Disclaimer:
First of all this post is primarily for volunteers. Experience absolutely a plus, but not absolutely necessary. Its also open to anyone interested in following the progress of the team and the project. A discord link is provided at the bottom.
I understand that this is a beast to read. Please let me know if you have questions.
This is going to be a lot of information and while there are some somewhat-requirements, We will work as we can/want rather than as directed.
My role in the project is lead-developer and lead-writer.
Anyone interested is welcome to join the discord.
[EDIT FOR REDDIT]:
One of my goals is to make this project semi-open-source so that everyone involved can display their work and everyone following can see the progress, while maintaining a level of structure which ensures motivation, copyright protection, and a finished, polished game.
This project IS an MMO. It is NOT a grandiose triple-a title idea that's going to take 4 years and thousands of hours of manpower to accomplish.
The main goal of this project is to prove something. Not that anyone with a little experience can jump online, join a team and build a giant game, no. Instead I want to prove that the MMO genre is not as cut-and-dry (complex) as the general consensus like in current popular titles (triple-a companies).
I'm not looking for superstars in any one field. On the contrary a group of anybody's on the internet can collaborate and build a popular game given a structured environment, workflow tools and a good foundation or starting point. If you lack a portfolio but have a foundation of experience and can "build from it" and take direction. Join the discord and see what's what.
We'll be helping each other on a case-by-case basis in discord, github and on trello, Members of the discord can also post comments asking for help in both a private group and multiple private voice channels.
...And finally for redditors, Everyone agrees polishing can take years if you spend years looking for things to polish.
(Many more details on workflow further down in the requirements)
Elevator Pitch:
Without going into too many details its a competitive, medium to fast-paced, "mainly" procedurally generated, 3d top-down roguelike "MMO" with particle/movement/ability based combat.
The environment has a dark but cartoon-ish (Low poly) theme which consists of ancient-ruins, religious artifacts and structures scattered across a multitude of procedurally generated terrains, littered with demi-god and Titan encampments, Anti-god and Titan strongholds, gear, items and dungeon portals.
The player will join their player-faction with hundreds of others and attempt to overthrow chaotic overlords, other player-faction leaders and endless waves of creatures as the world descends into chaos.
The various player-faction's leaders will have particular characteristics, backgrounds, allies, enemies and a general moral compass in either direction. The dominating factions at the end of a season will determine the current storyline. A player does NOT choose their faction. The goal is to reinvent alliances, combat and progression cycles of MMOs and create a subgenre within the community using procedural generation and modular assets to streamline workflow and minimize bugs.
(A lot more on this in the game-outline and player-progression-summary)
The following are requirements for anyone actually volunteering:
1. Basic understanding of git and github. Know how to initiate/clone, branch, add, commit, push and pull-request a github repository.
There will be two main private-repositories on the github-group for pushing to.
The first is a prototyping github. It might have bugged branches attached to it at any time, since it will be used for implementing, testing and polishing new features in the main unity-project. (no game-breaking features will be implemented on any scene that we consider "final").
The second repository is the final build and will be updated as bugs are found and new features are optimized and polished. (Again. no game-breaking features will be implemented on any scene that we consider "final").
Any other repositories will be created by the designer/developer working on the repo. It is their responsibility to control the privacy of the repo.
2. Basic understanding of the unity editor, terminology and the various components and built-in editors.
We'll be working with various tools from the package manager and asset store and the input system package so experience with any of these is a plus.
3. Must have a discord and stay online at least on the mobile version with notifications turned on.
We'll meet as a group once a week for a review of anything completed the previous week (If you are attending. Video not required, but audio is), to discuss bugs, obstacles and triumphs, and to set goals for the next week.
I'm also looking for some admins and moderators for our discord to help us better utilize its features for the team.
4. Must have/create a Trello account for collaboration and organization of the project.
Trello is an organization and goal/project planning website that teams use to organize and build applications across the tech scene.
It is an amazing tool that streamlines not only workflow but bug-testing and patching as well. It keeps everyone on the same page and I highly recommend it. We'll be using it extensively to streamline our component-based, modular structure. (More on this at the first meeting)
FOR CHARACTER/ENVIRONMENT DESIGNERS:
Anyone specifically interested in designing models and environments must have some foundational knowledge in a 3D modeling software such as Maya, Blender or 3DS-Max. Nothing crazy though...
If you are capable of building low-poly models, removing ngons, animating and exporting them as unity objects, I want you.
(Many of the models we use will be legally modified assets found on asset sites with a goal of making them unique and using them commercially.)
Again, this is about learning and having fun, while building something of substance. Though fully custom models are definitely a plus, I absolutely believe that we can build a top-tier game using just obtained assets.
FOR DEVELOPERS:
Must have some foundational knowledge in C# and Unity. Again nothing crazy...
I dont expect anyone to build fully polished functionality, mechanics or visuals with their first commit.
Monetization:
Initially 50% of potential monetization value will be re-invested into an in-game market after MVP is achieved and released. (More on this in the game outline). Eventually all revenue from a constant stream will be on a revshare-per-sale basis for the team.
I estimate we can achieve a fully polished demo with working cross-server instancing features, demo environments and a single character-controller with a single class-set of gear within 1 - 3 months "casually" depending on the number of developers on the team (Me included). After which, workflow will be streamlined since all of the modular and procedurally generated features in the project will be implemented and can be modified as needed.
Copy rights and asset protections:
All Assets used in the project will be in compliance with copyright laws and can be modified for commercial use (this is a specific copyright law and it will be detailed on the source-page of any obtained assets in question).
They may be bought or otherwise obtained from the official unity asset store, another asset provider or built from the ground up with a 3d modeling/texturing software. Any obtained assets that are free WILL be modified so it is important that it is legal to do so.
All assets which are modified from existing models or built from the ground up will remain the intellectual property of the designer/modifier who first implemented it into the project until otherwise stated by the them, or if monetizing the project becomes a viable option and the designer/modifier agrees to use the assets in the game (They can detail consent when uploading assets to github in the README file).
Any new obtained and or modified assets must be uploaded to the private github in its own repo for copyright approval. If it was obtained or modified from an existing asset, a link to the website that it was obtained from should accompany the repo.
Volunteer Protections:
Again this is an organized "casual" team of people learning and collaborating together to build something fun and engaging that we may eventually monetize from.
Volunteers will not be expected to do any daunting tasks without pay like building multiple gear sets and implementing them all. Work will be delegated more than that and its on a task-posting redemption basis.
There will be NO deadlines, and NO ONE is required to attend meetings but it is highly encouraged as meetings will dish out details for each stage of the development cycle.
(The first meeting is mandatory for anyone who wants on the core team. Anyone volunteering can attend as well).
There WILL be weekly meetings and a timeline for workflow. (Not mandatory)
There Will be tools for anyone that wants to fully engage with the team. (Not Mandatory)
There WILL be a workflow structure to foster motivation and collaboration. (Respond to discord messages and were good.)
There WILL be privately available resources for volunteers that don't attend meetings.
Final Disclaimer
Depending on the response to this post and others through the month, I'll be in touch with anyone who joins the discord to put out a date for the first meeting.
...And finally, I expect volunteers to come and go from this project early on sadly, but that's okay. An mmo can be a daunting task and although just getting all the servers up and running can be challenging, I do personally have a background in full-stack web development and I am confident that I we can alleviate the pitfalls of making an MMO as an indie team through procedural generation, a structured project environment and modular design.
The first meeting will be a couple hours so anyone interested must have some extra time during their day or weekends to attend the first meeting.
We will discuss any challenges that may come up and how to overcome all of them in the first meeting. Date/Time TBD.
After the first meeting we will have tasks listed out on our group trello and they will be open for anyone in the discord-volunteer-group to jump on.
Anyone is welcome to join the discord and read the Summary, Volunteers please fill out this form... Discord: https://discord.gg/pmz92wwe (Expires in 6 days), Volunteer form: https://forms.gle/cB3QJXczaViTv58X8
The form is important because it will give me the details of everyone's experience within unity and their particular skillsets.
A summary and player-progression cycle is listed publicly on the discord and full game-outline is listed for those that fill out the form.
Reply's here wont be ignored but I urge anyone who read that whole beast to join the discord and read the summary-player-progression.