The OHR Collab Challenge

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G-Wreck

Slime Knight

The OHR Collab Challenge

Wed May 02, 2012 4:10 am

Hey guys. You know, I've been randomly hopping in and out of the community for a couple years now, but I'd like that to change.

I really love the OHR and all the fun stuff we create with it, but I always get burned out trying to take on a project that's way too big for me to finish alone (and still deal with real life stuff). Seriously, last time I was working on First Fantasy, I spent like 60 hours a week making that thing, and the little demo was all I was able to come up with.

Because of this, I've never been able to finish a game. I had a lot of energy with First Fantasy, and thought I would be able to get around to putting all the decent content I had planned into it. However, once college came around again all I could squeeze out was that crappy demo. It's incredibly difficult to take 18 hours of classes/semester, put in a 40 hour work week, and still find time to make a decent game.

I don't think little demos, barely playable like First Fantasy, do any of us justice. I also believe that we rarely get around to making those awesome games we dream about because most of us are on our own.

I've seen the stuff we can make. It would be amazing if there were a game with the best of all of us put into it. So why not give it a shot?

I'm about to graduate soon, so I'll have more free time on my hands in a couple weeks. What I'm proposing is, those of who are interested (if any), get together and try to put out a good game by this time next year.

How big am I thinking? Not huge, maybe 20 hours worth of content, but GOOD content. And I think to do that we'd need to fill these roles:

Quote:

LEAD PROGRAMMER
GAME MECHANICS PROGRAMMERS
CUTSCENE PROGRAMMERS

LEAD ARTIST
SPRITE ARTISTS
MAPTILE ARTISTS
BACKDROP ARTIST
ATTACK ANIMATION ARTISTS

LEAD WRITER
WRITERS

That's a lot of us, maybe more than everyone who's active today, idk.

Also, I don't have an idea for a game yet, I just want to finally finish one, and make it something we can all be proud of. Preferably an epic RPG, cause that's what I believe most of us came here hoping to make, but it could be anything.

So there you have it. If anyone wants in, idc how long you've been with the community or how good you are at any of these tasks, you're welcome to join.

Meowskivich

Blubber Bloat

Wed May 02, 2012 1:54 pm

I'll gladly do random monster sprites for ya, as long as you enjoy the sort of "toony" look I make.
Only monster I can remember I put on the web (besides one I had as a facebook avatar some time ago) would probably be this:

P.S.
I say random monster sprites because I'm more focused on my own things at the moment, including going back to college, but I'm naughty and draw like mad during classes so pixelating doodles would be the only thing I'd have to do other-wise. Just let me know any sort of theme you'd desire for some monsters, and I'll try to do some up for ya.

dOn'T MiNd mE! i'M jUsT CoNtAgIoUs!!!
Play Orbs CCG: http://orbsccg.com/r/4r6x

BMR

Metal King Slime

Wed May 02, 2012 2:16 pm

I would be more than game to do map tiles. Just give me a palette, a theme, and a list of what needs doing and I'll be good to go. Most of my work is along the lines of what I've got for Legacy.

I can do some writing as well, though my plot-lines might be a bit too complex/intricate and thus be far too ambitious, hehe.

Either way though, this sounds like a great idea. Getting people together, to do what they're best at, seems like a good way to get something really exemplar going. But then again, I do suppose I'm being a bit (ok, a lot) optimistic. Still, here's me with fingers crossed.

Being from the third world, I reserve the right to speak in the third person.

Using Editor version wip 20170527 gfx_sdl+fb music_sdl

msw188

Metal Slime

Wed May 02, 2012 4:14 pm

I am just going to make a suggestion, as I don't think I'd have the time to contribute to something like this, as awesome as it could be. Anyways, you're missing a very important member in your list:
THE BOSS

I'm pretty sure that to pull something like this off (which people attempt and fail at every so often), you need someone (or some group) with a clear vision of what the game should be at the top, telling people what to do. This person (or group) needs to be able to do two things:
See the game as a whole, so probably already needs to have a story or at least idea
Make decisions

As a fairly recent example, even though there were a handful of people helping, it seems pretty clear that JSH was THE BOSS in terms of making Motrya.

I am Srime

Meowskivich

Blubber Bloat

Wed May 02, 2012 4:28 pm

I'm assuming Mr. G-Wreck is assuming this role. As he is the one who started it.

dOn'T MiNd mE! i'M jUsT CoNtAgIoUs!!!
Play Orbs CCG: http://orbsccg.com/r/4r6x

G-Wreck

Slime Knight

Wed May 02, 2012 4:39 pm

You're very right, msw. Weird though, I thought I wrote PROJECT LEAD in the list, but I guess I just imagined I wrote it.

If anyone wants to lead the project, feel free to speak up. If not, I'd love to lead it.

G-Wreck

Slime Knight

Wed May 02, 2012 5:57 pm

Also, in regards to what Meowskivich said, I don't expect anyone to abandon their own projects entirely (or their real life affairs).

Consider this a big side-project that we could all work on in our free time.

Stewitus P.

Slime Knight

Wed May 02, 2012 6:36 pm

What, exactly, is the project at hand? Like, what's the game? I'm wanting to become more active myself, and I'm more than happy to volunteer as a writer (my own project's gonna take all my art and scripting patience.)

â€”- So anyway, how are you?

Baconlabs

Liquid Metal Slime

Give me a few months and I'll nominate Viridia

Wed May 02, 2012 7:55 pm

G-Wreck wrote:

How big am I thinking? Not huge, maybe 20 hours worth of content

That sounds way too ambitious for an OHR game. I am genuinely impressed by ones that crank out 2 hours of ~~quality~~ passable and coherent content.
I'm not throwing my chips in yet, and I may not be able to; I won't be able to work on any games or hobbies at all for a few months or even years starting this Autumn.
On account of joining the USAF

G-Wreck wrote:

I don't have an idea for a game yet, I just want to finally finish one

A collab team really needs a clear vision of what they'll be contributing their time and effort to, a more concrete idea of an awesome game lots of people will want to experience. Since you don't have anything specific in mind, consider this. It'd be awfully time-consuming to create a brand new world and story out of thin air, so with emphasis on the boldened part of the quote above, I propose that we finish an existing game. A hell of a lot of OHR developers are thinking the exact same thing, "I'm sick of demos, I want to finally finish something worthwhile." I know I've been thinking that for years and years, thinking that's exactly what I needed to start a game portfolio proper. That was the reason we had a Finish your Dang Game contest in 2009. I don't remember anything significant coming out of that besides Bloodlust and expansions on Okedoke, Phantom Tactics, and Wandering Hamster (Still not done, James!) and the most likely reason for this is that most people continued to work solo. Whether by choice or because no one would help them, I don't know, but that's why progress is so slow for all of us.

So this might be an opportune time to dig out a beloved, but far from complete, OHR game and finish it with the entire community's support (with the original developer's consent and input, of course.) I would totally endorse such an endeavor. Also the boss of the project would not necessarily be G-Wreck; it might not even need to be the original author. I'd recommend that we give full management power to whoever is most able and willing to command others and do whatever it takes to get the job done in a timely manner. If said boss has no knowledge about the game the project is based off of, then that would be one of his tasks, getting information out of the original author quickly and efficiently, as well as filtering out necessary information to the other developers and forumites as they need it.
I'm not sure if anyone on here commands that kind of skill and respect, but if anyone reading this thinks they can do it, say so now and monitor this thread to see if the project evolves into something you'd like to manage.

If you all are on board with my idea here, I'd like to invite OHR developers great and small to step up and express their desire to see specific OHR games (nominate 'em!) finished by the community.

Bob the Hamster

Liquid Metal King Slime

Wed May 02, 2012 7:58 pm

I won't be officially joining, however, I will promise you one enemy sprite, in a style that matches whatever style is chosen for the graphics.

I won't draw it until you already have at least 7 other enemy sprites (partly because this is a busy month for me, but mostly because I would need that many to get a feel for the style)

G-Wreck

Slime Knight

Wed May 02, 2012 8:17 pm

@ Baconlabs - I had actually considered that, too. I'd really like to see Vikings or Wandering Hamster finished.

However, I wasn't sure if there might be too much personal investment on the part of a game's author for them to want others to collab with them.

I'm game for starting from scratch or finishing any project. If we do start from scratch, here are some ideas I whipped up in the last hour:

Quote:

OPTION 1:
Setting is 10,000 years before the events of Wandering Hamster. The galaxy is populated by hamsters, dogs, cats and humans, but mostly hamsters. The Hamster Republic is a galaxy-wide government that gets from A to B via teleportation. There aren’t space ships, but small planets piloted around via teleportation magic. The Hamster Republic controls who can pilot planets, since huge doomsday devices can be equipped on them, capable of blowing up other planets (or turning them into carrots for food?).

Our heroes are sent to find a group of planets that have disappeared. They learn that the planets have gone rogue and are being lead by a group of radical citizens who believe the Hamster Republic is corrupt and needs to be destroyed. The heroes then have the option of either fighting to save the Hamster Republic or destroying it to usher in the rule of the Hamster Hegemony.

Style is a mix of sci-fi/fantasy/and your choice of prefix-punk.

OPTION 2:
Setting is a standard swords/horses/magic fantasy affair except it takes place in an archipelago world that was consumed by floods thousands of years ago.

Our hero grows up on an isolated island that is assaulted by some sort of vessel from a hostile nation, we’ll call it the empire for now. She is taken prisoner, but is forced to walk the plank after the captain discovers she has the mark of Aquarius or something.

She would have died, but her power granted by the mark revives her. She seeks revenge on the captain and the empire, joins a nation that opposes the empire, then later revives the ancient underwater civilization that used to rule the world.

This goes bad for everyone, because now the underwater civilization wants to destroy the world, and now the good and bad guys team up to take down the ancient threat that our heroine summons.

The heroine could realize her mistake and seek to fix it, or not realize it until she’s too late and be consumed by the power.

Style is very flowy/watery/oceanic, mixed with a lot of pacific themes and/or atlantis stereotypes.

We’ll call it aquapunk.

OPTION 3:
Setting is an art museum. Actually, the Louvre. More specifically, a separate dimension that consists of all the art in the Louvre, where famous works of art and artists have their own personalities and/or make up the envoironment.

Our hero is Leonardo DaVinci (or another famous artist), except he’s in the form of a caricature by http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Beerbohm.
DaVinci must navigate the world of art to defeat an evil Dadaist who is f*%($ing up all the rules, and maybe even seeks to undo reality or something.

Style is anyone’s guess. This idea came about as a result of thinking how everyone’s art who contributed would be different. This way we could justify a mix of different pixel art styles.

OPTION 4:
Setting is a standard swords/horses/fantasy affair. Cliché is the norm. That is, until our young prophetic hero faces off against the dark lord and dies very early on.

The remaining good guys splinter, having lost faith in their cause and given up hope, with the exception of one. This other hero/heroine goes into hiding, looking for a way to revive the hero of prophecy.

Years pass, the dark lord has taken over everything, but the one remaining hero fighting them has discovered an ancient temple said to hold the power of revival inside. The hero (who we’ll now call Jerry) attempts to revive the prophetic hero (who we’ll now call Tom to avoid confusion). But Tom can’t simply materialize, he needs a body. So, Jerry must give up his body, die, and become a soul in the afterlife in order for Jerry to take on the dark lord.

He does so, and now Tom is back, only he’s in Jerry’s body. Tom has no way of convincing everyone that he is not Jerry, until he remembers one character trait that Jerry would never do. This convinces everyone, and the rest of the game is Tom gathering allies to defeat the dark lord.

Again, those are just some brainstorms I had a bit ago. If we want to finish a current game, than I'm all up for it.

Spoonweaver

Liquid Metal King Slime

Wed May 02, 2012 9:38 pm

Sounds like Danse Danse Whale: Total War all over again, only this time there's no contest to push the game to ever actually be released.

G-Wreck

Slime Knight

Wed May 02, 2012 10:10 pm

Alright then, a different approach.

I'm going to write a game with a mix of some of the better ideas that I had above. The rough draft will be finished this weekend.

We will communicate through this blog, as well as email or whatever else is convenient.

For now, I'm calling it GAME X.

It will be released May 1st, 2013.

Anyone who wants to lend a hand, feel free to hop right in. If you're new to the engine, I can teach you what I know about using it.

If I'm alone, meh. If people want to help, then awesome Smile

Meowskivich

Blubber Bloat

Wed May 02, 2012 10:12 pm

Command me some doodles and I shall give. I'll doodle some random crap whenever, just post here, or PM (since that'll be probably looked at first) me and I shall make a handful of fiends for you to fight.

Also, I'm bored. Though I should be working on my game...*cough*
I'll doodle whatever. I'll even throw in some extreme shading like this if you want:

edit: private talking, eh? I've gots skype, if you're interested. Seems to be where my co-worker-type-people-on-projects-I'm-working-on are collaborating. Just PM me your skype name and I'll send ya a request.

dOn'T MiNd mE! i'M jUsT CoNtAgIoUs!!!
Play Orbs CCG: http://orbsccg.com/r/4r6x

G-Wreck

Slime Knight

Thu May 03, 2012 1:19 am

Hey, that looks pretty cool. Yeah draw whatever you want, I can make just about anything work. I'll take whatever you're willing to put into the project Smile

Also, skype does sound like a fun idea. I'll pm you my all my stuff next time I get the chance.

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