   Dream. Build. Play team looking for artist(s)!
Team name: gaf (games are fun) studioProject name: Project Forseti (working title, may or not may be game title)Brief description: Forseti started out as a few friends working on a very ambitious project. We have since decided to strip some of the early (more complicated, less needed) features out in order to get a feature complete game ready for the "Dream. Build. Play." competition. The features that are left are those that are core to the gameplay vision and we feel these will help create a unique game play experience in Forseti. Forseti is a 2D action/adventure game. The game features both single player and multiplayer modes. In single player mode the player will explore different areas, kill monsters, level up, and collect loot. The gameplay here will play out like most adventure games (Zelda and what not). The multiplayer modes will feature a pvp battle-type system. For DBP we have decided to focus on three different battle modes: Brawl (free for all), Arena (team based combat), and 1v1 and team based tug-of-war. The T.O.W mode is by far the most interesting. In this mode everyone will share a single health bar. As one side deals damage their side of the bar will raise while the other side will decrease. The first to fill their side of the health bar wins. As the player kills monsters (in single player) or players (in multiplayer), he/she will level up and earn attribute points. These points can then be spent to increase the players strength. The player is not bound to any class, he/she is free to mold his/her character any way he wishes.Killing monsters (not players in this case) will also net the player with some loot - weapons, armor, potions, etc. These can be equipped and/or used to increase the player's strength even further.As for current progress - the screen system and map engine are just about complete. The screen system is pretty much 100% done and the map engine is about 80% done. We have also created a few tools to create weapons, armor, items, and monsters. Target aim: Dream. Build. Play. submission, so therefore it will be freeware. The final goal, however, is to release a more robust version for Microsoft's Community Games for Xbox Live. Dream. Build. Play. will give us a great jumping off point for a more robust version :)Compensation: Initially we will be working on a volunteer basis. Should we win the DBP competition all winnings will be split evenly. Those who help with the DBP build will also be welcome to continue working with us as we put together a more robust version for Community Games. All earnings here will be split on a per-contribution bases. Even if you decide to not continue with us, you will still compensated should we go on to sell the game on Community Games.Technology: Microsoft's XNA Game Studio 3.0/3.1. The final submission needs to be compatible with XNA 3.1 which will not be released until May. Graphics will be 2D and we are using a highly modified version of the RPG starter kit on the XNA website for the map engine. Talent needed:Artist: 2D artist to create environments, character/monster sprites and animations, and UI stuff.- Maps: The DBP build will use just 3 different tile sets to create 3 different single player and 3 different multiplayer maps.- Characters: We need male and female animated sprites. This would include a different sprite for each of 5 different weapon combination: 1h Sword, 2h Sword, Bow, Staff, and 1h Sword + Shield. Changing equipment will not change your model, unless you change to a different class of weapons. Basically, each and every sword will have the same art.- Monsters: The number of monsters models needed can be discussed with the artist. Basically whatever the artist feels they can have in time for DBP will be fine with us. We could prefer to have more than 1 monster, however :)- Skill Animations: The typical type stuff, nothing fancy at all. None of it has to be that varied that either. We can discuss with the artist how simple we could/should go. :)- UI Stuff: The basic UI stuff - menus, bars, icons, etc.Team structure:Myself - Lead programmer. I will be doing the majority of the programming.Quan - Programmer. He is currently working on all the internal tools we need but will be moving over to help with the game once those are complete.Logan - Designer. He's responsible for designing the game, deciding which features stay and go, play testing, etc. Website: We currently have forums setup, however we have not yet finished moving all the information from our notebook yet. Logan and myself are currently working on getting the forums updated will the information we have in hard copy. http://www.gafstudio.comContacts: If you're interested, feel free to send me a PM here on the boards or you can email me at jason@gafstudio.com :)Previous Work by Team:Jason - Programming for 14 years, everything from simple applications to more complex 2D games. Been developing professionally for the past 8 years. Programming is pretty much all I do. It actually defines me, and my wife hates it :DQuan - Programming for 7 years, mainly business type applications. This is his first game project, but he's an extremely quick learner. We've worked on various projects together in the past.Logan - He's not a technical guy really. He understand it, but it's not his fortay. He's a writer (and an English major in college) and is currently in talks with a few people about getting his first book published :)Additional Info: I wanted to share a few more tidbits of information on Forseti.The skill system is semi-unique to adventure type games. You are not given skills as you level up, but instead you have to learn them from the weapons you find. Every weapon has a skill attached to it. Once you equip that weapon, you can use the skill it has. As you use the skill, you will gain skill experience. Once you've gained enough skill experience you will learn that skill for good. That means that once you unequip the weapon, you can still use that skill. If the skill has not been learned fully, when you unequip the weapon you can longer use that skill.Skills are not only combat in Forseti. They can also interact with the environment. For instance, if you're playing a single player map and there are trees blocking your way you could use a few skills to knock those trees down. Maybe you want to cut them down, so you use Slash and the trees fall and your path is opened up. Maybe there's a river blocking your path, so you cast Ice to freeze the water so you can walk across it.Skills also effect the environment in multiplayer. Let's say the map you're battling your friends on has some pillars. Your friend happens to stand next to the pillar, so you Sprint into that pillar. The pillar falls and damages your opponent. Beyond the skill system, Forseti also features a more interesting equipment system. Instead of just equipping a piece of armor/weapon and forgetting about it, you can level these items up. Each weapon/armor has stats associated with it (+100 HP, +5 Strength, +10 Dexterity, etc). As you use that weapon/armor, you will gain equipment experience. Once the eEXP bar has filled, you can chose to which stat you want to increase and assign a point to it. Adding a point (in our example above) to HP will grant you a +10 HP boost. Adding a point to STR will grant you a +1 STR boost. These boosts are valid ONLY when you're wearing that item. When you equip the item, you lose the boost.Feedback: Any and all feedback is welcome and encouraged :)[Edited by - gaf studio on April 22, 2009 8:52:36 AM]
  Hi, just wondering something (since you said any feedback) about your level system in multiplayer mode. From what I understand - might be wrong - players use their character in multiplayer mode and can gain experience there as well, but wouldn't that make your game completely unbalanced when people from different levels fight?   ;Quote:Original post by RewdewHi, just wondering something (since you said any feedback) about your level system in multiplayer mode. From what I understand - might be wrong - players use their character in multiplayer mode and can gain experience there as well, but wouldn't that make your game completely unbalanced when people from different levels fight?We have actually created (on paper, anyways) a variation of Microsoft's TrueSkill system as a way to match people of the same character levels and skill level. It's actually rather simple. The great thing about Xbox Live's matchmaking system is it provides us with a means of assigning properties to network sessions and then finding sessions based on those properties. That means we can limit the network sessions of players based on anything we want - level, skills, character names, anything :DThe "hard" part here is Xbox Live doesn't not support us using an outside source to host character information - nor does it provide us with any other services but matchmaking and a networking infrastructure. So we basically have to make sure anything that happens online synchs to their offline mode as well. This is fairly simple, but just requires us to make sure we save to disk at the right times and as little as possible :D   ;  Well the Xbox Live ranking system is fine to give you a hint about the players' skills, but as long as any character has stronger weapons or more skills or anything (that is, for his character, not the player himself) that's sort of unfair for any other player...   ;Quote:Original post by RewdewWell the Xbox Live ranking system is fine to give you a hint about the players' skills, but as long as any character has stronger weapons or more skills or anything (that is, for his character, not the player himself) that's sort of unfair for any other player...Agreed, and that's where our variation on their system comes in. It takes into account player weapons, equipment, skills they have active, etc.What I forgot to mention is each player can only have an max of 3 active skills at once. This means they can only use 3 different skills in battle. These skills can only be set from the home screen, outside of any combat. ;  When it comes to action games, a player's developed skill at the game itself CAN trump whatever "pluses" a higher level character in the game has, as long as the the curve of the game's attribute numbers are significantly less steep than conventional rpgs.I would consider writing music for this, although you seem to have stolen my idea for a multiplayer :pI have tracks of mine up on myspace:  http://www.myspace.com/artimusbena   ;Quote:Original post by Artimus BenaWhen it comes to action games, a player's developed skill at the game itself CAN trump whatever "pluses" a higher level character in the game has, as long as the the curve of the game's attribute numbers are significantly less steep than conventional rpgs.I would consider writing music for this, although you seem to have stolen my idea for a multiplayer :pI have tracks of mine up on myspace:  http://www.myspace.com/artimusbenaIndeed - we currently have it structured where your attributes are not nearly as helpful as they are in typical RPGs/MMOs. They are still helpful, naturally, but we've created a system (we think) that keeps the curve between levels at an acceptable level. A level 1 should not be able to kill a level 30, but a level 22 or so should based on character skill :)I'll give those tracks a listen sometime here tonight and shoot you a PM :)P.S: I apologize for any idea brain-waves of yours I may or may not have intercepted. I suggest a tinfoil hat, they're rather cheap!;  Compose role has been filled, thanks for all the interest! We are, however, still looking for an artist :D   ;  Maybe these shots will convince some potential artists out there that we really need help :D These are nothing special, but they show the main menu, the home screen (half of it anyways, the other half will be finished when we get multiplayer stuff working), and part of a map.The tiles I'm using on the map are from the XNA RPG Starter Kit. They'll be replaced once we get our own tilesets :)Main MenuHomeScreenTest Map 2;  Hi , some of my recent works , will add to portfolio soon : www.imageox.com/share/382737-news.jpegwww.imageox.com/share/382743-KnightMare.jpegHope you like them :) , done forget to check my portfolio : http://3dshaystudio.com/Portfolio/and email me for any graphic you might need for your games : blue_shay@hotmail.comKind RegardsM.Shay