Game programmer needed

[Robbie Ogrenix]

hi there. I am the lead of a small team working on a sidescrolling real-time 2d roguelike RPG. Currently on staff we have artists and musicians, but no programmers. The goal, at the moment, is to prepare it for a Kickstarter campaign to gather the financial resources to fund further development.

The art and music are both quite solid and the plan is well-established. Music and graphic samples can be given upon request.

Compensation is possible, but depends on the success of the funding campaign, which itself will only succeed with a quality demo.

Is anyone interested in such an endeavor?

[Disch]

I'm actually kind of interested. I'm just getting ready for a big vacation (several months) and this might be interesting enough for me to get involved in... and I'll have the time for it in about 2 weeks from now.

In fact I was working on a side project that sounds similar... but I lack artists and any media I make myself is going to suck ;P So I am interested in entering a team where those roles are filled.


But my commitment will depend on the quality of the team. I'm sure you can understand that topics like this come up quite often... and most of them are hogwash. So I'm not committing to anything just yet.

If possible I'd like to see a sample of any artwork or other media you have available and plans on the game. I'm obviously not asking you to disclose everything up front -- I'm just looking for a sample.

As for my qualifications, I have 15+ years C++ experience, have worked on several independent projects ranging from rom hacking utilities, retro system emulators, Winamp plugins, and 2D games. I'm currently finishing up an 18-month contract as a software developer at Intel.

You can look up some of my past posts on this forum to gauge for yourself whether you think I know what I'm talking about or not.


If my interest interests you, PM me. We can arrange for a more real-time form of communication and exchange other info.

[ResidentBiscuit]

I'd be interested as well, though my experience and credentials are practically nonexistent compared to Disch here. I do have a 3-4 years of hobbyist C++ experience, though I'm currently a student so I don't have any real world experience. At the least I can write documentation and help debug.

I too would want to see some sample work and a little more depth plan for the project before commitment. Between work, school, and family my time is limited and I'd like to not waste it. I'm on a two week vacation currently though so I do have plenty of time right now.

[ModShop]

I'm in pretty much the same boat as ResidentBiscuit. I have 3-4 years of C++ experience (primarily in developing my own 2d games). I don't know how much time I'll have to contribute to this project, but I'd like to help wherever I could.

[BHX]

I have the experience, but not the confidence. I hope you find some people to help you though :).

[Imadatobanisa]

@ResidentBiscuit
How old are you ResidentBiscuit? It seems you're very young. About my qualifications I have four years C experience, and just about one year C++ experience. :)

[ResidentBiscuit]

I'm 20 years old.

[BHX]

Seems, lately at least, that everyone that I run into that programs is younger than me. I'm 31 years old, but won't be 32 til Oct 30 of next year (thankfully).

[avlagrath]

Wow, the man posts, and some of the most respected names in the site respond favorably- nicely done.

@BHXSpecter: have some confidence man!

[Robbie Ogrenix]

We're still accepting programming help, if anyone can give it! Plenty of art, music, etc is available on request and some talented individuals have already responded to this post so you won't be working alone!

[Script Coder]

what areas of programming are not filled? e.g: game mechanics, networking, etc.

[ModShop]

Me and Disch are currently working on it. He is doing the beginning of the physics engine, and I just developed and animation system and abstraction layer over SFML to keep our codebase library independent. At this point its mostly just miscellaneous code writing to form the base of the engine, then we'll branch off into separate areas (mainly AI, networking and physics). I imagine we'll need someone on AI, because Disch already has physics and I'm probably going to do the networking. It's a little early to tell for sure though. Send me a PM if your interested.

[Disch]

What we really need is someone to do tool development, because that's the part I hate. ;P Things like animation/map editors.

[chrisname]

I could contribute tools and utilities and that sort of thing.

[edit] How are the sprites going to be handled? Are they going to be drawn and rendered as-is, or drawn in multiple parts that can be combined before rendering (i.e., one sprite for the body of each humanoid character, and then different hair, armour, facial features, etc. that can be drawn on top to make different characters)?

[DeXecipher]

I'd be in to do it as well, I NEED the experience in an open source project or any project in general, I've been programming c++ since I was in high school so I am very proficient in that regard, and I know basic Discrete Math and some Linear Algebra, and Introductory Computer Architecture. I've been working on my own Game Engine but I've put that on hold since I'd have to spend a lot of time diagramming and documenting what I've done, which I don't want to do if its not set in stone. if it helps, I know about basic gui design as I've worked with wrapping WINAPI before. I know what data structures are and when to use what type of data structure, for instance a queue for handling keypresses or window events.

Edit: If you were to allow me to join it can't be a full time thing, my part would have to be a bit asynchronous since I'm still working on School.

Double Edit: I WOULD LOVE TO WORK WITH SFML, it looks beautifully designed and I've been thinking about instead about using IT instead of designing over "pure" OpenGl and DirectX for the game engine that I'm working on. If I'm to join I hope that this is a serious project, because the last team I worked with had only 2 other programmers and the project leader didn't do much at all. I hope to learn a lot in the design regard, If its not already done :).

Triple Edit: If networking is not done, I'd be happy to lend a hand, Since I know that SFML has a completed socket library for simple TCP/IP/UDP sockets. I've made my own socket library before that was similiar but IMO better, that got deleted unfortunately :(. I am a jack of trades, master of none, but I'd prefer to work in the graphics sector of things and MASTER that niche area. Since you guys say its a 2d engine it should be relative easy to work with since SFML already handles rasterization of 2d images and simple stuff like timers.

[o1vk4iN6]

I could help with the tools, I got the link from Robbie to the group, not sure how you have everything setup right now. Physics/effects is also something I'd like to contribute to if possible.

Have you decided on a naming convention and what libraries you are going to be using, you mentioned sfml any others ? Is this going to be cross-platform 32/64-bit compatible ?

@Disch

How do you hate that, it's one of the best parts :P.

[DeXecipher]

^^Im not speaking for these guys but, making it 32/64 bit compatible is easy enough, takes work, but I know of one way to do it, not sure if there are any other ways. As for the naming conventions, thats very good to have as well. Its important to be upfront and consistent from the beginning so that all you have to focus upon is making the components work.

The way i've been doing it in my engine:

#define ENGINE_PLATFORM_WINDOWS 0
#define ENGINE_PLATFORM_LINUX 1

#define ENGINE_PLATFORM_BITS_DEFAULT 0//default to 32 since 64 bit "should" run 32 
#define ENGINE_PLATFORM_BITS_32 0
#define ENGINE_PLATFORM_BITS_64 1

#if defined( WIN32 ) || defined( _WIN32 )|| defined( WIN32_LEAN_AND_MEAN )

#define ENGINE_PLATFORM ENGINE_PLATFORM_WINDOWS
#define ENGINE_PLATFORM_BITS  ENGINE_PLATFORM_BITS_32
//..and so on

void somefunction();

void somefunction()
{
  #if ENGINE_PLATFORM == ENGINE_PLATFORM_WINDOWS
 //detect endianness if needed and bit architecture, 32/64
//64 bit on windows should automatically run 32 bit applications without any 
//trouble so you shouldn't need to handle the case of a 32 bit to 64 //conversion
 #endif
}

int main()
{
  //detect platform, bits, endianness
 somefunction();//call said function which should work on any given system (implicitly)

 return 0;
}

and of course that would be tedious but if you consistently use it it will become natural and thus a convention. You could make it so that you have your engine in one package and so you have one build to keep up with across every platform. This relies mostly upon the user having a compiler that automatically includes <windows.h>. Also the user themselves could define WIN32 or such themselves, instructing the engine/compiler to compile the version for that platform. I don't do it exactly that way in my engine, but thats the only way that I could think of, I hope there is a better less tedious way.

Edit: A problem with this, a minor one is the different C++ standards and code standards for different compilers. If one compiler doesn't except some C++ statement that is legal on another then you have a problem. If you try to use the new lambdas from the old standard on a compiler that doesn't work with the new standard then you'll get errors. So as someone said, use only core C++ features this means

for(i = 0;i< length; i++)//explicit, for all elements of the object
{
  Object* obj =  objects[i];
  obj->doSomething();
}

//instead of

for(objects:sizeof(objects)/sizeof(Object))//implicit, (might be wrong)
{
 objects.doSomething();//for all elements of the object
}

[DeXecipher]

edit: accidental double post.

I think this website needs a delete option under edit for the forum.

[Script Coder]

cool, what tools are needed?

[chrisname]

Here's a thought: How are you doing the in-game user interface (menus and such)? I could implement that.