Re: Introductions

[Steve Baker <sjbaker1@airmail.net>]

Aaron Kane wrote:

> Since college I have had a idea that if I could combine the best features of games like SimCity,
> Age of Empires, Civilization, etc  and add to them some real flexibility and custom personality I
> would have a really cool game.

Game ideas come cheap.  I'm sure many people here have heard the story "I can't program games - but I have
a great idea for a game - and I think you should all write it for me." - I have probably had 20 or 30
emails like that over the years.   However, programmers are not devoid of ideas of their own for games
and generally, they'd prefer to work on THEIR vision of what's good - and not yours.

However, you have some financial backing - and that makes something of a difference.

> I would use his money to buy some project hardware and then use the rest as Christmas presents for
> active developers (nothing beats a bribe... :-] ).

I don't think buying hardware is a good investment.  Developers have PC's to develop on - and OpenSource
developers have all the software they need.  We really don't need anything else.

You should spend your money on artists.   There are few if any competent OpenSource artists out there -
and any game of the kind you describe will need a MOUNTAIN of the stuff.   Most programmers are not
kick-ass artists.

You might maybe need to buy modelling software for your artists - Maya, Lightwave or some such.   You
might get away with Blender however...depending on what your artwork needs are.

To make a commercial quality game, you'll also need music, voice talent - and possibly actors and/or
body artists and mocap time for your cut-scenes and intro-video.

All of those things are EXPENSIVE - so that's where your money should go.

> To be brief the current design is for a “Epic” RTS game that takes a society from cave men to
> spacemen.  A short list of notable requirements are

I think it's premature to design down to this level.  You need to brainstorm the design with your
programmers and artists.

For example:

> 1)The map is isometric clon of SimCity except there is no pre-set size limit.
...with modern graphics cards - why restrict yourself to isometric?   Render stuff properly
in perspective...at least as an option.  This will help you to look different from Civilisation - which
you seem hardly any different from right now.

> 2)The main engine is a balanced tree with “game time” as the key...
It's *WAY* too early to specify implementation details like this.

> I know this is a lot of information for one mail.  However, if any/all of this project sounds interesting
> please let me know.

Nope - it sounds like a Civ clone with a few minor tweaks...this genre has been very completely explored
in everything from Sim City to Railroad Tycoon.  I think you'd need some really major discriminators to
go against these record-breaking titles.

---------------------------- Steve Baker -------------------------
HomeEmail: <sjbaker1@airmail.net>    WorkEmail: <sjbaker@link.com>
HomePage : http://www.sjbaker.org
Projects : http://plib.sf.net    http://tuxaqfh.sf.net
           http://tuxkart.sf.net http://prettypoly.sf.net
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