World of Cricket 2007 - a game making challenge

das_vicky

International Cricketer
Joined
Apr 1, 2004
Location
Orissa
Online Cricket Games Owned
See all of u who think are not good at coding/programming, this is for u....

I cannot thank enough to u all who have come forward to help....despite of your limitations(limitations according to u). A contribution is always gr8, in whatever manner they come. As for the coding/programming, those who are interested in learning coding languages like c/c++ can do it easliy from the tutorials availble in the net. This project has no time limitations , all of u can even learn the languages during the development cycle of the game. Those who are not interested in coding/programming- there are hell lot of other stuffs to do as well, so dont worry, u just have to keep ur dedication and hardwork going throught the process
 

vikram2784

School Cricketer
Joined
Oct 25, 2005
Online Cricket Games Owned
i mvery much interested in programming. i would luv 2 be a part of dis.i have quite a few 2d games in c.need 2 learn 3ds and stuff.

i have written those games in c
 

The Spin

Panel of Selectors
Joined
Sep 24, 2005
I would be interested to lend my support. I have minimal code knowledge (VERY minimal :( ) but would be interested in doing some sort of research role or any other none programming role. I think we could really make this happen
 

das_vicky

International Cricketer
Joined
Apr 1, 2004
Location
Orissa
Online Cricket Games Owned
Its gr8 seeiing so many peoples turning on...But where is the guy who started it all.....???
 

ashu2411

International Coach
Joined
Jun 17, 2005
Location
California USA
Online Cricket Games Owned
das_vicky said:
See all of u who think are not good at coding/programming, this is for u....

I cannot thank enough to u all who have come forward to help....despite of your limitations(limitations according to u). A contribution is always gr8, in whatever manner they come. As for the coding/programming, those who are interested in learning coding languages like c/c++ can do it easliy from the tutorials availble in the net. This project has no time limitations , all of u can even learn the languages during the development cycle of the game. Those who are not interested in coding/programming- there are hell lot of other stuffs to do as well, so dont worry, u just have to keep ur dedication and hardwork going throught the process
I would love to help in any form buddy :D .
 

WOC2007

School Cricketer
Joined
Oct 23, 2005
Online Cricket Games Owned
Hey all!

Sorry for the delay ... i am not always able to get online so if i'm not around for a short period of time, you know where I am :)

das_vicky: Your spirit towards this project amazes me - thank you for everything and keep going! :)

everyone else: das_vicky is right...even if you don't have a clue about programming or modelling or anything, your contributions are always ALWAYS welcomed and treated wih as much dedication as we can give. No idea is 'bad' or 'stupid' and as much as we'd like to think we've got all the ideas, we definately don't and we need the gamer's input because thats who the game is for!

I would like to address a particular message from das_vicky:
1) Everyone thinks, X, Y , Z companies are so big and can we compete with them- FIrst of all, every developing studio hires workers to work for them, they pay because of thier work and most importantly they develp games not because we want to play games but because they can make money...
Ever tried to guess why MS's OFFICE costs so much and openoffice is free?? Does it mean openoffice is substandard compared to MS's OFFICE?? No way.....

Absolutely true. This is the whole issue. Money vs Gamer Satisfaction. I've been thinking about this a lot, and I came to realise (and i'm sure many others will share my view here) that if the game is made 'for free' and is everybody's expectation of a great game, then money COULD be made off of it in the form of donations, or even a small charge. Who wouldn't pay a few dollars (or the equivalent in your currency) for a decent cricket game? But the point of this game is to be free, to offer an alternative to the bull**** that we've been offered up to now!

2) Can we compete with this workforce--Every company has workers who are normal human beings like us.....dont assume that they have einstein's and newton's there who keep on inventing new technologies in gaming... Most of the workers are ordinary coders, like we all are......and I can say all these becuase two of my intimate freinds are working in a game developing comapny...

Yep, corporate coders are no better than we are...if they were then there would be no open-source, no free software and most importantly...no shared knowledge. We can do this, it just needs bright ideas, willingness and some dedication.

3) Motion capture is impossible for us.- Motion capture dosent produce animations. it only allows te animators to animate movements according to it...( They need it most often because 1) They look pretty 2) Most of the developers dont know what cricket is)
So if animators can produce good animations( remeber that inverse Kinematics in Animations) we dont need motion capture...Do u think the soldiers running towards u in FarCry were done by motion capturing?????

Now thats a way of putting it that I never really thought of until now. Why do you actually need motion capture?? Here's why: To minimize the 'bulk work' of animators in order to meet deadlines, as well as to minimize inaccuracies in the movements. But in the end, the motion-captured animation looks no better than an animation that has been done 'personally' by people who KNOW what a good cover-drive should look like, and who KNOW that a late-cut shouldn't look like the batsman is trying to balance himself on his bat! I am compiling a whole lot of 'bones' structures and poses using Poser in order to see how easily this can be done.

4)Do we have enough coders, developers, animators etc????-- ONly 3-4 peoples will support u when u start in any project...When peoples gradually see dreams turning into reality all come flooding---This always happens in this world

Bottomline--If u know what u r doing and u know ur job, u dont hesitate in contributing ur talent for a good cause, U can work hard and be dedicated.....Success is all urs

I couldn't agree more. Once again I need to stress that there is no deadline here. I would love for this to be ready by the 2007 World Cup (Hence the name WOC2007 :P ) but thats not an issue...if it's 2008 then we make it WOC2008. Put simply, it doesn't matter how many or few project members we have ... what we need is people that are willing to try to do everything to make this work. If we have that, not only will our team expand, but the quality of our work will shine. The reference: OpenOffice vs MS Office.

:)

I am working on the features list (it's long ... in it's unsorted form it's currently 9 pages!) and I'll have a website going soon!

In the meantime, could someone try come up with a logo? I have one (i'm a graphic designer and webdesigner by profession) but it's a bit dull and i'm stuck for ideas :)

Take care folks, i'll talk to you soon!

David
 

WOC2007

School Cricketer
Joined
Oct 23, 2005
Online Cricket Games Owned
Lol!

I was just playing Cricket 2002 (which is unfortunately the most recent cricket game i've got - due to lack of money to buy the others :P) and I can't believe what happened. After a short time playing on Easy, I moved up to Normal. Not noticing that much difference, I moved to Hard. I now play with my home team (South Africa) - slightly edited to include current players with real averages. I played against Australia at Melbourne. After 15 overs, I was 147/0. Wow. I hope SA plays that well against Australia later this year :P

Impressively enough, when I edited one of the default fields to be a 7-2 offside field (when I bowl to that field I cut down a lot of runs but it requires good tight bowling) I noticed that the CPU player used that position a heck of a lot. Especially Australia. I had Glenn McGrath bowling at Smith and Gibbs, and getting PULLED for 6, swept for 4, and occasionally hooked for 4. So that confirmed that the bowler doesn't take into account his field when bowling, and stupidly enough, continues to pitch short-ball after short-ball, even when it's costing 18 runs in an over. And the fact that you can sweep fast yorker-length deliveries...it's ridiculous! I scored 14 boundaries from sweeping Lee and McGrath (both who have good bowling averages...on HARD level too!)

I find this kind of gameplay so incredibly frustrating!

I ended scoring a pretty decent score of 422/4 off 50 overs. I repeat, I hope that SA can pull off a performance like that :P

When bowling, I force myself not to bowl yorkers except on the ODD occasion, because so often it just bowls the batsmen who are completely oblivious to the fact that you can't really slog a ball at that pace...*thinks back* aah yes, I remember the days when Ntini bowled a 5-fer in one over (two no-balls in that over and unfortunately no hat-tricks), all bowled, all middle stump...all on HARD. Ridiculous. Add to that the fact that the computer's running seems to be quite perfect...no, strike that... Today I got my first runout! How I did it I have no idea...but it happened.

In the end, I bowled out Australia for a miserable 72. That includes 3 caught-behinds, 2 slip catches, 2 boundary catches, 1 run out, 2 bowled (one was a spinner) and a caught-and-bowled. Oh yes...and all this was achieved with one (attacking) field setting for each bowler type.

HB Studios...you should be ashamed......

- David
Lets try improve that yeah?
 

siddharth2002

National Board President<br /><a href="showthread.
Joined
Oct 29, 2004
Location
Auckland, NZ
Online Cricket Games Owned
This idea of developing a game is very much possible. I am not a programmer or animator but a networking guy. So might be able to help in multiplay feature over internet or LAN.
To start with I can outline few things here.
We need someone to create an engine first or find a free 3d engine available.
Than the coders and programmers can start writing the code according to the game.
Most important thing will be the gameplay physics. Like how the shots will be played. What kind of movements are allowed and how the arms move. And how it will affect the overall character's interaction with physics. That's one thing EA and Codies seem to get wrong.
For starters the bat movement was close to perfect for me in Cricket 2004 so we can base a lot of things on Cricket 2004.
Creating characters and animating them should be a lot easy thing. And it can be learned to do easily for a newbie. I haven't done much but can help there as well.

I am free this Sunday. Will try to create a 3d model of a ground and post here if possible.
 
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das_vicky

International Cricketer
Joined
Apr 1, 2004
Location
Orissa
Online Cricket Games Owned
OK now I think we are setup for a big innings.....we have enough players now....i guess and siddharth2002 can add that punch required....(even howzatcricket.bet is looking for persons like siddharth2002)
 

WOC2007

School Cricketer
Joined
Oct 23, 2005
Online Cricket Games Owned
Indeed, the platform has been set, let's get that run-rate going :P

Okay, here's the thing. I am a webdesigner and developer. I can do graphics fairly well and i'm working on 3D modelling. But i'm not the lead technical guy. But i can contribute in little ways in all aspects really. What I will be doing is making the soundtrack (yes, the game will have a soundtrack ... national anthems etc :P ) and I will also do a large amount of roster work as well as supervising and helping out with the animation and modelling process and the general gameplay.

Coding i can do but i have very VERY limited experience in C++. I can do PHP and i've done VB in the past so my programming basics are there, and i can do OOP but i'd rather leave the hardcore programming up to the professionals :P

If we can create our own 3D Engine, then all the better. But if not, I recommend looking at the likes of OGRE and Genesis3D (or if there are any better ones, please suggest!) - I think that this game needs to be graphically rich, detailed and stimulating. You'll understand why when you read the features list. But specifically something thats on my mind, and I quote from the features list i'm drawing up:

54 Stadiums from around the world
At the moment, 54 stadiums are scheduled to be in the game. There will probably be more; we?re looking at 60 stadiums. This is entirely dependant on us getting enough information to make realistic models of the stadiums. So don?t count on it being exactly 60, or 54.

As stated above, stadiums will be life-like, the kind of realism all cricket games currently lack. Stadiums will be built as a part of a world, rather than as a world in itself. This means that the buildings outside, the mountains, the clouds that hang over the mountains, smoke that comes out of the chimney?s of nearby buildings, the sea. It?ll all be part of the world, creating a realistic stage for the game to play out on.

Each stadium will have attributes to it, which affects the way the game is played. Here are some of them:

? Ground Size: The bigger the ground, the harder it is to hit boundaries but the easier it is to get 2 or 3 runs.
? Crowd Capacity: The higher the capacity, the more noise the crowd will make, and the more intimidated the opposition feels. This intimidation is voided if it?s a neutral venue. This has an effect on a game-to-game basis?the more people in the stadiums, the louder and more intimidating they are. For example, some domestic 4-day games will not have completely filled stadiums like an exciting international 20-over match. It all depends on the teams, the weather and the match itself.
? Outfield Speed: This can vary depending on the weather too, but some grounds are just ?known? for their lightning-fast outfields. This is what controls that.

If a ground is right next to a busy road in real life, there?ll be a busy road in the game, complete with traffic?and soft traffic noise. If there are seagulls on the ground at random in real life, there?ll be seagulls on the ground at random in the game?and some chirping. Hit the ball towards a seagull and it?ll squawk and flap away.

Crowds will be low-polygon 3D models, rather than flat dots or 2D sprites. While this may be system-intensive, maybe an option to turn it on or off (off = having the 2D sprites) can be available. 3D crowds are an important realism factor. Plus, the crowds will randomly wear supporter?s gear and wave flags. Skins for these people will be generated randomly, so no ?patterns? in the crowd will be noticeable. Security will walk around etc. Also, crowd characteristics can be simulated?for example: in England, the crowd generally stays seated, whilst in India, the crowd packs as close to the boundary-boards as possible.

Also, weather patterns for a particular stadium, as well as ?habits? that change the game in day-night matches (such as Newlands Cricket Stadium in Cape Town ? it becomes a whole lot harder to bat at night because the white ball swings more, and there is also more moisture in the pitch and in the air) ? also, there will be a higher chance of rain occurring in England than in Australia, and traditionally blustery grounds will have this kind of wind in the game too.

The same also applies to the types of pitches that get prepared (if you don?t specify what kind of pitch you?d like [only in Friendly Matches]) ? Sub-Continent pitches are generally lower and slower, while South African and Australian pitches are hard and fast. Also, temperature and humidity levels at coastal regions and certain geographical regions will be different than inland venues, and players will show this by wearing sweaters etc. as well as the ground (i.e. developing dew)

Stadiums can be unlocked during the game. Players perform slightly better at nicer stadiums.

Thats just some of it. Before you laugh at me and throw insults at me like "54 stadiums? Are you NUTS???" - think about it ... wouldn't you love to have virtually ALL the stadiums in the cricketing world at your fingertips? With realistic 3D SCENERY?

das_vicky: I think that this project is shaping up well, I want to ask you if you can help me to manage the project - to co-ordinate things :)

P.S. siddharth2002: Thanks! Make that stadium, and lets start putting this in motion. I admire enthusiasm in the face of a tough project! :)
 

das_vicky

International Cricketer
Joined
Apr 1, 2004
Location
Orissa
Online Cricket Games Owned
If we are looking for free 3D engine then according to em TrueVIsion 3DK is not a bad choice at all, do have a look at it....

I can very well manage this..I am quite experienced with DirectX programming in VB and am looking forward to do the same C++. I am currently leading a team...(Howzatcricket.net) so no probs for me leading this team as well(if I am given the chance to). But i would seriously suggest look for atleast 3 more good programers/Managers who can also lead the team...THat will make it much more efficient...as for my other contributions I can make......apart from doing rosters, and network programming, i can do anything and everyting else..

I have some experience of working in 3DS MAx and Softimage but would like to limit myself to coding.
 

WOC2007

School Cricketer
Joined
Oct 23, 2005
Online Cricket Games Owned
Yeah das_vicky, TrueVision3D looks good...if you know how to use it already then we have a head-start on that. If TrueVision can handle fairly heavy graphics (thats how I envision the game ... to be graphically rich and therefore quite challenging for the engine).

Unfortunately, it's not a truly free engine - check the details on the site. But it looks good. OGRE ... or Crystal Space...or Irrlicht - they're free but may not have what we need. I dont know which is the best. :help

If we have to pay a small amount of money for a GOOD 3D Game engine, why not? TrueVision3D, or Torque Game Engine - both look very good and are cost-effective!

Of course we need more programmers/managers. I can help in that department but my programming is a bit rusty in any language except PHP. I will attempt to learn so that I can help out. Primarily though, I will do mostly research - we need co-ordinated and accurate information about the stadia and their surroundings in order to create the 'worlds' that are the playing arenas. I will try to get that, and I will also be doing a lot of the work in finding out about the players themselves, and shaping a database with all the attributes that will make up a player in this game (of which there will be PLENTY) - as well as writing commentary. We want lots and LOTS of commentary - from lots of people. We aren't famous ex-internation cricket players, but I don't think that people buy cricket games for Richie Benauds awful renditions of player names (with all due respect, he's a great man but his commentary is not his strong shot)

Anyway :P I'll keep working on the features list, it's about 60% done :)
 
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