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Author Topic: FPCS Game Studio :: Project  (Read 1618 times)

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FPCS Game Studio :: Project
« on: January 10, 2010, 01:25:20 pm »
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Who am I aiming this topic at?
Good day, I'm in the need of some help of experienced Software Engineers (people who can program, programs with a Windows GUI) and Game Engine Programmers (people who can create game engines in languages other than Gamemaker; C, Java, Assembly, ... ). Aside from that I could also use people who are capable of writing compilers for these languages (C, Java, Assembly, ... ).

What is the FPCS Game Studio Project?
The FPCS Game Studio project is a project of mine that is still in the concepting stage, as I require experienced people to realize the concept and adapt it where an impossibility is met. FPCS Game Studio is a concept for a game development software suite, that should work at a high level (C, Java, ... you get the drill) and should yet be very easy to learn. See it as a hybrid of the professionality of "real" languages (C, ... ) and the low (non-existant?) learning curve of Gamemaker, MMF, ... .

The general way it will work, is by offering an easy interface, that will allow the user to create a game out of customizable building blocks. These building blocks can be created by experienced programmers in high-level languages. The FPCS Engine will serve as a bridge inbetween the game designer and the high-level "building blocks", offering an interface to customize and combine them.

To illustrate this; recreating Super Mario Bros would be possible by combining building blocks like; Platform Character (Mario), Destroyable Wall (Bricks), Bouncing Bullet (Fireball), Patroling Platform Enemy (Red Koopa, Flying Koopas (= vertical partoling)), Walking Enemy (Goomba, Green Koopa) and Touch-grab Item (Coins, Star, Mushroom, ... ). These can then be layed out in the Map Editor. All maps are then connected to eachother with various types of teleporters (which all store a destination room and destination screen position); Touch Teleporter (to go from one level to another, after the flag is grabbed), Button & Touch Teleporter (Pipes, pressing down + touching = teleport). All Building blocks are then linked to Graphical and Audio data. Finally, the game is compiled through the Engine, and you've got your basic Mario Bros game in 10 minutes.

Why would you join?
To help the fangame/ indie game development sector. By providing a professional, yet easy to use interface, anyone can create a professional game. Using prebuilt building blocks, the users only need to spend time on perfecting the actual design of the game, rather than on code. As the time required to create a project is drastically lowered, the "I quitted the project as it didn't interest me anymore"-problem might be solved.

As games are produced in high level languages, it might be possible to make them easilly portable to real gaming platforms, a so-far fairly undiscovered terrain in the hobby-game design sector.

As the Engine is very extendible by allowing programmers to create their own building blocks, others can use these blocks for their own projects, if the programmer doesn't need them for personal use only. This way, collaboration on games (even when not intended, as you don't know who is gonna use your building block when you put it online) is simplified. Sharing building blocks will be possible to another part of the software suite called the Resource Manager, which will connect to online databases where resources (Building Blocks, but also graphics, sound, ...) can be submitted. This way, when creating a game, the designer can perform a live-search over multiple databases, looking for (and hopefully finding) the perfect building block for his game. But, ... more on that after the Engine's basics are done.

"Where" will the project take place?
I'm posting this here as I've noticed many people here are now attending Software Engineering/ Game Design studies at university. Also, the first person that popped into my head was Infini (hence his name in the topic title, I've been told I'd be able to attract his attention this way). If some people are interested in helping me, we'll get a better development structure organized (Shared Workspaces, ... ) as experience has tought me organizing a project in a single topic doesn't work.

The way I had in mind to organize this is to alternate brainstorming "sessions" with development "sessions". This means, we'll first overthink a concept and find the best way to solve it, and then develop that. To illustrate this, say we're gonna work on a graphics management system. [Brainstormiing] We'll first try to figure "What does a Game Designer need when it comes to managing his graphics?". We'd need a way to get them in the project (Load them in through an interface? Let the user copy and paste the files to the right folder manually? Will we let them import them straight from online databases, through the Resource manager? Which file types do we allow? Should they be presented in sheets or animated GIFs? Could we make our own fileformat to emulate NES graphics, storing graphics in a 2-bit-per-pixel way, with a 4 color (3 color, 1 alpha) pallete attached to every 8x8px segment on the sheet?) We'd need to get them organized (Will be put them all in one folder? Will we spread them over various folders; backgrouds, sheets, tiles, ... ? Will we compress them all in one graphics archive? ... . [Designing] Next we will implement the finalized concept. I will provide build-specifications in the form of a Development Document. These contain information on what features need to be added, and more details on how they work/ what they should do. An example can be found in the attachment of this post. It's the Dev Doc for both the main interface and the base of the Graphics Management system.

When will the project take place?
As soon as enough people are interested, we'll get some stuff going. I'm currently having exams at university, as many of you might have too. If so, you can always state when you will have some time to help.

PS: The Design Document (unfinished) has also been added for more information related to what FPCS stands for, how it's different from other engines, more about the Engine and Resource Manages, ... etc.

Thanks in advance if you want to help on this project,

- Jelleye

EDIT: Added attachments ...
« Last Edit: February 02, 2010, 09:40:20 pm by Jelleye »
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Re: FPCS Game Studio :: Project
« Reply #1 on: February 02, 2010, 08:39:15 am »
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Forget about that previous wall of text, let's try this again

  • I created the FPCS Game Studio project hoping to end up with an engaged, experienced group of people who will create resources; programs, ... to help the Indie-gaming industry.
  • I've seen a lot of experienced programmers over here capable of writing both software and game engines, so that's why I'm posting here.
  • What I'm not trying to do: "Hi guys, join me and make me a game engine while I sit here and look at you work".
  • (A fact though: at the moment I'm not capable of programming software. Might learn it while looking at your works.)
  • What I can do: "Hi guys, you can make use of this, this, this and this, here's the concept for the next project, oh, and here are the step by step pseudo-code steps to build it in case you prefer not using your brains, ... ".
  • (Translated: I'll provide you with as many resources as I can to make your part as simple as possible. I don't want you to read my mind and program something you think would fit what the project needs.)
  • To sort-off prove it, I spent the last like... weeks building a site for the project. Should have anything you need; news system, fancy 3D news-flash box, a wiki, a forum, ... . ---> http://fpcsgamestudio.co.cc/


Now to get to the point, what people do I need?
  • At the moment Programmers are needed most. This includes Game Engine programmers (to build engines in Java, C, ... anything you care about). Oh, I I don't mean you need to build a whole friggin game. I just need classes/ functions/ ..<whateveritiscalledinallotherlanguages> for drawing to the screen, playing sound, reading keyboard input, ... . (more details will be provided when I find some people).
  • This also includes software programmers. We'll probably be using Microsoft Visual Studio Express (cause it's free and let's you make GUI's in C very easilly), unless you can convice me otherwise (eg. "Yo dude 'sup I'd make that !@#$% in Java dawg, go with Netbeanzzzzz ya", that'd probably totaly convince me). I'll be making mockups of the interface using Visual Studio, so if it'd prove helpfull I can always send the file over of course.
  • Stuff we'll need later on: We're gonna have a couple of dev-teams (consisting of 1 spriter, 1 sound artist and 1 designer), say 3 teams, to start building games while further development is being done. That way we can get some input from real developers and build in the features they require.
  • I've already put the basic-basic-basics of the concept of one minor part of the FPCSGS Software Suite on the Dev Wiki, it's about the Sheet Editor of the project, called Athena (goddess of wisdom, if you care). It's gonna help building sheets by representing every frame on the sheet as a seperate imge file. That file can be sent to your favourite image editor, then broughht back in and you've got one cell finished. It'll also allow for organization of your sheet. And it'll allow for meta-data to be embedded (concerning cell width, height, separation, ... ). But actually, just check the wiki entry: http://wiki.fpcsgamestudio.co.cc/index.php/Athena (sheet in the mockup is by SmithyGCN, aka Mister !@#$%-awesome-8bit-spriter.

Gonna end the post here cause I see I'm ending up with some wall of text no one wants to read again...
[/list]
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Re: FPCS Game Studio :: Project
« Reply #2 on: February 02, 2010, 07:48:00 pm »
  • Minalien
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Honestly, this is something that piques my interest, and is definitely something that I would be interested in working on, and it's definitely surprising how well-thought-out this is compared to just about every other request for help in this community, you've got a major snag in the fact that the programmers here capable of making this project feasible (Windy, Infini, MGZ, myself, and two or three others) are otherwise occupied. Infini is focusing on uni and his own individual projects, MGZ is working on his fan game, Windy is mostly working on web projects and trying to grow a Pedobear clone in his back yard, I'm occupied with military work and the two other game projects, and.. well, I think you get the point.
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Re: FPCS Game Studio :: Project
« Reply #3 on: February 02, 2010, 09:39:57 pm »
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Ah, I see what you mean. Thanks for replying though.

I think the best thing for me to do at the moment would be to start planning out the projects in detail now then. Perhaps that way I can already get some early feedback on the possibilities of my concepts. That way, if one of the tallented programmers over here can find some spare time, I'll immediately have a plan ready.

I'll do my best to make small reports of new concepts being posted on the dev-wiki here in this topic, to keep you guys up-to-date, even if you lack spare time.

Thanks again for the reply.
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