[Hobby] Writer with an idea to make a fantasy renaissance RPG. Looking for people of other skills who want to create som Thread

It's a rant, but bear with me.

I want to make a game. Let me rephrase that, I am making a game. I have a world, I can write a world, and I can make a world. What I don’t have is the expertise to visualize that world, to add mechanics to that world, to allow others to enjoy such a world. This world is and adventure, both for the players I dream will one day inhabit it, but also for me, and any who will join me. I can’t write code (yet, I can learn), I can’t model (Yet, I can learn), I have little skill with art (yet, I can learn), I cannot animate (yet, I can learn), And, I’ve basically no monetary assets to put into this (as of right now, though I do imagine that should we get so far as to have a prototype, Kickstarter/IndieGoGo/Sponser(s) could help in this department). What I do have is a world that needs to exist, I the willpower to drive it (also, I can edit simple xml type stuff; parameters and stuff). If you want to work on something like this, continue reading, you passed test one. I want a team of individuals who, though you may be stuck on the fact you can’t art, or write, or code, still want to make a game; I figure there is enough of us. I want solid, motivated, good spirited people who can make this game as their own as I will make it mine. I want people who just want to have a good time. I can’t do this alone.
I don’t want to build a game that rivals WoW, or anything big in the scale of such games – I don’t want a juggernaut, I want a yacht. I want to build something fun, something ours, something both fresh, but also that pulls from what made other games in the past fun.

Picture this with me.
- Third person, as even though first person brings a good perspective, it can be clunky.
- Adventure and story based, I don’t want a silly rollercoaster that drops big gold exclamation marks in your path telling you what to do. Let’s revisit the world of Morrowind and old(er) RPGs, ones that you read and learn, where you have to think, where a quest is just an extension of the dialog.
- A fresh world, with no black and white, with no faction locks, with multiple sides to the same story. A world where you can disagree as opposed to being force-fed.
- An MORPG(hesitating to put the Massive in there, perhaps we can make an LMORPG? (Large Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game)) that realizes you are in a party. Quests parameters can easily be changed to the number of players grouped, so why does that not happen in most games? Also, let’s give the party leader full quest control, as a major issue is when players, even in the same party, pick up and complete quests at different rates.
- Capitalism and a free market; though the major draw to most games these days is for action, I want the market and crafting system to be one of the main highlights of this game. I need more ideas here, as I’m not an economist.
- An intuitive Real Time combat system. Parries, aiming, several stances. Button taps or clicks to swing/jab/fire spells. (though all majik should/has to be restrained to a single Scholar class)
- Dungeons, raids, extensive inter-faction pvp. All based in separate instances of course.
- Class divergence. Every x levels you choose a new, more specialized path as your class, these merge and change as the game progresses, and while you may start the game brandishing a spear on foot, you may end it on horseback with a hand-cannon.
- Horse combat. Not sure how we Can implement this one, but, with the late renaissance setting, I feel it will be necessary.
- Vehicular combat. Chariots, Cannons, Davinci-esque tanks, Boats if possible. I know this may be way too much for an indie team, but dreaming is good.
Does that cover it all? Well, yes and no, that’s all I have, but should you join me, everything can change (but the basics of the world), as this will be your game too, and that is what I want to happen.

I have no GDD yet, (just this unorganized pit of ideas) though; I intend that once we get a few members we can write the thing up. (And the SDD (story design document)!)

Now, who do we need eh?
Well, I can write, I can work on the world and its content, but,
another loreguy (or two) would be great. (I do plan on learning anything needed however.)
Next priority is code (coming only second as I cannot, yet – please teach me masters). We need to make the game playable. We need infrastructure. We need easy systems to get places, objects, items, spells, players, quests, NPCs, dialog, etc. into the game, so us lore guy(s) can start dumping or work into reality. I think 2-3/5 coders would fill that spot.
We also need Models, Animations, and Textures. I don’t know the specifics of these, or how long it takes to produce stuff. But those rolls need to be filled. I have a mate who's just gotten into modeling stuff, and is getting good fast, who will be helping.
And Music and SFX, though, I guess we can use placeholders/nothing for quite a ways into development.
Do we need level designers? Is such a job easy to learn?

Overall, the largest team I would want would be twelve people. But any less will more than do, as long as it’s more than two (unless you are literally a game making god)
- 1/2 Lore.
- 0/3Game Code.
- 0/2 Networking and Client.
- 0/1 Level Design.
- 0.5/4 Models/Animation/Textures. (Do these go in the same slot? How many usually fit in a team of this scale?)

Empty spots could be filled with sound people, though I think that music and SFX can come later.

Also, I intend to learn everything that needs to be done. If I could, I would have started by now, but my knowledge of the world of game development skills is limited at best. Show me what needs to be done, and how, and it will be done.

***
My world, a synopsis:
“The world of men is dark. Seven hundred years ago, Ale-Le the Great unified all of Aflinlünd. He spread Astish culture and language to all places as his huskarls marched westward from his palace in the wet hills beside the lake Ast. And, while his empire lasted many decades, it, like all things crumbled. Man had fragmented, and a void of power had opened, petty warlords and minor land-holds took over control of the cities and countryside. Borders have shifted and changed, powers have risen and fallen, but there is no purpose, no goal. In this chaos, the Songsingers of the north have brought science, glass to gaze upon the stars, medicine to treat disease. The Karat-Sok across the Sea of Sails have brought philosophy, they claim that all people have ‘evolved’ and that the world is sphere, floating in a void, with all the other planes. The Gor’Uej to the East have traded the powers of black powder; pike and shot and cannon dominate the field of war. Yet, the Kingdoms, and Duchies, and Empires of man still are in Ale-Le’s day, and the struggle of old verses new to brutal and bloody. Yet, it is not at our people’s doors and streets that we will be experiencing the story, no.

Majik has always been a fickle thing, it cripples and drains, it destroys, it limits, it changes.

745 AU (The Astish calendar starts upon the coronation of Ale-Le as emperor of all men), Safiðak(Another Nation in the world) sailors, out deep sea fishing of their islands in the center of the Sea of Sails spot something in the distance, a massive grey arch. Upon a closer look, there is a circle of these monuments, each gazing into, like a one way mirror, somewhere new. This news spreads, like all news does, and before long recon ships are sent into the portals, they return with stories of an untouched land, of jungles and fertile plains, and exotic creatures. Three groups of men, alliances of nations have joined up to colonies this new land.

Fair King Bæl of Segayøf, a prosperous kingdom of hardy seamen and capitalists, leads the Nammr Union. The Nammr Union, named due to the pact sealed in the Bløling city of Namm, while lead by the Ohaðurmen (people of Segaryøf) is a joint venture, with several other Suðurikr (people of the cold southern coast, literally: Southlander) countries, with its main members being the Warlike Blølings of Blø Haðar, the quaint Grennlündr, and the industrial people of Seðyarl.

To the North, in the central plains of Ðasan, the Præsan (emperor) of Ðrenømæ has gathered his puppets and pushed east and coastwards, subjugating the Vendr, a peaceful religious people, in order to control this new world himself. The Red and Gold banners of the Mæste (the Præsan’s people) hang high in the streets of the Saradæm (what the Præsan dubbed his dominion).

Further north sits the fertile river valleys and lakes of the Bekøre and Kørene respectively. Fat kings dine upon endless feasts of goose and wine. The elders of the Kørene have come to plead though, their homeland is one of strife and constant war; ethnic conflict runs rampant, and violence is all that much of their population has come to know of the world. The greedy fat Bekøre decided that, while the lake people are setting up a new homeland, they can gain even more riches, and such the Grand Coalition is formed, an uneasy alliance built with two very separate goals.

Mankind thought that they were alone in the desire to spread. But as the three fleets of ships crossed through the portals, they found that there was not three, but four colliding factions. The Karat-Sok God-Emperor had decreed to his people that he require a new palace on the beaches of this new land, filled with all the exotic creatures of the many worlds. The Karat had already been building a magnificent city while the men were arranging treaties and pacts back in the old world, and the Empire would contest every inch of the new land.

It is now 747, two years after the portal discovery, Men and Karat have settled, and trade is good, but out of the settle area, pirates, bandits, and rebels run amok, carving their own territory out of the wilderness with machete and musket. Several Holy Orders have made landfall too, intent on creating holy empires inland of the colonial states. The Island continent will not be subdued so easily though, it’s creatures plague the work of settlers, it’s flora is hyperactive, growing over even the newest of buildings that are built ‘just too far inland’ (a distance that is shockingly close to the coast). Something much more sinister is at work on this plane though, as if, the entire fabric of Majik and the Universe is on the brink of collapse, and the island is its heart, a heart that is torn and scarred. And, if all that was not enough, there are people here from before the portals opened, men at that.“

Simplified, TL;DR version that tears apart the grandeur:
A dark ages word get thrust into late renaissance technology due to trade with the other races. Sailors find portals to another world (much like ours/theirs) in the sea, word quickly spreads. Three factions of men get formed.

- Viking-Pirates.
- Roman-Hungarians (joined by Russians who don’t really want to go to the new world.)
- Georgian-Italians (partnered with Baltic Slavs with turbans)
When they get to the new world they find the
- tan skinned Orcs who act like Spanish Moors who live across the sea
Already have settled stuff, for their god-emperor.
Each faction makes a colonial nation. The Island-continent fights back. Dark secrets.Men who were already here before the portal.’

The player is an adventurer from one of these factions, recently shipped over from the old world.

***

If you made it all the way down here, or just jumped to the bottom (it doesn’t matter really) I would like to say thank you for even clicking the link to this post, it really heartens me to see even a single view.

Also, I (we) need a game engine. Unity and Unreal (I’ve also seen Cryengine but haven’t looked too far into it because it seems ‘too AAA’) look like the nicest (price and newb-friendliness, and graphic/model integration) But, overall, even after a pair weeks of (two hours a day) of reading, I honestly cannot find a ‘perfect’ solution. If you build online networking systems or have ventured on large MO game I would love to have cons/pros of the various engines. I am leaning more towards UDK, with its free model, and C++ usage, as well as better graphical capabilities. but, I’m not sure.

Also, with networking, and I’m sure I can learn how to get any working – but is having smaller, less populated servers better (with more servers of course) or several massive ones where you can focus your ‘firepower’ more?

This is a hobby thing, at least until/unless it gets somewhere. I do not want this to be ‘mine’, rather, ours. There will be no requirements, no deadlines; keep up with what’s going on and you’re in. Want to get a portfolio done, but need a subject? Draw some stuff, anything is appreciated. Want to get some practice on code, here is a place that would appreciate your services. Or, make this project your own. The coders run the mechanics, the artists the visuals, but most importantly, this is not a job; unless you want to act like it is.

/un-rant

[CONCEPT ART NEEDED. MAP IN PROGRESS]

- Lungora.

Comment below if interested in joining, and we can get in touch.

Hey, I'm pretty interested in helping since I'm pretty young, do not have much skill but want to learn and participate in projects like this. However I have some skill writing C# code and implementing it in Unity. One thing I'm wondering is what timezone you live in.

Email: jelly.han01@gmail.com

Edited by: Haintrain

I know a small bit about designing maps in Unity and using Unity's tools. I'm currently trying to learn JavaScript in my free time, but I'm not sure how long it's going to take to get good with it. I can do decently with advertising and may be able to find a couple people interested in helping in different areas.