I'm willing to use nearly all the free time I've got between college and chores to work on this, how about the rest of you?

 

*nods *

And this would finally give me an incentive to start learning Maya, C#, XNA, and Flash :)

The list of suitable entrants includes mod teams and students. Essentially, anyone who can come up with the video and initial prototype is good to go. 

Naereus:

The list of suitable entrants includes mod teams and students. Essentially, anyone who can come up with the video and initial prototype is good to go. 

 

That's correct. Any team that feels they're capable can enter. Indy team doesn't necessarily mean a team with an office and prior success. The first cut is going to be made off of the trailer. "If you can't do that, you don't have what it takes to continue". Those were Dave's words, uttered yesterday at AGDC. So, who has what it takes?
 

 

 

Alright, I've held off on replying in here cause I wanted some time to think about it and consider everything especially the possible evolution of CM. I'm not against the idea, but something like that is very commitment orientated and not something we should even consider half assed or half heartled, we've experienced enough half ass stuff in the last 6 months heh. so it comes down to who's willing to make and stick to the kind of commitment of building a team or for lack of a better term an indy studio if that's the final evolution we aim for.

 

That's my primary concern is subscribing to an idea and making a commitment to something like that, which only falls apart in a short amount of time because those interested simply stopped being interested or aren't willing to do the work, take the time and have the willingness to see the thing through.

 

As far as doing it in terms of TS, i could see that, or working on something else, i could also see. I know Matt's working on something right nowoutside of things, thats interesting, and Michelle dropped a link on me yesterday that i found very interesting as well though i don't have it with me right now, I'll haveto drop it, or she will when i get home later today.

 

Anyways, if we make this plunge, or start to work towards it, I would need to know and see that I'm not signing myself up for something done on a whim but is really sincere and will be pushed forward.

 

here it is http://www.metaplace.com/ 

Metaplace is kosters baby, the issue is it doesn't have 3d support in the short term, and I doubt considering TS timeline that this is viable. Unless we could achieve/obtain special consideration from aureal, but even then we have so many liabilities without embracing engine constraints from the outset. Upside is of course the delivery, but how this impacts the size and scale of the product for the consumer is also something to think about.

Koster might jump at the opp to get into bed with acclaim and ign, just from a pr pov, but it depends if he sees what we are doing as valuable vs hype.

I've said it before and apparently I'm gonna say it again, I am willing to devote any and all free time I have to making videogames. This is what I want to do for a living.

 

Oh, I just got this in the email box today. Something that might help off of Gamasutra.
http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=15551

http://www.quazal.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Sections&file=index&req=viewarticle&artid=30&page=1

 

anyone know anything about this? licensing fees? feasibility?

 

 I got this off of an insert in the 2006 Austin GDC packet:

They have a flexible type of pricing. At the time of purchase, you select if you want a lower upfront and a royalty-based operation fee or a no-hassle, one-time license fee. The standard license includes support for Windows and Linux. Prices at that time were:

Quazal Eterna    Development    Royalty    Annual Support
Royalty-based    $69,000    4-6%*    $25,000
Fixed price    $495,000    none    TBD
GameCube    $12,500    none
PlayStation 2    $12,500    none
Xbox    $12,500    none

* 4% for client-server topology; 6% for mesh topology

I know it's been used by a couple of companies, including Muzzy Lane.  Muzzy makes a lot of educational related stuff and I don't actually know what the company is currently involved in. I know that in the past they were considered an industry front runner for their software types. Other than that I don't know a whole about it. Here's a pretty good article about the engine (but it was written as a puff piece to get an interview so keep that in mind):

http://www.gdse.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=887

 

Quoting DP on the issue of getting engines:

 

>> Yes, you can use any engine you like, the only rule is that we need to be able to pay for the rights to use it if you win, and that cost must be under $1M.  To get the engine, contact the engine provider, tell them that you are planning to enter the Top Secret competition (where Acclaim will be paying the license fee for the winning title.)  Tell them to visit our websites or contact me through the GameConsultants website to verify the validity of this whole thing. 

 There's one thing that really needs to be stated for any of this to go anywhere. We're short on one critical component in all of this, out of everything we have (as far as I know) zero Programmer assets, which without them, we won't get too far.

That would be where the ModCenter would come in. I believe you can advertise on there for needed specialities, like programers, if I read the stuff on the site correctly.

rasield:

That would be where the ModCenter would come in. I believe you can advertise on there for needed specialities, like programers, if I read the stuff on the site correctly.

 

 

Be that as it may, IMHO , having some progs already retained heading in would make us seem more serious then signing up to Modcenter as "A bunch of designers/artists looking for programers. Perhaps that's just me though...

build as we go is the wrong way to grow imo.

Sure we could win the proposal with pure talent and art direction on the first part however getting bogged down looking for professional assets necessary to complete the proposal will lead us in the same direction as TS.

They have spent all this time with money and connections and still don't have the skillsets in place to even start the job.

I don't believe any "winning" proposal can succeed based on if we build they will come.

Exactly so, we need to have assets in place before we can really enter into that kind of proposition, mind you I'm not saying we need to have every single element in place before begining but a good core set of the various disciplines such an undertaking would require. That's simply how it is 

yeah, i've been holding back from posting about this because there a few issues i've been trying to work through...

The most major of which is "exactly what will i contribute?" and this applies for pretty much everyone here really. I don't want to sound pessimisitic, far from it as I am definitely behind this, but the vast majority of the people replying to this thread are designers / writers / ideas people without any 'production level' technical skills. This is a problem as the purpose of this competition is not to design the game, thats what the Top Secret Design competition we are all already a part of is for. So what can designers like ourselves really contribute to the development besides managerial positions?

I see this as a significant problem as if we go out and find a lot of talented programmers etc who do all the work, might they not wonder why they need us at all? and why they should split any prizes with us when our contribution to the actual development has been significantly less than theres. Remember the vast majority of all deisgn work will come from the Top Secret community as a whole.

While i'm sure there are various things that we can all find ourselves to do, if we want to make a truly great game we will need some experienced / talented people who will form the core of the team rather than us.

I don't really have an answer to these thoughts right now hence my hesitiation to get too excited about the idea straight off... but im thinking.