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[AuthenticKaizen]

hi everyone,

just had this idea today about a project similar to the comicompo...

but this time with a game instead of a comic.
(first of all: what kind of game? story? which software? etc.)

1.) someone starts and creates a level.

2.) then the next contributor plays this level and makes the next level out of his expression from the played level.

3.) then every new maker checks out only the latest level and creates a new one.

4.) when all the levels are done someone assembles them into a full game.


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or for more silliness:
a vague story is given...
for example a game with 10 levels and a story about whatever. (more creative please sirs) 
everyone chooses one level to make.
no one knows what the others are doing except which level everyone is making.

easy example (simplified cliche...)

level 1: princess is kidnpapped.
level 2-9: adventure of rescuing.
level 10: princess is saved.

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im not a programmer, therefore im not sure if that would work with the assembling of the single levels...but i think it should work with gamemaker.

[Juhkystar]

Wow, I would hate to test the finished product for bugs. 

So each person would have to create rooms that are completely coded by the person creating it, or would there be a basic engine that everyone would use?

[Shade Jackrabbit]

Neat idea. I don't know if I'd have time for this right now, but it would be neat in a few weeks.

[Bree]

This idea has been thrown around a couple of times before, but I still think it'd be a great idea. Personally, I think the best way to do it would be to use a basic engine and have everyone make a single room, using the same character sprite and animations, unless they need to add new animations for their level. Maybe we could have teams of three- a programmer, an artist, and a musician- and we could give everyone a theme for their level or the game as a whole.

I'd be interested in doing it at some point.

[andy wolff]

If I ever finish QAB, that would be very good for a thing like this

[Alec S.]

I have actually been thinking about something like this.  My idea was to have a game maker file that gets passed around for people to make assets such as sprites, objects, rooms, etc...  Each person would have a certain amount of time with the file and wouldn't be able to delete anything, only add things and (maybe) modify things.  They could add as many assets as they want, but can only add one room during their turn with the file.

[AuthenticKaizen]

I have actually been thinking about something like this.  My idea was to have a game maker file that gets passed around for people to make assets such as sprites, objects, rooms, etc...  Each person would have a certain amount of time with the file and wouldn't be able to delete anything, only add things and (maybe) modify things.  They could add as many assets as they want, but can only add one room during their turn with the file.

that is also an interesting variation...

[bateleur]

The other thing which would work well is for someone to write a game in Flash which loads levels as SWF files and then each participant writes a level plug-in SWF to a provided API.

(If someone runs such a Flash compo I'd be up for doing a level and would be happy to contribute some coding to the core game too, though I don't have time to run the whole thing.)

[sergiocornaga]

Personally, I think the best way to do it would be to use a basic engine and have everyone make a single room, using the same character sprite and animations, unless they need to add new animations for their level.

I think it might be more interesting to have as little as possible consistent. That way each level could be unique graphically, musically and gameplay-wise.

[Gorgoo]

I think it might be more interesting to have as little as possible consistent. That way each level could be unique graphically, musically and gameplay-wise.

At the same time, that might dramatically increase the development time.

One way that might satisfy the needs of both promoting originality and easing development time, though, could be by making some simple scripts that games might use (like moving horizontally, vertically, and in a direction with working collision detection, and acceleration), then allowing everyone to build on that. It would likely speed up development time while keeping from shoehorning creators into a particular genre.

[Kadoba]

If you do plan to use game maker I would suggest making it a rule to keep all assets a contributor submits in folders with their name on it or else it would get confusing for others really fast.

[Alec S.]

I think the best way would be to have a built in categorization system.  That way someone could add an asset, then someone could look through all the assets of a certain type (NPCs, Environmental, Enemies, etc...) in order to find something to add.  The creator of the content could be put in the name of the asset.  malec2b_sp_man1, for example.

[Dacke]

Perhaps a point-and-click adveture game would be suitable for this? Everyone makes a single room (with a single exit). Once you go to the next room you can't go back. Everyone can make a separate game, with story based on what happened in the last game (last room). Using AGS, for example, I think it would be fairly simple to put it all together into one big game in the end.

[ExciteMike]

I wish I'd noticed this thread earlier!  I started doing something similar with some friends!  (more inspired by Layer Tennis, though)  We've only had the "serve" and one "volley" so far.

Anyway I love the idea and you could definitely count me in!

[Alec S.]

I think it shouldn't be kept to a single genre.  I think it would be cool if the game-play changed from room to room

[Robotacon]

What about comming up with a simple level design format that someone/anyone can make a game with.
Image files where every pixel is translated into a tile + a resource file for enemies with coords and stats works real well.

[AuthenticKaizen]

I think it shouldn't be kept to a single genre.  I think it would be cool if the game-play changed from room to room

yeah varied gameplay + many different graphic styles.

[Lemming]

using the same character sprite and animations

These would be severe limitations (like asking a comicompo page to do a new artstyle, but not replacing the current character images and copypaste them)

Imo the engine should require supporting this. Maybe the room itself should have the potential of becoming a self-contained game?

Maybe we could have teams of three- a programmer, an artist, and a musician- and we could give everyone a theme for their level or the game as a whole.

This is a great idea.

I wanna play this.

[rob]

What if each level was made from the ground up?

Yeah it would take a while but it would be less confusing.