Hi guys, as mentioned in the news item, we want this team to work on larger scaled games. Please post your interest and ideas in this thread, as well as your skillset.
Asset Modeller / Level Designer
Hi my name is Hemant, currently doing my Bachelor in Interactive Entertainment (Game Design) at Qantm College (Sydney).
So far iv worked on 3 games, Gothic 3: Forsaken Gods & 2 unreleased games of which 1 is a airplane dogfight MMO & the other a Racing game.
My job was of a 3D/Game Artist for all 3 & lead Level Designer for Gothic. Since im studying here I cant really get a job in a studio due to my limited work hours.
This seems like the perfect place to keep up my skills & build on them. so i thought id throw my name in the hat as well.
cheers!
Awesome is Correct
I've started writing up a small brief that I should hopefully have to show you guys on Friday
Right now we are centred on these game ideas:
- Defcon style strategy game: Using your weapons of mass destruction to eliminate your enemy
- Interplanetary scale: covering different solar systems/planets/star fleets etc
- Additional forms of game play: Resource building/researching/conquering/etc
At the moment I am keen to maintain the simplicity that gave Defcon its emphasis as well. I have some ideas for this that mainly involve focusing on a management metagame instead of controlling troops, ships or weapons directly.
I am interested in any other input people have so I can build a better picture of what we all want to work on.
Cheers,
Ryan
Sound Designer
Hey guys,
I am a freelance Sound Designer, interested in getting involved in this games project.
cheers, Ren
Got held up late last
Got held up late last weekend and over the weekend - watch this space for the end of the day :D
DESIGN OUTLINE
Intro
As discussed throughout this forum, our game intends to build on the success of the indie developed game ‘Defcon’. Our game intends to expand on the design of Defcon by introducing a number of additional game play elements:
• Extend the battlefield to an interplanetary, solar system level
• Introduce resource gathering and control
• Introduce research
Our game shall also maintain the main pillars of gameplay that existed in Defcon:
• A countdown through the Defcon levels, ‘5, 4, 3, 2, 1’
• Alliances
• The complete and utter annihilation of your enemies to achieve victory
Objective
The objective our game will be to dominate and annihilate the enemy/enemies at an interplanetary level; achieved by the destruction or conquering of the enemy home planet(s).
In order to win the game, a player will be dependant on:
• Building and maintaining a star fleet
• Deploying and maneuvering star fleets across the solar system(s)
• Executing the destruction/conquering of planets through the placement and attack of their star fleets
• Defending their own home planet against enemy star fleets
Supporting the player experience and victory are:
• Obtaining, capitalizing on and maintaining resources
• Research
• Alliances
• Defense systems
Ok let’s break this down a bit into the core principles of game play
Interplanetary Scale
The scale of our game is set on an interplanetary level and currently this will operate on a solar system level.
• A battlefield will consist of two Solar Systems adjacent to each other with a variety of planet based empires in each system
• Each empire is restricted to one planet and it becomes their control node.
• Once a control node planet is destroyed or conquered the empire inhabiting it is out of the game
• In addition to the empire based planets are a variety of lifeless planets, asteroids, moons and other naturally formed satellites.
o These will provide valuable resources and tactical positions for each player
• Game play time is measured and updates in months
An innovative feature I would like to incorporate into this solar system structure is orbital movement and rotation.
Throughout the course the game the planets will be rotating on their axis as well as moving in an orbit around their respective Sun. What this gives us is:
• Additional tactics involving the time it takes to travel from one destination to another
• Ever changing distances between locations
o A player will need to predict or plan for their journey in terms of the time it takes to travel against the relative orbital position of their destination
o For example: Player has a fleet on orbit around a planetA 8 rings out from the sun and wants to send it to a planetB 2 rings out. The journey is estimated at 6 months travel time from the two planets current positions. However, in 6 months time planetB will have moved to the other side of the sun – extending the travel time by 4 months wasting valuable time and resources. (I will do some pictures of this up to better illustrate the game play)
• Planets will take different lengths of time to complete a full orbit depending on the size or their orbital path - generally determined from their distance from the sun
• Moons and other forms of satellites will also rotated and orbit around their respective planets
• This gives attacking players the ability to maneuver around defenses in their attack
o PlayerA sets up defenses on a satellite moon of their empire planet. PlayerB attacks PlayerA planet but moves his fleet into orbit with PlayerA’s planet at a time when the satellite moon is in orbit on the other side of the planet. PlayerB’s attack gains a great advantage while the moon orbits back into position.
Defcon Levels
In order to maintain the countdown levels of Defcon from 5 through to1 as well as incorporating the vast expanse of space certain time and game play restrictions will be made.
• During Defcon 5-3 time moves at triple speed
o Time updates in 3 month intervals
o Planets move on orbit quicker
o Fleets travel faster
o Research updates faster
• These periods are used to develop the platform from which each player will ultimately launch their offensive campaigns
• They provide vital time to acquiring additional resources and develop research tiers
• Each of these defcons lasts roughly 3 minutes
• Defcon 5 sees no aggressive behaviour – peace treaties exist between each faction
• At Defcon 4 research and resource stations become vunerable to attack
• At Defcon 2 time slows to double speed
o Two months at a time
o Research slows becoming less dependable
o Resourcing becomes more finite
• Defcon 2 should determine the deployment of each offensive fleet to target location in preparation for Defcon 1
• At Defcon 2 players can openly engage eachothers fleets
• At Defcon 1 war is all out and all home planets are now open to attack
• Time speed is no longer increased
o Fleets move slower so having them in key positions before defcon 1 is imperative
• Defcon one sees all the plans of each player come into fruition as they engage eachother in an attempt to annihilate their enemies
Star Fleets
These are the key pillar of gameplay effectively replacing the warheads in Defcon. A player’s greatest strength will be in managing, deploying and executing their star fleets
• 3 archetypes of ships: Planet Bombarders, Troop Carriers, Attack Ships
• A fleet is a mixture of these units
• A fleet comprises of 4-6 ships depending on type of ships and purpose of fleet
• Make up of fleet is predetermined upon deployment:
o 2 attack/3 bombarders will make up a Bombardment fleet
• Player controls a fleet as a whole instead of the individual ships inside the fleet
• Fleets can sit in orbit as well as travelling through space
• Travel time is dependant on speed of fleet, distance travelled and destination orbit position
o Travel is also dependant on player fuel resources
o Each interplanetary movement of a fleet requires fuel consumption
o Travelling from one orbital extreme to another across the two solar systems becomes a very inefficient waste of resources
• Fleets are deployed from manufacturing ports
o Each empire planet has 1 or 2 manufacturing ports
o Additional ports can be built at other strategic locations such as moons
• Using the fleets to destroy planets involves:
o Building fleet
o Deploying fleet to target location
o Executing orbital bombardment/troop deployment
• Attack ships in fleets will either defend your fleet from attack or attack enemy fleets
• Planet Bombardiers unleash orbital bombardment on target locations – eliminating defenses and populations
• Troop carriers deploy research teams/resources teams/offensive troops to perform respective tasks on target locations
Resouces
Resource control will be pivotal to the strength of fleets/defenses and research
• 4 varieties of resources:
o Credit: currency of the game – everything costs a certain amount of credits to produce/maintain
o Fuels: responsible for the maneuverability/travel of your fleets – the most valued resource
o Metals: required for production of fleets/defenses/stations
o Energy: required for the production of fleet/defense/troop weaponry and shields
• All resources except credit are located on the inhabited planets/moons/asteroids of the solar systems
• Credit is generated by the home planet as well as trading resources through alliance or other sources
• Generating Fuel/Metals/Energy requires a respective station being set up on a resource node/planet
• Once set up, resources are generated automatically over time
Researching
Researching determines upgrades to your fleets/defenses/resource gathering
• Researching is Tied based: researching into one level opens up the next level
• Researching should be well streamlined: one tier should support both military and resource upgrades at the same time
• Research stations can be set up on a resource node to better enhance and speed up specific research respective game play elements of the node
o A research station on an energy node better enhances weapon production/development
• Research can be stolen by overtaking enemy research stations
Defense Systems
Defense systems are simply structures that provide defense at target locations
• Each home planet has defense structures that can be enhanced and expanded
o Tailored to support defense against bombardment or troop deployment
• Additional Defense stations can be set up in Orbit of tactical planets or on the surface of satellite moons
• Benefits from research and weapon production
Alliances
• Alliances can be formed between empire planets
• Non Aggressive Pacts can also be formed
• Resources can be traded for credit or other resources
• Research cannot be traded
Hopefully this provides you with an insight to what I see achievable with this game. This is not an exhaustive design document, it outlines the key principles of game play and how they work.
I also can’t think of a good title, I’m always hopeless at this so if anyone has some good input for it go ahead.
I think the key aspects of the game open for debate and structuring are the defcon levels having different timing features and the orbits of the planets – these are quite interesting though and it would be awesome to implement something like them.
Now lets tear it all apart and work out what’s gonna be awesome
Sorry if its a bit messy to read, lists dont seem to be working properly when i was making this comment
Awesome!
That sounds like something I'd really want to play! Excellent work, some really great ideas in there.
In the next day or two, I will be making a thread on the art style for the game and where we can draw our inspiration from (UI wise, and everything else) and hopefully we can get a concept artist on board real soon and allocate jobs to the artists and get that side started.
You should probably make a new thread with this design brief like Team B had done for feedback.
I think I shall... I need to
I think I shall... I need to update it a bit as well. And no doubt ill need to iterate on it a lot as well haha
concept artist
Hi peoples, with some prodding from Souri, I've read up on all of Team-C activity and think I can contribute to the team and project (if you will have me). The central idea behind Defcon obviously has merit/popluarity and the addition of a game arena in motion I think is excellent! ...so good in fact I think the premise of a whole game could be made on strategy based around this movement.
A bit about myself:
Souri has beaten me to the punch with some art samples (see links in art style for team C thread. wow, there are some old works there!). I guess I'm known around here for posting concept art but I can also provide support for more or less any 2d graphics (being what i do for a day job).
It sounds like we’re not
It sounds like we’re not going to see any humans/characters on this project? If not, then I would like to help out in modeling, and maybe a bit of texturing.
Anyway, here’s a lowPoly fighter space ship I did back when I was new to 3D.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ym-N3yHeyyM
I think it’s cool, and I like to see spaceships similar to this design (modern) on this project.
Hey
Hey Guys,
I'm willing to offer my abilities in 3D inorganic modeling or texturing...or rendering I guess.
Some of my work: http://www.smoothdevil.com/index.php?page=job_seeker_profile&job_seeker…
Or you can check out my new (and still not finished) website: http://users.tpg.com.au/sipka/index.html
Anyways let me know.
concept artist
Hi guys,
My name is Logan locate in Melbourne. Can design concepts, and in need of building a good folio and advises to get a job in the game industry. Want to get involve in any up coming projects. let me know if you guys in need of an artist:
Thanks,
Logan
hey just wondering if you
hey just wondering if you guys wanted another programmer on board?
i read that you were using unity, which im not so familiar with
but im good with c#, and can do c++/vb/java if its required..
i like the game idea, seems fun to make
im from sydney too
programmer
hey, dunno if my previous post went through, I wasn't signed in properly, but im a c# mainly (I can do c++/JavaScript/vb if needed) programmer from Sydney, I've been looking through the design and was wondering if you could use another one?
Programmer
Our main programmer is missing in action and I'm eager to get this project moving. We'll see if he shows up soon, if not, we'll have to sort out how we want to move this project forward. It may mean we move to Unity 3D (which uses C#) and hopefully Suggo and you would be interested in working with that.
id definitly be intrested in
id definitly be intrested in using unity, i program stuff for the iphone as well so id like to see how unity works on it lol, ill keep checkin back here over the next week or two
I'm definitely interested in
I'm definitely interested in moving this project along, even if it means going with Unity. I noticed vordu has also voiced interest in the project on the Team C Production thread and he also has experience with Unity. Seen as though I seem to be the only programmer at this point and I have no prior experience, you guys would be a great help and can hopefully teach me a few things and we can get this project to completion.
Unity
Ok, Unity 3D it is.. I'm sure we'll get development going much faster with Unity 3D, and also since Roger's gone missing and we need to move things along or otherwise everyone will start losing interest. For this to work, however, you guys (mainly the programmers and designer) will have to grab your own copy of Unity.
I'll make a post in the production thread to see which tasks you programmers are willing to tackle for the game.
Game Designer
Hi guys,
I'm a game designer and you can find out more about me in my profile but I would really like to join the team and help create something original and fun for the iPhone. I thought maybe a point and click game like Monkey Island would be cool on the iPhone. Is there anything that you need to see before I join as a designer? Is there any room left for another designer?
Cheers guys and keep up the great work.
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Lead Designer / Scripter
Shades of Violet: The Incredible Adventures of Violet Vendetta
http://www.sov.imagineergames.com/
hey mylesb
hey mylesb,
There is definately some room for more designers. I've currently been doing the main game design but my time has been limited lately with a new full time job in melbourne. We are developing for PC platform initially with Unity but we are definately thinking of porting to the iphone later or even developing for the iphone from the start (this decision has not yet been made but is up for discussion - unity supports iphone development too).
If you are interested I suggest you take a look at some of the game design docs, see where we are upto and see what we are trying to acheive.
Cheers for your interest.
Sound Design
Hi guys, just wondering if your still looking for a sound designer? Heres an example of my work http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXwAQbEd2gA
cheers.
Mark.
Interested in Animator Position
Hi,
I'm from Perth, Australia. I have been doing Animation for about one and half year now and wondering if there is still slot for another Animator. I usually use Maya for my work but willing to learn Unity3d.
Email: clouds200@gmail.com
Thanks
hi devilhart. We have room
hi devilhart. We have room for animators but currently not much work, this project is at a bit of a standstill with most of the main contributors working full time.
You won't need to learn unity to do animation as all of the models and animations are imported im fairly sure. However, Unity does have its own particle system which you may want to familiarize yourself with if particle animation and visual effects interests you.
I don't know off the top of my head what programs the artists have been using to build their models so you will need to find out from them whether you can animate with Maya. Post in the art discussion thread on that one.
like mulletdulla said, Unity
like mulletdulla said, Unity will import from most 3d packages like Maya, Max, Blender. This includes animations. You won't have to know really anything about Unity if you are just animating and/or modelling for in game models.
Great to have you onboard! Now we need mulletdulla to write up the initial design document for the game to give a general idea for you programmers on what is needed. It'll give us a better idea on what's needed from the artists before further design refinements and task assignments.