I think we're a way away from an MMO yet. RPGs are also incredibly hard to do, not just in terms of coding, but in terms of design. You have to spend ages balancing the stats and equations beneath the mechanics. I think we're better off if we keep to something simple, but with a high concept. I'm going to put together a design doc tomorrow if all goes well.
I had some time this morning, so I used turned the idea section into a Game Concept Document. It's not detailed like a design document, but it should help flesh out the story and get ideas going. This is mainly so people can start thinking about the game for themselves and how feasible it is before we push straight in to the design stage. Basically I don't want to write a design document stressing hand-drawn graphics or something if someone just turns round and says that's impossible and they can't do it. Adding to the wiki.
nice! My press faction is in the closet for 2.0? One thing that comes to mind when reading this concept is that you are struggling to identify with the closed fist. Would wou mind if i attempt a re-write? I'm also not sure about how well the game mechanic of the closed fist would work the way yo describe it now. You can't just walk into the middle of a crowd and start killing people. I'll ponder on this for a while...
I've thought about this too, and I agree. I'm writing a full design document at the moment which changes a few things and tries to lay the narrative out better - the biggest problem at the moment is getting the player on the side of the Fist. By all means have a fiddle and see what you can come up with - thats why I went with the concept for starters. Track changes or something if you can though
Regarding the coding, once the concept is decided upon and a basic design doc is underway, I'll add a Tech part to the Wiki and suggest a few engines or APIs we could use. We can also decide which language will be most accessible for the team too, although I suspect it'll be either C# or C++.
Correct. But it doesn't have to be XNA. Oh yeah, and we could also do with an SVN server for the team. Anyone want to volunteer?
When my exams are over I'd be happy to do something to help . Downloaded XNA 3.0 the other day for some Zune games so will get to grips with it but can do any job that's needed really.
There, I've written what Chris Taylor lead me to believe was a design document, based on a template of his. It's in the Wiki. This is the first design document I've ever written though, so I've probably gone off track and missed things at points. On the plus side, it's helped me finalise the vision for the game and should contain the essentials. Let me know what you need expanding on and what you need next.
Well Target wasn't my idea so I don't want to just start doing a design for that. If we have an equal opportunity to do Target then I'm game for that instead, but Pacifist was my idea so I wrote that up since both were being talked about. I have ideas for Target and would happily blurb out a design and story if people want, but if you want a full design doc then it may have to wait a few days.
Just had a good look at the design doc Joe, and I'm really impressed. You've covered a lot of stuff! Now we need some one to do a few mock screens and we still need some one to do a design doc for Target - who's idea was it?
Its a clever thing that we use at work sometimes. Allows people to work on the same stuff without breaking or overwriting things. It stores a central repository on a server and whenever you work on a file it checks it out on to your computer. When your done it uploads it, checks for the changes and if it needs to merges your work with someone else's.
It's pretty much a must-have for distributed projects. It'll give the team a really easy way to share materials and resources, upload builds etc. I'm chatting to Doug now and I think he's gonna set us up an SVN server. I'll make a Wiki page with the details when it's sorted.
