WIP Dawn, Bringing Humanity Back to Gaming

A small sentiment about myself
Hello everyone, my name is Minefriek, but if you wish you may call me Sam. I'm 17

A small sentiment of the people I enjoy working with
Currently I am a member of a small team known as New Aurora Studios, which is partly where the name of this game comes from and I am help by its members with this project as I continue to evolve it over time. But I'm not here to talk about that, I'm here to tell you about Dawn.

A fact about the games title
At first it was known as Colonial Space, but the title didn't fit the general Idea I was going for in my head. I had something much grander in mind. Far grander. To put it simply, the name changed to Dawn for numerous reasons.

What makes Dawn different
Dawn is a game that I want people to think of as a living breathing world. A world where you can become any of its inhabitants, combined with a story of hardship and survival. I will be bringing humanity back into gaming. Something that has been missing from many games for many years. Below is an example.


This is Niel, named after Niel Armstrong playing with a toy rocket ship in a spaceship. A visualization of the kind of interactions you can have with the people in Dawn. Even children can be playable characters.

A brief synopsis of the back story I'm going with currently
Since this is very early days and everyone thinks I'm a joke already I will make this brief. Earth destroyed, small group of 30 survive, which is the supposed magic number needed for a stable gene pool in a population. Some bright spark in the group decides that the only thing left to do is leave for another world and rebuild from the ashes.

How you will play Dawn
The game will be playable in two modes, FP [First Person, and not necessarily a shooter] and RTS. I'm currently developing a system using raycasts that allows the player to become any character in the game. But for now I'm just switching from character to character. Procedural Terrain is also in the works.

Link to my blog
For more information on the current state of Dawn you can go to my blog which is dedicated solely to that topic and you are welcome to provide constructive criticism either here or on my blog

www.dawndev.blogspot.com.au

Planned Features

• Procedural Terrain
• Randomly Generated characters with believable stories
• Terrain Blending for a much nicer looking map
• Different Biomes based on planetary latitude, longitude, proximity to the sun etc etc. EG, one planet my be so far out its just a dead world while another planet will be completely dessolate. Some may even be similar to earth.
• Plenty More

Screenshots of terrible pre pre alphaness
Now for some screenshots of what the game currently looks like, not much to look at, and nowhere near what It really looks like, but these are early days and I'm still porting over and optimising my project to a different computer, but alas, the rules state that I need to give you some Idea of the game. These are weeks old and from my old PC as im still reimplementing everything on my new PC.


The temporary Terrain. Pretty bland don't you think?

This is Allen. He wants to be in the finished game, along with his sister, but sadly he's just a place-holder model I use to test my methods of character controlling

And this is Allens sister Lucy. Both characters are controllable and I can switch between them at the touch of a button, but if you read my most recent blog you'll understand why this will in the future become obsolete and removed from the game at some point in time.

Thanks for reading
Thank you for reading this post and allowing me to tell you about Dawn, this is going to be my first game and perhaps even my life's work. Please if your interested in trying the game out or giving me ideas on how to improve the game in general my blog and this post are always open to constructive criticism. I will be posting here whenever there is a new addition to the blog so that whoever keeps an eye on this project and is interested in testing the game knows exactly what's happening. Again, thank you for listening and the link to my blog is down below.

www.dawndev.blogspot.com.au

 

Sounds cool. Can't wait to see more about this

 

The terrain could use some more polish, but this looks like a really good idea so far.

 

I can't answer your poll question because there is no game. This is a bunch of overblown, grandiose ideas (many of which are vague and don't relate to gameplay) that ultimately boil down to a poorly sculpted terrain with a single texture applied and two un-textured low-quality models placed on top of it. I also get the impression that the two people who replied to this thread are your friends/colleagues because the second blog post on your site mentions someone named Noah.

 

What I wanted to say has already been said.

 

Know that your post has every single hallmark of a doomed project:

* Very low forum post count (not a negative in itself, but it's common with these sort of posts)
* First project
* Grandiose vision
* Little detail

That's not to say it's impossible, but it fits a certain template quite well.

I would advise creating some small games, if only to gain experience in what you can realistically accomplish in X number of days. Also, maybe provide a bit more substance so that people have something to comment on.

 

As I'm sure you've probably heard, this game is pre pre alpha, if any of you had managed to actually look at what has been said IN the post rather that lamenting on how VAGUE you think my post is you'd realise that. Right now its all still experimental and in testing to see what can or cant be acheived, and frankly I've already done my homework. I posted this here not so you could hear about what features will be in the game, but what you would EXPERIENCE if you played this game. Have YOU dedicated WEEKS of testing to get everything up to spec? Have YOU spent that time using a terrible computer that struggles to play old DOS games? No? Then stop complaining about how crappy everything is and REALISE that this is a good idea. I understand the screenshots are terrible, I understand you think its a terrible terrain, but its what I'm using for TESTING the features I implement. And yes noah is a friend that haddn't heard about what I was doing and he was hearing about it for the FIRST time!

Rethrem though, is someone I've never heard of before.

Oh and a quick update, I'm implementing procedural terrain as we speak, keep an eye out for my next blog post and an Update here the people who are still interested in trying out the game when its done and helping me make it.

Im also setting up a code repository so you can see my code and suggest improvements. A youtube channel is also going up so I can walk you through exactly how everything comes together.

 

Yes, sir! *salute* I don't know what it means, but I can't wait to experience humanity via an FPS/TPS/RTS hybrid.

*gets smacked*

Sorry, sir. I mean, I can't wait to experience Humanity via an FPS/TPS/RTS hybrid. Sir.

 

Has to be a joke thread.

 

Wut? Weeks of testing? This can easily be done within a couple of days maybe hours. If you are this inexperienced at making games I don't think starting with a FPS/RTS is a good way to start.
If you are serious on completing this then I would suggest working more on the gameplay and telling us what gameplay you have already. In the whole forum post the only gameplay that you have done is character switching. Correct me if I am wrong. Start posting more of what you have rather than what you have planned.

 

These forums are turning into a joke, unfortunately to the point that I want to PM some of the developers on here who had projects with great promise but just disappeared.

 

Gee thanks for the support guys, Im going to prove you all wrong. My project is no joke. Those pictures are weeks old.

 

I read it. It is vague as all hell. Problems:

Don't post a vague synopsis of what the game will be (whilst also saying that the game might not or won't be this) and then start getting angry when people call you on it;
Don't complain about how your tech makes it hard to achieve your goals as part of a rebuttal to unsatisfied viewers. Sounds harsh, but we don't care. We like results. Perhaps if you weren't so instantly combative in the face of criticism we'd be more encouraging about how you achieve them;
Don't hector people for not "REALISING that this is a good idea". You don't get tell people what they think is a good idea, any more than you get to tell people what their favourite food, colour or music is;
Is it a good idea? Well, you want the player to be able to experience the whole of humanity in a game. That's not a bad idea. Can you achieve this? Absolutely not. Do some smaller projects first, as someone else suggested. As they also said, there are countless similar threads for massive, sweeping games made by inexperienced teams who don't have enough content so they just post long, frustrated creative writing-student samples of dialogue, concept or plot to paper over the fact that they have no work and probably never will.

I think that's it.

 

Man, I've got to call trolling. You posted these images three days ago but NOW you're telling us they're weeks old?

 

Those images were taken ages ago.

 

Indeed. I did not deny this. What I find strange, given how quick you were to say how terrible and pre-alpha the screens are, and how better it will look later, is that you're only NOW saying that the images are weeks old (in response to scathing criticism). Presumably you have a few weeks of progress to show?

 

Guys, guys. Stop it. Alright. Let him make the game. Sure, it may be a bit of an unrealistic scope, but let him have fun and make it. Keep going minefriek.

 

Let me put this simply. I got a new computer. I was hoping to keep what I'm about to show you private until I got it in engine. But I'll show you some interior renders in engine thanks to Steve in New Aurora Studio's

 

Thankyou, I was going to anyway.

 

For the record, I honestly hope your game comes out great. Who doesn't like great games?

Conventional wisdom says that you should start out small and build up to bigger projects, but hey, exceptions do happen.

 

I've seen worse,trust me.

 

Pre Alpha in the sense that there's really nothing to show. Let me give you some advice, people will not take you seriously with a post like this. Currently your description and screenshots are vague, from the looks of it I can tell the model is probably a free download and the terrain has had no effort put into being created. If you had a game preview with a basic level setup and some decent gameplay then it could be considered early alpha. This is so far behind current alpha, its like a me putting together a cardboard box car and saying hey guys look at this new car I'm building! Then saying it will be more awesome than a ferrari.

I would also suggest replying to people in a more civilized manor. Yelling at people and telling us that we are wrong for judging you isn't going to help you out. It will just show us that you're just some 17 year old ( should never state your age anywhere ) that doesn't know what they are doing.

 

If you bothered to read the entire post, you'd realize that I'm going to be updating this soon with some renders from blender of what the interior of a building could look like. And who said my game would be a cardboard box car? And who said I was yelling? Never seen controlled outrage? You people need to look beyond the currently implemented features and beyond the planned features and look at the idea behind the game. Go back to the first post, do that and then criticize me.

 

I’ll criticize you: you never talked to the lead artist before posting this! Everything that Sam has stated thus far has been true, and this is of course not a joke thread. The models that you see in his screenshots are mine, but I never expected the test models I sent him to be used in this forum post. Sam has been working mostly on the mechanics of his game for the past few weeks, but between getting a new computer and working on other projects, his output has been staggered. The reason that his visuals are minimal is that we have been working on multiple things spanning multiple engines. Our team plan was to share assets between them, but this is honesty the first time I’ve heard about his project. After some discussions with him on the basis of his game, I created a visualization of what we hope to achieve. Sam has posted it to the main thread, but just know that we are not here to create another half-assed unity “game”.

Also, he never wanted people to criticize his progress, just his ideas.

 

Oh wow, this thread is pure gold

Seriously though, pretty much anything there is to say has been said by Jessee and Dave and there is a lot of truth in their posts.

I guess what you really want us to do is criticising your idea, more then the actual game progress your are showing. The thing is though, having good ideas is cool and all but it only gets you so far. Having a good idea is neither particularly hard nor all that important for making a good game. There have been many dreadful games with genius ideas behind them. And there also have been plenty of brilliant games based on stupid concepts.

In other words, good ideas are worth very very little in actual game design as long as they aren’t executed accordingly and from what we see based on your crappy screenshots you have no experience in unity, have no sense project scale and barley understand your working tools.

Now don't get me wrong, all if this is fine and I see it as an important learning step. Everybody posting here, including me, was in your position at one point. And because of this very reason we all know that you will fail.

But that shouldn’t stop you from trying though. In fact I'd much prefer you to prove me wrong and code the next minecraft then just take my words and scratch your game. Please, go ahead! I honestly wish you all the luck in the world.

What I see as the much bigger problem in this thread is your attitude. The people posting here were trying to help you, but instead of listening for a second you pushed them away and ignored their input. That’s not just a douchy thing to do, it's also pretty darn stupid to post your concept for a game on a public forum expecting feedback and then ignoring every opinion you get.

 

Progress Update, Procedural Terrain Finished Soon

 

It's fine that you had the idea for your game. Cool, maybe it's a good idea.
But now you need to run with it. I'm not about to point out to you the unlikeliness of your idea (as many others here have done that for me). That said, until you show us that you have compelling gameplay intertwined with your potentially fantastic ideas (and yes, that means actual gameplay videos), then your idea is useless.

Don't work on terrain generators. Don't work on placeholder characters. Pick out the core gameplay mechanics that should get us excited, and prototype those.

But above all don't hop on the forums, post your idea for a game, and then expect everyone to shower you with praise, or even really care at all. Wait until you have actual gameplay to show us, and then start posting.

 

Full marks for ambition here. Im gonna bookmark this thread out of sheer curiosity. its either gonna be filled with some incredible updates or some absolute abuse... either way, I win.

 

Just a quick update on the development of Dawn.
1. I am Minefriek but I've taken Dawn Away from Unity for so Damn long I may as well make myself a new account.
2. We switched it to Unreal Engine for a while because of its features and how a lot of Unity wasn't fully fleshed out
3. Since I'm Restarting development on Unity 5 I find it will be good to begin a new post
4. Development never stopped on this game and moving it to unreal has taught me that visual scripting is taking the code others have written and assambling it like a puzzle. It isnt real scripting to me.
5. Looking back on all the comments that have been said here, some people can be real jerks, so every username here will be placed in the credits of Dawn with heartfelt comments (evil scary demon face). Not out of revenge or anything, but because I find these kinds of things funny and I'm sure the internet will as well considering we already have bronies and people who make money from making videos of themselves playing minecraft and make a big studio in london out of it having a heroine Dwarf as their mascot/leader whos easily lead astray by a jaffacake on a stick.

Expect a new forum post in a week and quite possibly an alpha 0.1.0 demo to try out.

This mon ami, is a promise!

 

Didn't know this was an old topic while reading all the posts ^^' I agree with most of what everyone said. I do want to give you some tips:

• Leave this old topic behind and make a new one when you're a bit further in development. Make it when you have a video or a web build ready (one that actually shows off some gameplay mechanics)
• Have patience It was definitely too early when you posted about your game here! Don't announce what you'll be showing off soon, just SHOW it when it's done For example: posting "Progress Update, Procedural Terrain Finished Soon" isn't really an update, just wait till you can say it's actually finished and then make a post about it including a video, gif or web build.
• Make yourself a cool avatar, it'll make it easier for people to see which posts are yours and to me it will show that you take posting about your game more serious.

Best of luck with your project!

 

All this time has passed, and yet some people still haven't learned anything from it.