**NOTE**
Just letting everyone know, I will be attempting to keep this first post updated with the latest status and needs of the project. You don't have to read through all the posts here all the time. This first post will have the latest news. 
Hi all! I apologize for the lack of organization with regards to what needs to be worked on and who is working on what.
In order to fix this, I decided to set up this topic for everyone, including myself, to understand what we actually need to work on and who is doing what.
First things first, who is currently working on the game?
Project Lead: Action9000
Programming: Action9000
2D Maps: Malte279
2D Graphics: Mumbling, Sky, Action9000 (mainly temporary graphics)
Conversion of 2D maps to 3D maps: Action9000
3D Modelling: Razzie, Littlefoot1616, raga, Darkwolf91It looks like this is one our problems: I don't really know exactly who else is very involved in the project, since we have posts scattered all over the place. I know we have many ideas for tasks, gameplay, etc. by many people, as well as many people playtesting the releases that I post up.
Anyway, I'd like to get rid of any confusion here.
Where are we in development?We're still at the point where most of the work, and the slowest progress, is the programming. Also, we will be at this point for a long time. It's the nature of making a video game.
I'm not looking to add more programmers to the team because I don't expect anyone to learn to read my code, as that would be a painful experience. We have Immediate use for anyone who wishes to do the following:You will have the best idea of what all this means if you run the game and play around with it for a bit.
Please note the colour code:
Green: Anything that currently needs to be worked on and doesn't have anyone really working on it yet.Yellow: Somebody is currently working on it with unknown progress or we could possibly add more people to this assignment.Red: This is progressing well and no further help is needed at the moment.2D Graphics:1) Health/Energy bars and any associated graphics. See the top-left corner of the screen. [EDIT] Mumbling is working on these now.
2) The "Character stats" window when you press the C key.3) Any cursor/mouse pointer graphics for the following conditions:
- Basic cursor when nothing special is happening
- graphic when the cursor is over an NPC [EDIT] Lillefot and DarkWolf have both mentioned that they wanted to work on these.
4) When you left-click an NPC or other creature, I was planning on having a graphic appear in the top-middle of the screen or so. I will draw a mockup of this in photoshop real quick, of what I mean (ignore the arrow on the left ) :
It doesn't have to be that ugly or in that layout, this is just an example. 5) A "Dialog" window that pops up when a player talks to an NPC. This window will show all of the spoken text. Preferrably includes "previous page" and "next page" buttons, as well as an "Accept" button, all of which can appear as either greyed out or clickable, depending on what is being said (I'll handle that coding but I need those graphics.) [EDIT] Mumbling is working on this window now.
6) 2D Maps:
Malte is working on this as soon as he can.3D Modelling: 3D Objects: Trees and rocks, mainly. DarkWolf will be working on theseLittlefoot: Model complete, animation incomplete - Razzie
Ruby: In progress - Razzie
Ducky: Work in Progress - DarkWolf91
Model complete, animation incomplete - Razzie
Cera: Model complete, animation incomplete - Razzie Petrie: Model in progress - Razzie
Spike: Model complete, animation incomplete - Razzie Mr. Threehorn - Razzie
Mr. Clubtail - RazzieStill need people to model:
Grandma/Grandpa longneck
Ducky's Mom
Petrie's Mom
*NOTE* Please understand that I am still not entirely clear how we will be applying textures to the 3D models in the game yet. What we intend to do eventually is to use these "Gang member" models as a base for our playable characters as well as the NPCs. The problem comes in with customization: allowing the player to choose a colour, etc. As far as I can tell, I can only apply one texture to each object, but I am still playing around with this.
If it is the case that I can only apply one texture to each object, like it looks like, that means eventually I will need the three different-coloured pieces of each dino separate so I can switch all three of the colours appropriately in the code. Another possibility is to model every possible combination but that's both a lot of work and a waste of memory while reducing customization options.
This basically means that a model of Ducky with all of the colours put together as a single model will not let us use that model for any character other than Ducky. We won't be able to adapt it for other characters because I will have no way to change out multiple textures on a single object from within the code.
I'm happy to explain this in more detail if anyone has questions.
Scripts, Tasks and Text:
This involves the dialog and descriptions of tasks. When a player interacts with an NPC, what is said?What do we need right now?
We have six adult NPCs on the map right now:
Grandpa Longneck
Mr. Threehorn
Ducky's Mom
Petrie's Mom
Mr. Clubtail
Buzz Conedrin
Anyone who wants to work on basic tasks for our player to do, possibly relating to these NPCs (preferrably not Buzz Conedrin ), please feel free!
If anyone who wants to create some task dialog for any of the dino types except the Flyer (I haven't coded in flying at all yet and I'm not ready to deal with flying tasks at this point), I could put that into the game right away.Malte, are you still interested in doing this at some point? I hope this helps clear things up a little bit. If anyone has any questions, please let me know!
