FIRST Video Game

[Astronouth7303]

Originally Posted by Adam Y.

Aparently video game companies are using stock codes for physics and special effects. Deus Ex: Invisible War and Max Payne Two were two of these games that used stock. It makes sense since the innovative gameplay is what creates a great game.

Yes, but this is a recent development. But we like it!

[impulse3D]

I do have to say that I have thrown around the idea with my animation team here on Team 564 of having what I called "a video game of the game." We (my animation team) were planning on including such a game in the next official release of the DSD open-source software that we're running (for more information on the DSD, see the DSD Website). We abandoned the idea mainly because our small team of dedicated programmers and animators wouldn't be able to tackle making something like a game by ourselves. Since we've officially left the idea behind, I'll willingly and gladly post the information and ideas that we had gathered for our planned BotMatch technology. As you read the ideas, keep in mind that I do recognize the insane amount of programming, animating, and modeling that some of these ideas would require (and hence we abandoned private open-source development of BotMatch); but I also do believe that by having the FIRST community work as a team through the development process of BotMatch, we could get it done. BotMatch would be very beneficial in being a different, exciting, and innovative way to show and inform others about FIRST.

Now for the ideas...
--Of course, a 3D field and gameplay exactly mirroring the real one.
--"Exhibition Mode" where you can play skirmish matches.
--"Regional Event Mode" where you can actually compete in a tournament either within a certain regional or with a randomly created regional.
--"Championship Event Mode" where you compete in a manner that mirrors the FIRST Championship Event (with different divisions, etc.)
--Programmable autonomous mode --> whereas there's built-in C scripting software that allows you to edit the programming code of your virtual robot.
--BotMatch C Parser --> See what your C code's effect will be on your real-life robot--before uploading it!
--Networking/Internet Multiplayer Capability --> Execute your game strategies with an alliance partner over a network prior to matches to perfect flaws before your game hits the real field.
--The ability to choose playing fields (i.e. You can select different regional fields, whereas the "stadium" or event location is modeled by a team that attends the regional. The more people that participate in providing a model of their regional(s) event, the more "places" you could compete within the game.)
--Importing CAD/Inventor/etc. models of robots to use within the game.

If I remember any more of the ideas, I'll be sure to post them! Hell yeah to BotMatch!

[Mike Ciance]

Originally Posted by impulse3D

--Of course, a 3D field and gameplay exactly mirroring the real one.

we can get that from Dave Lavery

Originally Posted by impulse3D

--"Exhibition Mode" where you can play skirmish matches.

would be no extra programming, since it is just a match on it's own

Originally Posted by impulse3D

--"Regional Event Mode" where you can actually compete in a tournament either within a certain regional or with a randomly created regional.

should not be terribly hard to make, it's a small series of random number commands and data lists, plus a multi-round score-keeping system. no biggie. even i could probably handle that, lol

Originally Posted by impulse3D

--"Championship Event Mode" where you compete in a manner that mirrors the FIRST Championship Event (with different divisions, etc.)

really the same thing as regionals, just more robots, and the addition of divisions

Originally Posted by impulse3D

--Programmable autonomous mode --> whereas there's built-in C scripting software that allows you to edit the programming code of your virtual robot.

i guess this shouldn't be too much trouble, considering we would be making the game in C++ anyway, so we would just have the program reference itself

Originally Posted by impulse3D

--BotMatch C Parser --> See what your C code's effect will be on your real-life robot--before uploading it!

this is basically what the game is. it is like going into a video game and having the character walk up to an arcade machine and play that very video game. should not take long

Originally Posted by impulse3D

--Networking/Internet Multiplayer Capability --> Execute your game strategies with an alliance partner over a network prior to matches to perfect flaws before your game hits the real field.

i think internet is a must

Originally Posted by impulse3D

--The ability to choose playing fields (i.e. You can select different regional fields, whereas the "stadium" or event location is modeled by a team that attends the regional. The more people that participate in providing a model of their regional(s) event, the more "places" you could compete within the game.)

this would be one of the lower priorities, being that it only adds visual appeal, but i can't say i thought of it -- good job

Originally Posted by impulse3D

--Importing CAD/Inventor/etc. models of robots to use within the game.

very good idea, though i'm not sure if it would be tricky or not. our head animator did a great job of animating with CAD, so you should go to him (TeknoBramha)

all this is great! i'm really glad to have you guys helping

[Raven_Writer]

Originally Posted by Adam Y.

Did you get the robotics competition or some type of sponsorship? ...

Robotics Compeitition. It has all we'd need. MSVS 6.0 would even work.

[Joshua May]

Originally Posted by impulse3D

Of course, a 3D field and gameplay exactly mirroring the real one.

If you guys can't get Dave Lavery's, I have a full scale field for 2004 that would only require minor tweaking.

And I also have a full scale for 2003 that we could use, including the bins and everything, it looks really good if I say so myself.

[Astronouth7303]

This is sounding very hopeful. I think the next step is to nail down some v0.1a goals. (and/or get a sourceforge site).

[Heretic121]

i havent read through the thread, but i do have somewhat of an idea... Unreal Tournament 2004 comes with its own editing tools and such... if we can get someone who know's some coding for the game, we can easily do just about anything EXCEPT have ways for human element... what we could put it down to is if you are a small ball machine, you get 5pts just for hearding... you could make the vehicles easily in 3ds Max or Maya, and then just port them into the UED ediotor, and make the robot seletable from a custimazation menu or something to that effect... probably a lot more work than the other ideas =P

[Mike Ciance]

i was thinking about the human player element, and i think stack attack would definitely be best for this reason. with stack attack, we can just have a simple grid system of choosing where to place each individual box. just select a square on the grid and press a button to drop one box. this way, pretty much any possible stack can be achieved. we could even program in a chance for the stack toppling during human player mode. if the stack is over 6, we can form a set of random number commands (one for 6, one for 7, one for 8) so higher stacks are more likely to topple. in other words, stacks of 2, 3, 4, and 5 will never topple during HP mode, but 6 will occasionally, 7 will more often, and 8 topple will more often than 7. who thinks this will work?

[Astronouth7303]

If you code (and cad) it right, the physics engine should do that.

[akaria]

If you can make a decent version of this game, perhaps, if it seems it is doing well, you can take it to a gaming company and have it made in to a really good game by the professionals with AI and everything. That seems like the perfect way to promote the FIRST name. Also perhaps we could get them to donate a percentage of the profits to the FIRST orginization. If it can get off the ground it would be a big step for FIRST.

I can't program, but i am orginized and can help with setting it up, getting everyone orginized and everything else. ^_^ so PM me if you think i can help in any way

[Astronouth7303]

I just made a thread for deciding on pre-code details: FIRST Video Game: Hammering out details. I would like to get going, even if we don't know the exact game. There's plenty of framework to do.