eezstreet

What kind of degree would you need for that?

Your right, it is very much an artist's tool, and so you can see why I hold a preference to it over a programming centered system (though it must be stated that I also would like to work in engines such as Unity, Crytek, etc..but that at a one time fee of $99 + 15% royalties after $55,000 in profit, and use on an infinite number of titles) the UDK is a more affordable option for this project.

 

Well first thing I can tell you, is if you want in this kind of industry but don't have plans to continue into college ( although I highly suggest at least getting a 2-year degree in general studies from a CC) that certifications are the way to go...they vary in cost, but they are a good way to verify you know what you say you know...lets say you want to be a C++ Programmer, then these are a good example of the kind of certs you could aim for. I would advise taking them through someplace like Microsoft though if possible ( I heard that Microsoft no longer offers a straight-up C++ cert, it is all about .NET now) but look up certifications for languages you know, find study guides online, and start taking them gradually. Your young, you've got time, if you started now you could be well off by the time you'd graduate highschool.

 

Since you seem to definitely favor programming, this is probably a good path for you.

 

I myself am in the process of studying for my A+ and CCNA and CCNET certifications.

 

A good way to make contacts in the industry, is to sign up for beta tests. Now while it is better to take part in ones where you can go to the office and meet the developers in person, any test system where you are able to be in direct contact with a developer is a good one. For example, since I live about 2 hours out of Raleigh I took part in both in house Alpha tests and online Beta tests with the developers of Ubisoft Redstorm, for Ghost Recon Future Soldier, and I still have contact with Scott Shirhall, their QA Analyst and Playtest Coordinator....even had a nice conversation with him when I ran into him at this past ECGC when he was manning the Ubisoft booth.

Unfortunately, Brainbench is a bit underrecognized when it comes to stuff like this. Microsoft certification could be good but I'm not sure whether that's completely viable, considering you still have to have shipped a game or two. Plus, aside from Full Sail, there really isn't much of anyone I could group up with. Or I could sell my soul to EA Tiburon. But feelsbadman

*Splits the thread and runs away giggling*

Stop splitting threads ffs, it disconnects the conversation quite severely in some cases.

Well this idea has been in my mind for quite a while for now. I really like Stargate and we should try to make a mod for it, like every big battles in it for single player.

I am not quite sure in this idea, but if it grows I am sure in. Well, I won't have too much time till next summer, but I had to tell this idea.

 

If start to do it, we are going to need:

- script makers (for scenes)

- modelers

- texture makers

- mappers (the part where i can help in)

 

Other things we need:

- new menu

- new weapons (staff, z'at, p-90, mp-5, m4, m-9)

- new models/maps (just for the record)

- new NPCs ( I may help in this one, too)

- new sounds/musics (from the series)

(- voice actors ?)

 

Let's discuss here!

 

We would make a nice credits at the end of course, with all the helpers and makers name's on it.

What would you make?

Of course they didn't, at that point such things didn't exist, hell at that point most developers had no formal education in game design (again such a thing didn't really exist until up about 5 years ago), most were just random programmers or had done drafting or design work.

 

But the jobs industry today is completely different, gaming related or not. Yes your skill is important, more so than what you can claim you know. But unless you get out and meet this people (I.E. these types of events where developers and companies will review your portfolio in person), they are going to see you as a name on a piece of paper, and the first thing they will look at on that application won't be your work, it will be ; is this individual educated? maybe they didn't take formal classes, but maybe they at least have certificates, (I.E. an A+ cert and CISCO certs can get you just as far with a 2-year degree, as someone with a bachelors). Sure they will want to see a demonstration of skills, but if you cannot either show them your work in person (thereby ensuring they are actually seeing it) or you don't have the education to make it past the first few rounds of elimination where they will look at your work themselves, then how do you expect to get anywhere.

You are correct in saying that your name will be just a piece of paper, but the fact of the matter is that your work also depends on what you throw into your portfolio. I find it a bit confusing that people can be so restrictive when it comes to game portfolios when there are outstanding people such as for instance Notch. Nowhere on Notch's Wikipedia does it state that he has any sort of degree in computer science or anything like that, yet he is a key selling point of the XBOX 360 console these days with games such as Minecraft. Frankly, I believe that if you're just good enough at something, that is good enough to pass in this industry. I do have a bit of a cynical take in the game industry these days. I'm also sick of the Baby Boomer ideology that the young need degrees in order to do things (hell, you need a degree just to answer phones these days..) when it's completely unnecessary.

Although I have an interest in pursuing a career in the games industry myself, I wouldn't touch UE with a barge pole simply because it feels more like an artist's tool than a decent programming interface. My rather misanthropic nature prevents me from making any good contacts within the game industry, and my current thoughts and feelings about my current school setup are quite decent hinderances of these things. I don't want to go into length about myself and my own experiences though, this is your thread after all. (although if you have any tips that don't involve that engine, I'd be willing to listen)

-Edit-

This isn't the place for this, if you want to continue this discussion, we should probably take it and make a thread in the spam section.

Actually, I find it quite suitable considering that we're talking about indie games and the game industry n whatnot. It's your thread though.

It's an amazing mod but how well do you think you can compete against the real thing considering you can play SWG for free now?

SWG was shut down, unless you're referring to SWGEmu; in both cases, I think we'll do fine considering the combat is richer and the graphics are much nicer.

I think you have a slightly skewed view of how the game industry really works.

The game industry is not founded upon how well educated you are or how many events you attend. It all boils down to skill and knowing what you are talking about when it comes to playing and making games, The way you get to the top is more or less similar to how Mikouen describes it:

You want to make a game? Then do what all the people have done: they have shut up and done their work, slowly rising through the ranks until they eventually had a say-so in how their games panned out

(I'm paraphrasing here but you get the gist)

You could spend years educating yourself on a particular engine with these seminars and whatnot (and they all seem like a massive waste of cash to be honest form my perspective), but the fact of the matter is that you need all of the talent you have within you to make these games. I bet you $20 that John Carmack, James Monroe and others who have been instrumental in making JA have not attended a single seminar about the engines. I know that I haven't anyway. North Carolina is far too long of a drive in order to be able to do such a thing myself

I have no idea where you are pulling your statistics from on that one, HUNDREDS of developers attend such events, and programs...all over the US (and I'm sure other countries hold them too)...The East Coast Gaming Conference alone is a huge event and the Unreal lectures are some of the most popular sessions there. My college classes, yeah not everyone can find something like that, or afford to go, but things like the Unreal University, are public events, and if you volunteer at the events, they are even free, these things are not as closed off or as unique as you seem to think.

 

Don't get the idea that I am some sort of UE worshiper, I would actually enjoy making this project in Unity, however I intend to sell the final product, and the commercial licenses for Unity are far more expensive.

I'm not interested in learning strictly all about UE. nothx. I'd rather learn something far more generalized and something that could land me a job anywhere in the software industry, not just a particular place (ohai C++...). Also, define 'volunteering' and 'the costs' of such events. Also factor in that most people don't live in California, NY, or other places that are huge when it comes to games. (Take my area for instance..the only game studio in the area is EA Tiburon and it's almost two hours away).

Not exactly sure why you would want to change the map format...but all that stuff is perfectly possible in the full UE3 as they give you the C++ source code.

Basically:

UDK = UE3 - (C++ Source Code) - (Console Exporting)

I know what UDK does and does not ship with. I don't think I need the memo.

And yeah. You might want to change the level format if you're doing stuff such as MMOs or randomly genrated areas. Also, it is impossible to make level effects like in Prey in UE3 without the source. There's just a whole lot of things you can't do without the engine if you really set yoour mind to it. And remember now, most people don't have the kind of money to shell out for an engine as you apparently have

Ehh yes, it is true that you cannot just port your game to a console, this is something reserved to commercial versions of UE3 (and I mean full on companies not just commercial licenses). But then again to even develop on consoles in general (legally) you have to purchase development kits.

From what I have heard, XNA is free and written in C#. The games can be placed on the marketplace for people to buy for a (usually) small fee. The games can be played on XBOX 360 or PC and they can have pretty decent capabilities

I get where your going with that, but honestly I cannot say I have ever had any crashes that I didn't already know what I did to kill the program, so that has never bothered me personally.

Perhaps not yet. But I've heard of stranger things

I disagree...but then again, I took 2 entire courses on it, and I have been to several lectures on the engine when annually attending the East Coast Game Conference.

The part in the 'then again' is kinda more or less the point. Nine out of ten game developers don't get real opportunities such as that though. Also, I've never attended anything in my life about game developing or computers in general that I can think of that wasn't outside of say, Word, and I'm not sure if that is what my future holds for me (college is expensive as fuck...dunno if want to go), but mark my words: putting all of your eggs into one engine is kinda bad if you're a game developer so to speak. Especially when it comes to scripting.

Well I don't really understand what in the toolset you would be attempting to change even if you could, but you can change pretty much anything function-wise through Uscript files, admittedly the Kismet in the engine is limited.

How about reprogramming the tools to use less memory? Or using a different map format? Last I checked, uscript has very minimal file I/O support as well, which spells doom tbh.

I'm kinda everything on this project. And technically while I am an artist, I am also the project lead. I admit I hate the regular UE3 editor, but have you worked with UDK? I find it to be alot smoother, and way less prone to crashes.

I have used UDK in the past. The main drawbacks to it are:

- Lack of console support

- Crashes aren't verbose at all and linkup with any sort of debug IDE costs money for the various toolsets (UE4 changes this I hear)

- Multiple projects on the same PC require multiple installations of UDK (wasting tons of space)

- It's rather bloated

- The tools and whatnot are a huge pain in the ass to use

- Can't change much of the net, graphics or other code and you can't change much of the toolset without going through (might differ since you're licensed with UE3)

For your project though, you should be fine with UDK as your project doesn't sound it will be too demanding to UDK (actually sounds like a perfect fit if you ask me). I just hate UDK.

Cthulhu and furries... I think you're onto a great idea here.

NO.

I'll put in my 2 cents and say we have a zombiemod tourney/thing. Then again, there is a server already with all the maps on it, so two might be redundant.

If I might say, we need some zombie skins first

LucasArts is a business remember, i doubt they're above squabling over whats maybe a couple of grand a year from steam sales.

Yeah, that sounds about right. With all the dough they're making from merchandizing and TOR (it's pure profit for them, since they receive a cut for using the SW name) and other games such as TFU, BF2, etc. I doubt they'll notice anything but a slight dip in the sales (especially if you do the moral thing and make the MB2/JKG/whatever launcher require JA to be installed using the registry).

Actually, the beauty of it is that you have full control. Technically you can use the JKA-SDK to build 64bit versions of the game DLLs, you just dont have an engine capable of loading them.

Argh it be illegal etc

----

On a slightly unrelated note, if I were to port GSA to iojamp, I could totally base it off of Q3's SDK ( )

Everybody should be entitled to their opinion though. I feel like limiting the reviews to the staff would be just a bad thing for everybody

You guys are really doing great work...really excited for Phase 1! Will there still be credits used in Phase 1, I though it was more action then RP at that point?

No comment.

There is GSA, I got no idea how it works though, but sure =P adding a list of ideas to first post.

It's like an FPS. The only stipulation is that you have to run with sv_jampDed set to 1 if running via jampDed. Has CTF, etc

imma let you finish but GSA is the best mod of all time

/me runs

Not my fault you can't appreciate good old music

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPYF2p-cGx8

There is no such thing as "good" power metal. plzdie.

I actually tried it and it was cool. But is it really legal? I mean, you can still buy JK2 on steam and if you make jk2 completly playable in jka... you know what I'm trying to say

I did include a lot of assets which are morally kinda weird. but i also fixed a ton of shaders, scripts and the backend so everything looks okay (mostly). Most people can't get the scripts to work peoperly because they changed the player's NPC_targetname from 'kyle' to 'player'. My little mod fixes that.

The proxy system is completely open source, and if you wanted, I could disclose the code I hooked into the game. A few scripts had to be changed manually via recompilation and map modding because the nav system changed slighty between JA/JK2.

One of the things I wanted to add was a few trandoshans to the bar in nar shaddaa streets. The whole sequence in the bar is highly broken though due to lack of animations though. What's strange is that the game actually references there being trandoshans as far back as ns_streets, and even being able to find metallic bolts in ns_starpad despite not having the gun available.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hInLgS5rCfM

..c-c-c-c-combo breaker

Would it be okay to distribute with Raven's assets then? It does seem they are okay with no-CDs, but where does the line get drawn? Especially considering we are using LucasFilm's IP. If we were to distribute a free Star Wars game, one that is quite heavily based on a LucasArts game no less, wouldn't it be likely for LA to give us a CND?

No. Assets which exist in JA are considered to be porting/theft, unless otherwise stated by LA/AV/Raven.

Make an own masterserver

Already exists. See @@Didz's master server implementation

EDIT: I am currently looking to reach out with Raven about the legality of iojamp

thread should be pinned

Standalone MB2 would require some serious asset replacement sadly. I am not saying it's impossible, but it requires a lot of work from people of many areas of expertise. A lot of the maps use BaseJKA content even if not noticeable. Same goes for many weapon effects.

No worries. If you copy the JKA assets into your iojamp base folder, you can still run MB2 (but JA clients cannot connect to iojamp based servers and vice versa)

My second thoughts is to how difficult it will be to port code given that everything would have to be pulled from the JKA-SDK. You cannot simply load the same DLLs you would for JKA as it is specificly prohibited by the SDK license. Section 3 - Permitted usage states:

...RAVEN grants to you the non-exclusive and limited right to distribute copies of the Software free of charge for non-commercial purposes by electronic means only and the non-exclusive and limited right to use the Software to create your own modifications (the “New Creations”) for operation only with the full version of the software game Jedi Academy...

It states right there in the passage that you mentioned that we have the right to distribute copies of the software (the mod DLLs) free of charge. The part about the mods only operating with JA don't apply in this case because iojamp is just software that uses other software (technically it would then be a modification of iojamp, which is distributed under the GPL). Using the mod DLLs does not constitute a mod of JA if only iojamp uses them.

So question is, do you have a workaround for this, an exemption from lucas arts or raven are you simply taking the risk that no one cares?

Raven has already stated that they don't care a whole hell of a lot. See here. Futhermore, it should be noted that in your passage, you mentioned Raven, not LA (LA did not write the software)

I haven't looked into any details for the iojamp project, but they are recreating the jamp.exe. So it won't be necessary to distribute the .DLL files, and it's not using any code or tools from the JKA SDK. (Again, this is my current assumption, sorry if I'm wrong)

Correct. It can load any JA mod that exists in the wild (unless it has engine hacks). And technically, if a mod becomes nonworking with JA and working with iojamp, then it's still a mod (albeit not working)

FInally, some actually decent music in this thread...

I know only very little about brushmodels and how they work, let alone rotating them

You'd be surprised, I had to actually build a launcher for GSA because people could never read the installation directions correctly.