Looking for collaborators on a simple game project (2D top down RPG)
Hello,
I'm looking for one or more collaborators on a game project.
The game shall be a simple desktop RPG (top down, like in RPG maker, with a fighting-ring-battle-system). I myself am a professional programmer, so I want to do the whole programming. I'm aiming for simplicity and quality. While I'm still working on the engine, I'm not in the mood - or too lazy - to do the graphics or make up a story. So here is what has to be done from my point of view:
For the record: I don't care much for the sales part. I'm ok with a free game. But it's an option I'm also ok with. So if you for example want to do the story part, I wouldn't tell you what it must/should be about. It's all up to you. Just keep it simple enough to be doable :)
As for the engine/APIs: Programming on .NET Framework (C#). Graphics run on OpenGL. Audio probably OpenAL.
So long,
~n4
Screenshots (google search):
Yes:
No:
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Hi fluffrabbit,
that's quite a concept. So you have lots of ideas for story and battle mode? I'm not sure if I made myself clear enough of what I'm aiming for. I'm working on a fight-ring-based RPG. There is a grid-map where you explore the world, and there are battles in which you fight opponents and then return to the grid-map.
I'll also add a few screenshots so the game-feel-concept is clear enough.
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I worked with OpenAL before only because I wanted to get that ready for 3D games.
But there should not be a problem to play mp3 or wav on Windows.
My biggest problem right now is the lack of graphics that would make a complete pack.
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As for the battle system. I got a party-vs-party system. The battle system has physical attacks, magic like fire, water, heal, resurrect etc. Items, levels, stats. It's all just a matter of design and the math behind it.
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So would you like to write a story?
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Jeez,
I don't know. How about classic fantasy RPG? Swords, magic, kings, monsters, demons, towns, castles. The ususal thing. Mood can vary as much as you like: commedy, tragedy, apocalypse, whatever.
Funny thing: I found lots of free monster texture in Public Domain, that's the least of my worries. What I really need is world tiles and objects. Plus character animations.
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Would you like to switch to private messages? This is public and I neither want to spam the forum nor view too much of the unfinished project.
Still need for help or did you get your guy?
Why not use the LPC graphics? They have a styleguide and thanks to the original contest there's tons of related resources on OGA. No matter what you go for in the end, it should at the least be sufficient for prototyping.
Hi Honsua,
I'm in desperate need for graphics (world and characters). Or sound and music.
If you would like to help on one of those, that would be great.
Hey, I might be interested in making some music for the game. No promises yet, but what kind of concept were you thinking for the game? TBH If it is going to be standard medieval music I might pass, but if I have the chance to make some motifs with instruments and scales or themes, I'd love the practice. The medieval style isn't my favorite to make and I feel like there are tons of songs on OGA that already fit the description, but I'd love to work on something else if you already had an idea or concept in mind.
Hi Joth,
can you mix/compose some music that is rather dark and fits a world full of goblins? Maybe you can remix the very same sample to provide a title-, battle-, boss-battle-, field-tune? Something original would be intriguing. Let me know if you want to try.
I will absolutely give it a try! Do you have any examples of soundtracks or specific songs with the same feel you are looking for? This could help me to have a better point of reference and get a more fitting track made.
No, I don't know. I'm not writing the story. Maybe you ask fluffrabbit? He writes the story and he wants it dark :)
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Sweet, thank you for the direction. It always makes me feel better to have an idea of what someone wants as far as music, as it can keep me from wasting time.
So, I am thinking for the main theme to be
-slow tempo?
-Dark, minor scale
-I'll have to play around with instruments for a while and experiment if I am going to make the entire soundtrack out of the same ones--it would be good to plan that out and think on it for a bit. So there are a few options. Let me know if any of these jump out at you: Piano (I have several great plugins for that), strings, harpsichord (or other of similar timbre), acoustic or electric guitar (I could live record these), I have an okay brass plugin, or I could go with really sine heavy melodic pads for an atmosphere. Or I could just throw some random sounds together that are just made with a synth and use them across the soundtrack. Whatever works best. I guess I just don't want to make something and then have it get rejected because it didn't fit the vision.
I have a soundtrack I've been making on the side for a game I (hopefully) will make one day once I have the determination and am not so busy. Anyway, this soundtrack is dark, but pretty electronic themed (think Crypt of the Necrodancer) and it might serve as a jumping off point if I can draw some reference from it but change instrumentation or something. I'll post a snippet here and you can let me know how on target it is and what parts are fitting or not.
To be clear, these tracks aren't finished, merely for reference purposes.
Hi n4pgamer. I don't want to be a downer, but if your goal is to make a game why are you making your own engine as well? And why are you doing all the programming solo? Even if you're a very good and experienced programmer, doing all the programming for both an engine and a game can take a very, very long time. Even a simple one (RPGs are actually really damn complicated, you'll soon find out). I know this because I built an engine and game for a slightly more complex 2D top-down RPG with the help of dozens of other programmers over the years. It was a ton of work, and if I knew that at the start I would have used an existing engine to get to a working game more quickly (although at the time I don't think there were really any open source engines like that out there).
Can I suggest you take a look at the code for Hero of Allacrost or Valyria Tear (a fork of Allacrost using the same code). All the code is open source (GPLv2) and you can easily take it and then make necessary modifications to get the code to support the features you're interested in. The Allacrost code is well documented too, which you can find in the project's wiki or by running doxygen on the source files. It uses SDL, OpenGL, and OpenAL libraries, just as you desire. As an RPG lover I really want to see more projects like this be successful, and I really feel that not starting from scratch will help you shave off years of development time.
@Joth: To me the samples sound quite right. The 2nd feels like elevator music only for dungeons. The 1st like exploring a prison. They don't have to be part of the project, but from what I know about the story, they would most probably fit, when finished.
@Roots: Thanks man. But I'm not doing anything from scratch. Besides programming is easy, since I want to keep it simple. The graphics is the hard part.
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Noted, I will take your words into account and try to get something started.
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Here's a quick mockup I made in 20 minutes, very rough. Let me know if the feel of the track matches up to the plan. Again, very rough, not final.
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I could try switching out the beat for a pizzicato (where the notes are plucked instead of bowed) violin or cello. Or try just making the beat less repetitive. Maybe lowering the volume a lot and making it more irregular, or I could try just making impact hits infrequently. Sort of more cinematic--like in movie trailers. Let me know. We could always switch to PMs if you don't want to clutter the forum with the details.
Joth. Is it possible for you to share without previews (or attachments)? And maybe remove the now existing previews here? My browsers show me errors/warnings: "Undefined index: files_with_preview in _oga_audio_preview()" I think other people will see them too. That is not a good (first) impression, if a forum thread opens up with a bunch of errors on top of it. A simple link to the audio file would be sufficient. I download the audio anyway to listen to it in the player of my choice.
For the sample I like tha background melody and the thing starting at 0:21. The beat could be slower or less dominant. But I can't tell you anything in music composition, just how I think/feel it does or does not fit into some scenes. I think you and fluffrabbit can do the right thing :)
Right on, I removed them. All clean and error free now :)
Thanks. It's not your fault but OGA's. They seem to have some bugs in their js code. Will you post some samples in form of links - when finished? Or send them via PM?
Yes, I can post them to my Soundcloud instead once they are a bit further along.
I should also say, I am going to be starting school this week, and I can't guarantee that I will be able to make tracks at a very fast pace. I'm taking 16 credits and still working 20 hours a week, so pretty much every moment of every weekday, I will be occupied with something. Weekends will be prime time to work on music, but I hope you can understand that I might not be cranking them out super quickly for a while.
Still quite rough around the edges, but I figured I'd give a progress report.
https://soundcloud.com/user-215083110/collab1v2/s-1tp5b
First of all you don't need to hurry or stress yourself. I don't have much time either. Programming games is a hobby for me, doing it in free time. Please enjoy your work on music!
I'm not sure if you PM with fluffrabbit. So I'll just tell you what I think about the sample. I actually like it. It sounds like "exploring dungeon" to me. What would be important for ingame background music is that it can loop, either smooth looping or fade in at the beginning and fade out at the end. Can you also make it longer? As far as I can hear there are 3 sections in that track. Maybe repeat them in different orders? But you're the expert.
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Good luck on Ludum Dare, I've always been interested in those but I definitely don't have the skills to make even a really bad game in a time crunch situation.
np4gamer, I absolutely intend to make it loopable and I will be adding more to it. I find game music that repeats too often to be fairly annoying, so I think in the end I will try to make it at least 5 minutes long if I can muster it. If you guys are cool with how things are going so far, I'll just keep it up and trust my instincts since you guys seem to be liking what I'm doing so far. I'll probably start making other tracks soon, time permitting.
Um, if I re-read the title of the thread, we are talking off-topic here. Please lets take all discussions about music and story to PM, ok?
If anyone else still wanna join in our non-Ludum-Dare project :p please post here or send me a PM.
Someone wanna join in? No time pressure. Maybe just with ideas?
Are you taking on apprentices, by any chance? I'm an aspiring C# programmer and would love to be able to even get a peak at what goes on behind the curtains in a project like this...
Hello, what time you need for creat your game, because if you want, i can write the story. If you are agree; you can send me your idea on the story ( if you have)
Fasseh