Lets make a game!

>>This is ambitious and will mreo than likely fail.

You sound like so many of our politicians :chuckle: Yes, lead us on stalwart leader! Into disaster we charge!

Heh, a recruiter should never give the sense his endeavors could fail. To do so is defeatest. If you fail to plan for success, you will never acheive it.

hehehehehehheheehehehhehehehehe.... i wasnt being pessimistic... just trying to do something... for the challenge.... if nobody else works with me, then i go alone. bottom line of it.

i will give it a go? any ideas on what type of game yet?

I might help. Any ideas on genere/language (i.e. c++,java,basic)/ graphics (i.e. openGl, Direct X, SDL). More info before I can commit myself though. Maybe Stardock can release it on their "free stuff" section.

I'd like to see a sort of rpg type game were u start of as lowly roman senator and have to through diplomatic and sometimes violent means gain power and favour in the senate so as to finally achieve the aim of taking the control of the roman empire as consul or maybe become emperor etc.... a lot of freedom would be good in that as a senator u can build stuff to gain favour with the people, gain control of troops and go out and conquer land so as to gain favour in the senate, etc. For me such a game would be awesome and i'm not sure if you were looking for this sort of comment but you asked for ideas and this is mine.

Wow!

I love Eireace's idea!

It fills my head with visions of Julius Ceasar's rise to power, and his transformation of Rome from a republic to an empire in the process.

That would be a great game. Start out as a Senator, campaign for votes, be assigned an army, conquer barbarians, come back to Rome, make a play for the Emperor's wreath.

Where do I sign up?

If you guys want to make your own game, you can get a license of the Torque game engine for $100 per seat, and it will run on Windows, Mac, and Linux.  It comes with a world editor and a gui editor and built in multiplayer, so it takes care of a lot of the hardest code, allowing you to concentrate on the game code.

I been looking for something to take away some of my free time... what's the plan?

I could see this Roman game working fairly well because we could split it up very easily, each person could take a game part (Getting votes, doing law stuff, civil duties, and war).

If you guys want to make your own game, you can get a license of the Torque game engine for $100 per seat, and it will run on Windows, Mac, and Linux. It comes with a world editor and a gui editor and built in multiplayer, so it takes care of a lot of the hardest code, allowing you to concentrate on the game code.

I checked it out, it looks fairly interesting. It reminds me of a 3d version of RPG maker but less specialized. I doubt that it will be used because of the cost (We're expecting the program to fail remember?) I'm not sure if the game will even be 3d because everything looks like it could easily be text based except the fighting.

It looks like there are 5 people who have volunteered so far and I could see this being enough to start work. For everyone who has/will volunteer, what Languages and graphic APIs are you proficient in?

My languages:
Basic
Java
C
C++

I use SDL for graphics and plan to start learning OpenGL soon.

u could really make an indepth game here even if it is only 2d, really focusing on the politics of the roman era. As the lowly senator you could have to raise money to bribe roman officials.(for example, you need to gain favor with the people in your district by improving the water supply, but to achieve this you have to bribe a couple of guys to see that you can get permission to do this--- a twist would be if maybe somebody refuses to cooperate you could hire thugs to harrass them or assasins to take them out... the possibilties are numerous) Also you if we're limited in terms of graphics etc the battles could be totally strategic, ie moving little counters round each one representing a different roman unit, not much to look at but you could definatlly make it enjoyable. I'm just throwing some ideas out there they can definatley be improved on but this project could work,...hope i helped....

Hmm, Roman Senators eh? Rome conjures images of sweeping conquest, grand battles, and magnificant cities. Senators conjure images of... well, senators. Awesome. I may be able to contribute a bit. Not sure if my schedule will allow for it, but I do have limited experience in Java and C++ (of the two, I'm more comfortable with Java). Each language has its own merits, depending on how the game will be distributed (if at all). I personally think Java is best in terms of simplicity and portability, but it's not as powerful as C or C++, and it tends to be slow, especially if you have a complex legal system running underneath the main interface. Which brings me to another point, what's the AI gonna be like? How sophisticated? How easy should it be to beat the game? I have a feeling that the AI would be the hardest aspect of the game to program.

As for gameplay, I think the game could be played on a large scale map of the known world that marks individual cities, units, etc. Senators can move around units they have control over, and traveling senators etc. can also be controlled on this map. Then if you double-click on a city you get a city interface. Here you can control people within the city and all the finer aspects of your future empire. Each city can be very fleshed out, down to the last citizen (or groups of citizens). Generic citizens would not be nearly as fleshed out as important NPCs, but they can have very basic AI and values for Money, Soldiering Ability, Expertise at various crafts, etc. More important NPCs can have similar ratings plus more advanced AI and ratings like Influence in the senate and Approval from the people. Alternatively normal citizens can be reduced to a number, a certain percentage of which like you, and percentages of that number can be recruited as soldiers, assassins, or what have you. There's a lot of potential for a great system on the city level. Combat can be abstracted if needed, and the gameplay will most likely be turn based (an RTS would be extremely more difficult to program for this type of game). Anyway, that's my two-cents. Sometimes a wave of ideas just hits me.

~Nero

I am a writer and would love to do the story part. But I'm getting a bit tired of the Romans, the near future and WW2. Come up with anything else, and I might be interested.

Wow.

In a year this place changed a lot... But it hasn't been touched in quite some time....

Lets recap here:

Eireace proposed doing a game about a Roman senator rising to power. This idea was then cultivated by Stutefish, mewcurano2, and Karmuno.

What we have is:

You are a Roman senator whose goal is to attain the status of emporer. You have control of an area of the empire. Within this area are cities, countryside, and people living in it. You also get control of an army with which you can protect and conquer with.

So, how about some refining?

The region you control will be filled with cities and wilderness. You would have to develop the wilderness to increase the strength of the cities. The better the city and the happier the people under your rule, the more impressive your territory is.

Your army can be sent into distant lands to conquer and expand territory. When you conquer land you gain something along the lines of military prestige.

The impressiveness of your territory and your military prestige will become influence among the Roman senate. The more influence you have, the more allies you will have who will support almost any decision you make. Eventually they will be influenced enough for you to convince enough of them to allow you to ascend to Emporer.

Well, there is a basic idea I suppose. Anybody else want to add now that I have revived this thread?