Collaboration on Forgotten Realms Theme

[manikus]

Okey dokey. There are three of us (so far), which is plenty enough people to do some damage.

Step 1: decide which resolution we are going to be working at. I think 640x480 would be best

Step 2: Decide on a system for work I think one person should be the keeper of the files. All changes to the design have to be done in a serial fashion, as we can not integrate various designs into one.

Step 3: Divide up the tasks I'm completely open to anything, and goodness knows I've dabbled in just about all that DC can do. I'd prefer to let y'all choose what you would like to do first, before I make any suggestions on my own behalf.

THis should be fun!

[Uatu]

1. I vote for 640 x 480! (Less work is better)
2. Uh... This is somewhat more difficult, not quite sure how to go about this. We have to decide what exactly we are doing first, I guess...
3. I guess I would rather draw than do anything else I have tried other stuff, too, but I am not confident that my spells will work properly, etc... I could also type stuff up or manage Realms knowledge or something like that (I like working on HTML as well).

P.S.: Johnny, I sent ya an e-mail

[manikus]

Number 2 is kind of tied to number 3. Whoever ends up doing the coding should be the file keeper. Then, there are two ways (probably more, but I just woke up ) we can then proceed- 1) all files are sent to the file keeper and he updates the design, OR 2) the design is zipped and sent to the person who wants to add files and only the receiver can add files, make edits, etc. until they in-turn email it to someone else. Both methods have their pros and cons.

I'm going to announce this collaboration on the group list. There might be a couple of folks over there that are interested.

[Uatu]

Yeah, the more people the better!

Hmm, not sure which method is better here - I guess #2 might depend on how large the files that one can e-mail are, though...

[sokolkeep]

Originally Posted by manikus This is a valid point and I agree at least 100%, , I think the real issue keeping DC from taking off is that it is still at version .914. I talk about this game in a lot of places and about 50% lose interest as soon as I mention that it's not an MMORPG, and the rest when they hear that we're still in Beta (after 10 years or so now). Once we can say, "This does everything FRUA does (plus some)." We'll start picking up people. There is a goal to have a default mod ready to go by version 1.0. There is no reason why it can't be a collaboration.

sheesh. kids these days and their MMORPG's! their missing out on some classic style crpg's, especially one with the ability to create your own dungeons/quests/games. I may not have the time to contribute, but at least I know a good ongoing rpg project when I see one. I've kept track of Dungeon Craft for a while now. Recently downloaded the most recent version. Neat stuff.

[JonnieR]

I have worked out the the quest logic scheme in FRUA which gets more complicated as the mod progresses. After the second quest, I have tried to open up the choices for the PCs which means more testing for certain conditions before each action. I have tried to design the mod to give the player a good balance of freedom and direction. I still do not know exactly how to use the logic block, but I think it would help simiplify some elements of the logic flow in the mod.

It would nice to have a mod where the graphic look was somewhat consistent. I hope by collaborating that this is something we could accomplish. I am certainly impressed with some of the photo-like images I have seen available for DC.

[manikus]

I've been thinking a lot about consistency of art and having a look for a design. (Not just about the collab, but about designs in general.)

I think consistency is more important than any particular look. So, we need to decide on a scheme for the art. When we do, I think that one person could handle an area, i.e. one person makes walls, one person makes small pics, etc.

I think it is completely feasible to have photo-realistic small pics and cartoon-like icons, but probably not photo-realistic small pics and cartoon-like big pics. Here's my thoughts on this:
small pics, big pics and sprites should all be the same style; walls and backgrounds should all be the same style; icons, combat walls and combat wildernesses should all be the same style; all the music should be of the same style or quality; all of the sound effects should be of the same style or quality. For sounds, I mean by styles the broadest of musical styles, like acoustic or ambient; and by quality I mean all midi or all mp3 or all wav.

I guess I should further clarify styles for graphic arts (ya know, what I mean, not the world at large). By photo-realistic, I mean the 3D rendered graphics a la the small pics I have done as default art work for DC. By cartoony, I mean the style that Dinonykos employs in his art.

Okay, with all of this being said, I can do 3D art that isn't so photo-realistic if that's a route we want to explore. I can do cartoon shading and post-work as needed.

So, who wants to do what? JohnnieR, you've got the story and Uatu, you're into the art, so I guess that leaves me to play-test. J/k
JohnnieR - do you want to handle the coding? Level creation? Database creation?*
Uatu - Breaking the art down by type, what do you want to do?

*Database creation can be done without the design, as they can be exported to txt files (or created that way in the first place) and implemented later or as needed.

Also, the method for passing the files around to the person working on them, doesn't require that all the files in the design be passed. Most art (graphics and sound) could be posted in the forum here and downloaded by the others. In that case we would only need to send around the .lvl and .dat files (and the .txt and maybe some other types) and would be a relatively small .zip that should be easily small enough to ride as an attachment to an email.

[Uatu]

Whoah! Trippy font/color!

Hmm... I guess my own art would be of a "pixel-art" category; I definitely don't know anything about 3D, so that is out for me.

I guess I could do icons and combat wildernesses; combat walls do seem to be related to the wall art used, though, so I am not sure about that...

I am not sure I want to do ALL the icons, though - drawing stuff does take a lot of time, especially the larger icons (normally I do that kind of thing when I have a "spurt" of energy for some reason... don't get this kind of thing too often...).

Also, let's talk about Johnnie's story! But where?

[manikus]

Walls and combat walls are kinda tied together. I was more trying to go by what's on the screen at the same time...and trying to think of ways that people with different artistic styles could work on this thing together.

That's the thing about a big project, is that none of us will want to be responsible for all of a given thing. I think that's why it's important to nail down the scheme. If we are doing pixel art icons, then a 3D artist who happens to enjoy making icons can help out. Does it work the other way? You bet. Let's say that the pixel artist wants to help out with big pics. He could do a quick sketch that would show positioning and colors used and maybe give an idea of where the main light source would be. This could act as the big pic itself until the 3D artist could get it done, which will now happen in half of the time b/c the difficulty of figuring out the scene has already been done.

[manikus]

Originally Posted by Uatu Also, let's talk about Johnnie's story! But where?

As I see it, we have three options (but I just got up, so maybe I'm missing an obvious one).
Option 1: talk about it here in the forum
Option 2: email/pm back and forth about it
Option 3: talk about it someplace else - like maybe it's own yahoo! group

I have to say that I would lean towards the latter b/c we would also have a place to store files.