Recruiting members for 2 new fangames

[Kurdt]

That's right, you heard me. Ever dream of making an adventure game? Well now's your chance! I'm a writer with absolutely no artistic, musical, or programming skill to speak of and I'm thirsty to make a fangame!

Right now, I've got two games I've been kicking around for awhile and developing on my free time. Now, I've decided that it's time to accumulate some help. I'm looking for people who can draw Sierra VGA (KQ5-6, SQ4-5, etc.) quality backrounds, people who can compose music, and people who can use a game-making engine. I'm looking at using AGS right now, but that's up for debate. A programmer who is adept at AGS is a big plus, though. I want to seriously complete these games in a timely manner. I don't expect Tierra(AGDI)-level devotion to the projects, but I do want to finish the games in less than 2-3 years if possible.

NOW, here's what it is we'll be working on!!

"King's Quest 2.5": This is just the dubbed title, as I don't plan to actually number it, but it will take place in between King's Quests' 2 and 3. King Graham puts on his adventurer's cap once more to right wrongs in a never-before told tale of murder and deciet! Sure to be a great adventure indeed!

"Space Quest: Information Overload": Also just a working title. Another untold tale of Roger Wilco and his bamboozle-izations through the universe! While visiting an old friend from Janitorial College, Roger is drawn into a dastardly embezzlement scheme! Visit strange planets, meet strange people, and do strange things in this...well, strange adventure!!!

So, who's interested?? I could really use some help with these. If you want more information, e-mail me at CRFox84@aol.com

Thanks!

[Tamara]

Um ... :rolleyes:

If this were irony, it would be a really good spoof.

[DaveGilbert]

You beat me to it, Tamz. Yeah, this pretty much nails what's been going on in the other thread.

Kurdt, I don't know if you're serious about these games are not. If not, it's a brilliant bit of spoofing and you must be congratulated. If you are, be wary that 95% of these games are never taken too seriously and never see the light of day. Also, you're tackling a HUGE project with no experience - and expecting other talented people to help you sight unseen. If you really want to do these projects, try something small. Show your skill as a writer and desginer. Then others might be willing to join you on your ambitious enterprise.

-Dave

[Tamara]

Oh, I meant a classic 'I don't know how to do anything but write, and I haven't done any of that either, so will you all just take my word for it that I'm brilliant and come do all the work?', too.

[James]

hey that's how i started off :D

[Erkki]

hey that's how i started off :D

Me too. I had at least 3 different adventure game ideas at different times some years ago that I posted about somewhere and I even managed to recruit one artist. We never did anything thouhg :)
Also, with one of those ideas I actually went to a professional animation company and had a chat with two of the directors (you can sometimes do that in a small place like Estonia) and they were kind of interested initially, but I realized very soon myself that I wouldn't be able to do it and at the time I was also counting on SCRAMM being finished which never saw the light of day.

I still haven't made anything though :) (yet)

[edit]I meant I haven't created anything releasable. I've made about 7-8 small games (none of them adventures), some of which were eventually almost-finished some of them much less.

[James]

February - I'll have something to show for 3 years of blood sweat and tears.

[remixor]

Oh, I meant a classic 'I don't know how to do anything but write, and I haven't done any of that either, so will you all just take my word for it that I'm brilliant and come do all the work?', too.

If you enjoy that sort of thing, head on over to the AGS forums and eat your heart out...

[Tamara]

that's why I said 'spoof'. Sheesh. Is my attempt at humour so hard to get?!

*walks off to another forum in disgust, muttering under her breath*

[remixor]

I know. My response was itself intended to be humourous. Sheesh. Is my attempt at humour so hard to get?! ;)

[mycroft]

Is my attempt at humour so hard to get?! ;)

I don't know about yours, but mine surely is. :rolleyes:

If you must know, I've made plenty of games. A few adventures. I've made an excellent arkanoid clone in OpenGl in under half an hour. That's how good I am. But now, I'm focussing on the design aspect of games rather than the programming part. Oh, and I code a mean Mode 13h demo. If you know what I mean.

So, Kurdt, I'm at your disposal. No, wait. That's a lie. Ha!

[Kurdt]

Woah, sorry about that. I guess I should've given some more credits to my name. I forgot how ridiculously suspicious a dude with his first post wanting to do huge projects looks. Okay, here's some credits, hopefully this'll convince you guys further that I do mean to finish the games:

I'm one of the writers on the KQ9 project (Cris Skelton), I've written QFG fanfictions as well as short stories of my own, I attempted to write a Gabriel Knight comic book once, but the artist was really busy and I really couldn't churn out any good ideas. Also, I'm a member of Ancient Frog Games, doing some small writing for them and concieving a smaller adventure for them on the side (when I say smaller, I mean like 20 rooms max). Added on to all of that, I moderate Between Adventures, the newest and soon to be the froodiest adventure forum within a 3ft radius, and am a respected regular on the Tierra(AGDI) forums where I was given the opportunity to lend my voice to KQ2VGA. To top it off even better, I'm a veteran regular on the official Sierra QFG boards, where I got my start. Oh, and also, I'm a theatre major and currently enrolled in a play/screenwriting class. I actually just learned today that my teacher taught Christopher Durang at Yale, which I believe is awesome!

I would've posted asking for help on the Tierra forums, but they don't allow that anymore and AGS wants me to make, like, 6 rooms to prove myself worthy of having a team. As I said before, I've tried operating AGS, AGI and SCI Studios, and even AGAST in the past, only to give up in utter frustration. If I could make good backgrounds, I'd probably give scripting in AGS a try, but my artistry, like I said, is extremely lacking.

I know you have absolutely no reason to trust me on this one as the amount of people who try and start fangames never get past designing the website. However, I've been on the KQ9 team for a good year and a half now, and I've learned a lot from the experience I gained there. I'd really like to try this out. Now, do I have any takers?

PS: I would give out plot points and how far I've come in the conceptional outline, but why give away my entire story just to please some skeptical artists and programmers? Besides, who's to say you wouldn't steal my idea... ;)

[Erkki]

PS: I would give out plot points and how far I've come in the conceptional outline, but why give away my entire story just to please some skeptical artists and programmers? Besides, who's to say you wouldn't steal my idea... ;)

That's probably the most common myth about posting your game ideas / stories. Nobody wants to steal your idea. Ideas by themselves are not worth anything and everyone has their own ideas.

[Igor]

As Erkki said. Ideas are the easiest part... it's how you realize them that matters. I also don't know why are you afraid somebody will steal idea that is based on existing concept of classic games... khm... ;)

My suggestion would be, to write down whole script (and i'm not talking about »there's this guy, he does that and in the end he discovers this&that« type of overview… but full-blown script with all dialogs, events and puzzles (maybe even fast sketches how you envisoned some events)) and publish small chunks of the most interesting parts on message boards. Those who'll get interested, will contact you and you'll show them more. Only if you'll do it this way, people will take you seriously (even though i'm sometimes surprised how easily are people willing to jump on-board... of course, those are usualy even easier to drop off ;)).

I mean, it's not hard to find writers, it's hard to find good writers.

Btw, i'd recommend you to at least try to learn basics of program you'll use, that way you'll know where are limitations and how to build the story to avoid them.

[DaveGilbert]

I'm one of the writers on the KQ9 project (Cris Skelton),


Hey, were you at the audition in NYC a few weeks ago? If so, we might have met.

[Kurdt]

Yeah, I was going to wait until I had a completed draft of the script going for me, but I guess my own impatience at wanting to move forward with the projects just got the better of me. And I know no one wants to steal my ideas, it was a joke (hence the ;) ). I do have a couple of segments of the introduction scripted preliminarily, but right now I'm brainstorming exactly how to move the plot forward (essentially, the hardest part for me). I know the setup, I know how I want the story to end, and I know all the places I want to put into the games, but I don't know about how I'm going to see the game to its conclusion yet. I've essentially "created" the worlds of the game already and I'm beginning to map out where everything is, but I haven't fully figured out how to exploit the areas I've made.

But like I said, I'm still a little uncomfortable about just posting the story concepts online. Not that I believe anybody will steal them or anything like that, I'd just like the games to actually be a surprise when they come out. If you're interested in what I've got going on, e-mail me and I'll send you portions of my ideas and such. If you reeeeeaaallly would rather I post them here, I will, but if you can live with having me e-mail them to you, I'd rather do that.

And no, I couldn't make the auditions. I wanted to audition sooo bad my teeth hurt, but I have other plays that I'm currently in that ran at the same time as the auditions, plus I dunno if I could swing going up to NYC every weekend or so (I live in Texas). I'm going to audition online, though. Did you get cast in anything?

[DaveGilbert]

And no, I couldn't make the auditions. I wanted to audition sooo bad my teeth hurt, but I have other plays that I'm currently in that ran at the same time as the auditions, plus I dunno if I could swing going up to NYC every weekend or so (I live in Texas). I'm going to audition online, though. Did you get cast in anything?

Haven't heard back yet so I don't know. :) I was horrendously sick when I went, so I can't vouch for the quality of my audition! It was a fun experience though. I was impressed by how professional it was.

You're from Texas, eh? Seems that most of the team members were from far away. I spoke to a guy who came all the way from Florida and another from Canada. Me, I live in NYC so I just took a 10 minute subway ride. Felt kind of guilty, actually.

[Kurdt]

Hahaha, but you have the advantage. The two guys you're talking about, Rich and Cesar, are the directors of the whole project, so if you don't like the game, blame them. :P As far as I know, they're casting according to both talent and convenience. A short subway ride away is better than having to come from, like, Europe to do your voices (I think the guy who's playing Jollo is from across the pond). *shrug* You never know.

[Kurdt]

Forgot to comment on something.

Btw, i'd recommend you to at least try to learn basics of program you'll use, that way you'll know where are limitations and how to build the story to avoid them.
I'm aware of the limitations that AGS has as I've attempted using the engine on numerous occasions. The others I'm still somewhat sketchy on. That's why I'm leaning towards using AGS to get the job done, as that's the engine I know the most about. As far as plot and storywriting go, however, it isn't too hard to write around the limitations of AGS. I don't plan to push any barriers with these games, just tell a good story and make a good game. I entertained the idea of putting in some 3D sequences like Tierra did for the beginning of KQ2VGA (I had visions of close-ups and cool cutscenes), but I couldn't ask someone to pour time into 3D effects just like that, not to mention the time-consuming effort that would take.

Also, I'm open to collaborration. If one of the other designers or programmers has an idea for the script or a better way to execute something for the sake of the engine and the story, I won't get all huffy and tell the person to f*ck off or anything like that. I need just as much help as anyone else does.

[AGA]

You mention limitations with AGS. Care to mention what you think they are? The only one I can think of is the lack of high-resolution support...

[Kurdt]

I'm not saying there are that many limitations to the engine. AGS is extremely versitile. I'm just saying that I know how to write with the engine in mind. Someone asked if I knew how to write for AGS and I said I did, no more no less.

Look, if all I'm gonna get is nay-saying on this board, I'll look elsewhere for team members. Just because every moron who comes along thinks he can write doesn't mean I'm just another moron. I've been kicking these two ideas around in my head for over a year now and have decided to finally start picking things up again now that I've got some more free time. I know most of you've heard this song and dance before (I know I have), but I'm not too big a fan of everyone attacking my position simply because I want to give a try at making a game. If you'd like to help, that's great; if you don't that's fine. That's all there is to it. Now, for one last time, anybody feel like devoting some time to a game?