Computer Game Design Class Project

[Little]

So this is a bit off key from what you people usually see on the Hive, I'm going to give you a bit of background.

I'm actually a student for a Computer Game Design Satellite Class up in Washington State, wow that's a lot of capitals. Anyway, I seem to know more than the teacher about the class (this is the pilot year), so I'm helping write and direct the curriculum for the year.

I decided that with the game engines availible, the Warcraft, Unreal 04 and Torque Engines are the ones we'll be using, Warcraft being the most simple and the one I have the most experience in, I figured we would make a COMPLETELY custom RTS from there.

So we're off, the class of thirty is divided into three teams, one for each civilization.

Mo'kreh- Quality over quantity is the theme for this team, they're concentrating on large, expensive, powerfull units with a nice spread of specialty ones to neutralize any specific weaknesses.

Famine- Completely biologic race, no, not the Zerg. These guys arejust about balanced in every category, able to Tech the Air, Ground or Specialty sides of their Tech Tree with equal results.

Xemenday- Sililcon-crystal-based psynetic concious life forms. They've got HEAVY dependency on tactics and strategy, the "technique" race if you will.

So, the entire class has a great understanding of Autodesk Maya 9, which is what we're provided with, they've all got great modeling skills (I'm the primary instructor for that) and know how to unwrap, skin, rig, texture and animate their models. We're going to be completely scrapping the entire Warcraft basic settings and building everything from the ground up, terrain textures, every single doodad, every UI, even all the particle, explosion and sprite effects, everything custom made.

So, seeing as I've been on this site quite a lot and all... I figured you guys could throw me advice, maybe help out a bit with suggestions, even test the game when it's done if you feel like it.

So that's my deal, I'll add more, maybe asked for this to get moved to the Development Board if it gets accepted warmly by the important people. Feedback would be great.

 

[loganic]

It sounds like a great idea. I'm not familiar with the objectives of the curriculum, but I went through a similar process not too long ago.

I was curious as to how the grading process operated. Whether the documentation would be more aimed at the software/developmental aspect of the process or the solely the design.

JASS can be rather extensive and like any programming project, it may be rather easy to be over ambitious. I don't know if, again there's more of a focus on the design, or developmental aspect. A course more developmentally oriented could encourage model design, custom spells and animation, while the design would focus more on functionality, infrastructure, and may not require a basic knowledge of warcraft's programming language JASS.

Lastly, balance. How much do the teams interact at later stages of the process, especially to balance it out?
Another sub section of balance is the idea of tiers in the technology. It's an important aspect, because it allows for increased playability and later design work for things such as campaigns or custom maps. It's also important for survivability.

Portability is probably assumed. Each race won't be limited by map, rather resources.

 

[daw_guy]

It would be great if you had new rescources for each race. The biological race could have something like population and birthrate.

 

[Little]

I was curious as to how the grading process operated. Whether the documentation would be more aimed at the software/developmental aspect of the process or the solely the design.

Lastly, balance. How much do the teams interact at later stages of the process, especially to balance it out?

The teacher is VERY lax, the majority of the grading is if you're completeing your assignments (each person has a model and a terrain and a unit and sum such, graded on quality and functionality) along with how much progress your overall team is making.

The entire structure of the game (three tiers) is very balanced, we've worked from the ground up to keep it as fair as possible, though it has yet to be put to the test.

 

[Mor)L(unE]

Seems very interesting, we would love to see some screenshots.

 

[ragingspeedhorn]

So is this solely the design of 3 races and the environment, or will a small campaign also be following with it?

Sounds interesting btw, I hope you succed with what you start out on to do. Nearly all ambitious Warcraft 3 projects in the past has failed.

Feel free to create a map development thread whenever you feel like it, just get a proper name for the project than Computer Game Design Class Project, doesn't sound all that intruiging you know

 

[DoOs_101]

I encourage you to include Starcraft II since it is also a good RTS with powerful modding engine.

 

[loganic]

Well the idea sounds great, like one of the previous guys mentioned, a follow up like a campaign or a couple maps would be good to display the portability of your work

 

[Little]

So is this solely the design of 3 races and the environment, or will a small campaign also be following with it?

To my knowledge the project parameters is simply having all three races ready for multiplayer action in enviroments of our design, but we may have some extra time before we move to the unreal engine, a few of us may make a campaign just for the fun of it out of school anyway.

I encourage you to include Starcraft II since it is also a good RTS with powerful modding engine.

Well we don't know that yet... plus we have no material or experience to fiddle with it, maybe when I take it again next year.

Sounds interesting btw, I hope you succed with what you start out on to do. Nearly all ambitious Warcraft 3 projects in the past has failed.

The good thing is that it's an actuall assignment, so we have to, it should be completely done by March-ish.

Feel free to create a map development thread whenever you feel like it, just get a proper name for the project than Computer Game Design Class Project, doesn't sound all that intruiging you know

Thanks. In fact we've been having issues coming up with a name for the game, we've got everything from Latin to acronyms and other crazy stuff, if you have any ideas just throw them out.

Thanks for the feedback guys

 

[ragingspeedhorn]

Something catchy and easy to understand for the general player, like Warcarft, Starcraft, Diablo, all those names are idiot-proof.

 

[Steel_Stallion]

Submit the models you make to the hive!!

 

[DoOs_101]

I hope there are some modders in the college I'm attending to so that I can arrange a Modders club where we can do stuff likewise in your subject.

 

[Lord_of_sausage]

good idea but maybe would all the custom models make the game's size a bit too large for LAN/Bnet play.

 

[AmadiTheGreat]

SausageLord, as they're taking the game engine, they're making a completely new game out of it, it's not gonna be like a map, it's gonna take a whole new folder from your computer. At least that's what the first post leads me to understanding.

I'm looking forward to it, remember to post it here in the Hive so we can check it out and give feedback.

 

[Little]

Yeah, we're going to be modding the game engine as much as possible, even called Blizzard and asked how to do it.

As for models, I'm sure in eventuallity I'll be able to upload something like
-[GameName] Building Pack
-[GameName] Unit Pack
-[GameName] Doodad Pack
-[GameName] Effects Pack

in a set at the end of the project.

And I'll definitely keep you guys updated, the storylines behind the races is almost done, that's coming ASAP. Again thanks for the positive feedback.