Not your average RPG...

[gamemakerdude]

also, after many frustrating hours of looking up subjects in the forums, and searching desperately for comprehensive material on various subjects, i have realized i need some personal guidance from a more experienced GE user in order to accomplish a few things i am trying to do. It seems like even though I have read many topics on things like variables and functions i still have very little concept as to how they work, or how to properly create/ use them. dont get me wrong, i understand somewhat but i cannot seem to grasp entirely. would any one like to help me directly and answer some questions for me?

[skydereign]

also, after many frustrating hours of looking up subjects in the forums, and searching desperately for comprehensive material on various subjects, i have realized i need some personal guidance from a more experienced GE user in order to accomplish a few things i am trying to do. It seems like even though I have read many topics on things like variables and functions i still have very little concept as to how they work, or how to properly create/ use them. dont get me wrong, i understand somewhat but i cannot seem to grasp entirely. would any one like to help me directly and answer some questions for me?

I'm willing to help out. I've done the same as you are suggesting with many other users on gE via pms. So send me one if you are interested.

a) from what you may have read, this game is intended to be multiplayer. in order to experience the game as it is intended to be played, it will be suggested players use a joystick/ ps3/ xbox controller. i would like to make it possible for up to four players to play simultaneously on one screen, with multiple controllers, is there any way to make this happen? if not, definitely at least two simultaneous players is possible right? what about online play? from what i have read, it is possible by setting up a server through a host but the process is somewhat difficult and perhaps not very reliable/ effecient? im lost as to how all of that would work exactly.

Well... multiplayer on the same screen can be easy enough. The main problem is that gE doesn't recognize different joystick axis/controllers. Therefore each controller would need to be bound to a different set of keys. This can be done, but unless you can automate the setting of the controller keys for the player (can't be done in gE), it won't be very liked. Setting up networking isn't nearly as easy though. It is possible, but since gE doesn't natively support it, it gets very messy.

b) at some point, most likely after the game is finished or nearing completion, i plan on purchasing the commercial version of GE, most likely so that i can choose how, when, and where the game editor logo will be displayed. rest assured credit will be given where it is due. at some point shortly before this i will most likely put the project up for funding on kickstarter.com, where i hope i can raise money to devote more time and resources to development. before it is released, i will put the beta here publicly in the GE forum for a short time, and do some bug testing and such and then i will make it much better and sell it somehow. my question being, is there any reason why i could NOT create the game with GE and fund the project as a whole via kickstarter as such funding this could greatly facilitate, expedite and improve the overall process of development, not to mention i will not be able to afford the commercial version of ge without some help, or other things i would like to do if i had the financial resources such as release actual physical copies of the game, etc?

gE has a non-commercial license (different from the gpl license). This is free as well, so your game doesn't have to be under gpl. The only restriction is that you cannot sell the game. Therefore you getting the project funded by kickstarter is allowed. One thing though is that the game itself needs to have the splash screen as long as you are distributing it without the professional license. This doesn't mean your videos would have to show it, but if you do release a test version of it on kickstarter, it would still have the logo.

3. GAME EDITOR LICENSE FOR FREE (NON COMMERCIAL) GAMES
If you will not charge for your game, you can just download Game Editor binary files at http://game-editor.com/Download and use it. You can't sell any games by using this license and must show the Game Editor splash screen.

Your game is still in planning, so I don't think the bit about you will not charge for your game applies (as in it isn't legally binding the game to be non-commercial). Especially since you plan to buy the license through the funding.

[gamemakerdude]

HEY EVERYONE! Time for a hefty update!

First of all, I would like to publicly extend my gratitude to Skydereign for offering his incredibly wise and helpful advice/ input, without which I may have relinquished hope due to some of the complexities I was previously facing. I have included a SMALL teaser demo (Though I suppose it could be argued that it is more of a 'prototype' really) with this post that reveals one of my main characters and also some of the menu interface, which you can access by pressing the 'r' key in game.

I am currently in the process of developing a level editor so that am able to devote more time to the artistic development of the world the game will actually take place in. ( There is a considerable amount of artwork already completed for our world, yet I chose not to include any graphic representation of it in the current demo, so our protagonist only walks over blank, empty space for now! All in due time ;] ) As to when a "truly" playable demo will may be available, I still cannot accurately estimate at this point in time as there are many factors in my personal life which have recently slowed the development process greatly though hopefully these issues will soon be resolved and I will be able to devote much more time to the project afterwards.

That being said, I am aiming to launch our Kickstarter venture in the late Winter of 2013/ early Spring of 2014. Hopefully, we are able to fund a fairly large amount of money to make the game every bit as entertaining and impressive as it can possibly be and will be able to release the beta roughly around Spring of the year after that (2015), and then the 'gold master' (finished product) following shortly after, yet we all know Rome wasn't built in a day. I have also began to recruit a couple of promising additions to the development team, though I am mostly trying to catch them up to speed at this point so the majority of work is still entirely in my hands for now besides some conceptual ideas.

(Here are some currently estimated project milestones;)

Alpha (August - October 2014)
Beta (January - February 2015 )
Gold master (Spring/Summer 2015)


For any who are curious about gameplay elements, storyline, etc., the general idea is to take the best elements from all my years and years of RPG gameplaying experience, and to condense all the best elements of them into one completely original and cohesive result, the most exciting to me of which is that while the appearance of the game has a very traditional feel, ideally the world will be much more open and expansive than is found in older games and also offer the player an enormous amount of choice in how their gameplay experience unfolds, similar to more advanced, modern games. While this idea may seem somewhat contradictory, I have a lot of pretty good idea as to how to implement this and make it feel very natural. I have VERY high expectations and standards of quality for the project, and you should also. Expect it to both play AND feel like nothing less than any other "professionally" made game.


Any questions, inquiries or suggestions are more than welcome! :]

Thanks for looking everyone! :p

[GEuser]

Wish you well with the kickstarter when it happens.

Unfortunately I couldn't check out the teaser (no linux version). Good luck!