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[Brentai]

Way too busy to commit to anything even remotely mission critical, of course, but feel free to consult me on any random programming, testing, project management or publishing issues that come up.  Can't wait to see your new idea.

[jsnlxndrlv]

I think (?) it was Zaratustra who pointed out the Loom game engine, which is a currently-free set of developer tools designed for creating iOS/Android/Windows/Mac games.

I believe we're all familiar with my history of loudly committing to projects before slinking into the night, never to be heard from again, but that's kind of an obligatory tradition around here. Perhaps we should reminisce about Exquisite Knorpse 3 and The Mayor and various other half-started gestures toward game creation and consider some pitfalls that this project would need to avoid if it's to have any success?

It seems like the major fuel that these projects run on is the interest of the community—peoples' confidence in your concept, their emotional engagement, personal goodwill, excitement, lack of distractions, and willingness to volunteer their time and energy. This resource is easy to squander and hard to regain once lost.

To keep interest high, give people simple, concrete goals that are easy to achieve in a relatively short period of time. While people like to be involved in planning and they want a creative stake in what they're working on, there's a real danger of wasting time, energy, and interest in nebulous, high-level discussions that lack structure, goals, or any way to demonstrate that the attention being spent is actually furthering the project. Feel free to take peoples' advice and recommendations. Do not succumb to design (or worse, management) by committee.

I'm glad you're doing this, Kazz. I want to help, but I'm the last person who should make any sort of public commitment to that end: I'm a flaky motherfucker with terrible time-management and way too much going on in my personal life. Give me tasks, though—a big list of tasks that people are racing to finish, while interest is high and progress is tangible—give me tasks like that, and I'll probably still flake out at the last minute, but not before announcing my intention to finish more tasks than any other single contributor.

[Thad]

While Jason's talking brass tacks, it bears mentioning that at some point you need to hammer out ownership.  Will everyone who develops assets for the game have a partial ownership stake?  Will it be owned by a separate kodePunc entity (LLC or whatever)?  How will pay be determined?  You've mentioned everyone will be volunteering to start and then hopefully get some reimbursement through Kickstarter; that's a good plan but I think it's reasonable to agree on royalties or some other method of profit-sharing, too.

All that stuff's pretty far out in the future, but I think you're gonna want to think about it.

[Mongrel]

I just want to say - don't be afraid of making a bit of an oddball game. When you described the space combat game, I started to get a little excited, then you go "but we're not making that". I don't mind the idea of trying to make a more universal game at first, there's nothing wrong with the idea at all. But if you do get an idea that's a little off-the-wall, don't be afraid to run with it if it's a good idea that you can develop into a real working game.

In a universe where almost anyone can make their own game, a little personality will go a long way towards making you stand out.

[Catloaf]

For a quick, get the name out there/some money inbound game idea: Infinite Platformer.

Not just that stupid reuse premade parts over and over, but have a 2d tile-based game where a path is generated between 2 points based on possible player movement, minimum platforms are placed to fit the successful path and then the rest is filled in with whatever (can tweek to our liking later) this can be a maze, a room-based model, or even continuous if the generator works fast enough. Then it can be tweeked to our liking after initial level generator is done, adding who knows what.

Yeah, it's not that creative or ambitious, but it's a decent proof of concept, showing that we can make a game and it's the kind of thing that's good for  mobile platforms, and would probably sell well enough for a few bucks if it's pretty to look at.

[Classic]

Finally made time to read your thing with the diligence it deserves. Good to hear that you're feeling better.

[Kazz]

I think (?) it was Zaratustra who pointed out the Loom game engine, which is a currently-free set of developer tools designed for creating iOS/Android/Windows/Mac games.

I believe we're all familiar with my history of loudly committing to projects before slinking into the night, never to be heard from again, but that's kind of an obligatory tradition around here. Perhaps we should reminisce about Exquisite Knorpse 3 and The Mayor and various other half-started gestures toward game creation and consider some pitfalls that this project would need to avoid if it's to have any success?

It seems like the major fuel that these projects run on is the interest of the community—peoples' confidence in your concept, their emotional engagement, personal goodwill, excitement, lack of distractions, and willingness to volunteer their time and energy. This resource is easy to squander and hard to regain once lost.

To keep interest high, give people simple, concrete goals that are easy to achieve in a relatively short period of time. While people like to be involved in planning and they want a creative stake in what they're working on, there's a real danger of wasting time, energy, and interest in nebulous, high-level discussions that lack structure, goals, or any way to demonstrate that the attention being spent is actually furthering the project. Feel free to take peoples' advice and recommendations. Do not succumb to design (or worse, management) by committee.

I'm glad you're doing this, Kazz. I want to help, but I'm the last person who should make any sort of public commitment to that end: I'm a flaky motherfucker with terrible time-management and way too much going on in my personal life. Give me tasks, though—a big list of tasks that people are racing to finish, while interest is high and progress is tangible—give me tasks like that, and I'll probably still flake out at the last minute, but not before announcing my intention to finish more tasks than any other single contributor.

You and I had extremely similar thoughts on this.  I have considered our past failures when planning out how to make sure one foot is always being placed in front of the other.

[Kazz]

I've created a new board here, visible only to members of the "kodePunc Team" group.  The only reason that I've made it invisible is to hide it from search engines and dirty snoops.

I am adding everybody who has already expressed interest, so you might not need to do anything.  It is placed between Activity Boards and Mount Brontolympus; if you can't see it, you're not in the group yet.

If you'd like to request access:

1. Scroll up and click on Profile.
2. Under Modify Profile, click on Group Membership.
3. Next to "kodePunc Team," click on Request Membership.

I'll try to keep up with applications but if I completely space out and forget, feel free to PM me and let me know that you want in.

[Mothra]

Alright, I talked with my brother, who does cell phone game work for Subatomic, and he recommended Unity as well. It ports to absolutely everything.

Basically, Unity is good for 3D, and it can also do 2D (though that's apparently not its strong suit). He also said Flash was an option for 2D.

[Thad]

The trouble with Flash is that it means abandoning iOS and, to a lesser extent, Android as platforms.

[Mothra]

Oooh, right, good call.

[Kazz]

approved three new kodePunc membership requests just now

[Silversong]

I don't know nothin' 'bout makin' no games. But I have a mostly worthless Public Relations degree and most of a mostly worthless Graphic Design degree, and I know costume design. If any of that ever sounds useful, just ask.