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Overgrowth modders seeked (Forums : Development Banter : Overgrowth modders seeked) Post Reply
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SinKing
SinKing bumps me thread
Oct 25 2009, 3:40am Anchor

Seeked by me!

After seeing all the footage about ingame animation and all the features of the Phoenix engine, I am convinced that creating a mod with it is simpler and more gratifying than with other commercial engines. So I'd like to know if there are Overgrowth owners here, who would like to mod the game.

I have an idea for a story that takes place in an alternative past, in London of the year 1602. Here are some thumbnails I painted:

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PLOT
After a cave in some miners were rescued and reported of strange devices/machinery they found before the accident. Some goods were saved by them and taken to the surface. Among them are a lightbulb and inductors. This causes a large public interest and Archeology is invented prematurely, as people create a digg up and look for the treasures. Soon digging at the site is regulated by the authorities and royal guards are put at the entrance at the cave. Renowned scientists from all over Europe travel to London to inspect the site and research the findings.
However, those findings aren't limited to the original site. It's like the radius is spreading and peasants find electrical devices, e.g. remote controls and Hamilton Beach Mixers on the roads and the fields, during work. The market for unknown artefacts thrives and a new kind of scientist emerges, the Eclectrician, who only analyses the function of the devices and finds out how to put them to work.
Not only are there more things hurled back from the future, they are also getting bigger. Soon Electricity is discovered; so in this universe Electricity is discovered even before the use of steam.  One day, mental institute patient David Grayson finds himself situated in a forest, instead of his cell. When he's discovered by a group of merchants they mistake him for an Eclectrician, since that is the only group of people, who wear white. Since David can explain every device that's shown to him, he soon makes a reputation for himself and actually starts working in the trade...

THE MISSION
Your mission is to find out how to stop the future from collapsing into the past. You get to meet other people, who were sucked up and back into time, you learn that time is not linear and maybe you'll even get to fight Nazis (again)! The mod is not entirely serious about itself and its story. It's more of a Terry Pratched kind of setting with lots of wacky ideas and incredible creations. There will be a lot of dialog and combinatory play with items you find and buy...

- so this is my setup for an OG mod, inspired by adventure games like Grim Fandango and Monkey Island. Hope we can create a group and start doing something. I will do more planning and layout a design document for this. I hope there are not too many features, if so the mod will resemble an interactive narrative, not unlike Dear Esther. (I'd like a more active solution, though).

If you're interested and own (or plan to own) Overgrowth, PM me!

Edited by: SinKing

Sigma
Sigma Resident Stepmania Freak :D
Oct 25 2009, 5:23am Anchor

oooh a overgrowth mod :D
looks promising :D if you preordered then you should allso post on the SPF forum on the wolfire forums :3 if not, preorder :D :p

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Looking for musicians for unannounced project, PM me for further details :)

Mr_Cyberpunk
Mr_Cyberpunk Game Developer
Oct 25 2009, 8:26pm Anchor

Great idea SinKing.. I hope they let you do this. Have you tried their alphas yet?

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SinKing
SinKing bumps me thread
Oct 26 2009, 2:53am Anchor

Yeah, I bought Overgrowth in pre-order half a year ago and Wolfire encourage Mod-making and are all up for it. Back then you couldn't do much with it, but there are more and cooler things comin from Wolfire all the time, now. The newest thing is an animation blender, like you would know from XSI, only simpler. I think it's high time to start working with the engine and custom content and I made a Wiki for it (most articles are only available to OG-owners). You can see there already is a fair amount of tutorial content and, except particles, everything is covered:

Wiki.wolfire.com

I can map in OG, I can build structures and import custom meshes. I have a bit trouble with XML, since all I can do is copy and paste code as I read it on the forums. So I won't start any of this without having a capable coder. The working title for the mod is "Time Company" and it will be an adventure, which incorporates the ideas from the Swiss Army Knife mod. The coolest thing about it is that I have a great twist in the story, which could allow for a secret ending and several replays.
A lot about getting back home and on with the story will have to do with your combinatory skills. I don't know yet, if there will be more than a very simplistic fighting system. I'll definately need OG's grappling hook feature, but no guns or other FPS content.

So I'll release a webcomic of this to give everybody a basic idea what it will look and feel like. I want to create something that has a rather cartooney than realistic style. Lets have some color in games again!

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ariehl
ariehl Composer
Oct 26 2009, 10:22am Anchor

SinKing, 
I followed your post on the Wolfire forums to get here, and I think this idea sounds great. Unfortunately, I'm not much of a programmer, but I do write music (and play... I've been adding all the ethnic flutes to the Overgrowth soundtrack) and I was hoping you might be looking for some custom music for this mod. Let me know it sounds interesting to you. 
Here's a link to my most current downloadable reel: http://files.me.com/ariehl/r7gk3e 
Anton

SinKing
SinKing bumps me thread
Oct 26 2009, 11:02am Anchor

Hey Anton - sure, Music plays a very important part in a story like this. I think the flutes were a nice touch and very important for the OG soundtrack, so you are welcome to develop some music pieces.
I am currently working on a webcomic (which I started in another context) and hope this will give people a good idea about what I imagine for the game.

I can make a group here on Moddb and we start gathering people who are interested in modding Overgrowth. I don't think the coder will have a hard time, as I pretty much go along with Overgrowth mechanics for the mod. However, there are some things, like the combinable items, which require a coder with understanding of the Phoenix engine. So, until we have a coder we can gather around, but will only setup things as a forum, design document and meet other requirements to start modding.

Thanks for your response - added you to friends here. See you!

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Sigma
Sigma Resident Stepmania Freak :D
Oct 26 2009, 11:18am Anchor

well the engine uses javascript for all the code, an JS is easy :D
for the xml, you can check this -> Forums.wolfire.com (requires preorder forum acces tho)
tool made by me :p forgotten by all the rest tho xP allows you to fiddle with the xml in a easy way :3

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Looking for musicians for unannounced project, PM me for further details :)

SinKing
SinKing bumps me thread
Oct 26 2009, 11:42am Anchor

Thanks Sigma. I'll add it to the tutorial list for OG.

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Edited by: SinKing

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