Project Ideas

Here's an idea for a game that I've mulled around for a while:

This scientist builds this robot and treats it like a son (think Pinocchio). Every night, the scientist has to put it into "sleep mode" to charge its battery. One day, the scientist puts him to sleep, but doesn't get woken for 5 years. One day, a surveyor comes to check the place out the home/lab before putting it up for sale. When he flips on the power, the robot wakes up. The robot asks the surveyor where his "creator" is (tentative name) and the surveyor says the building has been abandoned for a long time. He says maybe someone in town knows something about the creator. So, the robot sets off on a journey to find his creator.

So, as far as actual game mechanics, it would be some sort of 2D puzzle/platformer/something... something simple that can be controlled easily on mobile devices (cause it's a mobile game) and as one aspect, you have to collect batteries (or some form of power) to keep the robot alive. Maybe have the battery drain as the player progresses, or make it so they have to collect so many to complete a level.

I think this would be great if it was set up as a bunch of short-ish levels (like most mobile games) but had some light storytelling to make the game play more meaningful. The ending of the game has the robot finding the creator's daughter who takes the robot in. The scientist has died, but that won't actually be stated, rather implied. This could have a bit of an emotional impact if executed properly leaving players more satisfied with the experience than just being able to say "I finished all the levels on Angry Birds".

The gameplay is the area most lacking in my idea and is obviously the most important as people will want something they can pick up and play in short bursts but still have fun.

Anyway. As far as platforms, LibGDX (Java) would be a great option as it can compile to a regular desktop application, Android, HTML5 and iOS. They even have a project generator that makes Gradle projects. These can be imported into any IDE, so that'll make it easier to work with as a community project.

So, there's that.
 
Sounds interesting enough, and has a fairly good sounding hook. I can see the end of every 4th level now: "sorry your creator is in another castle" :P

I think the hardest thing will be writing a reasonable amount of good dialog.
 
I'm sure some people here like to write, but it's proven difficult to get anyone interested in a community project.
 
Wow...
This thread died long time ago and I already forgot about it.
I wanted to do this back then and then all of a sudden nobody answered anymore so I thought nobody was interested.

And now I am busy with other software I am working on so I will not be able to do this for some time...
I guess this is what happens when nobody answers on thread for months and months and months...

Look...if we can't get this damn thing going then why not just make something stupid and simple JUST TO SEE if we can even make something together...anything! :P
It doesn't matter if we will use Java or Visual C++ or Visual C# or Visual Basic or whatever.
Most of those who answered on this thread (back then) all wanted to use Java just because all they know about it is that it is cross platform and most of them never did any programming like...ever!
All they know is that it's cross platform...and that was it...the end...:rolleyes:

So let's start with something simple okay?
Such as a super simple math game which collects points.Something like:
IC286390.png


This image is just an example.
We would of course make it a little bit better. :rolleyes:

And why not use C#?
It's so damn good and famous language...

Like I said...forget about damn cross platform thing...let's make something stupid and simple for a START!
Plus we will do this for free so...

Why?

Because we haven't done anything yet and this thread is like...how old?! :rolleyes:

import javax.swing.JOptionPane;
JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null,"So let's get this damn project on the road already!","NOW!!!",JOptionPane.WARNING_MESSAGE);

:D:rolleyes:
 
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Totally agree with you. We should start off small.

Languages I'm familiar with at the moment are Java, C and Perl. I think we should use Java as (back then anyway) more of us were familiar with it and its object-oriented nature makes it intuitive.

A small program like the one STARS mentioned should be a good starting point. We could delegate tasks to interested members -- for example, back-end development (involving checking the user's answers), and front-end GUI programming (Java's swing library should be more than enough for something simple like this).

If there is enough interest in this smaller project then we should get a github repo started to get the ball rolling.
 
Im no expert, but wouldn't it be smart to set an objective, then break it down into discrete parts, and delegate based on desire/skills?
 
Im no expert, but wouldn't it be smart to set an objective, then break it down into discrete parts, and delegate based on desire/skills?

Yep, that's exactly what I mean. I should've expressed myself a bit clearer. So you get to do the stuff that you want/like. If you want to code up the back-end, go for it. Like GUI programming? Do that. Want to manage the project? That'd be awesome. Have design ideas or like photoshopping? Post them up!

Of course the actual delegation/discrete components will be much more detailed if this thing ever gets off the ground. By starting off super simple, we can get an idea of each others' strengths, weaknesses, likes and dislikes.
 
My issue with such a small project is that it's just that. A small project. Something like what STARS is recommending would take a single person barely a week to accomplish. There's isn't enough even going on to delegate different aspects across a team.

Sure you can say it's just to see how well it would work out, but a project of this size wouldn't take more than a couple days and wouldn't be any indication of how well this community would work together on a significant project that took a couple months or more to complete.

If you want to do a preliminary project as a test run, at least pick something that would benefit from a team effort so we can see if we can actually work as a team.
 
There is nothing wrong with a small project for a start.
Someone will work ONLY on design.
Someone else will work ONLY on error messages.
Someone else will work ONLY on the main code (this might even take 2 people to finish it faster).
Some else will ONLY test it and report bugs.

And so on and on and on...

Or if you all complain that small projects suck because they are small then let's make multiple small programs and that each on of them does something useful.
Such as a program which would shutdown windows in a specified time HH:MM:SS.
After that we can make a small math practice program.
After that we can make a small data backup program.
After that we can make a small process(es) termination program.
After that we can make a small utility which starts a screensaver if the screensaver never starts (it happens a lot to some people and this would be useful).

And a LOT more!

You people all complain all the time.You are all just writing and writing and writing endless posts since the day I made this thread on 15. of July 2013.:

http://www.computerforum.com/223333-how-many-programmers-forum.html

If I never made this thread,we would not be discussing any of this in the first place.

PEOPLE!!!
We are writing endless posts discussing what to do since 15. of July 2013.
That is more than 10 freaking months!!! :eek:
During those 10 months I have made more than 50% of my UAC project I am working on plus more than 3 other programs plus tons of things in my UAC data center plus the UAC data device AND the software used to backup data on it.
So if I could have done all that in 10 months and none of you cannot even decide WHAT TO START MAKING in 10 months then this "project" will NEVER EVER even start being made.

I am getting tired of this...it leads nowhere...

You and your damn cross-platform crap...we are discussing on what to use and what to make with it
for more than 10 freaking long months and guess what we have done until now?
NOT EVEN THIS:
EmptyForm.PNG


Or in other words:
absolutely_nothing.png


So let's either start making something small and simple for a START...a START for the love of God...using great free Microsoft Visual Express edition language(s) or everyone just shut up and close this thread for the sake of all of us lol. :D

I got tired of more than 10 months long endless discussion which leads nowehere creating not even this:
EmptyForm.PNG




So until then...
ElegantlySaid_Byeee_EthnicFlava_jenntags.gif


The purpose of this damn project is to have fun with each other and not to earn millions of dollars...
 
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Stars, tronsoco only complains, thats what he does, so instead stop waiting for someone else to tell you what to do. Plan it, do the work and present it. Pathetic.
 
okedokey said:
Im no expert, but wouldn't it be smart to set an objective, then break it down into discrete parts, and delegate based on desire/skills?
See that's where it fell apart. No one agreed on an objective. We had nothing to break down. I stayed busy and ended up letting things slide.
S.T.A.R.S. said:
There is nothing wrong with a small project for a start.
Someone will work ONLY on design.
Someone else will work ONLY on error messages.
Someone else will work ONLY on the main code (this might even take 2 people to finish it faster).
Some else will ONLY test it and report bugs.
.....
snip
.....
To be fair, we didn't do anything because we didn't have an idea to work from. Code/design complexity has nothing to do with it. When you are working a large project you do it in manageable chunks.

You are correct, there's nothing wrong with a single platform, or a small project. But you need something big enough to require more than 1 persons time. Also, 1 person on error messages for a small project is overkill. Unless there's a boatload of potential errors for some reason. Either way, your code should account for the errors it could encounter.

And there certainly wasn't 10 months of discussion. There was about 5 days with gaps between.

My original intent here was going to be something that would require a couple hours per week tops. And if people had more time than others they could pick up more. Like I said, we stumbled on what we would do not on actually doing it.
 
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