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Guys if you look at :
http://gamedesign.wikidot.com/
They have a wiki area for projects. This might be a great way to work on our story character backgrounds, vehicle stats and capabilites etc. Documentation etc.
Let me know what you think?
Michael Hartlef
16-03-2007, 11:06
No problem what ever you like is fine with me. Just please decide which one. I started yesterday to collect everything inside Celtx, but will stop now.
hartnell
16-03-2007, 11:19
If you want to have a section on GDN for a specific project, let me know. I'm planning on hosting projects there for specific projects later and a test-case would be a good idea. -hartnell
Petr Schreiber
16-03-2007, 11:53
Hi Mike,
is the celtix good ? They have even czech version ( and many other localised ) of it on pages so this seems nice.
Wiki could be good too, but I don't knwo ... now we have TopDown board with many sections, then wiki, then celtx ... searching right solution is hard :)
Bye,
Petr
Michael Hartlef
16-03-2007, 12:48
I like Celtx very much as you can easily see what you need, what you have, make comments, etc. It is a tool for script writers that also helps organizing a project. You can have the project online so each project member can work on it or at least get it. I will definately use it for a movie and also a game that I plan working on some day. But you are right, it may be to much for our little project. As long as we post organized our forum section, we should be fine.
So I say we should just use your forum here. As nice as the other community is, I don't like jumping from forum to forum.
I will now try to finish/paint out the storyline that Kent has started and fill it with life. It is very important for me to get the big picture when I want to start making content. I need to know exactly what I need and for what.
Other than that it would be just a little here and there and nothing really serious. But I would be fine with that too. Then just ask what you guys need and I will see how I can help out. :)
Michael
I just wanted to point out the option. It is nice to have so many choices. Hartnell thanks for the offer to make an area for us. Maybe in some other future project then. I will definitly be checking there to see what you guys are working on.
Mike, I am very happy you are fleshing out the story. It will make it so much nicer to work and think about models and such. I was thinking do your writing and fleshing out the story and then Petr can take a look, add to it, edit it. Then after Petr, I will do the same. And then Back to you till we all say, yeagh this is great and kind of lock it down. But I am sure we will go around a few times to iron our smaller details on each pass. Thanks for keeping the ball rolling!!
Petr Schreiber
16-03-2007, 19:41
Hi,
kryton, I also appreciate Hartnells offer and your idea !
I just think for this project we could use resources we already have.
Bye,
Petr
Sounds good Petr. Just wondering what cool things Mike is coming up with!!
Michael Hartlef
17-03-2007, 00:34
Don't expect to much Kent ;) Actually I thought you would go on with it as you started it originally. But I think I have to do the dirty job now ;)
Mike, just do what you want and we will all add to it. Don't feel like you are stuck with it. I though since you came up with such good names for places, people that also gave you some story ideas. Mine was just to get it going, no absolutes with it. Petr has to chime in with some input to the story too and thoughts and we can go around in a circle till we are all happy with it.
I am sorry if I posted this before or just thought about it, but since the story can be played by lead boy or girl, and Marc is the boys name, I came up with 2 girl names that are similar. Marcy and Marcia, they don't have to be close to Marc, but it makes it easier and I know many parents like to name their kids with similar names like that, so not too unrealistic.
Petr Schreiber
17-03-2007, 11:39
Hi,
of course I would like to add something to story.
I was excited by watching your ideas that I stopped my activity :D
But till now I had very just weird ideas :)
I will make a post in board dedicated to story...
Bye,
Petr
Michael Hartlef
17-03-2007, 11:56
Mike, just do what you want and we will all add to it. Don't feel like you are stuck with it.
I don't feel stuck to it and will stop now. I'm happy if I don't have to do it. I will comment this more and detailed later, right now my son bothers me to much. When kids are sick they need a lot of intention. ::)
Hope your son gets better soon Mike. How old is he? I love kids, I unfortunately never got married and had any of my own. I had lots of fun helping my sister with her Son. I always wanted like 7 or 8 kids. I am a big kid inside, I still love to play with toys and daydream wild stories. So kids and I and animals get along really well.
So enjoy your time with your son. I know from my Nephew they grow up sooo sooo fast. Luckilly he is a great kid and we are still very close.
Michael Hartlef
18-03-2007, 08:45
Marc is 7, turning 8 in July. He has a bad head cold that doesn't wanna come out really fully. He's a joy and has so many interests. He allready plays Stronghold Legends very good, go figure. :) No wonder actually, as his mom plays it all the time.
Ok, back to my original reply:
since the story can be played by lead boy or girl
As much I agree with you about having the choice of a male or female main character, then I want to throw in that it would double the amount of media to create when you wanna go with prendered movies (incl. spoken dialogs). Hell, it would be raise the size of the download substantialy (well, even one set of movies would do).
Better then it is either your idea of prerendered images that are played back in a certain way with a speaker telling a story (ala Homeworld) or just undertitles. Or an ingame mechanism to playback preanimated 3D scenes. But for that you would then need a tool to create these animations, I think I mentioned this before. This tool would allow other people to create animations too, so maybe that could be a goal.
The rest of my reply is kinda obsolete so I will not post it anymore. Yesterday Petr got the ball rolling again. I was kinda unsure if the project was still alife, as there was allmost no progress lately.
ErosOlmi
18-03-2007, 08:51
My son is Yari and will turn 8 in July :D
He play TopDown3D and yesterday he did 1200 points ;D
Ciao
That's great that you both have sons almost the same age!
Mike this project is here and will be finished. Its already come a long way. I think just before we get into the story based game we need to develop more of our engine. But the instant action game is nearly there.
we just need more music, ships, option screens for input choices and sound levels, and internet high score stat system and we will have the first full game of topdown out, at least the instant action level part of the game.
About the cut scenes and animations, yes if we could come up with an animation engine and just use models, it would definitly make the game file size smaller. Also could you imagine if we had a talking engine, so the talking could be all played from the computer and no sound files. So there are many aspects to the game we can work on before get the full story one really going. In addition to all the models and sets. But that is what is so great with our group effort, it sure beats trying to do all of this on ones own.
Michael Hartlef
18-03-2007, 09:51
My son is Yari and will turn 8 in July :D
He play TopDown3D and yesterday he did 1200 points ;D
Ciao
Which date? Marc was born on July 21st, 1999
ErosOlmi
18-03-2007, 09:52
July 15st, 1999
Michael Hartlef
18-03-2007, 09:53
About the cut scenes and animations, yes if we could come up with an animation engine and just use models, it would definitly make the game file size smaller. Also could you imagine if we had a talking engine, so the talking could be all played from the computer and no sound files. So there are many aspects to the game we can work on before get the full story one really going. In addition to all the models and sets. But that is what is so great with our group effort, it sure beats trying to do all of this on ones own.
Do you mean a text to speech engine?
Petr Schreiber
18-03-2007, 11:15
Eros,
1200 points is good result :)
Still a lot to do till your hellish 6000 but ... we all have problem reaching it :D
Regarding speech engine - I am not sure about it, I am afraid it would sound quite artificial.
Live human voice over is better. But maybe we could use it for alien race - for example set of 10 words or squeaks which would be randomly combined to create speaking alien :)
Bye,
Petr
Michael Hartlef
18-03-2007, 13:47
You don't get even near the varitions, a human voice can have.
Check out this site guys:
http://www.naturalvoices.att.com/demos/
Pretty amazing stuff!!
ErosOlmi
18-03-2007, 23:01
Loquendo has astonished voices. Many are like human.
They are mainly used in call centers.
http://www.loquendo.com/
Demos: http://www.loquendo.com/en/demos/demo_tts.htm
Very nice Eros, sounds like the AT&T stuff too. Must be similar technology. They do sound great though.
Michael Hartlef
18-03-2007, 23:27
Sure, if you pay good money, you will get good service. :)