Fine, we'll go make our own video game

[Destroy Him My Robots]

...but we'd have to vote on the inclusion of blackjack/hookers. In this http://gameological.com/2013/05/mega-mania/#comment-892510307 thread, we came up with some interesting scenarios for games. We also know that he have quite a lot of gifted folks among the commentariat. So why not make our own game?

Before we do anything else, I think it's best to gauge interest and see what everyone can bring to the table (and yes, skills like "organizing", "research" and "punch up" are valuable) and go from there (we obviously can't do a 3D game if no one can do 3D modeling, we probably can't have lots of characters if we only have one animator and so on).

Personally:
*I can make music (compose, arrange, mix, whatever)
*I know my way around various game making tools (mostly Construct and AGS; disliked Game Maker last time I checked). I can't really code in any language, but know the basics of procedural and object-oriented programming well enough that I might be able to help out with, for example, scripting events if someone else were to go ahead and handle the hard parts in a proper language

I'd be happy to hear from you all!

[WarrenPeace]

Man, no replies to this yet? I love this idea, and I would love to contribute, although I don't really have any skills to lend, other than stuff like writing. Or maybe stuff like organizing, outlining, planning, etc. I'll keep an eye on the discussion and see what happens; this sounds pretty cool!

[iree]

I may be interested depending on what the plan is. I'm most likely to want to do it if it's 2d, and am extra specially interested in something in a Russian folklore-ish setting with an art style reminiscent of 1910-1920s illustrators like Edmund Dulac and Kay Neilsen (google image search them - awesome stuff).
I'm back in school for game art, so I could do, umm, art. That includes rigging, animation, modeling, texturing, whatever, though as I said I'm much more interested in a 2d project. I know a smidgen of programming but doubt it's enough to be useful.

[Emperor Norton I]

I can write. I can do historical research. I've an eye for game mechanics, and have done a bit of board game design. I'm good at looking at stats and imagining their effect on gameplay. I'm not bad at coordinating things and planning. I've done scripting in EU3 a while ago, but would need to learn a LOT to pick up any proper scripting language.

[Chum Joely]

Wow, I only just now discovered that this actually turned into a Steam thread. Awesome. Maybe we should actually get some momentum going.

OK, so... I am terrible at art and probably pretty bad at game design in the sense of gameplay and mission design (though I'd give it a whirl). On the other hand, pretty good in object-oriented programming (loads of C# in a professional but not especially high-level context), and I've even played a bit wth Unity (C# and Javascript). I have a (pretty old) B.A. in computer science, so I have some exposure to a good 7-10 major programming languages.

I would probably want to get involved in writing or story design, although I admit I may have big ideas that would not really work in a real game. Also, looking back at Destroy Him's original post on GS (scroll up from my reply at http://gameological.com/2013/05/mega-mania/#comment-893646137), I am enthralled by the idea of something with historical or archaeological aspects that could include language-based puzzles, gameplay or other linguisticky stuff (including speech/written-language parsing), because I also happen to have an M.A. in theoretical cognitive linguistics and also just adore all human languages.

For whatever that's worth.

[EffigyPower]

Fine, I suppose if you need sketches, backgrounds or decals or something, you can hit me up. Just none of that hooey-techno babble, please. I am a creative and require absolute removal from all things technical that don't include px, dpi or bit.

[caspiancomic]

Hey all. Pretty amped. Happy to help. My strengths are probably art and writing.

On the art front I'm happy to help with concept art, character design, potentially environment design (although I don't consider it one of my strengths, I've always been keen to improve), and asset creation if we get far enough along. I've got experience working with sprites and pixel art if we choose to go down that road.

With writing, I'm happy to help with anything, from tasks as broad as general plot or goal/win state layout, to world building, to stuff as specific as character dialogue (if this project ends up having characters and a setting as opposed to being more abstract, or whatever). I've got a bit of history with writing fiction, and I like to think I know a thing or two about how to integrate game mechanics with a narrative (see: Game Theory. In fairness: I've never actually written a game to completion, but I'm keen to start)

Possibly unrelated tangent: Iree just namedropped two of my all-time favourite illustrators. An early Twentieth Century European low fantasy setting could be really exciting to explore, using the European Golden Age Illustrators/Art Nouveau scene as an aesthetic starting point. In addition to Dulac and Nielsen (two of the all time greats of illustration), it could be worthwhile to research Arthur Rackham (personal #1 favourite illustrator), Aubrey Beardsley, Gustav Dore, Virginia Sterrett, etc etc.

Also, someone should totally volunteer/execute a bloody coup and claim centralized leadership of the project. I nominate: someone else.

[Chalkdust]

I know I could contribute as a writer (I am already serving as lead writer for a game project with some friends elsewhere), but I am interested in seeing how I fare with scripting and level design, maybe music as well.

[Paraclete Pizza]

Hey, I have a fair amount of experience and relevant skills, though not a whole lot of free time (this may change when I graduate it December).

I can paint and draw 2D stuff, including pixels, as well as animate, and can also do some coding (art, games, and animations visible at http://www.gildedgreen.com). Lately I've stuck to stuff like Flixel and other Actionscript stuff for my little game projects. But I've also used IDEs like Game Maker and in the past have coded C++ and Java, but have never done a full game project using those languages. (I imagine I could pick up a language like Objective C or Haxe pretty readily, if someone with more of a code background wanted to use that.)

I like Iree's Russian folklore setting idea (in fact, I cited that as a setting I'd love to explore in one of SpaceMonkey's weekly questions), and would suggest Ivan Bilibin and Victor Vasnetsov as excellent visual referents that are in line with some of the artists already mentioned, but more authentically Russian. I'd also enjoy some more stylized elements from Russian lacquer boxes. But something else could be cool, too. I'd like to work on something novel, though - not a generic Tolkien-esque fantasy or Steampunk setting. A female protagonist, or the option for either, would be great, I think, too. None of my ideas right now are gamplay ideas - I'm intrigued by Chum's vague language idea, though. Some kind of adventure game without combat, using some kind of language-puzzle mechanic (constructing magic words from ancient phonemes?) to advance could be really awesome.

I think, while a lot of talented folks will come forward with creative skills to share, of the utmost importance for something like this to actually happen and not languish we'll need someone with really good organizational skills to set deadlines, divide work up, and make sure everyone is swimming in the same direction.

Another key to making this doable might be to plan for this (first?) Gameological game to be fairly modest in scope. Or maybe something modest, but expandale. Like, for instance, if we were doing a Zelda-esque game, we might just make a single dungeon/area, which would be a doable project, and if people's interest is still high, we can build from that, or if people are burned out, we have a nice, complete, "Amnesia Fortnight" little proof-of-concept game.

[vinnybushes]

I can go out on limb and say I'd be willing to playtest the crap out of whatever ends up getting made (someones got to). I alpha and beta tested Dungeons of Dredmor and was pretty active on their IRC channel during the whole process, which included a lot of feedback to the developers. There were only about 30 or 40 of us total so I definitely participated pretty heavily in that back and forth. I'm also not the greatest writer on the planet, but I know my way around a story and can probably provide good ideas about what works and what doesn't. Also, if we go with anything dealing with photorealism, I'm a pretty decent photographer. Not professional grade but I can handle a DSLR camera with a fair amount of skill and nuance.

[aklab]

I would love to contribute. I know very little technical, but can do writing/organization/research. (I'm a librarian.) Or I can be a cheerleader. Go Gameological group!

[Hobbes]

I can write and do dialogue. I can also bug report. I can also do whatever repetitive data clean-up related tasks will eventually need doing. I have a ton of experience with repetitive data clean-up.

[Hobbes]

I would also suggest that, if anyone has the requisite pixel art skills, that cribbing from Zelda as Girard suggested would be the best bet. An expansive and complex RPG can be built off that framework, while remaining an achievable goal.

[vinnybushes]

I've been thinking about how I most often approach learning a new art form. Imposing limitations on what you can do and working within those limitations often produces something more robust than going in seemingly random directions. I definitely agree with Girard that starting with something smaller and more focused and then refining it through sucessive iterations will produce something we're more likely to be happy with. Limiting what we're trying to accomplish with gameplay but providing a strong narrative can definitely produce impressive results. If you think about how something like Crimson Shroud on the 3ds eshop produces something evocative while keeping the experience extremely bare bones, you'll understand where I'm coming from, and presumably it would be an even more basic experience than that.

[caspiancomic]

Just throwing down a quick "second!" on a few things.

1) doing a "proof of concept" style project before leaping in with both feet is probably best. Mapping out one dungeon is probably our best bet for now, and if it works, and we all like it, then we can get more ambitious.

2) Centralized leadership. I would love for someone like Girard or Hobbes to be our guiding light on this, their time and willingness permitting. DHMR, you started the topic, how would you potentially feel about being our captain? Hell, I'm half considering campaigning for the position myself.

3) The idea of a game that's focused on exploration and puzzle solving sounds best to me, maybe even a game devoid of combat totally. A Zelda-like was mentioned upthread, and I think it could be interesting to do a Zelda "explore-the-dungeons" style of gameplay married to a more adventure game style "solve the puzzles to proceed" sort of thing. Monkey Island meets Zelda?

4) The concept of working with language puzzles sounds difficult to me, but that's mostly because I have no background in it and I'm not sure what that sort of game would look like. If people have a strong vision of how that would play, and think that premise could sustain an entire game, I'd love to hear it.

5) Girard- I'm checking out those artists you mentioned and really diggin 'em. I also agree with you about our potential setting being something that avoids the Tolkien/Steampunk/Sci-Fi ghetto and shoots for something less fully explored. There's a lot of stuff by Bilibin especially that is reminiscent of Tolkienesque high fantasy but with a distinctive Eastern European cadence that I think could make for a very interesting setting.

[Destroy Him My Robots]

Hey everyone!

it's becoming unwieldy to contact everyone individually, which is good!

First of all: Great to hear from you all and thanks for your interest. Oh, and I don't think I'd make a good leader. I'm sure there's some better suited for the job. Just look at the difference between Hobbes' Gameological Steam group and the AVC group I made.

I'm down with 2D/Russian/puzzle & exploration and I agree with the idea that we should build something small and contained first. I had an idea for a language-based puzzle game once, too. Think Loom with phonemes instead of notes and phrases instead of, um, phrases. The kicker is that different people would speak in different dialects you'd have to figure out (so someone might speak in a kind of substitution cipher, another one might use a word order other than SVO). I know that's a bit confusing and I gave up pretty soon, but Jack Donaghy said there's no bad ideas in brainstorming. However, on principle I agree with vinnybushes that we shouldn't go too crazy with the game design and that, at least at first, staying within traditional, well-understood confines is a good idea.

Two other things we need to consider: Are we going for a Windows executable or should be build for web publication? Those are the two sensible options, right?

And speaking of two options: We need to host the project. Dropbox, Google Drive? Both would let us easily share everything while providing a reasonable amount of storage and version control. Is there a better alternative?