Game-Demo Godot

Question

There was a proposal to create a game demonstrating the engine's capabilities and able to improve the finances of the engine developers (maybe ours too). I think it is logical to discuss this in a separate thread.

It is reasonable that there are much more players than game developers and they, respectively, can donate considerable amounts of money.

The development of such a game will contribute to both the expansion of Godot's popularity and the discovery of problems and bugs in the engine — their registration and documentation.

For the skeptics, I will give examples of successful free games that have existed and developed for several years.

Classics:

Battle for Wesnoth

Warzone 2100

Lesser known:

MegaGlest

0 A.D.

I, for my part, suggest that we consider creating a Sims-like Life Simulator. It's a niche with virtually no competition and a wide reach of potential players.

First it is possible to make a very small settlement (farm) with time expanding the game to the city… and beyond.

One of the features of such a game can be the presence of built-in constructors for creating in-game content that will attract the attention of players who want to independently expand the game — Generators of characters, buildings, vegetation. Such constructors can be framed in the form of Godot Assets, which will allow developers to easily embed them in their games.

What are your suggestions and thoughts?

Dredge

Answer 1

Hmm… I put a picture in the beginning, but it didn't show up in the theme preview. Either a glitch or it was a paid option.

Dredge

Answer 2

Imho, it ought to be a commercial game. Free games don't exactly create good publicity for engines they're built upon.

Bumper

Answer 3

Imho, it ought to be a commercial game. Free games don't exactly create good publicity for engines they're built upon.

On top of which an immediate problem that would rear it's head would likely be that majority of 'gamers' willing and able to donate towards it would rather see the money go towards the game itself. Few that would likely sympathize with the goal of funding the underlying engine itself. I'm not saying it couldn't work, blender open movies worked out well enough, but 'tis hairy business for sure.

Option

Answer 4

I was deliberately disregarding the whole direct engine funding aspect in my remark. Producing a good looking commercial game can have far reaching and lasting, albeit indirect impact on the engine prospects than raising funds directly through a community project of likely dubious quality. It's not either or, of course. I'm just stating that the former has much more publicity potential that can translate into subsequent influx of financial attention 🙂

Bumper

Answer 5

I am planning to make a series of mini games that use Godette as main character or maybe as narrative figure, though the sad thing is even like 80% of godot users don't know about Godette being the godot engine's official brand figure.

For a community driven demo project, personally I would recommend a 2d tile based pixel farming game, since it is pretty hard to produce a decent and neat demo with godot 3D in a few months.

Awad

Answer 6

Imho, it ought to be a commercial game.

If a person wants to play but doesn't want to pay, they will almost always find a way. If the game will be in demand genre (The Sims 4 Hits 10 Million Active Users), we can expect a significant influx of funds simply by statistics.

There is an example of a completely free and successful game. Unfortunately - NSFW.

390
Paid members

$1,419
Per month

In my opinion for one developer — very not bad.

Few that would likely sympathize with the goal of funding the underlying engine itself.

I don't see that as a problem. How to divide the received funds is the concern of those who received them — the game developers. In my project I would divide the funding into two streams: funding only the game and share with the developers of tools (game engine, 3D-modeling software, etc.).

Producing a good looking commercial game

Good looking — I agree, but why commercial?

If you accept the idea of creating a sims-like game, I can imagine the way of its advertising and distribution. I'm tight with the sims community. I'm even a moderator on a local fan site.

Dredge

Answer 7

For a community driven demo project, personally I would recommend a 2d tile based pixel farming game

I was considering making a 2D game (along the lines of Sims 1). But came to the conclusion that it's too much graphic work. 2D showcases mostly the abilities of the artist, 3D the engine and programmer.

Dredge

Answer 8

just make two basic NPCs in a house that follow a routine and occasionally interact with each other. then, if you manage to finish that, imagine scaling that to an entire town.

Why imagine? Yep, that's the concept I intend to follow.

for the most part people who want to play the sims play the sims. and then keep playing the sims. and then buying the bazillion expansion packs. and then adding in mods. and they never branch out because the sims is practically endless.

I look at the situation "from the inside" and it is not quite so. If you give players the ability to create and share content, a lot of people will drop the Sims for a game like this.

Did you know that Sims players create a kind of visual novels? One of my tutorial games is based on that kind of work.

If players can easily(!) create such novels in 3D — it will be a significant advantage of the project.

And, Warzone 2100 is also a fairly well-known game.

Dredge

Answer 9

I look at the situation "from the inside" and it is not quite so. If you give players the ability to create and share content, a lot of people will drop the Sims for a game like this.

there's not enough of those around to sustain any commercial effort given how much work it would take, is my point. sure, they exist, but as a rule there's more consumers than creators. your view from the inside is kind of warped by being on the inside. you see a disproportionate amount of people who want that because you're in a place where they congregrate. the ones who are happy with it just keep playing.

And, Warzone 2100 is also a fairly well-known game.

I never hear anyone talk about it outside of FOSS gaming. can you give me some examples of people who aren't usually involved with such things talking about it?

Izard

Answer 10

there's not enough of those around to sustain any commercial effort given how much work it would take

That's the point I'm trying to clarify.

your view from the inside is kind of warped by being on the inside. you see a disproportionate amount of people who want that because you're in a place where they congregrate. the ones who are happy with it just keep playing.

The site is basically about the Sims. All versions. Including technical problems. Both game and general computer issues. And I've heard some pretty different opinions. The question is, are there enough people interested in the alternative? Given the total number of Sims players, statistically, there should be quite a few potentially interested.

can you give me some examples of people who aren't usually involved with such things talking about it?

Official Russian-speaking community on VK.com

VK (vkontakte) is in no way related to FOSS

Dredge

Answer 11

Normally, you have to make a game different enough so it attracts attention otherwise it looks like a knock off. Making a Sims clone is like making a Bethesda game clone where a huge team spent years on it. The animation system it would need. The amount of programming to get any kind of lifelike behavior. They spent years on it. Sure, you can get some free models and get something, but selling it? You don't see an Indy game doing something like that because the scope is too large. The best thing to do is pick out some indy games that did a good job and start from there so you have some idea of what is plausible.

Arnelle

Answer 12

The question is, are there enough people interested in the alternative? Given the total number of Sims players, statistically, there should be quite a few potentially interested

probably not enough to sustain a major studio, but an indie project... possibly. I could see it happening if it wasn't a 100% carbon copy and had some kind of unique selling point.

VK (vkontakte) is in no way related to FOSS

oh, it's popular in russia. that's a huge blind spot for me.

I'm gonna switch gears and go positive for a second: smaller teams can cut corners in a way the bigger ones can't. no voice acting is a fourth of the overall work cut.

in fact, thinking on it, it might be a cool idea to make it some kind of life-sim that wasn't about human people but about something else that could excuse moments of less-than-stellar AI. like a zombie life sim, or a robot life sim, or something. it doesn't have to be about humans.

Izard

Answer 13

You are already cutting down scope. If it doesn't look like the sims, and it can work on a simpler animation system without voice, that's at least possible. Animals would be forgiving and different also.

Arnelle

Answer 14

Sure, you can get some free models and get something, but selling it?

"It's clear no one is even reading or comprehending what I'm saying here." ©️ 😿

"some free models"??!!! 🙀

One of the features of such a game can be the presence of built-in constructors for creating in-game content that will attract the attention of players who want to independently expand the game — Generators of characters, buildings, vegetation.

Normally, you have to make a game different enough so it attracts attention otherwise it looks like a knock off.

"different enough" will be in the ability of users to create their own environment. Almost entirely. Commercial developers will never go for this, for the reason that it will reduce their income. They would rather sell DLS (like EA).

I'm also going to work on social and economic relations, so that the game would be closer to a real simulation of society for social experiments (which is not yet at all), but this is in the long term.

For now I envision using MakeHuman for characters, Sweet Home 3D for buildings and Tree It for vegetation.

I was actually going to announce my project a bit later, when I'd have something to show. The recent storm here has sped that up considerably. But if you don't like my suggestion, you can suggest something else. I'll create a separate thread for my project when I'm ready.

like a zombie life sim, or a robot life sim, or something.

Yup, users can replace humans with robots or zombies. I don't like zombies, but I'll think about robots. Thanks for the idea!

oh, it's popular in russia. that's a huge blind spot for me.

Soon it will be a few small spots.

Dredge

Answer 15

Those programs give very bland, generic results. I've used them all. Having the users create their own environment makes it even more complex. You have to have everything the sims does plus. I haven't even played the Sims, but I remember when it came out they were bragging about the millions of lines of code in it. Here's a great idea. We'll all wait until you show us a proof of concept, if you can get a few people to help out, great. Then you can be project leader because I agree if any project has a chance of completion, you can only have one project leader. This really reminds me of the people on game sites that want to make a MMO and do everything the latest greatest does plus so much more.

Arnelle

Answer 16

Having the users create their own environment makes it even more complex.

Yeah, definitely, especially at first. In the beginning, it will be difficult for users to create their own content. If I can convince the developers of Sweet Home 3D to make exporting models a little easier, it will make it much easier to create houses. But, most likely, at the initial stages, buildings will need to be made in a separate program and transferred to the game. Which is not easy.

just make two basic NPCs in a house that follow a routine and occasionally interact with each other

Actually such a game has already been. It was called Singles (can I not give a link to it? 😊 ). I need, for starters, just to repeat it with minor changes. Mostly with customizable characters.

We'll all wait until you show us a proof of concept

I am wary of giving any timelines, for as there has been precedent here, there may be accusations of lying.

Dredge

Answer 17

wouldn't it make more sense to make importing models from outside software easier, rather than integrating it into the game itself? that would be easier on everyone, including the content creators who already have their workflows, I would think.

Izard

Answer 18

wouldn't it make more sense to make importing models from outside software easier, rather than integrating it into the game itself?

I doubt it — lots of different interactions between different types of content are expected... but it will all be prototyped.

But in the beginning it will probably be just that, just importing from other programs... except for characters.

My suggestion was to be able to export to glTF.

that would be easier on everyone, including the content creators who already have their workflows, I would think.

The workflow that content creators use now is probably not going to work in any way.

Dredge

Answer 19

any news?

Underpin

Answer 20

any news?

News about what? Voting reset (probably due to forum migration), but there voted that the game is not needed.

I will try to create a prototype of what I suggested… but it will be very, very not soon.

Dredge