I've considered this same concept around an "inspired by" approach. The result essentially revolved around second universe that was created due to time travel shenanigans, but the rules of time travel were different in this universe-- namely, predestination paradox was a reality and time itself could not be changed (and attempts to do resulted in the timeline as it is).
The plot then followed a group of time travelers who were trying to alter history, only to later realize that their efforts were what led to the very situation they were trying to stop.
So, Steins;Gate, basically. Amazing anime, I must say. It'll be going down in history.
The plot was fully fleshed out, but it became one of those things too big for one person with a job like mine, on top of a family. I looked at Ara Fell as a definite inspiration, though. It took that guy over a decade, but he finally did it.
We don't have to spend that long, honestly, due to the immense risk factor of the game not doing well in the market. We can start small and finish quickly, build upon our successes and then use those successes to build more ambitious games by scouring for bigger talents to help lift it off the ground.
I say all that to say that time travel is definitely a fun factor and still relevant... although to be honest, it doesn't have to be a set requirement for a Chrono-inspired game.
I agree. I remember utunnels and I were working on a Radical Dreamers beat-em up specifically for that reason, because we thought a re-newed RD adventure game could revitalize interest in this less-remembered Chrono game. We weren't able to finish it due to the massive undertaking, obviously (even though I made sprites and shit, such as for Kid), but it still was simple enough to theoretically complete it with enough resources -- it's just find a foe and kick the shit out of them.
Of course, eventually I realized that if I'm investing so much energy into this it may as well be an original project, which broke into two different types of gameplay -- Stealth and Beat-em up. I believe an RD-like story would benefit from the Stealth genre (alike
Thief and
Stealth Inc series), meanwhile I have a different vision for the Beat-em Up genre. But I digress.
This is definitely an option, although opening it to be a for-profit project creates a plethora of issues... Ownership of ideas, profit share, resources, etc. Definitely not the type of a project fit for a community-wise reach unless there are blatant contracts in place and what not.
Eh, we just need to be clear about our negotiations. For instance, if it's a Community Game, then you can make the game opensource, allowing it to be forked (with a specific license, like GPL, MIT, etc.), especially if the game consists of voluntary contributions, but you can also take control of what goes into the game and whether or not you accept those contributions to begin with. The fact that the donation of the code is voluntary, and is licensed as opensource and free, needs to be written down. Neither a voluntary contributor nor the contracted professional owns any right to the game itself nor will be payed equity / royalties for it (unless you promise them to), but they do own rights to specific aspects of the game that still allows you to sell it commercially on platforms like, say, Steam.
But there will also be proprietary stuff, such as stuff you hire professionals build for you -- such as code, art, etc. that will not exist in the public Git repository. Also, for instance, if you hire me to make art for you, you still own the rights for that art and character because you've specifically paid me for it. You can also make the license a little more liberal for me so that it gives me the rights to not only use the old art as my portfolio-piece, etc. but I can also make NEW artwork / fan-art for the same game, which isn't being paid for by you, but can serve as a great marketing material for your game even if I sell the artwork for my personal profit. (If there are legal issues around that, then I can just ask to have it be sold through you or something.)
(Basically, I'm pretty much nurturing you guys as my future employers. Not that it's a bad thing.)
And finally, the rights-holder would have to be a single entity, either a person or a legally-bound group (like a company, even if it's not a sole-proprietor). And that holder would need to be the one to organize everything, including hiring people to get stuff done, managing tasks, looking up potential marketing solutions, etc. (something that, man, FaustWolf was amazing at). Even if it's just an organizer with no creative skill, that's perfectly fine because they can get shit done. But that organizer doesn't "have" to be the de-facto owner of the rights either; the owner could be you, and you're essentially hiring an organizer to do manage everything for you so that you can be focused on your vision and shit.
Yeah, pretty much doable. As it is I don't really own anything I do for my clients anyway, so being hired by a community isn't so bad. XD And if a single person doesn't have those funds, we can also crowdfund the project once we have a proof-of-concept. A minimum-viable-product, if you will.
Heck, we also need good Game Designers... So we have to start small, cuz we got none, nor are we experienced in it. We wuz just Rom-Hackers and sheeit.
We also lack actual doers -- coders who can put the game together. We've seen a dozen projects fall because everyone wants to be an idea man but no one wants to really get their hands dirty with coding and assembly (and I blame myself for being guilty of this at times).
Oi,
Mauron! What do you say about coding on Godot via C# or its native script? (I swear, you better say the test-dummies will also be released on Linux, or else. OR ELSE!)
Poll