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Author Topic: SuperMelee Clone (Beta II In-Progress)  (Read 54165 times)
xenoclone
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SuperMelee Clone (Beta II In-Progress)
« on: October 03, 2006, 02:41:48 am »

Hi everyone,

I'm new to this forum. Years ago, I was addicted to SC II's supermelee. Since then, I've always wanted to program my own similar game. Well, I'm finally doing it! I've been developing a melee clone for about 5-6 months now in my spare time using the Torque 2D game engine, which is possibly the most powerful 2D game engine available for developers.

Now, it's not the same ships or anything like that. Obviously I don't own the rights to it. And I plan on selling it for $10 or so. But it should be a high quality melee game that, if there's enough interest, I could setup to be mod-able so that SC fans could replace my ships with their own.

So I'm curious if there's interest in a game that can be modded? I'm at the point in my programming that I'm going to need to make a decision about whether or not I support it. It's not tirival to implement so I'd really appreciate it if people could say, you know, "yes I'd paid $10 for a game that I could turn into SCII melee on a modern game engine."

I can put up some screens soon if people are interested. Smiley
« Last Edit: October 11, 2007, 11:36:43 pm by xenoclone » Logged

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Re: I'm Creating a SuperMelee Clone
« Reply #1 on: October 03, 2006, 07:20:29 am »

I wouldn’t pay $10, not unless I am extremely impressed by some sample of your work (that would be a yes to screenshots). I won’t presume to lecture you on how to make and sell games, but the likelihood of you selling any game, let alone a 2D space melee game, is very low unless you have the right connections, like a publisher. I hope you do well in the development of your game, but I probably won’t be buying it.

I also happen to be not only making a melee clone but the full game (links in signature). The reason I’m making my game is that it’s a great learning experience, as well as a great filler for a resume. I’m writing my game to be highly mod-able, not because my end users asked for it, but because that’s what’s required of a “high quality” game these days. So if you only want to do the bare minimum for your game then maybe you shouldn’t apply the label “high quality” to it. If you really plan to sell this game then mod-ability and network multiplayer is a must. I’m also writing my game from scratch not using any commercial engines. The main reason for this approach is that I am not constrained by any engine’s license. If I used Torque 2D as you are I could not have released my game open source.
« Last Edit: October 03, 2006, 05:10:41 pm by BioSlayer » Logged

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Re: I'm Creating a SuperMelee Clone
« Reply #2 on: October 03, 2006, 10:04:25 am »

I agree with Bio. Theres an ample plethora of similar games out there, which can be played for free. For anyone to want to actually pay for your game, it has to be very special indeed, not just a moddable SC melee clone. Even if you make a moddable melee with networking, it has to be tangibly better than any free competitros on the market, which willdemand a lot of work form you. Regardless, best of luck with your åproject. Post some screenshots and maybe a demo. If it's good enough I'm sure you might attract some commerce.
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Re: I'm Creating a SuperMelee Clone
« Reply #3 on: October 03, 2006, 06:03:26 pm »

Good feedback. And thanks for the 'best of luck.' Smiley

I agree that there are lots of melee-style games for free out there. But, quite frankly, most free projects suffer from things like multi-OS compatibility, instability on certain computers, memory leaks, etc... things that are covered by a professional engine like T2D. Plus, with hardware acceleration support, built-in particle effects, cross platform compatibility, etc... anything made on T2D I'd waiger would be higher quality than a free download. (I should define 'high quality' as having these things. It's dangerous to associate quality with features, since if you can't play a game on your setup, what good are those features?)

So that's really my question. Is there a need for a better "base" for people to make their clones from. And if not, that's perfectly cool. That's why i'm asking. From this feedback, I'm leaning away from the mod support. Much like networking support, it might have to be listed as a 'for the sequel' concept. Cheesy  (The developer of 'Void War' convinced me that network support isn't worth the hassle.)

Anyway,  thanks for the reponses! I'll have to post some screens when I've got them. It's definitely SC-inspired in terms of gameplay, I think people will dig it. Smiley
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Re: I'm Creating a SuperMelee Clone
« Reply #4 on: October 03, 2006, 10:27:33 pm »

You wouldn't happen to need any help with the ship graphics, would you? I need something to do :/.
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Re: I'm Creating a SuperMelee Clone
« Reply #5 on: October 04, 2006, 07:26:48 pm »

@Neonlare

I don't for this particular project, but I've had some ideas about what to do with it once it's done. The two off the top of my head that I can remember are:

1- release a stripped-down, free version with a Star Control theme just as a promotional device for my site

2- self-clone the game with different (original) ships, changeup the theme, and try to sell it to a different audience. (Right now, my game has an anime/manga style to it...that might not appeal to a lot of people.)

But if you have some ideas, I'd love to hear them. I'd like to leverage my work as much as possible.

I'll try to get some screenshots up. All I have right now are a couple splash screens uploaded, which are at:
http://www.xenoclone.com/images/splash_main.png
http://www.xenoclone.com/images/options_menu.png

I'm forcing myself to be patient for the in-game images until the last piece of the GUI gets done and when I add in some missing parts of the level art and weapon particle effects.
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Re: I'm Creating a SuperMelee Clone
« Reply #6 on: October 10, 2006, 06:19:36 pm »

Well, I finally got around to taking some screenshots. It's still pretty early in the dev process, but I figured people might be interested in what I've got going. There's a bit of temp art/fx in here. Though I guess that's irrelevent to my original question, which is whether or not people would want a modern engine-based SC melee.

This is a foggy nebula level that i'm working on.

http://www.xenoclone.com/images/xv_zoom1.jpg
http://www.xenoclone.com/images/xv_zoom2.jpg
http://www.xenoclone.com/images/xv_zoom3.jpg

I'm still months from the finish line, but if anyone has any thoughts, toss 'em my way!
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Re: I'm Creating a SuperMelee Clone
« Reply #7 on: October 11, 2006, 04:13:10 am »

It looks cool to me, I'd play that Cheesy

TCP/IP Network support would be awesome but since my brother is living at Uni I wouldn't have anyone to play with anyway hahaha Cheesy
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Re: I'm Creating a SuperMelee Clone
« Reply #8 on: October 11, 2006, 09:41:13 pm »

Cool, thanks. It's still a long ways from being done. I have, however, revised it's HUD slightly, as per suggestions from the Torque community.

http://www.xenoclone.com/images/xv_sidebar_rev1.jpg
http://www.xenoclone.com/images/xv_sidebar_rev2.jpg

I would love to do networking, but at the moment it's probably not feasible. My goal is simply to create a game that's a blast for 4 players to play on a single computer.  Grin
« Last Edit: October 12, 2006, 07:35:27 pm by xenoclone » Logged

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Re: I'm Creating a SuperMelee Clone
« Reply #9 on: October 12, 2006, 02:43:24 am »

Frankly I would just put it up as a donate-basis, like most of the old shareware.  You'll find a lot of people won't bother, but many thast do, tend to give above and beyond what you may expect Smiley

As to networking, if you're not worried about cross-platform support, DirectPlay works very well in Windows and is easy to implement.
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Re: I'm Creating a SuperMelee Clone
« Reply #10 on: October 13, 2006, 10:54:41 pm »

@ Rogue

I don't think I'm at the point where I can think about how to release it, but I'm pretty sure that giving it away and hoping for donations has a lower conversation rate (downloaders who pay) than some sort of modern shareware model. But I haven't even begun thinking about this sort of thing yet, other than I won't be going freeware with this particular version of the game.

I appreciate the feedback from everyone. Hopefully one day I can get a demo up and the melee pro's of this forum can let me know how the gameplay feels. Smiley
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Re: I'm Creating a SuperMelee Clone
« Reply #11 on: October 14, 2006, 02:13:32 am »

Perhaps, good faith to the community can bring it's own rewards, though.
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Re: I'm Creating a SuperMelee Clone
« Reply #12 on: October 14, 2006, 09:58:06 pm »

Looks nice, although the anime player faces seem a bit out of place. Very colourful, gives off a nice energetic shone.
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Re: I'm Creating a SuperMelee Clone
« Reply #13 on: October 22, 2006, 09:49:50 am »

When I read "torque" and "publish", I immediately thought of GarageGames.com. Ever considered talking to them?
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Re: I'm Creating a SuperMelee Clone
« Reply #14 on: October 24, 2006, 01:50:03 am »

@Halleck

I actually post my blogs in their developer's area. Their site is an awesome resource for game makers. I think if the game turns out good enough, I'd consider sending a copy of it their way. That's kind of a pipe dream at this point. We've still got a long way to go.   Grin
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