I liked the cubicle workplace idea. Something like giving everyone a blank cubicle template and letting people decorate as they will within a given bounding box and having that all fit together in a theoretical Polycount studio would be cool. Of course it would require work from someone for basic layout and main walls/floors, etc.
What if we do a small city street or square or something? Each person/group would be designated a size to which their creation must conform to, maybe make a map or something, and then someone could just place them where they belong. you could even make it playable, since each group would only have to do a simple collision around its area, and people could just admire their creations from the "sidewalk".
If you were worried about collision, why not a mini polycount city? Think of it as a giant model city that sat on a table. Each person is allotted a plot of land a specific size. Or you could assign someone a specific task like make a park or a town hall or whatever. You could walk around the table and view it from any angle, zoom in and see detail and stuff.
I'd be more pumped for that as opposed to a tower (no offence).
I've taken offense. Mainly because we've done something like this YEARS AGO and you should know that!
I'm kidding.
I'm keen on the idea of stackable/interlaced modular rooms. Whether its a tower, space station, or what have you. Something that to view it, you pan left/right or up/down. I'm not keen on X & Y axis ideas (cubicles, art exhibit, etc.) because I'd prefer it if the viewing ability was streamlined.
Anyway, lots for me to think about! Keep discussing...
How about a Polycount planet? You can rotate around to find places on the surface and then zoom in to view it with some LOD effect? Would that be difficult to implement?
because I'd prefer it if the viewing ability was streamlined.
Out of curiosity, who are your intended viewers for this? If it's a showing for the general public, we could always put together a video fly through, like you were intending to to with the helicopter shots of the tower, and then just release the map for the more tech savvy viewers to actually install and run around in. I think it would be more of a learning experience as well if one was able to actually walk up to models and look at them in real time from all angles to pick apart how they were made.
A Polycount office seems pretty amazing, how could you honestly go wrong with it? Design the cubicle yourself, placed sculptures of characters/buildings/props.
Why worry about collision, we wouldn't need to walk inside each cubicle, just the outside of them (Each cubicle has a basic collision box around it).. So it's essentially the same thing as the tower, just more creative.
I've taken offense. Mainly because we've done something like this YEARS AGO and you should know that!
I'm kidding.
I'm keen on the idea of stackable/interlaced modular rooms. Whether its a tower, space station, or what have you. Something that to view it, you pan left/right or up/down. I'm not keen on X & Y axis ideas (cubicles, art exhibit, etc.) because I'd prefer it if the viewing ability was streamlined.
Anyway, lots for me to think about! Keep discussing...
Like the inside of Babylon 5? (only not quite so big?)
So the same idea of having a basic shell still applies, and you can go into other peoples "rooms" whatever they may be. Doesn't have to be some 3d showroom or anything, just have doors on a wall, or whatever thing you can think of.
Each room would contain the works of a person or a team, that you can maybe wonder through...maybe doing a sidescroller thing... and the wacky part:
Have each room have a pedestal or something, that would hold a prop...or a piece of geo with a badass material on it...something...that was taken from a different room..and you have to take it to the right room.
So basically whoever creates the room can just figure out which parts of their environment are memorable and pick that as an object that would appear in pedestals in other rooms.
A collective goal that a large group would collaborate on. Contests & P&P do not offer that. When collaborating on that scale, the personal buy-in from the individual is much greater. Similar to how collaborating at work is fucking awesome
It is:) but as it has already been said, collaboration usually implies a pretty close skill level between participants. So far as I can see things going, we're about to take a more modular approach, giving everyone his own space to play with. And that kinda ruins the collaboration mood if you ask me.
I mean a collaboration mood would be if a beginner artist did a rubble pile or a building and then Peris for example populated an environment with it. The artist's happy like a sissy little girl - he collaborated and learned from the big guys.
If everyone has his own space to play with it's pretty much like the contest but you just stack team entries on top of each other.
If we want to have a true collab project I'd stick with the lead system that make request to the community for props and pieces. But it kinda limits the communities contributions though.
On a side note: it's a pleasure to see so many guys so pumped up about this) this thread uberfast:)
I've taken offense. Mainly because we've done something like this YEARS AGO and you should know that!
I'm kidding.
Something that to view it, you pan left/right or up/down. I'm not keen on X & Y axis ideas (cubicles, art exhibit, etc.) because I'd prefer it if the viewing ability was streamlined.
Ha, fair dos. If its been done, its been done.
Though, to stream line the interaction rather than walking around it perhaps a city you would view from above and you would only rotate and zoom into. The only xy movement would be across the surface of the map, kind of like controlling the camera in an RTS.
d1ver: We're all working on individual elements of a greater goal (pretty much the definition of collaboration).
Having our own spaces will let the differences of styles & skillsets take no effect on the overall art piece: The modular thing-a-mah-jig (tower, station, etc).
To be honest, during the first Street Fighter Contest a few years ago, and even more recently during the Brawl Contest, I always thought that this would just be TOTALLY badass to put into Mugen somehow.
I kinda wish there was an already existing FPS template we could all collectively use.
Almost like remake a Gears of War level. And Environment Artists could collaborate on what they want their levels to look like, and the Character guys could do their own thing.... but REALLY stretch it.
Level 1: Retro-futuristic
Level 2: Steam-punk
Level 3: The Salvador Dali level
Character Theme 'packs'.
Space Marine Ninjas
Cyborg Mega-Babe Pirates
Midieival Mutant Animals
Super Cute Hoppy Bunny Balloon Fun Gang
All levels have to use/reuse assets in Gears of War
All Characters have to fit onto Marcus Fenix's rig.
Everything will have to fit into the budget already in Gears of War.
:S
And make this a contest where everyone votes in their favorite characters/level collaborations.
If you want to revisit doing a different level of the tower for each person but for the interior, you could use an engine that automatically has accurate collision when you export and import objects.
The thing I like about the interior idea is that you can really get up close and personal with everyone's work like someone else mentioned. Then you could really see the detail if an artist chooses to pack their area with detail, or if another artist made an area that is meant to be explored.
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.
I really like the floor idea and I'm also digging d1ver's suggestions, but the latter seems like an absolute pain to manage if you're not devoting all your spare time on it.
But how would character artists fit in all of this? Would you for instance just put a character into another artist's room, or would char artists need to create rooms themselves using prefab assets?
Unless, you allow an environment artist to team with a character artist for a whole slew of awesomeness! Or if you exclude characters all together of course.
Item packs are also a good idea imho, although a lot less engaging then a collaborative piece of art!
adam: Of course, but they're also made by the same artist that made the floor, so they tie in naturally. A feat that I don't see as something feasable if you're going for a full next gen modular tower thing.
What I'm getting at is that from an artistical point of view, how would you fit the characters in the room unless you restrict the theming or allow teamups with environmental dudes and dudettes. It's still brainstorming of course and I'm probably overthinking this (as I usually do), but I personally would lurv to team up with an environment artist and make a floor that resembles both of us as artists rather then just dropping a character into any given room.
But however you manage to tackle this mass art piece, it will still rock!
I could get into that. I just would hate the tests part. For those rejected, they might feel they aren't part of the community as much. So I would suggest as much as possible matching people to assets they are capable off. For the beginner, cups and jugs. For the advanced, the fighter planes or whatever.
Modular is nice design choices. Something that could be any style. And expandable from a core code base. And needs mimimal human invovlement to update the content.
Level 3: The Salvador Dali level!!! Want it. Brill idea.
Maybe building on Tyler and some other peoples ideas..
Ever seen the film "cube?". Survive the polycount cube!
Cubes are like duplo blocks, easy... hunt down the making of greed corp lecture, is good ideas there. Keep it multiplayer and avoid needs to write much A.i. code.
Cubes if designed correct could be editable and keep adding cubes as more artists do it. People can design a cube and when the game starts is random cubes to play pulled from the array, each different, and up to the artists and whoever works on it. So a simple game mechanic would be needed. There could be several simple game mechanics to "latch" onto for the artists if you give them the info. Something like the program "Crystal Maze"... zones and puzzles leads to all possible art styles.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
If you can get some tasty design doc and arts together, won't aspiring coders and others with spare time want to be part? Anything like a shooter might be too out of scope like most mods unless source can be hi-jacked.
Another idea is chess... design a chess piece set or Board... and surely chess can be found open source? Two artist can head to head in a theme they choose as collab. Steam punk chess. Sci-fi chess. Mech chess. list is endless....
These guys got a UDK puzzle game with source code to mod.... Never played it though.
Sub out the graphics and tweak the rules to suit? http://www.udk.com/showcase-dungeon-defense
Multilplayer top trumps of polycount arts - characters and artifacts! Another idea. Could be flash based app, multiplayer with leader boards and only needs renders or gif anims.
Just ideas... this is interesting stuff... keep going!
This wouldn't be design by committee, either. Design-by-committee or "too many cooks in the kitchen syndrome" is what kills a lot of the group projects.
Very good. I can't stand when it's too many people giving direction.
adam: Of course, but they're also made by the same artist that made the floor, so they tie in naturally. A feat that I don't see as something feasable if you're going for a full next gen modular tower thing.
What I'm getting at is that from an artistical point of view, how would you fit the characters in the room unless you restrict the theming or allow teamups with environmental dudes and dudettes. It's still brainstorming of course and I'm probably overthinking this (as I usually do), but I personally would lurv to team up with an environment artist and make a floor that resembles both of us as artists rather then just dropping a character into any given room.
But however you manage to tackle this mass art piece, it will still rock!
Who said anything about super next gen? In fact, I mentioned low-poly art would be best for this idea.
How would you make the characters fit? Not evening answering this one for you
Even if it was "super next gen" with level streaming volumes and set parameters, like say
err'body gets 1024^2 unit footprint and floors are 256 high
every "x" units traveled up/down it hits a level volume unloads a previous floor and loads a floor pending floor.
even doing it that way if someone wants to follow MrWongs style and have their apt be 4 floors as long as they stick to the stringent unit guidlines its not a big deal just make a maximum # of floors to an apartment. That way floor doesn't break the LSV system and everything stays -relatively- simple.
Even still, lowpoly art is still king of the ideas for this.
Though set unit foot print seems important reguardless of modeling/texturing constraints. at least for the "supporting walls" and where the pivot point would be centered.
Pivot bottom of the center of a 1024x1024 area that way its just drop and snap and the major walls align, anything that sticks out past that like the car room on one of mrwongs rooms is fine since the core lines up well.
TL;DR
It's possible regardless of "resolution gen"
The core team defining set standards would make or break, obviously.
Is the tower idea going to be satisfying enough for most people to finish, rather than a mod/navigatable environment that they can actually run around and explore?
Could always take some existing game's released source code and make a from-scratch pak for it!!! omg. The opportunities:
Hexen
Quake2 (could become a new scifi shit shooter more spacemariney than ever, with heavy blue/gray/purple emphasis and heavy aliens/starcraft influence)
Quake3 (*COUGH*openarena*COUGH* the only time polycount was involved was 2005. jzero and cholden's stuff is still very used in the game and still stands out )
RTCW, WolfET (but instead of axis/allies it's furries (gay wolf pride men ) vs weeaboos (lil anime girls ^_^) at war on attention dominance for a more german-friendly setting because I find both cliques as pretentious and obnoxious as each other. and they intertwine)
Doom3? (in two months)
Duke Nukem 3D (could make an original allegedly 'nextgen' game using Polymer tech in Eduke32 or so)
Arx Fatass or whatever that's called, dont know if stuff can be exported to it.
Believe me there's an audience out there who would play this kind of "knock off same game source 100% new scratch content" stuff. Don't underestimate the power of the apt repository! (of course if it's a Free thing the technohippies will pad the audience and you'd have to put up with stupid situations like BSD users trying to run your OpenGL game in software mode because they protest against binary blob graphic drivers and demanding a working fast software renderer for their free entitlement)
I know i'm a little late on this and i've kinda skimmed through the first 4 pages but heres an option.
We could go the route of the Global Gam Jam ( http://globalgamejam.org/ ) and break into small teams and do small games/mods. The jams generally only last like 1-2 days at most. so it's do-able over the weekend.
How it works is people step up with Ideas or pitches for the game/mod and take the role as the lead. Then people sign up for that idea to work on for the duration of the jam.
The pre-production would be 2-3 days, to pitch the idea. A week to sign up and complete an art test. Then 2-3 days to execute and complete the game.
In the actual game jam this takes place all in a 2 day period, but since we're on the interwebs this would smooth some things out so to speak.
So overall it shouldn't take more then 2 weeks to go from start to finish.
Anyway, if this ends up happening I definitely want in.
As far as a large group art project, its cool, and fun, and essentially masturbatory. (Yes I know its PC and we like circle jerks. Just here me out.) Those who will primarily download and look at the thing will be either the bored, or those of this community, or those of this community who are also bored. Even still how many of those who download it once will look at it a second time? Moreover, how is a "do what you want but in this set of dimensions" all that different than a snapshot of the WAYWO thread?
If we put together something interactive it would/could have a much larger audience and be a real folio piece for everyone involved.
Making a piece of a giant collaborative art effort is wonderful, but there is something to be said for collaborating on a shared theme and goal, even if the theme isn't your favourite thing. I realize that the professional production artists here do this for a day job, and letting loose with whatever theme they feel like is a welcome respite from the day to day art theme grind.
However, we could find a different aesthetic than what's typical, and so keep the project engaging for all, while still creating a unified whole. A simple enough aesthetic, and intelligent assignments, can help bridge the assorted skill levels of any given number of participants, so nothing looks out of place, no matter who made it.
Like someone mentioned a few pages back, to make a good game you need coders. YOU HAVE coders, or people good enough at code to function as them.
So I'll say this now, to whatever effect:
If we build on UDK I volunteer to code whatever the game is.
If we do go an actual game route it would definitely need some behind closed doors pre planning, as per Adam's first post. The overall project parameters would need to be fairly well set before getting people on board so that initial progress could be easily seen and momentum built. Personally, I'd want at least a playable framework of the game, and some rather specific lists of assets, a solid aesthetic, and some playable area/level plans set up before bringing it public to PC. So right out the gate you can give assignments, be they crates, bricks, walls, characters, weapons, clothing, textures, skyboxes, or whatnot, and start having things look like more than a collection of art.
I'm not thinking super strict, but sufficient guidelines to get going, like
3rd person brawler
looks like Salvador Dali dreamed it
250000 on screen tri guideline
melting clocks level
cubist level
blue period level
on the backs of stilt legged animal level
That would set theme, variations on the theme, and overall level of complexity. Enough to get going on, but with room for flexibility and elaborative inspiration.
Stop tempting me with new projects! I've got about 8 already.......
Anyhoo. If its something simple I'll help out. I like the low poly tower/everyone creates a simple room/cubical/ idea without showing each other and someone brings them all together. People can do as little or as much (within restrictions) as they like within their own space.
Kinda like the folded paper draw each part of a monster game.
-Can we do a mod as a community of artists? - YES!
-The core team would consist of established/senior game artists. - Good, but who?
-The rest of the team is established via needs and art tests. - I like this
-Entire PC community is welcome to comment, critique, name-call, praise, and so on. - Admit it adam, you just want an e-blowjob :P
You can do mod's without coders. Difficult, but doable.
What about a community project instead? Like what if we did a huge content pack that we released, for free, royalty free.
For instance: the Polycount Crate package. A plethora of different crates, resolutions, and sizes, and so on. All source material is sent with it, everything. Old, modern, scifi, alien, etc. etc.
i would even go so far as to say sell it for epic cheap, and ALL the money goes back into the polycount site. as i know this shit ain't cheap :P
Sounds like a cool idea. Even though not sure what it is yet.
I think we have some programmers on the forum. I'm trying to learn programming as well as art at the moment. I'm a bit better(know a bit more about programming than I do about art.
If you do do this, I think it should have a single simple core or concept something that can be done that is distinctive not overly complex, that can have a prototype up and running really quickly(it could get more complicated and be built upon later perhaps). I think you guys know how easily these things involving the community can fail. At least if it starts simple then you will have something to show, and its more motivation when you get fast implementations and feedback from it.
+1 programmer checkin...
I haven't done much in the video game market. I support a mod from Tribes 2, and I know enough to support the current code, but I didn't write it. I did make a version of our mod for Tribes Vengeance, which was Unreal based, but it was never completed because of the game's lack of mod support.
Anyway, I actual job involves writing code in a Visual Studio environment for asp.net. I didn't want to be the only coder to check in though, because I don't have the time to dedicate to something like this as a sole programmer Now that others have checked in, I'll throw my name in too.
Maybe at this point if this isnt vapor ware. It would be good to first. Decide specifically what genre is needed. Then choose what engine to use.
Also as mentioned, the mod bit may limit engines and audience. Versus using one of the current "free" engines to build from scratch.
The engine has to be chosen early in the process. Not later. It also needs the blessing from the programmers for what the core idea is. As in, if your making some type of vehicle racing game, a engine like Quake 3 isn't going to work without a MAJOR overhaul/headache for the programers.
How it would work would be that the core, senior team did a layout of the preliminary exhibits that each had a theme such as "Time machines from the 19th century" "Extinct fictional animals" "Space vehicles from the age of the first Exodus" etc. etc.
What would make it cool to me is that a format like that would make stuff like collision a no-brainer where most people would just a stand to put their stuff on, unless they get permission to do a "walk in" exhibit. Also, it would allow for a series of smaller exhibit rooms that could be connected together ad infinitum. It also provides a lot of flexibility in subjects and even styles.
Example of how it could work:
name: bbob
Exhibition: Classical Sculpture
Technical limits: 6000 tris, stand size 2m x 2m, map size 1024 diffuse, specular and normal.
Heck, we could really explore the art side of videogame art.. *getting pumped*
A browser based unity 'game' with a lowpoly tower you can fly around would be interesting... and easier for someone to put together. For each artist, one .obj, no animations, and a single 512/1024 diffuse. Or a small normal and spec map too.
would run well.
But all in all, the thing that killed the old polycount collab was a few good artists making awesomeness, and quickly, then waiting on slower artists to catch up. We def. need to have something that is independent, like a tower or a spaceship, so nobody waits or feels left behind.
Edit: and it would not require anybody to download or install anything other than the unity browser plugin.
Double Edit: And it wouldnt require too much time or dedication. As long as people keep the filenames the same, it should be breezy to update and re-upload the browser game like, once a week.
I don't know if this had been addressed with the tower. So I will ask.
Who is the audience?
From what I see described, its not so much a game or mod as a 3d environment with characters made by a variety of people.
Other than fellow artists. Whats to draw Joe Shmoe into wanting to go through the tower? To me, at this point from the description, the tower is nothing more than masturbation.
PS If you want to do browsers, there is WebGL as that would do any of the new browsers without the need of any plugins. However, other than a Quake2 port. I haven't seen much use of it.
If you make anything visually appealing the audience is: anyone. If that's not enough for you to want to participate in a fun 3D art project, then don't enter.
that's like asking who the audience is for the 8-bit tower I've linked to. It's open to anyone who thinks that sort of thing is cool. If I worried about the audience with every choice I made I'd go crazy.
I had already clarified this to no longer be about a game or a mod but more a community collaboration for something fun. Hell, I may just do this myself and offer up the templates for anyone to participate in if they're so inclined.
If you make anything visually appealing the audience is: anyone. If that's not enough for you to want to participate in a fun 3D art project, then don't enter.
that's like asking who the audience is for the 8-bit tower I've linked to. It's open to anyone who thinks that sort of thing is cool. If I worried about the audience with every choice I made I'd go crazy.
I had already clarified this to no longer be about a game or a mod but more a community collaboration for something fun. Hell, I may just do this myself and offer up the templates for anyone to participate in if they're so inclined.
May I suggest changing the title then since the original idea has evolved into this? I can only speak for myself, but interactivity is what separates us from film 3d. If interactivity is a secondary or third concern then....
PS I know you have some ideas Adam if you went with interactive. We saw that demo game you made... We could be your lackeys...
I think a tower of random "whatever anyone feels like making" rooms is uninteresting both as a viewer and an artist.
I think world building is interesting, but only where everything forms a cohesive whole. That doesn't mean creativity isn't allowed, but it shouldn't be "build whatever you want, and I'll place it next to the thing that some other guy built that has nothing to do with you."
Ah that's unfortunate then aesir. The idea sounds cool from a community stand point. i'd love to be able to see a whole bunch of random art mashed together and get a chuckle out of it.
Pros:
-Not a lot of overhead needed.
-Art style is not locked, entirely open.
-Anyone can enter
-Final result would and interesting view
May I suggest changing the title then since the original idea has evolved into this? I can only speak for myself, but interactivity is what separates us from film 3d. If interactivity is a secondary or third concern then....
PS I know you have some ideas Adam if you went with interactive. We saw that demo game you made... We could be your lackeys...
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.
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.
How it would work would be that the core, senior team did a layout of the preliminary exhibits that each had a theme such as "Time machines from the 19th century" "Extinct fictional animals" "Space vehicles from the age of the first Exodus" etc. etc.
What would make it cool to me is that a format like that would make stuff like collision a no-brainer where most people would just a stand to put their stuff on, unless they get permission to do a "walk in" exhibit. Also, it would allow for a series of smaller exhibit rooms that could be connected together ad infinitum. It also provides a lot of flexibility in subjects and even styles.
Example of how it could work:
name: bbob
Exhibition: Classical Sculpture
Technical limits: 6000 tris, stand size 2m x 2m, map size 1024 diffuse, specular and normal.
Heck, we could really explore the art side of videogame art.. *getting pumped*
You should open photoshop and draw out a top down of how you see this working. I can visualize it, but now's the time people with ideas should be illustrating their thoughts a bit more.
I'd like to see Unity used for this. Not having to install anything, etc will get this to a wider audience than just the artists doing it. A PC virtual gallery space.
I'd also like to be able to walk through what ever it is rather than fly around it. Maybe with some simple interactivity as well. trigger points, doors, switches. That each artist could easily implement.
A bit like what minecraft has going on. Supply people with some simple tools and they can create super computers, symphonies ..or a wooden hut. Whatever they like.
Having said that. Suppling artists with a cube with 2 doors and tell them to texture it will get back enough variety to make it interesting imo.
Replies
@gsokol: I think Unity would be awesome. Have a couple of Unity pro's on here too.
Edit: shit, beaten already
I've taken offense. Mainly because we've done something like this YEARS AGO and you should know that!
I'm keen on the idea of stackable/interlaced modular rooms. Whether its a tower, space station, or what have you. Something that to view it, you pan left/right or up/down. I'm not keen on X & Y axis ideas (cubicles, art exhibit, etc.) because I'd prefer it if the viewing ability was streamlined.
Anyway, lots for me to think about! Keep discussing...
Out of curiosity, who are your intended viewers for this? If it's a showing for the general public, we could always put together a video fly through, like you were intending to to with the helicopter shots of the tower, and then just release the map for the more tech savvy viewers to actually install and run around in. I think it would be more of a learning experience as well if one was able to actually walk up to models and look at them in real time from all angles to pick apart how they were made.
Why worry about collision, we wouldn't need to walk inside each cubicle, just the outside of them (Each cubicle has a basic collision box around it).. So it's essentially the same thing as the tower, just more creative.
Like the inside of Babylon 5? (only not quite so big?)
ok, so picture Mario's Time Machine.
So the same idea of having a basic shell still applies, and you can go into other peoples "rooms" whatever they may be. Doesn't have to be some 3d showroom or anything, just have doors on a wall, or whatever thing you can think of.
Each room would contain the works of a person or a team, that you can maybe wonder through...maybe doing a sidescroller thing... and the wacky part:
Have each room have a pedestal or something, that would hold a prop...or a piece of geo with a badass material on it...something...that was taken from a different room..and you have to take it to the right room.
So basically whoever creates the room can just figure out which parts of their environment are memorable and pick that as an object that would appear in pedestals in other rooms.
Again..super wacky.
It is:) but as it has already been said, collaboration usually implies a pretty close skill level between participants. So far as I can see things going, we're about to take a more modular approach, giving everyone his own space to play with. And that kinda ruins the collaboration mood if you ask me.
I mean a collaboration mood would be if a beginner artist did a rubble pile or a building and then Peris for example populated an environment with it. The artist's happy like a sissy little girl - he collaborated and learned from the big guys.
If everyone has his own space to play with it's pretty much like the contest but you just stack team entries on top of each other.
If we want to have a true collab project I'd stick with the lead system that make request to the community for props and pieces. But it kinda limits the communities contributions though.
On a side note: it's a pleasure to see so many guys so pumped up about this) this thread uberfast:)
Ha, fair dos. If its been done, its been done.
Though, to stream line the interaction rather than walking around it perhaps a city you would view from above and you would only rotate and zoom into. The only xy movement would be across the surface of the map, kind of like controlling the camera in an RTS.
Having our own spaces will let the differences of styles & skillsets take no effect on the overall art piece: The modular thing-a-mah-jig (tower, station, etc).
I kinda wish there was an already existing FPS template we could all collectively use.
Almost like remake a Gears of War level. And Environment Artists could collaborate on what they want their levels to look like, and the Character guys could do their own thing.... but REALLY stretch it.
Level 1: Retro-futuristic
Level 2: Steam-punk
Level 3: The Salvador Dali level
Character Theme 'packs'.
Space Marine Ninjas
Cyborg Mega-Babe Pirates
Midieival Mutant Animals
Super Cute Hoppy Bunny Balloon Fun Gang
All levels have to use/reuse assets in Gears of War
All Characters have to fit onto Marcus Fenix's rig.
Everything will have to fit into the budget already in Gears of War.
:S
And make this a contest where everyone votes in their favorite characters/level collaborations.
The thing I like about the interior idea is that you can really get up close and personal with everyone's work like someone else mentioned. Then you could really see the detail if an artist chooses to pack their area with detail, or if another artist made an area that is meant to be explored.
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.
But how would character artists fit in all of this? Would you for instance just put a character into another artist's room, or would char artists need to create rooms themselves using prefab assets?
Unless, you allow an environment artist to team with a character artist for a whole slew of awesomeness! Or if you exclude characters all together of course.
Item packs are also a good idea imho, although a lot less engaging then a collaborative piece of art!
And yeah it would be cool to collaborate with a character artist and to make something "in tune" with him.
What I'm getting at is that from an artistical point of view, how would you fit the characters in the room unless you restrict the theming or allow teamups with environmental dudes and dudettes. It's still brainstorming of course and I'm probably overthinking this (as I usually do), but I personally would lurv to team up with an environment artist and make a floor that resembles both of us as artists rather then just dropping a character into any given room.
But however you manage to tackle this mass art piece, it will still rock!
Modular is nice design choices. Something that could be any style. And expandable from a core code base. And needs mimimal human invovlement to update the content.
Level 3: The Salvador Dali level!!! Want it. Brill idea.
Maybe building on Tyler and some other peoples ideas..
Ever seen the film "cube?". Survive the polycount cube!
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A light hearted version of that? With any theme.
Cubes are like duplo blocks, easy... hunt down the making of greed corp lecture, is good ideas there. Keep it multiplayer and avoid needs to write much A.i. code.
Cubes if designed correct could be editable and keep adding cubes as more artists do it. People can design a cube and when the game starts is random cubes to play pulled from the array, each different, and up to the artists and whoever works on it. So a simple game mechanic would be needed. There could be several simple game mechanics to "latch" onto for the artists if you give them the info. Something like the program "Crystal Maze"... zones and puzzles leads to all possible art styles.
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If you can get some tasty design doc and arts together, won't aspiring coders and others with spare time want to be part? Anything like a shooter might be too out of scope like most mods unless source can be hi-jacked.
Another idea is chess... design a chess piece set or Board... and surely chess can be found open source? Two artist can head to head in a theme they choose as collab. Steam punk chess. Sci-fi chess. Mech chess. list is endless....
These guys got a UDK puzzle game with source code to mod.... Never played it though.
Sub out the graphics and tweak the rules to suit? http://www.udk.com/showcase-dungeon-defense
Multilplayer top trumps of polycount arts - characters and artifacts! Another idea. Could be flash based app, multiplayer with leader boards and only needs renders or gif anims.
Just ideas... this is interesting stuff... keep going!
It can be done.
Who said anything about super next gen? In fact, I mentioned low-poly art would be best for this idea.
How would you make the characters fit? Not evening answering this one for you
err'body gets 1024^2 unit footprint and floors are 256 high
every "x" units traveled up/down it hits a level volume unloads a previous floor and loads a floor pending floor.
even doing it that way if someone wants to follow MrWongs style and have their apt be 4 floors as long as they stick to the stringent unit guidlines its not a big deal just make a maximum # of floors to an apartment. That way floor doesn't break the LSV system and everything stays -relatively- simple.
Even still, lowpoly art is still king of the ideas for this.
Though set unit foot print seems important reguardless of modeling/texturing constraints. at least for the "supporting walls" and where the pivot point would be centered.
Pivot bottom of the center of a 1024x1024 area that way its just drop and snap and the major walls align, anything that sticks out past that like the car room on one of mrwongs rooms is fine since the core lines up well.
TL;DR
It's possible regardless of "resolution gen"
The core team defining set standards would make or break, obviously.
Hexen
Quake2 (could become a new scifi shit shooter more spacemariney than ever, with heavy blue/gray/purple emphasis and heavy aliens/starcraft influence)
Quake3 (*COUGH*openarena*COUGH* the only time polycount was involved was 2005. jzero and cholden's stuff is still very used in the game and still stands out )
RTCW, WolfET (but instead of axis/allies it's furries (gay wolf pride men
Doom3? (in two months)
Duke Nukem 3D (could make an original allegedly 'nextgen' game using Polymer tech in Eduke32 or so)
Arx Fatass or whatever that's called, dont know if stuff can be exported to it.
Believe me there's an audience out there who would play this kind of "knock off same game source 100% new scratch content" stuff. Don't underestimate the power of the apt repository! (of course if it's a Free thing the technohippies will pad the audience and you'd have to put up with stupid situations like BSD users trying to run your OpenGL game in software mode because they protest against binary blob graphic drivers and demanding a working fast software renderer for their free entitlement)
We could go the route of the Global Gam Jam ( http://globalgamejam.org/ ) and break into small teams and do small games/mods. The jams generally only last like 1-2 days at most. so it's do-able over the weekend.
How it works is people step up with Ideas or pitches for the game/mod and take the role as the lead. Then people sign up for that idea to work on for the duration of the jam.
The pre-production would be 2-3 days, to pitch the idea. A week to sign up and complete an art test. Then 2-3 days to execute and complete the game.
In the actual game jam this takes place all in a 2 day period, but since we're on the interwebs this would smooth some things out so to speak.
So overall it shouldn't take more then 2 weeks to go from start to finish.
Anyway, if this ends up happening I definitely want in.
As far as a large group art project, its cool, and fun, and essentially masturbatory. (Yes I know its PC and we like circle jerks. Just here me out.) Those who will primarily download and look at the thing will be either the bored, or those of this community, or those of this community who are also bored. Even still how many of those who download it once will look at it a second time? Moreover, how is a "do what you want but in this set of dimensions" all that different than a snapshot of the WAYWO thread?
If we put together something interactive it would/could have a much larger audience and be a real folio piece for everyone involved.
Making a piece of a giant collaborative art effort is wonderful, but there is something to be said for collaborating on a shared theme and goal, even if the theme isn't your favourite thing. I realize that the professional production artists here do this for a day job, and letting loose with whatever theme they feel like is a welcome respite from the day to day art theme grind.
However, we could find a different aesthetic than what's typical, and so keep the project engaging for all, while still creating a unified whole. A simple enough aesthetic, and intelligent assignments, can help bridge the assorted skill levels of any given number of participants, so nothing looks out of place, no matter who made it.
Like someone mentioned a few pages back, to make a good game you need coders. YOU HAVE coders, or people good enough at code to function as them.
So I'll say this now, to whatever effect:
If we do go an actual game route it would definitely need some behind closed doors pre planning, as per Adam's first post. The overall project parameters would need to be fairly well set before getting people on board so that initial progress could be easily seen and momentum built. Personally, I'd want at least a playable framework of the game, and some rather specific lists of assets, a solid aesthetic, and some playable area/level plans set up before bringing it public to PC. So right out the gate you can give assignments, be they crates, bricks, walls, characters, weapons, clothing, textures, skyboxes, or whatnot, and start having things look like more than a collection of art.
I'm not thinking super strict, but sufficient guidelines to get going, like
That would set theme, variations on the theme, and overall level of complexity. Enough to get going on, but with room for flexibility and elaborative inspiration.
I could be up for the gamejam style thing too.
Anyhoo. If its something simple I'll help out. I like the low poly tower/everyone creates a simple room/cubical/ idea without showing each other and someone brings them all together. People can do as little or as much (within restrictions) as they like within their own space.
Kinda like the folded paper draw each part of a monster game.
-The core team would consist of established/senior game artists. - Good, but who?
-The rest of the team is established via needs and art tests. - I like this
-Entire PC community is welcome to comment, critique, name-call, praise, and so on. - Admit it adam, you just want an e-blowjob :P
i would even go so far as to say sell it for epic cheap, and ALL the money goes back into the polycount site. as i know this shit ain't cheap :P
I think we have some programmers on the forum. I'm trying to learn programming as well as art at the moment. I'm a bit better(know a bit more about programming than I do about art.
If you do do this, I think it should have a single simple core or concept something that can be done that is distinctive not overly complex, that can have a prototype up and running really quickly(it could get more complicated and be built upon later perhaps). I think you guys know how easily these things involving the community can fail. At least if it starts simple then you will have something to show, and its more motivation when you get fast implementations and feedback from it.
I haven't done much in the video game market. I support a mod from Tribes 2, and I know enough to support the current code, but I didn't write it. I did make a version of our mod for Tribes Vengeance, which was Unreal based, but it was never completed because of the game's lack of mod support.
Anyway, I actual job involves writing code in a Visual Studio environment for asp.net. I didn't want to be the only coder to check in though, because I don't have the time to dedicate to something like this as a sole programmer
Also as mentioned, the mod bit may limit engines and audience. Versus using one of the current "free" engines to build from scratch.
The engine has to be chosen early in the process. Not later. It also needs the blessing from the programmers for what the core idea is. As in, if your making some type of vehicle racing game, a engine like Quake 3 isn't going to work without a MAJOR overhaul/headache for the programers.
Just throwing a different idea out there:
Polycount Museum
How it would work would be that the core, senior team did a layout of the preliminary exhibits that each had a theme such as "Time machines from the 19th century" "Extinct fictional animals" "Space vehicles from the age of the first Exodus" etc. etc.
What would make it cool to me is that a format like that would make stuff like collision a no-brainer where most people would just a stand to put their stuff on, unless they get permission to do a "walk in" exhibit. Also, it would allow for a series of smaller exhibit rooms that could be connected together ad infinitum. It also provides a lot of flexibility in subjects and even styles.
Example of how it could work:
name: bbob
Exhibition: Classical Sculpture
Technical limits: 6000 tris, stand size 2m x 2m, map size 1024 diffuse, specular and normal.
Heck, we could really explore the art side of videogame art.. *getting pumped*
instead of doing something like the tallest virtual building it should be the longest/thickest virtual penis.
p
>
would run well.
But all in all, the thing that killed the old polycount collab was a few good artists making awesomeness, and quickly, then waiting on slower artists to catch up. We def. need to have something that is independent, like a tower or a spaceship, so nobody waits or feels left behind.
Edit: and it would not require anybody to download or install anything other than the unity browser plugin.
Double Edit: And it wouldnt require too much time or dedication. As long as people keep the filenames the same, it should be breezy to update and re-upload the browser game like, once a week.
Whos' Unity SMART enough to handle that sort of thing?
Who is the audience?
From what I see described, its not so much a game or mod as a 3d environment with characters made by a variety of people.
Other than fellow artists. Whats to draw Joe Shmoe into wanting to go through the tower? To me, at this point from the description, the tower is nothing more than masturbation.
PS If you want to do browsers, there is WebGL as that would do any of the new browsers without the need of any plugins. However, other than a Quake2 port. I haven't seen much use of it.
http://playwebgl.com/games/quake-2-webgl/
that's like asking who the audience is for the 8-bit tower I've linked to. It's open to anyone who thinks that sort of thing is cool. If I worried about the audience with every choice I made I'd go crazy.
I had already clarified this to no longer be about a game or a mod but more a community collaboration for something fun. Hell, I may just do this myself and offer up the templates for anyone to participate in if they're so inclined.
May I suggest changing the title then since the original idea has evolved into this? I can only speak for myself, but interactivity is what separates us from film 3d. If interactivity is a secondary or third concern then....
PS I know you have some ideas Adam if you went with interactive. We saw that demo game you made... We could be your lackeys...
I think world building is interesting, but only where everything forms a cohesive whole. That doesn't mean creativity isn't allowed, but it shouldn't be "build whatever you want, and I'll place it next to the thing that some other guy built that has nothing to do with you."
Pros:
-Not a lot of overhead needed.
-Art style is not locked, entirely open.
-Anyone can enter
-Final result would and interesting view
Cons:
-Not something cohesive
-Not something interactive
As an artist with an itch, the con's don't mean anything to me but I can see how they might to others.
No doubt it'll tickle some people's fancies
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.
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.
-2cents
You should open photoshop and draw out a top down of how you see this working. I can visualize it, but now's the time people with ideas should be illustrating their thoughts a bit more.
I'd also like to be able to walk through what ever it is rather than fly around it. Maybe with some simple interactivity as well. trigger points, doors, switches. That each artist could easily implement.
A bit like what minecraft has going on. Supply people with some simple tools and they can create super computers, symphonies ..or a wooden hut. Whatever they like.
Having said that. Suppling artists with a cube with 2 doors and tell them to texture it will get back enough variety to make it interesting imo.