, most of the idea is planned in text, but in order to make some concept art I need a talented 2D artist, which I don't have at the moment.

From your description your product doesn't seem at the point where it would really actually benefit from an artist at this time.

Honestly, work on the story, and entire game vision rather than worrying about getting visual aids.

[Selz]

I think this sums of the main idea, without making this thread 100 pages long, obviously I have a lot more to tell, because I've really used my imagination a lot to try and get out of the themepark
based MMO.

I don't plan on making a big story line, just the basics.

Im pretty ready for a 2D artist. for sure.

[zenga]

I just came across this video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmhbxFnYai4). Apparently they are doing a series (14 so far judging by the number) of podcasts titled 'lets build an mmo' where they discuss each aspect of an mmo they want to make in a different episode. Have the guy bookmarked as he has made certain videos that are pretty interesting.
Not sure if it's any useful to you, just figured you might want to check them out (you will have to do some browsing/searching on the guys channel to find all the episodes, since he has a shitload of videos uploaded).

[Selz]

Thx Zenga, I have already seen them though :) but thx tho.

[Snyderz]

Give me a message, I am interested in working with you on your game, I specialize in publicity and advertising. I have an MBA, I have a computer that's worth more than most cars, and know how to market your idea in today's world. Let me know if you need this type of thing in your development process. I look forward to hearing from you.


Will