hello guys…
Before fore moving for actual implementation we should make a good game design document.
This document will provide a step-by-step explanation about entire game story , game-play , features and technacalities.
The document should be so clear that the programming members would be able to pick it up and create its tech requirement document; art team is able to visualize the scope of the art assets; the level designers understand the features and detailing etc…
Our game design document should atleast have these following titles clearly explained :----
1>The possible names of the game and which genre it belongs., which we have already decided.
2>Minimum system configuration.
3>Objective.
4>Game-play: Describes all screens and options available for the end user, like whether a user can skip the intro scene, the options available throughout the game , the AI used , physics involved etc…
5>The walkthrough: this runs through entire game and lists out the art assets required and the complexity of the game.
6>Art assets: basically describes the actors and non playing characters(which is not controlled by user or gamer like enemy soldiers) and their behavior, the environment, the animations, lights, visual effects etc…
7>Menu design: this explains how the title screen would look, how the menus will be laid out and what will be the options like how many saves are allowed etc…
8>Game mechanics: This deals with all the inside mechanics of the gaming system to keep it close to reality.It defines the quests, the ways out and the innumerable possibilities. for example- how the main actor or whole troop of soldiers can achieve a certain tasks.
9>Concept sketches> there must be some rough sketches of actors, mainly main actors…This will be our low medium priority bu its important as characters should be appealing.
so guys if this kinda document is ready then it will be lot easier to implement our game. All the members will be familiar with the game assets i.e what are we making and all…programmers , artists , ai ,level designer etc will get to understand their objectives and tasks very clearly through this document.
Quote from ZAGIBU
Sections of the document can be added during the process. We don't have to determine all the subsections of the technical side yet, instead we should focus on the conceptual design first, so that we get a core design that can be quickly implemented in a first prototype. This prototype can then serve to flesh out the parts of the technical design documentation.
thats what i had already said first we'll cover conceptual contents for game design document than afterwards we'll move to technical design document.for example- our game design document might state that our game should have AI- but which AI will be used and how the the performance will be handled is an issue that goes into the Technical Design Document.....
and yes i think haladaria will be our technical lead..............
and regarding freezing the vision, some may be dynamic so it may change at a time later during the process so can't say whether we could freeze totally but to some extent yes we could do it.......for example the gameplay designed on the document might need some change due to some situation at later stage.............
and what darkphoenix said about models of soldier, so if anybody could make some rough sketches of soldiers it would be better and this these rough sketches will also be included in game design document............well i am very bad artist.........
Add the following:
- Main objects of the game are units. Those are divided into
- Mobile units (humans, vehicles)
- Immobile units (factories, resource extraction facilities, passive defense, active defense)
Another aspect should be the interface: Commands are issued using some toolbar buttons or keyboard shortcuts. But this can be filled out in more detail at a later time.
The design document will be very fluctuating, especially in the beginning phase.
The document found in Issue 2 will be used to fill in all the details. I would say, that zagibu is the lead for that task.
yeah i have checked the document. its good.
we'll cover first game design than technical design document…
so great…
now onwards we'll have to scrap all the details on document made by zagibu…
this is important because before making game we have to be familiar with core assets of game that we gonna make…
Interesting. What is this? A community project?
yeah this is a community project…
yeah we could discuss here in this thread…
i think before creating actual full-fledged design document, we should discuss all the key titles that has to be covered in design document and this also include the comments by our members.
so guys lets discuss and provide each others ideas or any comments on the key titles of document like gameplay , art assets ,level designs etc…so we'll be filling our document step by step and all will be familiar with the game assets also… u can download document made by zagibu from http://code.google.com/p/proxywars/issues/detail?id=2
So in this way we'll make sure that our project gets moving…
zagibu said:
Where do we discuss the details of the design? In the game design thread? I don't want to start fleshing out the document without the comment of others. Also, as I have noted, a technical leader is needed to look after the technical part of the design, as I imagine my role in this part to be of minor significance (my jME experience is pretty limited).
That's right. As my knowledge of jME is very limited, i'd vote for Haladria as technical lead. Haladria, what do you say about that?
Yep, I think Haladria will be the one 
One thing!
Do we include vehicles? If yes, we should include facilities.
Maybe facilities are good attack and spawn points.
And if anyone can give me a design for the soldiers, I can model them.
That's all at the moment.
There is work on that matter, I hope it will soon be OK
http://www.jmonkeyengine.com/jmeforum/index.php?topic=9589.msg73986#msg73986
We really need some concept art to visualize the ideas. I have currently hard to imagine what the game should look like. A typical RTS in a fallout like environment?
Some rough sketches of the UI would also be good.
Thanks for suggesting me as technical lead, but as you can see I can't put so many hours into this each week as would be nessecary for such a role. But if no-one elses want's to do it then I can of course try.
How big will this game be? In some threads, it seems like it tries to compete with big games like starcraft. Maybe we should set a deadline of when the game should be done (maybe on year from now). And sum up the number of work hours we each can contribute ( maybe as h/week). From this we can decide how big game we can do and how much asset we can have in it.
I think doing this kind of game is really good for jME. As I think the best, for amateurs like us, way to develope an engine is to develope games and taking the parts that is used in all of them and push it down to the core engine, in this case jME.
I gues you will have to delegate you're work, that is what leaders do after all
I've just created the new "projects" board. Should I move all topics starting with "[jME Game]" to that board?
thanks…yeah please move all the [JME GAME] threads…
Haladria said:
We really need some concept art to visualize the ideas. I have currently hard to imagine what the game should look like. A typical RTS in a fallout like environment?
This depends much on the story. I'll promise to write a short introduction to the first chapter the next few days. In this chapter, the environment, the technology and the protagonists will be described in detail. See Issue 4 for more details
Haladria said:
Thanks for suggesting me as technical lead, but as you can see I can't put so many hours into this each week as would be nessecary for such a role. But if no-one elses want's to do it then I can of course try.
How big will this game be? In some threads, it seems like it tries to compete with big games like starcraft. Maybe we should set a deadline of when the game should be done (maybe on year from now). And sum up the number of work hours we each can contribute ( maybe as h/week). From this we can decide how big game we can do and how much asset we can have in it.
Hopefully we get some more developers, so we can pool the work. But there must be one that takes control of who does what and why, and keeps an eye on quality and completion.
In the end, the game can be as big as it gets. But to have some reachable goals i'd say a first prototype will have the following:
- 1 map
- training camp for soldiers
- create soldiers in that building
- weapon factory
- research weapon technology
- armor factory
- research armor technology
- create armor/weapon sets for soldiers
- equip soldiers with armor sets
- move soldiers on the map
- attack opponent units
Sounds like much already...
zagibu said:
I think the first prototype should be much smaller. It should consist of some terrain and some units that can be selected and ordered to move around. Maybe put some hostile units on the map, so that you can also issue attack commands.
This sounds much more realistic when thinking about the amount of work.
yeah i agree with zagibu…prototype should be small to test before actual big one…
yes, better to start as small as possible. It's easier to attract new people to cooperate if we have something to show.