Creating a new IP

[johndh]

I made some changes to the characters/storyline and factions sections to make it more clear what roles they play. Nothing major, but hopefully it'll seem less like "factions for the sake of factions".

I came across this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_cont ... j0eIS7fRec

Could be done with OpenMW, why not?

It could, but what would the advantage of OpenMW be over, e.g., Blender's built-in game engine? From what I see, it's really just got movement, collision, and maybe some basic physics. OpenMW is great for organizing a large amount of assets in relation to each other, but going through the process of creating and managing the content through OpenMW seems like wasted effort for something so minimal. Chainsaws are really good at what they do, but they're somewhat complicated to run and maintain. If there's a sapling that needs to be cut down, wouldn't it be simpler and quicker to give it a couple of good whacks with a machete and be done with it?

A new IP doesn't have to be generic open world fantasy game carbon copy.

I think OpenMW probably lends itself readily to a Diablo-style dungeon crawler, a Myst-like puzzler, a third-person isometric shooter, or a lot of other things. However, its main purpose (AFAIK) is re-implementation of Morrowind, so anyone wanting to make a similar game would be well-served by an example of a similar game made with the engine and its tools. That isn't to say that it should exactly follow the mold of Morrowind, and I plan to buck several trends as needed and when feasible, but I'm talking about something that fills generally the same role and checks generally the same boxes (open world exploration, character creation/advancement, rudimentary dialogue, quests, magic, basic crafting, etc.). With that said, the assets, setting, and lore I'm gathering and creating for this are all permissively licensed, so adapting them to a different game should be trivial. Without being overly cliché, a wide range of mythic fantasy adventure ideas should be able to fit within this setting and using these assets without the authors having to adapt to bizarre idiosyncrasies or a strict canon.

It could be a game set inside a school... a romancing game. So here's my idea. You enter a school, but you don't have a girlfriend. The school is filled with different boys and girls. Not everyone is going to be interested. Some appear to be interested at first, but then dive their noses into books so they can concentrate on passing the exams instead of dating you. Some turn out to be sluts. Some turn out to be lesbian. Some boys may turn out to be gay, and thus an option . But simply because you get your first date, it doesn't mean you've hit the home run just yet! That's right, you will also face love rivals.

Wilma: It's great to finally meet you! Candace has told me so much about you.
Franklin: Only good things, I hope.
Wilma: Oh, of course! So you make video games? That's pretty interesting!
Franklin: Yeah! I'm currently working on one called Free Candy.
Wilma: Is that like Candy Crush?
Franklin: No, it's a game where you pretend to flirt with and romance school-age children.

There were some assets created for DungeonHack that I think could be interesting for this.

Pretty cool project. They seem to have gone for an east Asian flavor as well, kinda what I was thinking for some parts of Cape Heron -- Leviathan Delta in particular. This may be related to my having just read a book set in 'Nam. I'll have to keep an eye on this.

Also I should mention that something like that jumping game would be able to run on Android and Raspberrypi2. Those cubes are 12 triangles at most. 2 or 4, 6, 8, 10, 12 if done smart. There is no land in that game, further reducing triangle count. Such a game is very resource-light.

Since there is no player model, all you need is a walking animation (used for running too). And basically the skeleton I made for OpenMW-Template is more than you need.

My cheapo laptop runs OpenMW quite smoothly, so I'm sure my more powerful Android phone would handle it like a champ. Minimalism can be great for aesthetic reasons and ease of creation, but I don't see it as necessary for performance in this situation.

[DestinedToDie]

Wilma: It's great to finally meet you! Candace has told me so much about you.
Franklin: Only good things, I hope.
Wilma: Oh, of course! So you make video games? That's pretty interesting!
Franklin: Yeah! I'm currently working on one called Free Candy.
Wilma: Is that like Candy Crush?
Franklin: No, it's a game where you pretend to flirt with and romance school-age children.

I don´t know. Women aren´t very impressed when I tell them about me 3D modeling virtual objects, so same difference. They do know Candy Crush tho.

[Envy123]

I was tempted to use OpenMW for my own commercial game but the artists and programmers I spoke to, said it would take 6+ years for them to make 2 small islands in the engine.

I really like the horsepower of UE4 but I also really like the OpenMW RPG system. Decisions, decisions...

[psi29a]

I was tempted to use OpenMW for my own commercial game but the artists and programmers I spoke to, said it would take 6+ years for them to make 2 small islands in the engine.

What a bunch of horse shit. I'm sorry, you should fire them.

I was able to create my own map and import it into OpenMW in under 2 minutes. I was able to convert the digital elevation map of Hawaii in under 10 minutes.

It took me about 3 days to get an island up with proper textures, including roads.

All of this before OpenMW-CS was capable of handling terrain.

Don't take my word for it, talk to greendogo and destinedtodie, they have done the same. You don't have to be a programmer either to this... maybe a bit of intelligence might help though.

[johndh]

I was tempted to use OpenMW for my own commercial game but the artists and programmers I spoke to, said it would take 6+ years for them to make 2 small islands in the engine.

Making a game from scratch takes a huge workload, which is why I'm trying to cobble a lot of assets together from free sources for people to use. I like the OMW engine because it's FOSS and it runs smoothly on my lackluster system.

I was able to create my own map and import it into OpenMW in under 2 minutes. I was able to convert the digital elevation map of Hawaii in under 10 minutes.

Nice! Is there a rundown of how to do that somewhere? I poked around the web a little bit and found a bunch of height maps from the USGS (and thus in the public domain) but their site made my head spin.

[DestinedToDie]

Your programmers/arists don´t know what they´re talking about. Probably because they are more familiar with UE4 than OpenMW and UE4 is their crutch. Who wants to march into unfamiliar territory? From their perspective it´s going to be better to work with what they already know close and well.

Bethesda also has a crutch like this. Every time another TES/Fallout series rolls out, people ask if Bethesda is STILL using the old Gamebryo engine. And yes, they are. They don´t want to go through learning something new so they stay with the old at the expense of worse performance. I don´t know about you, but Skyrim and Fallout 4 are somewhat crashy, don´t like it when I switch to desktop and back, etc. It´s a mess under the hood.

But I do wonder about yourself. Are you a project leader? Or did you just ask some random programmers about it? If you´re a leader and you want to make the decision to use OpenMW, I think you should get more accquainted with the engine so you can introduce it to them and tell them how it works. Otherwise you´ll get bamboozled with a response like "it would take 6 years to make 2 tiny islands". How did they even convince you of this, seeing as you made quite a large island with the horrible Bethesda Construction Set from 2001? As someone in charge you have to be in the know.

[lysol]

But I do wonder about yourself. Are you a project leader? Or did you just ask some random programmers about it? If you´re a leader and you want to make the decision to use OpenMW, I think you should get more accquainted with the engine so you can introduce it to them and tell them how it works. Otherwise you´ll get bamboozled with a response like "it would take 6 years to make 2 tiny islands". How did they even convince you of this, seeing as you made quite a large island with the horrible Bethesda Construction Set from 2001? As someone in charge you have to be in the know.

Huge +1 on this.