Just an idea. Community Game

[RhinoMatte]

We tried this out in another engine's forums (Flak, before you lock my post because of this sentence, could you just tell me to remove it if it's breaking the rules? Thanks). A community game.

Here's how it works. First we start by getting our great minds together and thinking of some realistic ideas. Just by posting and then someone puts together the great ideas in 1 post.

Afterwards, you can freely contribute by sending levels or models or even code, for which you get credit, ofcourse. The best contributions (if there are a lot) get picked out and this is put together into a game.

This isn't guaranteed to work at all, but I think it might be a good idea for the following reasons:

• Beginners (and more experienced users alike) get to build a portfolio without having to build an entire game themselves
• If you have something that you can't use in your own project, this game might be able to use it
• We all learn
• The "veterans" get some variation from their own projects (?)
• If it gets released as open source, it's an ideal source for learning.

Let me know something about this, ok? .

EDIT: Forum link: http://udkcommunitygame.freeforums.org/

This should keep these forums from being overflooded. You can still post in here however

[Tumbleweed]

Actually that's not a bad idea, but organizing it, will be complicated. It can't work without 1-2 persons in leading role. It would take a SVN as minimum and a wiki/forum for developing and discussing a basic concept.

[micahpharoh]

Sounds like a great idea to me. I'd be willing to help out when I can.

[BigDaz]

I've seen this suggested many times and it's great in theory but never seen it actually work in practice.

I would suggest a neutral-themed game, one without any sort of storyline like a racing game that many people can contribute to, e.g. cars, tracks, music etc without having the need for a lot of planning and organisation.

[Mogget]

I love the idea. Something like this would be a great way for beginners like me to get started with making a portfolio, without having a whole team putting up with your noobish self.
And I agree with BigDaz, some kind of racing game or something with minimal storyline would make things a lot simpler for a community effort.

[Dreamcube017]

I also agree. I'm just starting out with this engine and that'd be really good.

A racing type of game would be pretty neat.

But yes, the organizing would have to be done and sadly I have a lot of other things going on right now to set it up. But I wouuld be happy to contribute.

[Hboybowen]

Im really up for it...I might try to start on and a svn,site and maybe a poll to decide the project genre and type...just give me a day and I can start organizing it but its will be up to the community to keep it alive and going.I have some software for project management for game development

[NothAU]

This is a good idea, I'd take part.

[Flak]

Nope, this is fine

[JDS]

Well, if it ever starts, I'm in.

I have a feeling a project like this would best be done episodically, with each episode exemplifying a different genre e.g. episode one is in a medieval fantasy third person hack and slash RPG, episode two is set in a modern-day FPS with gameplay mechanics based on realism, episode three is an open world sci fi adventure, etc. The advantages of such an episodic format are:

• Counteracts the negative effects of design by committee- We won't spend months trying to fit a thousand ideas into a single haphazard implementation. We will spend less time creating several smaller games which fit fewer ideas into a robust implementation. Everyone takes turns.
• Well established milestones- the episodic format implies a deadline (unless you're like Valve. Yes, low blow), which helps project management.
• The previous episode is the next episode's beta- This simplifies playtesting significantly while still having the psychological effect of releasing a game.
• Synchronization with new UDK features and documentation- Some of us might not know how to use feature X, which is new to the latest release. This way, we can play with feature X next episode, when it is well documented.
• Exploration of different gameplay mechanics- some of us want to make an open-world RPG, others want to make a gritty FPS. This way, everyone has a turn at coding their dream gametypes.
• Artists of different skill sets are not left out- you might be great at designing levels with an industrial aesthetic, but what about the guy who knows how to model realistic Classical architecture?
• In the end, the resulting code and assets will be applicable to more than one genre, so other teams can pick them up.

So step one would be to draft a design document for episode 1. We'd have to agree what the focus is for episode 1.

What do you think?

[Dreamcube017]

Hm.

JDS has a pretty good idea. But I think some will feel left out if they have a great idea for say... ep 3 but we never get past Ep1. Maybe if we split into teams and some worked on 1 while some worked on 2 and some worked on 3.

This way, everyone could do what they wanted right away. For example, I like the sci-fi world a lot more and am not super interested in FPS games. But say we never got to 3 or spent a longer time on 2 or 1 for that matter.

I think in a game like a racing game or platformer game we could merge all three tyopes of design.

[Hboybowen]

Like I said it would be put to a vote for each episode/game. So know is is left out in decisions.

[Mogget]

Well if I can find time for it, I would love to do this

[RhinoMatte]

That's good, Flak! .

I was surprised by the amounts of replies. There are some great ideas here, but I think we need a forum of our own to discuss them without spamming this one. I'll put one up and edit this and the first post when it's online.

EDIT: Forum link: http://udkcommunitygame.freeforums.org/

This should keep these forums from being overflooded. You can still post in here however

[NothAU]

I can host it free on the BPS servers if you provide a domain, RhinoMatte