Another try at fame and glory?

[Silverwind]

Anyone wanna team up to make the first successful team GM game? If someone provides art and an idea I can program the engine. Something simple like Supa Pong or Gnome Defender might be cool.  

[WarHampster]

*sigh*

As always, I can provide art and can acquire/ make music.

I've posted a few RPG concepts around here somewhere, if you want we can pick one up and work on it.

[Gan]

Maybe a tile physics engine? Should of tried to make tile based in Tf instead of a real one. Just need tiles for ground and two diagnol slants, then just program it similar to the v6 engine with different rules.


-Gandolf

[Silverwind]

Ghadzooks man, RPGs just don't get made anymore, and seldom did at all. Why, the last guy who attempted one went mad and started referring to himself in 3'rd person! With such a track record it would be crazy to attempt an RPG, and we'd need a crazy crew before we could even consider it.

How about an FPS?

[WarHampster]

Honestly, any FPS that we did make would end up playing exactly like John's Time Trial games... theres only so much you can do with a pretty inflexible 2d engine in terms of first person shooting.

What is GM's size limit again? Maybe we could do something interesting with pre-rendered backgrounds and a faked collision engine...

EDIT- also, to what extent can GM control quicktime movies? Can it pause, rewind, ect?

EDIT EDIT - I have a pretty good design in mind... a few more questions: can GM display sprites over movies? Can GM read data from files efficiently (could it read a file during gameplay without lag?)

[Silverwind]

Honestly, any FPS that we did make would end up playing exactly like John's Time Trial games... theres only so much you can do with a pretty inflexible 2d engine in terms of first person shooting.

Time Trial is awesome, so making a game of its standard would be a good thing, eh Hammy?

What is GM's size limit again? Maybe we could do something interesting with pre-rendered backgrounds and a faked collision engine...

16 megs for the source file, and be you meaning by "pre-rendered" backgrounds?

EDIT- also, to what extent can GM control quicktime movies? Can it pause, rewind, ect?

Huh, in all my mad experiments with GM I've never actually tried rewinding movies. I can't think of a way we could do it offhand, but I'll check it out later tonight.

EDIT EDIT - I have a pretty good design in mind... a few more questions: can GM display sprites over movies? Can GM read data from files efficiently (could it read a file during gameplay without lag?)

... how on earth have I gone all this time without trying to place sprites over movies?! You're food for thought Hampster. *goes to experiment*

EDIT:

Ok, sprites can exist on the canvas while a movie is being played, but the movie is on a higher layer than 20. (the highest sprite layer) Click Areas work fine however, meaning you could have a movie of a person walking across the screen and track a Click Area to them resulting in an event occurring when the person is clicked. I can't come up with a way to pause or rewind movies, but what were you thinking of that involved doing such?

Maybe we could pull off an RPG... after all, we have so much resources nowadays. We could use the Roguesoft Battle Engine (which has an update due) and the V6 Nav, as long as you'd provide graphics we'd be all set. We really should keep it simple though.

[WarHampster]

Pre-rendered backgrounds are basically images of a pre-rendered 3d model... they were used in the PS1-era to let games have realistic and high quality backgrounds without stressing the GPU... the tradeoff is that the images generally take up a ton of space (this is why Final Fantasy 7 was four discs). I'm afraid that a measly 16 megabytes probably isn't enough to use any.

Meh, I had some crazy idea involving making a looping 3d flyby through a canyon or hallway which the player's sprite would be pasted on top of, and then playing the movie when the player moved forward and rewinding it when he moved backward.

If we make a game using your battle engine it would feel exactly like QOM.

With the goal of making something original to GM in mind, how about a shump (shoot 'em up) along the lines of games like Radiant Silvergun or Geometry Wars? Gandolf and I attempted to make one in SC a while ago and the result was unplayably laggy. but I'm sure you could up with a simpler engine that fits within GM's limitations...

[Silverwind]

Pre-rendered backgrounds are basically images of a pre-rendered 3d model... they were used in the PS1-era to let games have realistic and high quality backgrounds without stressing the GPU... the tradeoff is that the images generally take up a ton of space (this is why Final Fantasy 7 was four discs). I'm afraid that a measly 16 megabytes probably isn't enough to use any.

So they're high definition images? GM wouldn't preserve the quality of the images when we came to import them anyway, so the idea is a no goer on two accounts.

Meh, I had some crazy idea involving making a looping 3d flyby through a canyon or hallway which the player's sprite would be pasted on top of, and then playing the movie when the player moved forward and rewinding it when he moved backward.

That would be awesome indeed!

If we make a game using your battle engine it would feel exactly like QOM.

Why Sir, clearly you've never seen the Roguesoft Battle Engine: http://www.gamemakersgarage.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=gametime;action=display;num=1238066056

It's doesn't resemble QoM's battle engine in the slightest. QoM's battle engine was based on a much earlier work of mine entitled Battle Buttons. It's so old that I've never even mentioned it on the GMG; it dates back to the MGM forums.

The Roguesoft battle engine was developed sometime last year. I wanted to create a powerful yet easy to use Battle Engine that could handle status effects and spells. I never got around to finishing the readme, but it's fairly easy to understand and no game has been made with it yet meaning we'd have an original system.

With the goal of making something original to GM in mind, how about a shump (shoot 'em up) along the lines of games like Radiant Silvergun or Geometry Wars? Gandolf and I attempted to make one in SC a while ago and the result was unplayably laggy. but I'm sure you could up with a simpler engine that fits within GM's limitations...

Sure, I'm up for trying it. What kind of perspective does it use? Could you post your engine so I can see what we're aiming for?

[WarHampster]

Why Sir, clearly you've never seen the Roguesoft Battle Engine: http://www.gamemakersgarage.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=gametime;action=display;num=1238066056

It's doesn't resemble QoM's battle engine in the slightest. QoM's battle engine was based on a much earlier work of mine entitled Battle Buttons. It's so old that I've never even mentioned it on the GMG; it dates back to the MGM forums.

The Roguesoft battle engine was developed sometime last year. I wanted to create a powerful yet easy to use Battle Engine that could handle status effects and spells. I never got around to finishing the readme, but it's fairly easy to understand and no game has been made with it yet meaning we'd have an original system.

Sorry, I need to pay more attention

Here's a video of shump gameplay, and I'll see if I can dig up that game I started.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csb5aYoMal8

[Silverwind]

The game sure looks awesome, but even the simplest of background scrolling games run slow in GM. Here's an example: http://www.mediafire.com/?ym4y2wngnln

If we were using a formidable amount of sprites, say 15 or more, I imagine the game would be near unplayable. I sure like the idea though, so if you can think of a way to make it work I'm still up for attempting it.

[WarHampster]

Alright, here's what we're going to do (quoted from the eclipse forums):

much of the world was destroyed in a recent magical war that both created big holes everywhere and summoned ton of monsters. You need to collect parts of the magic thing that was responsible for all the destruction, and then put it back together. the gameplay is centered around the fact that much of the world is impossible to navigate on foot, due to all the magical destruction. Therefore, you must fly your trusty airship to each dungeon in which part of the magic thing is hidden, and then fly to some cool floating island where you kill some epicly huge monster, reassemble the magic thing, and save the world.

Battle occurs both while in your airship (which can be upgraded)[ the air battles would just be normal turn-based battles, or something cooler that we think up] and while exploring dungeons.

Feel free to rip that to shreds, I came up with it in two minutes.

Two types of game play: standard turn based RPG stuff (using your battle engine or whatever you want) and shooting battles when you're in your airship. (There wouldn't be a scrolling background, as you would only be able to get in your ship in some scenes [flying between islands, ect.]). You can upgrade your ship with parts found by killing stuff or things you buy, and you can also get items for your land battles, just like a normal RPG.

Code (and tiles?) done by you, animated sprites and music done by me.

Over ambitious I know... to make it simpler we could do something like take out the turn based battles (when you walk around you are only either exploring (or fighting bosses?))

What do you think?  

[Silverwind]

Yeah, I like the story and the general gameplay concept, and it's certainly very practical in terms of what we're likely to finish. To keep scope creep to a minimum I suggest merely three regular levels and one final boss level. And... and, my fine feathered friend, I suggest each level follow a consistent gameplay pattern.

If we eliminate random encounter battles as you say and keep combat confined to the airship, we'd reduce the work load on our part as well as the need for tile based graphics at all. (which are overdone to the point of inducing violent spontaneous vomiting (thanks largely to me)) Perhaps we could experiment with a side-view perspective for exploring.

Here's my level flow idea. (with the exception of the last boss)

• An air battle. (as the player flies to their destination)
• A bit of exploring. (talk to the townsfolk to learn how to get past the guards blocking the road, find whatever item is needed for a trade, etc...)
• Solve a puzzle/overcome an obstacle protecting the magic item shard.

Our we on the right track?

[Al Staffieri]

Ok, sprites can exist on the canvas while a movie is being played, but the movie is on a higher layer than 20. (the highest sprite layer)

I viewed the movie. That looks cool. I'll try to change it so sprites are layered on top of movies for GameMaker 4.

[Swamp7hing]

I've really wanted to make a good adventure game in GM, like Myst. If we could get some people to do the puzzles, some graphics, and some music, we'd have a good game on our hands.

[Silverwind]

Yeah, but then the credit would go to some people. If we take the time to do it however, we'll get the credits due. There's no easy way to fame and glory young Skywalker.