Name - Shaan Repswal
Age - 20 years
Email Address - shaun.reapswaal@gmail.com
Skype - shaun.reapswaal
Facebook - Shaun Reapswaal
Project Proposal
The aim here is to create a gameworld through OGRE which gives a "very" easy and enjoyable modding experience to people who would like to check out game development, simulator development & in engine movie creation etc and eventually learn OGRE to do the job, but have not much or "any" technical and artistic know-how. So what we are talking about here, is a virtual world with respectable physics and AI. Which is included in the OGRE bundle like those programs in the "demo" directory (which I think I had to download separately the last time) . This is a small map with living and non living entities, one of which is controllable by you in the third person once the application runs. Everything will be explained in a guide from how to tweak the code inside here and there to make changes to the game world to a firm understanding of the basics of the OGRE. This won't be what generally passes for "documentation" but rather a full fledged detailed guide with all sort of diagrams and whatever else is necessary.
Once the basic gameplay mechanics and assets are done to make the real game. I'll put in a story, non-linear gameplay through choices made in the same fashion as the game Dead frontier Outbreak at http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/511685 works. I plan on making an interesting game with a twisted plot. The undead will be there... but the real fun in the game will not be to mow them all down with a big guns (there will be hardly any), but to find ways to survive... unarmed. It does get scary when you are unarmed
xDSo what good is this?
Most people who want to learn how to create movies, games and simulators (physics, social etc) end up scouring up the internet for all sorts of "tutorials", "guides", "game engines", "videos", "ebooks" etc and don't get anywhere with any of that because they get frustrated, overburdened or were simply going to fast among a myriad of reasons ( been there, done that). I am sure that OGRE loses a lot of such people... who want a resource which is simple to understand and eventually learn from and is rewarding to work on. Like for instance I may be an newbie who is as impatient as most and if changing a few lines of code allows me to change certain properties of a live project, it should be more rewarding than learning to add an ogrehead in coordinate [100, 0, 0] (which was rewarding enough for me btw, just saying that it's not the same for others.) Besides that, the fact that one is working on a proper game is in itself enough to make a difference, since it "carries" you.
What is cool about this project is that... when I complete this project and put it up in all undead fan forums (I know quite a few), and This post is suspected as SPAM! If you feel otherwise contact a moderator. game stores. A lot of people will download this game and a few of them may want to tweak the game and some others will go further into the depths of it, to become decent OGRE users.
So basically this is not a game to showcase what OGRE can do. Rather, it is a game that eventually gets people (who are interested) involved in using OGRE. This is a bootstrap. Like how the folks developing World Forge have their own bootstrapped projects. This would be ours. However this serves only those chaps who want to eventually get into the programming side of things (be it exclusively or not). People play a game and word spreads, people post their mods of games online and word spreads, people create their own TCs and more word spreads about the project they used as a base. All of these are applicable to this project. I believe I can make these events take place.
Why I am the person for this project
I think my passion for this kind of a project should be the first thing that answers why. I'm a crazy zombie apocalypse fan. Apart from that I have always wanted to be a game developer... but I still can't call myself this, I've never made a project as cool as this mostly on my own. (Mostly because I will be receiving help on this project from a lot of friends, as long as that's in compliance with GSoC rules, which I gather from supergaier's reply to Gupta's post, it is so). This is something I want to do. This is something I have wanted to do since I was in 9th grade and saw my first George A. Romero movie. So no shit I got a lotta passion stuck under the belt... however I "am" pretty rusty I admit... it may have been more than 7 months since I used OGRE the last time. And as a cherry on top my social life seems to be on the thick line between non-existant and non-existant (slightly exaggerated here), I have no exams once the summers are over, so that's another plus for leaving me tons of time to actually sit on the computer and make a good game.
Why OGRE
Well this is real. After a million posts of "what makes OGRE better than commercial ware game engines" (majorly exaggerated here) I've come to be realistic and unbiased enough to admit that my reasons for using OGRE aren't much different from a small town dude who gets an insanely well paying job to work in a megacity and decides to chuck it and stay in his "small town" with a well paying job. Apart from that OGRE's free. And I like free (as in free beer and "freedom")
There are other things that I intend to post. I'm kinda sleepy right now and want to see the community's replies tomorrow morning, which is why I'm entering this application incomplete right now, to complete it later. Apart from the fact that my schedule looks more like my autistic 8 year old cousin has made it, I will edit the rest of the application within 24 hours.
The Map
The first map I want to model is after a friend's colony actually. There is a huge gate at first and then follows a spacious two lane road with houses on both sides. Each house is a medium sized duplex and is white in colour. Surrounding each house is a small lawn, a wall dividing the houses and also a small 4 foot gate leading through to each house's area.
Now the reason I gave the map was so that you would know what relevance my schedule has, since you know the basic 3D assests required for a simple map.
The Schedule
This is not a hardcrafted schedule as such, I have taken the activities that I need to do and placed them in the order, I will do them in. I have also provided the amount of time that I will take to do each task.
12 Animated, textured and chlothed human models.---------------------->3 days
Model a house, create materials, edit their attributes and add relevant textures.------------------>10 days
Add doodads or props for items in the game--------------------->7 days
Create the terrain. map loader and map save game programs--------------->3 days
Implement basic living and non living entity physics in demo world--------------->13 days
Add AI to characters--------------> 14 days
Create foliage placement system and apply it to surround the map so as to cover up the unpathable areas, also use it for the sake of foliage.-------->1 day
Implement controls for the character-----------> 1 day
Write up a complete guide of how to mod this game easily, starting with simple code tweaks leading to a firm understanding of OGRE's basics. (I was thinking of making it more "comic" styled)--------->6 days
I have omitted some seemingly obvious things from this schedule like, adding sounds, setting up lights (I want to make the game in a night setting), creating a skydome, among a few things... assuming that doesn't need mention... Everything amounts to 58 days... Looks good to "me"
What after this?
I plan on making this a "far" more robust game than any other zombie game ever... this bootstrap app can use an awesome crafting system, and realistic machine physics, unbelievably godlike AI in more than one respects... Suffice to say, I'll be sticking to this project for quite a while, once it starts (if not, forever). I want this to be an experience no one has ever had before, there are a lot of ideas that I have, which I haven't mentioned here... (I'd have to write a book for that). But yeah you get the point.
Anything Else
There are certain issues here, like for example I have the most basic experience with using a physics library. I know a thing or two about Bullet, but that's all, a thing or two... I will need to spend a dozen hours to learn whatever else is required to make the physics engine.
Another con would be that this is my first full fledged programming project. This is going to be "a lotta work" with respect to the things that I have done till now in life.
Apart from that everything should be more than dandy, specially since I have a surprise for everyone once the project is an astounding success
