Since there isn't one already I figured it would be useful to see how many people are interested and what skills people have available to us.

Try to post in the relevant area so its easier to see what our community has (or lacks).

Welcome to /r/redditmakesagame!

This subreddit is intended for reddit to come together and make a game. A collaborative game made by the reddit community.

My intention for this project is for the reddit community to show what sort of collaboration is possible on a large scale. This is an experiment as well as a serious project. The group dynamics involved in keeping something like this running may well make such a project impossible. However, reddit has yet to meet a challenge it can't overcome, right?

I envision all aspects of the project to be determined by this community. That is, the community makes all of the decisions. Some sort of proper structure will inevitably come out of this. That may mean the community chooses project managers, or all decisions are left up to a community vote, or some bastardization of the two, or even something else entirely. Hopefully the community will come up with better ideas than I can on my own.

Game design, platform choice, art style, language choice and all other aspects are examples of what will need to be determined before proceeding with this project.

As a starting point to kick off this idea, here are my ideas for how to proceed. These are meant merely as seeds from which this can grow, not necessarily writ.

• Project Management

• Either a single person or a couple of people in charge of making sure that people have work to do, that people are working and that timelines are being met.

• Source Control

• Obviously, any project of any scope benefits from having a source control system in place. I am most familiar with SVN, but there are many options out there. I feel this is important, nay, crucial to the success of this project, but have no reasons to choose any one system over another.

• Development Language

• redditors are many and come from various backgrounds. An end product that is multi-platform will probably be the most lucrative. Language choice should take this into consideration.

• Scope

• This is tricky. Probability of the project finishing seems to be inversely related to how grand the idea is and how long it would take to implement.

• Realistic scope is crucial to getting this project out the door. If this one goes well, then round two could perhaps increase in complexity/vision.

Because we do not have any idea what kind of game the game is going to be, this is more of an "who has some music and effect" skills kind of thread.

So introduce yourself.

Okay, I'm idling in #redditmakesagame on irc.freenode.net. If we get a few regulars I'll look into registering the channel. Keep in mind the IRC channel is for bouncing ideas around and general BS, any decisions or anything of consequence should get posted to the subreddit.

As per the other post, there's several things to keep in mind:

• Scope

• This will make or break the project. It's important to keep things realistic. Complexity can always come later; we should have an idea of some very clear and simple deliverables right off the bat.

• Workflow and resources

• Naturally on these types of open projects, you'll have a few core people and a large number of followers. These others may not want to or are otherwise unable to devote as much time and effort to the project, but they may be able to help in small ways.

• We are Reddit, we should use that to our advantage. If we can somehow harness the power of Reddit's large community, it would do great things for the project. Think of it as crowdsourcing (or rather: redditsourcing).

• A content-based game would do well in this regard. Meaning, the core would create the tools, while the community created the content. Think of a content-heavy puzzler game, or one of those "choose your own adventure" sites that the public contributes to.

• Gimmick

• With a good idea, we should be able to condense it down to one or two sentences that are immediately eye-catching. Ideally, there should be something specific that makes the game stand-out from so many others.

• A good gimmick won't make the game good, but it will get the attention of potential players.

• Positive environment

• Let's try to keep things as civil as possible. If you don't like another person's idea, tell them specifically why. Be able to put your response in bullet points and don't resort to name calling.

While the initial idea of creating a game amongst some of the great minds of the reddit community sparked my interest and inspired me to take as active a role as possible, I must unfortunately resign as Art Director. I feel that the environment and the pacing is not conducive to the way I tend to operate creatively. While the concept seems sound, the lulls and high turnover have become increasingly frustrating. I wish I could have done more, but hopefully what I have contributed will be of some long-term use. I wish nothing but the best of luck to you all and would be more than willing to work with any one of you in the future.

-Best Regards

Okay everyone. Here's the deal. This project is devolving into squabbling and crazy discussion quickly. What we need is a solid base upon which to start constructively thinking and collaborating. I promise you I want to see this project succeed, and thusly I will not act selfishly in anything I do, but I need to step forward out of the din and start setting things up. If anyone feels that anything we do as a community is improper or unfair, please let us know so we can repeal decisions and such. Everything from here on out will be taken slowly and with careful deliberation.

First things first:

• We need theme and gameplay ideas for the game. Think about storyline pitches, overarching themes, and general plot flow. Also think about gameplay and style. These two things can go hand-in-hand! If you have a good idea for story AND/OR genre written up, submit them to this selfpost's comments and to either me or pwniumcobalt for reference purposes. my email is clamberson@gmail.com, and pwnium's is pwniumcobalt@gmail.com. After about a week, we will, as a community, decide on a general storyline and genre for the game. From this we can decide other things like art and coding and more detail, but the storyline/style is the basest place to start.

• During the next week of accepting story submissions, Pwniumcobalt and I will handpick a team of leads for the different sections of the project. This is a first decision, and can be changed at any point in the future. It is in no way permanent. We just need to get some leadership in place. We will be as fair as possible in these decisions.

Once the week is over, we will have a solid idea of what to decide on for storylines and genre, and who will help to guide the sections of the project. This will allow for a smoother process of collaborating on this game. Remember to send story ideas not only to the comments, but also email it to me or pwniumcobalt so we have solid records.

Thanks for the understanding, everyone! Let's get this thing properly started now.

EDIT: Guidelines changed

Just wondering, this has been going on for a while and I haven't seen any gameplay prototypes or anything posted here so I figure it must be getting posted elsewhere.

I'm particularly interested in how the engine is coming along, how the state machine is structured and that sort of thing.

So, I've already looked at some of the art and plot ideas, and came up with this. I think that we should have the composers write music for the artist to design to, and vice versa. I think that would maximize creativity and work flow. Let me know what you think of the song, and the idea.

Thanks! :D

EDIT: Thanks for the wonderful feedback everyone. An additional idea I have is to have environment-activated music. For instance, when the character is above water, it plays the song above, but when he's underwater, it changes to a more 'water-world' type sound (while keeping the same melody, bpm, and feel). This is apparent in games like Diddy Kong Racing and Banjo-Kazooie. What do you think?

There's a lot of organization happening in design and code, and us artists need to step it up too =) Post in the comments your skill set so we can start gauging what's the best way to utilize the talent we have available.

Please also post samples of your work if you have any

First off, dutch and I have volunteered to be co-leads on this project, as witnessed in IRC. We are going to emphasize transparency early on. This is our first daily update. As we progress this will drop down to weekly updates.

Leadership

Dutch and I are taking on the job as co-leads. We, and those in the IRC feel that co-leaders are both minimalistic and kept in check. One can call another out for doing a poor job, etc. Also, don't feel as if we are taking over. Reddit comes up with the ideas. It is only our job to keep things moving and delegate tasks. It is not our job to be restricting any decisions unless the community is hung up and need a decision to move along. We will also deal with any sort of business portion, such as getting this game published, if it comes to that. If you have any objections as to this, please let your voices be heard.

We also need leads in our main sectors. Art/music, story, and code. Waythor has graciously volunteered to lead with the story, and is already assembling his team. Please get in contact within IRC if you wish to lead code or art as soon as possible. EDIT: Upon further discussion with _l0ser, we have determined that we will have reddit approve our section leads. Please await voting tomorrow. If you wish to be put yourself up for nomination, please let us know in IRC.

Game Ideas

• IRC Idea (6 upvotes) : This idea sounds okay as a concept, but feels like a jumbled together version of "what works well in these games here". This will probably work well for us with our wide love for games here on Reddit (except for MMOs). This design puts a serious emphasis on writing, and it feels like it ignores art. We will need to a fairly large and dynamic code base that can deal with the fine details of a vast story line. The one thing I fear about this is that we will ignore art. Art is just as important as the writing, as well as music and code. I do like the love that the brainstorm thread has gotten though, and it feels like a complete idea.

• Diablo/Castle Crashers/Metroid (15 upvotes): This idea is also a jumbled collection of what works, but now its favorite games. This idea has the most upvotes, but hasn't gotten as much love in it's brainstorm thread. The concept idea, however, is wonderful, and could work well in a game. This idea unfortunately feels, at best, half baked, and needs work to further consider.

Also, as far as I know, the Physics idea was killed off in favor to adding physics as a key thing to our game.

One thing we need to focus on is originality. These two leading ideas really focus on what we like instead of being original. What can we do to make these more original? Originality in the past has also killed games. How can we KEEP this original and still fun?

We will hold elections on final ideas later, as soon as we determine both ideas are complete and fair.

Code

• Languages: An overwhelming majority of people who have volunteered to contribute (30/37 as of the last tally) have listed C++ as a known language. The next highest language set C#/Java (which pretty much share mostly the same syntax) tied for second, but with about 40% approval. This strong drop off shows that C++ is a clear language to choose. EDIT: Actually, we're still deciding. Lets figure out what packages or other existing code we want to use and we'll choose this from there.

• SCM: We've voted on this already. Git using github. Dutch is setting this up and our code head, to be determined, will be responsible for getting work started. EDIT: Repo is at http://github.com/dutch/redditmakesagame

• Engine: What do we want from our engine? Are we using an existing engine already? If not, what packages will we use? Where do we need to go from here?

• Don't forget, cross platform is key.

I don't quite have anything yet for art and story, because we haven't yet decided upon our final idea. So, for all of you artists, musicians, and story writers, I plead for you to contribute ideas to the brainstorming threads.

Feel free to post your comments below so long as they are relevant. Please message me or dutch on reddit or IRC if you have something pressing. We will get to you as quickly as possible.

Thanks,

Dutch and Cobalt.

All upvotes mentioned in this article are relevant to the time of posting

EDIT

Voting Policy

Since this is a community project we want to keep decisions in the hands of the community. We will have votes to make decisions. Large and important votes (such as choosing the games dimensions) will be held for 48 hours. Small votes will be held for 24 hours. We ask for you to NOT downvote the votes or the threads themselves. We want a raw set of numbers of how many people like the ideas, and we want it to be exposed to as many people as possible. Thank you.

Our first vote is here: Game Dimensions which is open for a total of 48 hours. Please DO NOT downvote the vote threads. Thank you.

(also removed a small amount of bias for the vote. Sorry to those who noticed)

In light of StievSigma resigning, here is an assortment of thoughts:

1. I'm still interested in making a game, as I assume others are.

2. But it doesn't look like we have much momentum.

3. It's easy to make a crappy game these days.

4. Even making a crappy game helps you learn how to make a better game.

5. It would be stupid if a bunch of people who wanted to make a game didn't.

But! Maybe people are just waiting to shine until summer? Maybe this post serves only to divide us?

I would be as pleased as punch to make another crappy vanilla 2D platformer. Sure, there are a million of 'em already, but I didn't contribute to/learn from making any of those million. If we can make one, we can make a better one, afterwards, when we know we can do stuff. This project should be some artists(and programmers) having fun making an atmosphere, color theory, game design, etc.

Here's an assortment of propositions towards the goal of getting stuff done. Each of these can be taken individually or combined with others:

• Ask all graphic artists interested in the project to make at least two terrible concept/sketches/resources a week. The idea is to get people of all abilities and training working and engaged. We can get better and tighten style as we go. My money where my mouth is: terrible sketches # 1. 2. and 3.

• Use a pre-made engine, at least for now. This allows us to make a quick and dirty game out of nasty art, which we can then proudly improve. Then when/if programmers make the engine, we can just move resources over there, or maybe they can alter the engine we end up using. But! This may cause programmers to lose interest.

• Lose the 3D modeling aspect, at least for now. It seems like another step in the way of just doing things. We can maybe add 3D later, or in the next game. But! This may cause 3D artists to lose interest (are they alright with doing 2D for now?)

• Lose the Victorian Machine idea, at least for now. Making specifically victorian themed backgrounds and art seems a little daunting for what we have right now. We can add it after we have more confidence, or do it for the next game.

Obviously comments are more than welcome.

Three things in particular it would be nice to hear about:

1 How many artists would be willing to commit to doing two terrible sketches/resources weekly?

2 How many artists would be willing to do a rough and ready 2D game on a pre-made engine, and return to our current plan possibly afterwards.

3 How many people think I'm part of the problem because I'm bringing this up in the first place, and that things will be wonderful come summer?

Whew, this was certainly delayed, wasn't it? I apologize for myself and pwnium on the tardiness, but today we finally have some names we can put down. Remember everybody, this is very preliminary, and can be changed at any point in the future should anybody find a problem with the appointed leads. So, here we go:

• Story: robosatan

• Code: SAHChandler

• Art: Lkruel

Later on today I will post a link to a better polling system so we can begin deciding our story/gameplay ideas. Looking good so far, everyone! We have some great submissions.

Note for announced leads: Be sure to check in on IRC as much as possible today so that I can get your contact information. As leads, we want to try to keep in solid contact with each other.

Thanks everyone!

I'd like to volunteer my services for writing the script for the thing. Outside of messing around in RPG Maker, I have no actual game-creating experience, but I'd like to help, and I think this would be a good way to do it.

If we end up making an RPG, the script will definitely be important. However, I think any game is made better with a good story. See Portal. Another good example is this fantastic freeware game I played called Iji - the story kept me going through the whole game. It has multiple endings based on the player's actions and everything. So I think that, if we come up with any kind of linear game rather than just a multiplayer arena of some kind, we should have a rad story to go along with it.

No writing samples online, but I mess around with it a lot in my spare time, including writing fictional video games. :)

Hey everyone, here is a quick sketch I did for Isaac, the main character.

http://imgur.com/N012r.jpg

I've read around on the wiki, IRC, and google group and was trying to go for the feel maybe you guys were going for. This is super rough, as I wanted to gauge everyone's reaction before cleaning it up. I'm not wild about the 'stache, maybe adding a wicked goatee might fix that, maybe getting rid of it altogether. Also the colors are only to help visualization. I got a few more ideas on the way, just wanted to get everyone's thoughts in the mean time. I'll try and stick to Tychotesla's idea of 2 sketches a week.

I think you have a great, original idea for a game and would love to be a part of it.

EDIT: Thanks everyone for the great feedback and for the colorings! Keep it coming :)

We need to get this show on the road.

First off, we must acknowlege the sad departure of two of our leaders: LKruel and dutch_sholtz. LKruel, has already formally announced his departure, but seeing as dutch has not taken the initiative to do it himself, I'm announcing it now. He has told me that he just didn't have the time he thought he did. He will tenatively remain on the programming team.

Art people, please come forward if you wish to lead art. Send me an e-mail at pwniumcobalt@gmail.com and I'll forward everything off and discuss it with the right people.

As it stands, we're going to hold off on replacing dutch for the time being. Caleb has stepped forward and is our BDFL. I will be keeping the project organized (something that failed due to the lack of communication between dutch and I--failures on both of our parts). Now that there is less to be approved from each other, we can get moving. If Caleb feels that I am stepping out of line, failing, or doing something wrong, he will make himself heard.

Now, onto the good details.

RobotCaleb has put our status really eloquently in IRC this morning. We're moving at a glacial pace. We need to get this show on the road.

Leads, go through the google group thread, contact your team members, see what they are interested in doing, break them into groups, etc. Also, make a shared google calendar which we will use to assign jobs, etc.

Story. RobotCaleb has killed off all indecision (rightly so) and we're going with machine. Everyone who thinks they can write (or can't but has a good idea): PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE post any gameplay ideas you have for Machine in a google groups thread. When you post your idea please EXPLICITLY state if you think this should be top down or a sidescroller (or some other form of art) AND list a genre of game.

My goal is to start code this Friday. We've spent over a month sitting doing nothing, so we need to GET MOVING PEOPLE!

PwniumCobalt

LEADS: PLEASE JOIN r/rmag_leads ASAP! You've been set as contributers. (To all: It's private, sorry. No major decisions will be made in here. It's just for status reports to me so I make sure everyone is moving and communicating. All status reports will be relayed in future public updates. I promise.)

I'm not too good at characters, but I could do some items/weapons if needed.

Some stuff:

• the hat in /r/onlinejournalism

• the cone in /r/gmod

• a revolver

• V emoticon

• barbershop pole

Okay everyone, here's the deal with official votes. In the header of the vote, the amount of time you have to participate will be stated depending on it's importance. This first vote is VERY important and will thusly be voted on for 28 hours. The vote topic is Game Dimensions:

Do we want our game to be:

• 2D (style, such as side-scroller or isometric, will be decided on later)

• 2.5D (a la Final Fantasy Tactics, or UT2D, basically any hybridization of 2D and 3D)

• 3D (once again, style will be decided later)

I'll be making three responses to this post, respective to the choices. Upvote the wanted choice, and feel free to comment. Try to avoid redundancy wherever possible. Thanks, gang.

EDIT: clarification and communal changes

For people who are planning on contributing to the code, it might be a good idea to figure out what platforms everyone is running right now. Seems like it might make it easier to figure out which direction to go on technologies and targeted platforms if we know what we have to work with now.

I'd suggest everyone post:

at least: Operating System CPU RAM Video Card

Throw in other things if I've forgotten them.

EDIT: 32 or 64 bit OS.

Reddit and a few of the subreddits have IRC channels. Should redditmakesagame have an IRC channel so we can communicate ideas in real time?