Recruiting For A Player-Developed Partner Planet Project

[J. Mandrake]

Hey, EF! We're trying to start up a Partner Planet development project over at eppd.motionforum.net, and we'd really appreciate it if some people from this board would come and help us develop it! Please note: not all boards are visible to unregistered guests. Right now, we are very short on members, and we need people to work on the story, the concept art, the models, the business aspects, etc. Really, just about anyone willing to give us some input would be incredibly useful. So if you're interested, come sign up and help us out!

eppd.motionforum.net

EDIT: It was recommended on the forum by one of our members that I add some more clear-cut roles to this. These roles are just for people who want to stick with the project for a while, if you only have an idea or two or just want to stick around for the ride and see how it goes, you don't have to fit one of these.

Ideas/Writing - We don't honestly need too many people working on the story, but if you want to help out with that, this is the role. This also has to do with people interested in writing questlines, dialogue, etc.

Equipment/Mob/Clothing/Vehicle Design - If you have any skill doing 2D concept art, this is the role for you.

Business - If you have any experience with investments, distributing money, etc., we could certainly use your help.

Musicians - We'll need a soundtrack at some point, so if you can compose some atmospheric pieces for our Planet, it'd be awesome.

3D - Modeling, animation, and texturing of concepts.

Environmental Artists - We'll need a few people to work on the environment, both 2D and 3D aspects of it. Foliage, landscape, and architectural.

If you feel like you could fill any of these roles and want to help, sign up!

 

[StatikNode]

Do you have any story planned in mind for the planet?
Is this non-profit?

Answer some questions you know people will ask, so they have a better understanding. I'd probably participate, except I don't want a conflict of interest regarding my avatar.

 

[py08jl]

subscribing, no idea whats going on, but sounds incredibly interesting.

 

[J. Mandrake]

Do you have any story planned in mind for the planet?
Is this non-profit?

Answer some questions you know people will ask, so they have a better understanding. I'd probably participate, except I don't want a conflict of interest regarding my avatar.

Nope! We just got started a few days ago, and we're still in the recruitment phase. We'd like to have some of our members involved before we start working on a story, so we can get a strong foundation among our team members.

I'm no financial expert for sure, but since I believe there will be money involved, if there are profits, they will somehow be distributed among team members based on how much work they have logged.

A bit about planet partners: we are not designing a new game. It will be largely similar to the EU we all know and love (or "love" ), but made by players. There will be some differences that are not just graphical/related to the story, but we are NOT going to design a completely different game. Profits, I believe, are to be split 50/50 with MA. We will need to secure investments for equipment and to prove to MA that we will be able to keep ourselves alive. It won't be an easy task, but I think it will be a very fun and interesting project.

 

[Arokh]

Hmm... subscribing to see how things develop before I express any further interest. Also depends on how busy RL will end up, along with other things I'm doing. If I decide to help later, am experienced in the 3D modeling side of things (such as static prop creation), although certainly don't shy away from world building.

 

[Nobatbbi]

Along for the ride for a while. Not experienced in game design particularly, but have been playing various stuff for decades

 

[Oleg]

I may be able to help with the music

 

[J. Mandrake]

I may be able to help with the music

Great, talented musicians can really do wonders for a game's atmosphere. We'd love to have you helping out.

 

[cduser]

*deleted*

 

[matthew]

Its going to be one exciting ride.

lots to do. If you have ever wanting a part in a planet, wanted to see the mob you dreamed of in one. this is your best chance.

We hope the project provides oppertunies for people who want them, right now and into the future

Its time to to have your say and play your part in re-creating something new and something speical. Every complaint you have had can now be improved, re-modelled and rebuild.

A planet built by the players.

Just the way you what it.

 

[andy5579]

Hey there, very interested at the moment, exam results pending (next week) but if I pass, I would be very interested in 2d concept art. We would need to know the style and aims of the partnership-it will make it much easier designing and bringing concepts to life! I will keep you informed.

 

[demonseedgfx]

I'll give you some time on the 3D side.

 

[xX Gently Xx]

i can be the motivational coach!

every time you'll be about to give up i will be telling you thes Edisson saga, where he had almost 50.000 fails before first electric bulb lightened up ;-p

 

[JingyiDai]

oh I can tell you if the planet even look a bit like Calypso and the other existing planet partners, it wont make it at all.

Even a little bit ...

Story must be like , wel we all have to go smoke uber joints in amsterdam to figure something really solid out

Grant me all the power to make a story line and come up with a planet concept

Appoint Jing to be the CEO of Planet Doomed hahaha

 

[matthew]

oh I can tell you if the planet even look a bit like Calypso and the other existing planet partners, it wont make it at all.

Even a little bit ...

Story must be like , wel we all have to go smoke uber joints in amsterdam to figure something really solid out

Grant me all the power to make a story line and come up with a planet concept

Appoint Jing to be the CEO of Planet Doomed hahaha

We start with nothing to loose, if we keep going we can never fail at creating a planet... and then if the planet fails, well we can sell the concept art to another planet company on the express route to planet ownership, and have enjoyed the experince and start again.

Project ORION the nuclear space ship never worked and cost millions, but if you listen to the stories of the people working on it it was the best few years of their entire lives. And we have learnt so much from their failure. one day it will be a success im sure, based on their work.

 

[GeorgeSkywalker]

Sounds interesting.

However you've not really answered some basic questions like:

- Who is in charge? if anyone?
- Who is funding this?
- How much has been secured so far for this project?
- What the basic planet concept is? if none which is what it seemed like from your response so far then sounds like the making of a mess if not controlled i.e. one goes make's a sci-fi themed 3d model, another person goes makes a medieval knight, and in the end you decide to do a planet of apes meaning all previous work upto that point is mostly likely to be void
- A basic planet concept is necessary so everyone knows what they are working towards
- Has this planet got any relationship to planet postmoderna?
- What has MA said so far? have they given the green light for this? has anyone talked to them? to see what their requirements are?

etc etc

 

[J. Mandrake]

Sounds interesting.

However you've not really answered some basic questions like:

- Who is in charge? if anyone?
- Who is funding this?
- How much has been secured so far for this project?
- What the basic planet concept is? if none which is what it seemed like from your response so far then sounds like the making of a mess if not controlled i.e. one goes make's a sci-fi themed 3d model, another person goes makes a medieval knight, and in the end you decide to do a planet of apes meaning all previous work upto that point is mostly likely to be void
- A basic planet concept is necessary so everyone knows what they are working towards
- Has this planet got any relationship to planet postmoderna?
- What has MA said so far? have they given the green light for this? has anyone talked to them? to see what their requirements are?

etc etc

Who's in charge? Don't know yet. I'm admin of the site, but I don't think we really need a "leader." Guidance, sure, and we'll have some people assigning tasks. But I think, due to the nature of the project, it will work a lot better if we try and stay away from having one person make every decision.

Who is funding this? I intend on contacting AutoDesk and Adobe to assist in early development, once we have something to show we will decide, as a team, who we would be willing to contact for in-game ads. DRDoom, who has a lot of business experience, will hopefully be willing to help us out with this stuff.

How much has been secured so far? None yet, we'll be working on that very shortly.

Basic concept? The very next step in the project, was about to go make a thread on our forum addressing the very issue

No relation to PPM.

I am sure that if we meet all their requirements, they will be willing to allow us to do this. We could even be their "YOU CAN DO ANYTHING" posterchildren We'll be talking to them within the week, I want to elect a dedicated representative from our group to interact with MA.

EDIT: Well said Matthew.

 

[AmorJogo]

Well I'm not sure this project will work. But I like the idea !

My main concern is the financial issue. You will need to convince MA that you can sustain for a long enough period before they allow you to develop your planet. Knowing that Neverdie had to sell his rock (estimated worth: 1 million dollars) and had sponsorship of several major music brands to get enough funds, I'm not so sure you'll be able to get enough money. Don't get me wrong: I wish you the best and it would be very cool to do this. But on the other hand: it would be a pity to have everyones work go to waste due to a lack of money...

 

[Masta]

You might want to arrange financing for this type of project before you interview creative staff. If I remember correctly, MA requires that you are able to commit at least $0.5-$1.0 million US in order to become EU planet partner.

 

[M Rufen Power]

Ideas/Writing - We don't honestly need too many people working on the story, but if you want to help out with that, this is the role. This also has to do with people interested in writing questlines, dialogue, etc.
Musicians - We'll need a soundtrack at some point, so if you can compose some atmospheric pieces for our Planet, it'd be awesome.

Equipment/Mob/Clothing/Vehicle Design - If you have any skill doing 2D concept art, this is the role for you.
Environmental Artists - We'll need a few people to work on the environment, both 2D and 3D aspects of it. Foliage, landscape, and architectural.

If you feel like you could fill any of these roles and want to help, sign up!

Wow man this sounds like a very gd idea, or maybe everyones ideal world . We could make this planet work & take some foot notes from ND's mistakes . I believe this project will work also no TP fees! I will register to that website and begin contributing what I can Dear OP. I could take up Ideas/ Writing & Musicians as a primary role. I think I could help there & the other roles like 2D designing/ Concepts I would like to do also as a secondardy role. But can I ask what kind of theme-tune you were looking for, any type of style or u want us to be creative? But otherwise I'm on board with this, its a good idea & also agree with George's comments about the vagueness about such a project, but loving it already.

 

[J. Mandrake]

You might want to arrange financing for this type of project before you interview creative staff. If I remember correctly, MA requires that you are able to commit at least $0.5-$1.0 million US in order to become EU planet partner.

Well, if you know anyone willing to invest half a million into a team that has nothing to show yet, let me know. I think that anyone with a large amount of money is going to want to be shown at least a bit of what they'll be getting first. I know that we'll be contacting potential investors before we get too far into this, but for now, I'd just like to go ahead and get a bit of a foundation for this project to be built on.

 

[TheVoid]

<- .net developer

send me a pm if you have any questions

 

[sky west]

I love the enthusiasm I really do, but I dont think you guys fully apreciate the scale of such an untertaking.

Forget the art work an the storyline, thats just the icing on the cake. What you need is a businessplan. This will be a commercial venture, money at stake. You need planning, leadership and commitment. This cant just be a 'hey, we'll see how far we can take this.' This is serious.

Having said all that I think the best advice I can give you is:
What will make our planet a success and how can we implement this within the planet partner construction with MA.
Example : I read in this thread that some mentioned that this planet should have no travel fees. Now that would give your planet an edge, BUT it will never be possible because MA wont allow it.

In other words: Your creativity is limited to what MA will allow. This makes it very hard to come up with something solid and sustainable.

 

[J. Mandrake]

I love the enthusiasm I really do, but I dont think you guys fully apreciate the scale of such an untertaking.

Forget the art work an the storyline, thats just the icing on the cake. What you need is a businessplan. This will be a commercial venture, money at stake. You need planning, leadership and commitment. This cant just be a 'hey, we'll see how far we can take this.' This is serious.

Having said all that I think the best advice I can give you is:
What will make our planet a success and how can we implement this within the planet partner construction with MA.
Example : I read in this thread that some mentioned that this planet should have no travel fees. Now that would give your planet an edge, BUT it will never be possible because MA wont allow it.

In other words: Your creativity is limited to what MA will allow. This makes it very hard to come up with something solid and sustainable.

This is serious indeed. But we need something to show to get investors. We understand that it isn't easy, and I said in another thread that the creativity isn't the hardest part. We are currently trying to get some ideas for the theme, I've spent the past couple hours typing up a possible backstory for the thing (we're going to collect some ideas and choose what we decide is the best among them from our members.) When we show that we actually have something to focus on, then we will talk to some people about getting the money. I think we should try to focus quite a bit of effort on advertising when the time comes, more than MA ever did with Calypso (which won't be that difficult, MA hardly advertised this game.) THAT will give our planet an edge, and if MA sees us putting up some ads and drawing in more players, I'm betting they will remove some of the creative restrictions on us. But until then, yes, we do have to design it to fit their requirements. But I'm sure it's doable, sustainability is all about keeping the playerbase interested and growing, and as players, we know best how to do that

 

[sky west]

This is serious indeed. But we need something to show to get investors. We understand that it isn't easy, and I said in another thread that the creativity isn't the hardest part. We are currently trying to get some ideas for the theme, I've spent the past couple hours typing up a possible backstory for the thing (we're going to collect some ideas and choose what we decide is the best among them from our members.) When we show that we actually have something to focus on, then we will talk to some people about getting the money. I think we should try to focus quite a bit of effort on advertising when the time comes, more than MA ever did with Calypso (which won't be that difficult, MA hardly advertised this game.) THAT will give our planet an edge, and if MA sees us putting up some ads and drawing in more players, I'm betting they will remove some of the creative restrictions on us. But until then, yes, we do have to design it to fit their requirements. But I'm sure it's doable, sustainability is all about keeping the playerbase interested and growing, and as players, we know best how to do that

Ok, I see where you are comming from. You are currently on cloud nine and you're not about to come down. That's ok, I've been there before.

You think that having a planet designed by players is an asset when in fact it is a liabillity. Now if you were to have a proper businessplan instead of a storyline you would have a decent insight to where possible risks might lay.

Strickly business is the key to succes. Trust me on this, I mean well.

 

[J. Mandrake]

You think that having a planet designed by players is an asset when in fact it is a liabillity. Now if you were to have a proper businessplan instead of a storyline you would have a decent insight to where possible risks might lay.

Strickly business is the key to succes. Trust me on this, I mean well.

I understand that we need a plan, and I'm doing the best I can. And having a story will help that plan along. What is a plan but a miserable pile of strategies without a foundation? (Kudos to you if you get that one.) You seem to be telling me not to try and develop the game so we can develop the game. Why, exactly, can't we work on a business strategy while still working on basics like the story? And why is it a liability to have experience with the players and the game itself?

 

[Deathifier]

This is an interesting idea however do keep in mind building a planet and then maintaining it is a major undertaking.

It requires very good leadership, a good team, plenty of funds, and it has to bring something different to Entropia Universe - typically access to different markets than the current planets (released and in development) cover.

You will need many, many other things as well.

It will certainly be a challenge, I wish you all the best with it

- Deathifier

 

[sky west]

I understand that we need a plan, and I'm doing the best I can.

I believe you, and I dont doubt your dedication.

And having a story will help that plan along.

If you are refering to the story line helping the businessplan, you are mistaken. The storyline has nothing to do with the businessplan.

What is a plan but a miserable pile of strategies without a foundation? (Kudos to you if you get that one.)

I remain kudoless, i guess.

Why, exactly, can't we work on a business strategy while still working on basics like the story?

Turn it around.... why cant you work on the storyline, while still working on the basics like the businessplan. Yes, I know its alot more fun making up a story line instead of making a businessplan. But storylines dont make final products, businessplans do.

And why is it a liability to have experience with the players and the game itself?

Heard of any Mercedes owners building their own cars? Computer users developing their own hardware or OS? Just because you use the product doesn't mean you're any good at making that product. Just means you're familiar with the consumers of the product, nothing more nothing less

 

[Nirfu]

This sounds like a indie mmorpg project.

Keep in mind if you go for Planet partner in the Entropia Universe you need cash, lots of cash. You allready have the postmoderna project aiming for the same goal.
If becoming a planet partner you need to set up a stuido for design since that is mostly what you need.

You could do like postmoderna, take another of the shelf engine and start to work on your own planet. IMO postmoderna will put so much effort in creating ther mockup world that in the end the actuall game will not be connected to EU at all and keep running in the engine they use right now.

Before starting you need to ask yourself some basic questions.

Where does this take place?

When in time does it take place?

Why are the players there?

What type of environment do you have?

What in my world do I have to design myself?

Make up a list of stuff to be created and start handing out tasks.

Instead of asking adobe and others for help you could try to use other softwares that can handle the same stuff:

3D: Blender (free), Milkshape 3D (extremely cheap)
2D: Inkscape (vector based, free), Gimp (bitmap, free)
Engines: Tourque engine (cheap, can create webbased 3D games), RealmCrafter(even cheaper)
Project management: NetOffice (webbased php free project management)

How you get money cheap I don't know, donations maybe?

For future income set up a timesharing program where hours put into the project gives you shares of the future company. Remember to make strict rules for this and never give away more than 40% of the full value. If you will get an investor in to this he will probably want at least 49% probably more. It can be hard to get an investor to spend his money on a studio based on free work since suddenly hi's investment could be out of workforce. Be prepared to leave your fulltime work for this project.

Good luck

 

[J. Mandrake]

I believe you, and I dont doubt your dedication.
----

If you are refering to the story line helping the businessplan, you are mistaken. The storyline has nothing to do with the businessplan.
----
I remain kudoless, i guess.
----
Turn it around.... why cant you work on the storyline, while still working on the basics like the businessplan. Yes, I know its alot more fun making up a story line instead of making a businessplan. But storylines dont make final products, businessplans do.
----
Heard of any Mercedes owners building their own cars? Computer users developing their own hardware or OS? Just because you use the product doesn't mean you're any good at making that product. Just means you're familiar with the consumers of the product, nothing more nothing less

The story simply being there gives us a bit of a foundation so we can prove to investors that we are actually actively working on this project and that they can expect to see some return. Concept art will also help out with that. Lots of people want money, we have to prove we're worth it.

----

Castlevania reference

----

You just said the same thing I did. We have to work on both.

----

No, but I've heard of Ferrari owners designing their own electric Ferraris and then starting a business with them And, uh, yes, a lot of the people who design OS and software are, in fact, computer users. Knowing the product doesn't qualify me for anything, but it certainly helps!

Too much negativity, Sky West. I know business is important, but so is every other aspect of the Planet, and there is some stuff we should get done before securing investments. We aren't expecting any money right here in the first few days of this huge undertaking. Having some of the product ready to show off isn't going to hurt us.