[Gretin]

Hi everyone!

As I mentioned in Mitsur's Untold Legend thread, I have ideas (inspired from said thread ) to make a game involving OWF members in the style the original two games were made in. So basically, this is a thread to find out how much interest there would be in such an idea, and to outline what would be required - I can't make it on my own, I've made that mistake once too many

So I might as well get on with it, mightn't I?


PROGRAMMING

This is a pretty important part for making a game - it doesn't matter how much resources you have if you can't stick them together! The game, if it gets made, will be programmed in Game Maker Registered Version 6.1. I'm pretty sure I can handle this part on my own, but if any of you budding Game Maker programmers out there would like to lend a hand, I'd be happy to give you work to do

The game would be programmed to be similar to Abe's Oddysee and Abe's Exoddus, i.e. 2D, set steps for walking and running, hoisting, doors, wells, etc. But of course, we'd add our own stuff too (I've got some ideas and I'm sure everyone else will have plenty too)



GRAPHICS:

This is pretty important too; although there's no way we'll be able to make it on par with Oddworld's graphics, we don't want it to look like some 6 year old drew it up with MS Paint (not saying that you can't do good things with MS Paint, but I kinda think a 6 year old might not ). I could always make the sprites be renders of 3D models, as I have the necessary software, but this would use up a lot of time and if I'm going to be programming it I'd rather not have to do that. So if possible it would be good if I can get someone who can make up decent looking 2D sprites. They don't need to be flash, but we WOULD need to set a style so everything matched. So yeah, anyone up for spriting?

Also on the matter of graphics, backgrounds that match would be needed. So if you think you could contribute graphics-wise to this project but you don't really feel like making up dozens of little sprites for a sprite-sheet, this is always on option I'll leave the matter of deciding on a style up to the spriters, IF anyone wants to sprite.

There's also movies to consider, but I think that might be getting a bit ambitious. If need be, we can always make in-game movies, though, with some special sprites for poses in the movies and such. We could also put in still frames for important scenes; e.g. a high(er) quality picture to show a key moment for a few seconds. We shall see...



SOUNDS:

Now, this is something I feel is often overlooked when people are planning on making a game. The game will feel quite empty without sounds, so I'll probably be getting sounds from the Oddworld games for the most part (like explosions, doors opening, etc) if possible. I might also do that for a GameSpeak sort of thing, but I'll leave that up for conjecture (If that's the right word to use). If anyone can make new, appropriate sound effects without any static or other big problems that would be great too.

The music, if there's no objections, will be made in midi format, but because midi can quite often be quite ugly sounding, I'll be converting the music to midi files in Synthfont version 1.062 using my own custom SoundFont files. If there's any music composers out there who would like to contribute, you're most welcome to, but I'd prefer if music could be given to me in midi format to be converted, just for consistency. If that's not possible (like, for instance, if you don't compose your music in midi in the first place ) feel free to send music in anyway, though, it might just suit



STORY

While the story for a game like this is going to be pretty comical, it would be good to have a semi-serious plot running through it all the same. I was thinking something along the lines of a take-off of certain elements of Abe's Oddysee/Exoddus and of some of the things we have at the forums (similar to how Mitsur portrayed it in his story, though I hope we won't just completely rip off it ). E.G. replacing the industrial with the "n00bs" - the type who come here and spam everything up, of course - there's nothing wrong with being a newbie And replacing the enslaved mudokons with regular members here, so the player has to rescue them from the n00bs. Of course, this is just an idea to try to get us started, so I don't want to say much more so as to leave plenty of room for development. A title would be decided after a storyline had been decided on, so the title can actually relate to the story








So yeah, that's probably about it. Besides, if I make it too long you'll all lose interest before we even start! So whether this game becomes a reality or stays in the pool of unused ideas is really up to all the members of OWF. As I said, there's no way I can make this game on my own, but with even a little bit of help we should be able to make a good start. IF we can get a team together, we'll need to sort out a way of keeping in touch, but that will have to wait until we found out just who it will be anyway. So yeah, discuss!



(Oh, and just a note, please don't simply post things like "Cool!" or "Nice idea" etc. It's nice to know, but it really doesn't help much and trust me, I've seen so many threads about games in production that get so filled with useless posts that finding anything useful in them is just not funny. Also, the other extreme isn't terribly helpful either - if you think it's a bad idea, say why, and let me know how it could be better! )