Hello jMonkeys!
I have started creating a game using jME 2.0 (modelling in 3ds Max 2009) and have hit something of a creative wall. So far I have a planet which players can wander around and I've built in some (very very) basic client/server functionality which allows multiple people to do this simultaneously. I've had some (wildly impractical) ideas on where to go next - but I haven't had my "eureka" moment yet!
I'll upload some screenshots of my game prototype when I get the chance this evening, please bear (bare?) in mind that I haven't spent much time modelling and what you'll see will be placeholder graphics!
So … does anyone have any good ideas for a game which I can … uh … adapt (steal)?
shooting is always good place to start
... and as blood rains down from the skies from the battle in orbit ... those still on the surface need a hero ... they need ... "BLOOD JANITOR" ... coming to a PC near you ... 2010 ... :D
Can the players shoot each other while orbiting the planet ? shooting is always good place to start. }:-@
Are you saying you have a Mario Galaxy style planet for players to walk around on, or is it just a plane, not really a planet?
With a prototype (pics, video or playable) to get my juices flowing I could definitely put together a thing or two for ya.
You need some combat or interaction between the players, this is going to be a lot more fun than players walking around an empty level. You can also add some simple AI. If you want to avoid doing pathfinding, you can start with non-moving turrets that players need to destroy.
Are you saying you have a Mario Galaxy style planet for players to walk around on, or is it just a plane, not really a planet?
I haven't played Mario Galaxy but it is an actual spherical* planet that players walk around on, yeah. I'm afraid I forgot all about posting screenshots last night but I'll do it this evening.
I think I've had my "Eureka!" moment but I'm going to keep it hushed up for now (in the event that I fail miserably) ** ... thanks for all the ideas, I'll keep the community updated when I make some real progress - the plan is to have several sorta prototype-demos as I go along.
* well, spherical-ish ... it has islands and water etc. so it's more like ... blobular ...
** it isn't "Blood Janitor" :P
I have attached some screenshots of my game here: please keep in mind that the graphics are just placeholders - have been playing with the BloomRenderPass class to try and get my sun to illuminate but haven't obtained the desired effect yet … any ideas?
Oh - and a video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aiUhwuHpN8 
Ey, looking good! First idea that came to mind was a cross between snake and katamari. You're a wicked lil' fellah eating your way through planets; an earthworm. Eat up planet after planet, but watch out so you don't drown, get smashed by weakened plateaus or crushed in tremors inflicted by the troubled plate boundaries.
How far are you going to go with your 'eureka' until you run some thoughts by us? 
If your first concept prototype is fun I hope you'll drop by to share.
How far are you going to go with your 'eureka' until you run some thoughts by us? If your first concept prototype is fun I hope you'll drop by to share.
Of course! I'm just going to hold off until I'm totally sure this is what I'm doing. I tend to change my mind all the time ... this is like ... conflicting idea number three :D ... a couple of weeks, maybe!
Somebody posted a comment on my Youtube video and I'm afraid I can't get on Youtube at work. I assume it was somebody from here, so:
How did you match the rotation of your player to the planet?
I started off attempting to do the maths and then had an "awwww, nodes, dammit" moment - you just have to attach your player node as a child of your world node ... if you get my meaning - quaternions makes it really easy to rotate objects in 3d if you don't think about it too much (like, "what the heck is a Quaternion anyway" :?).
I was thinking about making something like this one day (but dont have time for it).
How about using physics ? the planet should attract players/asteroids/moons etc using gravity.
Everything would orbit each other in a natural way. Imagine the coolfactor.
Of course, elements with greater mass and size have greater gravity, etc.
Someone here posted the code on how to do that.
You could make the planet more "real size"…of course not in the natural scale but I think the planet should be
maybe 50 times bigger than now. Then when you look at it from a first person perspective, it would look flat.
You could make an entire solar system, where you could travel from planet to planet.
And of course, shoot other players while you travel }:-@
I had thought about that - realistic gravitational attraction - but I don't think anybody would notice the difference between a moon orbiting a planet based on physics and a moon orbiting a planet based on a uniform call to setLocalRotation*. I think that I'll have players (and other "small" objects e.g. asteroids) function using a simplified version of gravity though - maybe just falling towards the largest nearby planet/moon. :)
- unless it was a core game mechanic … e.g. if the game involved altering gravity or trying to keep planets orbiting, etc. that kinda thing!
Just a thought:
Land a "drone" on the planet and slowly change it into your own space-ship by digging in it harvesting resources and building stuff on or in it. This idea has been bugging me a while but I'll probably never get to make it happen.
Right, none would notice…but you would have the core mechanics worked out with a couple of hundreds line of code.
For example, if you fire a missile into outer space, it will not be a part of one single node, but would eventually crash or start orbiting another object. And you wouldnt have to worry about changing parents etc because
everything would just run automatically. Plus every game would be a little different from the last game.
But maybe that's just me. Since I've discovered physics in games, I see no other ways of making games. It's just when you take that route, you constantly see new possibilities for your game.
of course, just an idea, and it might not fit your game, depending on what kind of gameplay you want to achieve.
Land a "drone" on the planet and slowly change it into your own space-ship by digging in it harvesting resources and building stuff on or in it.
Get out of my brain!! :-o
Ha, very similar to my idea - only mine is skewed more toward building stuff on the planet than the ship itself!
@Baune - that sounds brilliant - stop confusing me with good ideas :P
hehe. Yes you could start with building stuff on it and then at a certain point you are very slowly creating a space-ship (like by building an engine or orbital defense turrets or what-not).
Anyway is that is your idea keep us updated ^^