How much would it take one person to create a game like Tribes?

#21 Its funny after working 2+ years on Illumina, it only took a few weeks to give it a tribes vibe . That was purely from adding jetpacks. Already had armours/vehicles/backpacks e.t.c Its basically tribes with machineguns :)

Having said that jetpacks might not stay as i have a few new ideas i want to try out first.

#22 But it still took you 2+ years to do everything else, right?

#23 On and off. But i definetely wasnt work 10 hrs a day on it :) Often going months without doing anything. Plus i had alot of help on the way. I think 7 months is definetely achievable with that amount of time per day spent on it. Especially considering half the resources/engine already is there for you.

#24 For some perspective; Tribes was in production for over 2 years. At the end there were 35 plus people on it. But really the game isn't that big.

A large portion of game development can be blown on changing directions. I was on Tribes for most of its development, and nearly half of my work was cut because of technical overshooting and design changes. There were a couple of developers that worked on the project for over a year and didn't get a single bit of work in the game for that reason.

But if you're just talking about replicating Tribes, now that everything has been figured out, it would take less time. Especially if you're not writing the engine. Although the art team was 10 plus people.

#25 Here's my advice to you about a tribes like game.

1. buy the RTS Environment Pack for your levels. www.garagegames.com/products/82/
2. buy the Exis weapons pack. www.garagegames.com/products/93/
3. buy the Adam pack for starter character. www.garagegames.com/products/61/
4. buy the FX pack for particle effects. www.garagegames.com/mg/snapshot/view.php?qid=1347
5. buy the Mojo audio packs www.garagegames.com/developer/torque/contentpacks/

In TorqueScript...

6. make the players jet around like tribes.
7. make the game rules.
8. make the weapons code for each weapon you use.

Play the game you make with this until you like how it plays.

This is the most realistic way to approach making your game. Use premade art content and then you can focus on making the code for the game. Then once you finish the game code and have played it enough that you've refined the game play, you will be ready to start thinking about how long it will take for you to make original art content and you can make your gui and find music and learn to use installer programs. Good luck.

#26 " The code and scripting could be done in a few weeks "

That's interesting
Apart from Tribes, generaly speaking for an FPS game, how would you roughly split total man \ power time

Game play, general specs, docs : ? %
Programming : ? %
Art : ? %

Total : 100 %

#27 Anton Bursch,well if i buy all those stuff then it won't be my game, you know ?

I want to make it all on my own from scratch starting with concepts...

#28 Even if you want to make it with all your stuff, it would be easiest to buy the other stuff to use as placeholders and to learn how it works. Starting a FPS with a flat terrain and nothing else leaves you with a todo list a couple pages long before you get to see your first anything.

#29 Is the RTS beginner's PACK product here on garagegames.com good for a indie developer like me that wants to start his own RTS game?

#30 No it is not. If you have no experience with regular TGE you will be lost with the RTS Pack. Also I was under the impression you want to do an FPS? (Which by the way is much easier to do than an RTS, given the amount of already available ressources and abilities of Stock TGE)

#31 Thak, hey bro

Well actually i do have enough experience with the Torque engine.I have read the All in one Game programming book and worked the examples.

You still think that would not be a good choice? The RTS beginner's PACK ?

#32 Yeah Lunaticu I still think you will be lost with it. Its not as "complete" as the TGE FPS Stuff. That is not to say its not good, it is a great starting point, but you will have to do a LOT of work (and presumably also do C++ coding) to get what you want. So just saying don't expect it to create the game for you, you will have to do way more coding on RTS than on FPS.

#33

Quote:This is the most realistic way to approach making your game. Use premade art content and then you can focus on making the code for the game. Then once you finish the game code and have played it enough that you've refined the game play, you will be ready to start thinking about how long it will take for you to make original art content and you can make your gui and find music and learn to use installer programs. Good luck.

I hate to give Anton the ego stroke here, but he is dead on. I started backwards to this exact advice and I'm reaping the consequences of it. I tweaked and build content and art assets first and have been hacking up the "visual" code, and now I'm finding as I go back in to add in even simple resources to flesh out the gameplay that I have to handle every bit of code with kid gloves so the whole thing doesn't explode. And half the time it still does. Get the gameplay down *FIRST* using whatever placeholder/coder art and then "pretty" it up. I can tell you from experience it's a lot harder the other way around.

#34 @Alan James

Quote:I hate to give Anton the ego stroke here

ROFL

#35 @Anton

=) I was afraid you might take it wrong and go berserk on me.

#36 @Alan James

OH!!! AND WHAT IS THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN?!?!?!

ok, calm down Anton, take your meds, count backwards in powers of two from 2,097,152 and just relax. Now remember "Be calm, be cool, don't be like Mel Gibson and act like a fool".

#37 Sad thing is...at the end of the day... 'Tribes' is still a pretty sucky game....lol
I've tried doing the solo thing you know, modeling, sound, scripts, and nearly lost my mind!! Now I just goof around with TBG!! I have long since forgotten about trying to do an epic indie game all by myself... I almost lost it!! No joke!! Which is why I admire ALL indie game developers who have ever finished even the most crapy of unholy games!!

#38 I've managed to create the simplest form of tribes. Spawn.

I got the JetPack, Ski, DiscLauncher, Blaster, and Chaingun going.
Given i stole the models from tribe2. ha.