Okay, so I have been working on my opus for some time now (nearing a year) its basically a 2d diablo II in space. Though as work goes further and further, I find that I have more and more things on my list of stuff to do. The shame is the project is hitting that "stale time" and im now in the "Force myself to work on it to finish *A* game" Its not nessciarily an unfun game, i showed earlier versions (indistuginshable from the current version, as most the work has been done under the hood: data structures, stuff to handle missions, game editors etc..), but from what i showed to my few friends, they were very impressed... Now im not sure if they were impressed by it was a game with moving stuff on the screen, or by the game itself (had to of been the former since the game itself was almost non-existant, just the control scheme and the shooting and sprites) While the game isnt out of my scope to do (yes i know diablo II was a very highly commercial game, with dozens on the programming/sound/art team) what i mean is obviously in sheer scope the game itself isnt as big as Diablo II...since of course im just me working on it, i just used diablo II as its the closest thing to the vision for the game. The game is: 2d space combat adventure with some RPG. Whats working: I used some stock sprites from "Tricks of the game programming gurus" which is what the game is based on (the outpost game) though ive modified the engine from that to do 16 bit color, and some other nifty stuff as alpha blending (slow though only good for small sprites) and text stuff etc... Then i used some ideas from "Programming role playing games in direct X" for most the data. This includes the game editors which now support (the editors that are done, and most the data is loaded and used in game): Editing of conversations (ID, brief text, full text), on okay set next conversation/mission Editing of missions: this allows u to specify mission type (kill, escort, goto, talk to *OBJECTID* and an object type "Planet" "Regular NPC" "Special NPC" "Spawned NPC(s)" "Mine" "Asteroid". Editing of items: The best part, works great, lets u edit the names and attributes of items, giving them a category on what they do: Shields, Shield recharge, armor, speed, hyperspace ability etc.. Editing of weapons: Like items but allows for three types (though one is just implemented in game, plasma shot) Plasma shot, lasers, missiles. Editing of areas: this lets u specify the planets, the NPC''s the conversations and missions int hat area. Then u can edit those further, like the names of npc''s the conversations they have, their general level, their attitudes etc... Planets u can edit that plus their base tax rate (for adjustment when buying/selling goods) Whats Left: A) Fixing the missions to work across the board, just have the talk to check in there, need kill working (Almost done) and the escort stuff to be done, this though requires the AI for the NPC''s to be done...thats not really done yet. B) Need more content, in terms of enemies. Currently just mines, asteroids and one race''s gunship. I plan to have 7 or so races, each with about 5 types of ships : (Scout, gunship, bomber, fighter, transport) C) Need the AI for the above mentioned ships. (just one done , the Idian Gunships, hacked straight from TOWGPG) D) Handle equiping, and inventory. I need some user interface ability here, window to pop up, mouse to clicka nd drag items etc...this hasnt even begun. E) Handling saveing and loading of pilots (this just saves and loads games). I havent begun this but shouldnt be to bad. F) Need to put in random item/weapon drops after destroying enemies....this hasnt begun but have a good idea how to do this. Will use a generic stock graphic for all items an enemy drops, the float around and u pick it up then in inventory the graphic is still stock, but u can read what it is (saves my art design time by making one graphic for the item/weapon type..then just displaying the attributes in a mouse over or something) G) Have to flesh out the RPG elements, the game editors allow for giving enemies and mission XP rewards, and in code that works witht he one enemy and two missions I have. I just have to now input a level up table so x many XP points means next level. This includes me having to add attributes to a player and allowing those to get better, perhaps ill put some level restrictions on some weapons/items before they can be used. H) Need to add a gold economic system and the ability to ask NPC''s and planets to buy sell goods. This to requires a user interface. What was planned or I wanted that probably wont happen: 1) Wanted advance ai for the enemies, like factions and reaction rolls etc... 2) Wanted two more classes instead of the one scout class, this would of been bomber class and fighter class. Each class would have a very diablo II esque skill tree, where ver level u get points to buy a skill, skills in other class trees cost more points...these skills would of been hardcoded into the game for the effects, and resolution to play out in the game (for simplicity, plus the skills and their trees would of been pretty static anyway, not needing an editor to specify skill names, values, graphics etc..) So there you have it, my opus. As I play the game and make it, and work my butt offon it, i keep getting worried it wont be fun, not because the game sucks but becasue Im not sure ill get all the content it needs to be fun, along with all the polish to make the game not so amaturish. (still will be amaturish, but now its bad, like no optimization yet, and i get only 28FPS on a Trasmuta 800MHZ laptop(my dev machine for this game)). I need artists in the worse way, or someone to converse with to give me ideas to improve the user interface(s), story, and some mechanics too...but alas its just me on the project The game controls with the mouse but instead of a click fest, the mouse just really steers ur ship, the ship always poitns to the cursor, and the further u move the cursor from the ship the faster u accelerate..then click button fires weapons...so u still have to do a lot of pointing and shooting and circling. So anyone have: Thoughts, ideas, suggestions, shoulders to cry on!??!?!?! :D The sad thing is i could drop this game, and attempt to work on something else...but alas even though I have a far way to go, the game is a far way along already..so just dropping it wouldnt be feasable... I could tone down the scope still, but then im afraid it will be indisguishable from the outpost demo in the tricks of the game programming guru''s which was just basically a 2d over head shooter. If u read this far, thanks...that in itself helps for motivation. -Shane

Looks like you are just loosing track of things...you need a plan. Try listing up everything you need or think must still be done (like in your post, but more formalized). Try breaking those items up into the tasks that are needed to finish them. Prioritize them, and schedule them. Make a huge check list if you have to. Try and group the items in 3 to 5 day iterations. That way every week you can see definite progress, which will help motivate you. Everyone loses motivation now and then on their projects. At these times it is good to just look at the next step than the horizon.

As far as content goes, it can be tough. I have asked on these boards many times if people know of similar boards where artists and musicians meet, but I have not found any. I would definitly try and find them now if I were you. Even if they are just up to creating a couple of sprites, it will help.

http://pixelation.swoo.net is a great place for meeting pixel artists.

Divinus Entertainment
Land of Relics Art Director
http://divinus.net

Ya, I have that formal thing, its a wonderful "Todo" list. I have seperated it from the rest of my project (though i have it in my project view as a text file. That is no doubt the way to go, it has gotten me that far. its nice to have a concise list of thigns needing to be done, and then its really nice to see them as they get checked off.

Its just I think the mission stuff was a killer, since I didnt have a scripting engine (didnt wnat that much more of a pain to deal with) I went ahead and just tried to make as robust a system as possible. The sad thing is it will seem pretty general I guess, almost as if the missions were randomly created even thought hey are made in an editor with the ability to link to results and conversations.

The worse part of the whole project was the mission system, that is where having someone else on the team would of helped...I struggled to think of a good way to do it and my final implementation shows my inabiltiy to come up with a good solution for this one area of problem. I couldnt even do predesign/UI mockups because I had no idea how to even tackle it, hence the bruteforce method was used and thusly the mission stuff shows that it was used,but I guess in the end there is "A" mission builder that can keep track and execute missions so nonetheless it was a step in the right direction.

I think the most frustrating thing is not being able to find content etc... As you stated I have looked around for content and its just to hard find good content that fits. Worse yet, is trying to get an artist to help out, its the same problem everytime:
A) they dont ever produce
B) They think because u cannot keep up with them in terms of output that u suck or ur not doing anything (not realizing that programming and doing art while both very labor intensive , coding doesnt always provide results with given input, as art usually does)

C) They have no techinical skill at all, dont understand sprite requirements or anything, just a general headache.

Though going to the 16bit engine helped out there a lot (ditching palatized modes) still cant find anyone to do sprites, mostly I guess because a "simple space action/adventure/rpg" game isnt intereseting engouh, and admittingly its probably not.

Then thre is the issue of money, I guess no one understands the want to make a game just to make one, to complete one, to put it in your portfolio and say "yep" I did that... *Shrug*

Oh well thanks again for letting me rant.
it helps.

That sounds a bit like an old mac game called escape velocity. That was a fantastic, yet pretty simple game. I think your concept is fundamentally a good one - as you say, how fun the game ultimately is will depend on small details like mission text, art & the interface. One idea to keep you motivated - see if there is a limited set of functionality that''s within reach that would make the program a fairly complete game. For example, maybe you get completely simple, random assignments (get to system ABC within N days), just enough to provide a little motivation to the player. Build a rudametary (sic) UI so you feel like you''re playing a real game. Then you can sit back for a week or two and enjoy what you''ve done, let your friends play it, etc. Just an idea.

I think you have a good idea but you must refine it. Good job for getting as far as you have!!
I would be more than glad to just talk to you about ideas and such if you would like. If so just add me to MSN, nickmerritt@hotmail.com

I am working on my own project(www.musli.tk) but I would be glad to give some ideas. Where I live I know no one who can program. I won''t be on for about a mounth though, because I''m moving and my comp is packed.
Nick Merritt

Müsli Games