Hello guys.

The game project page has really grown but organisation and participation have not been effective hence the lack of interest and lack of games.

Why? So many people and yet no games. Well, there are various reasons but rather than list the problems, implementing solutions is what we'll do.

After speaking with Ojukwu24 and others, we've decided that the best way to move forward is to make progress visible by allowing members to follow and

develop ideas that interest them.

Interested individuals ( programmers, artists, designers etc ) can now discuss whatever ideas interest them and proceed to form groups. They can easily find

help from the original project page and the individual game pages.


PS: Please think seriously about your ideas before posting them and make sure you can follow up on whatever task you want to help accomplish before posting.

LET'S BEGIN.

4 GAME IDEAS:

If you want to help with anything; levels, idea, characters, graphics, just signup and say which. Please make sure you'll be able to participate frequently before signing up.

Images below.

1: VULCAN'S CHALLENGE. A simple platform game. This project was started to further my understanding of unity3d and level design. It consists of a green hooded character as the protagonist and different classes of monsters as minions of the antagonist, Vulcan. Familiar level elements of the platform genre such as moving platforms and spinning obstacles are present. Puzzles will be developed and implemented.

A basic prototype of the game can be downloaded from http:// sourceforge.net/projects/naijadev/files/Vulcan.7z/download

2: MAD SCIENTISTS: This is a 2d game. It's been developed with flashpunk. I decided to use simple characters and no animation yet cuz my art skills need improvement. No prototype has been uploaded yet cuz I'm having a hard time creating the necessary sprites for the level.

The game is simple in that all you do is go though the levels fighting bad guys and finally meeting a the mad scientist after about three levels. Each mad scientist will have an extremely crazy mutated guy you'll have to fight before you can stop him.

3: AFRICA: A JOURNEY THOUGH TIME. This is a point and click real time strategy game similar to age of empires and others. I'm working on the control elements but the game will need knowledge topics like pathfinding. It'll also require good graphics which I can't provide yet.

The game involves a young chief who has to protect his village after his father dies. units can go on expeditions to magical/evil lands/forests, other kingdoms etc. Users will also conquer and unify kingdoms in free or predefined scenarios. It'll eventually come to the early colonial years and will experiment with issues such as the slave trade.

This project requires a lot of planning and dedication so things will only be able to progress quickly if users who sign up for this are sure they want to develop it.

4: RUN: This is a simple run and jump game with an African backstory. It involves a young boy running through africa to find and solve various issues. This can be in 3d or 2d depending on the graphic artists who sign up. I'm still coming up with plans for it so no pictures yet.

5: Any artist in the house? If you can create animations for a fighting game, we can make it. 3D or 2d. Serious characters or comical characters.

@GA, nice one. I have been very busy,but I will find a way to squeeze out time to start smthing. I just wish some one can volunteer to supply the graphix and animations. Anyways,we must move forward.

@gameaddict. What language are you using to write the games??,

@ga. Maybe I will find a time to come to that your side, are u staying in that area or schooling there, I need to see u, !!!!, and for that animation(2d animatn right?), is it that you can't design the character, or u can't animate it?, and the tool you are using doesn't have any animation support(even a simple one)??, @ga. Maybe I will find a time to come to that your side, are u staying in that area or schooling there, I need to see u, !!!!, and for that animation(2d animatn right?), is it that you can't design the character, or u can't animate it?, and the tool you are using doesn't have any animation support(even a simple one)??,

@lugan: I'm schooling in unilag. I'm using unity3d (javascript + c#) for the 3d games and flashpunk (a flash game development library) for 2d.

Regarding the design and animation, I'm finding it hard to do both,  I can't draw well yet and animation depends on good knowledge of shapes and postures. My art skills need a lot of improvement. I'll need a lot of time to learn more about colors, shades,  postures and stuff. I did try to practice last semester but many things came up. I'll try again this semester though. 

Got any tip for me?

i want to suggest that we should start with a tiled base game, you know from there we can then go into the complex one, i think for now that we dont have many volunteers we should just work on small project(for now), and you know tiled base games does not require complex animtion, what do you think?, and before i forget i have downloaded my java sdk and wireless toolkit, so i guess i have enter the same shoe with you(he he he)

@omo to dun. You have a big point there,but I believe this one won't be futile, !!!no IT WON'T BE!!!!(I know the reason why but I will keep it to myself)

@omo_to_dun: Thanks for the heads up. The first project page was an eye opener for me. I got to understand a lot of things about motivation and dedication. It has also taught me a lot about what being an indie developer is.

At first, I thought it'd be easy to leverage the talent in the community but I now understand that it's beyond posting and signing up. People need want something before they really put any effort into it. Many also have innate desires to see results very quickly as you've noted.

Rather than waiting for people now, I'm personally going to do as much as I can regarding the projects I'm involved with, I waited a lot in the beginning so that the games that might result would have the backing of the community and therefore be infused with the coolest aggregation of ideas and effort but I can see that might not happen. I'll have to work within my means now and move with whatever support I can find no matter how little.

Indie development is not about great graphics and the coolest gameplay. It's about belief, innovation, dedication, fun and learning. That is what is going to happen from now on whether it's just two developers or the nairaland community.

@lugan: cool, What tile based game are you planning to make?
Regarding volunteers, I'm not too worried about people signing up. I'm planning to fill my prototypes with reusable entities and stuff. I think it'll do till I decide if an idea is worth more effort or should be rethought.

I'm quite the opposite of the typical nigerian with regards to what youguys have been discussing. Which is why I can't help yopu much. I'm part of a 4 man team working on a game using A6 Game Studio. It's about a typical African hunter who stumbles on a quest. All the African gods each have a challebge they've put forth and any human who beats a particular challenge will be blessed by the god of that challenge. It will play similar to Thr Prince of Persia or Devil May Cry series. We're just 2 programmers, one 3D model maker/animator and the last guy isn't even actively working. He just helps with ideas and will help with the marketting.
I'd love to play test anything you make so I can give tips on what to improve. Maybe you guys can do the same for me.

@omo_to_dun: nice ideas. I'll think about it. I think both should be easy to implement if we do things right.

@Tolu619: Nice, I've used gamestudio before but I had little knowledge of some concepts then. Your game idea is great and I'd love to help with play testing.

@omo_to_dun: Can't find the PM button, Tried to register on your site but it seems to stop after the 'ok, submitting form message'. I've done the first two but I'm just seeing the third one for the first time. Interesting problem.

I'm almost done with tetris. The ludo game may require planning the grid path of the teams perhaps in a predefined way as we'll have to highlight every possible move for a player. Any ideas?

can help in d art/animation depts if a clear brief is provided, and d task isnt time-intensive.

@OKX: Thanks, I'll post some details soon.

@everyone: visit my unofficial naija independence site http://naija.host-ed.net/

Having some problems implementing possible paths for the ludo game. I might have to use rigid methods. Anybody tried anything?

Good something is already coming up, gameaddict nice job!!!!, the jsdk and jwtk I downloaded did not install, infact is weird, I need to go get it from another site, !!!!, and again google this open source 3d animation and game engine software(blender 3d), the games are written in python!!!!, I av problem installing it too!!!!, uhn I'm like fed up!!!!!

@lugan: sup? Happy Independence!!!

You could try searching the web using the error phrase you get during installation. Some people might have faced the problem before.

Regarding blender, I've been using it for some time now. I'm comfortable with modeling to some extent but I don't have a good grasp of texturing and animation yet.

I made a character a few days ago. I'm using toon shaded materials for now and will create different variations of the character using colors once I'm done animating some basic cycles. I'm still deliberating the best way to attach guns to the model. I think I'll model it in the characters file if positioning it will be easier so that the weapon customization will be easier.

Good good good!!!!!, have u try out the game engine that comes with it, and again is it too hard to use, I will recommend u to do some basic tutorial in their site blender.org, for me I will just say I'm stranded, I don't know what to do now!!!!, I need all those software to at least tryout what I av learnt online!!!

I haven't tried using the game engine in blender. I'm only using it 3d asset creation for now.

My skool registration begins tomorrow. If you can come around, post a list of files you need to download and I'll try downloading them.

@gameaddict am so impressed u use Blender well u should dabble into Away3d and use Swift3d it will import 3d objects to flash layers and u can use them as games, though it will be Pseudo-3d changing layers. i find it hard learning blender i can use away3d to create a simple scene but without objects and Animation Rigging what's the point.whats ur email? so i can share thoughts with you. also i saw ur blog u're a Qt user.got interest in you [No Homo ] take care bro.

Game Addict, your model reminds me of Salvadore from Borderlands 2. I personally love cel shaded graphics more than regular graphics. The game I'm working on isn't cel shaded cuz the rest of my team doesn't want that, but the game I'm personally working towards(which I'll make when I'm more experienced) will be Cel shaded. Has anyone watched Appleseed: Ex Machina? I always picture my game looking like that.

@pc guru: lolz, here's my mail: (removed)

@Tolu619: thanks. What graphic style are you guys using for the current game? I think any work I do in the nearest future will have elements of cel shading in it partly because I love it and because I don't know how to create more realistic ones yet.

Please if you know any tutorial site that has clear or preferably step by step videos or written text on modeling, texturing or animation, you should post it so I and others can learn.

oh didn't see it before i kinda draw well but all these Anime/Manga type of drawing.

@gameaddict. Ok then
-Java sdk(also known as java standard edition)v1.4.2 or above
-Java wireless toolkit(it contains the midp 2.0 game API)any version
- Blender 3d(any version)
- Python/pygame
For now that's all, maybe I will visit your blog to get your phone number or you can post your number here, ,I will call you and discuss how and when I'm gonna meet you!!!, thanks a lot

@gameaddict nice one, i originally signed up for the first one but got distracted.
I'm interested and i've started learning C++ cos of game programming.
I also think the project should move to its own website with a mailing list.
I also think we should all meet in person(those that live in lagos).

@lugan: I've downloaded all except the JWT. Do you want it specifically or should I download JME? It's got more features than JWT. My number is 08138491968.

@A-Zed: Welcome back. A suitable site for Nigerian game developers will be great and is feasible but we are still in the early stages. We still need to get an encouraging number of people who are not only interested but will participate effectively. A lot of people signed up on the original project page but progress was lacking even in terms of screenshots.

What are your suggestions and plans regarding the meeting for those based in Lagos?

We pick a place where we could all meet and fix a date for the meeting preferably a weekend. My thinking is that whoever will bother to show up must be 70% interested.
At this meeting, we exchange ideas and draw out a map/ timeline. if possible we share out tasks to each person there.

@gameaddict oh great thanks, i will prefer the jwt, i will ring your number later!!!, were you able to install it??, and do u think it will be suitable for window xp, thanks my man!!!!