How could a game be made around an online community where players log in to play a role in creating a two minute 3d movie? Roles to be filled would be cinematographer, director, set designer, lighting, cameraman, voices, actor/actor manipulators, script writers, etc. Premade sets come with the game, but more importantly, a lot of props are provided. Don''t think of this as exactly a 3d graphics package. Things are builtin to facilitate the non 3d graphics user to set things up. For example, a topview floorplan mode exists where furniture is drag ''n dropped, and gravity takes place of putting the relevant points on the floor, tabletop, shelves, etc. Character models come with builtin gestures and smooth transitions between. Ultimately, 3d gurus can create things in other 3d packages and import them into the stage manager (for lack of a better name) with tagged points defining how things work together. The object of the game is to create a movie short within a certain time limit, at which point it is put up against the others that have been entered during that period. Users then vote on the best movie short for that round of entries, where voting entails voting on any but your own. There could even be a grand film festival every six months or so. There could be genres, and entries for each genre, such as sci-fi, Western, fantasy, contemporary comedy, etc. Rendering is not realtime, facilitating quality graphics.

That idea sounds interesting. Very interesting. If you designed the interface and language right for scene construction, technically you wouldn''t even need a graphical client, I''d think. Players could log-in to the set (show up for shooting, in effect) using nothing but a telnet prompt. (Well, maybe not telnet ) Graphical clients for viewing the scene as it is constructed would be better, of course.

It''d be interesting to see something like this. At the least, I believe it would require creation of a complete language for describing the scenes, the dialogue, the timing. Something like a POVRay scene, but on steroids to account for the dynamic nature of the short. All of the clients(graphical or otherwise) would accept commands and enable actions which would facilitate in constructing the database and script from which the final render is done.

The rendering could be distributed among all the client machines to speed render times.

Josh
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I like the idea; it sounds similar in many ways to a package (non-gaming) that I was idly designing a while back, for theatre directors to ''prototype'' their productions (and a whole load more, like actually run the technical on the night, store the script, etc).

In fact, I think trying to explicitly aim it at gamers would be the wrong way to do it. Aim it at *anyone* who wants to try their own home production - parody makers, machinimatists, budding directors building a portfolio, and so on. Let people percieve it as a ''home theatre studio.''

*Then* you can hold competitions and the like for what people can produce with it. You see the exact same thing from things like Blender - ''Best of the Gallery'' type stuff.

However, there''s nothing to say the program couldn''t support this inherently. Perhaps a ''publish to gallery'' option from within the app which would send your project directly to the website and put it up for display? The two-minute time constraint would be a condition of the competition, not the program, and the program could be used to verify it before submission.

Or alternatively, have people browse and vote from within the program. If the uploaded projects were kept in a sort of ''semi-rendered'' state, then they could be smaller, faster downloads, while still not taking too long to prepare for the viewer.

I''d love something like this, I think - much, much simpler than 3DS Max, but capable of creating short films.

Superpig
- saving pigs from untimely fates, and when he''s not doing that, runs The Binary Refinery.
Enginuity1 | Enginuity2 | Enginuity3 | Enginuity4

A game like that has been made a while ago (I can't recall the name). It was not multiplayer though.

[edited by - Cahaan on August 22, 2003 12:52:50 PM]

quote: Original post by Cahaan
A game like that has been made a while ago (I can''t recall the name). It was not multiplayer though.

You mean The Movies by.. I think it was Peter Molyneux? It came off more like a Sim-Hollywood-Studio - that is, you had to worry about money and the like - than a purely creative thing. And as far as I know, it''s not out.

It''s like Rollercoaster Tycoon. Chris Sawyer got somewhat irritated with the people who kept hacking the game to give themselves unlimited money at the like - but they were doing it because they wanted to construct the theme park of their dreams without worrying about the money and so on. He''s made some concessions in RCT2 - the Scenario Editor - but it''s still not a ''theme park making application.'' It''s clearly a game, and for many people, that weakens it.

Superpig
- saving pigs from untimely fates, and when he''s not doing that, runs The Binary Refinery.
Enginuity1 | Enginuity2 | Enginuity3 | Enginuity4

An example of a more general class of "multiplayer creativity games". (Creativity games must, almost of necessity, be multiplayer). Each player makes X creative thingy in response to a particular theme and/or available resources; players vote on each other''s entries; votes are tallied and points are awarded. See Bezerk''s "Acrophobia" for a good example of this, including the pitfalls of the system.

How appropriate. You fight like a cow.

quote: Original post by superpig
I think it was Peter Molyneux? It came off more like a Sim-Hollywood-Studio - that is, you had to worry about money and the like - than a purely creative thing. And as far as I know, it''s not out.

no it was another game, an old game that has been released.

I remember something like that, but it wasn''t exactly a game. It was a "make your movie!" sort of software for kids. It used pre-rendered backdrops and real-time 3D models (using a software engine). Everything was done visually, in some sort of building block/timeline fashion: you create a scene, then choose a backdrop, then the music, then pick actors from your cast, drag them around the scene, then have them walk from A to B, punch the other character in the stomach, run across the road and be hit by a truck, then move onto next scene.

Regardless of what else is out there, I think the point is to allow collaboration of individuals to harness a tool easily for the express purpose of making short movies, focusing on the more pure aspects of cinema, which, hopefully, is story, dialogue, mood, expression, lighting, and cinematography, and hopefully, does not rely on excessive ''gamelike'' special effects.

If the tool provides the expressive power without requiring the low level skill necessary in your typical 3d graphics package, the product has a chance.

I''m sure many people would like to try their hand at being a cinematographer, or a script writer, or a voice actor, etc., without having to enter a playing field requiring large funding, huge 3d applications, expensive camera equipment, stage production, etc.

To provide this environment, two things are key: A 3d application which provides a large library of existing props and actors complete with builtin animations, the ability to smoothly transform from one animation to another, a high quality renderer, an excellent physics engine with kinematics and physical based modeling, a fanbase of dedicated and enthusiastic 3d experts willing to create new props and actors and upload them to a library, and an excellent online tool for hooking up with other users, conversing, uploading elements, viewing finished projects, etc.

The real challenge is to create ''directable'' characters, characters which can respond appropriately within their environment to directional cues, such as: look angry, point at Bob, wave your hands, wave your hands faster, run your fingers through your hair, sigh, yawn, grimace, draw your gun, and so on.