Project LASER (BenHeck videogame)

Post by **Skyone** » Thu Jan 01, 2009 3:06 am

Well I've done a lot of [game] programming recently, so I'd gladly be co-programmer.

Any other odd job that's left over, I can do as well.

EDIT: I'd recommend a 2D game using OpenGL/C++. Could be a lot of fun!

Post by **Black Six** » Thu Jan 01, 2009 10:21 am

Might I suggest XNA Game Studio? It's basically designed for the kind of stuff you're trying to do so I think it'd be perfect. Also it would give us the ability to port it to the Xbox 360, which would be awesome.

I'd be interested in helping with the programming once we figure out our development platform and such.

themadhacker · Post by **themadhacker** » Thu Jan 01, 2009 10:28 am

All I can do is test the game to find and point out glitches (not fix them), and just give ideas on things that would make the game better.

XCVG · Post by **XCVG** » Thu Jan 01, 2009 11:38 am

Interesting project, but I'm completely worthless at this kind of stuff. Real Life(tm) would probably get in the way of beta testing for me as well.

I'll be watching your progress though!

palmertech · Post by **palmertech** » Fri Jan 02, 2009 12:28 am

Black Six wrote:Might I suggest XNA Game Studio? It's basically designed for the kind of stuff you're trying to do so I think it'd be perfect. Also it would give us the ability to port it to the Xbox 360, which would be awesome.

I'd be interested in helping with the programming once we figure out our development platform and such.

XNA may work well. Skyone, any thoughts? You seem to know what you are doing.

Also, Bibin is out entirely. There are multiple reasons, I will leave it to him if he wants to explain.

Which means, Lead Coder is now an open position. Anybody want it with some skillz to hold it down?

Skyone, I assume that writing it is C++ would astronomically increase the possibility/practicality of a mac/iphone port, correct? That was the orignal plan, but 360 XNA sound interesting.

khaag · Post by **khaag** » Fri Jan 02, 2009 12:48 am

What about using the Source engine as a base? There's been some cool things done with it as far as 2D games go.

Post by **Skyone** » Fri Jan 02, 2009 1:44 am

palmertech wrote:
Black Six wrote:Might I suggest XNA Game Studio? It's basically designed for the kind of stuff you're trying to do so I think it'd be perfect. Also it would give us the ability to port it to the Xbox 360, which would be awesome.

I'd be interested in helping with the programming once we figure out our development platform and such.
XNA may work well. Skyone, any thoughts? You seem to know what you are doing.

Also, Bibin is out entirely. There are multiple reasons, I will leave it to him if he wants to explain.

Which means, Lead Coder is now an open position. Anybody want it with some skillz to hold it down?

Skyone, I assume that writing it is C++ would astronomically increase the possibility/practicality of a mac/iphone port, correct? That was the orignal plan, but 360 XNA sound interesting.

I could work with XNA or iPhone SDK (or anything else probably). It's up to the decided platform! I have no preference. I'd love to be lead coder, if possible.

grossaffe · Post by **grossaffe** » Fri Jan 02, 2009 3:16 am

khaag wrote:What about using the Source engine as a base? There's been some cool things done with it as far as 2D games go.

I think we're going for GPL stuff so we can do with it as we please.

Kyo · Post by **Kyo** » Fri Jan 02, 2009 4:44 am

grossaffe wrote:
khaag wrote:What about using the Source engine as a base? There's been some cool things done with it as far as 2D games go.
I think we're going for GPL stuff so we can do with it as we please.

That'd be good. I'd like to see it ported to the pandora and the likes.

DSFARGEG · Post by **DSFARGEG** » Fri Jan 02, 2009 4:59 am

I'm definitely interested in helping with this, though I'm not sure what I have to offer...
I'll be sure to contribute if I can.

If a Mac port is made, I can beta test that

Kyo · Post by **Kyo** » Fri Jan 02, 2009 5:52 am

Oh yeah, I can test the linux port, and if I get around to getting more skillz I might be able to code a little (no promises there). Also if it's colorful 2d sprites you need, I can make those (and have a friend who'll probably help as well)

5M05H13 · Post by **5M05H13** » Fri Jan 02, 2009 8:23 am

Maybe since you ran all this by Ben you could possibly ask him to host the BETA on his site or somewhere on the forums so all Ben Heck Forum members could test it for you? Just an idea though

Post by **Black Six** » Fri Jan 02, 2009 8:54 am

Skyone wrote:
palmertech wrote:
Black Six wrote:Might I suggest XNA Game Studio? It's basically designed for the kind of stuff you're trying to do so I think it'd be perfect. Also it would give us the ability to port it to the Xbox 360, which would be awesome.

I'd be interested in helping with the programming once we figure out our development platform and such.
XNA may work well. Skyone, any thoughts? You seem to know what you are doing.

Also, Bibin is out entirely. There are multiple reasons, I will leave it to him if he wants to explain.

Which means, Lead Coder is now an open position. Anybody want it with some skillz to hold it down?

Skyone, I assume that writing it is C++ would astronomically increase the possibility/practicality of a mac/iphone port, correct? That was the orignal plan, but 360 XNA sound interesting.
I could work with XNA or iPhone SDK (or anything else probably). It's up to the decided platform! I have no preference. I'd love to be lead coder, if possible.

Ok, so here are my thoughts then:
C++ and OpenGL means it could be a Windows/OS X/Linux game.
XNA, which uses C#, would be Windows and possibly Xbox 360 only.
We need to decide early which route we want to go so that anyone that's working on the coding can get set up and up to speed. If we go with the first choice, it would probably be best if we all used the same developing environment so it always compiles the same way between developers, although if we're working in different OS's that may be more of an issue.
I think it would also be good to set up some kind of SVN system, such as Subversion to keep track of changes and sync then over the Internet. This would require Ben or someone else with access to a webserver to set it up and get it running. Once done there's a number of clients that can be used to access it from pretty much any OS.

As far as the lead coding job, since I'm the only other person that seems to have shown interest in coding, it's all yours Skyone. But as someone that spent 11 of the last 15 months doing software development for the US Army, I'm going to say that we should try to do things the right way from the beginning, map out our requirements for the game, plan how we want to implement them, then start coding and testing. If we come up with a plan and stick to it, it will be easier to find bugs and decide how they need to be fixed.

Post by **Skyone** » Fri Jan 02, 2009 9:14 am

I can set up SVN for the game as soon as everyone agrees on a language. However, whoever's in charge of the plot should get on with their formulating, because we should jump right on this as Black Six said.

I vote for OpenGL(ES)/C++, which means easy portability to other platforms (thinking the main would be Windows), such as Linux, OS X and iPhone. I also don't have much experience with XNA; but if others really want X360 support, then I'll manage.

So if we could start getting a plot down, and perhaps a bit of concept art, etc., then we could get this done in no time.

Post by **benheck** » Fri Jan 02, 2009 10:30 am

Palmer, I have most of the music outputted to WAVE and labeled, but there's a bit left. It's mostly a matter of me remembering what scenes it goes with, for the label.

For the package, it'll be that, the movie in the old MJPEG format, a copy of the script, all of the 3D objects (Truespace 2, yes TWO format) and whatever else I can find.

I'll make a note to finish up the music on Monday and hopefully get the disc mailed to you Tuesday. Please email me your address again.

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.

Thoughts? I am off to MAGfest!

-Ben