Anyone Interested in something... Different?

Client Development
#1

Not entirely different, mind you. But I’m someone who has been lurking in this community since the ZO days, and lately I’ve been thinking of a game design that brought me back looking for people from this world.
I’m not a programmer, I’m not excessively talented, but I have been tinkering with a game design for a long time that is essentially Graal on roids. I have design docs laying around on paper from years of thinking, but think for a moment of the potential.

We keep all of the core concepts of Graal, we lower the graphics resolution a little. We make everyone an ‘admin’ of an expanding open world. We make a market for assets, an in-game editor. We give scripting values a ‘cost’. We have a mechanic allowing control of territory, and we dump off the idea of blocks, everyone can just ‘draw’ on the map. The kicker? The currency is used for editing.

If anyone here is familiar with Second Life, the DS series Drawn to Life, or the mobile GPS game Ingress, I’m sure you can see the potential. Anyone who grew up in the Graal community from the dial up ages can see what a new generation could do with something like this.

Many of us are here because we all know the world doesn’t have anything to ‘replace’ graal. I see a lot of people trying to remake it point for point. There is a greater potential here. There is more that we can pull out of this community.

I ended up here because about a year ago I was trying to put together a good working copy of Graal with 4 player local co-op to show my wife. I played a lot with my little brother and best friend growing up in offline times. We built massive worlds. I found a backup of some stuff, but I needed more. I have been slowly picking up the bits from NekoRoy’s site, but saw the closing news, did a little research, and thought the best thing I could do is pitch my game design and see if any other talent is out there.

I prototyped a Graal Clone in MMF when I was a kid. I can still art. I can music. I’m rusty on everything, all alone, and with a design a bit far beyond my scope. Is anyone here interested in something… beyond graal?

#2

khaldown4 Not sure if anyone remembers this. :slight_smile: Had a short spurt on original levels team, but had a thing with Pachuka, then I was on levels for a while in Val. I had ftp access too when this went down. I remember we all talked over ICQ.

Have a zip of my unapproved classic location and a personal world I used to trade with a friend, but most of my files are wiped from Graal history due to negligence and floppy disks.

I usually went by Fireseal online, but I roleplayed a lot of different characters. I doubt anyone remembers me, but it would be interesting to see an ancient face. :3

I’ve built two full worlds. One I published on a CD and passed copies around school. Most of my knowledge of technology revolves around this stupid old game. I would have never learned how to PC without it.

I’m not sure what I’m trying to get out here. I think I might be useful to this community somehow. It might get me back in to creating. I’m 32. I’m an art and tech dropout. I’m lost. I’m pretty high right now. I want to be part of the team that makes ‘graal 2’. And if my dream game that I’ve been plotting out for 10 years never comes to fruition, after this NekoRoy shit, I’d at least like to step up as the next harassable graal librarian, even if my library is light.

I used to be the admin for animetia.com and run studiochibico.com. I hosted that shit myself, got in to linux for it, went all oss nuts. I can draw all weaboo, do the pixel art, design, write, whatever. I just never learned to ‘code’ in anything but gscript, lua for wow, and whatever second life’s script is called. I can script for other games, not make my own. I could probably draft up a prototype in game maker, but not build an mmo from the ground up.

I guess I’m looking for a team, or to be part of one. I have a job. I have a wife. I don’t have much time… But this is my dream. To see a game that brings out people’s creativity, tests their morals, teaches them through experience. To re-create what my childhood offered me in every way, but do it right. Reward creation, don’t squander it. Give the tools, make them easy, fun… I’ll shut up now.

Who is here that wants to make a game? I’m so confident in the design I’m aching to professionally draft it and send it to chucklefish for consult. I don’t even care if it’s jacked, it just needs to exist. We need to dethrone this nostalgic child trap.

#3

Thats basically what everyone is trying to do here. Some peeps are actually developing their own stuff already. Im not in anyway saying don’t follow through with your ambitions, but peeps here tends to have their own separate views on how it should be done. However, it would be neat to see if you can somehow consolidate some efforts.

#4

stop trying to make graal 2.0 happen
it’s never going to happen

I don’t have much time…

yeah it’s double not going to happen

#5

Anyone checked out http://sparmmo.com ???

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#6

Yeah it’s the closest to a new Graal we’ll ever get.
The developer of Spar Online said he would add quests in the future. But for now, only spar is a little dry for me. My hopes are on the side of Spar Online… and Rou’s project.

#7

It’s fun, the char customization and spar queue is nice

#8

Oh, and, there’s also Trulion Online, being made by the old Zone manager, Tashkin. And a few others.
https://forum.exuberantgames.com/
https://www.truliononline.com/

#9

If i am not mistaken its the one James205 was working on using a basterized unity engine. He linked me to it a month or two back. I’d have to get on steam and ask.

#10

It’s nice to see all of this out there, but I do wonder what a concentrated effort could accomplish. Looks like everyone has bits and pieces of good. Would love to build something that brings the big community back.

#11

I don’t normally like to comment on these sort of things, because as James has agreed with me on in the past, it’s generally better to show and not tell. In other words, having a worthy product to show before talking a big game.

IMO everyone is working with radically different technologies, and I can only speak for myself, but I think my short term and long term goals for my project are also radically different in many ways.

I’m writing my own game engine, one specifically tailored towards rapidly creating 2D multiplayer games (think Unity or the RPG maker of Zelda “MMOs”), so my current project is simply a stepping stone for my future games and I’m already pretty far long as the scripting API is mostly complete. In many ways, I’ve been working on it on and off for the past 2-3 years. I have had my wife and software development contracts to keep me busy, but things are coming along pretty well.

I’m also currently not interested in releasing anything for mobile, although I could make spin-off games in the future, I’m interested in PC-first support for my current projects, and console support in the future (IE: Nintendo Switch).

My point being that the projects are incompatible in many ways, both in terms of technology and goals, it’s radically different, and my project specifically is not compatible with other projects already using established monolithic engines.

That being said, there would be nothing wrong with different communities keeping in contact and keeping a positive relationship with each other. James has tried to reach out to me on friendly terms, but I tend to have a very engineering-focused mindset and have my head in the sand until I’m ready. Perhaps that’s something about myself that I can work on in the future.

There are several projects trying to make something in the “Zelda-like MMO genre” or whatever you want to call it, another one that wasn’t listed being Maloria. Although I think Spar has been the most impressive so far in its ability to organize a team and community.

That being said I think the best thing for the projects is for people to try to keep a positive and mature attitude, to avoid the pitfalls of toxicity and negativity that such an old community can sometimes bring. Especially when there are specific actors who try to stir up that kind of trouble out of boredom, immaturity, or whatever reason. I may not be involved in other projects, but I respect anyone who is trying to create something or work towards something positive or towards a dream. Life is short, which makes how you spend it all the more important, it’s best to remember that.

If you truly want to help with any project the most universally useful thing you could practice is pixel art, and to release things under an open license such as CC-BY-3.0. Although I don’t personally need any help in this department, as I have my own proprietary pixel artists, including my wife, especially as I don’t feel like dealing with legal headaches and copyright issues in the future. However, it could help potential community servers.

If anyone is interested in my project specifically, it’s best to learn Typescript or Javascript for scripting for when the time comes (which should be soon enough).

#12

kingdom tribes, spar online, and tashkins game all seem like there gonna do really well

#13

I like the idea of KT, but, Stefan hired the rudest prick he could find as a manager.

#14

Rou, I really appreciate you weighing in as someone actually down the road with a game in hand. I’ve been thinking this project out a lot through the years, and it was seeing your screenshots laying around that got me invigorated and asking the community here what’s up.

I’m excited to see what you pump out in the future, and I swear I remember you from back in the day. I kind of winded down and realized I don’t have very much time to invest in working on a game from the ground up, I just want to get back in to this world in a special way.

Maybe I won’t ever get out the game that I wanted to make, but if someone gets close, I’d be just as excited. Creativity is what brought me back here.

I think I’d totally have the time to do something to help out. I am good with art, I’ve just been standing still in the world. I need an outlet, and your project might be perfect, if it’s as you describe. I might even be able to prototype my game on your engine if it is that flexible. :slight_smile:

I’m really interested in running some sort of asset market or database, though, if you don’t have plans to. It would be great to get everything organized for people that want to build easily with public assets. Seeing what people make has always been my favorite part of this sort of game. I remember someone made a clone of street fighter in a .graal, Just one round, but an impressive demo, still.

And thanks everyone, for showing me what’s out there. I’m sure my little game design still has a place in the world if I ever get around to it now. It’s too daunting to do without help, since it’s basically 2D Second Life with Territory control, but I’ll get a team together some day… Maybe when I have more time and refined skills. Until then, just hundreds of draft pages in books on a shelf. ._. I gotta go digital.

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