I agree that on the surface the concept of Arena Combat is common among all the Games, but what about the uncommon concepts between them? Im not interested in such a collaboration to develop a single game. I want to develop all of our games simultaneously. To achieve this, I seek solutions to synchronize the development efforts to achieve forward progression on all the at the same time. Modular Design, Centralized Resource Storage, Collaborative GameWorld/ Entity Editing, are on my list.
- Storing all the resources in a common location w/ version control. Perforce, SVN, and GitHub?
- Merge all Games into Common One. How? Each Codeveloper’s game concept can be included under the same umbrella, implemented as a GameMode/Sub-GameModes. This modular approach would allow the Games define separate rules, utilizing the same code base and play test. Each Game could use different Startup Configuration/Front-end to appear a independent product.
Code is already shared across multiple projects using Unreal Engine’s core subsystems ie Physics, ParticleSystems, Networking, etc. We would share higher level subsystems built atop of core subsystems. Examples of Shared Higher level Subsystems are in The Unreal Marketplace (UMP). In which multiple game products are using modified versions UMP BP Modules and Art Assets. In fact, I started this RPG with to experiment with integrating as many UMP Assets I can get my hands no into a single game.
The Audio/Visual {3D Meshes, Materials, Music SoundFX, GUI} presentation is what will give each Game its own artistic theme. In the area of A/V, I feel that granular, modular entity design offers the greatest re-use and flexibility in a broader Artistic Range. I must stress that being able to use the all Resources in all the GameModes is very critical for this to strategy to work. If we do not accept that we’re working on multiple projects simultaneously, we’ll find ourselves back in silos again. Each Codevelopers will need to slightly adjust their Artistic Theme to synchronize development effort.
Skill swapping is also a goal here. Why wait for a programmer, when you have a few in this Collab? I’m a code-centric Game Dev, not much of a 3D Artist [yet], thus content for my games is the greatest challenge. All of the projects I’ve joined and recruitment threads I post are with intent to solicit Artistic Talent explicitly or implicitly for developing Dragon’$ Gold (my primary and final Game Dev Project). Unfortunately, I have not had much success. It has been discouraging at times. But, I refuse to give up. I have to come to terms, that I may never form a development team to work on Dragon’$ Gold for Royalty share.
So to fill in the void of content for my game, I purchase content from UMP with intent to programmatically modify them to some degree for uniqueness. I have found myself redesigning Dragon’$ Gold’s Artistic Theme around the Art assets that I can acquire. Thus, I repeat:“Each Codevelopers will need to slightly adjust their Artistic Theme to synchronize development effort.”
- Identify Game Mechanics and SubSystems that be cross-integrated with minimum customization.
- Identify A/V resources that can be cross-integrated with customization.