Yes – I like space games and I like your game idea.
No – I like space games but I don't like your game idea.
Meh – I don't like space games.
This response is going to see paltry in comparison to your own but...
Yep. I agree. We have every intention of fostering our community. We are also prepared for a fairly long dev time. That said we're obviously not taking on as much as the AfterWorld devs so I don't think it will take 5 years... At least I bloody hope not O_o
Interesting read so thanks for that. :)
If you're going into this to make money you will go bankrupt and your mums will cry.
Start small and get somekind of cash flow coming in. Because you will not be able to work full time for ~3.5 years on this and still have the money to keep your lights on.
You absolutely need to work on an engine and get a prototype out if you expect to recieve any kind of backing for this.
I'm interesting in the 'certified' bits of your description - in the UK, "certifiable" is slang for 'a bit mental' but assuming that's not your intention, I'm wondering what 'Certification' you're actually talking about?
Does Aus have a system for doing this - the UK certainly doesn't??
Not at all, we do it because we love it. We already have our engine of choice and a prototype (more prototype to come however).Originally Posted by Bhazor
Haha, that's certainly not what I meant. I mean both of we programmers have an Adv.Dip in games programming whilst the artist has an Adv.Dip in games art. I only mention it to get across that we are not totally clueless people who have never touched code in our lives etc.
my brain is just fizzing with the idea of multiplayer 'x-wing vs tie fighter' so i can't concentrate on much else! ;)
i'd agree that a multiplayer only game will be a tough sell if you're wanting to make money out of it...I myself have made a little 'home brew' multi-player game and the problem i've got is, even if i get someone to try it, there's nobody else in the world playing at that time so they'll probably never come back! and my game is free!
however, that aside, as far as the game is concerned then i believe the absolutely key thing will be the feel of the flying/dog-fighting. too realistic will be dull, too arcadey will maybe defeat the point of having it in space! and the thing is i don't see why a 3 man team couldn't prototype that to a decent degree in a short (ish) period of time. ignore graphics and audio, and manage to get a few 'boxes' flying around space in a way that's enjoyable and engaging and you can work on it from there. if that works then you can worry about painting pretty nebulae and building complex models of capital ships later. but i would suggest some form of single player campaign should be included to encourage people to play it when others aren't around to play with!
My free online multiplayer PC ONLY 'world cup singles/singles/worldy/cuppy/wembley' game can be found here:
http://thebeautifulgame-thegame.com
Please try it out!
http://us.battlestar-galactica.bigpoint.com/
Is this what you're aiming for? It seems like that's what you'll be competing with.
Or is it more like this?
http://www.starwraith.com/evochronme...y/features.htm
Which allows, I believe, hosted persistent multiplayer servers.
(little evochron pvp vidya:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5XgjUhOB_8
in case you're unfamiliar with it)
If you've already made a few successful indi games then there's nothing to say you won't make the next big, small thing, but if this is your first project... maybe start with an iOS game and see if you can keep the team together and finish something first.
Last edited by frightlever; 28-02-2012 at 10:10 AM.
If nothing else, the players should be able to do skirmishes vs. dumb AI to test mechanics before and in between getting their asses kicked against humans. The functionality has to be there anyway for a tutorial; no one wants to enter a game and be a burden to their (human) team while they get the very basics down.
Meta-comment about my earlier personal opinions - I think you'll have to make some hard choices because what competitive players want and what grinding/ego oriented players want are fundamentally at odds with one another, unless you somehow sort out game modes so you effectively have two different games (!).
OP, if I may ask, what are your current thoughts about the target market and business model? Is there any group of players you definitely will or will not target with this?
More like the Evochron, but also very different.
We've had a lot of feedback regarding the desire for SP/bots. We'll be taking a serious look at this as we go through the design process.
I won't go into details on our research (not out of secrecy, rather laziness and effort) but all our research seems to point strongly at there being a market for this style of game (I hope I don't need to add the qualifier - If you do it well). Regarding target demographic - It's a bit hard to identify as the design isn't complete. The only groups I could point out are the ones too obvious to warrant it. Plus, as above, it would take longer than it's worth to go through all our data. I'll gladly answer this one in more detail when we have a detailed design :)
@RamSteelwood: Multiplayer "X-Wing vs. Tie Fighter" was what the JTL expansion for SWG did pretty well. I too remember the excitement and joy of the original XWvTF, which is why SWG's expansion grabbed me to thoroughly. You're right that the correct balance has to be reached to make game play fun while in space. Too much in either direction will kill a lot of the potential.
@Altru Ego: While the goal is not to make money (i.e. a significant profit), you'll definitely need something within your game that keeps people coming back so that you can at least maintain your operations (though I'm guessing you already know that much). Once that's in place, adding things to grow your player base to where you have enough profit to add bigger functionality and wider scope should be very do-able.
I agree that some form of AI would help significantly with that goal. In SWG, there were quests aplenty and though many were repetitive, the space one rarely got boring for me. Something about that environment as opposed to running across a ground landscape makes the courier/guard/etc. type of mission much more repeatable. I can't speak for everyone, of course, but I think that even something like this would a good starting point to keep people playing during low population times.
Simply a brilliant signature, so I'm stealing it like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. Yoink!
It's interesting to see people showing qualifications in gaming - despite more and more courses being available, few people ever discuss it (certainly in the UK there are no really solid recognised qualifications which people tout).
That all said, my job for 2 years was mentoring new graduates (in the UK that's post University - so people who've done 3/4 year full time courses) and most of those couldn't tie their own shoelaces without instructions - so it's not always a plus point!!
GL! with your game whatever tho!
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
