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Started by GamingKnight Jun 2, 2004 at 1:50 PM 3 replies 750+ views

Original Post

Jun 2, 2004 at 1:50 PM

Hello everyone, My name is Jermaine Anthony Clarke A.K.A. (GamingKnight) and I am writing this today to hopefully get the interests of select people, whoever they may be. I'm new to "posting" on the forums, but I have been here studying the people in gamedev for about a year now. My entire reason for not posting to these forums has been because of fear. I carefully sat down and watched how you guys would chew up the unfortunate people that want to become developers but simply seek direction. So, I knew that I couldn't even post here with my work if I didn't have any content on it first. Hopefully, my first introduction impression is a good one. I come from a group called Empire Arcadia. Our website can be found here. http://www.empirearcadia.com Empire Arcadia's objective is to give commitment to you and me, the gamers and the community of gamers by performing services, business, tournaments, retail, designs and other applications that will keep the gaming communities strong. Our portfolio shows that we have been great contributers to events such as MAGfest 2.0, which can be found here. http://www.magfest.org Also, we finished a great tournament contribution for an event called ECC9, which will be laid out in detail on our website. Empire Arcadia is made up of different divisions that perform services for the gaming communities in different ways. I am a division unit leader of a division called Knights of Empire Arcadia. the joint link website can be found here. http://www.empirearcadia.com/koea You'll have to excuse the quick mock up of the site, we were in a hurry to reach a deadline. But everything will be revamped in the future. Basically, we are a group of gamers that not only play games but we want to step into making games as well. We know that it is not an easy task, but we can only learn by trying and failing. OR, we can learn from other people's failures...we've been doing that alot, actually. We have alot of projects that we want to bring into the spotlight, but one project that has done that already is a project called "Cartica Deenile: The Teller". This is going to be our long term design, for about another 10 years or so. The website can be found here. http://www.empirearcadia.com/koea/cdtt I will not get into the details of this project, unfortunately. I would like for the viewers to enter the site and look through it on their own. Also, don't worry about the design documents and such, they're on the way, in about a few weeks. They're pretty much completed in their respectful sections, they're just being revised to add to the continuity of the project. In terms of what I can do, I have been building webpages for 7 years (using Geocities and notepad, until dreamweaver came out), I know intermediate to advanced Photoshop, but who doesn't. I know the basics of C++ but I'm going yo put that on pause to learn Python for about a year. I know a little bit of Acid 4.0 and sound forge but I'm investing in a keyboard to get my skills better with Cubase. and pretty much like everyone else, I can write, and I can comprehend where projects are supposed to be heading. I finished High School, but I'm not looking into taking college at this time, maybe in the future. This is the very first project that we are working on so far and we are going to work on this project a bit differently from the way people normally build projects. We're not going to take care of the project on the programming level just yet. Instead, we're going to get the documents, characters and layout architecture out of the way first. Afterwards, then we'll work on the programming aspect. We're not expecting the programming phaze for about another year. This is why I'm posting here. I'm not posting here to specify that we need coders and modelers. Although we do, we don't want to add more burden than what we can handle. SO, we only ask that you simply take a look at what we are doing. If you are interested, you can e-mail us at koea@empirearcadia.com and we can discuss the possibility of working on content in the future. OR, you can catch me on AIM as "GamingKnight1983" and we can discuss anything worth discussing. I'm sorry if I'm approaching this with no pressure...but I'm just calling it as I see it. I hope everyone enjoys the content that we were able to release so far, we have more on the way...these things take time, you know. Well, hope to hear from everyone soon. Jermaine Clarke (GamingKnight) Knights of Empire Arcadia Unit Leader. [edited by - GamingKnight on June 2, 2004 2:51:50 PM] [edited by - GamingKnight on June 2, 2004 2:53:25 PM] [edited by - GamingKnight on June 2, 2004 2:55:36 PM]

Woodsman

Jun 2, 2004 at 7:10 PM

I'm sorry if this was mentioned on your site, but I didn't seem to find an answer. What exact platform are you aiming for? I believe that you said console, but you didn't specify which. Also, what is the availability of python for the major consoles? I don't know the answer to the last question, though it may be worth looking into as my limited console experience leads me to think that most development is C oriented.

Edit: Also, I noticed that you have no programmers listed under credits. If you are the only programmer, perhaps not setting the language in stone would be more beneficial to the project.

[edited by - woodsman on June 2, 2004 8:12:27 PM]

GamingKnight

Jun 3, 2004 at 12:55 AM

quote:
Original post by Woodsman
I'm sorry if this was mentioned on your site, but I didn't seem to find an answer. What exact platform are you aiming for? I believe that you said console, but you didn't specify which. Also, what is the availability of python for the major consoles? I don't know the answer to the last question, though it may be worth looking into as my limited console experience leads me to think that most development is C oriented.

Edit: Also, I noticed that you have no programmers listed under credits. If you are the only programmer, perhaps not setting the language in stone would be more beneficial to the project.

[edited by - woodsman on June 2, 2004 8:12:27 PM]

I'll happily answer this.

We are currently focusing the development on the PC (logically, that's all we have at this point), but we was going for the console approach and we'd push for it if we don't find a reason not to. This is difficult because we want to take care of a future "exclusive" issue. So, once we go public with a specific platform, that's it; we won't design CDTT for anything else except that platform. We don't believe in "whoring out" our designs. This also gives us the tight focus we need, because we don't have to worry about multiple platforms, only 1 specific platform...that way, we can bring out the best on that platform, so long as we keep working with it. This is a long term project that we want to span from a game design, to a book, even a comic in flash as well as paperback. That'll take time, but we're planning this now. Depending on how well recieved it becomes, we may advertise it more but at this time, this is as far as we want to take it.

As for the coding in Python and C++ as a secondary, this option was left, to see which language we can perform more efficiently under. Both Python and C++ has their strengths and weaknesses...but putting both together may just be the ticket, you never know. A lot of people seem to be jumping on the Python Bandwagon, while a few are shunning it. But it is beginning to get well known praise, and this is an opportunity for us to seize the day on the language. I remember when I was 13 and Java was the next big thing and I shunned it, thinking to myself that it will die off, so I didn't learn it. What a fool I was. :-) The opportunity knocks again and I'm not going to be so blind this time. Besides, we have about a year until we must focus on the programming aspect so this subject of language programming decision may change. We are solid on OpenGL as the graphical language because OpenGL is accepted on PC, console, even handhelds and cell phones. DirectX is directly windows (from what I've seen and read, anyway) and while we are programming under Windows, we don't want to be biased to our options like tha Mac, console, etc.

The thing about no programmers in the credits, that's not really a concern at the moment. We'll start looking for programmers and such, once our architecture is solid. So, we're taking care of story, written gameplay elements, music, as well as the overall design. I've given a year deadline because...seriously...getting one episode out of 18 done should not take any longer than a year. If it does...there's a problem.
I'm alright with being the only novice programmer at this point. I'm the creator of the project, so it is only logical that I work the hardest out of everyone. While this is a learning experience for the people that are helping, this also gives us credibility (I think that's how you spell it...) through our learning. Once more programmers are interested, I'll be able to "speak" to a programmer because I "understand" where the programmer is coming from. I'll have to speak to everyone in their specific fields anyway, but there's nothing wrong with having a better relationship with people.

Any other questions or comments, please feel free to say them. Thanks.

[edited by - GamingKnight on June 3, 2004 1:56:37 AM]

OmniBrain

Jun 3, 2004 at 2:56 AM

quote:
Original post by GamingKnight
The thing about no programmers in the credits, that''s not really a concern at the moment. We''ll start looking for programmers and such, once our architecture is solid. So, we''re taking care of story, written gameplay elements, music, as well as the overall design. I''ve given a year deadline because...seriously...getting one episode out of 18 done should not take any longer than a year. If it does...there''s a problem.

Just a thought: You may get a programmer (as software architect) on board because they will know some more about architecture and stuff.
If you speak about game design, you can do it without a programmer. But as it comes to realisation of your idea, you can''t ignore the guys who will work out your idea into code lines.
(Even people with programming knowledge are still blind to some kind of problems that might rise when bringing an idea to a programm)

I remember when i spoke to a guy who was coding one of the famous online browser games. He had some galaxies and each player had his own view on the galaxies (kind of "fog of war").
Great idea. I pointed out how much memory it will eat up if he will go from the group with 50 tester to only 500 real gamers (he aimed for over 10,000) and he gave up that idea...

GamingKnight

Jun 3, 2004 at 3:36 PM

quote:
Original post by OmniBrain
quote:
Original post by GamingKnight
The thing about no programmers in the credits, that''s not really a concern at the moment. We''ll start looking for programmers and such, once our architecture is solid. So, we''re taking care of story, written gameplay elements, music, as well as the overall design. I''ve given a year deadline because...seriously...getting one episode out of 18 done should not take any longer than a year. If it does...there''s a problem.

Just a thought: You may get a programmer (as software architect) on board because they will know some more about architecture and stuff.
If you speak about game design, you can do it without a programmer. But as it comes to realisation of your idea, you can''t ignore the guys who will work out your idea into code lines.
(Even people with programming knowledge are still blind to some kind of problems that might rise when bringing an idea to a programm)

I remember when i spoke to a guy who was coding one of the famous online browser games. He had some galaxies and each player had his own view on the galaxies (kind of "fog of war").
Great idea. I pointed out how much memory it will eat up if he will go from the group with 50 tester to only 500 real gamers (he aimed for over 10,000) and he gave up that idea...

Eventually, it will come to a point that speaking about game design won''t cut it. That is totally understandable. When the design documents are ready, that is how the game (in creation) is supposed to function. Not just from the way the game runs, but from the point that the game turns on, all the way to the point that the game turns off. It''s not a point of ignoring the programmers or anything like that, just the simple point that they are not needed at this time.
Also, we''re in an era where the technology is changing, so that is the least of my concern. It''s the simple concept of deciding which dimension you want your design to be in, which is 3D at the moment, and then making every aspect on the weakest link of 3D. So, for example, before we worry about all of this code and those graphics, let''s see if we can create it on something as simple as a PlayStation 1. If it is possible, then throw the drugs in. :-)
However, having a programmer observe the progress is a great idea. :-D
Also, once we decide which platform to run the design on, we''re going to run it on that platform and only that platform. So, there would be no need for upgrades and the sort. So, the more things change, the more we''ll remain the same.
Besides...this is about a year down the line. Once the issues are out of the way, (issues beyond programming), the problems "should" be minimal. I say issues beyond programming, because you look at a game like Metal Gear Solid 1...and then Metal Gear Solid 2. *shudder*.
But input at this point is greatly welcomed.

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