3D Nigerian Game

It's nice that games today have american, british, chinese, etc themes but I personally think it's time niger gets into this jig. And that is why I started a project to build a 3D action/adventure/RPG niger-based game. I'v made a couple small 3D games before so I know the required concepts behind it. I'm also a 2D artist (photoshop) and a good 3D modeller (3DS max, Maya, Blender).

My personal research brought me to a 3D development framework that I feel will be perfect for this cause, its called "Crystal Space". A good thing about this engine is it's also open source and has a good development community. As you all may know, this kind of project is no small thing, especially if one already has a full time job; But I will strive to devote as much time as is possible to this. I will be giving seasonal feedback on my progress and I will welcome any suggesstions or input from you guys.



Representing Naija to the fullest!!!

Nice concept 2buff. It'll definitely be an original if you pioneer it. But I'd suggest you hook up with one of the gurus from the manga drawing forum http://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-16244.0.html to help you develop your characters since you're not too tight with sketches and colouring.

Good job! Cheers

I played that game too, it's VERY old though. . . i loved shooting those terrorists in the groins intentionally to hear they cry in pains, very hilarious. Crystal space is looking very good it'll be great if you had it on free ware (for us poor people)  , plus i'd love to test the game for you. . .

I'm currently working on a first person shooter game with a Nigerian origin, but being the lazy guy that i am (who dwells on model packs) i haven't really found any cool 3d models i can use out thereanyway the story of the game is on Nollywood, you walk around their conference building shooting goons and at the end of each level you fight a boss (a popular Nollywood actor/actress), you also get the chance to use wicked ammunitions on your 'favourite Nollywood actor/actress like the ak47, mpk5, m4 etc. it should be out around November (coming soon to a free ware gaming site near you).

The development OS is currently windows. But another great thing about the Crystal Space SDK engine is that it is very easy to develop multi-platform apps or port the app to another platform with little or no changes at all. Don't you just love Open-Source? I assure you, I will always keep the multi-platform feature of this project in mind.

Kemji,
     I started another thread ( http://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-69886.0.html) for naira land artists to assist with conceptual arts based on the sci-fi naija motivation whenever they are chanced. 

Thanks guys.

Engine.

Open dynamics engine (ODE) physics enginethough i want to change to Dimension 3.

please could you also give me a link of some of the games you've made, thanks

why well i also suffered hard disk failure, thanks to otigba people selling fake stuff o. Well there are so many free servers now, plus you could also register for a sourceforge account.

Concept art batch 3

ENGINE UPDATE: I have changed engines. I am now using the Ogre 3D SDK. The Ogre is also an open source engine with the major difference being that it ONLY deals with graphics (with maybe some basic physics).

This of course requires more work on my part as I have to manually incorporate other 3rd party modules to handle sound, input, advanced physics, etc. I know this sounds like I like being a suffer-head, but these are my reasons:

True Modularity and Complete Control over the Product:
           Crystal Space [CS] gives you everything, which is nice. But say it turns out that I do not like the CS sound engine, why should I be stuck with it? I should be able to throw it away and use another sound engine as neatly and as easily as I would the CS sound. This matches up with the next reason,

Neatness and Cleanliness
           Ogre 3D is by far THE NEATEST OPEN-SOURCE FULL-GRAPHICS SDK out there [at the time of this post], and you can quote me on that. The design of the engine from top to bottom exhibits thoughtful, streamlined Object Oriented Programming.

With that pointed out, the ogre is on par with CS's graphical abilities, if not even slightly better.

Always an appreciated resource when someone volunteers their knowledge. Thanks hexgear.

hey!, i felt science fiction is usually associated with spaceships, have not seen any concept yet. i have a scifi dual-fighter i built sometime ago, never did an animation on them. but if you request i kind do a  very very shot movie clip on them, at least  i will finally have a reason to have fun on them. here is a sample image of it. 

Actually Yes iparrot, it is a 3D nigerian game with a scifi theme. 
spaceships have been common scifi entities in most media, but not a required one.
From the direction the story is going right now, there might not be a need for interstellar spaceships as I still want to "keep things real" to a point, but also portray Naija as a technologically advanced place.
But no fear; a few original, not-so-cliche "concepts" are being introduced to the thing. I'll let y'all know when each of them have been implemented successfully in the future bcus they have to be tested to see if it "connects" with the game and theme.

Okay. . . my bad.

The characters are very far from finished. This is where I hope to draw from some of the artistic resources of Nairaland. The character art thus far have just been, more or less, templates I made to encourage people to join in with the conceptualization process either by creating new ones or making suggestions to what has been created.

I'm happy you realized this. Do you have any suggestions that you think would make any of them represent more?
Thanks.

EDIT: The sketches also lack color. When coloured, skin pigmentation alone can be a surprisingly visually convincing factor when representing a character's race despite their facial features.

Thats a completely respected concept, one I share as well. Being a programmer by hobby, this is something I spend most of my free time doing purely out of love.

I am fully aware of gaming projects that start and then crumble half-way though; and make no mistake, many more will share this fate in the nearest future. Apart from the usual constraints with time and other resources, the major assassin of all these projects is the lack of a motivation.
Every project should have a strong motivation; something to back it up when things go shaky. These projects were mostly people just "wanting to make a game".

This project is founded upon the need to introduce naija properly into the gaming scene (with as much quality as possible); not just to simply create another videogame from the thousands out there. It's also an oppurtunity to give Naija some status in terms of the illusion of technological advancement as most Nollywood movies, though pretty good, don't quite help in that area. I'd hate to sound so deep, but it is, in a sense, a patriotic project. For now and afterwards, I believe this is a unique and strong enough motivation that will keep this project alive.

As always, your contribution will be appreciated. Thanks in advance for playing your part in making this idea a reality.

PS: I used the term "illusion" because not every media from other countries accurately represents where they are at in terms of technology. They over-exxagerate some things, and people believe it anyway, and they get the props. It's a science I know all too well about. That's why whenever people out there hear the word "Africa" they immediately envision jungles, huts, wild animals, nomads and nothing more. Don't know about you, but I'm getting pretty sick of that visage. There's more here; a lot more.