New Project - FLASHOVER - Looking for Coders [Help Wanted]

Falcon · Post by **Falcon** » Tue Mar 04, 2008 4:43 am

Hi all,

I would like to announce my personal project, Flashover. This game is a 3d Adventure with a over-the-shoulder view camera system (Like Fable/Gothic/Assasin's Creed).

The game is rather fantasy genre, though loosely based off of 13th Century France during the Albegensian Crusade (In the region of Languedoc). If you are unfamiliar, the region was inhabitated by a religous people known as the Cathars. The pope declared the Cathar religion as against church doctrine, and so after a number of events, issued a crusade. This was the beginning of the "Inquisition" mentality. The Cathars, within a century, were completely wiped off the face of the earth and so was their culture.

Your character, Etienne, is an inhabitant of this region. He studies under a famous philosopher named Gaeil. Gaeil teaches Etienne a method to travel to another plane of existence, called the "Other World". In the Other World, things are very strange and exotic. It is like a world inside your mind, though both worlds can directly affect each other.

The game is adventure, in the heart of the 90's Sierra Point-and-Clicks, although it is much different with full, beautiful, 3d and action-like camera system (Although, there is no combat in the game). The game is heavily based upon intellectual puzzles.

You can find our forum here:
http://groups.google.com/group/flashovergame

The project is very early in development, using the Irrlicht engine, of course. I am also in the process of integrating Ageia PhysX. I am looking for coders to help, and concept artists.

This project is for portfolio work, as well as the opportunity for like minded ambitious people to get together. Upon completion of the demo, we will be looking for publisher funding (which I have connections for). Unfortunately, I cannot pay for work contributed yet.

Games Credited On:
Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar
Guitar Hero 3: Legends of Rock
Tony Hawk Prooving Grounds

Currently working on an un-announced project for Slipgate Ironworks, under John Romero.

rogerborg · Post by **rogerborg** » Tue Mar 04, 2008 10:41 am

That's an interesting concept, although I'm not clear on what Etienne's goals are (i.e. what's the point of the game?)

What licensing terms would you expect to apply to contributed code or resources?

Monochrome · Post by **Monochrome** » Tue Mar 04, 2008 3:41 pm

Here's a better site for you

http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/

You might get some good help there ^^

Praetor · Post by **Praetor** » Wed Mar 05, 2008 12:02 am

I can't make any huge commitments since I don't have all that much spare time, but I would be happy to contribute some models/textures or help with coding, I have a decent amount of experience with Ageia PhysX, Irrlicht, Ogre3d, Audiere, etc and am pretty good with Blender and making textures with MapZone. If you'd like I can post a few shots of my current project (an fps using Ogre3d and PhysX) as a sample of my work.

Falcon · Post by **Falcon** » Wed Mar 05, 2008 7:47 am

rogerborg wrote:That's an interesting concept, although I'm not clear on what Etienne's goals are (i.e. what's the point of the game?)

The character Etienne's goals are to learn from his teacher, and take a path to the other existence. The story eventually concludes with Etienne escaping reality and permanently residing in the other world (is he crazy? Up to you). The point of the game is to follow the story line and solve puzzles as it unfolds before you. If you like having everything about the point and story handed to you at the beginning, that isn't this game.

rogerborg wrote:What licensing terms would you expect to apply to contributed code or resources?

This project is not commercial. Work done on it is for Portfolio work, recognition. The best payment I can give (at this time) out of this project is my connection to people in the game industry (if you don't work in it already).

I mentioned seeking a publisher, but that won't be for this project. When it is time, we'll see who has the drive to take it to the next level, and work on a 2nd commercial project. If you are looking for quick paid work, this is not for you. If you are looking to make it big off this project, this is not for you. If you are looking for a team of people to call friends and potentially studio partners, then this is for you.

Praetor, any help would be appreciated. If you apply to be a member on our forum, I linked above, I'll approve you and we can talk. Looking forward to it.

Falcon · Post by **Falcon** » Wed Mar 05, 2008 7:52 am

Monochrome wrote:Here's a better site for you

http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/

You might get some good help there ^^

No offense Monochrome, but I don't think I'm going to find good coders that are familiar with Irrlicht at that site. Thanks though.

rogerborg · Post by **rogerborg** » Wed Mar 05, 2008 11:49 am

Thanks for the answers, that clears up a lot.

However, I would respectfully suggest that you ask contributors to either assign copyright to you, or at least explicitly license their contributions. Friends and potential partners do split up, and the time to think about who owns what is before that happens, not afterwards. The of it as a pre-nuptial.

Monochrome · Post by **Monochrome** » Wed Mar 05, 2008 1:28 pm

Falcon wrote:
Monochrome wrote:Here's a better site for you

http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/

You might get some good help there ^^
No offense Monochrome, but I don't think I'm going to find good coders that are familiar with Irrlicht at that site. Thanks though.

Maybe, but you will find coders who are probably experienced in adventure game making. Adapting to irrlicht its a fairly easier process.

Falcon · Post by **Falcon** » Wed Mar 05, 2008 4:11 pm

rogerborg wrote:Thanks for the answers, that clears up a lot.

However, I would respectfully suggest that you ask contributors to either assign copyright to you, or at least explicitly license their contributions. Friends and potential partners do split up, and the time to think about who owns what is before that happens, not afterwards. The of it as a pre-nuptial.

Oh, I see where you are going with this. I was leaning towards open source for this project. Are copyrights still an issue there?

rogerborg · Post by **rogerborg** » Wed Mar 05, 2008 4:49 pm

Yes and no. Just about any license that gives you the rights to use/modify/copy the contributions should be fine: proprietary, GPL, LGPL, zlib, most of the creative commons ones. I'd just hate to see you become reliant on a bunch of unlicensed (C) resources that the creator tries to prevent you using if/when they leave the project.

Praetor · Post by **Praetor** » Wed Mar 05, 2008 9:33 pm

Praetor, any help would be appreciated. If you apply to be a member on our forum, I linked above, I'll approve you and we can talk. Looking forward to it.

Sure, I'm looking forward to it as well, I just sent the application.

I'd just hate to see you become reliant on a bunch of unlicensed (C) resources that the creator tries to prevent you using if/when they leave the project.

I've got no problem with assigning copyrights or whatever, I'm not looking for money, I just want to get some more experience with game design and such.

Falcon · Post by **Falcon** » Thu Mar 06, 2008 2:11 am

Rogerborg,

You bring up an important point. I now realize that it is time to figure out what license etc... we need for our creative project. I'm not sure which license is best for our purposes, any suggestion would be very nice :).

Our plan is to:
1. Form a team, and gain close relationship
2. Complete our demo, get recognition for our work, release to the community for free.
3. Form a company once this project is done
4. Use the technology from this project to make a commercial product in the future