Sports game team interest

[funkboy]

I am wondering who here in the community (or newcomers to idevgames) would be interested in working on a sports game project, either for uDevGames or for just outside the contest. Right now I'm interested in a baseball / softball game, but we could go a few different ways, too.

Positions I'm looking for include:
- character animator
- location artist (mostly-static images, such as the baseball stadium, menus, etc.)
- sound effects
- programming help, either actual code or theoretical help (I will probably be doing this in MetaCard, unless a talented Cocoa programmer comes along and wants to collaborate)
- organizational expert to help manage statistics tracking and devise a way to elegantly work on keeping track of data for season / playoff mode
- play testers

Artists can be experienced either in 2D or 3D styles, but the final game would be 2D, like other games at my website.

If interested, reply in this thread or e-mail me at tennis@karlbecker.com

[karolos]

Hi

Why not :D

I could be interested if you are not planning to make a "classic game" :sneaky:
I mean the design could be very fun with some tiny characters or robots :lol:

[DaFalcon]

I agree that it would be fun to play a baseball/softball game with robots (I remember something on the Nintendo along these lines)

[davecom]

If you end up working in Cocoa outstide of UDevGames let me know, and I'd be interested in helping program.

[funkboy]

Robot baseball - aiieeee! And yes, there was a robot baseball game, something like Super Baseball 3010 (or maybe 2010... yikes) for Super Nintendo. I always wanted to play it :)

Which areas of the team are you guys willing to contribute? Art is by far the hardest thing for me to do.

davecom, I appreciate the offer. How proficient in Cocoa are you? I would be persuaded to try and make the game with Cocoa/OpenGL (maybe with some help from some graphics libraries) if you're somewhat knowledgeable about those things. What do you think?

[DaFalcon]

If done outside of uDevGames, I have interest in the "location" (static images) artist position. Not sure I could commit to character animation, though.

[karolos]

I will be happy to do some characters, like robots. We can imagine that robots have a special behavior the can use in each team "special speed". :wow:

I never do animation (hum not really true but it was 10 years ago , but I do how it work. :) I have just bought Flash, so I can use it to do something for the introduction interface... ?

So I am candidate to your project :wow:

[Rincewind]

It is time for a remake for Speedball. Put an online play, so that every player on the field can be controlled by a human, and you'll have yourself a winner :)

EDIT: removed the non-informative and already-in-use -idea away.

[BeyondCloister]

"Ice cream! Ice cream!"

[Carlos Camacho]

If SpeedBall 2 came out for the Mac (without emulation), I would shut down the site and devote all my time to playing it. :)

[DaFalcon]

Hmnnn.... would it really be fun for 18 players to play an online game where they have a low percentage chance of the ball even coming to them each inning? Or perhaps I don't understand the mechanics of speedball :-)

[BeyondCloister]

Speedball is pure violence. It is basically a computer game version of the game in the Rollerball film.

[ERaZer]

If SpeedBall 2 came out for the Mac (without emulation), I would shut down the site and devote all my time to playing it. :)
Word.
Or rather, I would stop everything else and devote all my free time playing it :)

[Rincewind]

Hmnnn.... would it really be fun for 18 players to play an online game where they have a low percentage chance of the ball even coming to them each inning? Or perhaps I don't understand the mechanics of speedball :-)

People play ESPN NHL 2k4 online with every person being a human. As long as the game's great and there's a real sense of sport and strategies to win the match, people'll play it. Of course every idea can be developed/altered, if it's not good.

Well then, 2-player online SpeedBall, anyone? :rolleyes:

[Bjoernke]

I can help with metacard/runrev, but not for uDG as I got my own entry. Contact me ( bvg AT mac DOT com) if you need help in that direction.

[davecom]

davecom, I appreciate the offer. How proficient in Cocoa are you? I would be persuaded to try and make the game with Cocoa/OpenGL (maybe with some help from some graphics libraries) if you're somewhat knowledgeable about those things. What do you think?

I'm quite proficient in Cocoa but not enough to be the lead developer. I have no OpenGL experience. Perhaps we could work with something like Cocoa Sprite Kit? I doubt this is the direction you guys want to go in, but I have always wanted to see an OS X version of the old Classic Mac game Action Strategy Baseball.

[Sohta]

I might be interested ( not for UDG however ). If you guys choose to go the Cocoa/OpenGL way, then I can definitely be of help.

[funkboy]

Great posts everyone. I think this project would best not be in the uDG contest, since many have conflicts with it.

Looks like we've got 2 Cocoa/OpenGL coders interested, 2 (including myself) RunRev/MetaCard scripters, a location artist, and a character & menu designer.

I think Speedball sounds great, and I've heard how it's so fun by many, many people. I've never played it though! I need a better idea of how it works.

Karolos, it'd be great if you could draw up some character sketches.

Bjoernke, I'd like to talk with you about coding in Revolution some more.

davecom and Sohta, maybe we could coordinate a more traditional baseball game for you two to work together on? I would like to be involved, too - I know some Cocoa, I'm just not very experienced.

[DaFalcon]

Is this the speedball you all mean?

http://www.flashback-aw.net/games.php?GameID=47

[karolos]

Hi

The most important thing before to start artwork, it is to know what I shoul draw :)
The oritention of the game, should it be like a Speeball 2 (humain characters) or something more like "judge Dredd" style with robots "Megacity-Speedball" ? My be we can communicate via ICQ or Ichat, alle the people concerned ?

[Rincewind]

Is this the speedball you all mean?

http://www.flashback-aw.net/games.php?GameID=47

Yes. I've played the C-64 -version and it still is a lot of fun.

[funkboy]

Good idea karolos. How about an iChat sometime in the next 4 hours? Click the AOL icon underneath my name to see my AIM user name, message me anytime.

[Roosterhouse]

I may interested in this as well, if it doesn't get started too much during uDG (my own entry is taking enough time as it is).

Character designs and background work would be my specialty, if you need any more of that (although it seems there are already a few interested artists out there).

-Chris

[edit - fixed a typo]

[Duane]

Artists can be experienced either in 2D or 3D styles, but the final game would be 2D, like other games at my website.

Are you going to have 2d characters in a 3-d world, like backyard baseball? or or you going to have something more along the lines of your KTA tennis?

[funkboy]

Are you going to have 2d characters in a 3-d world, like backyard baseball? or or you going to have something more along the lines of your KTA tennis?

If created in Runrev/MetaCard, it would be along the lines of KTA Tennis. However, I don't really think I can update ten or more players and keep the frame rate smooth with MetaCard - I think a game like speedball would have to be done in Cocoa/OpenGL, which is why I'd love to have davecom and Sohta helping out.

In that case, it could be either way - probably a hybrid 2d/3d world, like backyard baseball.

And Roosterhouse, it would be great to have you onboard, too. I don't plan on working on the Speedball game as a uDG entry, probably for after.

I may try to do baseball for uDG on my own still if I can find an artist, since I can keep a smooth frame rate in MetaCard for a simple baseball game I think.

[Duane]

I'd love to help with the cocoa aspect of it; when you're ready for development, just post what kind of guy you need. I;m not that good with games, i confess, but I'm pretty good with the cocoa aspect of it.

[funkboy]

Nayr, have you done any OpenGL programming before? Any sort of graphics work? That would be the most important aspect, though having a good Cocoa GUI front-end is important, too.

[theblob]

i'd be happy to playtest the game and give you feedback "when you've started it"

[Carlos Camacho]

Here are some low-cost game assets to look into. (I didn't check to see which kind of game you settled on.)

You might be able to either reduce the meshes for 3d engines, or pre-render for 2d games or 2.5d games


You will need Poser for these. Though if you can read OBJ, check them out.
Football player
http://market.renderosity.com/softgood.ez?ViewSoftgood=23882

Soocer player
http://market.renderosity.com/softgood.ez?ViewSoftgood=15709
http://market.renderosity.com/softgood.ez?ViewSoftgood=15704
http://market.renderosity.com/softgood.ez?ViewSoftgood=15858
(Should I bother? I'm just likely to get let down -- again.)

Girl tennis player
http://market.renderosity.com/softgood.ez?ViewSoftgood=30404

Textures
http://market.renderosity.com/softgood.ez?ViewSoftgood=19385

BVH files
http://market.renderosity.com/softgood.ez?ViewSoftgood=29908

Olympics
http://market.renderosity.com/softgood.ez?ViewSoftgood=29345

Boxing, ultimate fighting, rastl'n?
http://market.renderosity.com/softgood.ez?ViewSoftgood=6137
http://market.renderosity.com/softgood.ez?ViewSoftgood=4323
http://market.renderosity.com/softgood.ez?ViewSoftgood=3341

Basketball moves
http://market.renderosity.com/softgood.ez?ViewSoftgood=7684

Pool Table
http://market.renderosity.com/softgood.ez?ViewSoftgood=3277

Volleyball
http://market.renderosity.com/softgood.ez?ViewSoftgood=20240

Free Meshes, dxf, 3ds
http://www.3dcafe.com/models/golfball.zip
http://www.3dcafe.com/models/bball.zip (basketball)
http://www.3dcafe.com/models/baseballplayer.zip
http://www.3dcafe.com/models/bat.zip
http://www.3dcafe.com/models/fbhelmet.zip
http://www.3dcafe.com/models/football2.zip
http://www.3dcafe.com/models/hockey.zip
http://www.3dcafe.com/models/pooltabl.zip
http://www.3dcafe.com/models/sftball.zip
http://www.3dcafe.com/models/tenncort.zip
http://www.3dcafe.com/models/soccer.zip
http://www.3dcafe.com/models/tennis-racket.zip
http://www.3dcafe.com/models/tennisball.zip

TurboSquid
Nice tennis court
http://www.turbosquid.com/FullPreview/Index.cfm?ID=215357

All soccer stuff
http://www.turbosquid.com/Search/Index.cfm?intMediaType=2&intCategory1=20069&=211&=20063&=20069&INTFILETYPE_3=0&INTFILETYPE_2=0&BLSHOWCATEGORYSELECT=TRUE&BLSEARCHGAMEREADYONLY=FALSE&ISTSEARCHKEY=&INTFILETYPE_1=0&INTRATINGCOUNT=0&BLKEEPCHECK=n&INTBUNDLEID=&ISTINCAUTHOR=&ISTEXCAUTHOR=&FUSEACTION=ProcessSmartSearch&FLTRATING=0&DATEBEFOREPUB=&STGBOOLEAN=L&INTMAXPRICE=&STGTYPE=&DATEAFTERPUB=&INTSTARTROW=1&ISTEXCKEY=&INTMINPRICE=&stgAD=15J244404040441&stgOrderColumn=0&intSortOrder=0&blViewType=1&blViewTypeTip=y&intMaxResults=50

Baseball
http://www.turbosquid.com/Search/Index.cfm?intMediaType=2&intCategory1=20072&=211&=20063&=20072&INTFILETYPE_3=0&INTFILETYPE_2=0&BLSHOWCATEGORYSELECT=TRUE&BLSEARCHGAMEREADYONLY=FALSE&ISTSEARCHKEY=&INTFILETYPE_1=0&INTRATINGCOUNT=0&BLKEEPCHECK=n&INTBUNDLEID=&ISTINCAUTHOR=&ISTEXCAUTHOR=&FUSEACTION=ProcessSmartSearch&FLTRATING=0&DATEBEFOREPUB=&STGBOOLEAN=L&INTMAXPRICE=&STGTYPE=&DATEAFTERPUB=&INTSTARTROW=1&ISTEXCKEY=&INTMINPRICE=&stgAD=15J244404040441&stgOrderColumn=0&intSortOrder=0&blViewType=1&intMaxResults=50

Anyhow, for you coders who can't make art... find some meshes, free or buy them if the price is right, get a hold of a 3d app, and remder out your sprites. If you are making small sprites, you shouldn't need too many frames of animation per sprite.

Cheers

[funkboy]

Thanks for the model ideas, Carlos. Lots of good choices to pick from, all at reasonable prices.