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Not to be negative, or anything. But have you looked into Game Design any at all? A good story does not a game make. lol.
There are so many aspects to designing gameplay, finding a theme, fixing the story to work around the limitations of your team, etc. the story itself is really secondary when you look at everything else considering how much it will have changed from the original “vision” by the time you even get to alpha phase 4 or 5 months in. I would suggest you join another team and learn a bit, perhaps work on mastering your concept art skills to an acceptable level, or pick up modeling or texture art if you cant stand programming. Game Designers rarely come from a purely writing background, because a small team rarely has room for people that don’t contribute to production in some tangible capacity.
I really am not trying to be rude. Just sharing some of the lessons learned by our little project that is still very much in the pre-alpha stage. Best of luck to you.
Thanks for your advice, but i know. At the moment I’m just a writer and concept artist but I am learning to do character and level design so I can contribute more to the team. I also know most of the gameplay aspects, how the player will move, fight, interact with puzzles and with people, each other, and specifically the main gameplay function that directly ties into the story. Each of the characters, their abilities and strengths. I know what’s needed to get started, however I myself am not currently skilled enough to start on my own so i’m looking for a team to help. I am constantly doing research and going to school for game design so I’m not just basing the forming of a team on story alone.
Sorry for making it sound like a rant, i didn’t mean to do that but it seems people assume that because i’m primarily a writer and fairly new to game design, that it’s not worth giving the idea a try. I do understand what you’re saying and I agree, but I’m also doing just that. Working with other teams to improve my skills as a writer and artist, and learning 3d modeling and programming because I want to learn every aspect of game design, specifically the art and writing.
This is really longer than I thought it would be and it sounds like I’m complaining, I didn’t mean that either. Anyway, thank you for your advice, I do really appreciate it.
Having played both Diablo II and Dark Souls the game idea you have sounds interesting, but rather contradicting, to me.
To me, hack-n-slash means a Diablo-style dungeon-crawler game, with an isometric perspective and blasting away at swarms of enemies coming at you with over-powered weapons and colorful magic. Dark Souls on the other hand, conjures images of slow, tactical combat in a grim, immersive open world to explore with caution. Those two things don’t go together very well at all, in my mind. If you can pull off such a combination successfully, more power to you; but I’d recommend picking one or the other, ultimately.
I’d kind of like to help out, but my skills in anything other writing (I’m a very good writer, people keep telling me) and basic modeling and texturing in Blender are rather iffy, at best. That, and I’ve got a lot on my plate with other projects for the foreseeable future.
I’m a little late to reply, but Diablo and Dark Souls are both Hack and Slash, it’s just Diablo is top-down, where as Dark Souls is closer to the player. It’s the same with God of War or Devil May Cry. Both are Hack and Slash but look nothing like Diablo type games. Hack and Slash just means you’re using a sword or other type of close range, usually bladed weapon instead of a gun or fists. That said, the gameplay is influenced by Dark Souls and games like it. No combinations, unless bow and arrow or magic gameplay can be considered combining.
Hey Terran, I apologize as well for sounding a bit preachy. It sounds like you have at least considered all the aspects that go into it. I would recommend that you research a little programming. Its easy to describe how a combat system should behave in plain English, quite another entirely to tell the computer how to do it! Its really far more involved than you would think to work thorough the logic of even basic operations. A game designer doesn’t necessarily need to know computer a language fluently, but they should at least know what various operations are available within the code to have a clearer understanding of exactly what they are asking of their programming staff! Some things that sound simple on paper can take weeks and months to debug in practice! haha
I think the main issue I had with your first post was that you mention this is one of several projects and your going to give everything your full attention. To someone who’s been active in the scene for a while, that screams amateur! Because a single project of the scope you are proposing would take 6 months to a year, or more, of 12 hour days, to realize in playable form, depending on the skill and number of members in your team. my best advice to you would be to pick your strongest concept, and narrow your focus to one project. Be confident with your proposal, don’t downplay your weaknesses and newness, sell your strengths! and you might successfully gather a team.
Good Luck!
To add to Dave_K’s advice, this is a good article I’m taking to heart as I develop my first game prototype: Guide to Starting Small.
Thank you both for your advice, I will definitely follow it. Though the one thing I can’t really agree with is the multiple games thing. It is true that most people see it as amateurish and look away because of it, but so far it’s actually going fairly well, a few bumps here and there but for the most part it’s going well. However, I do need to learn more so I can lead the teams better, but that’s partly what these are meant for. Anyway, thank you both again, I will take your advice to heart and from what I’ve read of the article so far, it looks really helpful so thank you for that as well.