A game that is 30,000,000,000 pairs of DNA in the making

#1 Whoa. 2 sentences of description. That sounds promising. Sign me up... (In case you haven't figured it out, 2 sentences is not an idea)

"2 people have to help a genetic team get out of debt. They need to create hundreds of creatures, keep them healthy, and run a 'park'."

There is not a person in Garage Games that would want a job with so little information.

*Tip
START WITH A SMALLER PROJECT!!! IT WILL HELP YOU OUT!

Also, this post belongs in the Help Wanted Sections of the forums or in the Help Wanted section of the GG site as a job.

@Bil Simser
Well, look at the top post.... There, you're done.

#2 Your basic idea sounds somewhat interesting, but maybe wait until you have a full description of the game or design documentaion before you ask for help...

It wouldnt hurt to sketch out some simple concept art too.

#3

Quote:PAY IS EQUAL % OF PROFIT TO BE DIVIDED BETWEEN ALL PARTIES INVOLVED.

And your business plan is...?

#4 *sigh*

I really gotta write a resource on how NOT to post a plea for help with new projects.

#5 You really think it would get read?
I'd like to see an age field in the profiles, maybe even a age filter to weed out all the 15 year old ceo's with ub3r ideas.

#6 Just because someone is 15 doesn't mean they dont have good ideas. And just because someone doesn't have a good idea, doesn't mean they are 15 years old.

#7 The problem isnt the idea or not it's with what knowlege and effort the person thinks he can get that idea onto the screen and younger people tend to underestimate the skill and time needed.

The also have a rather naive way of asking and explaining things.

#8 Show of hands.
Left hand: I end this thread.

Right hand: I stop working on my project.

#9 I think a great idea is a "Read this before you decide to start a Project" FAQ. Not only would it weed out those who don't know what they're doing and don't have the stamina to finish the job, but it helps those with the stamina but not the skills to understand the game development cycle better...

The question this begs is whether they would even see it or not, since it would have to stay visible, and not get buried like many of the resources inevitably do.

#10 Cameron & Johnathan,

If everyone tried to make an enormous game with no previous experience, we would have a very limited library, probably including Pong. If it were that easy, each and everyone of us would have 50 AAA games with Torque, Unreal 2, etc.

I myself am just learning how to use the (very) basics of the TGE. However, this was after learning how to work multiple other simpler engines and creating games with all of them.

I started small, following in the footsteps and the advice of others to hopefully succeed in indie game making. I STILL have not finished a game or a prototype within Torque (Yea, after 2 years).

The reason why so many indies get discouraged and give up is because they start too big and begin to think it's impossible (from my observance point).

So Johnathan, I can not stress more that you start on something small and work your way up to Torque over a couple years.

#11 If you're willing to abandon your project simply because a handful of complete strangers think you should, then you aren't commited enough to it to finish it anyway.

#12 Yeah, it's really sad that the GG community would put down people who are at least trying. If he wants to do it, let him. He will learn later on what the challenges are.

#13 It's your project, regardless of what anyone says, it's still your project. If you think there is value in it, then continue. It was suggested you wait until you got a BS degree, eh, if we all did that, I doubt there would be that many games in the world as a large number of them are done by Indie's without BS degrees.

What if John Carmack had come to this thread and posted an idea about a cool 3d shooter with creatures that shot back and big cyber demons? Do you think he would have quit just because a few people where not hip with his idea? Can you imagine a world without Doom and Quake?

In the end, keep going forward with your project, it will help you learn what you need to know, even if you don't publish it in the end.

A lot of games start with one line descriptions, what you probably need to do now, is design the game in depth. Once you have a good design, then your ready for the next step, coding.

Oh btw, there is a section for help wanted. When your ready with your design document, post in the help wanted section, you may get better responses.

#14 If John Carmack had came to this thread he would say the same thing George "Creator" Goldstien has said.

Why?

Because the first games John Carmack made were not Doom and Quake. John Carmack had a host of 2D Commander Keen games under his belt long before even attempting good old Wolfy 3D. Carmack, you see, started small and simple...just like everyone else in the buisness.

#15 Have you read his idea? There is nothing in it that would be out of reach for someone starting out.

He has an idea and he's looking for people to explore it with him. There's nothing in his "design" that requires cutting edge technology. Why couldn't his idea be done in 2D?

Maybe his first post was misguided, but it would have served him (and the community in general) better if more people offered guidance rather than telling him to give up on his ideas until he has more education/experience.

#16 I'm 15 and I'm working on a REAL game, Illumina. I see no reason why someone so young can't make a game if they have some skill.

I started moding Tribes 2 while 13, and made some really cool stuff with Torque Script. Then I joined the Stargate the Game team, and got shut down by MGM half way through development. I purchased Torque a few months ago, and had NO idea what C++ really was. I didn't even know that you had to compile it. Now I can hack the engine a bit, I even made a cool C++ vehicle camera class for my game(heavily modified Advanced camera).

Illumina was acualy a brain storm between all the Stargate dev team(before we came up with it). Now I'm a good way into development on it, and will have a badass 3D FPS for my portfolio. I still need to take some coding classes, and need to learn alot more about C++. However, I don't see why a super n0Ob could learn at least how C based coding(the scripts) works from playing with Torque.

#17 Sure, his idea could be done in 2D...but cutting edge technology isn't the point.

Pong and Tetris are simple 2D games, and a good place to start learning (no one says you must produce a exact clone of them)

Mario and Sonic type platformers are also 2D...but they are much more complex then Pong and Tetris...Starcraft is even more complex then the platformers...simply put, its not the core 2D technology that makes any of them more complex. It's the game mechanics, scope, assets and functionality...

To learn to walk, you must learn to balance yourself on your own two feet, you must learn to take a step, and learn to regain your balance after doing so...makeing games, heck doing anything in life, is the same thing...starting small, sometimes infantly so...and building upon what you have learned.

No one is saying his idea is terrible, and that he should never have thought it up...No one is saying he should completely forget about it...but what we are saying is that he should shelve it for a while and spend some time learning the basics...you have your whole life infront of you to pursue that dream game...spending a month or two on a pong clone isn't the end of the world...spending a year or two on polishing a platformer isn't giveing up on your dreams...but what it does is teaches you the raw knowledge to actualy make those dreams a reality...

That is real guidance, like it or not.

#18 Do your game.

Don't wait for someone else to do it for you.

Don't let other people get in your way.

Be aware of your limitations, but don't let yourself be confined by them. Know what you CAN do, and keep aiming just a little bit further.

#19 Mario and Sonic type platformers are also 2D...but they are much more complex then Pong and Tetris...Starcraft is even more complex then the platformers...simply put, its not the core 2D technology that makes any of them more complex. It's the game mechanics, scope, assets and functionality...

Amen. I've had to learn this lesson the hard way. A great game idea is a good start, but it won't carry you through to a finished product on just the idea alone.

I'm currently working on a simple 2D shooter. Originally, I planned on cranking the game out in just a few weekends. But then I realized that I had done that in the past, and the quality of my game wasn't that great, so I decided to buckle down and do it right.

You won't believe how much work even a simple 2D shooter is! I've had to redo the powerup system about three times, because I didn't plan it through properly and kept changing what I wanted from the system. Balancing the gameplay has been a major challenge; Considering that some people claim the game is too hard/too easy indicates there's still a lot of room for improvement.

I'm just talking about raw design and level editing tasks here. Add to that; Programming new code while debugging existing code, working on art for both the game interface and content, and maintaining a website plus marketing.

I've seen tons of game projects which were lacking one or more of these categories: Code (very unstable/unfinished engine), Content (default/temporary artwork), Playability (looks good, might be complete, but isn't fun), and Marketing (great game, but nobody knows about it).

Don't take this in a discouraging way, I wish you the best of luck. Writing a design document is a Godsend when it comes to planning out your game. Plus, if you want to get others encouraged, showing them at least that might be enough to get them hooked.

PS: Don't worry about giving away too much. A lot of people seem to be under the impression that there are hundreds of game companies, swarming around these websites, waiting to hear some good idea and then steal it and make millions. The reality is, however, %95 of us have good ideas, but only %5 ever do anything with it. More than likely, someone, somewhere, has already thought of your idea. I myself have played a game and thought, "Dammit! I remember thinking this would be a cool thing to see in a game years ago!" But I didn't do anything with it, which is why I was playing someone else's game and not my own. :)

#20 David is completely right. Look at Zap for instance! It took Mark a week or two to lay down the basics of the game. Then we spent three months playbalancing it.

It's also been really rewarding, though, because almost all the work we've done has been on making it fun, not dealing with technical issues. Mark was able to recently port the graphics code in about two days. It took a year and a half to get TSE to where it is now!

Can you make much, much cooler games with TSE or TGE? Totally! I'm just pointing out that you should never, ever underestimate the effort it takes to make a game, even a simple one, fun.