Hi all, My question concerns the type of project normally classified as a ''demo''... not a full game, because I don''t have that kind of time. I only have two months this summer, and I''m taking summer school for one month of it. But while I have many ideas (of questionable value) for full games, I don''t know how to come up with a good demo idea that will fit into the time restrictions. My qualifications: - Advanced 3-D programming ability (full game engine from scratch in C, advanced radiosity calculator from scratch, OpenGL/Direct3D, hardware shaders, the works) - High level math (math major at UC Berkeley) - Writing skills (poetry, songs, novels -- dialogue, prose, and plot) - Music composition (play piano and guitar, writing guitar music) - Artistic ability (sketching, painting, drawing, CGI modeling for 9 years) - AI/Natural Language Processing (also a cognitive science major at UC Berkeley with an emphasis in Linguistics) Obviously I can''t work all of these elements into one demo. I''ve been monitoring this forum, but most of the ideas are too sophisticated or not in line with my interests. So to someone who has tried this and gotten good responses: What kind of demo should I spend my two months on? Thanks! Tom

I don''t have any specific ideas for you, but one suggestion is to limit the amount of art you need because it takes a lot of time. For example, if you make a fighting game use some pre-made models or even just a skeleton like the biped model from Character Studio. Then if there''s time at the end of the summer you can pretty up the characters.


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http://www.zmgames.com/

This post isn''t intended as a flame, so sorry if it sounds like one.

You say you have all those qualifications? Then why cant you think of what to do in a demo yourself? Do a demo of what you enjoy programming.

You can do radiosity, but can you do it fast enough for a real-time demo?

Writing skills arent going to be of use in a visual demo (Math will though)

You can write decent ai? Then why not write a demo on AI?

etc.

"but most of the ideas are too sophisticated or not in line with my interests."

Then write a demo that IS IN LINE with your interests.

Try what they did at the Indie Game Jam- find a technical aspect that isn''t normally explored or pushed to the limits (in the IGJ''s case, the number of onscreen sprites that modern computers can handle) and go from there. Many cool demos and a good GameDev article were born from that event.

quote: Original post by Exorcist
You can do radiosity, but can you do it fast enough for a real-time demo?

I can use my radiosity tools to precalculate shading for the scenes used in the demo. Then I can then add some cheap hacks to update the solution in realtime for dynamic objects.

quote:
Writing skills arent going to be of use in a visual demo (Math will though)

You can write decent ai? Then why not write a demo on AI?

I don''t want a visual demo, I want a nice-looking interactive demo. Any kind of NPC interaction or environment design would theoretically require writing-related skills.

My problem with an AI demo is that I have no way of knowing how long that would take, and I would also have to design some sandbox world for the AI to play in. I''ve done small NLP tools before and I''ve found that these things take far longer than I thought they would.

Tom

I have an article on it that is just what you are looking for. E-mail me from my profile addy and I will send it in the reply.

Adventuredesign

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You know, Socrates never told us that ''know thyself'' sometimes came by way of ''scare thyself''.

quote: Original post by adventuredesign
I have an article on it that is just what you are looking for. E-mail me from my profile addy and I will send it in the reply.

quote: GameDev.net Forums
Sorry, this user has blocked public access to his/her email address.

How about a small adventure game demo set back in the Celtic highlands? Something along the lines of Orson Scott Card''s _Enchanted_ without the timewarp and in a different place.

Or take almost any existing game and give nonviolent options for completing encounters. Deepen tried or tried-and-true systems such as the Morrowind/Diablo systems of alchemy and transmutation, giving modifiers for material states and locale.

An Idea:

find some music that you like(with no copyright issues), and create a music-video-demo!

its easy to find the mode for a sceen from the music, and go from there! Make the visuals amplify the music modes!
(it always looks great if the demo folows the music/any music-sync is usualy great)

quote: Original post by ParadigmShift

quote: Original post by adventuredesign
I have an article on it that is just what you are looking for. E-mail me from my profile addy and I will send it in the reply.

quote: GameDev.net Forums
Sorry, this user has blocked public access to his/her email address.

Sorry pagadigmshift, I''ll fix it right away. Hmm, never notice I had it configged that way.

Adventuredesign
__________________


You know, Socrates never told us that ''know thyself'' sometimes came by way of ''scare thyself''.