Monday Jan 26 15:25

Salem Al-Tamimi — 2004-01-26T15:25:42+00:00

Second Stage of Planning for the TKOS - Ad Infinitum MMORPG Project.

We now have signed up three 3D-modeling firms and three 3D designers and artists for setting up our 3D models for characters, buildings, weapons and vehicles. I'll try to set up a demonstration page soon and post progress information and snapshots.

(Original Plan: http://www.garagegames.com/index.php?sec=mg&mod=resource&page=view&qid=4944)

We are now looking for people to adapt networking technologies and set up a robust client/server interface to support a Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game. We'll be looking at a region of 100-500 players at first (we have 600 potential beta-testers from our original TheKingOfSpades.com game who are ready to take part). Then we'll try a heavier load a few months after that is all completed and as bug-free as possible.

As far as assets go, this is what we have so far:
Art:
3 3D Modelers (using Studio Max/Character Studio)
1 New York City Mapper/Buildings designer (using blender/Hammer)
1 2D Artist/GUI Interface setup
1 Texture/Streets designer
(Need one more to do martial-arts specific animations)

Programming:
2 C++/Torque SDK owners (myself and John Facey. Both have past experience developing PC and web-games)
(Need 1 more for MMP System programming, 1 more for Persistent system/database implementation and 1 more for designing Dynamic Avatar/Character Creation interface)

Servers:
1 Test Server (2.7GHz Athlon, 512MB Ram, GEforce FX5200 256MB)
1 Dedicated Server (2.4GHz Athlon, 512MB Ram, 80GB HDD, 5GHz bandwidth/m)
1 Customer Support/Beta-Test DB Server

Thanks to Altogrich International for covering our modelers' wages and purchasing the dedicated server. They currently own 20% stake of the game's royalties. We are still looking for Publishers and Investors, however.

Sunday Dec 14 21:18

Salem Al-Tamimi — 2003-12-14T21:18:55+00:00

The King of Spades: Ad Infitum. A 3D Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game. Timeline and location: Modern day Earth. Genre: Superheroes, Supervillains, Crime & Law, Cybernetics, Magik, Vampires and more! Specifications: A system that brings together all game technologies and genres in one game that is truly unlimited.

This will be an unpercedented project spanning hundreds of RPG skills, superpowers, magic spells and cybernetic configurations.

For this project, we need investors, programmers, 3D object designers and artists to make this project come alive. Since we'll most probably be using Torque or another MMORPG-making engine, that drastically reduces production time and costs.

The project will be divided into six parts:

1. The Story System:
*Description: There will be multiple stories taking part at the same time. These stories are based on the Four Heralds: Aryel (herald of the Idealists), Tetra (herald of the Karmics), Raziel (herald of the Anarchists) and Neria (herald of the Malignants). These heralds will create missions for the players as well as events that players can take part in.
*Requirements: Missions System and NPC programmers (estimated 2 programmers required)

2. The World System:
*Description: Players will be able to live in and travel through the modern day earth. Travelling will be achieved through on-foot travel, superpower travel (e.g. Flight, Super Speed, Warping, Teleportation, Extended Limbs) or with Vehicles (e.g. Cars, Bikes, Trucks and Vertical Take-Off and Landing Aircraft).
The World system will begin with New York City and the City's Underground system and will expand as the game grows to other cities and realms (including Atlantis, Hades, Deva (the 7th Heaven) and eventually, Space).
In the world system, players will be able to found buildings and shops and decorate their rooms with furniture, training equipment, even TV Sets to watch the News.
*Requirements: City Map designers, Vehicle, Building, Equipment, Furniture and Shop Texture and Object designers. (estimated 4 designers required)

3. The Economy System:
*Description: Everything in this world will be run by players, including the local TV Stations, Construction Companies, Weapons/Armor and Vehicle Factories.
*Requirements: Economy-System Programmers (estimated 1 programmer)

4. The Team and Guilds System:
*Description: Experienced players will be able to set up Teams. Teams will be able to establish team bases in Secret Coordinates outside or inside the game cities. Teams will also have Team Rigs (Vans, Trucks and Buses) and other types of Assets. Teams enrol players in their Alter/Super Egos.
On the other hand, Guilds/Organizations/Corporations/Institutions are Establishments that hire players in their normal egos. Examples of institutions are the Global Communications Network (hire reporters, actors and journalists and broadcasts live TV), The Fourth Precinct (hires police officers, SWAT Officers, etc. to keep New York City crime-free) and The Assassins Guild (hires assassins and runs the local underground and black-market).
*Requirements: Team and Guild system Programmers (estimated 1 programmer)

5. The Skill and Superpower System:
*Description: Players will have three Skill Classes: Professional Skills, Combat Skills and Superpowers. Here's a list of some:
-Professional Skills: Biology, Engineering, Computers, Ciphers and Codes, Criminal Investigation, etc.
-Combat Skills: Blades, Fire-Arms, Archery, Martial Arts, etc.
-Superpower Skills: Night Vision, Fire Control, Sonic Control, Super Strength, Hyper Senses, Telekenisis, Empathy, Flight, Machine Kinship, etc.
These skills and more are all available through the King of Spades Rulebook (which is published online in TheKingOfSpades.com website).
*Requirements: Artists and 3D designers to lay out the skill specifics and skill interaction graphics, also programmers to back this up. (estimated 3 graphic designers and 3 programmers)

6. Interaction System:
*Description: This is the system that manages interactions between players, NPCs and objects. There are three types of interactions: Chat, Combat, Actions and Miscellaneous.
-Chat: Players will be able to converse with each other on-location, trade with each other and even send messages with each other across long distances with powers such as Telepathy.
-Combat: Players will be able to fight against each other using weapons, superpowers, martial arts or using pretty much any object they can find on the scene.
-Actions: Players of a particular profession can perform an action on another person or object (e.g. Medical Aid, Arrest, Track, Steal, etc.) or offer services or manufacture objects (e.g. a Weaponsmith makes weapons, an Architect makes blueprints for buildings, an Engineer makes blueprints for a device or vehicle, etc).
*Requirements: Programmer to design the chat and trade interface, Programmer + 3D Designer to layout Combat and the graphical representations of combat stratics and 1 Programmer + 3D Designer to layout Actions and the graphical representations of action stratics.

Project Summary:
We'll need about 7 Designers with experience making 3D Polygons and Action Stratics (i.e. outline paths, timings and architecture of actions). In addition, we'll need 7 Programmers with experience in C++ and Database designing. At 30 hours of designing and coding per week for four months (developing on an already-made MMORPG platform), this project can become a reality.

Please e-mail me at developer@thekingofspades.com if you are interested in taking part in this project.

Blog for Salem Al-Tamimi at GarageGames.com

Monday Jan 26 15:25

Sunday Dec 14 21:18