"Let's Make a Dreamcast Game" (aka the return of GGE)

[bahn]

Received by someone about someone else many people before the GameGo era know...who shall remain nameless (that is, unless you actually know who it is)

http://forums.ugo.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1782


Least this is a step-up from GAIM!


Edit: In case you're too lazy to want to click...

<i>Originally posted by Brianna Haskins</i>

As some of you probably know by now, the latest craze to hit the Dreamcast Fan scene is the possibility of underground fan game development.

I was wondering if any of you old school SEGA fans wanted to create a Windows-based game and then translate it to the Dreamcast console. I know that if we all put our resources together, we certainly could come up with a decent 2D game that fans could easily download, burn on a CD and play.

How could we do this??
#1. First we need to develop the game on a Windows program. There are several game-development programs that require ABSOLUTELY NO or little language programming knowledge or coding. Some of these are:

A. The Games Factory and Multimedia Fusion by ClickTeam ( www.clickteam.com )
B. Gamemaker

All 3 can be downloaded for free and run on Windows. I already own Multimedia Fusion and The Games Factory, and I must say that, although there are some limitations, its VERY easy to use for someone like me who knows NOTHING about coding.

#2. Technically we don't even have to do much art for the game itself. Through the emulation and MUGEN scene, character and level environments can easily be acquired and put together on these programs. This would be quite suitable because:

A. This is a fangame and fans of games like Capcom's Street Fighter or Marvel Superheroes series would love to see an action game based on their characters. Imagine a Castlevania-style action game with Darkstalker's Donovan OR a Streets of Rage-type brawler with Ryu, Ken and ChunLi as the main selectable characters. The possibilities are huge, guys.

B. As a fangame, it means its a non-profit project (we wouldn't get a cent) money-wise. This means we're free to use graphics from already existing games without fear of running across copyright enfringement issues.

#3. Music can be either Midi or MP3, but of course, the latter would take up too much memory, so I suggest we mainly use Midi. Such songs are available for download from hundreds of sites that carry them. There are Midi music songs from literally thousands of games.

#4. Sounds are also available on many sites around the net. I suggest we use WAVs, which are easy to get and take up little memory.

#5. We would need to make a development team: Lead Designer, Level Designer, Character Artist, Background Artist, Lead Programmer, General Programmer, Music Arrangement and Sound Engineer. We could also beta test the game ourselves.

#6. Finally, we would need someone to code the game into files that Dreamcast can read. There are a few online people who have developed their very own dev-kits and have managed to make things like emulators and boardgame-based titles playable on Dreamcast. Its all a matter of contacting them or learning how to get it done. Go to www.dcemulation.com for detailed info.

I realize that most of you work, have lives and other responsibilities, but if we all pull together I'm absolutely certain a simple 2D game project can indeed be done in a matter of a few months. Sure it'll be hard work and dedication, I won't lie to you; but its something that's not impossible by any means and CAN be achieved in a REALISTIC sense. I truly don't think its a pipe dream.

This is also something that people in here who are interested in game design, game development and the business of games should seriously look into, since such a project could be used as a portfolio of sorts to join a real games company in the future.

Please think about this proposition and tell me what you think. I'm more than willing to make a sacrifice and dedicate the weekends for such a project, if indeed a team is willing to work on it. Also, spread the word throughout your friends. I'm sure that if you don't know someone who can take the task of, let's say, being a sound engineer, surely a friend of yours might know a friend who does.

OH!! Also, its very important to know that everyone we make part of the team is indeed reliable and responsible. Expect certain deadlines (although I don't expect them to be extremely strict) throughout the project for everyone involved in the production.

So...Which of you guys is interested in giving life to our Dreamcast, raise your hands and post here!!

<hr>

[johnk_]

i can't believe no one else is replying to this great idea..

i personally have some experience in java and C++..

although i'd prefer to be more involved in the area of design for the game, since i have no actual game programming experience..

however, if given the opportunity, this could also be a good learning experience for me..

i'm not quite sure which area i'd be most useful in, but i'd like to dedicate some time to be a part of this project..

oh, and i forgot to mention, i've been following the DC development and emulation scene as well, so i may be able to help there too.. (in regards to converting the program to something that will run on a DC)

[jaysun]

Where's "Team Go!" when we need 'em??

[Tain]

Sorry Bahn, but I really don't think it'd work this way. Basically, I heavily doubt that any programmer could re-compile an EXE made by one of those game-creation kits into a Dreamcast WinCE program. Well, maybe, but it wouldn't be too easy.

Besides, there are already plenty of great homebrew games. Just take a look at TriLinear's stuff.

Oh, and Cryptic Allusion's "Feet of Fury" looks great. Well, maybe not, if you hate DDR. But I'm looking foward to it.

[Lordmrw]

I wouldn't mind trying out for character artist, I just have to make sure I have the time to devote to it before opening my mouth and agreeing to it. Nobody wants to be the fuckhead on the team.

[bahn]

Originally posted by Tain
Sorry Bahn, but I really don't think it'd work this way. Basically, I heavily doubt that any programmer could re-compile an EXE made by one of those game-creation kits into a Dreamcast WinCE program. Well, maybe, but it wouldn't be too easy.

Besides, there are already plenty of great homebrew games. Just take a look at TriLinear's stuff.

Oh, and Cryptic Allusion's "Feet of Fury" looks great. Well, maybe not, if you hate DDR. But I'm looking foward to it.

Allo? You're telling the wrong person, buddy. I specifically said that it was reported by someone else...and the thread has a note stating it's by a person known as Brianna Haskins.

You've totally misunderstood...besides, I am not interested in this. Bleep (aka the GGE, girl game extraordinaire) introduced this to me before...and there were a lot of gaps that couldn't be answered.

[bahn]

Originally posted by Lordmrw
I wouldn't mind trying out for character artist, I just have to make sure I have the time to devote to it before opening my mouth and agreeing to it. Nobody wants to be the fuckhead on the team.

I wonder what one of those looks like.

[Lordmrw]

use your imagination I think I might be able to dedicate weekends to this, and I have a friend who is into sound engineering that might be interested. He's thinking about signing up here; i'm kind of curious why he hasn't.

[Tain]

Ah... Sorry 'bout that.

[seen]

Man, if it only was that simple to create DC programs. One of the problems is that it runs on an unpopular SuperH chip from Hitachi.

I still think that there is no way to debug your programs on the DC and that is a source of all evil in development. Some developers scoff at debugging but they don't realize how much they need it until their programs crash for no apparent reason.

If you really want some Dreamcast homebrew stuff, let's start a petition for Sega to release the the WinCE or the Katana development kits and full source code to them to the public. I realize that the WinCE release is a long shot but the Katana might be a possibility since it is not connected to Microsoft in any way. Let them release the schematics of their development workstations and let some developers make their own connection interfaces.

Those are my thoughts anyway.

Edit: They aren't making any more money off the licensing the kit to developers anymore anyway. And it is the only way in my eyes that they could make up for fucking us over by killing the DC.


seen