Hi,
Let me start by introducing myself!
I'm a street artist who wants to make an NES 8-bit computer game.
You can check out my stuff on
www.Bandit.es and more recently i participated in the Cans festival in London together with the best stencil artists in the field today organized by Banksy and pictures on walls.
(pictures here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/9724757@N0 ... 955391837/ )
And i wanted to see here if there are any people who want to (and can) make a computer game for NES which you will get payed for! (an advance and monthly or as the project progresses)
So no "favors" asked but skills and know-how
The game would get a real release on new NES carts,the ones you can buy online, have real packaging, a manual.. etc.
I'm new to NES programming,and in fact i would just be the project director/game designer and of course do artwork for the game.
I can't stress enough that this is a very serious inquiry !
So post only if really interested and if you have the skills.
Thanks in advance.
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Wow, I wish this happened more often...
Unfortunately, I can't be of any help myself... damn I wish I knew how to make NES games right now.
I have at least some of the skills. I haven't had a chance to get my full portfolio online yet, but here's
some of it.
Quote:
I can't stress enough that this is a very serious inquiry !
Is it really
that serious anyway ? We already got a message like this once and the author claimed it was serious, but it wasn't as he never replied.
If this is serious tell us one more thing or two about the project so that we can see more or less what it is about : I personally see no common point between NES programming and street art.
By the way there seem to be a unlicenced developper in Spain that did a
few games. Have this anything to do with that ?
Hi Bregalad,
The offer will be as serious as the advance people will get as soon as they sign on for the project =)
Nobody is gonna start without seeing how real this is going to be.
First i felt i needed to know if this could be done, because i dont want to go through the trouble of figuring everything else out and then ending up here and having no dev team to make it.
The link between streetart and 8-bit games will be made for the very first time,that's why you can't see it =)
Let's face it,what is more bad-ass than a new NES computergame featuring world renown streetartists?
More details about the project will come this week, because altho i have the game design roughly in my head i still have to make it into a solid concept and talk to the other street artists i want to include.
Again, nobody is going to have to do any coding/designing before they get an advance to show them my good and honest intentions.
So i need to know how many people would i need,who they are and how much time it would take to make a sidescrolling/rpg game.
Thanx again,
It sounds kind of interesting... I have some experience, and I'm currently making an RPG and a Sidescroller. However, it really depends on what you expect from this project. The NES has its limits, and there are some things that just cannot be done.
EDIT: Oh, and also, how would one be paid? Via Paypal or something?
Yeah, i'm aware of the limitations.. and i think that ads to the charm and coolness of it.
I don't expect SNES or N64 graphics =) just a solid NES game.
I think PayPal would be the easiest way to pay everyone yes.
Later this week I'll pm everyone who is interested and start a new topic maybe to sort things out and give away more details.
I wasn't talking like SNES or N64, I'm talking like you can only have 3 colors for every sprite types of limitations. Things that you wouldn't normally think of.
Yeah, I'd have to get my Paypal stuff working again, and get it hooked up to a new bank account, since I relocated about 250 miles away.
I'm kinda interested. I'd like to learn more about the project.
Oh if you insist on saying it's serious I guess maybe it is. I guess the project can be serious. But what I'm having trouble to see is serious is that you'd be ready to *pay* people with that. I mean I code a video game on the NES and I find this fun I don't mean to be paid for that. I doubt the cartridge would sell milions anyway but who knowns ?
Now that you mention in there is the sprite of SMB3 painted on a wall in a big town near I live (among with other pictures) I find this very cool an it makes me in a good mod when I see the picture because it makes me think of SMB3.
And yeah I like the picture that says "Don't tell me where to write and where not to" with a cute girl next to it. It sounds quite rebelious and I like that.
Back to the project, I guess we should know more or less the type of the game and the size, to see how hard it would be to code. I personally have a top-down action/RPG game engine for ready to use for
Dragon Skill (beware outdated site). It could be modified to suit another project. Gravity could be added to make a plafrormer instead (in fact I'm secretly planning to do another game with it after the day I'll release Dragon Skill if that day ever comes).
If you are looking for Nintendo/Famicom music composition, I may be interested in composing.
My current interest is experimentation of the 2a03 chip to see what its limits are, but I am capable of standard musical composition.
http://2a03.free.fr/?p=pub&dir=B00daW is somewhat of a portfolio. [/spam]
Bregalad wrote:
But what I'm having trouble to see is serious is that you'd be ready to *pay* people with that. I mean I code a video game on the NES and I find this fun I don't mean to be paid for that. I doubt the cartridge would sell milions anyway but who knowns ?
Unless it's going to be included on some multicart bundled with
famiclones. Once Wii and Virtual Console came out, Nintendo started to crack down harder on mall kiosks that sold famiclones bundled with
illegally copied multicarts. But a lot of
dedicated TV games are based on some variant of NOAC (single-chip famiclone) tech bundled with non-infringing games.
Care to make up a mock screenshot?
I'm sure being paid to do something they like would mean a lot to some people here. On the other hand, mixing your hobbies with responsibilities and deadlines might just kill all the fun. I'm not exactly sure on which side I am though! =)
I know I'd like to learn more about this project. You said it was a side scroller featuring street artists, right? The "side scrolling" part is easy for me, as I've already completed a very fast 8-way scrolling engine for my Sonic game. Now, there must be something really unique about the "street artist" aspect that makes the game interesting, so the "key" must be somewhere else.
I understand that you might not want to get into much detail about this for being afraid that someone might steal your ideas, but if you feel like you can share anything else, please do.
Anyway, it seems like there are a few people interested in this, myself included, so how would you pick the right guys for the job? Lucky are the (few) ones that have some sort of portfolio on-line, I guess. Well, count me in for further discussion! =)
...perhaps he wants "top-line programmers", or "people with plently of NES hardware knowledgement for software programming"... :S
Quote:
The "side scrolling" part is easy for me, as I've already completed a very fast 8-way scrolling engine for my Sonic game.
And what about the thousand of posts I've seen you crying arround as you had big trouble to make your background scroll ? And now you said you did this easily ?
The problem is that if you pay some people of NESdev to do this and not some other for no apparent reason, then it's a risk some people will be kind of jealous and will refuse to help/aid the project at all, and the people being paid with his other projects. With "no money involved" mentailty this wouldn't happen, as everyone would be glad to help a bit if they can, and in the end if you somehow make significan money with it share it in proportion of who did the most work overall. Making it sound all serious when in fact it's not goint to be all that serious is probably wrong as well. I canot imagine how loud my dad would laugt at me if I told him "Hey dad I found a summer job for this year I'm goint to code a NES game and be paid for it".
Aside of that I'm of course interested in the project, especially considering the art is the most difficult part for me to do in my game. I'm basically an coder who has most abilities to do a video game but lacks ability to draw cool characters and monsters. After all being told what to do sounds a little more easier than desing all yourself.
I'm make you notice how shameful it's coming here and say "hey gus you'll get $$$" and how it could increase rivality and decrease the mod of nes-devloppers.
Bregalad wrote:
And what about the thousand of posts I've seen you crying arround as you had big trouble to make your background scroll ? And now you said you did this easily ?
It's probably easy now that he's coded it, just as it's kind of easy now that I've coded my scrolling engine. I had such a hard time coding it before, but I have it set up so I can -easily- stick it in almost any game that I make that will scroll. And by the way, "crying around" sounds a little harsh, if you want to know.
I do agree that people might get all bitter and angry since money is involved, but also, money kind of insures that there will be progress in the project. And if there are many people involved, the project should move along fairly quickly. If it's a simple NROM side scroller, it might not take long at all.
I wouldn't even feel bad if I didn't get paid. The only time I'd get annoyed/angry is if I OWED money. If I don't get any, it's not like I'm any worse of than before.
Bregalad wrote:
Quote:
The "side scrolling" part is easy for me, as I've already completed a very fast 8-way scrolling engine for my Sonic game.
And what about the thousand of posts I've seen you crying arround as you had big trouble to make your background scroll ? And now you said you did this easily ?
Seriously, I didn't even read the rest of your post yet. I seriously don't recall "crying" about the scrolling, as that was completed pretty smoothly. What I actually had problems with was blanking part of the screen to hide glitches caused by vertical scrolling (which, BTW, are present in 80% of commercial games that scroll in both directions).
Go on. Find these posts where I "cried" about my scrolling system, I'd like to see that. BTW, even if I did have trouble blanking a part of the screen, that'd not be a problem when side scrolling. And even if there were any scrolling problems at some point, Celius is right, it may just be easy now because the engine is ready, although this isn't the case. So shut up.
Just read the rest of the post...
Quote:
I'm make you notice how shameful it's coming here and say "hey gus you'll get $$$" and how it could increase rivality and decrease the mod of nes-devloppers.
Well, you were kind of a dick when you said I was "crying around". That's the first effect of the involvement of money I have noticed. My response to you was probably the second.
Seriously, I don't need more money, I can work on plenty of stuff for money. It's just that it would be nice to be paid to program the NES for a change, so I'm interested in hearing more. And when I say "more", I'm actually more interested in what kind of game ideas he has than on how much he's going to pay.
tokumaru wrote:
And even if there were any scrolling problems at some point, Celius is right, it may just be easy now because the engine is ready, although this isn't the case. So shut up.
I honestly think that it may have been a misunderstanding of how offensive "crying around" sounds, so I wouldn't take it to personally/literally.
I think I'd be more interested in what kind of game would be made rather than the money involved, like Tokumaru said. We'll have to learn a little more about the project from the author though.
Just so you guys know, developing a game for money is for a different breed of people. Sometimes people just don't have time to do extra things unless money is involved. What otherwise would be the incentive?
Linux developers do make money.
Oh don't worry I was saying that lighly, not "seriously". You don't have to take this all badly. It's just that when I said scrolling was an easy part of writing a game engine you replied you disagreed and that was complicated if you did it during gameplay, as I don't do it during gameplay. And now you said it was easy. I guess once you did it it's always easy, as Celius said.
Anyway yeah we have to learn more from the author, as I still doubt he was that "serious". Honnestly, who would suddently produce and sell hundreds/thousands of NES games and pay unknown people to do the job all of sudden without being even an already known game developper ?
If you teach me how to then I will help you make a game.
Bregalad wrote:
Anyway yeah we have to learn more from the author, as I still doubt he was that "serious". Honnestly, who would suddently produce and sell hundreds/thousands of NES games and pay unknown people to do the job all of sudden without being even an already known game developper ?
Why would a well known game developer pay others to make a game instead of making it himself? There is nothing strange about a person paying to have a NES game made, as long as this person likes the NES and the type of game in question, but lacks the knowledge to program it himself.
Your art is cool, but for an NES game design I wanted to advise you that game designs are a dime a dozen and it regularly happens that people come around looking for someone to make it work. So you may have to show what's special about this one, to get the attention being sought.
I can do programming, sound, hardware design and manufacturing, general advice. But I'd have to know why to get interested and involved. I don't think anyone here does it for the money.
Hi, and thanks already to everyone posting comments here.
The amounts payed wont be huge,but just so that the project would move
along on a nice pace and not take 2 years to complete =)
I don't think this should create rivalry, at the festival in London i worked with artists who's works sell for thousands of dollars yet there is no rivalry..
we can all respect each other i think for the we do and our personal devotion just as here on this forum.
Of course people's drive shouldnt be the money alone =)
Right now i just want to know who the people are who have the skills and then adress those people with more details..
Thanks again everybody!
Bregalad wrote:
Quote:
The "side scrolling" part is easy for me, as I've already completed a very fast 8-way scrolling engine for my Sonic game.
And what about the thousand of posts I've seen you crying arround as you had big trouble to make your background scroll ? And now you said you did this easily ?
Yes. Those posts are the past, and this topic is the present. Since then, Tokumaru has solved many of the problems.
Quote:
The problem is that if you pay some people of NESdev to do this and not some other for no apparent reason, then it's a risk some people will be kind of jealous and will refuse to help/aid the project at all, and the people being paid with his other projects.
Any more than anyone else who doesn't have a job is jealous of people who have a job?
Quote:
I'm make you notice how shameful it's coming here and say "hey gus you'll get $$$"
Who's Gus?
tokumaru wrote:
Why would a well known game developer pay others to make a game instead of making it himself?
For the same reason that any business hires employees.
And I'd like to see what specific skills are needed on this project.
Quote:
Any more than anyone else who doesn't have a job is jealous of people who have a job?
Yeah, but having a job is supposed to gives you a hard time everyday, and in the end you are paid for you bothering all the day with more or less annoying stuff. Of course not all jobs are that annoying, but overall if you could live with a job or without any job and without the financial and social consequences that this have, most people would chose to not have a job. Hower, if that would happen everybody would do nothing, and in the end everyone would die hungried as nobody would cultivate/sell food for everyone.
What I mean is that you usually don't be paid to have fun (okay there is soccer players who are paid bilions to kick a ball). NES coding can be both fun and annoying at the same time, but overall it's a lot more fun than annoying, and there is probably more people that would like code a NES game than people that would buy it.
Now back on the subject, you still didn't mention what skills you are exactly looking for. After you've done a whole load of routines it's not hard to copy/paste them and modify them to be used in a different game. However, probably for example tokumaru's routines and tepple's routines have few in common with mines, while not being better or worse, and megre them would be almost impossible due to the low-level nature of assembly language.
Personally I have probably skills to code a game of decent simplicity, altrouht I haven't released any game yet so I'd feel bad showing off I'm able to code a game. But I have a complete game engine, which has it's limits, but is still complete. I have no skills if you need something like artificial intelligence or something like that.
Yeah, that's another thing. We all code so differently, with different goals in mind. For example, some people make code that will be space-efficient, but have its limits. I'm the type of person who codes trying so hard not to have any limits on anything. I try to make everything as universal and open-ended as possible. However, I don't really have much to show off, because the only game I ever showed anyone was this piece of garbage simply called "The Game" which probably wouldn't even run on the NES because it's coded so sloppily. I believe on my site you can find it, the link's in my signature. But don't worry, my coding style has changed drastically since then.
We also are all used to different assemblers. So a project where we are all working together would be a little complicated, as I understand lots of people around here use assembler-specific macros and stuff.
EDIT: Are signatures not showing anymore? I can't see anyone's... If you're REALLY interested, just click on the www button.
When people are serious about working together on a project, they usually choose a common toolset and coding style for all members to use. Collaborating on a project is different than working on a personal project.
A project like this might need someone who's job is specifically to snap all the code together. Coding styles don't really need to be the same, as long as they can all work together in the end. However, there needs to be a lot of communication between people so there aren't retarded bugs just because one coder doesn't know something another coder did.
I think a configuration manager would be kind of overkill for a project of this size. If any merging is needed, either let each developer merge before committing any changes, or let the lead developer handle it.
And of course like blargg said, agree on a common toolset before getting started. For this kind of project which is relatively small and short-term with no maintenance required after the product is finished I don't know if a common code style is that important. What the developers would have to agree upon is a general design - like which memory areas should be used for what, what the code flow should look like and the principal functions needed.
I wonder if you guys haven't totally scared 8bitbandit off by now.