Phantasy Star (INSERT NAME HERE)

[Daren]

Most of you already know that I'm making a game which is something I old deer to me but the entire process is taking much more time that I intended it to take, which made me thought numerous times that this one man show of mine should not have been. Lets face it, making a game is a hard thing to do and something that should not be undertaken by ones self.
I've heard that there were other attempts to make a community project before which all failed to be completed for reasons I have yet to know but I can see a couple of things that could have been the reasons for the downfall of these projects. One reason I see is story wise, building a complete story for a game that has to fit in it's original series is not an easy task to do and one that gets even more difficult with numerous people working on it. Someone gets an idea that another hates and a feud starts on who's idea are better and should be implemented, everyone has their idea of what a prequel/sequel should look like and sometimes it's hard to accept someone else points of view. Another could be graphics which are long and hard to make, by my experiences just making a series of 10 frames for a battle animation have taken me many hours and sometimes days of working on it to make it look good. Artist that have the time to give to a big projects are also hard to find, music is another thing, sound, programing, etc.
And given all of this, even if everyone is on board and are willing to give what they have for such projects, sometimes life itself changes around them keeping them from making progress or just stops them from finishing what they have to do.

So yeah I understand the difficulty that comes with a game process.

Now my question is, what's stopping us from really make one?

[carlsojos]

I think this has more than one straightforward answer, to be honest. First, is that there are a few different specialized areas that have to come together in order to make something happen, and while there are usually a couple people who are proficient in each area, it causes a massive amount of damage if even a single member pulls out of the project. If a programmer drops out due to problems with free time, for instance, the game loses a large amount of its code that has to be redone. The second is organization, because it seems that the person who takes charge often has great ideas, but little experience managing such a large undertaking. People are basically told to get it done "whenever you can" and they view it more as a hobby than a job.

I'd say you've hit on most the other ones, but basically, I think there needs to be a leader who literally sells their soul to the project to be the lynchpin that doesn't fail under the load.

[Daren]

See that's the thing, first of all I think you are right on the problems that such a project can bring but an answer can be to bring up a game that all get excited about building together cause if you are happy to lend you expertise to a project you are happy about then it makes it much more easier to stay on schedule. Sure it's not a fix all solution to all problems that could arise but it's a good start. Where I disagree with you is on the hobby point though because when you think about it, it really is a hobby and not a job, when you think about it no one would make any money out of the effort they put into the game. You also can't force someone into working more or faster on it too, that would only piss some people off and lead them into contributing less, pressure is not the answer here in my opinion.
I would be willing to make a serious effort at a group project and I'm sure many people would because the basic fact remains that we all love this series, we all would like to have another game set in that world and we all have the passion burning inside of us.
I'd be curious to know how many people would agree with me.

[carlsojos]

There still has to be at least one person to hold a no-fail position, as you really can't force this stuff out, and something has to remain constant. The responsibility can be spread over several people or passed from one person to another, but the mission-critical sections can not be left vulnerable to the effects of waxing and waning of interests, and this is why I say someone has to hold the project as more than a hobby- to be motivated to emotionally invest in its completion regardless of the chances. Personally, my future is still foggy, but if I can do anything to help, I'm more than willing to.

[BenoitRen]

Last time some posters tried a group project they couldn't agree on the game's setting. It was going to either be a PSIII sequel or a PSIV sequel.

[Daren]

Yeah I agree that someone has to be the "boss" who needs to keep everyone motivated, but there is a good and bad way to do it. Maybe this whole thing is me trying to see if there would be a possibility of actually making a group project but for me to get involved in this I'd need to know who would be interested and then to look at everyone's skills. I would bring in all the animations, chipset, charset and music that has been composed for my game and would continue to make more for the future game. Story wise well if it's a group project then it's a group project, everyone contributes, gives their thoughts and wishes but like Benoit said, it's important to actually choose a time line has to where this game would fall into. It's easy to say lets make a PS4 sequel, a PS2 prequel or a whatever but why are we oblige to keep it a 1000 years before or after each games? Think about it, what happened 6000 years before PS1, or even 12000 years before? We almost have any ideas about the events that shaped the world we got to know with the originals. I guess what I'm saying is to anyone who wants to look into this, lets think out of the box for a second. Not only that, it's also important to understand that if we do get together to make a game, lets not think about something that would last 50 hours right away, starting slow and dividing the entire story line into 6 chapters would help enormously.
Anyway, so far there ain't enough interest to go excited about it but if enough people get together I'm sure with all of our talents put together that a game could really take place.

[Daren]

Last time some posters tried a group project they couldn't agree on the game's setting. It was going to either be a PSIII sequel or a PSIV sequel.

I was thinking about what I said earlier...

Chapters... I'd like to debate something, an idea of sorts which in my humble opinion would solve an issue that has plagued all game makers since, heck the start of it all.
Listen I've been arguing this point over in my head ever since I started making my own graphics, not perfect has they are, I like them, I put a lot of effort into them and I'm proud of them, as I'm sure you are as much for your efforts. You accomplished something, and that's not an easy... On one side you sure ain't not going to share them with anyone but on the other not everyone has the capacity, dexterity or time to invest on making them, they are trying as much as anyone to make a good looking game.
So here comes the dilemma, but here's where "Chapter's" comes in.

I suggest we make a Phantasy Star: Legends of Algo game! Think about it, we are all making games, well not everyone but a lot of us, anyway, we all want to see our projects finished someday no? I think we should unite our efforts on all games. Let me explain, wouldn't it be nice to have a privet website which contain all of our files on everything for our games, in which everyone could use it to make there games? Really though, those of us who unites to make this Phantasy Star: Legends of Algo title would unite their games and make them different chapters on the same disc. At the end of playing all stories a final chapter would appear which will be composed out of every game put together, why don't we make a weird mishmash of all of them as if the (Pardon my nerdy Star Trek) Time Frame Continuum had suddenly screwed up. You know lets take all of our stories, change some things to make it that the players are running through different universe...
I'm sure a Dark Force could have caused such a thing
That thing could be huge no? The games would all share graphics so basically have a visual continuity and the story could be amazing if we put all our heads into it, think about it. Heck you can also look to the future has well... Wait for it! You never know what can happen in a collaboration, we might hate, dislike and never finish it, but it might just be the contrary. Maybe working together on projects that we all love and sharing expertise in them, to me sounds good, I would make graphics for you if you want, I can alter things or start from scratch and share all of this for every game this collaboration is cooperating on. Something I will not do though is allow the original graphics to be used for the other games, but what I will do is take my original graphics and rework, change or alter them for anyone or allow anyone who wants to take them and change them themselves, but remember I proud of these graphics and I want them used in "my" game, I just want you guys to respect this from me, I'll help anyone out who wants my help, I just want you to tweak them a bit so that they aren't exactly like my originals and anyway different worlds different characters
Anyway, in the end, we could creature something wild, think about it, this could be exactly what the fans are waiting for, a new Phantasy Star title that stays faithful to the style and feel of our old favorite games. In the process perhaps even seal a team that could perhaps even invent their own game together in the future, hell you never know unless you try.

I hope that answers you question Ben and Zucca I think I understand a little more what you were talking about way before but why don't we just put all of them to better use.

Any thoughts?