Project LASER (BenHeck videogame)

XCVG · Post by **XCVG** » Fri Jan 02, 2009 2:21 pm

I think you guys should write an engine from scratch or use one that is open-source. But yeah, C++ is pretty universal and a lot of people can code in it so that's probably a good idea.

Kyo · Post by **Kyo** » Fri Jan 02, 2009 3:12 pm

Also against it for obvious reasons. I'd like to play this on the go (as that's the only place where I really play games at all) and I'd also like to play this without having to hope it works in wine.

You can still port it to consoles via homebrew...

ShockSlayer · Post by **ShockSlayer** » Fri Jan 02, 2009 3:22 pm

Write it for gamecube!

SS

Kurt_ · Post by **Kurt_** » Fri Jan 02, 2009 4:14 pm

Remember the last time we tried this?

Post by **Skyone** » Fri Jan 02, 2009 4:19 pm

benheck wrote:As for format, I would personally lean towards/suggest XNA. That would give us a Windows version (playable by far more people than have iPhones/touches) an an Xbox 360 version (how cool would it be for this to be on a console?)

Also RE iPod, I love my touch, but the games are limited by the controls, no matter what Steve "I just got high while Wozniak did all the work" Jobs says.

I would agree about the X360 compatibility, but I dunno how easy it is to distribute XNA stuff. With the iPhone, we could actually end up making cash, if we took it that route.

Harshboy · Post by **Harshboy** » Fri Jan 02, 2009 6:08 pm

Skyone wrote:
benheck wrote:As for format, I would personally lean towards/suggest XNA. That would give us a Windows version (playable by far more people than have iPhones/touches) an an Xbox 360 version (how cool would it be for this to be on a console?)

Also RE iPod, I love my touch, but the games are limited by the controls, no matter what Steve "I just got high while Wozniak did all the work" Jobs says.
I would agree about the X360 compatibility, but I dunno how easy it is to distribute XNA stuff. With the iPhone, we could actually end up making cash, if we took it that route.

In order to play XNA games on the 360 we would all need memberships, so DON'T DO THAT!

We would have to get it to be a Community Game, and I doubt that would happen.

palmertech · Post by **palmertech** » Fri Jan 02, 2009 6:26 pm

Kurt_ wrote:Remember the last time we tried this?

True, I read all the GTP threads. I thought it sounded like a sweet project, but it was REALLY ambitious. A full 3D free roaming game like that takes a full team of coders working full time for a reason.

A 2D game is far easier to accomplish.

Skyone, I will edit the first post to reflect your new position as head coder. I actually started a bit myself, and while I am decent at coding, I know there are people way better than me, so glad you want to help.

Here are my thoughts: I have not researched into XNA much, but from my initial impressions, it seems that:
1. You have to have a membership ($100 a year) to get anything from it (Which negates the "More people can play" argument)
2. To keep the game up would be $100 a year. Having to pay fees like that is a pain, especially on a project like this.

Skyone, I have messed around with the iPhone SDK a bit, and it seems that one decently large obstacle for a PC to iPhone port would be the graphics assets. A sprite based game would work very well on PC, but scaling down rarely works well for sprites. I have an idea that may work, I will need some time to try it out. How easy would it be, coding wise, to develop for PC and iPhone? I lack enough iPhone coding experience to know any difficulties in porting, but ideally, we would have a PC version, as almost everybody has one. Then again, the mac people will complain.

Post by **Skyone** » Fri Jan 02, 2009 7:16 pm

palmertech wrote:Skyone, I have messed around with the iPhone SDK a bit, and it seems that one decently large obstacle for a PC to iPhone port would be the graphics assets. A sprite based game would work very well on PC, but scaling down rarely works well for sprites. I have an idea that may work, I will need some time to try it out. How easy would it be, coding wise, to develop for PC and iPhone? I lack enough iPhone coding experience to know any difficulties in porting, but ideally, we would have a PC version, as almost everybody has one. Then again, the mac people will complain.

We could program the game in the same aspect ration/resolution as the iPhone, if possible. Otherwise, OpenGL scaling could handle it. Also, we could take the time to port to OS X as well.

Kurt_ · Post by **Kurt_** » Fri Jan 02, 2009 7:47 pm

I could live with that.

Or you can have the PC version 2x wider and 2x longer.

jjhammerstein · Post by **jjhammerstein** » Fri Jan 02, 2009 7:52 pm

Kurt_ wrote:I could live with that.

Or you can have the PC version 2x wider and 2x longer.

That's easy upscaling.
Every 2nd rate emulator does it.

Crimson_X · Post by **Crimson_X** » Fri Jan 02, 2009 7:55 pm

I honestly think C++ is the best choice for what you guys want to do. Even though I am a Java fan C++ is the way to go for this project. If you do C then it can be made for the PSP also though and the PSP scene hasn't had a big homebrew in a while except for one really not enough so if it was C that would be nice but C++ sounds good

XCVG · Post by **XCVG** » Fri Jan 02, 2009 10:36 pm

I think you should develop for PC FIRST, and then work out the details of porting. No one wants to see a poorly scaled low-res piece of crap. I think you should develop for PC and go from there.

Just my 2 Canadian cents, which is worth less than 2 American cents right now. But that will change once I get my devilishly clever plan in place

Wait, I don't even have a devilishly clever plan

jjhammerstein · Post by **jjhammerstein** » Fri Jan 02, 2009 10:43 pm

XCVG wrote:I think you should develop for PC FIRST, and then work out the details of porting. No one wants to see a poorly scaled low-res piece of crap. I think you should develop for PC and go from there.

Just my 2 Canadian cents, which is worth less than 2 American cents right now. But that will change once I get my devilishly clever plan in place

Wait, I don't even have a devilishly clever plan

I agree. Even though I run OSX.
That's my 2 American cents, which still aren't worth anything.

Post by **Black Six** » Fri Jan 02, 2009 11:29 pm

palmertech wrote:Here are my thoughts: I have not researched into XNA much, but from my initial impressions, it seems that:
1. You have to have a membership ($100 a year) to get anything from it (Which negates the "More people can play" argument)
2. To keep the game up would be $100 a year. Having to pay fees like that is a pain, especially on a project like this.

Students can get free memberships though, and if you develop a PC game you can distribute it for free, it's just the Xbox part that ends up costing you, I believe. That said, in the end we're probably better off with C++.

HotDog-Cart · Post by **HotDog-Cart** » Sat Jan 03, 2009 12:36 am

Guys, I made a beta application thread in the Dev forum.

Click here to go to the thread and apply: http://forums.benheck.com/viewtopic.php?p=328092