"General's Project" - Unique game concept

[Acid]

Hey everybody... My friends and I started a small game development company and we're looking for programmers to assist us with our first big project. We came up with an awesome idea for a multiplayer online game that combines an RTS (real-time strategy) overhead war game with a 1st person shooter. The "Generals" as we call them are acting as the heads of each faction (like in almost every RTS game), but some of their units are humans. The human units are called "Commandos" and they see in 1st person... they are in the world that the General has created, and have the same goal as the General, except they see it from an entirely different perspective and have entirely different features available to them. Generals can assign missions to Commandos as well as have control over the production of units, equipment, vehicles, buildings, etc... and have to worry about territory and all that good stuff. Commandos on the other hand have a less-difficult time trying to cope with their situation, but they still have to gain experience to get better skills, proficiencies, characters, equipment, team members (they can lead AI units assigned to them), and so forth...

Don't worry - we've worked out all the potential flaws that you're probably thinking right now like - "That would be utter chaos... they wouldn't listen to the General!!!!" and stuff like that. There's also a lot more to the game than I could possibly describe on a single forum, although if you have questions, please feel free to ask them....

Anyways, I'm looking for programmers (C++ is preferred) to assist us in the project. You can find information pertaining to it at www.classifiedentertainment.net or generalsproject.classifiedentertainment.net.

For those of you that don't plan on reading all the stuff that we posted on the site, but are interested in the game itself.. what were your thoughts on all of this? Any suggestions? Comments?

~Acid

[Acid]

Oh, and I almost forgot...

I shouldn't have said we're just looking for C++ programers... We've got artists, multi-lingual translators, concept designers, a composer, a 3D modeler, a marketer, etc... but we're looking for people with experience in those fields too (or maybe just some people to beta test our products). We plan to be doing more than just this single project, and we've noticed that a lot of people are always interested in doing something, they just don't have anywhere to do it. We basically resemble an SIG company at the moment, but that'll change in the future.

Let me know if you're interested in working on something... we've gathered quite a large team already.

~Acid

[anubis]

-> personal announcement...

[anubis]

i don't think that people will reply to this unless you provide something that shows that you have actually got more than an idea... concept art, design document, a website ?

[Acid]

i don't think that people will reply to this unless you provide something that shows that you have actually got more than an idea... concept art, design document, a website ?
10022


www.classifiedentertainment.net - you can find everything there.

[anubis]

sorry... i didn't see the url... my fault.
on to the next advice... tell people what they will be working with. do you use an existing engine ? if yes, which one ? is there payment involved ? you say you don't explictly request c++ programmers. does that mean you don't even know what language the game will be written in ?

[Acid]

General's Project will be in C++... however, the programmers with other languages are being welcomed to join to assist with some of the other projects. We only have General's Project up at the moment because that's our only copyrighted game.

We haven't chosen an engine yet for a variety of reasons - Cost is a major issue.. it would be great to use the Half-Life 2 engine or the UT2k4 engine, but that's just not going to happen. We DO plan on using an engine (unless the programmers say otherwise), but we're to wait to see what our programmers think, as they might already have their own preferences.

Payment at the moment is not possible - we're an SIG business at the moment. Of course, we don't plan to stay that way....

[anubis]

since you are lacking programmers and are an unknown company it might even be worthwhile considering to implement this as a mod for the unreal/hl2 engine...

[NomadRock]

See

Savage: Battle for Newearth
Half-Life mod : Natural Selection

There are others but these are two ongoing ones that are very popular. The Natural Selection guys are in the process of making a sequel for a newer engine, probably HalfLife 2.

Remember this, there is nothing new under the sun. Everything has been done before. Instead of thinking what you are doing is new, instead search until you find where it has been done before and attempt to learn from their mistakes, only this way can you hope to achieve greatness. Also, dont hope to achieve greatness on your first try.

Personally I love this gametype and would love to see more of them, because it is far from perfected. Just remember, everyone thinks their own idea is the coolest...

[Mihail121]

Wait, wait, wait, all of you!!! Have you _actually_ never heard of the most popular game from this type:

Battle Zone 1/2

it's the best RTS/FPS game ever created, it's also so beutiful! Check it out...

P.S.
Natural Selection is pretty good too!

[Acid]

I've heard a little about NS, but not about the others. The game is a pretty sweet idea though... it doesn't *just* combine RTS/FPS - in my opinion at least there's a lot to it. A mod wouldn't be a bad idea, just so long as we can get an appropriate prototype.

[Mihail121]

Uhm... that's not the best idea to be honest but you could be practical! Just make sure you have all the design documents, game ideas, etc. paper stuff ready then you can can take Quake II's engine (free), extend it a bit and code with it.

Of course since such an FPS/RTS game will probably require an out-door engine, you can get one of the many free ones!

Coding is really straightforward ones you have the whole plan in your head!

[anubis]

then you can can take Quake II's engine (free), extend it a bit


why on earth would you want to take an indoor fps engine and make a terrain rts engine out of it ? there arebetter free engines for that

[Mihail121]

HELLO?? Natural Selection is the best example of indoor RTS!

[anubis]

i just realized that you yourself proposed the quake 2 engine and in the next sentence an out door engine :)

[NomadRock]

I think a UT2k4 mod would be awesome. I would make a mod like this myself if only I had the time and the artistic resources. Most of the work has already been done.

[Acid]

Good news... i might have just found 5 programmers...

[davepermen]

congrats

[Def Base]

Nomad, I have to say that not everything has been done before. I worked on a game last year (not released yet, and NDA means I can't say anything) which had a concept that had never been done before. Won't appeal to everyone, but it's new.

[NomadRock]

Well techincally everything is just a rehash of something else, but yes you are right, there is a first for every genre. However, chances are if you are a newbie your idea is in fact not new.

[Mihail121]

Yes, Nomad, that's the big problem with all of the games lately - the lack of ideas. It's not the graphics shell the sells the game but the _game_ itself. That's why i like simple games like Bomberman, Bomber, Missle Command, Super Mario etc.

Of course if you guys can come with a good game idea i'm take my time to test it in detail, i promise!

Good luck on that! :)

[NomadRock]

Definately. Even though it has worse graphics DeusEx is still more fun to play than Doom3. Not that I would object to having DeusEx with the graphics of Doom3.

This is the main beauty of our current system. As game makers we don't need to have the absolute maximum in game engine capabiliy to make a fun game. We are no longer limited in what we can do. This has been true I think since Quake2.

I've got some ideas up my sleeve, but ideas are a dime a dozen, if I can manage to get something together as a working game I would also be up for starting a team. Any more there is really no excuse for not having at least a working demo though.