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[FadyFTJ]

I've practically been looking everywhere for a programmer who knows how to program a 3D 1st/3rd person view game.
Since this will be an indie game there won't really be any pay. Unless we get Nintendo's or Retro Studio's attention and the game makes profit (it's a big project. We just lack a few staff members).

We have the concepts, ideas, most of the character designs, and a 3D designer who says he might be interested to help.


The game will be a 1st/3rd person shooter spin-off game of the Metroid series.
The 3rd-person part of the game will be Jet Force Gemini like, and the 1st-person part will be Metroid Prime like, or any other 1st person shooter.
The game will let you switch between the two camera perspectives by just pressing a button.

The game will be about these guys http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/metroid/images/3/34/GFtrooper_trio.png

There is no deadline, so we can take it slow, as long as the progress is steady.
It would would be a great help if anyone would lend us a hand.

We would really appreciate your contribution.


More info: http://news.deviantart.com/article/66792/
Forums: http://z13.invisionfree.com/The_Vidya_Studio/index.php? (The forums are only a few days old, we haven't had the time to spice it up)

[Zaphos]

Our goal is to create a playable demo consisting of at least one level. We will then see if we can come in contact with Nintendo and show them our progress, and if they think it's good, well... Who knows?

This seems naive ...

[The-Imp]

My GOD.

Only Nintendo makes Metroid. ONLY NINTENDO. Well, and sell it of course.
Good luck.
 

[Ivan]

Have you made Tetris yet? If not, start from there.

[Hideous]

This is 50% on a Jforce.

[Ivan]

This is 50% on a Jforce.

What?

[increpare]

I'd suggest learning a little about how to program; people tend not to get programmer help unless they're either very talented artists who've already put together some promising artwork for the game, or else already know the people they're collaborating with.

You might consider checking out the various FPS modding communities (quakeworld and the like).  But, you'd still face the same problem regarding not being able to find anyone to program for you. 

In terms of what this forum can offer you, if you do decide to take up programming, and have some problems, we can offer helping hands.  Also, this thread on design documents might help you with your planning.

[Hideous]

This is 50% on a Jforce.

What?

I said something, and edited it without looking and it got wrong somewhere.

[JLJac]

Spinnoffs, demakes and fangames saddens me beyond what I am able to explain

So much effort, so much technical skill, so many hours... and no creativity.

Why?

[nihilocrat]

You're adding evidence to the argument that designers are dead weight.

That was a little harsh, I'm not trying to be an asshole, I'm just tired of "hey I have this cool game idea now I need people to make the game for me" posts. This is the thing that made me start programming; you can't have a game without a program of some sort, so it felt like the most direct way of implementing the game design ideas I had in my head.

Also, as you might notice, spinoff games are looked down upon in these here parts . I would strongly suggest you look into making this as a mod using an FPS engine (Source, Unreal 3, Quake 3, etc.). They are fully capable of going from first- to third-person, and by what you're saying it sounds like they would provide everything you want. There is a ton of code that you or the programmer would have to create which is already readily available in an FPS engine, you would honestly be saving yourself several years of development time.

[FadyFTJ]

Thanks. This was helpful.
I can see how all the people I've asked so far sees no hope in this project. It does look vague, but we're still motivated to pull this through.

Guess we really have to learn some coding ourselves first...

[TeeGee]

You're adding evidence to the argument that designers are dead weight.

That was a little harsh, I'm not trying to be an asshole, I'm just tired of "hey I have this cool game idea now I need people to make the game for me" posts.

Don't confuse "hey I have this cool idea" guys with game designers. Coming with cool ideas is easy - everyone has some. It's the ability to make the game stylish, consistent, balanced, playable and well thought that defines the designer. And not well thought as in: "we're gonna have this cool weapons that shoots fire lizards" .

Any competent programmer should be able to program a game like World of Goo, but not necessarily design a game like World of Goo - with all its little touches, style, balanced progression and message.
But I agree with one thing. With awesome tools like GameMaker, Blitz, MMF and other editors (even ones for normal games) being available, there's no excuse for a good designer to not be able to make at least the simpliest of his/her ideas happen.

[mirosurabu]

Can't FPS creator do the thing? Or maybe you should try some FPS engine, as others have mentioned?

Most programmers are not interested in other people's ideas. At least not when they are just ideas and concepts and not full design document - with details and such.

I find it very easy to come up with "great" ideas, but much harder to make an idea into design document and still have that "it's great idea" attitude.

[handCraftedRadio]

Even with a 'design document' it will be very difficult to find an experienced programmer if you have no game making experience of your own.

[bateleur]

The basic problem with "seeking programmer" is that in the world of game development programmers are the primary scarce resource. Particularly good ones.

It's a bit like posting "seeking spare money". Oddly, nobody seems enthusiastic!

Now if you were to post "Have three programmers, two artists, a musician and a marketing expert, seeking a lead designer" I suspect you'd get buried under applicants (and people claiming you were lying)!

[Cymon]

You're adding evidence to the argument that designers are dead weight.

That was a little harsh, I'm not trying to be an asshole, I'm just tired of "hey I have this cool game idea now I need people to make the game for me" posts.

Don't confuse "hey I have this cool idea" guys with game designers. Coming with cool ideas is easy - everyone has some. It's the ability to make the game stylish, consistent, balanced, playable and well thought that defines the designer. And not well thought as in: "we're gonna have this cool weapons that shoots fire lizards" .

Any competent programmer should be able to program a game like World of Goo, but not necessarily design a game like World of Goo - with all its little touches, style, balanced progression and message.

But I agree with one thing. With awesome tools like GameMaker, Blitz, MMF and other editors (even ones for normal games) being available, there's no excuse for a good designer to not be able to make at least the simpliest of his/her ideas happen.

I mentioned a little bit about my stance on what I call "idea men" a few weeks ago on a post about procedural generation. Short version, I'm with you on this.

And I also agree with GM, MMF, etc are excellent tools to let the idea man with even the slightest inkling of ambition to actually DO something without needing to be a programmer really. In fact I'd say that's what we're seeing happening and the results are awesome. People like Cactus andVirtanen Games producing games to critical acclaim. They're not great as far as games go, but they're innovative and fun.

[nihilocrat]

I mentioned a little bit about my stance on what I call "idea men" a few weeks ago on a post about procedural generation. Short version, I'm with you on this.

Wow, nice post! I pretty much already knew all the pitfalls you were talking about, but it's good to see someone state all of these in one place, for the benefit of those who don't know better.

Reminds me of Dave Dobson mentioning to me once that "sometimes it takes just as long to create content generation code as it does to just create the content yourself".

[moi]

these aren't even funny anymore