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[Daz]

Hi folks, I'm looking to find some coding staff for a project I've had in mind for a while. Even if you're not interested I'd like people's opinions on any extra information I should concentrate on when attempting to recruit coders.

The project is for Unreal Engine 3, I've got a document going for it which I've attached in .pdf form.

The document currently contains the overview (which I've posted below to save downloading), aswell as information on player craft, enemy craft and level outlines.
I do have some thoughts on things beyond the document's contents aswell as some more detailed ideas on levels but I've tried to get basic outlines in there to avoid people having to read an even bigger wall of text that is already there.

An arcade shooter featuring 3rd person behind view (movement in up, down, left and right) and top-down view (movement in forward, backward, left and right) sections. The player craft will always be moving forward to some degree unless the player activates the break.
The player takes control of the Bobcat helicopter gunship¹* to battle hostile land, sea and air forces in a campaign of five levels across different environments.
Hopefully Pilot-Gunner cooperative play will feature, where one player controls the helicopter’s flight and a second player is in charge of the weapons systems.
Competitive multiplayer, using a 3rd person view, may also feature provided a satisfactory multiplayer balance system (or a different multiplayer solution) can be achieved. Standard multiplayer gametypes should all be implementable, aswell as some others I have in mind, though multiplayer is secondary to implementing the single player.

¹* The Bobcat is the default of a few helicopters available, but the other designs will require unlocking prior to use. They are discussed in the Player Craft section.

I intend to handle the player craft art (I've got the C.a.S.P.A. model done and ingame with temporary coding and materials, aswell as an unfinished Bobcat model) and most likely the maps.
I'm undecided on the enemy art at the moment, it depends on how long the other stuff takes to do. I can certainly manage the enemy art aswell given the time but an extra artist would obviously get it done faster. The enemy craft need concepts too as I don't have definite visual ideas for them but I can recruit art staff at a later date.

C.a.S.P.A. Gunship

Bobcat WIP


I'm currently tied up until mid-May with university work and unable to do anything further than the stuff I already have done, but I'm posting now as I can hopefully secure someone(s) and get some stuff ready for graphics to be inserted by the time I'm available.
Once it hits mid-May I'm free until October and can go into overdrive with working on this.

What I really need is a coder (or coding team) to produce the coding required (in broad terms: the two camera angles for the helicopters, weapon coding, player craft handling, the enemy craft behaviour and whatever turns out to be required - which is obviously a big ask but they are the core of the project and I can't do anything beyond pretty basic copy paste coding.

[ambershee]

Don't worry about posting in here, it's perfectly fine - we probably don't have any spare code-monkeys around as the more experienced are slapping together the 5-week project (it's someone's university coursework).

Have you tried posting at http://utforums.epicgames.com 's Mod forums? There's a fair few people around there.

Anyway, regarding the design and the implementation - the concept should be largely very easy to implement.

You need to create a new game type derived from UTGame (obviously) and new pawn / player controller classes derived from UTPawn and UTPlayerController that will represent your helicopter. You can then alter the movement types to PHYS_Flying to get you started. We'll be doing that and implementing a 3rd person view for 5 week project - so feel free to lift code from subversion; just credit the authors.

That would cover single player happily. Multiplayer is more difficult. I would personally recommend restricting the multiplayer game modes as much as possible unless you want to spend a lot of time writing a competent AI; a simple death match and an objective based mode as an example, will already split any player base you'll have and spread them thinner.

Dual control over one chopper would be difficult, but can perhaps be done using two pawns, and setting the second to the position of the first, removing the second's ability to change location (only rotation).


Hope it helps