UPCP is Back and Needs You!
Hey Guys and Girls
After a long spell of being dormant the Unofficial Polycount Collaboration Project (UPCP) is back! :thumbup:
The first goal for the project is finding a new idea, an idea that will represent the best of the polycount community. We are still working on a new design for the project so if you have any ideas post it below. All that we ask is it is unique and is something achievable for a part-time team (i.e. No Call of Duty or Toy Story clones).
In the next couple of days stay tuned for more announcements and potential roles that will need to be filled.
Thanks
After a long spell of being dormant the Unofficial Polycount Collaboration Project (UPCP) is back! :thumbup:
The first goal for the project is finding a new idea, an idea that will represent the best of the polycount community. We are still working on a new design for the project so if you have any ideas post it below. All that we ask is it is unique and is something achievable for a part-time team (i.e. No Call of Duty or Toy Story clones).
In the next couple of days stay tuned for more announcements and potential roles that will need to be filled.
Thanks
Replies
Personally I'd rather not do anything too 'post-apocalyptic'. It's getting the be the default setting in games. Dysotopian is good! Always a fan of cyber punk. :P
Soooo, yeah, I'm taking noob steps into cascade FX so if you need an FX artist and your using UDK, I'm game.
Now a lot of us are environment artists, and in about 1 month we're going to have some really awesome animations around here with no texturing or high level model work on the rigs, we're also going to have a ton of high quality models stemming from the same universe...
Maybe you see where i'm going with this. Essentially what Polycount could do with the artist's concent would be to mix these characters and animatinos together and build a really great environment for them to do battle in and produce some really cool 3d movies.
Areas of concern concerning such a project:
1. Do we do this in maya (most likely where artists are doing their animations) or try to get it in UDK, both have their ups and downs. Animations and camera work being hard in UDK, but UDK being way more "legit".
2. Skinning unique models and fitting them to semi generic rigs, possibly the biggest concern. Animations may go out of wack if we have to adjust the rigs too much to fit the uniquely awesome characters.
3. Artists' permission or pissing of the dominance war people. Last thing i think we'd want to do is "show up" dominance war by taking their efforts and making something better without giving them huge ammounts of credit. Same goes for artists. If we ran with this idea a lot of credit would be given to a large number of people outside of the actual collaboration, and deservedly so.
Just an idea...
Great feedback so far guys keep the ideas coming!
I must say crazyfingers your idea does intrigue me but I must look into it in more detail I do have a couple of worries.
DM map is a good idea however it does lack imagination.
Let’s start thinking out the box here. What can we make that's small and UNIQUE?
Just an idea people. How about some sketches of your idea doesn’t have to be fancy or anything just something that gets that idea across.
Also if you have an idea but think its to technical post it! Its more than likely that I can call in some programmers to give us a hand (or join the team
There is another option however I could bring in an actual designer to help out but I would rather leave the design in your hands?
Thanks
The way i see polycount is a huge number of environment artists, some people who can do amazing character art, and really not too much else with any regularity. We can create an amazing environment and put amazing characters in cool poses within that environment, but when it comes to gameplay, animations, things like that, we would be shooting ourselves in the foot for going too crazy with that.
So what kind of games are all environment and characters with maybe a vehicle or two, that has minimal gameplay and level design? I'm thinking a farming simulator in UDK. Like a harvest moon x 10 in the graphics department. Hell we could even make it sci fi and put it on mars or something, or start simple but put crazy awesome high tech "watering cans" at the top end that look like something out of unreal to water huge areas of farm at a time. Create some incredible new plant life and livestock done through genetics, high tech fences that keep out roving wolves or rabbits that you can shoot with other weapons if (could also go as crazy as we want with this).
Players would be able to upgrade their house, terraform the terrain with cool material techniques, buy new mars tractors (possibly zany high tech ones with auto turrets that kill pesky animals), talk to high quality characters standing around in town to buy new tools, guns, seed, livestock, etc.
The upside to this project would be it's scaleable. There would have to be some core gameplay made, watering plants and having those plants grow and selling livestock and such, but outside of that the scope of the title could pretty much be "whatever gets in works" since the other elements are just gravey. A half finished farming game is still a farming game, you may just have to grow only potatoes rather than also having the option to grow space corn. The content is created by the player in that they buy things, position them themselves, etc, kinda like sim city, we just make the assets.
Edit: You could think of it as a high quality minecraft that sacrifices full customization of the environment for higher quality graphics and assets, and has an actual game goal: farming and possibly hunting for money. Really well used alpha maps and material shaders could create some really awesome terraforming effects, and if we could figure out a real time terrain height deforming, the sky would be the limit.
that aside - a lot of the things you mention require drastic changes to whats already in UDK. you can alter vertices via materials, but the collision doesn't change with it, so it's useless for terraforming (and expensive as well). maybe giving the player access to the terrain editor in some way might be an option but again - loads of work.
it might be a neat idea, but in terms of scope of what has to be done on a technical level it sounds really massive.
why not just do a simple 3rd person shooter ala serious sam. the amount of environment work is very scalable, the char artists can have a lot to do, you don't need a lot of writing even though you could have it and everything you'd need for it is already in it or easy to implement. start with one level, a couple of basic weapons and enemies and you have something of a managable scope. add in coop if you fancy it, shouldn't be a problem. still loads of steam, energy and interest left after the first level? make another one.
Since i've been on a HUGEEEEEEEEEEE Tron kick, (with tron legacy just around the corner) i was thinking maybe something techy/futuristic like Tron especially in vehicle designs meets Atlantiean like architecture (from Stargate Atlantis)
Basically:
You would use different vehicle types to assault power rely stations which would knock out the main shield and or weapon generator, allowing you to approach the enemy fortress without insta-dying.
At said fortress you would start your siege (try to destroy the main gate or have stealth teams work from the inside to open it up for your troops) once inside the main gate you would fight on foot through the enemy team capturing med bays (respawn points) and backup systems/generators with the goal of disabling all the security/backup systems so that you can hack the main computer core, resetting it (switching friend/foe recognition) which would wipe out the enemy and give you control of the base (end of round)
If we could get a good design and blockout done it could be modularised and organised into assets. onces an asset list is created it might acutallybe realistic to create the map as a remote online project.
A polycount TF2/Alienswarm/l4D2 map could be really epic(not to say it should be a source map).
Best of luck, its going to be hard for people to find time to do DomWarV let alone help out with this.
Heck that might just be small enough to be doable, and when it's that small, it's easier to polish.
I think if anyone wanted to finish this challenge it would and should be a simple DM map that could have assets created for it by both Character Artists who would like to brush up on there environment work and Environment Artist/Students that want to get something in there portfolios.
if it was decided that this challenge was to make a DM map there should be a vote on what kind of style/setting people wanted to work on.
Once the voting was completed and the style/setting was chosen, There could be an idea thread with people throwing in inspiration images and all sorts of stuff for to get the basics down.
Here comes the hard part you would need one person to design the level and one other person to make an asset list up and give them out to individuals.
The Level Designer and basically Art Manager/Director would need to sit down and see what needed to be done and who they would give assets to.
And letting people choose what they do though it would be the fairest thing to do wouldn't be the wisest because everyone would want to do the coolest thing on the list and nothing else.
I hope this gets off the ground as it would be really fun to do, I got nothing else on my plate so if i see this going somewhere i would be more than happy to join in.
Those are my two cents . my best advice is to keep it simple anything other than a DM map would be too complicated.
If it turns out 1 dm map is too small, then people can always do another one and reuse assets or expand the theme. But starting big and realizing it't not gonna work,...
To be honest, I was really shocked that the last project went down the same road that soo many amateur projects do.
I would have thought, people who worked in the industry for years and years could have seen it coming right from the start and do proper planning in the first stages.
In the end two hands full of talented people started working on one single asset, some of them got finished, others didn't. It was like only the first row of jouste's concept and not even ~10 pieces got finished.
ONE SINGLE ASSET by each artist. Considering that one entire new dm map would come with an entirely created theme (that could be used and enhanced in a 2nd or 3rd map) that's not too simple thing, imo.
I mean, that was the goal of the original thing. Creating one cohesive universe that many artists contribute to, but it feels like one entire theme/scene/world.
Doing the same mistake again with starting away too big in scale - and I'm being brutally honest, even though I have no experience in game development at all - I would feel kinda ashamed for the people that participated. It would be a real letdown and failure and I would want my name to be erased of the team list
So, basically. Go with DM - Map and make it cool. If it turns out, progress goes fast and many more people are interested, great, just make another one. Start simple - that's what my countless hours or watching projects fail, has taught me :P
The disconnection in style is a big issue but then it would be with any amount of work, for this to work well id say we need an art director to ensure everyone is working to the same style.
I like the idea of doing something expandable/modular, like how gears of war multiplayer maps were actually part of a single player mission, maybe the idea for the DM level can be part of a story that could be later expanded into a full level.
Yes please.
If it was for me, I'd just create a small block of assets to create some streets where you go on-rails as a car-gunner. udk.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8KTuMuPYr0#t=3m39s
it was a shame we didn't finish up the last one. it would be neat to at least have the stuff archived somewhere so we could learn from our mistakes etc.
One idea though if you actually want to add a bit of variety into the mix is possibly changing the CTF code so it's a capture and hold deathmatch. There's 1 flag, and you get points for every second that you hold the flag. The object of the game is to simply hold the flag and survive for as long as you can while everyone else tries to take you down.
If you had a well laid out map, you could have a blast with a gametype like this.
I've worked on a map that had about 5-6 people working on it - turned out to be one of the fan favorites (this was a MMO instanced scenario but it's pretty similar to a DM map)
Just one level and three characters nothing to big. I can call in Programmers from University all trained in games programming.
By 10pm (Scottish Time
Also shout if you have another idea for the project….
The most important is that we focus on our line of work; 3d, 2d, animation and whatev for real-time rendering. It mostly feels like people got this "can-do-everything" attitude.
Why not just decide on style and setting, make the important decisions regarding pipeline, textures, etc. and then start stacking up on concept and later blocking out the main geometry, create prop, character aswell as lightning, fx etc.
I'd vote for a somewhat realistic style, cozy snowy winter, urban environment, home-made guns due to restrictions leading to a low flow of weapons to a people in need to arm themself. - think crafty hardcore jews during a nazi period set in the present.
One of the main features of going for a realistic style is that we don't need a custom concept for everything.
And you will know when your going out of line.
It's a lot harder to defend something that is unrealistic in a realistic setting
as it is to rationalize the uglyness in something that is set in a galaxy far away.
I was thinking maybe a jack the ripper-esque(gothicy, dreary london) art style/timeline, and the game mode could be something like:
Citizens(5 or so maybe) vs a Killer, however the killer would appear to be one of the citizen avatars to the citizen players, and the objective would be for either: the citizens survive a certain length (or figure out the who the killer player is.)
or the killer obviously murders the players. ( or of course a good old tdm/dm where players destroy eachother, people like that :P)
Sorry if i didnt elaborate to much, im going to go back to my bed and lay there miserably.
Edit: i'd like to ad there are some great ideas flowing in this thread right now.
It's a collaboration on an art forum, no need to be thinking about new and complex game modes, just do art. Someone on the previous page mentioned taking an existing level and just remaking it with a new aesthetic so that nobody even has to design anything. That's a great idea. Just do art
Actually modernizing half life could be fun, too.
you are correct sir, however i meant use influences from both era, sorry i typed it horribly
For people who don't know. It's one arena. Circle shaped. There are enemies lined around the outer part of the arena. They are not attackable, they take their turns.
All players jump on their horses and joust the enemies in a FFA. You work together to target the enemies who are doing the same to you.
After you defeat the little guys, you all take on their toucgher leaders. One enemy, but a lot harder.
The idea can either stop here, or it can be a process, after that battle can lead to another themed battle. We can tie it close to have it be a creative combat, or flat out beat up the enemy.
It doesn't need to be complicated. No stats or anything. Just mounts, jousting and taking on multiple enemies at once.
After that we can always play jump rope or marbles or something to defeat the rest
The issue with this would be the scripting and not a lot of art. I'm thinking that from what I know from the game, that is a simple arena. But we are artists, we can be damn creative in thinking of arenas and different enemies.
Eg. We are plants and need to defeat the mushroom enemies in a shrunken down world, giant birds fighting vultures in the sky umongst the clouds and weather, ninjas on a rooftop fighting guards and escaping.
The list could go on, but I suppose on how technical it all gets.
jouste's stuff is just so much closer to being proper art. if i wanted to do something realistic and gritty i would just do that. no need to do that with a bunch of creative minds that produce awesome stuff.
considering that we have a lot of people that could help out i don't see the "matching the style" as that big of a problem. everyone gets a small part and has to re-do it until it fits with what the AD decides to be "the rest".
people will either manage to fit the style and develop a good workflow for it that can then be shared or loose interest. the ones that have the workflow down should be able to pick up what the drop-outs leave behind since it's easier once the workflow is established.
just my 2 cents.
I am not against the Joustes style i am simply drooling when i looking at this works:)
My opinion we should choose a concept which has realistic pattern but we can go crazy with the ideas.Just keep them in realistic style...
We can do Jousete's stuff on next projects when we have much more experience..
I also think that it would be a good idea to start creating a list of everyone interested and also in what field they might be able to contribute in. Also medium of communication polycount, skype?
This could be very interesting
Should somebody start a poll where we can vote or is it free for all?
Maybe make a thread about who want's to be lead/AD?
Guys thats it concluded its 10pm Scottish time....
We are going to do a DM map, the style will be up to you guys then will go to a poll next week.
I have noticed that some people have already suggested a style for the map but could you please post it up on the new thread.
Thanks
If that doesn't make any sense give me a shout...
The style thread is now open so get posting