Coder Needed For New Game.

[Sonistar]

As a Game Designer and Sprite Artist with no coding experience im looking for a coder interested in making a 2d abstract game I've had in my head for a while.
it'll be somewhat of a mix between flOw , geometry wars, and Wipeout and requires rendering two or three planes tilted at the same angle for a 3d effect ( or this could be actual 3d, hell i dont know, im an artist ) with blazing fast gameplay and some fancy effects.

Concept Screenshot - *Warning, very abstract!*

Screenshot with Movement Tilt -

The game will preferably come out on GP2X, with hopefully a flashier version for PC (Ubuntu/Windows) and possibly a flashy version for Pandora also in the future

If you think your dedicated and committed enough to work on this game then send an email to studio@sonistar.co.uk with a link to any previous coding work you've done, and a reason why you feel you should work on the project. Alternatively contact me on #gp2xdev or get me on Skype at studiosonistar.
*Note - please dont PM me as i never check em, and probably wont check any replies to this topic.
Thanks for reading,
Sonistar.

 

[Sonistar]

forgot to mention, theres some concept screens I quickly made up if anyones interested in looking at the style?

 

[prairiefire]

would you be willing to post a few of these screenshots to the public here? it would be interesting to see

 

[Manjuu]

I definitely would like to see the concept screens too.

Although I can't be of any help to you as of now, as I have not yet done any programming for the GP2X.

 

[Sonistar]

Updated original post with concept screenshots for prairiefire.

 

[Manjuu]

Cool concept. Very nice.

I don't find it that abstract though; I think I understand what you are trying to do.

Wish you and your team luck. Hope to see this for the GP2X.

 

[zacaj]

You can do the tilting by just scaling down one side. EX:
farthest column: scale down 4
next fartheast: scale down 3
etc
makes a perfect tilting effect

 

[hal9000]

This looks easy to code in OpenGL, with 3D acceleration.
The problem is that GP2X does not have that. I don't know if current software OpenGL (gpu940?) implementation can handle transparency effects like that.

In pure software, this looks way harder (if I understood you well, sprites are on three distinct parallel planes, right?). Tilting one plane (snes mode7 like) is doable in pure software (I have already made that kind of experiments), but animating sprites on the three planes + tilting the 3 planes + handling transparancy is something else...

Furthermore, with this kind of small sprites, to get a satisfying result you need to use mipmapping + trilinear interpolation, otherwise small characters will awfully flicker. For 3D hardware, this is no problem. In software, that's one more thing to do.

If I were you, I would concentrate on platforms which include 3D acceleration.

BTW, could you elaborate on the concept? Can the ship move from one plane to another?

 

[Sonistar]

well I thought that the gp2x might not be able to handle what i had planned. I was hoping for PC at least, possibly pandora (it has 3d acc.?)

hal9000 - well thanks , least i know that gp2x shouldnt be able to handle it well.
The ship stays on the "middle" plane, as does all of the game, the other two planes are only for the extra code to create the "depth"
For the tilting effect i was proposing attaching the camera to the player with a spring, and tweaking it until it proved the effect I was after, so going left tilts the camera te oppostie way and so forth.

 

[ledro]

Not possible on gp2x? I'm quite sure that it's possible.
Just start with three layers of tiles like normal 2d scroller, put all the sprites on top with transparancy's and every thing. And instead of a normal blit, draw the screen tilted with a bit of smart coding.

 

[hal9000]

well I thought that the gp2x might not be able to handle what i had planned. I was hoping for PC at least, possibly pandora (it has 3d acc.?)

hal9000 - well thanks , least i know that gp2x shouldnt be able to handle it well.

Yeah, pandora has 3D Acceleration. What you want to do should be no prob with it.

Please note that I didn't say that this would definitely be impossible on GP2X, just that it would much harder and the result could not be as nice as with OpenGL.

EDIT:
ledro, you answered while I was typing. This is an answer for you, too.

 

[xcen]

no can do for coding =( but thought I'd mention I'd be interested in making music for the game, if you need a composer =)

 

[yaustar]

The screens look cool but I can't make see how the game is played. What the gameplay concepts? What do you envision the controls?

 

[Sonistar]

The gameplay is similar to Flow, you navigate through the stages using the dpad/analog. As you collect the blue orbs you become faster and faster, until the challange is to not just collect the orbs, but to survive navigating the maze at fast speed. *Note that the walls can be flown into, but constantly hurt you, while the orbs heal you. The idea is that you gain momentum the longer you go straight in a line, creating a style of navigating like the Wipeout games.

 

[yaustar]

What happens to your speed if you hit a wall?

 

[Sonistar]

you sink into the wall and quickly lose your speed, you start getting hurt and have to get out the wall as quickly as you can. As its a concept i think there needs to be a bit of tweaking in order to get the balance right but at the end there should be a nice balance of being hurt and getting health from the balls.
Skilled players will be able to get the turning right and will be able to navigate the course without going into any walls, as theill get to know the turning points.

 

[yaustar]

I was more thinking along the lines of: "If I am going too fast, I would hit a wall to reduce my speed to make it easier as long as I keep my health up" type abuse.