Kagato said:
I've had an idea in the back of my mind for a long time now.
I'd like to set up a site called "Open Game Worlds"
(which I see has now been taken, but that's irrelevant), where the community could build up a collection of shared assets & resources for building consistent game experiences.
It grew from looking at open source games trying to emulate the feel of commercial franchises like Mario & Zelda, and usually ending up with poorly realised Tux-based ripoffs. Projects hosted on the site would be to establish "open source game franchises", with lots of depth to the character and world designs, and above all a consistent direction to everything. The site wouldn't build actual games; just assemble the materials that developers could draw upon.
Another project idea
(and this is where I finally get relevant to the topic) was the "
Island City" project, whose goal was to plan and assemble resources for a city of similar scope to Liberty City from GTA3. This would differ a bit from the "franchise" projects as the city map assets would probably have to be matched to an appropriate engine for rendering them, so there would likely be some code associated with it. However, the project still wouldn't produce a specific game -- rather, the assets & engine could be used to build a variety of games.
For example, given a small city and a game engine to suit, you could produce:
- a GTA knockoff (obviously)
- a dedicated street-racing game
- traffic simulations
- a city-wide zombie apocalypse game
- etc...
So, yeah.
I guess I'm suggesting that if you're going to the effort of building a game engine of that scope, it would be better for everyone if it's made as flexible as possible, so you could build on it and end up with a whole raft of interesting games, rather than just a free port of a commercial game.
Finally someone that's on my boat!
My view on the gaming world is that 'closed sources' have the man-power to build great engines (textures, renders, interface and artwork)
But they have limited imagination/capabilities (legals etc)
So what Kagato said is what I also thought for a long time ... and it would be awesome!
Zombie survival game, built on GTA3 ... I also thought of that!! (man your like a long lost relative or clone)
I had the idea from pokemon games (red/blue), just so I can make my own game with revised pokemon/towns/people/items.
To start the GTA3 engine is without a question outdated.
And the most difficult to compile when making a game is the engine, then the interfaces, then the art.
I wish that a few good dev's create a developers kit that includes everything you need to make a game.
It would have everything including some example art (backgrounds, environments, weathers, buildings, characters, vehicles, weapons, sound etc).
And they would make a software, where it would be easier to see what your doing and even test the level so people can gradually improve their game.
Then all it would take is a small group of aspirated people to look and go sweet!
They would have the ideas, record/make their own sounds, draw their own artwork, finalise the user interface ... then assemble (with instructions and their previous experience)
I mean that would just be sweet.
And the best part is, people could sign up to their forums, give their ideas and contributions (example some artwork) and then devs could use that to bring together a neat game.
Naturally the whole thing would be "Open" so people can borrow art from other people's work and distribute it on the net.
No fee's, just a "For Us, By Us" situation.
I know it sounds like I'm asking alot, but it actually isn't. It's not impossible, just nobody wants to be that guy that worked for free, right?
It doesn't need to be great just something versatile and potential like GTA3.
ie 3D environment where you can Walk, Drive, Shoot in 1st person and 3rd person mode.
I know on a 20" screen GTA3 looks suicidal, but it wouldn't matter on something small like the Pandora.
Just need a legendary team to do the heavy work, and they can even take the credit for future released games on that developers kit.
I think it would be swell!
Do you disagree on a project like this? Why?
