Original Post
(edit: forum set up here) There isn't a team or game name yet Brief description: I'm working on a "simple" simulation game somewhere between SimEarth, Sandbox of God, and maybe a little Spore. My goals are threefold: 1. Create a game that I can show off as a portfolio asset when I try to get a job. Specifically a relatively simple 3D simulation game. 2. Create a proof-of-concept for fun, interactive Artificial Life. Most artificial life takes a long time to generate anything interesting, longer than most players' attention spans. Most ALife sims are relatively stagnant once they settle down due to the lack of random stimuli. Many sims are abstract and difficult for lay people to relate to. Very few sims attempt to create a complex ecosystem, instead relying on a small handful of species interacting. My goal is to simulate a relativley realistic ecosystem of interacting and adapting species. The player would try to increase biodiversity and eventually create sentience but wouldn't be able to do this directly. Instead they'd have to influence the species by changing the world in abiotic ways (throw some meteors down, raise a volcano, lower the water table, raise a mountain to create a desert, change a windpattern to create drought or flood, etc.) If sentients ever develop then the player can use religion to alter the ecosystem at a higher level (initiate a war and maybe the sentients clear a few forests. If there are multiple sentient species, making one stronger, perhaps by teaching them metalworking, can fundamentally change the basic ecosystem (Humans prefer grassland, squirrels would prefer forests, etc.)) My theory is that evolutionary jumps occur when species are taxed, so I'd like to create a model that demonstrates that idea. If the player has to decimate a civilization to push the sentients to develop to the next level, that would create an interesting dynamic I think. The ecosystem would be modelled from the ground up, with a simplistic representation of bacteria and algae, and building up the food web from there. Most research I've done into real life artificial ecosystems suggests this method provides the most stable results. I'd also like to model the transition of grasslands to forests as the ecosystems mature, followed by their destruction by fire, man, etc. (There's a term for this but I forget it at the moment). Animals would have to adapt to the changing ecosystem, which in turn changes to adapt to them. The player would hopefully provide the random stimuli that would keep the simulation from stagnating. Adaptation can be sped up, I believe, if the organisms' characteristics are value based instead of open ended scripts. By which I mean create a numerical score for the creature's ability to hunt or its propensity to herd, and have that change, instead of creating a scripting system and program in those behaviors and let the script mutate. I also would like to experiment with Lamarckian Evolution instead of natural selection, which some initial research has hinted allows populations to adapt faster. The goal is to crunch the evolutionary window to something that's a little more at speed with a player's attention span. I have some other thoughts on this matter, but this is already getting long and unorganized. If anyone is interested, I'll try to write them down and link to them. Basically the biology won't be more complex than Freshman University Bio, so it should be easy enough to grasp for most players with a little refresher information, easily enough encapsulated in a tutorial or something similar. 3. Play around with procedural content creation. Most of the visually impressive results I've seen have come from procedural content. I don't just mean dirt textures and heightmaps, but procedural tree mesh generation, clouds, etc. I'd like to play around in this regard, experimenting with different systems and techniques. I've done quite a bit of research in this area, but not alot of coding. This goal is least important on my agenda. Target aim: Opensource Compensation: Evenly split if there's ever a dime to split. Technology: Although I'd settle for a 2D ortho view, I'd really like to do a combination Orthographic and 3D view. Initiate global changes in the orthographic view and examine the world you've created in 1st person. I'd like this to be a relatively simple tech demo as well as a game. Most of the procedural content I've played with is only really useful in a 3D view. This would be coded in C++, and probably use 3rd party libraries where practical to do so. Beyond this I haven't really thought about it. Talent needed: My work thus far on this project has taught me that I can either make a tech demo or a simple game, I can't do both at the same time. So I'm looking for another like minded programmer to work on the tech demo side of things, allowing me to concentrate on the game side of things. What I'm mainly looking for is a programmer who can work on the engine while I work on the content. This programmer would be responsible for the 3D engine (loading and displaying models), sound and music (playing them, not making them), multithreading, and just about any other hardware task that a game like this would require. They'd be responsible for picking which outside libraries to use since they'd be using them more than I would. Also, my overall code organisation is also a little weak, so I'd appreciate someone who could help me in this regard, someone with strong code organization ability and experience. A lesser goal, but if anyone is interested in working with me on the content side of things, ie: the ALife simulation, procedural content, etc. I'd be willing to have a designer or two work with me. As a final note, I'm in Eastern time in the United States, so I would prefer someone around that time zone. In my experience it's just too difficult to coordinate people that aren't awake at the same time. ;) Team structure: Since you already know what I'm looking for, I'll explain what I'll be doing. I'll be in charge of game logic and content creation. Specifically: UI creation, game logic and the core simulation (animals reproducing, eating, and dying), procedural model and texture creation, and anything else that falls under the category "content". Later in the project I'm sure I'll be trying to find a modeller and musician for content, so it won't all be programmer art :P I'll also be in charge of any web presence, unless of course there's someone else on the team with better web skills than me (which wouldn't be hard ;) ) These roles aren't absolute of course. I may want to work on the engine from time to time and you may want to work on the game logic, this is just fine, I'm just primarily looking for someone who's more interested in the technical side of things the way I'm more interested in the creative side of things. In the event that I have a few (say, 2 or 3) candidates that I think would work on this project, I'll elect one as the lead engine developer and have the others be subordinate to the lead. I don't know how to say this without sounding overbearing, but I'm the project lead, and while I'll respect your control over technical aspects of the project, I have final say in a conflict. My Credentials For something like this you deserve to know my current experience and skills. 1. I'm a pretty good C++ programmer if I do say so myself. I've been programming C++ since middle school, for about 8+ years now. 2. I've completed a few simple games and simulations, but nothing of large scope except for: 3. Darwinbots, an Artificial Life simulator. I've been a (arguably) lead developer for Darwinbots for about a year and a half, although a great deal many people have contributed to the project. Specifically this gives me experience in Artificial Life and alot of the subtler points, what works and what doesn't from evolution's point of view, etc. Darwinbots has given me the confidence to attempt something a little different, something a little more "fun" and a little less "science"-y. 4. My OpenGL skills are intermediate, with my most recent OpenGL project being an interactive 1st person heightmap viewer (you can change the heights using meteors you drop). This included texturing and lighting. 5. I've done some physics programming for darwinbots. This project won't really need that, but it does give a glimpse into my math and simulation capabilities. 6. I've programmed quite a few organisms for Darwinbots in its scripting language, so I do have some experience in AI and (custom) scripting languages and parsing. 7. I feel quite confidant that I can create the content side of the game if I can find someone to create the engine. Contacts: You can contact me either through email (preffered): Numsgil2002@yahoo.com or you can post here, or contact me through MSN: (Numsgil2002@yahoo.com) or you can reply in this topic, and I'll keep an eye on it. Feedback: ENCOURAGING ONLY [Edited by - Numsgil on September 16, 2006 5:53:12 PM]
