Various Members Needed for FPS Dev Project Thread

hey,

awhile back i was invited to design some weapon models for some online associates that were creating their own FPS. unfortunately, as the prospect of this thing actually becoming something that would require real earnest work and some individual funding, just about everyone dropped out the project. so, i took the initiative and adopted the few people that i knew that could help out with this project and basically commandeered the project and made it a potential product of my recording studio now potential game studio.

so while i've got weapons and Management covered, my remaining colleague plans to provide programming assistance where he's needed as well in helping me develop and refine the overall Concept, gameplay and mechanics and just about every other possible element we could think of to discuss and reach some sort of decision on before moving forward.

now that the framework of the game's Concept and workings has been either established or acknowledged for later fine tuning, i'm simultaneously searching for a game engine to concentrate on working with and trying to recruit more members for our team.

my colleague and i are both in the military and wanted to develop a game more inline with actual military elements, basically most of the really cool things that games like COD and BF never implement. the idea is for the game to be a multiple platform/console online mulitplayer with offline training missions available at launch with more released at later dates.

like i said, nearly all of the preliminary work is either already taken care of or is being worked out (though we'll consider any ideas and suggestions made by anyone involved) and now we just need more members to help make this a real playable product. our plan is to start with smallest possible incarnation of the game (requiring the least amount of elements to complete) as our primary goal with the intent of expanding upon that once we're comfortable that it functions the way we want it to.

so we pretty much need a few of everything, lol. animators, coders, programmers, something with good networking skills, etc.

the only budget we have to speak of is our own income and can't offer payment as of now, but we're talking with some marketing types that might be interested in helping generate some funding for the project.

please feel free to respond here or PM me if you'd like some more information, have some questions or are interested in talking further.

How are you going to strike the balance between fairly "arcade" style shooters such as CoD and BF and the more "simulation" type shooter such as Operation flashpoint and America's Army? I'm not being akward, but the FPS is a tough genre to crack, especially at the moment with the war between CoD and BF raging.

What are you planning to stop your project looking like a "me too!" game?

FPS are my favourite genre and I've seen a lot of promising titles fail in so many different ways. I am very interested in the project and would like to hear what your unique selling point is.

thanks for responding. i didn't understand your post to be negative, just curious. you've got some valid points and hopefully, without ruining the element of surprise, i'll try to answer your questions.

first of all, this is modern military FPS made by soldiers. i can only think of one other game that can make that distinction and it's PC only and we're planning of expanding beyond PC/Mac/Linux into consoles. not that we're better devs or anything, but we enjoy the genre and see things that could be better represented about our profession. and frankly, we're tired of missing out on potentially bad ass games that never seem to manage to get converted over one platrom that doesn't really work,

one aspect of the game that will separate us is that the characters in the game are not some sure elite special forces groups, just regular soldiers, we're not even including the infantry as a playable class. we feel that the majority of games focus on less than 1% of each branch's Spec Op units to glamorize while the everyday grunts never get the moment to shine they deserve.

this single element will allow us to be the only (as far as i'm aware of) modern military FPS to feature women soldiers as playable characters without trying to turn them into vixens or eye candy. many people are just not aware of how many girls and women are avid players of military based FPS's but never have the opportunity to represent their gender appropriately and maybe actually believe that devs are sexist for not having women soldiers in these games even though in reality, women are not permitted to try out for Spec Op combat units.

players will be able to choose a branch of one our forces to build there character under. under each branch will be several real world job classes that from which the player can select (initially only one, but the ability to have more would be gained later). each branch and specialty offers specific pros and cons that players can build on and modify to there own personal preferences.

it would be very easy to try to lump our project in with the COD clones of the world, but the truth is that we're drawing inspiration, influence and ideas from not only our professions, but from many types of games not normally associated with FPS just to offer our players something they've never been offered in a game before. it'd be easy to say that we're taking all the best parts of every successful franchise currently and building a game around that, but that would be a severe disservice to our project. we're using many well established elements that are common and popular in the genre and mixing in some concepts that we'd enjoy in a game. the main focus of this project isn't how slick and lifelike the graphics run, but how well the game plays, how players can play in a fashion based not only on their preferences, but with character and weapon elements they themselves have invested in building up. this project isn't something that upon completion we'll just move on and forget about, we're already planning on things we could introduce as DLC (either free for all or for a more reasonable price that most DLC packs go for) to keep players on their toes about what the game could offer next.

now that i'm reading it in this context, i guess it wouldn't be too far fetched to say we're building a FPS game with many RPG like components that won't play like an RPG, but a dynamic, gameplay focused, player driven product that will place options in the control of the player in ways previously not seen with such a direct action based genre.

i could go on, but i'm sure you've got a life you'd eventually like to get back to and can't really afford to read EVERY single element we're bringing to the table.

my apologies if i didn't provide you with a higher amount amount and number of specifics you'd preferred, but if you're still reading and still would like know more, then drop me a PM and i'll answer more questions in depth for you. actually, i'd prefer if you PM'd me in any event to let me know whether or not you're interested in joining my team and if so, if you could provide me with a summary of your skills, abilities why you'd like to work on this project, and i'll prepare a list of question to help determine if you're the right person for us.

looking forward to hearing back from you
rodent

Ya can I join you as a story writer?

Looking at your goal, I'd say that you'd be better able to represent the real military with a singleplayer only game. That way you can use dialogue, weapons, AI and other gameplay elements to tell the real story. Admittedly things would have to be cut or modified from real life, but you could still get the essence of military life across better with a singleplayer campaign than with multiplayer, and you don't have to worry about maintaining a server or people going off the game because there's no one to play with.

Still, there's more than one way to skin a cat, and you need to go where you think is best but, IMHO, a singleplayer game will help portray the military better than a multiplayer game will.

On the subject of engines, I'd suggest looking at the UDK or CryEngine3. The UDK will let you develop the game with some very powerful tools and good graphics, and you don't have to pay anything until the team makes $50 000 (from any source, not just from the sale of the game). While I'm not sure what the CE3 indie licensing scheme will look like, it's probable that you could develop the game as a mod for Crysis 2 until you can drum up some interest and funding to buy the license (if you need to purchase one prior to releasing the game, that is). There are other game engines out there that you may be able to use, like Unity, the C4 engine or the Esenthel Engine, but the UDK and CE3 will have the best combination of power and toolsets. Unfortunately they won't run on Mac or Linux without being able to get at the source code (a very expensive endeavour), so Unity (Windows/Mac), Esenthel (Windows/Mac) or the C4 Engine (Windows/Mac) might be a better choice. If you really want to run the game on Linux, the ETXreal, NeoAxis or a custom engine based on Ogre will probably be your best bet short of waiting until the id Tech 4 source code is released, but all those engines will require the attention of a good programmer or two and won't have the toolset, including AI, that the other engines have.

That's about all I can help you with, unless you want a proof reader/editor for any news articles or go down the singleplayer path and need a writer.

awesome2430 wrote: Ya can I join you as a story writer?

well, we're not really having a set storyline, so your services won't really be needed. however, keep in contact with me because if this project goes well, we've got some ideas we'll be developing and could most likely use some help fleshing out the stories.

Cahir wrote: Looking at your goal, I'd say that you'd be better able to represent the real military with a singleplayer only game. That way you can use dialogue, weapons, AI and other gameplay elements to tell the real story. Admittedly things would have to be cut or modified from real life, but you could still get the essence of military life across better with a singleplayer campaign than with multiplayer, and you don't have to worry about maintaining a server or people going off the game because there's no one to play with.

it's not really real life elements of life of being a soldier that we're interested in as much as incorporating more of the interesting and not often seen aspects of warfare. there's no real 'story' we want to tell as much as create an experience that includes more than your usual 'Spec Ops' and infantry type combat elements. for example, indirect fire (mortars) haven't really been successfully implemented in any game that we can think of, even though they're an essential part of combat. and our primary interest is in online play so the natural idea is to extend into that area.

Cahir wrote: On the subject of engines, I'd suggest looking at the UDK or CryEngine3. The UDK will let you develop the game with some very powerful tools and good graphics, and you don't have to pay anything until the team makes $50 000 (from any source, not just from the sale of the game). While I'm not sure what the CE3 indie licensing scheme will look like, it's probable that you could develop the game as a mod for Crysis 2 until you can drum up some interest and funding to buy the license (if you need to purchase one prior to releasing the game, that is). There are other game engines out there that you may be able to use, like Unity, the C4 engine or the Esenthel Engine, but the UDK and CE3 will have the best combination of power and toolsets. Unfortunately they won't run on Mac or Linux without being able to get at the source code (a very expensive endeavour), so Unity (Windows/Mac), Esenthel (Windows/Mac) or the C4 Engine (Windows/Mac) might be a better choice. If you really want to run the game on Linux, the ETXreal, NeoAxis or a custom engine based on Ogre will probably be your best bet short of waiting until the id Tech 4 source code is released, but all those engines will require the attention of a good programmer or two and won't have the toolset, including AI, that the other engines have.

That's about all I can help you with, unless you want a proof reader/editor for any news articles or go down the singleplayer path and need a writer.

yeah, UDK is looking like the winner so far, but i'm still open to suggestions. CE3 sounds very promising, but i can't find any information about an SDK or anything, but it's highly possible i'm going about that the wrong way based on your C2 mod reference. your suggestion is something that i've been thinking of, but still not sure if it would be a better course of action or not. Esenthel is one i've never heard of before, so i'll have to look into that.

i'm sure we'll need a couple programmers to get all the features that we want, so i'm hoping to find a couple here or there that would be interested in our project.

thanks for your help, we just might be hitting you up for some of your assistance before this whole thing is said and done=)

I somewhat agree with the SP campaigns, Sounds much more like a SP game you want to make, as for MP, online is pretty good for today, since almost everyone is going about playing online, and either way, you will be compared to the big players (CoD, Battlefield3 and ARMA) and judging by your comment of an RPG like military game, I'm thinking youre planning a World of Warcraft meets Call of Duty type of Military game... That I would imagine is going to be a mammoth task, although pretty epic too... Is this what youre looking into, or am I getting it wrong?

As for the engine, UDK probably will do just fine (think I mentioned this in another post of yours), I cant really think of any genre it's not fit for. Although CE3 will do you even better for large good looking environments. However, if graphics arent a major issue, you could make use of Unreal engine 2.5 (UT2004) which has native support for Linux and Mac I believe.. And it is fairly decent, if you look at killing floor Moddb.com you can see what it's capable of altthough I dont think it comes packaged as UDK does, you will probably have to take the same approach as with CE3 by doing a total conversion mod, and somehow generate enough money (with donations for example) to purchase a licence from epic... orrr if youre lucky, you could maybe reason with them to give you the Unreal Engine 2.5 toolset on the same terms of UDK.

Edited by: Joe_Shmoe

Joe_Shmoe wrote: I somewhat agree with the SP campaigns, Sounds much more like a SP game you want to make, as for MP, online is pretty good for today, since almost everyone is going about playing online, and either way, you will be compared to the big players (CoD, Battlefield3 and ARMA) and judging by your comment of an RPG like military game, I'm thinking youre planning a World of Warcraft meets Call of Duty type of Military game... That I would imagine is going to be a mammoth task, although pretty epic too... Is this what youre looking into, or am I getting it wrong?

i'm kind of curious now why you think that a SP campaign would be a better direction than MP. like i've said, we're more interested in creating a more unique combat game than telling a story. being compared to the 'big players' isn't much of a problem for us since we plan on having aspects of gameplay that will make our game enjoyable for fans of those stated in addition to offering some things (or combinations of things) that while familiar, will be refined and tweaked as well as finding a visual angle that will give our product it's own identity. we're not trying to recreate the wheel, that's not our interest nor do we have the resources to pull that off, we just have some ideas that we believe will make a really engaging, fun and dynamic FPS.

yeah, i should've been more specific on the RPG elements we're including as the 'WoW meets Cod' isn't exactly what we have in mind. think more of the upgrade system of Dead Space, the character and skill developments of Fable or the PS2 era Ratchet and Clank games instead of the open ended, sandbox MMO type of thing and you'll have a better idea of what we're planning.

either way, yes, it's a fairly grand scheme that borders on the mammoth, lol. however, our plan is to build this thing in layers, starting small then adding more and more of the features and elements as we go. for example, if the game 'Combat Arms' was our final vision, we'd start with something close to Medal of Honor (a few small maps and weapons) before going into Modern Warfare (more larger maps, more weapons and features, etc) and so on until we end up at 'CA'. we know this is a large project we've in mind and it will take a considerable amount of work and dedication, but we're trying to go about realizing it in the smartest, most logical approach we can find.

Joe_Shmoe wrote: As for the engine, UDK probably will do just fine (think I mentioned this in another post of yours), I cant really think of any genre it's not fit for. Although CE3 will do you even better for large good looking environments. However, if graphics arent a major issue, you could make use of Unreal engine 2.5 (UT2004) which has native support for Linux and Mac I believe.. altthough I dont think it comes packaged as UDK does, you will probably have to take the same approach as with CE3 by doing a total conversion mod, and somehow generate enough money (with donations for example) to purchase a licence from epic... orrr if youre lucky, you could maybe reason with them to give you the Unreal Engine 2.5 toolset on the same terms of UDK.

i've been toying with the idea of beginning this idea with a mod, but ultimately i think the amount of work it would take to implement the concepts and everything we want to include, we're better off just starting with UDK (and Blender for modeling) and not have to worry about potential licensing issues down the road when we're ready for release.