team project, anyone?

ok, i'm taking some holidays from my fighting game (no, i didn't say i give it up ^_^), and i wanted to create a platform game with original sprites... i already tried to code the engine, more or less successfully, but it's not as perfect as i want, and i'm tired to code all day long just to make it perfect...
that's why i'm looking for someone to create the engine... and i really wish a very good coder, please, because i know the game can be great if we put some effort in it. there's no money involved, except if the game sells later, but we don't need to talk about that now and here ^_^

here's the purpose:
> the game will be like super mario world, so it involves a ot of things:
> it's a platform game (seriously)
> it's tile based
> it has slope platforms (i already coded it, but it's not perfect...)
> the player accelerates/decelerates when we move (possible integration of icy platforms)
> there's a map overview when you choose your stage (like super mario world)
> there's a replay value (you can re-enter areas already done and look for all special items)
> there are moving plaforms
> there are enemies, items to find, secret areas
> there is a scrolling
> there's a MULTI-scrolling ^_^ background is slower than ground...
...etc.

is someone able to put such a complicated engine, without major bug? i know there are some very good coders here... that would be great. if such a team is possible, then i'll write down the areas configurations, item locations, etc... maybe we'll start with a simple area, then grow it if the engine is good...

here's an idea of what the graphics look like (no, i didn't ripped any super mario game!), of course i'll work with them better if a team is possible. note, the character sprite is from dynamo, and doesn't represent the character that will be integrated in the game (well, i'll have to think about it, the main purpose of this post is to know if someone is interested)

http://home.graffiti.net/marmotte:gr...change/scw.jpg

resume:
you create the fantastic engine, i do the art, we do a great game ^_^

thanks for any help.

mmmh,sounds good,me likes :)

do you still trust me, tom? remember one day, you created an iso engine for a supposed car game/GTA-like maybe, then i disappeared
ok, i can explain better what i want maybe, or if you want we can continue the conversation via PM or icq... my number is in my profile...

thanks for the reply ^_^

*edit* pfff, i just re-read that post, my english is pityful on this one ^_^

Sent a PM :)

RipX

:(

I'm afraid my schedule is rather filled at the moment, but I'd love to help, but it seems like it might be better with just a team of two.

Maybe I can beta test. :p

-pXw

Quote:

---

Originally posted by marmotte
do you still trust me, tom? remember one day, you created an iso engine for a supposed car game/GTA-like maybe, then i disappeared
ok, i can explain better what i want maybe, or if you want we can continue the conversation via PM or icq... my number is in my profile...

thanks for the reply ^_^

*edit* pfff, i just re-read that post, my english is pityful on this one ^_^

---

not really ;) and sure i still trust you marmotte :) i´ll do some as2 optimisations this weekend but next week we can start with it,so send me a pm with what you have in mind.

How many people would you like in this team? Is it just a two person project? I would love to help... That screenie looks v nice!

Quote:

---

Originally posted by marmotte


thanks for any help.

---

I don't think I am capable of helping you much with the coding at this point, but I have always wanted to make a game like this- I love a good, playable platformer- and I would be willing to help you test the game and give you my opinion on how to improve it. I have a 350Mhz Pentium II machine, a 550Mhz AMD something laptop, and a 2.4 Ghz Pentium 4 desktop that I can test it on for speed.

My first suggestion is to definitely go with pixel graphics. In my opinion, this is a characteristic of all the best platform games.

If you're interested in letting me help in whatever capacity I can, just let me know, I'd be happy to. Thanks,

Jleonardbc
What platforms will it run on?

I would definitably be interested in creating this with you marmotte. I have done the majority of the things you are looking for an isometric perspective, so applying the same concept to 2D isnt very hard (in fact its easier).

You can email me or find on MSN Messenger; details in my signature.

Cheers,

wow, thanks for all these posts, i wasn't expected that much. ok, i'll try to answer some of your questions:
WilloughbyJackson
thanks for your intention, i'll see what i can do for you ^_^
btw i was sure you were here to say "noooo, why did you stop your fighting game devlopment!!!"... but i already stopped it 6 months ago, then re-worked with it recently, so a future devlopment is still possible. and maybe i'll ask people here to create from scratch a personal character, with custom combo/moves, and then i'll put it with my engine ^^ so, no more ripped graphics!
tomsamson
a.s2.0? wow. that's great. you see, you are not the only one willing to create the engine, so i'll have to make a decision... mmmhhh
random10122
well, the main idea was to have 2 people:
> a coder
> a pixel artist (i don't claim myself pixel artist though)
> |something i have to think about| musician. i'll post a mp3 with a particular style of sound that may be nice to use if you want ^_^
why that "little" team? because i'm convinced that having too many members will be as much work for me as if i was alone to make it... well, i didn't experienced that for a flash game before, so maybe it's better to be more numerous, i don't know... if you experienced a project with many people feel free to post your impressions...
jleonardbc
welcome to these boards ^_^
of course the game will be done via pixels; really i don't want to be involved with vectors at this point. but you know, there are already several good platform flash games around here... maybe it's self promotion, but my bubble bobble 2 game is quite playable, even in art based format (haaa, old time ^_^)...
covenent
another helper ^^
well, the fact that you have almost an engine ready is great, i'll take a look at some of your works for sure...

again, thanks everyone, i didn't expected so much help!

ok, for people who wants to contact me personnaly, i don't have MSN, but you can:
> [email protected]
> pm me here in the forums
> i also have icq that i'm using quite often.

btw, if someone don't know or never played super mario world, feel free to ask, because my idea of the game is quite similar...

[QUOTE]Originally posted by marmotte

well, the main idea was to have 2 people:
> a coder
> a pixel artist (i don't claim myself pixel artist though)
> |something i have to think about| musician. i'll post a mp3 with a particular style of sound that may be nice to use if you want ^_^
QUOTE]

Hi Marmotte. I don't know what exactly you want to do for the music, but if you need it, I am an advanced bass player and I have a hard disk recording system with which I can put recordings onto CD and turn it into an mp3 from there. I don't have a lot of experience with digital music production, but if someone else creates most of the music keeping room for a bass part in mind and sends it to me, I can play to that, record it, and send it to them to mix in with the rest. I know that seems kind of insignificant, but whatever I can do to help...by the way, my AIM screen name is Jleonardbc if you want to contact me that way, e-mail is [email protected].

Jleonardbc
I hate taglines.

jleonardbc
well i was thinking about something NES-ish, but with some actual drums...
i'll post an MP3 here just for you to hear it...
basically, it's a mix of electro sounds (not techno!) and NES sounds, with these light, retro and extremely simple beats...

but before that, we need the engine and the art... and of course compose the music depending on the game's visuals and situation...
for now, you already know how the gfx will look like via the posted screenshot.

marmotte, what a coincidence! I just started a platform engine yesterday... and I was hoping I could find someone to help me create the graphics, but I looks like you already have your team... oh well...

strille, you are so welcome.
well i don't have a team right now, even if several people are already interested. but tell me more about your engine, does it correspond to what i'm looking for (cf the first post above) or did you have a different platform style approach...?

marmotte, I've just started, but what I'm aiming for is an engine where you can use tiles of different sizes, and where the collision detection is polygon based. I know this sounds strange, but if it works, it means you can create a very varied environment where the tile effect is reduced since you can insert say a 128x128 tile anywhere with 1 pixel precision. And since the collision detection is done using polygons, you can have curved surfaces very easily... I will know in a few days if it works or if I'm just crazy...

that sounds great. different sized tiles might be a good idea for some parts of a game, yes. about your collision detection, i'm curious to see the results... ^_^
anyway, i know for now that making the game is possible, since some people want to team with me...
i'll think more seriously about the game devlopment (storyboard etc etc)... so that i'll explain with more details of what i want, even if the first list above seems almost complete...

one more thing regarding the above list, maybe i'm looking for perfection, but let's say that a character is moving at _x+=2.5 or _x+=5/2... if it's possible without too many calculations, i would like the game to be "exactly pixeled"... i mean, all sprites have to be at round postions (_x=10 and not _x=10.5). i know you can use Math.floor() or Math.round() to correct it, but if your character has a speed of _x+=1/2, then he will walk at 0 or 1... and i don't know if there's another method to be that precise, except using some kind of timer... i don't know how to explain, but instead of having him moving like that:
_x+1/2, _x+1/2, _x+1/2, _x+1/2, _x+1/2 etc...
using some kind of counter to have that result
_x+=1, pause, _x+=1, pause, _x+=1 etc...

do you see what i mean? maybe i'm too perfectionnist though, knowing that the player's speed has an acceleration/deceleration ability :-)

yes, you can call me crazy.

Yes, it's possible to have the gfx on even pixels. The idea is to use float variables from start to finish in the calculations, and when it's time to place the graphics it is rounded to the nearest pixel (the variables are still float though). No problemos.

that's great, really ^_^

one more little precision: the game will not have more than 256 colors, so expect a not too huge file size.

ok, it seems that i have a bunch of good coders willing to help. let's see which one will be the most motivated to team up with me ^_^ and also the one that has enough free time, i don't want you to begin the project and realize that it takes too much time... i want you to do it with pleasure.

of course, the project is quite consequent, but once the engine is working, i think i'll have the big part (regarding stages configurations, items locations and such)

thanks everyone.

if all falls through...

hey ... I would love to help ... no matter what the section you give me ... I was thinking of making a game like this ... but like you said ... its very involved ... Count me in ...

thanks for your posts guys. i also want to thanks RipX and strille (strille already submitted an excellent wip engine. believe me, it's fantastic!).

OK, i have some more precise ideas to throw now:
as i want to re-create a game like if it was on a super nintendo (except maybe it's smoothness, which will probably vary), here are the main characteristics that we can discuss about:
-------------------------------
> window size: 256*224
> tile size: 16*16 (may be different sized with strille's actual engine)
> fps 50/60
-------------------------------
ok, now the in-game ideas:
> you start-off like in super mario world (SMW), with an overview map that is not directly playable, but in which you can choose the area you want to explore. the more you pass areas, the more the map is accessible... there are more than one map of course, and in order to change you'll have to either defeat a boss, either find a key or particular item... one map has several areas to explore, with a replay value (find all secrets, find all rubies etc... 100 per stage for example), so that people are able to re-enter these old areas explore better rather than going from start to end too fast...
> you enter a stage. depending on the actul stage, ther are maybe several scrolling (it's better to limit it to 2 different speeds i think). stages are quite long, but you have some kind of check point in the middle of the stage, so that if you die near the end, you don't have to redo all. that check point is NOT a save game feature. a save game feature can be implemented when you are in the main map (overview), there's a special place for that...
> at the end of the stage, you have of course the count of the items you found (let's say you found 79/100 rubies)
> stages have depth: you may enter caverns, etc. i'll have to take care of the stage configuration, so that exploring caverns or outsides match together in therm of distances...
> the playability. i want the game not to be a too classical platform game, so i wanted to put some strategy in it; i took the inspiration from games like bubble bobble or klonoa; my idea is a bit a mix of these games. OK, the player has the ability to throw bubbles. these bubbles can capture enemies. when an enemy is captured into a bubble, he's going up/in the air slowly... if we wait too long he escapes and is stronger/faster than before). but when it's captured, you have the choice:
1) jump at it keeping the jump button pushed and rebound, so that you can access higher platforms. when you do that, the bubble and the enemy explodes (there's no blood involved :-), so no way to rebound again on it.
2) to jump at it so that you can "take it" and throw it against other enemies.
> that ability to throw a captured enemy can do wonderful things: it can for example breaks walls (depending maybe on the enemy), so you may find other ways (some areas will have 2 or 3 exits, so that the overview map can be build differently; the paths you'll have may open "hidden" areas, not obligatory to finish the game, but obligatory if you want to finish it at 100%). i don't know if you are familiar with the overview map function, but it's like in SMW and also SMB3...
PLUS, you may capture enemies that look like bombs... you cannot have them too long with, or they will explode at your face. BUT they are able to destroy particular walls also...


WELL, that's all for now, no storyline yet, just some ideas :-)

and you, coders, what do you think? still motivated after that? :-))

Sounds great to me Marmotte :)

Sounds excellent to me... If you already have an engine (no point reinventing the wheel) and dont mind having more than two people i will happily help with all of that stuff!

This thread just inspired me to try to make my own platform game. Thanks for the insparation guys.

what about the ability to charge? that way you can throw bigger bubbles, that may capture bigger enemies...
that ability to capture and throw enemies can involve some nice puzzles IMO :-)

ok, about the fact having several coders: is it really a good idea? each person has it's own method for coding. some are faster, some are more flexible etc... i'm sure that if we are more than 2 coders, things will not work well. also if we have two pixel artists, then the difference between their art will be noticeable. i don't know, how are you planning to code the engine together? maybe it's a good idea, but i just wonder if it fits you that well.
ok, other than that, someone can create the puzzles (not the code or the graphics, just some puzzles), that's true. again, nothing is 100% planned, it's just an idea/project for now, i hope it may become reality.
oh, and I_am_TheFlasher, no problem; i got inspired myself with some games also :-)

***edit***
oh, btw here's an exemple of that overview map in SMW: as you can see, you can choose you area. and when you pass it, then another one is showing... hope you figure it out...
http://www.classicgaming.com/tmk/ima.../ss_smw_01.gif

Quote:

---

Originally posted by marmotte

WELL, that's all for now, no storyline yet, just some ideas :-)

and you, coders, what do you think? still motivated after that? :-))

---

Sounds great, marmotte...I'd be glad to help as a tester/level designer, if you need it later on. Just let me know. Thanks!

Jleonardbc
If you need any help, I'm game...

marmotte, sounds good to me. The only thing I'm not crazy about is the suggested window size of 256x224. That's a bit too small IMO. I think it can be cute at first, but a bit annoying after a while. And I think a 4:3 aspect ratio is better, because it's the one we're used to. I suggest 320x240 as a minimum. That's still small enough to get a reasonably high frame rate.

OK it seems like strille has got everything covered then; if you want me to help in any way just give me a buzz. Im interested about this polygon idea for slopes etc., Im trying to imagine and I cant get my head around it; sounds cool though! :)

jleonardbc and covenent
ok, i'll note that, thanks :-)

strille
yes, that window size is not too big... BUT you may open it in 2x size in html for example, what do you think?
it's like the super nintendo; when you play it at 1:1, the window size is small, but likeable/cute/original. you may choose to play it also 2:1, 4:1, or full screen. pixels become really apparent in that case, but it has a particular charm :-)
of course we can trick and add an extra layer to give a tv effect. if you are familiar with emulators then you know what i'm talking about.

and yes, i'm a little afraid that a 320x240 px (which is a standard size i reckon), coupled with 16x16 tiles AND 50/60 fps may slow down things, since there are so many parameters, like multi-scrollings and enemies etc...

Maybe it's better to wait and see what screen size to use until the engine is more finished... Right now it's 320x240 and runs at 90-100 fps if fps is set to max (1.4 GHz AMD, Internet Explorer, Flash Player 7).

^_^
you are great strille...
but don't work too much on it -or make it the most flexible possible- since the game concept is not finalized...

i'm curious to see how your engine works with my old mac comp (is it the same you sent to me? i had something like 30/34 fps. i'm not sure now, but i was downloading some files at the same time)

Quote:

---

Originally posted by marmotte
yes, that window size is not too big... BUT you may open it in 2x size in html for example, what do you think?

---

I really think scaling swf makes it even slower.

Hi... I was away for a week and nearly missed the thread...

This sounds like a fun project... I am busy at the moment... but that's the normal state... so... if you need some gfx - pixel and / or vector - let me know...

If you need some more testers, i want to!

daydram
^_^ yes, i already contacted you...
we have to talk about it via icq, don't forget!
see you later

znoskieman
recorded :-)

terrible news, guys, about my external harddrive. but it deserves a new thread :-(

Geesh that's old news already marmotte :D


Newayz.. If theres still a tiny place in the corner... Lemme in!!

SaphuA