Here is a generalized guide to starting a project.
High death rate: Many projects never get passed the test phase, some fail before they ever get started. A lot of projects get halfway done before they are dropped as a project due to real life(TM), inexperience or even loss of interest. Some projects die in the planning phase because as a concept they simply do not work in their respective game. This happens more often than people realize.
Projects can take years to finish if you are lucky, this is a large endeavor and will become very demanding. You will need to be designer, programmer and artist because there will be times where people said they will help, will not. You cannot be a mere "idea guy" you need to have some skills to accomplish this task.
Content: It is entirely likely that as the lead of the project one may need to be able to perform several tasks. These tasks are:
.Bos Scripter
Write all the scripts that control the way your unit moves and reacts
Animation Scripter
Write all scripts that control walking, shooting or any other motions carried out by your units. All fire points, explosions on death and even units smoking when a damage level is reach are controlled here in a bos file.
Modeler
Be familiar with modeling and creating models will be a lot of work. They will need to maintain a uniform scale and theme for the entire mod.
Sound artist
The project will need new sounds, many of them, otherwise it will feel stale. It is can likely that online several open source sounds can be found but eventually one will need familiarity with this aspect.
Texture artist
Many textures and/or to be able to uvmap and skin for the models. Uvmapping for some comes easily and for others can be a massive task so be sure to look into this.
Game designer
This is last but only because it is the most important. There must be a master plan written somewhere of EVERYTHING that the project will include. Even if it is scrawled on a napkin it needs to be planned out and follow a schedule. Otherwise the project will have issues with things like feature creep and sides that are terribly imbalanced due to poor initial design. Mistakes have a way of stacking onto one another to create larger issues. There is an old adage that goes like "do it right the first time so you don't have to do it over again." This is true of gamedesign, you do not want to revisit old work.
As a Project Lead these skills will be needed because many of the capable personalities here are likely working on their own projects already. It is important to have something to show before anyone worth recruitment will get on board with the project anyway.
Bear in mind that once the project is complete one will need to completely revisit all of this for quality control and design modification. No one person is perfect and at the end of the project many issues that were not apparent will need correction.
Getting help:
Well, if the project is in need of people to help out directly then it is not a bad idea to post a request for help. However as I say above, unless one has something to show it is most likely the project will not recruit many members on a team. One needs to show personal initiative.
Research: Even if the project is something completely made up. It will need to research several aspects.
Factional differentiation
Compile this list as sides where necessary. Note any sub-versions of a unit that may be found although many might not make it in it is good to think about all aspects. Print 2 copies; place the first on one├óÔé¼Ôäós desk and the other in one├óÔé¼Ôäós wallet. At any point in the day one may remember something that was forgotten and needs to be added.
Style
Look around at military weapons, movies, anime, comic books or even your local wargame store. Inspiration can be drawn from everything, many elements of real life and fiction. Then do some rough sketches, this will give a start point as far as conceptual work. Even designing faction logos can be a great tool to figure out styles.
Can this idea even work?
Many things work in spring, many do not! Experimentation with other projects will be need take care to look at what they have done. See what is out there, what can├óÔé¼Ôäót be implemented, what has been implemented. Then after having looked through many other project sone should then look in the wiki and search the project forum for answers.
If the wiki and forum searches prove to be of no use on this issue then one should compile a single list and post the questions in a clear and easy to read format. Many of the project developers around here will help when asked nicely.
---stuff below is outdated/wrong--- Questions:
What are some features other RTS games have but spring does not yet support? Food count: USE LUA Bunkers: USE LUA Unit upgrades/research items: USE LUA Unit metamorphosis: USE LUA Selling a buildng: USE LUA Melee weapons: There are some hackish(read not worth doing) ways of having this but they are not in the game. translucencies: it is complicated, just know that you cannot have them... yet.
modeling: Wings 3D I prefer wings because it does everything you need to do and it really good for this sort of thing. It can uvmap and export to any format needed. tutorials Manual available here
Photoshop this is an expensive option but a good one if one desires a professional career in image editing..
animation: Servo(broken link) While it is a bit rough at first once it is understood it can easily handle more complicated animations in it. (alternative to Servo)
I need some script examples! The scripts in Gundam are safe to copy.
What is a FBI,BOS,3DO,S3O,GAF,TDF file? FBI A text document storing units stats like, name, cost buildtime etc. BOS An Uncompiled script written in Pseudo-C COB A compiled .BOS file 3DO A el format used by ota it is supported by spring S3O Spring's own el format. HPI A compressed format used by OTA and 3DO builder. GAF files need to be stored here for 3DO builder to read them. GP3 Just a renamed .HPI GAF 3DO textures are stored within these files TDF Used as a generic information file, merely a text SDZ Spring files are stored in this format, This is a zip file with zip renamed to .sdz, this will load faster but has low compression. SD7 Spring files are also stored in this format, This is a 7 zip file with 7z renamed to .sd7, these are good for compression but can cause slower load times.
How can I make my project show up in multiplayer? You will need a .tdf
Balancing... but that's a whole 'nother ball game.
Finding people to help you.
Yes and no. Theoretical balance should not have to be done after the fact, that should all be well constructed and thought out before hand by the developer. That being said, logical balance, the stuff that comes down to nitty gritty, like how fast should a peewee kill a rocko and soforth, the acctual tweaking of the numbers so they work the way you wanted them to in theory, that has to be done with testing and testing obviously needs to be done in large part with a finished product.
Snipawolf wrote:
Texture work, could be GIMP?
Of course, GIMP is a perfectly functional image editor, and that's all you really need for texture work. The biggest trick is getting your images in a good texture format, since GIMP doesn't naitively support DDS you have to workaround a little bit if you want to use those.
Might be worth mentioning (in an encouraging but straight-forward way) that the vast majority of mods that are started will fail before they get to alpha, and even fewer will see beta releases, and you can count final releases on a single hand. For this reason, I think it might be worth encouraging newcomers to give things a go, but look to see if they can perhaps offer their skills at another mod which can take them aboard and teach them what they need to know...
It's a piece of crap anyway. It's about as intuitive as ripping out your own small intestine.
Here's a tip: In Upspring 1.3, pose the unit how you want the next frame of animation. Take note of all the movements and rotations you do. Then write them all down in the script, except multiply all turns on the z-axis by -1 and divide all moves on every axis by 3. The moves may need further tweaked but this will give you the pose you need, basically. It's up to you to implement timing and speeds, however. Honestly, with servo's asstastic GUI, that's about all you could accomplish anyway...
Last edited by Gnomre on 18 Jul 2006, 03:30, edited 1 time in total.
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