I am currently working on quite an ambitious project and am requesting help to finish. My goal is to create the most well designed, polished game in the Starcraft 2 arcade and the most well designed MOBA ever created.
Here are the 'Core Design Philosophies' that separate this game from others
Strategic depth for the map
This will create meaningful choices that effect which objectives you take and when. Where you go and what you do is best decided by looking at the previously made choices of your team and the opponents.
Easy to learn
This means that the game explains itself as you play. Information should be presented gradually and every choice should be presented in a way that you can clearly understand.
Focus on Storytelling
Everything in the game is being made for the story. Depending on player decisions the story will play out differently each play-through.
Most of the work for the game has already been completed. I need help in the following areas:
Hero design,
Hero selection screen,
Balance testing,
Basic polish (mini map icons, sounds, tool-tips),
Leader-board,
Detailed polish (voice actors, custom models, custom animations, custom sounds and music,
UI design,
Website for the game
About myself
My name is Joseph, im 27 years old and live in southern California. I played DotA, demigod, League of legends, Smite, Heroes of the storm and many different RTS games at the highest level. I would like to build a more detailed advanced MOBA then anything created before it. Something that pushes the genre into the future and sets the standards for all games created after.
Building a team
I need dedicated volunteers with high standards and attention to detail.
Scheduling
Weekly tasks will be assigned on a volunteer basis. The game will be released in the arcade when 'Legacy of the Void' releases. I will regularly support this game with updates every few weeks after release.
Advertising
I will be doing a ton of advertising through YouTube video reviews, trailers and forum posts on dozens of community websites.
Closing
I have a specific plan for the game and a design for every element, but would rather not publicly post details until these mechanics have been fully tested. If you have any questions or would like to know more and are interested in helping with testing, design, or programming please PM me or post here.
I tend to post this a lot but, "No one has ever read someone else's idea on here and decided to 'steal the idea' and make the map with the exact details as someone else wants made."
If that were the case, well, then I am sure they would let you lead the focus group anyway, if your idea were so pure they saw dollar signs and wanted the millions that would rack up.
That aside, screen shots, videos, more specifics, would be a huge help. People have been playing DoTA since, idk, 2005? Since them, AAA companies have taken on DoTA in their images. To suggest that you can make a game better than teams of highly payed professionals would make anyone question it. Show us what you have done.
You are looking for free help on the game you want completed. You will likely only find that from someone who is so infatuated with your project that they too can see your dream and want to be in that limelight.
Personally, I am interested in the details of your highlight.
How, specifically, do you plan to make the game easy to learn? We all want new players to do well, but no one wants to play a game that is so dumbed down that everyone gets a trophy. Presenting information through text has proven to not work. You can make your game freeze and have 2 sentences pop up on screen, and 80% of players will be busy typing "d" to read what it says.
I like the concept of your strategic map decisions. How do you plan to implement it? If your game ever is popular then you have do deal with the fact that there is no choice in a game, there is an optimal way to do things which masks any choice you may grant players. If all choices are the same, then they are equal, but there is no choice if they are equal. How specifically do you plan to introduce this feature?
You say you need help with heroes, which is a huge red flag to me personally. If you require many heroes with unique abilities which are levelable, then you are still very far from ready to be played. There are many open maps where anyone can copy/paste the basic MOBA triggers from and have a "working" game. How far between that and a release are you? The last 15% of a map is half of the work still; the annoying half.
i couldn't agree more to glorn. also most of these posts sound like "i need a mindless drone to do the stuff for me, i figured it all out but my hands shall not get dirty"
Still this is a lot better than most other Recruitment Posts as it conveys a clear vision of what the project should be, together with some good amount of Enthusiasm and Optimism. Just add in some more details as Glorn said and you should be fine.
Glornll you raise some very good questions. Thank you for taking the time to make that post. I'll answer your questions the best that I can.
How would i be able to 'make a better game than teams of highly paid professionals'?
I think that those teams have done a great job and made excellent games. I want to build on those great game design ideas using my design philosophies.
What are the details of these design philosiphies?
Strategic depth for the map
Every game has choice and usually there is an optimal way to play. Adding strategy will change what is optimal more often. A good example of strategy is the game of chess. There is always an optimal way to play, but it changes every turn based on your previous move and your opponents. Instead of 3 lanes, a jungle and a support with slight variations, I would like to turn the map into a simplified chess board with 5 pieces per side. I have a design for 3 different types of objectives and multiple ways of taking those objectives. Simulating squares on a chess board. I'll explain more on what these objectives are in the story.
Easy to learn
I have alot of ideas that would improve already existing games, but they will fit better into my game because of the story. The game will use a system simular to Heroes of the Storm for Hero builds, tool tips, mini map icons sounds ect. Adding holograms of abilities being used while holding your mouse over an ability. Sounds of heroes talking to other heroes. The most important feature in making the game easy to learn would be the story narrator (anouncer).
Focus on story telling
The story for the game is going to be in the starcraft universe. One problem that I have, is that I'm not too familiar with starcraft lore. So I could use help writing the exact details of the story.
A ship carrying advanced technology made by a 4th race is discovered by one of the starcraft factions (Terran, Protoss or Zerg). They establish themselves in the ship and begin to figure out it's secrets. The remaining 2 factions (Terran, Protoss, Zerg) send 2 large ships carrying many units and a team of 5 Heroes. Each team has a commander narrating the story, directing the heroes, announcing kills ect. Hostile faction that already is on the ship will have their own neutral spawn camps and boss minion that also gives narrative for the story. The goal of the game is to gain control of the ship. You will be able to do this in a couple different ways depending on your strategy. You can get the ships weapons online and destroy the other 2 factions main ships or you can use gain control of the command centers and fly the ship away.
The story will change every game based on hero picks for both sides. So if team 1 picks mostly Zerg heroes they will get a Zerg Narrator. If team 2 picks more Protoss heros they will get a Protoss Narrator. By default the Hostile faction narrator on the ship will be Terran.
If you require many Heroes with unique abilities that are levelable, then you are still very far from being ready to be played.
Yes and no. The game is completely playable and fun using a hero with an auto attack and no abilities. Just like moving pieces in a chess game. I would like to first balance test the map strategy without hero variables then test compatibility with the map one hero at a time. In order to have a completed game I would like to have exactly 30 high quality heroes so yes there is alot of work to be done.
Hopefully this answered most of your questions. Please let me know if you have any more, or if you have suggestions for me.
Well sorry to cut your entushiasm but making a full game like this and at the level of quality u want (the best in sc2) is impossible in half a year when lotv is released. Secondly, u'll have to overcome the how to get players playing your game with the arcade popularity system. U made me a bit curious too about what makes this game u thought of so unique but u'll never find anyone working for free for something they have no idea of what it is. And ideas stealing won't happen just cause too much work and there are 3 moba games being played on sc2: Aeon, hotshot and city of tempest and for sure none of them will steal your ideas and implement them.
Don't listen to the negativity. Really, to get a game popular on sc2, it does not need to be good. It does not need to to polished. It does not need to be rewarding. It only needs to be fun! Even if it is only fun for a week until it is beaten by everyone who enjoys the style of game; at least it was fun.
When Renee released the wc3 data, a few maps (which were for the most part, just wc3 units plopped all over the map, and some heroes and abilities) quickly rose to the first page with less than 100 hours invested into them.
There are many moba games on sc2, which means you have a decent number of players who are interested in your style of game. What you need to do is consult with some on what could make your moba unique, and better, than the ones they enjoy. A friendly, active player-base will get you a lot more work done (through motivation, suggestions, bug testing, balancing) than anyone on here would do. Once you have a popular map, everyone and their sister wants to help you improve it.
Check out the game nights and stuff, get some feedback in the feedback section. Advertise your project well on the forums, and you may find someone interested; or at least get suggestions from the mapmaking community (Not that many people here have much an idea of what players want).
Eh dont feel too bad if no one volunteers to help. Most of the time if you want to make a map you just have to make it yourself. If you dont wanna do that then dont make it.
I'm actually looking to invite groups of high ranked players from other Mobas to test my beta. Then after balancing numbers. i'll release the game, start a website and work on building a community.
It sounds like i'll have to finish Alpha by myself. However I would be willing to pay for very high quality work in some specific areas.
-Heroes
-Hero selection screen
-Loading screen art
-Custom models and doodads
-Cut scenes
Would anyone be willing to help me in one of these areas?
I can teach you how to make good dialogs, so that you could then create your own hero selection dialog. I would not make it for you 100%, but I would ensure that you had the ability to customize it in ways that you see fit.
I would suggest going for "playability" before custom art and stuff. There are many assets released for sc2 already; you should be able to make do with their art until you have a playable game. You can spend thousands of hours making and adding custom art to a game, but if the game is never playable, what is the point? As I mentioned in an above post, "hero creation is a long process" if you are going to have unique heroes with unique abilities which are levelable.
@Glornll, I really appreciate your help. I already have a working hero selection screen in my game. I was planning on creating a better looking one based on a new advanced tutorial I saw. If you know some tips and tricks towards making something that is really good looking I really would appreciate the advice. I am really close to having a working playable game. Then I will go into alot more detail with art and sound and a quality leaderboard and hero selection.
I will have to watch tutorials on making abilities and custom models and animations. If you have any advice for me there It would be much appreciated.
This is quite old now, but these are many of the dialogs I had created in the past. I have gotten much better since then; especially with graphical flow.
I can also give you some help with creating the basic types of abilities, which then you can compound on if needed. I consider there to be a handful of ability types, buffs/debuffs, instant spells, summons, and missiles. Once you get the basics down, you can create some really fun stuff. spawning a unit which explodes into a dozen fireballs on death, and those fireballs light units on fire, dealing damage over time, and causing the struck units to run around uncontrollably. It's fun!
I am on skype as Glornii or you can search by my email in my profile page. I would be glad to show you some tricks and such to making good dialogs and decent abilities.
Im definitely interested, to keep it short, I can do Data and Triggers, about the same in skill level, terrain is fun too if you want. idc really lol, Ill PM you
Hey. Maybe we'll meet someday on the Process, Ive quitted DotA CMS long before Legacy of the Void. Mind if I can lend a helping hand? I mean, We can beat SotiS in any way :)
thank you for wanting to do your project (i agree, getting responses in itself is a good sign / lucky) ...
i have a similar project and i do hope that these "scenario" driven (multiplayer?) maps will flourish under the mapster sun <3
these pose specific challenges within galaxy and just discussing if stuff is possible with seasoned mapmakers would help immensely (just to know what wehave before trying stuff that cannot/will not work)
i would very much like to echo the sentiment of most nice mapsterers.. in order to entice people unto your project you need emulation which requires those ideas/dreams you have to be "in public sight".. or else you will end up mostly secluded in your own dream. That does not mean you can't restrict it to people in real life skype or other :)
i would very much like to invite all you people that wish to do these kind of maps in a skype call to have a "breather" all together :) ,
why is the map nite not for every mapster? why ...? do i have to do it (host it i mean) ... would someone stream it?
i'm notoriously discarded on mapster and therefore wish you all the social fun/help you can get, i am game for providing my share :P
i'll be posting a new starheroes thread soon (if blizz quits patching all day all nite :kappa: ) so maybe that will make you want to compare notes/stories/gameplays :kreygasm:
glhf
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A brand new type of game
Hello friends,
I am currently working on quite an ambitious project and am requesting help to finish. My goal is to create the most well designed, polished game in the Starcraft 2 arcade and the most well designed MOBA ever created.
Here are the 'Core Design Philosophies' that separate this game from others
Strategic depth for the map
This will create meaningful choices that effect which objectives you take and when. Where you go and what you do is best decided by looking at the previously made choices of your team and the opponents.
Easy to learn
This means that the game explains itself as you play. Information should be presented gradually and every choice should be presented in a way that you can clearly understand.
Focus on Storytelling
Everything in the game is being made for the story. Depending on player decisions the story will play out differently each play-through.
Most of the work for the game has already been completed. I need help in the following areas: Hero design, Hero selection screen, Balance testing, Basic polish (mini map icons, sounds, tool-tips), Leader-board, Detailed polish (voice actors, custom models, custom animations, custom sounds and music, UI design, Website for the game
About myself
My name is Joseph, im 27 years old and live in southern California. I played DotA, demigod, League of legends, Smite, Heroes of the storm and many different RTS games at the highest level. I would like to build a more detailed advanced MOBA then anything created before it. Something that pushes the genre into the future and sets the standards for all games created after.
Building a team
I need dedicated volunteers with high standards and attention to detail.
Scheduling
Weekly tasks will be assigned on a volunteer basis. The game will be released in the arcade when 'Legacy of the Void' releases. I will regularly support this game with updates every few weeks after release.
Advertising
I will be doing a ton of advertising through YouTube video reviews, trailers and forum posts on dozens of community websites.
Closing
I have a specific plan for the game and a design for every element, but would rather not publicly post details until these mechanics have been fully tested. If you have any questions or would like to know more and are interested in helping with testing, design, or programming please PM me or post here.
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Curse PremiumI tend to post this a lot but, "No one has ever read someone else's idea on here and decided to 'steal the idea' and make the map with the exact details as someone else wants made."
If that were the case, well, then I am sure they would let you lead the focus group anyway, if your idea were so pure they saw dollar signs and wanted the millions that would rack up.
That aside, screen shots, videos, more specifics, would be a huge help. People have been playing DoTA since, idk, 2005? Since them, AAA companies have taken on DoTA in their images. To suggest that you can make a game better than teams of highly payed professionals would make anyone question it. Show us what you have done.
You are looking for free help on the game you want completed. You will likely only find that from someone who is so infatuated with your project that they too can see your dream and want to be in that limelight.
Personally, I am interested in the details of your highlight.
How, specifically, do you plan to make the game easy to learn? We all want new players to do well, but no one wants to play a game that is so dumbed down that everyone gets a trophy. Presenting information through text has proven to not work. You can make your game freeze and have 2 sentences pop up on screen, and 80% of players will be busy typing "d" to read what it says.
I like the concept of your strategic map decisions. How do you plan to implement it? If your game ever is popular then you have do deal with the fact that there is no choice in a game, there is an optimal way to do things which masks any choice you may grant players. If all choices are the same, then they are equal, but there is no choice if they are equal. How specifically do you plan to introduce this feature?
You say you need help with heroes, which is a huge red flag to me personally. If you require many heroes with unique abilities which are levelable, then you are still very far from ready to be played. There are many open maps where anyone can copy/paste the basic MOBA triggers from and have a "working" game. How far between that and a release are you? The last 15% of a map is half of the work still; the annoying half.
Skype: [email protected] Current Project: Custom Hero Arena! US: battlenet:://starcraft/map/1/263274 EU: battlenet:://starcraft/map/2/186418
@GlornII: Go
i couldn't agree more to glorn. also most of these posts sound like "i need a mindless drone to do the stuff for me, i figured it all out but my hands shall not get dirty"
Still this is a lot better than most other Recruitment Posts as it conveys a clear vision of what the project should be, together with some good amount of Enthusiasm and Optimism. Just add in some more details as Glorn said and you should be fine.
Glornll you raise some very good questions. Thank you for taking the time to make that post. I'll answer your questions the best that I can.
How would i be able to 'make a better game than teams of highly paid professionals'?
I think that those teams have done a great job and made excellent games. I want to build on those great game design ideas using my design philosophies.
What are the details of these design philosiphies?
Strategic depth for the map
Every game has choice and usually there is an optimal way to play. Adding strategy will change what is optimal more often. A good example of strategy is the game of chess. There is always an optimal way to play, but it changes every turn based on your previous move and your opponents. Instead of 3 lanes, a jungle and a support with slight variations, I would like to turn the map into a simplified chess board with 5 pieces per side. I have a design for 3 different types of objectives and multiple ways of taking those objectives. Simulating squares on a chess board. I'll explain more on what these objectives are in the story.
Easy to learn
I have alot of ideas that would improve already existing games, but they will fit better into my game because of the story. The game will use a system simular to Heroes of the Storm for Hero builds, tool tips, mini map icons sounds ect. Adding holograms of abilities being used while holding your mouse over an ability. Sounds of heroes talking to other heroes. The most important feature in making the game easy to learn would be the story narrator (anouncer).
Focus on story telling
The story for the game is going to be in the starcraft universe. One problem that I have, is that I'm not too familiar with starcraft lore. So I could use help writing the exact details of the story.
A ship carrying advanced technology made by a 4th race is discovered by one of the starcraft factions (Terran, Protoss or Zerg). They establish themselves in the ship and begin to figure out it's secrets. The remaining 2 factions (Terran, Protoss, Zerg) send 2 large ships carrying many units and a team of 5 Heroes. Each team has a commander narrating the story, directing the heroes, announcing kills ect. Hostile faction that already is on the ship will have their own neutral spawn camps and boss minion that also gives narrative for the story. The goal of the game is to gain control of the ship. You will be able to do this in a couple different ways depending on your strategy. You can get the ships weapons online and destroy the other 2 factions main ships or you can use gain control of the command centers and fly the ship away.
The story will change every game based on hero picks for both sides. So if team 1 picks mostly Zerg heroes they will get a Zerg Narrator. If team 2 picks more Protoss heros they will get a Protoss Narrator. By default the Hostile faction narrator on the ship will be Terran.
If you require many Heroes with unique abilities that are levelable, then you are still very far from being ready to be played.
Yes and no. The game is completely playable and fun using a hero with an auto attack and no abilities. Just like moving pieces in a chess game. I would like to first balance test the map strategy without hero variables then test compatibility with the map one hero at a time. In order to have a completed game I would like to have exactly 30 high quality heroes so yes there is alot of work to be done.
Hopefully this answered most of your questions. Please let me know if you have any more, or if you have suggestions for me.
@KradDrol1: Go
Well sorry to cut your entushiasm but making a full game like this and at the level of quality u want (the best in sc2) is impossible in half a year when lotv is released. Secondly, u'll have to overcome the how to get players playing your game with the arcade popularity system. U made me a bit curious too about what makes this game u thought of so unique but u'll never find anyone working for free for something they have no idea of what it is. And ideas stealing won't happen just cause too much work and there are 3 moba games being played on sc2: Aeon, hotshot and city of tempest and for sure none of them will steal your ideas and implement them.
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Curse PremiumDon't listen to the negativity. Really, to get a game popular on sc2, it does not need to be good. It does not need to to polished. It does not need to be rewarding. It only needs to be fun! Even if it is only fun for a week until it is beaten by everyone who enjoys the style of game; at least it was fun.
When Renee released the wc3 data, a few maps (which were for the most part, just wc3 units plopped all over the map, and some heroes and abilities) quickly rose to the first page with less than 100 hours invested into them.
There are many moba games on sc2, which means you have a decent number of players who are interested in your style of game. What you need to do is consult with some on what could make your moba unique, and better, than the ones they enjoy. A friendly, active player-base will get you a lot more work done (through motivation, suggestions, bug testing, balancing) than anyone on here would do. Once you have a popular map, everyone and their sister wants to help you improve it.
Check out the game nights and stuff, get some feedback in the feedback section. Advertise your project well on the forums, and you may find someone interested; or at least get suggestions from the mapmaking community (Not that many people here have much an idea of what players want).
Skype: [email protected] Current Project: Custom Hero Arena! US: battlenet:://starcraft/map/1/263274 EU: battlenet:://starcraft/map/2/186418
Eh dont feel too bad if no one volunteers to help. Most of the time if you want to make a map you just have to make it yourself. If you dont wanna do that then dont make it.
@Zer0skiller Thank you for your feedback.
I'm actually looking to invite groups of high ranked players from other Mobas to test my beta. Then after balancing numbers. i'll release the game, start a website and work on building a community.
It sounds like i'll have to finish Alpha by myself. However I would be willing to pay for very high quality work in some specific areas. -Heroes -Hero selection screen -Loading screen art -Custom models and doodads -Cut scenes
Would anyone be willing to help me in one of these areas?
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Curse PremiumI can teach you how to make good dialogs, so that you could then create your own hero selection dialog. I would not make it for you 100%, but I would ensure that you had the ability to customize it in ways that you see fit.
I would suggest going for "playability" before custom art and stuff. There are many assets released for sc2 already; you should be able to make do with their art until you have a playable game. You can spend thousands of hours making and adding custom art to a game, but if the game is never playable, what is the point? As I mentioned in an above post, "hero creation is a long process" if you are going to have unique heroes with unique abilities which are levelable.
Skype: [email protected] Current Project: Custom Hero Arena! US: battlenet:://starcraft/map/1/263274 EU: battlenet:://starcraft/map/2/186418
@Glornll, I really appreciate your help. I already have a working hero selection screen in my game. I was planning on creating a better looking one based on a new advanced tutorial I saw. If you know some tips and tricks towards making something that is really good looking I really would appreciate the advice. I am really close to having a working playable game. Then I will go into alot more detail with art and sound and a quality leaderboard and hero selection.
I will have to watch tutorials on making abilities and custom models and animations. If you have any advice for me there It would be much appreciated.
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Curse PremiumThis is quite old now, but these are many of the dialogs I had created in the past. I have gotten much better since then; especially with graphical flow.
I can also give you some help with creating the basic types of abilities, which then you can compound on if needed. I consider there to be a handful of ability types, buffs/debuffs, instant spells, summons, and missiles. Once you get the basics down, you can create some really fun stuff. spawning a unit which explodes into a dozen fireballs on death, and those fireballs light units on fire, dealing damage over time, and causing the struck units to run around uncontrollably. It's fun!
I am on skype as Glornii or you can search by my email in my profile page. I would be glad to show you some tricks and such to making good dialogs and decent abilities.
Skype: [email protected] Current Project: Custom Hero Arena! US: battlenet:://starcraft/map/1/263274 EU: battlenet:://starcraft/map/2/186418
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Curse PremiumNice dialogs. I think I'm too lazy to ever make something that nice :P
Im definitely interested, to keep it short, I can do Data and Triggers, about the same in skill level, terrain is fun too if you want. idc really lol, Ill PM you
Hey. Maybe we'll meet someday on the Process, Ive quitted DotA CMS long before Legacy of the Void. Mind if I can lend a helping hand? I mean, We can beat SotiS in any way :)
hi.. i'm the big bad wolf .. mmm i mean hound :P
nice to meet/read you
thank you for wanting to do your project (i agree, getting responses in itself is a good sign / lucky) ...
i have a similar project and i do hope that these "scenario" driven (multiplayer?) maps will flourish under the mapster sun <3
these pose specific challenges within galaxy and just discussing if stuff is possible with seasoned mapmakers would help immensely (just to know what wehave before trying stuff that cannot/will not work)
i would very much like to echo the sentiment of most nice mapsterers.. in order to entice people unto your project you need emulation which requires those ideas/dreams you have to be "in public sight".. or else you will end up mostly secluded in your own dream. That does not mean you can't restrict it to people in real life skype or other :)
i would very much like to invite all you people that wish to do these kind of maps in a skype call to have a "breather" all together :) ,
why is the map nite not for every mapster? why ...? do i have to do it (host it i mean) ... would someone stream it?
i'm notoriously discarded on mapster and therefore wish you all the social fun/help you can get, i am game for providing my share :P
i'll be posting a new starheroes thread soon (if blizz quits patching all day all nite :kappa: ) so maybe that will make you want to compare notes/stories/gameplays :kreygasm:
glhf