Slick Forums

Since we all have a great tool (Slick) in common, I think a community project might be interesting. We get a basic idea and pool together to work on different areas we could make a game rather quickly if we have a good leader in charge.

First before discussing ideas or forcing this topic into everyone why don't you all let me know what you think of this idea?

This would be great.. I really need the practice, especially with OpenGL.

Could be very interesting but if the project is too big, some will gradually give up their own project.
When you say areas, it means :
-arts
-gameplay
-"sub areas" in programming
-networking if there are some needs
- and so on.


I d like to see the result

It's a project almost certainly doomed to fail. But it can be fun nevertheless. And if it succees, it will be great.

I agree with Serandel: most community projects die before they reach a finish status...but some do

What I like about community projects is that there are so many ideas and technologies and ways to solve problems in them.
They are treasures knowledge wise and people can learn so much by looking at the sources of other people (similar to the Slick examples or Kev's games where he released the source code).

So if enough people jump the boat - go for it!

_________________
Right Angle Games | Marte Engine
Back to the past | Star Cleaner | SpiderTrap

I'll will probably participate in it.

So what will be the project?
As still no one suggest, thn my turn:
"2d platformer game with rpg elements in cyberpunk world"

sounds like a good idea, i'd say go for it, be nice to see if anything comes out of it.

Will probably need extra planning on the design and be split into small assignable parts, also setting dead lines and a time schedule for the project might help.

Im a bit stuck in my project right now so I dont think I could participate right yet, but I do like the "Platformer with RPG elements in a Cyberpunk world" idea, so if a project with that theme would emerge I would be sure to participate in some elements of it (probably graphics...)

I entirelly agree with Kappa about dead lines and scheduling.
Also, i think the whole concept of the game should emerge from the leader and only from him.
And yeah, if the game looks too much ambitious, no doubt it's gonna be one of these vaporwares , so thinking of something simple and fun would be a good thing.

Well, I'm not going to join the project (basically, because I've got not much spare time) but I do hope something fun emerges from all this. If I'm welcome, I can contribute by arguing in all sorts of public discussions and I offer my code if you get stuck in any trouble that I have stumbled upon before, so you can use my stuff / improve it / be inspired from it / laugh at my pitiful skills.

And I concur with orelero, please consider doing something small, fun and not very polished so you can test the team, the organization, the library, etc. and later build something more ambitious from it.

P.S.: I love good old school platformers.

Nice to see everyone that is interested.

I was also thinking of a simple game, nothing really fancy. The fun part is just discussing about game ideas and picking one that everyone likes. Writing a simple game using slick doesn't pose very much of a challenge programming wise. With proper planning and maybe a pseudo UML diagram is all we need for organizing the programming. Then we just make sure everyone understand there roles and set some deadlines.

In that case I'm in . I just hope I will release a "beta" version of my game end of june so i will be able to join another project.
I warn you I have not lot of school knowledges at programing and I'll certainly learn much things from your skills.

Another thing, do you guys consider a "2d platformer with an internet coop feature" simple ? If yes I would be interested in networking

From my experience, writing network code is probably one of the most complicated and tedious process and involves a lot of testing afterwards. I guess it wouldn't be so hard if we only have to support less then 10 concurrent players. But it introduces a lot of problem like the 200-500 ms delay, connection delay, cheating, lost of connection.

I think a platform might be interesting. I love (nearly) all Metroid game simply because they had the classic "your can't pass but some ability will allow you here later" and the fact that over 30% of the game are all hidden with so many bonus and side upgrade. I would kind of be interested in working on a game like that uses the same game concept (we could even make a network interface if we do decide to support coop after the game is done). Maybe we could change it up and have it in a medieval setting, maybe a swordsman dungeons crawl type SNES Zelda-ish but with may more bonus and hidden secrets. Say Zelda meets the Metroid concept without ripping off their sprites.

Or got a better idea? Post it, I'm just brainstorming here, keep things going!

Hi, I've been lurking around for a while now but havn't posted anything yet. I will probably start too soon though. I would definitely be interested in helping out with this as well.

I have been involved in a few group projects before and for all you people that say you dont have enough time I can tell you that with a community project time is usually never the limiting factor. Its motivation. Even just 1 hour per week from a motivated person can be a huge contribution. Whomever the project lead is needs to be able to keep people motivated and the project needs to be simple and enjoyable enough to keep people interested and not frustrated/lost.

As for networking I would skip it for the first go. Writing good network code is not an easy task and its even harder for a group that has no experience working with each other. I would say to wait for the second project to think about creating any kind of networked multiplayer. Start with something EXTREMELY simple and if its too simple then that just means you will finish it that much faster and it will at least give everyone an idea of how much harder a project the group can really handle.

Of course this is all just my opinion so feel free to attack me for it.

You, sir, are a wise wise chap. Including the stuff about time vs motivation. I agree 100%.