Right then.

Well, what I -really- want is a cool sci-fi Privateer-like game. BUT, that can't even be considered an option without a pro team and a crazy (because you'd have to be crazy to invest in who-knows-who making a game in an unpopular genre) publisher.

My other idea - which, IMO, is relatively realistic, is a sci-fi 1st person adventure game. I'm working on quite a few (writing-related) things now, but am considering looking into this concept once that quiets down.

Not a full-scale game, ofc, but a Source engine TC.

My plan (if I actually decide to go with it) would be as follows:

-make a game design document. this includes story, and everything else. at this stage, no-one else would be involved.
-make a pro-looking website. involves spending some cash, but at this point would prefer to minimize expenses.
-get texture / concept artists (and PAY them!). probably make revisions to game design document.
-check out the HL2 modding scene and try to get the better modders involved. And PAY them! more revisions to design doc (most likely).
-profit (well, not really, but we get a cool game and some credits).

I don't think I'll be willing to go over $1,000 budget here, so payments to those involved would be rather symbolic (eg., $10 / model or $25 a location map or whatever), the only reason I want to do this is that projects fueled by enthusiasm alone fail way too quickly.

This kind of additional simulation, however symbolic, would IMO help.

I'm not doing this tomorrow or the week after, just an idea I've been considering on and off for a while.

Please tell me how/why I will fail.

You realize to pay for a commercial license on most game engines you're looking at a minimum of $300,000. I think that's the Source price. I think Unreal 2.5 is $500,000. No telling on Unreal 3.

Well, you aren't SF_Gold, so you at least have that going for you

Only if/when you sell it!

I'm already designing out a game of my own, in XNA (thus, winmo7/360/PC possible platforms) myself. Upside is, no need for a publisher for WinMo7/360 as you can use MS's catalog. Downside is unless you got heapin amounts of cash, you're writing your own game engine to go with it.

But that's fine for me, as I'm writing a 2D RPG, not a major 3D game.

That said, I wouldn't even consider talking about the game to folks until you have your design document completely written out. Know EXACTLY what you want your game to do, feature, look like, sound like, play like, rules, settings, plot, etc. There's a lot of planning that goes into a game with anymore complexity than Tetris.

I know. When I said Source TC, I meant Source Total Conversion mod. Not planning on selling / making CA$H, just designing an elaborate mod.

By privateer like, you mean buy my own ship and travel the Galaxy?
Need a new one of those, you have my 50$ if you actually get this done.

Oh well a mod is no big deal. The hardest part of mod jobs, is keeping everyone on the 'staff' interested in the project long enough to finish it.

You could make your space game on Freespace 2.

Well, yeah, but like I've mentioned, that'd be unrealistically complex w/o proper funding, staff and a custom engine. You should check out the X3 games, Tibby. The last one's called X3: Terran Conflict IIRC. Haven't played it yet, but the feedback's been pretty positive (it's a 2009 game, btw).



Yep. This is why I'm actually willing to spend money without any real chance of getting back my investment except for the XP points and a project to add as a credit.

I guess my biggest concern is that I've simply no experience in the field. I've no experience w/ modding, or working on VG projects. All I can say is that I freaking love video games, like sci-fi, and wrote a story or two (well, bit more than that, but I'm in no way a mega-pro writer or anything like that).

Would FS2 support that sort of thing? I thought the engine was limited to linear "Mission by mission" gameplay.

Well, I certainly wish you the best of luck. Even though isn't paying money to get something done for a free game mod a (rather big) bit of a stretch?

Hell, I'm still struggling to get through my 2010 post-TODOA state of utter inactivity even though I've got some nice game/mod ideas floating around in my head (especially those for the magnum opus I've had in my casket for about 10 years now)...

Also, I thought you could make a non-commercial game with the Unreal Development Kit and in case you wanted to go commercial you'd have to split the revenue with Epic or something... then again, there must be other catches as well.

That engine's 11 years old!

And anyway, if I ever got a chance to work on a space / trade sim like the one I (unrealistically) have in mind, I'd need a custom engine (or, at least a VERY customized one). But anyway, not going to go into that now, as, for all intents and purposes, that's not currently realistic in my position.

If you're looking for such a game, though, I again refer you to X3.

http://pc.ign.com/articles/925/925197p1.html

BTW, I was wrong, it's 2008, not 09.

The Source mod which I think is REALISTIC to do is a plot-driven 1st person adventure game, like I've mentioned in the OP.

Thanks. The ulterior motive behind this is (apart from feeling all proud of myself) is to have a game dev credit, even if it's just for a small project like this.

And I think that actually paying is the only way I can truly maintain a dedicated team, as I myself would be unable to do anything except of project management / story / design documents.

But again, this is just a concept at this point. If I start working on this, it'll probably be closer to the end of 2010.



I'll check that out. Didn't know they offer an option like that! According to Wiki, "game makers can sell their games by paying Epic a lump-sum of $99 at the outset, and 25% of all revenue above $5000." The reasoning behind me thinking about Source was that at first glance it seemed more multi-purpose than the U3 engine, therefore, more fitting for a 1st person single player story-driven adventure game.

EDIT:

That's not to say that there aren't any non-FPS UT3 mods.

http://www.moddb.com/mods/the-ball
http://www.moddb.com/mods?filter=t&=Search&kw=Search+...&released=def&style=def&theme=def&game=169&type=def

Absolutely. Design document should always come first.

Good luck with your game, btw!

On a related note, I actually tried joining the PARPG (Post Apocalyptic Role Playing Game) team as a writer, but then realized they themselves weren't sure what they wanted in their game after 1 year of development.

I started writing another plot proposal, and then they said that they'll do fine without a main quest altogether, so I wished them luck and said "adieu."

If anyone's interested, here's my (rejected) plot backbone proposal to them and some follow-up discussion:

http://forums.parpg.net/index.php?topic=671.0
http://forums.parpg.net/index.php?topic=681.0

You're right to be concerned about this, as it's probably your biggest stumbling block here.

Even if you put a lot of time into organizing and writing out your ideas, you're still going to be seen as an "idea guy," and there's a huge stigma there. The modding community is full of people who have ideas for the coolest mod ever but who have no modding skill of their own. You'll have to either learn to do more, or find some way to seriously distinguish yourself from all the other idea people.

I started a Source mod not too long ago (Uberslug and Grismath are working on it now) and it's doing reasonably well. One thing that helped a lot is that I can write, draw concepts, model, map, make (passable) textures, and do music and sound design. As I collected more team members I ended up delegating a lot of those tasks to others, but the fact that I COULD do it, even if I wasn't, made a difference. People didn't think I was just trying to get them to make a game for me.

The other reason building your own skills is important is passion. There's a point you can reach in a mod where it's not all that difficult to recruit people--the hard part is getting them to put serious effort into it. If you have people doing crucial work, like coding or mapping, who don't understand and care about your vision for the mod, you're going to run into problems. Worst case, if they leave, you don't want to be helpless.

I'm babbling, but you get the idea. If you have any experience with coding, that might be your best bet, because a competent coder pretty much forms the backbone of any mod that makes significant changes to gameplay.

@Koobie LOL...still waitin 2 hear from u m8

I should have said FS2 open. The source code was released years ago.

So if you're willing to write your own code it wouldn't be an issue. The game has been continually updated and looks great.

I'm not trying to sell you on it or anything but if you're willing to use source it's not that much older.

@Tracer u tweet 2 much...lol

lulz:suicide:

hay guis

yeah get a blog lol RT @Thrawn[numbarz] @Tracer u tweet 2 much...lol

The Unreal 3 UDK is completely free for noncommercial use. If you ever end up making something worth selling, when you release you pay...

...Epic $99 and then a 25% royalty on revenue after $5000.

http://udk.com/

*cough* xna

I hate twitter.

Not much into FB/Twitter myself.

MY NAME IS TOTALLY CORRECTLY SPELLED DAMN IT

Ctrl+C / Ctrl+V

Sorry for resurrecting a 2 month old thread, but just wanted to tell everyone who commented a big thanks, especially those who mentioned about pretty much having to LEARN how to edit yourself and project management not being enough.

This project had since then morphed into something that I would be able to realistically do mostly on my own (although it no longer has anything to do with video game editing). I won't discuss into what exactly until I have something to show for it, but, again, the replies in this thread had been immensely helpful in getting me to figure out what I can do "click" in my mind the right way.

Cheers,
Max

miserably

e: sorry didn't read rest of thread

Good luck with whatever it has now become! Hope to see updates at some point!

Glad it's getting scaled to something that will happen! Grandiose ideas are great, but realistic projects are a good way to build up to those.

Congrats! So are you using UDK?

Em, no. Has practically nothing to do with video game editing now.

Albeit, judging by info in this thread (backed up by the info on Epic's site) and some browsing of MODDB, I'd recommend UDK to anyone interested in starting out in that field.

Yeah I've been meaning to start messing around in UDK since... February.

Sigh.

I've been meaning to read some books. I am starting with The Lovely Bones.

Never heard of it before you mentioned it. Judging by the Wiki article about it, not something that I'd feel particularly inclined to read. I'm thinking of checking out Hitchen's "Letters to a Young Contrarian" at some point. Sounds awfully interesting.