With our help, can there be an entirely codexian Game?

[Morkar Left]

I liked that codex troll adventure. A codex game for me would be in the style of Quest for Glory. Mostly adventure but with STATS!.

 

[Zed]

Here's the demo of the glorious codex adventure game
http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/codex-adventure-game.46721/

 

[eric__s]

So is this one of those cases where everyone goes:

Wouldn't it be cool if we all made a game?
Yeah!!!
The end.

Do we actually want to do something here or is this all talk?

 

[Destroid]

So is this one of those cases where everyone goes:

Wouldn't it be cool if we all made a game?
Yeah!!!
The end.

Do we actually want to do something here or is this all talk?

I guess this makes you the project lead.

 

[felipepepe]

I can into photoshop and video making, if needed. Not that I expect a codexian game to have cut-scenes....

 

[Surf Solar]

So is this one of those cases where everyone goes:

Wouldn't it be cool if we all made a game?
Yeah!!!
The end.

Do we actually want to do something here or is this all talk?

As said, best would be to compile a list of easy to mod games first. Then we make a poll to see what people would be most interested on to mod/change and then we can start to put some ideas together.

• There could be, for example, a small new city/location made for Jagged Alliance 2, with some miniquests, a few new items, maybe even a new recruitable merc or such. Isn't that much of a shitload of work to do and good for a start.
• Making a small standalone game out of the Fonline engine could be literally done in 4-5 days by some people, using the Fallout assets. A handful of new maps, some dialogues, maybe a new item or two, done. I could write small tutorials for everyone to easily understand how it works.

• NWN1/2 are easily moddable too, or so I heard.
• Hell, we could even make some FRUA module.

Any other suggestions?

 

[Johannes]

If it's supposed to be so small, wouldn't it be something better done with just a single person? Coordinating people to do the work of 1 or 2 hours is a waste.

 

[Johannes]

For example, the adventure game made by DU. 2nd chapter is wanted!


...Maybe he should do a kickstarter fundraising for it

 

[JarlFrank]

I liked that codex troll adventure. A codex game for me would be in the style of Quest for Glory. Mostly adventure but with STATS!.

Yes, adventure game with stats would be a fabulous idea.

There's also a pretty good program to make these: http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/

Gems such as the QfG2 VGA remake and the amazing Sierra-style fantasy adventure A Tale Of Two Kingdoms have been made with this, so it's definitely a powerful tool for creating adventures. Stats and C&C are possible too. I've toyed around with this program myself years ago and it's really easy to work with.

 

[eric__s]

As said, best would be to compile a list of easy to mod games first. Then we make a poll to see what people would be most interested on to mod/change and then we can start to put some ideas together.

• There could be, for example, a small new city/location made for Jagged Alliance 2, with some miniquests, a few new items, maybe even a new recruitable merc or such. Isn't that much of a shitload of work to do and good for a start.
• Making a small standalone game out of the Fonline engine could be literally done in 4-5 days by some people, using the Fallout assets. A handful of new maps, some dialogues, maybe a new item or two, done. I could write small tutorials for everyone to easily understand how it works.

• NWN1/2 are easily moddable too, or so I heard.
• Hell, we could even make some FRUA module.

Any other suggestions?

What about The Cosmic Forge editor for Wizardries 6, 7 and 8? There's also Arcanum, which to my knowledge has no good mods (lots of awful ones though). We could try making the 'killer mod' for Arcanum.

The more I think about it though, making a mod sort of undermines the point of collaboration. I'm sure a lot of people who volunteered did so on the condition that they contribute one specific kind of asset, whether it's graphics or music or code or whatever. None of us (actually maybe only you) can make assets for Jagged Alliance or Arcanum or Neverwinter Nights, but we could make things for a simple 2D game. Why don't we start with a Wizardry clone or very basic graphical roguelike, get a base system running and see what we can do with it? We could even do this in Game Maker or Multimedia Fusion 2 or something if nobody is able to code it from the ground up. This will give us more agency over the particular mechanics of the game, which I'm sure is something that a lot of people here would like to work on.

 

[eric__s]

Actually we need to assay what we've got here. Let's all say what we're willing to volunteer for this project and what we bring to the table. I'm a good musician and writer, but I'm only a competent programmer at best. I shouldn't be programming this unless it's an emergency and nobody else can do it! I'm good at coordinating things and I have a lot of connections with people who are infinitely more talented than I am. I've got a lot of design ideas but I'd imagine there are a lot of other people who do too. I'm also the best tester and bug finder ever. I'm very busy with school and a lot of other projects now, but several are winding down and when I'm done with them I'll be able to contribute a lot more of my time.

 

[JarlFrank]

I can do writing, quest/area design and bugtesting.

I'd vote for adventure/RPG in AGS engine.

 

[The_scorpion]

• There could be, for example, a small new city/location made for Jagged Alliance 2, with some miniquests, a few new items, maybe even a new recruitable merc or such.

elaborate...

 

[Surf Solar]

I can do writing, some area design (depending on the chosen engine ofcourse), rendering new assets in 3d (still learning my ropes on animating though), some sfx stuff (my main interest) and some more ambience-ish music (I suck creating actual "songs"). Depending on the engines coding language and availability of documentation, I can write simple and very basic scripts aswell.

What about The Cosmic Forge editor for Wizardries 6, 7 and 8? There's also Arcanum, which to my knowledge has no good mods (lots of awful ones though). We could try making the 'killer mod' for Arcanum.

The more I think about it though, making a mod sort of undermines the point of collaboration. I'm sure a lot of people who volunteered did so on the condition that they contribute one specific kind of asset, whether it's graphics or music or code or whatever. None of us (actually maybe only you) can make assets for Jagged Alliance or Arcanum or Neverwinter Nights, but we could make things for a simple 2D game. Why don't we start with a Wizardry clone or very basic graphical roguelike, get a base system running and see what we can do with it? We could even do this in Game Maker or Multimedia Fusion 2 or something if nobody is able to code it from the ground up. This will give us more agency over the particular mechanics of the game, which I'm sure is something that a lot of people here would like to work on.

I agree with you, my idea for taking a "mod" first was simply to get something easier than doing a whole new game from scratch to get the ball rolling. I don't have much experience with the game maker or such, so if you say it's not that hard to do a small game in it, then ofcourse I am all for it. I just didn't want to be the guy saying "let's do something" on an engine unbeknown to me and instead provided examples of games where I already have a bit experience in. It's really hard to gather people together without having a firsthand small idea, that's very true. That's what bugged me, lots of talented people over the codex with maybe a bit spare time, but no effort for some very small game done. So, what would you suggest to get the ball a bit rolling? I personally would be in for pretty much everything collaborative, I motivated and just want to help with something/create something small and fun. FFS, can't be that hard to find something.

 

[Surf Solar]

• There could be, for example, a small new city/location made for Jagged Alliance 2, with some miniquests, a few new items, maybe even a new recruitable merc or such.

elaborate...

Could be a simple warehouse with a bit more pumped up difficulty directly integrated into the (early-to-mid-game) - with the job to secure merc or npc xy out there. A bit like Tixa or such. It wouldn't need new graphics or such. Some codexers could come up with the actual maps (I can make a tutorial for the map editor, but I think you know it much better than me), some could write some unique scripts, hell if someone wants he could even record some cheesy onelines for the new Merc. Photoshop affilated codexers could make new Weapon images for the inventory. There is a lot of potential in the basic JA2 assets that just need a bit creativity for the area designers aswell.

 

[sgc_meltdown]

It's good to know that this forum has grown enough that it can begin creating project collaboration threads like Something Awful

 

[Surf Solar]

Shameless self bump, I have created an IRC channel for interested codexers here: http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/codexian-development-channel-tm.70843/#post-2032710

We had some good shit already over there, come and join us! Maybe this way we can come to a some agreement what to make too.

 

[The_scorpion]

• There could be, for example, a small new city/location made for Jagged Alliance 2, with some miniquests, a few new items, maybe even a new recruitable merc or such.

elaborate...

Could be a simple warehouse with a bit more pumped up difficulty directly integrated into the (early-to-mid-game) - with the job to secure merc or npc xy out there. A bit like Tixa or such. It wouldn't need new graphics or such. Some codexers could come up with the actual maps (I can make a tutorial for the map editor, but I think you know it much better than me), some could write some unique scripts, hell if someone wants he could even record some cheesy onelines for the new Merc. Photoshop affilated codexers could make new Weapon images for the inventory. There is a lot of potential in the basic JA2 assets that just need a bit creativity for the area designers aswell.

Codexian cameo characters (ccc) or "serious" approach? there will be a few tutorials out there for what kind of one-liners to write for the characters and voicing them. For the map editor probably as well if anybody wants to have a go at Ja2 mapping, the place that must not be named certainly has the tutorials. I write this because it would be kinda lame if i made the maps. Someone else should, someone who hasn't exhausted his imgaination with the Ja2 tilesets in several hundreds of maps. i can help on an advisory base if needed.

 

[Freelance Henchman]

Probably not the best idea, but NWN2 mod is a possibility.

 

[Jaesun]

Fuck NWN2. Fucking pop-a-mole next gen bullshit.

FRUA. Real fucking stat based combat. I actually entertained an idea of a Codex cRPG using FRUA (Dick Smoker was the "villain" who was the final battle). However there was a limitation on summoning "butthurt". Something I could do in Dungeon Craft.... Which is still in a beta sadly.