PARPG - isometric 2d RPG looking for various talent

mvBarracuda · Happypenguin Regular Joined: 14 Jul 2005 Posts: 84

Team name:
PARPG development team.

Project name:
PARPG - post-apocalyptic roleplaying game. It's just a working title at the moment and we can reconsider it later.

Brief description:
I had plans for such a project for quite some time but it was more of a vague idea than anything else. In late January 2009 I decided to start writing down my ideas for the project at a wiki. PARPG will be an old school 2d isometric roleplaying game, inspired by genre classics such as Fallout, Arcanum or Planescape: Torment.

As the project is in early concept stage, there are not many decisions set in stone yet but the following key elements have been agreed upon:
* Singleplayer RPG. No plans for multiplayer or coop support.
* Post-apocalyptic setting. Story, setting and game mechanics details get fleshed at the moment.
* Written in Python (2.5x branch). Utilizing the FIFE game engine.
* Isometric 2d perspective instead of going for full 3d engine complexity.
* Open source code and asset licensing.
* Open development philosophy. Public development wiki and forums. Anonymous SVN checkout.
* Meaningful choices and consequences. Multiple paths to complete quests, including non-violent ways.
* Tactical, turnbased combat.
* Emphasis on well-written detailed branching tree dialogue.

More information about agreed upon setting aspects and game mechanics can be found here:
* Game mechanics draft.
* Setting draft.

Target aim:
Open source & non profit. Actual code and content licensing (which open source license to choose) will be discussed among the team.

Compensation:
Although there are no intentions to make monetary profit with the project, there are a bunch of potential reasons for developers to get involved:
* Improving your personal portfolio with the demo version of the game to land a job in the industry. The demo will be a one town / location version of the game. Creating such a demo will be an already quite challenging task and it gives us the chance to test concepts in a smaller scale undertaking first before trying to tackle a full game. A more detailed description of the demo concept can be found at the project wiki.
* Love for old school isometric 2d RPGs.
* Enthusiasm for open source game development.
* Gaining game development experience by working on a team project.

Technology:
Targeted platforms: Linux, Win32. Mac support would be a plus but judging from the project that I worked on in the past, finding a Mac maintainer can be a lot of hassle so supporting Macintosh systems is not a must.

Programming language: Python 2.5x; not all important Python libraries have been ported to Py3k yet so we'll stick to the 2.5 branch for now. Time-critical code can be written in C++. C++ <> Python bindings are supported by FIFE via SWIG.

Engine: FIFE. I was personally involved in the FIFE project for three years and although the engine is not feature-complete and development is currently going slow, it might be the best basis that is available for such a project. I'll elaborate on the whole engine question below.

IDE: No IDE preference from my side. There are a bunch of good free as well as commercial Python IDEs available. I can't see a good reason at the moment to agree on a single IDE that needs to be used by all programmers; so freedom of choice for you.

Talent needed:
Python / C++ programmer
Programmers can work in a bunch of potential fields:
* Game-related development. Implementing game features in Python.
* Tools development. Creating / improving all kind of asset creation tools, e.g. a map editor. An example map editor tool comes with FIFE so this can be used as a basis.
* Engine-related development. Extending / modifying the FIFE engine core for our purposes.

As we've already agreed to go for isometric 2d graphics and agreed to write the game code in Python, the number of potential engines for such a game is rather limited. FIFE looks like the best choice for such a game but I was involved in the development of FIFE for 3 years so I might be simply unintentionally biased. Subsidiarity is one key project philosophy so rather than setting the final engine decision in stone now I would like to get feedback by interested programmers first.

Here's where you come into play :-) I did some research on isometric game engines with Python support in the past and so far only FIFE and GemRB sound like viable options. I'm prefering FIFE at the moment as I know the engine pretty well and I'm quite positive that it will suit our needs for PARPG based on the experience working on a FIFE-based techdemo called "Rio de hola". It's quite likely that we'll end up modifying the engine core code but FIFE should provide at least a good basis for our game.

So the first task for the programming department will be taking a closer look into FIFE to find out what kind of functionality is already well supported by the engine and which kind of features we'll end up implementing on our own. Especially for the engine-related programming C++ experience will be needed.

Engine requirements are still a bit vague at the moment as game mechanics, setting and story have not been fully fleshed out in this early phase of development. However PARPG will resemble other isometric 2d RPGs as Fallout, Arcanum and Planescape: Torment. Therefore we can use these existing games at least to a certain extend to distill the engine requirements for PARPG. I'll compile a list of requirements until the next weekend and update this post with it after that.

Story writer
Wanted: Evil Minds that Plot Destruction.

We're looking for a talented writer, preferably an English native speaker. Interest in post-apocalyptic fiction is the most important and only real requirement besides that. If you always wanted to get involved in the development of a game that aims to feature a sophisticated story and you like to work with other dedicated people who enjoy non-cliche RPGs, here is your chance :-)

We are also looking for people with experience writing for dialog trees and those familiar with Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and other areas near the Baltic Sea.

Graphics artist
We're trying to find artists who would like to contribute in one of the following possible fields of work:
* 3d modeling: creating either organic or inorganic 3d models e.g. (non) player characters, items, weapons, etc. Blender would be the prefered tool of choice. A first rendering setup has been created and can be found in our SVN repository now.
* Concept art: visualizing characters or GUI concepts as 2d art.

Composer / sound effects engineer
We would like to fill the following audio-related positions as well:
* Composer: creating ambient music for the soundtrack of the game.
* Audio effects engineer: creating various audio effects e.g. weapons, noises as well as sounds that will be used for the graphical user interface.

Team structure:
barra - public relations, developer recruitment, infrastructure maintenance, project management.
eleazzaar - writer; worked on Silvertree and currently also contributes to FreeOrion.
icelus - engine & game programmer; worked on Silvertree in the past.
Lamoot - graphics artists; helps with building up the graphics department of the project (defining guidelines for artists); he contributes to the settings discussion as well.
tie - game programmer; currently refactors the Rio de hola code to better suit our needs of PARPG.
zenbitz - Python programmer; besides his plans to contribute as game programmer, he currently fleshes out the mechanics of PARPG. zenbitz comes from a pen & paper RPG background.

A listing of my prior game development experience, skills and the specific tasks I'll take over in the development of PARPG can be found at my personal user page at the project wiki.

Website:
Blog
Forums
IRC logs
Subversion repository
Trac - task tracker
Wiki

Contact:
I prefer contact via email: martin DOT vohland AT googlemail DOT com
In case you can't get in contact with me via mail for whatever reason there may be, you can PM me here as well. However personal message notification via email does not seem to work so it could take a day or two until I spot your PM.

Previous Work by Team:
I was one of the founders of the game engine project FIFE and worked on it for three full years from 2005-2008. My main tasks were recruitment of new developers, public relations (posting news at the blog, staying in contact with the community), infrastructure maintenance (wiki, SVN, trac) as well as maintaining the FIFE Win32 compile SDK - an easy to use all-in-one package to build FIFE from source on Windows systems.

More information about FIFE can be obtained from one of the old help wanted postings I posted here at gamedev.net. Furthermore the FIFE wiki is a great starting point as well.

Additional Info:
Here are some screenshots of the FIFE techdemo "Rio de hola":

Some screenshots of Unknown Horizons - a FIFE-based realtime strategy game currently in development:

Feedback:
Any kind of feedback is appreciated. We're more than willing to learn from any mistake so shoot, we can take it :-)
_________________
http://www.parpg.net

mvBarracuda · Happypenguin Regular Joined: 14 Jul 2005 Posts: 84

It's time for a little news update :-)

We've boiled down possible setting and game mechanics aspects in the last week. So far we've agreed on a nuclear winter setting; furthermore the game will take place in Northern Europe / Scandinavia. In case you're interested about the details, feel free to check out the full news update at the PARPG development blog.

unavowed · Newbie Joined: 27 Apr 2006 Posts: 15

The project looks really cool; if you can create something like fallout I'm sure it'll be immenseley enjoyable :-) Looks like you may be able to complete it too, having had the experience from writing FIFE and a sound idea of what the development will look like, judging from the website.

I'm certain there are lots of other folk like me who are interested. But you know how it is, everybody is already otherwise engaged or doesn't have enough free time... In any case, I'll be following the development and good luck!

Keep up writing the news posts, even if nobody replies there are a lot of us who like to read them, just look at the view count.

mvBarracuda · Happypenguin Regular Joined: 14 Jul 2005 Posts: 84

Thanks for the encouragement Unavowed :-) I'll keep posting.
_________________
http://www.parpg.net

shevegen · Happypenguin Regular Joined: 14 Dec 2004 Posts: 185

Wheee :D

I am more of a ruby guy (since soon 6 years) than a python guy, but since I know you a tiny bit - GO ON MAN! THE WORLD IS BEFORE YOUR FEET!

PS: What is the difference between this project and FiFE from ~3 years ago? It sounds a bit similar on first glance (I didnt even look at the project's homepage for example)

mvBarracuda · Happypenguin Regular Joined: 14 Jul 2005 Posts: 84

Here are some remarks about that shevegen:
http://parpg.fifengine.de/mediawiki/index.php?title=User:MvBarracuda#Appendix

Basically PARPG is an independent effort that is somewhat unrelated to FIFE. We might end up using FIFE for the game but that's not set in stone yet as we'll need to evaluate FIFE before we can agree on that. FIFE is an engine creation undertaking while PARPG is a post-apocalyptic RPG whose founder worked on FIFE before, that's basically the relationship.
_________________
http://www.parpg.net

mvBarracuda · Happypenguin Regular Joined: 14 Jul 2005 Posts: 84

Heya and welcome to yet another PARPG news update. In the course of the last week we've agreed on a bunch of setting-related aspects as well as game mechanics: branching tree dialogue, real isometric projection, rivaling factions, crafting use cases and post-game slides that show the consequences of your actions.

We're currently searching for interested Python and C++ programmers who would like to help us with engine evaluation for PARPG. Furthermore we're looking for a writer with passion for post-apocalyptic settings for the story department.

Zenbitz and qubodup started to compile lists of engine requirements and Lamoot collected information how other isometric games implement graphics-related features. Last but not least qubodup overworked the look of our blog, wiki and forums.

If you would like to know more about it, feel free to check out the full news update at the PARPG blog.
_________________
http://www.parpg.net

mvBarracuda · Happypenguin Regular Joined: 14 Jul 2005 Posts: 84

We're now looking for a talented writer, preferably a native speaker. Interest in post-apocalyptic fiction is the most important and only real requirement besides that. If you always wanted to get involved in the development of a game that aims to feature a sophisticated story and you like to work with other dedicated people who enjoy non-cliche RPGs, here is your chance :-)

We are also looking for people with experience writing for dialog trees and those familiar with Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and other areas near the Baltic Sea.
_________________
http://www.parpg.net

mvBarracuda · Happypenguin Regular Joined: 14 Jul 2005 Posts: 84

Heya and welcome to yet another weekly PARPG update! This time we’ll cover a bunch of interesting topics: progress in the fields of writing, mechanics and programming, efforts to find a lead writer for the project as well as some general remarks about the future of the technical framework that we’re currently evaluating.

If you would like to know more, check out the full news update at the PARPG development blog.
_________________
http://www.parpg.net

mvBarracuda · Happypenguin Regular Joined: 14 Jul 2005 Posts: 84

Heya and welcome to your weekly dose of post-apocalyptic development news. Looks like we are picking up quite some speed lately - at least the number of topics to cover in each news update is growing and growing. I'll keep things short this time and you simply click through the various links if you find a topic of interest.

We got covered at the freegamer blog some days ago and agreed upon a first license for the assets we'll create. PARPG got it's own top level domain now and zenbitz was on a game design spree last week again.

Icelus came up with a proposal for a story format and suddenly a lot of writers popped up and filled up the writing board of the forums.

Last but not least we're currently discussing how the game can be challenging while avoiding universal frustration. Feel free to jump into the permadeath thread at the forums right away.

Interested in all the details? Check out the full news update at the PARPG blog (now featuring subdomain candy!).
_________________
http://www.parpg.net

mvBarracuda · Happypenguin Regular Joined: 14 Jul 2005 Posts: 84

Updated the original posting:
* We're now looking for graphics artists (3d modelers, concept artists) as well as musicians (composers, sound effects engineers).
* Updated the list of team members.
_________________
http://www.parpg.net

mvBarracuda · Happypenguin Regular Joined: 14 Jul 2005 Posts: 84

Yes! It's Monday again, that means it's time for yet another news update :-) As always: lots of progress over the course of the last week so I'll keep things short and you simply click through the various links if you find a topic of interest.

This time we're looking out for graphics artists and musicians who would like to get their hands dirty by contributing to the project. To give them something to do, the proper infrastructure needs to be in place as well, so our graphics artist Lamoot created a first Blender rendering setup as starting point. Furthermore we decided to set up an asset repository to find out if it offers any advantage for contributors who would like to avoid wrestling with SVN and other VCS solutions that are more geared towards tech-savvy users.

There are some new starting points for interested programmers and some reinforcements have already arrived as well. We're currently working on a playground for the writers to test the story format while trying to retain an overview by maintaining a per milestone ToDo list.

Zenbitz got his hands dirty again as well and elaborates on use and study-based learning and the next (prolly rather short) news update will already arrive at Friday as I'm traveling to The Hague at Saturday.

Interested in all the details? Check out the full news update at the PARPG development blog :-)
_________________
http://www.parpg.net

mvBarracuda · Happypenguin Regular Joined: 14 Jul 2005 Posts: 84

Heya and welcome to yet another PARPG news update. This one has been in the pipeline for several weeks and I would like to apologize for the massive delay. The original plan was to bring it to you around the 1st of April but a lot of unforeseen events occured.

This time there are a couple of good things to report but we've also encountered setbacks. Our lead programmer icelus decided to step down from his position; therefore the plans for the rather sophisticated story engine / AI system are on ice for the time being. Fortunately a new programmer decided to get involved in the project and is now actively working on PARPG.

One of our graphics artists came up with some first concept art and the programmers continued to explore FIFE and took a couple of testing screenshots while doing so. Zenbitz wrote down his ideas about encumbrance, inventory and clothing and I've made a personal promise :-)

You can read about all details at the PARPG development blog: http://blog.parpg.net/2009/04/dont-look-back-into-the-sun

Here's a little teaser:

_________________
http://www.parpg.net

mvBarracuda · Happypenguin Regular Joined: 14 Jul 2005 Posts: 84

Heya and welcome to yet another PARPG news update! As promised: now delivered weekly again.

An important advantage of blog updates on a weekly basis is that the number of topics to cover can be usually kept rather low. This time we’ll take a look into the latest map tests and present Zenbitz’s thoughts how combat could work in PARPG. Last but not least we’ll show you how a piece of concept art evolves from a mere black and white sketch to a colorized version of it and finally into an actual (work in progress) 3d model.

You can check out all the details at the PARPG development blog!

And here's a little teaser for you to get you excited. The other visuals can be found at the blog :-)

_________________
http://www.parpg.net

mvBarracuda · Happypenguin Regular Joined: 14 Jul 2005 Posts: 84

Heya and welcome to yet another PARPG news update! This week we got a number of interesting topics to cover: an updated roadmap for the programming department, some first guides for the graphics artists, new work in progress 3d models as well as progress in the writing department.

You can check out the whole update at the PARPG development blog.

And as special feature for this week's update: a mistery teaser :-) Want to find out what PARPG has to do with crates? Check out the full update at the blog!

_________________
http://www.parpg.net