Pirates; 64-Player indie game, 18th century combat (Melee, flintlocks, and more) - Games

This is a multiplayer game themed in late Golden Age Piracy era. Caribbean setting primarily. The gamemodes range from standard multiplayer such Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture The Flag to Cooperative campaigns featuring Tomb Raiding, Treasure Hunting, and Pillaging towns/ports. [B]Our official IndieDB page is[/B] [url]http://www.indiedb.com/games/pirates[/url] Right now a competition is running and its in nomination phase, [U]please vote for us.[/U] I'm not interested in the prizes in said competition, just the publicity it generates as it is necessary for us to garner the following necessary for a successful Steam Greenlight and a Kickstarter to fund Unity Pro among other development costs. [U][B]Brief summary:[/B][/U] [B]Engine:[/B] Unity 4 [B]Target platform:[/B] Windows, Mac & Linux via Steam. Android/Android console if possible. [B]Design Document: (Click link to read full design document)[/B] [URL="http://www.miriscus.com/pirates/?page_id=98"]Design Document Pirates[/URL] [U][B]Brief Summary of Design Document:[/B][/U] [B]-Multiplayer combat FPS/TPS[/B] Listen and dedicated server support. Up to 64 players (32 x 32) supported. [B]-2 teams (pirate factions).[/B] Colour coded with separate themes (flags and symbols) [B]-Customisable pirate player[/B] There are no static classes. You may create your own, deciding the balance of powers/stats and the look of your pirate. 13 full presets (5 starting; 7 unlockables) [B]-Melee combat (4 directional parry system)[/B] Swords, axes, and more; unlockable weapons. [B]-Ranged combat and Explosives[/B] Matchlock, Flintlock, Percussion, Crossbow, Bow, Grenade launcher, Grenades, and more. [B]-Multi-Tier system for weapons & a market.[/B] Arsenal chart -> [url]http://www.miriscus.com/pirates/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/arsenal.png[/url] [B]-9 gamemodes to accompany the combat system[/B] (Sea battles, Tomb raiding, Pillaging, Booty hunt) Objective, versus and cooperative. Sea battle campaign features RTS + FPS/TPS mixed. One player on each team steers the ship, while the others man the cannons or snipe. Sink the enemy ship or board and fight. [B]-16 planned maps total.[/B] [B]-Voice/Taunt system, variety to choose from.[/B] Each full preset has its own voice library; 7 are unlockables. [B]Media:[/B] Dec 8th build [video=youtube;QTFJCVtx9wY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTFJCVtx9wY[/video] Dec 4th build [video=youtube;AS5dyrxHqFk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AS5dyrxHqFk[/video] The ship will be fully rigged, so some sails are still missing. 3 jibs in the front, and stay-sails (side facing sails inbetween masts) [IMG]http://media.indiedb.com/cache/images/games/1/15/14532/thumb_620x2000/PirateGalleonSailsWIP.jpg[/IMG] Without sails for a better view. [IMG]http://media.indiedb.com/cache/images/games/1/15/14532/thumb_620x2000/PirateGelleonPerspectiveWIP.jpg[/IMG] Close up of cannon mesh. Each ship will have 32 cannons + swivel guns. [IMG]http://media.indiedb.com/cache/images/games/1/15/14532/thumb_620x2000/PirateCannonRenderWIP.jpg[/IMG] Incredibly rough alpha for a Tavern map. As in the GDD, the Tavern is a large indoor environment meant for mindless deathmatch slaughter. [IMG]http://media.indiedb.com/cache/images/games/1/15/14532/thumb_620x2000/tavernwip.png[/IMG] A good mesh for the sharks that will eat you after ships sink in the "ship battles" maps. Also, if you spotted that sharks dont have scales, I told my character modeller to fix it. ;) [IMG]http://media.indiedb.com/cache/images/games/1/15/14532/thumb_620x2000/shark.jpg[/IMG] This is called a Hand Mortar, and it is actually the 18th century equivalent of a grenade launcher. Hand Mortars date back much further though, so this wasn't necessarily cutting edge for 18th century. This one is being implimented into our code as I type, so its the next demonstrated weapon ;) [IMG]http://media.indiedb.com/cache/images/games/1/15/14532/thumb_620x2000/Hand_Cannon_thumb.jpg[/IMG] Our old weapon model renders. We'll be finishing up the rest of these this month. [IMG]http://media.indiedb.com/cache/images/games/1/15/14532/thumb_620x2000/weapons.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://media.indiedb.com/cache/images/games/1/15/14532/thumb_620x2000/pedroweapons.jpg[/IMG] Old demonstration of "Island". It is the first map started by me personally. We now have a jungle pack of 40 species, so the next time you see this map, it will have a lush jungle ;) [IMG]http://media.indiedb.com/cache/images/games/1/15/14532/thumb_620x2000/islandmap.png[/IMG] The map Island has a cavern with a gold ship in it that 2 teams fight over. [IMG]http://media.indiedb.com/cache/images/games/1/15/14532/thumb_620x2000/MovieFrame01669.1.png[/IMG] Base male pirate for testing [IMG]http://media.indiedb.com/cache/images/games/1/15/14532/thumb_620x2000/Demo_pose2.jpg[/IMG] Base female pirate for testing. Dress is horrid, was rushed so she wouldn't be naked. [IMG]http://media.indiedb.com/cache/images/games/1/15/14532/thumb_620x2000/femalebasemesh.png[/IMG] This is from our old legacy build back in Nov, which is now completely replaced, but it had a hilarious glitch that our animator captured. [video=youtube;t682vrXgtfM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t682vrXgtfM[/video] [B]Audio:[/B] [B]Main theme (music):[/B] [URL]http://root.miriscus.com/promotional/forums/Main_Theme.mp3[/URL] [B]Voice actor Tassilo: (Samples/Highlights)[/B] [URL]http://root.miriscus.com/promotional/forums/Tas_Captain.mp3[/URL] [URL]http://root.miriscus.com/promotional/forums/Tas_Skirm.mp3[/URL] [B]Voice actor Joseph (Samples/Highlights)[/B] [URL]http://root.miriscus.com/promotional/forums/Jos_Archer.mp3[/URL] [URL]http://root.miriscus.com/promotional/forums/Jos_Skirm.mp3[/URL] [URL]http://root.miriscus.com/promotional/forums/Gestir_bracken.mp3[/URL] [B]About team:[/B] The team currently is made up: Adam - Artist (characters/organics/zbrush enthusiast) Benjamin - Artist (working on ships) Christian - Artist (Tavern map) Nick - Artist (Character rigging, skinning, and animation) Luca - Coder (December build) 2 new coders start today and tomorrow: Tom - Coder Will - Coder Former member: Micheal - Coder (Legacy system, left when Luca replaced his work *drama*) [U][B]Previous project experience/other work:[/B][/U] Some samples of other work to show experience. I'm using just text and links to keep it compressed. [B]My portfolio:[/B] [URL="http://www.diftow.com"]Christopher L. Doucette - Portfolio[/URL] My Rats map for Source engine on ModDB. Just released the latest version yesterday. I heard it runs in Gmod :) [url]http://www.moddb.com/mods/rats1985[/url] [B]Adam Vittoz demo reel (visual artist):[/B] [URL="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fBbNFFHumc"]3D Animation Showreel Adam Vittoz - YouTube[/URL] One of Adam's speed sculpts. [url]http://root.miriscus.com/promotional/forums/adam_angel.jpg[/url] [B]Jurassic Park Mod (Crysis)[/B] A project me and Adam Vittoz worked on together before starting Pirates. Images of 3D dinosaur models made by Adam Vittoz, in his demo reel above. Videos [url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmNWaOXUGFo[/url] [url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fskbYiO2-lA[/url] Adam's character modelling for Jurassic Park [url]http://root.miriscus.com/promotional/forums/jp_ch.jpg[/url] [url]http://root.miriscus.com/promotional/forums/raptor.jpg[/url] [url]http://root.miriscus.com/promotional/forums/trex.jpg[/url] My structural modelling [url]http://root.miriscus.com/promotional/forums/jp_vc.jpg[/url] [url]http://root.miriscus.com/promotional/forums/raptorpen.jpg[/url]

Just one thing, when you are trying to show off your / your team game showing YOUR previous work non-related to the project is pretty off-topic

[QUOTE=werewolf0020;43135205]Just one thing, when you are trying to show off your / your team game showing YOUR previous work non-related to the project is pretty off-topic[/QUOTE] To be fair most of these threads get shot down due to lack of experience from the author(s).

The pirate models should look a lot more dirty. When working on touching up the pirate models, remember to give them some grime.

[QUOTE=werewolf0020;43135205]Just one thing, when you are trying to show off your / your team game showing YOUR previous work non-related to the project is pretty off-topic[/QUOTE] [QUOTE=Hoffa1337;43135275]To be fair most of these threads get shot down due to lack of experience from the author(s).[/QUOTE] It is a standard requirement or encouraged on other websites, so I suppose it is a habit for me now. But I can slim it down if it is a problem. I removed the thumbnails for my Rats map, and made the Jurassic Park youtube videos just links. [QUOTE=redBadger;43135439]The pirate models should look a lot more dirty. When working on touching up the pirate models, remember to give them some grime.[/QUOTE] Oh most definitely. Yellow eyes and teeth too I reckon.

[QUOTE=DIFTOW;43135567]It is a standard requirement or encouraged on other websites, so I suppose it is a habit for me now. But I can slim it down if it is a problem. I removed the thumbnails for my Rats map, and made the Jurassic Park youtube videos just links. Oh most definitely. Yellow eyes and teeth too I reckon.[/QUOTE] Eyepatches?

Hope this turns out well, I always wished the pirate battle mod for Gmod went better.

[t]http://media.indiedb.com/cache/images/games/1/15/14532/thumb_620x2000/shark.jpg[/t] tell your modeller to fix it and tell him don't try to be high "detailed", just try to look actually good

[QUOTE=a-cookie;43135741]Eyepatches?[/QUOTE] No, Parrots

[QUOTE=a-cookie;43135741]Eyepatches?[/QUOTE] Yes, but I would discourage them in favour of this look instead. [IMG]http://cdn-www.mania.com/content_pics/000006/78/64/36eaf79ecbbf6b04_large.jpg[/IMG] That guy on the left is awesome looking, an eye patch would ruin it. I've read that they were for keeping one eye exposed for the dark to quickly switch from below deck to above. Don't know how if its true, but it makes sense. There will be a large variety of standard and naval 17th-18th century clothing, that you're free to mix and match. You won't be limited to the very narrow perception of what a pirate looks like brought on by popular culture. [QUOTE=SomeENG;43135923]Hope this turns out well, I always wished the pirate battle mod for Gmod went better.[/QUOTE] I use to play one back in Gmod 9. Is that the same one? It had physics ships so they could break apart and sink, but it was incredibly laggy. [QUOTE=cdr248;43135947]No, Parrots[/QUOTE] And monkeys ;)

The texturing on the models needs a lot of work.

Rated funny because of that glitch video, jesus christ that was unexpected. :v: Looks good though, keep it up!

[QUOTE=orcywoo6;43136144]Rated funny because of that glitch video, jesus christ that was unexpected. :v: Looks good though, keep it up![/QUOTE] reminds me of second life

[QUOTE=J!NX;43137717]reminds me of second life[/QUOTE] I actually made something similar in SL years ago. [url]http://imgur.com/kqavctc[/url] It's not naked, it just is wearing a skin coloured bikini, like Miley Cyrus. I haven't played SL in ages, but I remember it was nearly impossible to make male avatars look male. They either looked female or shemale.

I would love to help out with texturing, but I sadly don't have any time right now. Either way though, best of luck. Always nice to see indie developers with ambitious projects.

If you have no use for that jurrassic park jeep i'd like to use it in an arma project

Unless the graphical style you were going for is uncanny and bad CGI from the early 90's; I can assure you that you've succeeded. If that wasn't the case then I suggest you put more focus on stylizing and art direction.

[QUOTE=Sunday_Roast;43138913]Unless the graphical style you were going for is uncanny and bad CGI from the early 90's; I can assure you that you've succeeded. If that wasn't the case then I suggest you put more focus on stylizing and art direction.[/QUOTE] Unless what?

I think his point was what you're doing is a common pitfall for indie developers: going for a realism style you can't pull off. Something stylized would suit your needs and abilities much better and is frankly also usually more creative and better received.

This looks enjoyable.

[QUOTE=Venezuelan;43139990]I think his point was what you're doing is a common pitfall for indie developers: going for a realism style you can't pull off. Something stylized would suit your needs and abilities much better and is frankly also usually more creative and better received.[/QUOTE] I know, it was his grammar that had me confused. I understand the reason for the advice and its definitely appreciated, however most of this is programmer art, so its not indicative of the final product at all. We polish up the meshes pretty good, but we purposely rush on the texturing and skip shaders entirely so we can get content for the coders and testing.

Those raptors in the 2nd JP mod video are freaky

i like the art environments are pretty. char models arent THAT BAD animations need lots o work obv

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-2Q_SKZLS8[/media] Brings back memories. Good luck to you guys.

Ok, so the art looks acceptable, I'm going to blindly assume your programming is fine, but your GDD needs some serious loving. As someone who just got off of being lead designer on a semester long game project, I seriously urge you to plan ahead much much harder than you are right now, and to put that plan into writing (a proper GDD), so that you force yourself to think of every detail possible. Specific points: 1. Details, details, details. You brush over so much in your GDD it's kind of crazy. I see stuff like this: [quote]Trader or Armory There will be a place to purchase, sell, and upgrade weapons. There are up to three levels of melee & ranged weapons, as well as unlockables.[/quote] and I panic a little. Where is this in the map? Is it a contestable location, something designed to be put in each base? What currency do people use to get weapons? Do you keep them on death? Is this even something in the map or is it more of a "profile advancement" thing like in CoD or Halo 4 where you buy weapons as you play games and keep them forever? Also, stuff like [quote]Kicking Perhaps the ability to kick your opponent? Debate.[/quote] will just write you into a wall later. Again, think about more details and make decisions now - you can change them later if you have to, but making [B]a[/B] decision now is so important. For example, if you decide to add kicking to the combat, how will that influence combat? Will it be an important balancing factor in weapons, positioning, and attack mixups, or is it superfluous and you could save time by just cutting it? Making a solid decision now will force you to put thought into all the elements of your game, and you can always change the decision later if it doesn't end up working out. 2. Scope. No, seriously, scope your game down. It's massive, like supermassive, like beyond way too big even if you had a team of 50 people. Look at a game like Hawken which was made on a small team like that - it released with ~12 different weapons and about 8 different special deployables. They had something like 4 maps and 3 gamemodes - one of which wasn't even really finished (and still isn't to this day). You have nearly triple the content they do in every single category. One really really great way to think about scope is to start writing down every task that needs to be accomplished and do an hours estimate for everything. By everything, I mean everything, by the way - basic player movement (walking, crouching, sprinting)? Something like 2 hours coding wise, and maybe 2-4 more in animation. Dodging? Again, total of 4-6 hours between departments. Maps can easily take 40 hours in creation, detailing, balancing, fixing stupid bugs over and over again, adjusting lighting and baking lightmaps, and keeping them updated so that every gameobject has the components it needs for the game to function. So with that in mind, stuff like [quote]Puzzle Gameplay more focused on per-map puzzle solving than killing/combat.[/quote] (Puzzles are insanely hard to refine and require repeated testing to make sure beyond 10% of players can solve them. You're literally looking at a second game with this entry.) [quote]Pillage You accumulate points for destruction and pillaging of town/port/fort. This could include territory gamemode in combination, so controlling areas would also accumulate points. NOTE: It is also possible to do a co-op version of this gamemode. 8 players vs AI enemies. For example: In Port Royal map, AI enemy would be the royal navy.[/quote] What are your plans for destruction for this map (or for ship battles for that matter)? How will you be handling taking an entire building and shredding it to pieces as cannon balls fly through it? Are you going to? This could range from 30 hours of animating everything manually, to a questionable number of hours in splitting everything into pieces, carefully putting all those pieces together in unity and solving glitches in the physics engine to make it work, to a crazy number of hours if you're looking at creating or implementing some sort of dynamic damaging system. [quote]Tomb Raiding/Looting Ancient civilisations, underground tombs... filled with precious old artifacts aka booty. This can be implimented as either co-op or competitive (teams). Example planned map (Incan Underground Temple): You must survive this temple's booby traps, escape from its ultimate collapse, and in the process be the team or individual to come out with the booty, alive.[/quote] Again, this is practically another game. You're involving (listed in a different section) 7 different enemies, all of whom will theoretically function differently, require special art, coding, level design, and level creation (to ensure proper pathing), and significant testing. AI is hard as is, and you want it networked too, by the way. You're shooting to make a 64 person multiplayer game - that's an enormous undertaking as is, and getting just a basic couple of game modes working, the code done, the art done and polished, and the gameplay and maps to feel fun and exciting enough for people to want to play it will take you hundreds and hundreds of collective (and maybe even personal) hours. 3. Theme seems a little unsure of itself. You set off as saying you want a realistic-looking game that's fairly historically accurate, but with more lighthearted gameplay mechanics, which I'm totally on board for (pun very intended) - it's a tried and true style of art that is present in a ton of games. Then you say something like this [quote]Space Pirates Flying pirate ships in outerspace.[/quote] or the presence of sledgehammers, claymores, and katanas amongst classic cutlasses and black powder weapons, and I get kind confused. Are you serious art and theme with dramatic, borderline-cartooney animations and combat, or are you just straight up goofy? Either is fine, but pick one and stick with it for the rest of your design and art decisions and you'll come out with a more cohesive game. 4. Professionalism. This is a much smaller criticism than above but stuff like [quote]Graveyard Map for zombies :)[/quote] really shouldn't be in a GDD. I know this isn't some big budget game, but be serious when writing the GDD, because it can very easily make the difference between having a game at the end and getting lost halfway. So yeah, refine that GDD and get everyone running on a planned course - you'll thank yourself for it later, and I wish you guys the absolute best of luck! I'm super happy to see more people getting into making games and I hope you do well.

[QUOTE=J!NX;43135938][t]http://media.indiedb.com/cache/images/games/1/15/14532/thumb_620x2000/shark.jpg[/t] tell your modeller to fix it and tell him don't try to be high "detailed", just try to look actually good[/QUOTE] this, sharks don't have scales either

[QUOTE=HybridTheroy;43144650]this, sharks don't have scales either[/QUOTE] Please refer to quote below taken from the first post of this thread. [QUOTE=DIFTOW;43134480]A good mesh for the sharks that will eat you after ships sink in the "ship battles" maps. Also, if you spotted that sharks dont have scales, I told my character modeller to fix it. ;) [IMG]http://media.indiedb.com/cache/images/games/1/15/14532/thumb_620x2000/shark.jpg[/IMG][/QUOTE] --------------------- @Nutnoze - A second GDD exists in private on our mediawiki, which divides the game into 5 phases with very specific details for the immediate features we are due to work on. --------------------- [QUOTE=MadPro119;43143363]i like the art environments are pretty. char models arent THAT BAD animations need lots o work obv[/QUOTE] Sounds about right. --------------------- [QUOTE=SeamanStains;43143996][media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-2Q_SKZLS8[/media] Brings back memories. Good luck to you guys.[/QUOTE] That looks like alot of fun. I never played Battlefield Pirates. Thanks :) --------------------- [QUOTE=SomeENG;43143238]Those raptors in the 2nd JP mod video are freaky[/QUOTE] Was a weird glitch, but I kind of liked it =3

[QUOTE=DIFTOW;43144785]@Nutnoze - A second GDD exists in private on our mediawiki, which divides the game into 5 phases with very specific details for the immediate features we are due to work on.[/QUOTE] Well then some (or many) of my comments probably don't apply anymore, but I still suggest you start listing off every task you need to do - it's really an amazing reality check for how insane any given project can become.

[QUOTE=Nutnoze;43144874]Well then some (or many) of my comments probably don't apply anymore, but I still suggest you start listing off every task you need to do - it's really an amazing reality check for how insane any given project can become.[/QUOTE] That's why I got the mediawiki, because I was able to create pages for just about everything. Every member has a long-term calendar of assignments, and then their immediate assignment with comfortable deadlines. The coders get their own design document to follow, written in a language they understand and as specific as it needs to be. There are pages of information for just about any subject. I'm constantly adding to it when I can. As I mentioned with dividing the project up, our goal for instance at this time is: Basic combat (4 melee swings and block, simple guns, explosives) Basic ship battles Basic gamemodes (deathmatch, team deathmatch, LTS). With networking applied. After we've hit that, we start focusing on the next stage of development. I think after a Kickstarter is done either around or after that, it will be far easier to tackle the more advanced features that are at the end of the development. EDIT: Also, since you asked specifically about buying weapons. For now it is done via spawn area.

Well Diftow, I'll just be completely damned then, you're probably the first person who's posted their own project here with any kind of reasonable planning, and even a good internal communication pipeline to boot. I guess all I can say is good luck, keep at it, and I can't wait to see what comes out of this when it's done!