Posts by RonanHayes

Quote from Tequila

In that case, I really don't see the point in pursuing the HL2 and BF2 fronts.

You've got a retail engine that you payed for. Push it.

The reason for going after 2 mods is rather simple. Indie games dont get enough or any attention can you actually tell me any indie games out there at the moment? More than likely not, infact I doubt most people even know what major indie dev studios are out there.....

My point being, tapping into HL2, BF2 and other major games, allows us to generate a huge fanbase for only a minimum amount of time. Our development workflow remains the same. If we need to learn a special trick for a given engine we bring someone in (Hence the HL2 animator search)

At the end of the day it is only costing us 4 members, 4-6 months work to get the mods in order. Its great Marketting, great PR and shows the communities what we are made of. This system has been complimented by several key figures (some from EA, some from the indie scene) So we will stick by it and finish what we started.... At the end of the day it will bring more fans to our community, and will help expand our potential too no end.

Quote from PS_Mouse

Personally I think your choice of genre is a poor one. While there is indeed precedent for FPS WW2 games being successful, the scope of genre itself is rather limited. At this point in time, the only way I can envisage a game within the genre being successful is if it's either backed by a big name or if it blatently brings something new to the table. When I say blatently, I'm not referring to the actual in-game expirience; I mean the customer can look at the front of the box or an advert and notice that it has something special going for it.

Let me point out exactly what unique features we have:

1. 160x160 km of terrain, thats over 12800000000 vertices representing the terrain, @ 2 metres per pixel. NASA and other Elevation Resellers do not have a map that detailed. They can only provide a map @ 50m per pixel

2. We cover every nation at the moment we have over 16 nations in Normandy alone and the long overdue praise for the Canadian, Austrailian, New Zealand, Irish and many many more.

3. Over 250,000 units control in realtime, moving around a map 160x160 km. All with their stats, health, general information and much more detail being captured.

4. An agressive training and campaign system

5. Over 256 players online (its looking like over 512 players online) Playing on a map of 160x160 km, with over 250,000 AI units on the map

6. An intelligent AI system, that monitors, controls, adapts, recalculates and evolves over the the course of gameplay.

7. 24 Hour clock system, with Rayleigh Light Scattering

8. Fully integrated and improved physics system, including complete building destruction, terrain deformation, metal bending, RealisticTank Tracks, Rigid Body.

9. OVER 250,000 UNITS TO SELECT FROM.

10. Realistic Squad Dynamics

11. Complete Tactics Engine, Communication Engine, Rules Engine, Pathfinding Engine, State Engine and of course these are all coupled into our AI Engine, which is developed using Genetic Algorithms, Neural Networks, FUSM, Goal-Oriented Action Planning, Hierarchical Task-Network (HTN) planning, Task-Method-Knowledge (TMK) and also TIELT (Testbed for Integrating and Evaluating Learning Techniques ). All are integrated in their own right and all are capable of being used to evaluate and determine what the AI should or shouldnt be doing.

12. We are releasing a complete SDK to the community long before the game is even released. Some MODS, will have permission to be standalone. We will provide hosting and servers for the mods and in certain circumstances we will be on hand to help the mods.

Now I honestly cant see how this isnt bringing anything new to the table. The AI alone is enough to be considered new, but the fact that we are using a next gen engine and really pushing the graphical boundaries. We are handling over 250,000 units, over 200+ vehicles, over 70+ weapons, and allowing the player to select any unit they want to play with....

Anyway more to the point, if anyone is interested in joining the team, or seeing what we are about.

[email protected]

Cheers

Cant give a price Im afraid, but it was alot at one point I was giving over 3/4's of my monthly wage for several months just to pay for the technology. Im a full time Professional Programmer with a Multi National, I guess you can make your own assumptions from there.

Exactly

I assure you I enjoy a WW2 game as much as the next, but Im no WW2 fanatic. These games have their place and they need to be exciting and offer new avenues to the player (What I believe we are trying to do)

I actually started this when I tried to convince my College Lecturers that making a game for my Degree was actually of educational benefit. Obviously they wernt buying the "Yet another lets go kill the Terrorists" or "Yet another Sci-fi Game with Big over the top weapons".

So I opted to create an AI system that would learn from students and present them with a challenge, as the student progressed through the game the AI would either increase the challenge or decrease the challenge depending on how the player was doing. It also had a set educational curriculum that it was required to cover, and slowly present to the player without them realising it was completely educational (more game than education so to speak)

Obviously the only feasible setting for this given the Irish Education system was History and the only topic within that which I had a remote interest in was WW2.

Look on the bright side it could have been "Yet another ART History during the 16th Century Game", OR "Yet another Poetry Game based on the writings of WB Yeats"

Every game has its place, be it WW2, SCI-FI, MMORPG or other. Just once they bring something to the players that they will enjoy and get value for money with.

csharp would it interest you if you knew one of our planned mission packs is the Finnish Efforts during WW2? (weapons and vehicles currently in development, we are also trying to source a DEM for the land mass)

At which point the mission pack becomes very easy to develop once we have secured the DEM and modified it.

Our focus is not just on June 6th but other operations. It just happens June 6th is the most famous D-Day. So its our best starting point.

I have no false aspirations of breaking into the industry, nor do I pitch the game to people as their ideal way of breaking into the industry.

The best way to break into the industry is to focus on your portfolio. Develop your talents by working in all areas that interest you.

The reason I state its not your usual WW2 game and not your usual team. Is simply because of the Sheer Scope of the game, the flexibility and coverage that it gives. Yes its another WW2 game, but its taking another approach. Its taking a step back and putting an AI in control of the events. Thats why the game itself is different, in its core the AI drives the game, not the player hitting flags for scripted events.

If the player were to stand still and fortunate not to get involved in any combat, the game doesnt simply loop around a series of events, or wait for the player to do some key objective. The game continues on, the AI is a very exciting thing to work with, and while the genre may be WW2 it is still a challenge to develop everything on such a scale and scope that the game covers.

As for the team, we are well organised, well structured, and we give the freedom for people to jump into areas they wish to explore. We are willing to invest in techonology and believe in our idea to the extent where more often than not we have put our hands into our pocket and paid for new technology and not to mention contract artwork.

We have a firm business plan in place, but without relying soley on the hopes that a publisher will pick us up, we also have plans (and by plans I mean we have a complete infrastructure physically in place) and we are 100% aware we most likely will have to self publish this game, but we are willing to do that.

The exposure the mods and game is getting is also worthwhile, with the head developers behind speedtree having a strong interest in the project. As well as the other technology developers.

Sure its another WW2 game, but it does things differently, is designed and built in a different way, targetting a different market and ultimately delievering a new comprehensive experience of D-Day.

Hi Lads

killertomato posted over at 1944game.com saying he posted here. I try and checkin on the views of whatever thinks about the project.

Anyway a few points that I would like to clear up.

We are currently developing a full game. This is being developed using a highly modified version of the Reality Engine : [email protected]

or if you want to question me via MSN:

[email protected]

Its not your usual WW2 Game, and we are not your usual Indie/Mod Team