I happen to be idling currently, and could use a little something to keep my design skills going, so I would like to join a project for a short while.
About Me
To give you an idea of who I am and why you might want me, here's a pretty weak self-assessment. I have been programming for 9 years, starting very casually with DM and DarkBASIC. From this I moved through PHP, Perl, C++ and into Java when I joined university.
At university I studied Software Engineering for 4 years, giving me a great opportunity to learn not just programming languages (Java, C, C++, Scheme, AspectJ, ... ), but how to program, and hopefully, design a system and program it well, test it etc. Similarly, this allowed me 60 hours a week to practice my skills for the full 4 years.
Upon leaving university I joined a small British company called Graffica Ltd, working for the past 2 years on one of their new operational air traffic control projects, called LARA. Under this role I took on development of safety assured software, and all the design back and forth that goes with it. I sign off test readiness reviews as part of the safety testing and release process.
An important thing to note is that I don't actually write DM very often, so don't know the whole of the DM reference and procs off by heart, for instance. However in my experience of helping out people's game designs, good logic is fairly universal. So I don't think my lack of experience here will be a burden to anyone who'd like me to work with them, it just slows things down a little.
Regarding work to show off, I only really have a collection of blog posts and my library Event Scheduler. The library has been used well by a few people, in particular Valekor used it to increase his RPG game's server capacity from 50 - 70 players to up to 150.
About You
Unfortunately, I can't really work for Anime games. Aside from a personal opinion that we have quite enough already (but I'd love to see a really good one), I do really struggle to muster the motivation to work on them, even for the challenge of the complexity of the good project people were running.
I will happily work on most other things though, including improving libraries with you, if you'd like. Another area I'd like to work in is existing games, that have been released. I do like the idea of improving a game with a community, no matter how big or small, so that players can see the benefit.
I will not join a team or project for any great length of time. I would imagine that at best, I would probably spend 3 months working with you on particular systems you'd like developed / improved, improving the overall performance and design of your code, improving it's robustness or whatever else you feel would benefit from my skills. It may be less, depending on how I feel. I'll agree a leaving date in advance with you, so you can plan okay.
Compensation
This one is easy. I would quite like with being credited for my work, in whatever way you usually credit people who helped your game out. Just a little something somewhere that says "Yeah, Stephen001 did X, cheers" will do me fine.
I would like to retain some ability to blog about and show examples of the work I did for you. So if you're really paranoid about your source code, we can't really work together. I believe that people learn best through real world examples, so I'd like the option of using my work to teach other programmers, if I feel like doing so later. I will discuss this before doing it, and give your project / game due credit and mention in my blog.
Contact
Let me know what you think, and drop some contact details in the comments if you need to speak with me one-on-one. I'll probably choose the people who are most open with me about the work they want doing and what their project is.
So for example I will view someone posting a quick description / link to their project and telling me what they'd like me to work on in the comments to this blog as very good. A simple "MSN me" with no explanation is something I would probably look at last, if I get a few replies I may not even look at it at all. I like people who are honest and upfront with me.
Of course, maybe everyone is okay for programming help at the moment, which is cool also.
I would be thrilled to have you aboard with the Eternia project, even if it's no longer than a few months.
You can view the game's hub here: http://www.byond.com/games/KhaosParadox/Eternia The front page lists some of the interesting features you could work on, and there's art previews displayed in the screenshots too. Shadowdarke has been working on the game's engine for a good while now, which is basically the main components that the other modules will rely on (i.e. combat needs the interface framework to work). The engine has progressed to the point where we can have almost all of the game's modules listed on the feature sheet worked on. Last week I composed a small team of programmers to begin work on the game's modules, Nadrew being the most notable addition. I feel that we have a wealth of experience within our team, which you can only add to and improve upon. I can invite you into the dropbox that we use to share code if you're interested in working with us at all. I would also be happy to give you full access to the source code, and free choice on any of the project's features that take your fancy. My email and MSN is [email protected] - I look forward to your answer! =) | |
You could've just summed it up with "I am Code Jesus, I am available for (unpaid) hire" Y'know? :P
Anyway, Stephen is really good. And player capacity has actually reached 180 on a good day. But with the hub entry gone 'n all, I can no longer keep track this way. Maybe I should add some player statistics for the lulz. Maybe I'll ask you for help with that, throw in a database connection with a fancy PHP page to display a colorful graph so people can go 'Ooooooh' | |
I'm no one important (especially compared to Khaos's offer!) but I'm a solo-pixel artist developing an RPG. I have a small bit of experience with DM, but not enough to accomplish a full-scale game like the one I'm aspiring for. If you're interested, shoot me a page any time, it should be up 24/7.
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I'm in the process of coming up with a big to-do list for NEStalgia (that I actually promised for Tom over a month ago now... oh the joys of having too much stuff to do!). Part of the reason for that list is to find BYOND developers willing to contribute to NEStalgia either for short-term help, or a longer term staff position.
Anyway, since you're ready and available I have a fairly urgent project that might interest you and be right up your alley. There would also be a small bit of money in it for you (about $100), in addition to my full agreement with the terms of compensation you have listed above. If you're interested then we can communicate more via email, but this is the gist of the project: NEStalgia characters are stored server-side in one large savefile (up to 16 characters per savefile). What we'd like is the ability to take player requests to transfer either individual characters or to merge entire savefiles from two different servers. This would require a web form for the person to request the transfer, and then a utility that will do the merging of the savefiles etc for us quickly. Part 1: A character transfer request web form on the NEStalgia website, complete with a built-in PayPal billing system. The idea would be to process the payment right away (about $3-5) and then promise the transfer within 24 hours, which we'd have another staff member handle manually. Part 2: Using the NEStalgia code to create a separate savefile merging/editing utility that would allow us to transfer a character from one savefile directly into another savefile, or to merge two whole savefiles. This wouldn't have to be automated - it would be done manually by a staff member using the utility. The NEStalgia code is a beast but you'd really only be working with the savefile stuff, which is pretty straight forward. If that sounds like something that you'd be interested in, then shoot me an email at [email protected] If not then I'll keep you in mind for future stuff, and best of luck :) | |
Silk, have you considered a MYSQL solution? I know you have a web host already, so that isn't an issue and with a central savefile database there wouldn't be any merging necessary.
Edit: I guess if you're really set on that $3-5 transfer fee you wouldn't want this though. | |
Vermolius wrote:
Silk, have you considered a MYSQL solution? I know you have a web host already, so that isn't an issue and with a central savefile database there wouldn't be any merging necessary. That's a good thought, but unfortunately a central savefile database isn't an option for us. Too much stuff is tied to individual servers (guilds, the marketplace, etc). I also generally prefer the single server model, as I feel that it promotes a greater sense of community. | |
If you need something to do, I'm always looking for more demos for my Sidescroller and Pixel Movement libraries. I'd like to include some more substantial demos that give developers more of a start towards making an actual game. Instead of showing "here's how to make doors", it'd be "here's how to implement doors, switches, keys, guns, and enemies". There are also some features that have been on my to-do list for those libraries for quite a while.
That's a good thought, but unfortunately a central savefile database isn't an option for us. Too much stuff is tied to individual servers (guilds, the marketplace, etc). I also generally prefer the single server model, as I feel that it promotes a greater sense of community. You can still have many different servers, the saved characters are just stored in one database. A bit of work to set up, but then a transfer is just updating a row in a table. | |
Forum_account wrote:
You can still have many different servers, the saved characters are just stored in one database. A bit of work to set up, but then a transfer is just updating a row in a table. Ah, I see what you're saying. That's an interesting thought - having all of the savefiles stored in one place even though they're still tied to individual servers didn't occur to me. I guess that my only concern then would be reliability. | |
This is turning into an interesting conversation. Perhaps not the best place to have it.
But it brings a question to mind that I just HAVE to ask: What about performance? A database connection would mean it'd have to write all relevant character data and whatnot to the database. How would you handle that? Would it be an update every half hour? And if so, how would you handle the data in the meantime? I'd imagine you'd want to have some sort of 'local backup' to fall back on should the database go offline or the server crash for whatever reason. | |
I could use that fluid-fill algorithm I mentioned awhile back.
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Silk: That's really interesting. I was hoping to actually begin construction soon on a library for immediate Paypal subscriptions - I suppose maybe I should undertake it.
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I need help with a martial arts game I'm making. (Text based) But I'm having problems with the save system. I want it to be client side and I want to be able to md5/hash the saves so that no one can cheat. I also want to be able to control the game from the "speed hack". You know, making it run 2x faster than usual and what not. [email protected]
I really need assistance with this, add me sometime, or email. :) | |
Well, I was always thinking about making a RPG based on magic, folklore, mythology, and legends. At first I was thinking about making a non-anime fan game but now I would like to try and make a original game(seeing the direction BYOND is going towards original games) I have a pretty decent idea on how the game would work and I have a lot of the mapping and iconning done already as well as an interface. I have started working on a design document if you are interested in checking it out when I am finished or I could give you more details when/if we chat. IM or E-Mail me please at [email protected]
Edit: Actually a decent amount of the programming is done as well, so that is also a good thing. I am sure I could use your help with optimization as well as adding and making better in general if you are interested. | |
I'm not a very good programmer and I'm subpar at pixel art but I would love to have help (if mostly just to have someone slap me on the back of the head because I get hung up on insignificant details, or... complex stuff too I guess) on a project I've been ever so slowly working on. My e-mail (and Windows Live Messenger address) is [email protected].
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Badger badger badger.
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Mayhem.This is the post with most of what i have come up with to date. I will let you look over that and I will leave my MSN IM [email protected] just Contact me if your interested.
Thanks