Well, the problem is we don't have programmers here at Polycount. To do an actual mod, TC, or indie project we'd need people with programming skills and Polycount simply doesn't have that audience. Or, if we do, they're hiding.
Valias mentioned if we used UDK he would volunteer. However, I think he would be volunteering for something that could be more involved than he expected. So you are absolutely right. However, what about a team up? With a coder site? They need artists, we need code.
The other people is I wouldn't want to do something unless its 'quality'. So we'd have to do a screening process and neglect members from participating as artists, which can be sucky.
It can, but I also think there might be room depending on the assets. The simpler items, leave for the beginners. Less to go wrong. They wont feel left out. While the complex stuff that matches the style you want would go to those capable of pulling it off.
Actually, for the Tower idea. I wonder if we could take it a step further with Unity: Come up with an interface for people to submit their modular room/floor node automatically to the tower. That way there's no overhead for anyone to have to manually update it and make the submission process - and ultimately the growth of the project - a lot more streamlined.
I just had a look at the unity asset store, and they've got a visual scripting thing looks pretty cool(I dont know if its any good, but it seems popular(http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/72349-Playmaker-a-new-visual-scripting-tool)). They also have animations and all kinds of stuff you can buy and download. So you dont have to get too heavily involved with programming if you dont want to.
Each participant creates one cell, viewer can travel up and down corridor and look in, but can't interact with inside of cell, so no collison.
Cells could have any number and type of props (doesn't have to be nudie posters and shivs - could just as easily be like an aquarium or some sort of crystalline biohabitat).
Corridor could also be a central vertical shaft/glass elevator with multiple landings radially separated into different cells. Say 6 cells per landing.
Supercrappy 10min viz of what I was talking about.
Whatever direction this takes, the KISS rule needs to be in full effect. Reliance on scripting and programming could freeze the project. If the programming work load is too complex or heavy or simply gets dropped, tons of artwork would just be wasted/waiting (dollar waiting on a dime).
I like it! I like the idea, though, of viewing from the outside in. Mainly because then we could view the contribution from a full 360 degrees. So you could do up/down snap (hitting UP goes up a floor exactly, DOWN goes down exactly) and panning left/right is more analog.
Yeah, viewing from an outside elevator platform towards a central room would work just as well.
And it could just as easily be a museum, or a galactic entity's collection of amusing artifacts/creatures/whatever instead of a space prison. I just threw that out there because of the variety of styles, directions one could go without it seeming disjointed.
I like 8fts idea. Perhaps doing several rings of game-artist hell would give the thing a semi-cohesive design?
A committee could decide on what each ring represented, and then put a team of members in charge of each ring with a team lead. You could then do weekly check-ins with the leads.
The advantage of the hell idea- each ring would have a different aesthetic and different members could contribute to the ring that appealed to them the most.
Another idea that could optionally tie into this: each ring gets smaller like in the above image, and a contest could be held for each ring. there would be more rooms on the upper-most ring, and only one on the bottom, so depending on the artist's confidence in his/her abilities, they could enter different ring competitions.
Here's my shot at flushing out the studio cubicle idea. Basically, I'd picture it as Polycount as a fictional game studio, and each user has their own space and neighbors. Every person is given a simple cubicle template consisting of walls, desk, etc (monitor, mouse, keyboard, chair?) and they can modify and add to that however they see fit within specs and the bounding box. Here is my mockup in Unity
The scene is built out of a prefab and can easily be updated and expanded simply by overwriting a prefab. And obviously the web player is great for a project like this. Creatively, this could allow for a lot of flexibility as some people may take a realistic route by adding speakers, a tablet, cans, normal desk stuff or you could go the other way and make the whole thing out of ice, scifi industrial, or 8-bit. It would of course require certain guidelines in regards to elements that must be present in the final product. Overall, the layout can be more interesting and people can make wall decorations.
Pros
---
-Easily updated/expanded
-Flexibility of style and content
-Explorable space
-Polycount as a studio
-Smaller task could result in more and higher quality submissions
Cons
---
-Not all viewable at once
-Components do not necessarily mesh with each other
-Not very creative at a higher level
I like the elevator/room idea as well. We can have pretty arts, do with it whatever we want, have it all centralized to one area, no worry about collision, and super simple to set up code-wise.
Another question to bring up is how it would all be put together. With UDK, having a self contained package would be pretty easy.
In Unity, this would be a little harder. You can export/import packages, but it would all be organized in the Unity project by name...I would expect that to get pretty ugly. Also without a built in material editor, one has to worry about having all the correct shaders installed (default ones kinda blow dongus) However, viewing through the browser is a major advantage to using Unity.
I like the idea of a colbo. I don't like the art test. This supposed to be fun. It's like kickball all over again! No! Never again......erm...ahem.
Why can't we have teams of prop artists, set dressers, etc...
The art test was likely born from the idea that Adam posted originally with it being a mod.
So to maintain a continuous quality level and style consistency an art test would be necessary to ensure all artists participating could meet the guidelines set in place by the moderators of said mod.
As it stands tho with the tower idea I'm not sure the art test still applies, since it would be more about meeting specific spacial requirements and then letting the artists brain run wild, but I wont even try to speak for adam on that.
While I am more of a lurker then anything I would love to work on something like this. Even on the more administrative side of things such as putting it all together and doing the coding needed. I design software (not games though) for a living so I definitely come from the more technical end of things.
I have played with the idea of doing something like this for a long long time but never found the community to do it with. I was about to post a similar idea here at one point a few years back but never did (probably found some other project to work on).
A central point for me has always been that it would be somewhat interactive, ie at least possible to walk around in it.
My idea would be a framework for a skyscraper or tower of sorts whit fixed measures on certain things. Then define a number of different sizes for rooms in the building that would naturally fit together. So some room sizes might be more then one floor for instance but always an even number of floors etc. This framework would have staircases and elevators so you can move around in the building while the content of the building and outside walls would be composed of submitted work. Using UDK this should be relatively simple to put together.
If someone wants to make some kind of more advanced submission like a character with AI etc it would be quiet easy to add as well. Same goes for interactive items or weapons, assuming they stick to the UT3 style inventory.
I also like the space station idea as it would make things even easier to set-up then a tower due to the more free form shape. All that's needed is to define the interfaces between modules. Then everything would fit together like Lego. You could even go as far as making the construction of the complete structure be different each time you run the "game". In other words it would randomly assemble the different pieces each time.
Sounds like you are moving towards something a bit more simple to realize though but I would definitely be interested in taking part in this even without the interactive bits.
I guess there might even be room for more then one project. Say one that has a bit quicker turnaround and one that would demand a bit more work for each submission.
Edit: In terms of art complexity I think it's a good idea to keep it quiet simple so ther is room for some scale of the complete structure without the need for to much LOD and stuff like that.
While I love the idea of this, you really need a game that works with the idea of different people working on different things (and the fact something might not get done, but doesn't affect the gameplay). It would be great for everyone agree on one style and have everything look the same but being the first collaborative outing, I wouldnt go for that.
A quick idea I had would be to make some kind of game that involves a lot of different rooms (think Resident Evil) and each room is someone else's responsibility to model/texture/light. The room has no effect on gameplay, but you have to make sure the doors line-up with each other. Besides that, the game can be more of a "portfolio of rooms" that showcases each user's art.
The Unreal Engine could do this and we can block in rooms so the game "works" even if the user flakes out and doesn't get their stuff done.
Replies
Valias mentioned if we used UDK he would volunteer. However, I think he would be volunteering for something that could be more involved than he expected. So you are absolutely right. However, what about a team up? With a coder site? They need artists, we need code.
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=85364
It can, but I also think there might be room depending on the assets. The simpler items, leave for the beginners. Less to go wrong. They wont feel left out. While the complex stuff that matches the style you want would go to those capable of pulling it off.
*rubs his chin*
If I may be a bit impartial, I would almost prefer UDK for one reason (unless this can be done in Unity).
With UDK there is access to pre-existing rigs, with pre-existing animations.
That way Character Artists could model whatever they wanted, and have it already integrated into a game, with AI and or control inputs.
Supercrappy 10min viz of what I was talking about.
Whatever direction this takes, the KISS rule needs to be in full effect. Reliance on scripting and programming could freeze the project. If the programming work load is too complex or heavy or simply gets dropped, tons of artwork would just be wasted/waiting (dollar waiting on a dime).
And it could just as easily be a museum, or a galactic entity's collection of amusing artifacts/creatures/whatever instead of a space prison. I just threw that out there because of the variety of styles, directions one could go without it seeming disjointed.
A committee could decide on what each ring represented, and then put a team of members in charge of each ring with a team lead. You could then do weekly check-ins with the leads.
The advantage of the hell idea- each ring would have a different aesthetic and different members could contribute to the ring that appealed to them the most.
Another idea that could optionally tie into this: each ring gets smaller like in the above image, and a contest could be held for each ring. there would be more rooms on the upper-most ring, and only one on the bottom, so depending on the artist's confidence in his/her abilities, they could enter different ring competitions.
The scene is built out of a prefab and can easily be updated and expanded simply by overwriting a prefab. And obviously the web player is great for a project like this. Creatively, this could allow for a lot of flexibility as some people may take a realistic route by adding speakers, a tablet, cans, normal desk stuff or you could go the other way and make the whole thing out of ice, scifi industrial, or 8-bit. It would of course require certain guidelines in regards to elements that must be present in the final product. Overall, the layout can be more interesting and people can make wall decorations.
Pros
---
-Easily updated/expanded
-Flexibility of style and content
-Explorable space
-Polycount as a studio
-Smaller task could result in more and higher quality submissions
Cons
---
-Not all viewable at once
-Components do not necessarily mesh with each other
-Not very creative at a higher level
Man this thread has moved up quite a bit since I looked at before.
Count me in.
I like the elevator/room idea as well. We can have pretty arts, do with it whatever we want, have it all centralized to one area, no worry about collision, and super simple to set up code-wise.
Another question to bring up is how it would all be put together. With UDK, having a self contained package would be pretty easy.
In Unity, this would be a little harder. You can export/import packages, but it would all be organized in the Unity project by name...I would expect that to get pretty ugly. Also without a built in material editor, one has to worry about having all the correct shaders installed (default ones kinda blow dongus) However, viewing through the browser is a major advantage to using Unity.
Why can't we have teams of prop artists, set dressers, etc...
The art test was likely born from the idea that Adam posted originally with it being a mod.
So to maintain a continuous quality level and style consistency an art test would be necessary to ensure all artists participating could meet the guidelines set in place by the moderators of said mod.
As it stands tho with the tower idea I'm not sure the art test still applies, since it would be more about meeting specific spacial requirements and then letting the artists brain run wild, but I wont even try to speak for adam on that.
I have played with the idea of doing something like this for a long long time but never found the community to do it with. I was about to post a similar idea here at one point a few years back but never did (probably found some other project to work on).
A central point for me has always been that it would be somewhat interactive, ie at least possible to walk around in it.
My idea would be a framework for a skyscraper or tower of sorts whit fixed measures on certain things. Then define a number of different sizes for rooms in the building that would naturally fit together. So some room sizes might be more then one floor for instance but always an even number of floors etc. This framework would have staircases and elevators so you can move around in the building while the content of the building and outside walls would be composed of submitted work. Using UDK this should be relatively simple to put together.
If someone wants to make some kind of more advanced submission like a character with AI etc it would be quiet easy to add as well. Same goes for interactive items or weapons, assuming they stick to the UT3 style inventory.
I also like the space station idea as it would make things even easier to set-up then a tower due to the more free form shape. All that's needed is to define the interfaces between modules. Then everything would fit together like Lego. You could even go as far as making the construction of the complete structure be different each time you run the "game". In other words it would randomly assemble the different pieces each time.
Sounds like you are moving towards something a bit more simple to realize though but I would definitely be interested in taking part in this even without the interactive bits.
I guess there might even be room for more then one project. Say one that has a bit quicker turnaround and one that would demand a bit more work for each submission.
Edit: In terms of art complexity I think it's a good idea to keep it quiet simple so ther is room for some scale of the complete structure without the need for to much LOD and stuff like that.
A quick idea I had would be to make some kind of game that involves a lot of different rooms (think Resident Evil) and each room is someone else's responsibility to model/texture/light. The room has no effect on gameplay, but you have to make sure the doors line-up with each other. Besides that, the game can be more of a "portfolio of rooms" that showcases each user's art.
The Unreal Engine could do this and we can block in rooms so the game "works" even if the user flakes out and doesn't get their stuff done.