Discussion for the fan-made game DrIVer: Russia (TBA)

Moderator: cleone

By cleone
#56242
Alright guys, I know its been a long time since I've been around. Been slowly weening myself out of responsibility as the Siren Torturers Killing Floor Community head admin, and getting used to having a full time job and all that sh*t. Haven't been around here in forever, been meaning to get back on here but kept procrastinating. When PostalDude told me about Speedboat Paradise I flipped sh*t... literally. I flipped my bed upside down and threw my monitor out the window because I was so outraged by the stupidity of Ubishit (just kidding). Anyways that's what finally got me to stop procrastinating.

I had been contemplating abandoning this project for months, hell even back after I released the first pre-pre-alpha back in 2009. I hate big projects, always had. I get an idea and I jump in and try to execute it but then say to myself, "What in the f**k was I thinking?" For example, I began working on the biggest Killing Floor map ever. I got done 1/3 of it and said f**k it. It was a really neat idea, and my clan agreed, but I didn't feel like finishing it. Began working on a small UT2004 map I had an idea for.... didn't even finish the terrain.

So where am I going with all this off-topic sh*t? Well, I'm not going off-topic at all. If I am the only person doing any of the work on the game backend and missions itself, the world will end before I ever finish. Why? Read the paragraph above. Anyways, I don't want this project to die, and I know the frustration of watching the progress of a project I'm interested in die. I don't want to do that to anyone (if there is anyone).

I don't know if anyone is interested, and no it's not the depression in me or the fact I'm such a f***ing critic of myself. First off we have numerous 3D real Driver games, including one that specializes in Speedboats and one that is a f***ing coma simulator. Second, the modding progress of Driver 1 has been significantly advancing over the past few years. Now there's my game, which is 2D and is not official. However my motivation has been to save the storyline from San Franshitsco, second to create something we can all easily mod, something we can compete with, something that is equivalent or even better than the official Driver games. It is entirely possible, even though I have been using the dreaded Game Maker, which I this point I don't care what anyone thinks because believe it or not, Hotline Miami was a pretty f***ing spectacular game. There are no limits to Game Maker when it comes to 2D, it is a very capable engine. I just haven't had the patience to learn all the real coding sh*t. I'm a horrible programmer, damn near failed C++ in high school. It's not something I have any patience for... especially when looking for that missing semicolon in a f***ing 3000 line project.....

Anyways, so what now? There's numerous options:
  • Wait for me to finish it, maybe coming back to it once or twice a year after 3 days of work.
  • Kill off the project.
  • Send the idea over to Ubishit and wait watching our inbox until we realized they probably deleted the email cause they wouldn't even give a sh*t if two mice grew wings and shat on their monitors because they are too busy making arcadey driving games that get sh*t performance on PC in the first place and are created to compete with Need for sh*t
  • Open the project up to the DM community, make it a community collaboration to actually get it done.
My idea is number 4. Anyone who is interested in the project can actually contribute to it, and help to get it done. Then a few select people will work on the missions perhaps, as I don't want to spoil the story for everyone. We can work on getting the physics just right, and make it our dream Driver game just in 2D. Then we could release the gmk file for people in the community to create expansions and spin-offs, etc. I never thought it'd be a good idea to release the game source just like that, but f**k it, it may actually be for the better. I will still lead the project, but now people can work on bits of code with the driving physics and try to figure out things that I've been puzzling with. And hell, maybe someone will have the patience to fix the traffic and make it more realistic.

So what do you guys think? I need some input.
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By the kid 78
Registration Days Posts Posts Posts Avatar
#56364
Open the project up to the DM community, make it a community collaboration to actually get it done.
This is the right choice for you and our community make it open source and we will try to complete it !
By cleone
#56384
Yeah I think that's what I'm gonna do. Gonna get a hold of Wheelman75 first then we will prepare this to go open source.
By cleone
#58684
forty5 wrote:hey i herd u need coder.
well i can help in spare time.
tell if u interested
Thanks for offering.
The project has been on hold for a while. I've got a lot going on in my life and very little free time. Where I left it with Wheelman75, I was considering scrapping the Russia part of the project and tidying up the engine for community use for any other Driver projects anyone would want to do. I'm still not sure yet, but I can tell you it will probably be a while before I get back to the project. If you have Game Maker experience and are interested, let me know. Maybe with some help it may actually see the light of day.
By forty5
Registration Days
#58693
cleone wrote:
forty5 wrote:hey i herd u need coder.
well i can help in spare time.
tell if u interested
Thanks for offering.
The project has been on hold for a while. I've got a lot going on in my life and very little free time. Where I left it with Wheelman75, I was considering scrapping the Russia part of the project and tidying up the engine for community use for any other Driver projects anyone would want to do. I'm still not sure yet, but I can tell you it will probably be a while before I get back to the project. If you have Game Maker experience and are interested, let me know. Maybe with some help it may actually see the light of day.
game maker is really bad choice for open world game, but anyway its never late to port this on another engine(possibly custom)
By cleone
#58694
forty5 wrote:
cleone wrote:
forty5 wrote:hey i herd u need coder.
well i can help in spare time.
tell if u interested
Thanks for offering.
The project has been on hold for a while. I've got a lot going on in my life and very little free time. Where I left it with Wheelman75, I was considering scrapping the Russia part of the project and tidying up the engine for community use for any other Driver projects anyone would want to do. I'm still not sure yet, but I can tell you it will probably be a while before I get back to the project. If you have Game Maker experience and are interested, let me know. Maybe with some help it may actually see the light of day.
game maker is really bad choice for open world game, but anyway its never late to port this on another engine(possibly custom)
Yes I've learned this. I was starting to get it to work but I have no patience and the shortest attention span imaginable (ADD). Programming was never a skill I conquered, I damn near almost failed the introductory C++ course in high school.

But anyways, the big issues I was having was mainly traffic, cops, enemy AI, and damage (I wanted a more sophisticated damage system). If you know game maker and have ways to make it work, I won't can this project just yet. Those issues were very overwhelming to me and I didn't want to spend days trying to figure it out (if I could ever figure it out).

The traffic was basically working on paths. That is why there was so little traffic. Pathing was a nightmare, and it isn't dynamic. Every single car has a path that took me like an hour to do. Such a waste of time. I've seen people do dynamic pathing, with traffic lights too, in Game Maker. That's something I would have loved to do but I was never able to figure it out.

As for cops, I wanted them to be able to set up roadblocks possibly, and on top of that I wanted them to have a fear thing, where if you are driving straight at them head on, they would veer off and crash into the wall. I had some pretty sweet ideas in mind of terms of a gradual survival mode, and this is something I would have liked to implement.

Enemy AI i wanted them to be able to shoot out of windows. That was the last thing I was working on, and I gave up.

in terms of script, it was all done, I may review it and make some changes, but I felt somewhat confident it was well written (I'm never confident about anything). The last mission was going to be a complete cluster f**k, and the rest of the city I had planned was relatively large (roughly 3/4 the size of a Driver 1 city) for a game maker game.

I had practically put this project aside for forever, I have never been good with large commitments (my brothers wedding video... he was furious that I JUST managed to have it done by their first anniversary). I had contemplated canning it, I had told myself I was done with it, but if you are willing to help, I'd love to finish it once and for all. My big plan was also multiplayer, but I'm keeping my eye on that Driver Syndicate that is being made. That game will be amazing I feel. For now, I'd like to focus on the story and offline modes I had planned.

If you are in, let me know.
By cleone
#58720
forty5 wrote:ye i'm in, but also do u have team of modellers/designers which is making some cool cars?
Its a 2D game. Yes I have a partner who had created all the cars, I don't remember if the damage was done completely yet for all of them. The game is top-down, similar to classic GTA games, however with proper camera work I've made it feel close to a Driver game. I still need to fix up the handling and allow powersliding, but that isnt too difficult,

The next month or so will be a tad hectic for me, but I will try to get in touch soon. What is the best way to contact you?
By Wheels
Registration Days Posts Posts Posts
#58893
the kid 78 wrote:
Open the project up to the DM community, make it a community collaboration to actually get it done.
This is the right choice for you and our community make it open source and we will try to complete it !

A community collaboration isn't exactly a good idea. Why? If you open it up to almost everybody here, one person could make a nice addition to it, the next guy could come around and plant malware/viruses on it. Anything they wanted can be put on it.
User avatar
By Fireboyd78
#58929
The last collaboration I was a part of nearly ended a friendship of mine. On paper, collabs sound like a good idea. But things can go wrong very quickly...
User avatar
By PostalDude
#58932
Wheels wrote:
the kid 78 wrote:
Open the project up to the DM community, make it a community collaboration to actually get it done.
This is the right choice for you and our community make it open source and we will try to complete it !

A community collaboration isn't exactly a good idea. Why? If you open it up to almost everybody here, one person could make a nice addition to it, the next guy could come around and plant malware/viruses on it. Anything they wanted can be put on it.
Exactly, some guy could just register, feign interest and plant a RAT or something into it.
By Wheels
Registration Days Posts Posts Posts
#58941
CarLuver69 wrote:The last collaboration I was a part of nearly ended a friendship of mine. On paper, collabs sound like a good idea. But things can go wrong very quickly...
This also.
PostalDude wrote:Exactly, some guy could just register, feign interest and plant a RAT or something into it.
Even PostalDude's getting the right idea.
By cleone
#59024
Wheels wrote:
the kid 78 wrote:
Open the project up to the DM community, make it a community collaboration to actually get it done.
This is the right choice for you and our community make it open source and we will try to complete it !

A community collaboration isn't exactly a good idea. Why? If you open it up to almost everybody here, one person could make a nice addition to it, the next guy could come around and plant malware/viruses on it. Anything they wanted can be put on it.
Valid point but that's why we would have managed it upstream. All packages from unknowns would be thoroughly scanned before opening and if the contributions are legit, it would have gone into the main build.

One idea I was gonna go with is see if I can build it with the tools SOAP will give us with driver syndicate, but sadly I would not be able to do any shootings with it and plus I don't know Lau. So sadly that won't happen.
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