Steph's next great project announcement

Steph

Steph

Multi Many Tasks man
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Sep 1, 2002
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I've been carressing this idea for a long time... And I MIGHT decide to take the step. Depending on some personal testing I would like to make first to check if I can really do it, and also on the support I can get.

I'd like to start writing my own game. It will be a turn based strategy game that will probably look like CivIII, but with a different system behind (diplomacy, battles, economy, research will all be different).

Of course, it is a much more complex project that what I did before, so I'm not sure yet I can really do it, and I would need some help.

At first, it will be a strictly hotseat multiplayer game, I want to check that the mechanism work before moving to implementing an AI.

If you are interesting by this great adventure, you can discuss it here, or send me an email at stephane.f.david@free.fr

More to come later...
 
All that I can say is : BONNE CHANCE !!! :D
I know nothing in coding, but if you need someone to help you design this or that feature, you can ask me, I'll answer you ! Any information about how it will look like ?
 
I know coding...but this sounds like its way out of my league!
 
Well, first I know coding, but not graphics coding (when I started SBB I knew nothing about graphics). And don't know how to play sound either. But I know windows based interface quite well.
So I'm sure I can code something that is "functional", I don't know if I can make it nice.
So after I've done some testing, I'll now if I can make a nice looking map, and if I can animated properly some sprites on it.

Implemanting game mechanism is not really a pb.

I would need people to help me on several topics:
- I need graphics, I suck at graphics, I can only borrow others job.
- Designing.

I will keep the civilopedia equivalent quite simple to start with, I want to focus on the game mechanism.

First thing I do is write the specification, and then I'd like some people to read it and give me feedback about the game mechanism I intend to implement. It will probably be quite different thant civ, even it should be a similar background, it will be turn based, and the map will be tiles (much more easier to do than regions!).

Then I will need help also for some parts of the code : it could be coding itself, or it could also be trying to design some algorithms (like rules to generate nice maps).
 
This sounds very cool, although I am going to be absolutely useless as far as helping out goes.

Unless you want people to make suggestions like "can we have civ specific tech trees" or "can we have a flag that enhances defence against mounted units" etc. :D
 
Mithadan, even this kind of remarks will be welcome!

I've done some testing tonight, and I'm rather happy.

Here is what I've achieved. It's not perfect, but it's a start...
I can draw an animated little guy above a bitmap (the ugly map here, I add nothing else!).
I can also make drag and drop with it.
Now, I need to adapt my first testing to be able to add several animations "at will", and delete them when they are not needed anymore!

When I'll be OK with the animation, I'll try to draw the map behind correctly. I cannot promise the performanceswill be extraordinary, but I'll try to do what I can...
At least, I'll be able to change the rules at will and add the 'flag that enhances defense against flying purples hypopotamus if I want to :D "
 
well, steph. good luck.

by the way, that background is a map, right? it looks familiar to me.

and i guess we'll see your work on it, but...what exactilly you have on mind? some sort of Civilization a la Steph?
 
Is there any way that you can just "fix" the existing civ? Civ-3 would be perfect with a couple more flags and such. It would be much eisier. It would truely be a fully customizable game.
 
Originally posted by Knight_Bond007
well, steph. good luck.

by the way, that background is a map, right? it looks familiar to me.

and i guess we'll see your work on it, but...what exactilly you have on mind? some sort of Civilization a la Steph?
Click to expand...

The background is just an image I'm using for the Map Making tech. It was here just to test the animation above an image.

It will be more than a "Civilization a la Steph". The game play should be very different... I'll try to throw my main ideas on paper for everyone to comment. Basically, I plan to keep similar graphics, because I cand get plenty of materials here. The animation is simply the storyboard of the Cossacks unit converted to PNG, and where the transparency is set to magenta.

I think I can handle coding the game engine. It probably won't be as performant or as nice as what you have in CivIII, but I hope it will be playable :D But I cannot do animation at the same tiume, so I need to borrow it...
 
Originally posted by snsfro
Is there any way that you can just "fix" the existing civ? Civ-3 would be perfect with a couple more flags and such. It would be much eisier. It would truely be a fully customizable game.
Click to expand...

No problem. Get me the source code. Oh? You don't have it?

And even with a couple more flags, I don't think it will be perfect. I have lots of other ideas in mind.
 
It will be available for free, but any donation to support the war effort will NOT be rejected.

I'm not sure I can make something "professional" enough to charge anything... Perhaps I'll change my mind later if I achieve somethig better that I hope.
 
Initial testing and contacts are positive.

I should start coding the graphical engine (maps and units) before September.

I'm also discussing the possibility to include scripting with a friend.
 
This is very exciting. Thank-you for keeping us updated on the progress.
 
Is this in C++?

Becuse i knw some C++ and i could help.
 
It will be C#. I take the opportunity to learn the language that way. However, C# is compatible with C++ so it's possible to :
- Write module in C++ and use them in C#
- Write module in C++ and port them in C#

C# is a lot faster and easier to user than C++, so I think it's a good choice, especially for GUI.
 
It sounds interesting. I might be able to help as I know C++. Also since the CTP2 source might be coming out maybe you could use that.
 
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