 Poll
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| Question: |
Interested in being involved? What can you do?
| I am a programmer who would like significant involvement in a fan-made sequel |
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   2 (11.8%) |
| I am a programmer who would like to be involved in a casual capacity |
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2 (11.8%) |
| I am a graphic artist who would like significant involvement |
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1 (5.9%) |
| I am a graphic artist who would like to be involved in a casual capacity |
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2 (11.8%) |
| I would like to make significant contribution to the storyline and/or alien dialogue |
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3 (17.6%) |
| I would like to make some contribution to writing (maybe dialogue for one alien race) |
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3 (17.6%) |
| I have game design experience and would like to have a significant leadership role |
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1 (5.9%) |
| I have something else to offer (please specify) |
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3 (17.6%) |
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| Total Voters: 16 |
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Author
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Topic: Fan-made Star Control sequel - role descriptions (Read 27799 times)
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Son_of_Antares
*Smell* controller
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Posts: 306
Arioch, I summon thee...
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Although I'm pretty much new to the UQM forum,I belive I could be of help story wise because I really love storytelling. I read lots of books, good books (not just SF), and I love reading in general; on the other hand I played a decent amount of games, RPG being my genre of choice, and I am an experienced gamemaster (started in d20 and then moved to other systems, mostly homebrew). And I LOVE LOVE LOVE UQM, almost as much as zarla does...if that's possible  That's why my answer is #5. If I can help in any way with ideas, dialogs, background or plot just say it.
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Elerium
*Smell* controller
Offline
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Posts: 272
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If this gets off the ground, call me when you need some dialogue done or if you're planning out the storyline, I can help out with these as well as ideas/direction although this depends if I'm busy or not.
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« Last Edit: January 17, 2009, 03:18:36 am by Elerium »
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Tiberian
*Smell* controller
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Posts: 335
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While I eagerly await your success, I simultaneously prepare a mourning ritual for your demise. Here's my tip:
Set a goal you can reach.
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Megagun
Enlightened
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Posts: 580
Moo
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How about instead of creating a 'true' sequel to Star Control, we create a 'spirital' successor to it; our own universe, yet with a similar feel to it, in the same way as Supreme commander is the spirital successor to Total Annihilation...
A spirital successor gives us more leniency about what we're doing, and it prevents mistakes like people misrepresenting existing alien races. Additionally, we could change the gameplay, or even 'distill' the core gameplay (that of conversing with aliens, I'd say) and change it into something perhaps easier to maintain and create; a game a bit more like Solar Winds, but where the player gets given more freedom of choice (both Solar winds games were pretty linear)...
It is only fair to mention that, a few weeks ago, I was playing with the thoughts of developing a game like that myself, where I'd basically write an engine, an insanely short backstory, place stars and planets, place aliens, give those aliens characteristics, write/use a simple scripting engine for the dialogues and quests, and then -by means of contests, perhaps- ask players to create seperate quests that take place inside this universe. I would use the graphical media of UQM and some stuff by the Tyrian guy (which is in the Public Domain) to make things rather easy on the graphics side.
On the other hand, a 'similar game' in a different universe might kill off exactly what made SC2 nice: the combination of all those different alien species.
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Shiver
Guest
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Megagun's input is IMO the best in any of these fan sequel threads so far. Listen to him, people.
On the other hand, a 'similar game' in a different universe might kill off exactly what made SC2 nice: the combination of all those different alien species.
I'm a little afraid of what a fan game could do to the SC2 aliens' dialogue. Maybe a Star Flight / Star Control game with its own story would be best.
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Lachie Dazdarian
Zebranky food
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Gender:
Posts: 35
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Personally, if someone would call his/her game/project a SC fan game, I expect SC content. So I would prefer seeing more people diverting effort into projects featuring SC universe/races/events in various forms (any, really), than games featuring some mechanics of SC and totally new universe. Then it just becomes another space faring game.
I wish I didn't started with my Star Control Melee like project (really hot about it). I think I would pick a game in SC universe immediately seeing the current state of SC community projects. When I was here several years ago TimeWarp was in full development, Fibs & Brags popular, and my programming skills very poor, so I didn't think much of personally trying. But, life is long. I have time. 
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Cedric6014
Enlightened
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Gender:
Posts: 701
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These are the sorts of fun things people can do:
• Make a space adventure game
• Rock climbing
• Make a Star Control game from scratch (sequel like Timewarp – with fancy graphics)
• Make a mod of UQM (sequel or other…)
They’re all worthy projects. Personally I’m not interested in options 1 or 2. In fact they should really be addressed in different threads.
I want to make a Star Control game, preferably a sequel, but could be just an offshoot story. Option 4 sounds the best to me as to the best of my understanding it will be a LOT less resource intensive than option 3. Please do convince me otherwise if you know more about this.
Sadly I possess none of the skills required to do any of those options by myself . I will now go away and try and write a story, set post-SC2, with the intention of it being a mod in the hopes that I can attract people to help me..
However, if folks can demonstrate that a flash new Timewarp-like game is actually not much more work, then I’m open to that. Maybe I could steal some of the stuff already done for Timewarp and save a bit of time
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Lachie Dazdarian
Zebranky food
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Posts: 35
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People should be said the hard truth that game design is a painstaking and challenging process and that even completing a polished small game is rather difficult.
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Elerium
*Smell* controller
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Posts: 272
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Sadly I possess none of the skills required to do any of those options by myself . I will now go away and try and write a story, set post-SC2, with the intention of it being a mod in the hopes that I can attract people to help me..
Then it will never get off the ground, the maker has to have main skills in other things (usually coding, as it keeps the team together), what happens here is "I want you to do my mod/game/sequel in my image". In the C&C modding community we get tons and tons of stories written for potential mods, the most insulting requesting tons of people and nothing in return from the main director. Also, why bother with that when the coder you're potentially hiring has an image of what they think should be a true sequel, and they do it without you, eventually getting another writer who agrees with his own image and helps him instead? They'll be one step ahead of you, and better equipped.
Modding is a big commitment, you're starting off as every other person starts off in modding with big ideas, but what you need to do is find a particular skill (coding, art, 3d modelling) and stick with it by honing your skill in one niche. Writers such as myself pitch ideas to mods to enhance them, plus as a writer you work with the team, not as the team leader.
People should be said the hard truth that game design is a painstaking and challenging process and that even completing a polished small game is rather difficult.
Listen to Lachie, Game Design is a process that takes hours of time in debating, direction and so forth. For example, how does the game balance with 4 faction sides in the game? How does the economy work generally? Would an advantage in economical resourcing be a benefit to one faction or a negative one? What would the combat be like and if you have racial bonuses how do they affect the main balance? etc etc. These things are also subject to rapid change when you think "no wait, it should be like this instead, because it has X amount more realism or X amount more relevance to the plot".
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« Last Edit: January 20, 2009, 02:51:09 am by Elerium »
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