Coders sought for melee combat game prototype

[Papa Lazarou]

Hello everyone,

I am looking for a coder to help with a small project that my brother and I are working on. We want to develop a prototype of some mechanics suitable for a hand-to-hand combat game. (I know this is a modding forum, but I thought I'd get better responses here and I've cleared it with an admin.)

The system we wish to test covers armed hand-to-hand combat between two or more fighters. The design came partly from my experience working on the Combat Animation Enhancement mod for Warband (where I learnt about character animation, and the relationships between animation and mechanics), and from our understanding of the principles of historical martial arts. Our hope therefore is that our combat system will allow freedom, tactical depth and seamless, realistic animation based on a few broadly applied, intuitively logical rules. This is in contrast to games in which combat involves the use of isolated “powers” or “abilities”.  In a general sense our planned combat system is similar to the combat systems in games like Warband, Prince of Persia 3D, Jedi Knight II and Die by the Sword, but with a few more variables (and we hope, therefore, more depth).

Our team for the prototype will be complete once we are joined by a coder. We currently have an animator (me) and modeller (my brother) who can produce the assets needed for prototyping, and we have planned the mechanics and their logic in detail. (In fact we began coding the prototype ourselves with some success, but ran into problems due to lack of coding experience and documentation for the engine we were using.) Given the mechanics, we expect that the code will be relatively simple, being probably less complicated than the code for the full set of Warband’s hand-to-hand combat mechanics. In other words, given the extent of our plans and our current team, we feel there is a good chance that we will finish the prototype if we are joined by a competent coder.

We are looking specifically for a coder able to work with the Unreal Development Kit (UDK), but are also happy to hear from those more familiar with other engines. Note that we also welcome creative input from all team members.

If you’re interested in joining the team or would like more information, please send an email to [email protected] or send me a PM.

Feel free also to ask any questions here in the thread, but be aware that I don’t want to give away all our secrets yet.

 

[xenoargh]

So, are we talking about real-time IK, I presume?

I think you're underestimating the complexity of what you're wanting to do, code-side, but it's hard to say without seeing the business case. 

One thing I can tell you is that you might be happier using Unity as the engine, as it's support for doing bone manipulation on the fly is very good and straightforward.  However, you'll have to implement things like constraints on your own, and the physics will get pretty darn tricky.

The big issue you'll hit pretty quickly (besides the big hassles of trying to create the UI) is that AI development for a project like this is decidedly non-trivial.  Well, that, and keeping the system simple, yet flexible enough for people to get interested.  Die By The Sword was a really amazing experimental game, but it was also a difficult thing to actually play.

 

[Papa Lazarou]

Thanks for the reply, xenoargh. Actually we're not planning to use real-time IK in the prototype. Like in Warband, the core mechanics (for attacking, blocking and moving) will not involve physics or advanced animation systems at all. That said, the mechanics are designed to allow for good blending between animations (basically a more advanced version of what I did in CAE, if you're familiar with that).

 

[xenoargh]

Sure, that's making sense. 

A good trigger-based system with some smarter cues and better use of things like the terrain (being able to do stuff like climb, roll under stuff, pick up stationary stuff, etc.) could be pretty easily done with  either engine and would give the combat a much richer feeling.  One of the few big gripes I have with the current system is that manuever just isn't much part of fighting; either you're faster than the foe all the time, or slower, there aren't any sprints, leaps, etc. that give people options.  Compared to the relative speed and freedom when on horseback, it always feels like an overly simplistic experience.

It'd be nice to have a system where players could do a fair amount of interesting derring-do and the AI could be given cues to behave in certain ways based on the terrain and stuff, and that kind of thing is probably doable with either engine.  UDK's certainly prettier for that kind of thing, too, and has stuff like pathfinding ready out of the box.

 

[Papa Lazarou]

Yeah I agree, and most of that stuff is on our list in one form or another. Our first goal and the main point of the prototype is to test our ideas for weapon interactions (attacks, blocks etc.). If that goes well we'll try out combat footwork (something I'm very keen to get working), and much later we'll look at other kinds of movement, picking up objects, etc..

 

[jimtuggins]

Hello everyone,

I am looking for a coder to help with a small project that my brother and I are working on. We want to develop a prototype of some mechanics suitable for a hand-to-hand combat game. (I know this is a modding forum, but I thought I'd get better responses here and I've cleared it with an admin.)

The system we wish to test covers armed hand-to-hand combat between two or more fighters. The design came partly from my experience working on the Combat Animation Enhancement mod for Warband (where I learnt about character animation, and the relationships between animation and mechanics), and from our understanding of the principles of historical martial arts. Our hope therefore is that our combat system will allow freedom, tactical depth and seamless, realistic animation based on a few broadly applied, intuitively logical rules. This is in contrast to games in which combat involves the use of isolated “powers” or “abilities”.  In a general sense our planned combat system is similar to the combat systems in games like Warband, Prince of Persia 3D, Jedi Knight II and Die by the Sword, but with a few more variables (and we hope, therefore, more depth).

Our team for the prototype will be complete once we are joined by a coder. We currently have an animator (me) and modeller (my brother) who can produce the assets needed for prototyping, and we have planned the mechanics and their logic in detail. (In fact we began coding the prototype ourselves with some success, but ran into problems due to lack of coding experience and documentation for the engine we were using.) Given the mechanics, we expect that the code will be relatively simple, being probably less complicated than the code for the full set of Warband’s hand-to-hand combat mechanics. In other words, given the extent of our plans and our current team, we feel there is a good chance that we will finish the prototype if we are joined by a competent coder.

We are looking specifically for a coder able to work with the Unreal Development Kit (UDK), but are also happy to hear from those more familiar with other engines. Note that we also welcome creative input from all team members.

If you’re interested in joining the team or would like more information, please send an email to [email protected] or send me a PM.

Feel free also to ask any questions here in the thread, but be aware that I don’t want to give away all our secrets yet.

dude you should create some kinda paypal donation fund for this...