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[matwek]

I thought I would start off by introducing myself.
I would consider myself a semi-regular to these forums, if you don’t recognise my name you might have seen some of my pixel art floating about in the Art Sub-Forum. I have participated in a fairly large selection of game making projects, many of which started here on TIGSource, you can find a few ideas that I have started myself here…
http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=32130.0
http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=34535.0
http://i.minus.com/i7zpdyMoRydEr.gif

At this moment in time a lot of my free time is used up working on a game called Freedom Planet, it ran a very successful Kickstarter campaign and has recently been greenlite for steam. I have been helping by improving the pixel art from what they initially started with…




Hopefully in the first half of next year that project will be coming to an end, so now I’m looking to get another project up and running to take up when the time comes, and to also work on in my down time.

I’ll keep the description very simple at first because I don’t want to write out a massive wall of text but if people are interested to know more I’ll happily fill you in on the details. I don’t really go in for the whole “please sign a NDA so you can’t steal my ideas”, in fact I would love it if someone stole my idea, that way I could play the game I want to play without having to make it myself.

The basic premise is that I want to take my pixel art (still work in progress, I think the grass needs a texture)…


And turn it into a simple fps block based shooter like this…




And then build quest based gameplay for the story like this…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qh-3jz7I_Uc

With themes and locations similar to this (pixel art will be changed to match the derelict style)…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmIIgE7eSak

The idea is to have something that’s quick, energetic and fun to dip in and out of but to also reward players for exploring a bit. So no crafting, no building and no RPG elements, just a lot of gun play and exploring. Think more Halo than Fallout 3 or Minecraft

This would be the first major project of my own that I’ve started from scratch. I’ve worked on smaller games as I’ve mentioned before but this time I would quite like to take things seriously. So obviously I’m looking for a programmer with similar ideals. In the past I’ve been happy to work with beginners as we could build our skills together but for this project I would prefer to work with someone with a bit more experience.
•   I don’t expect someone to use up all their free time working on the game but it would be nice if you were active within the indie scene and easily contactable.
•   If you’ve worked on other voxel based engines then that would be great.
•   And extra bonus points if you live in the UK, specifically the South East.

Well that’s all. I’ll mention again that there is more to the design than what I’ve just posted; I just don’t like to bore people with my ideas unless they ask. The game isn’t overly complex so don’t think that we’ll be spending a mass of time on game balancing and stats organising but it is likely to be more involved than a simple game project.

Questions? Advice? Comments? Criticism?

[soryy708]

Looks promising!
- I don't know how active am I classified to be in the indie scene, but I am easily contactable
- I've not worked on voxel based engines
- I do not reside in the UK. My timezone is not too different from yours though (GMT+2)

What is it exactly that you're looking for in a programmer? Any particular specialization?
I:
- Mainly use C++, but also know C Java and C#
- Know SDL (1.2 and 2.0) and some OpenGL
- Love clean code & good software engineering (game architecture?)

[M.C.THUGZ]

these projects never work prepare fpor disappoinment both of u

[Selmak75]

I was almost excited when i saw this thinking it was a jrpg which i wanna do 

Freedom planet looks really fun, can't wait to give that one try.

Best of luck with your project!

[matwek]

I'm not sure if 'Voxel Engine'is really the right word to use. I intend the game to be broken down into blocks but there would be no editing of the environment or anything like that.
I guess 'Low Poly' would be a better description, most of the game would be based around cubes because it fits the pixel art texture style well but in the long run it would be cool if I could add slopes and small steped up areas and not have to stick religiously to the the block grid.

I was almost excited when i saw this thinking it was a jrpg which i wanna do 

Freedom planet looks really fun, can't wait to give that one try.

Best of luck with your project!

I would love to make an RPG, I have plenty of ideas and concepts that have made it from my head and onto paper but unfortunatly I also try and be realistic, I doubt i'll ever get to make one and finish it unless I learn to program myself.

And thanks for checking out Freedom Planet, there should be a Demo on their website that you can try.

[Udderdude]

Honestly I think it would be better if you just learned how to use ZDoom and made it with that. 

[wccrawford]

If you don't need the world to be editable by the player, you'll get a lot better performance by not using a voxel engine, and just creating art assets instead.  Use a huge rectangular solid (with tiled texture) for a wall, instead of many little cubes, etc.

This seems like a fun project.  Have you got a writer?  Quest-based RPGs live or die on their story and quests, and a good writer is essential for that.

I don't have any spare time right now, but I love this idea.  You should continue working on the art, and get started on 3D art, while you continue to try to find a programmer (and writer?)  Music and sound effects are also pretty important, but can wait until you've got a proven concept first.

[Selmak75]

I would love to make an RPG, I have plenty of ideas and concepts that have made it from my head and onto paper but unfortunatly I also try and be realistic, I doubt i'll ever get to make one and finish it unless I learn to program myself.

No need to have multiple programmers for a rpg, i can handle all the coding myself, tools included. I'm currently working on my own engine, my aim is to make a multiplayer ff6-style game. If your project doesn't launch and you're looking a jrpg, send me a message.

[matwek]

Honestly I think it would be better if you just learned how to use ZDoom and made it with that.  

Ah that seems like a good idea. My programming knowledge is next to nothing but I could at least use ZDoom to get started and create some mockups or something. Hopefully that will allow people to get an idea of the direction I want to take things.

If you don't need the world to be editable by the player, you'll get a lot better performance by not using a voxel engine, and just creating art assets instead.  Use a huge rectangular solid (with tiled texture) for a wall, instead of many little cubes, etc.

This seems like a fun project.  Have you got a writer?  Quest-based RPGs live or die on their story and quests, and a good writer is essential for that.

Yeah I did think Voxel might not me the correct term to use.
Although whilst I don't need it to be a voxel engine I would quite like to stick to the block like style, just maybe with a few slopes and ledges. I don't want to get too carried away with polygons as it then makes it very difficult to keep the pixel art textures consistent because you have to stretch and distort the pixels to make them fit odd shapes.

EDIT: I'll be writing the story myself, I have a bit of experience in that area, I might post a quick description later. Its not an RPG as all but I would still kind of like to have that level of detail give to the story, with characters that have plenty of dialog and backstories to the areas. Although all of that would be optional, you also have the option to just blast through guns blazing and not read anything.

No need to have multiple programmers for a rpg, i can handle all the coding myself, tools included. I'm currently working on my own engine, my aim is to make a multiplayer ff6-style game. If your project doesn't launch and you're looking a jrpg, send me a message.

You know what, I just might have an idea you could be intersted in. I'm a little swamped with work at the moment but I'll try and get a message to you in the next few days.

[wccrawford]

Yeah, there's nothing wrong with keeping the style of voxel games.  You can even violate that style strategically to create your own unique style.  It's just the engine performance that I was saying to avoid.  Sounds like you've got a handle on that, though.

Good luck!