I was gratified to find that the response to the news items regarding game development within the community was nothing short of overwhelming. Coders, artists, writers, QA folks, designers...an entire spectrum of skillsets backed by fiery enthusiasm was evident. But having worked on community-drive projects before, reality does set in. As soon as the real work begins, people drop out like flies. The ones who do stay usually stick around until the vision is something they don't enjoy. Then they go away. What's left is the dedicated core who, if they lose their direction and leadership, will tend to crumble apart. Entropy in action. A few people have suggested the very thing I'm going to propose to make this thing a project that will see completion, and not in ten years either. I want a community-built project completed and a shippable beta in six months. Sound impossible? It's not. It just takes leadership and dedication. So the proposal goes like this. I do in fact have a fleshed-out design document that is complete enough to allow a QA pro to look it over and suggest improvements to avoid long-range problems. After that, it goes to the coders and artists to build the engine and content. The writers handle documentation and story. I'll creative direct the whole thing, with assistance from a couple of UF staff geeks who have the skills to architect and manage the technology side. They, like me will be doing this in their spare time. The next step is for me to post the document for all to review. It should be up in the next couple of days, like Tuesday evening or Wednesday during the day. Once it's up, I'd like those who are interested to read it over and come up with suggestions and improvements to the implementation. Although there has to be one person proctoring the entire thing, I do want this to be a collaborative effort. To answer the most common questions about this whole thing that I've received: it's a real-time, first person, tactical space simulator with a strategic layer. None of this "World War II Fighter Combat in Space" business; a real-world physics model and an emphasis on information warfare are central. The vision is to provide a game that requires thinking and planning instead of fast reflexes to succeed. More details in a couple or so days, along with the design document. Should be an interesting exercise, no matter how we cut it!
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