Pok?mon Turbo GT [recruiting]

Pokémon Turbo GT [recruiting]

IDEA
This may be my most unorthodox game idea yet... it's Pokémon meets Wacky Races! I recently got an idea for my standard RPG-style games involving Poké Go-Kart Racing, and while I'm waiting for more ideas to come to either game and trying to learn how to code for my planned Project Vulpix engine, I figured I may as well expand upon this idea for an alternate-reality spinoff game. You see, apart from Pokémon, I'm also a fan of Nintendo's various racing games, including Mario Kart and Diddy Kong Racing, and I thought I could combine the two into a Pokémon-themed racing game based on the source code for SuperTuxKart.

Of course, I'll be needing some help with this one. I've already got a map designer from the outside on board, but I'm going to need some crew members who can handle character and vehicle models, artwork, music compositions/arrangements, character voices, dialogue, etc.

Anyway, without further ado...

PLOT
There's a new fad in the Pokémon world, and it's called Poké Go-Kart Racing. However, a terrorist and former operative for the recently-disbanded Team Rocket, Altair, discovered an opportunity to exploit it in his plot to take over Kanto. A Psychic-type specialist, he proceeded to hypnotize the eight Kanto Gym Leaders: Brock of Pewter City, Misty of Cerulean City, Lt. Surge of Vermilion City, Erika of Celadon City, Koga of Fuchsia City, Sabrina of Saffron City, Blaine of Cinnabar Island, and Agatha of Viridian City. Using them as his guards, he instructed them to defend him from challengers who want to drive him out of Kanto. To further fortify his new domain, he used his personal Mewtwo, cloned from a living Mew's DNA, to create racetracks and seal them.

When Professor Samuel Oak, his grandson Blue, and Pokémon Champion Red heard about it, they banded together to return things to normal in Kanto. While the Oaks did some covert research on their enemy, Red, who had just captured the powerful Mewtwo in Cerulean Cave, commanded the Psychic-type powerhouse to find and recruit trainers all around Kanto to take on Altair on the racetracks. A gamekeeper Pokémon who was friends with Professor Oak, a certain Eevee gifted with the ability to talk, volunteered to help Mewtwo guide the rookie racers.

After all the rebel trainers had been gathered, the training was soon to begin...

PLAYABLE CHARACTERS
LIGHT WEIGHT CLASS
Youngster Ronny
Lass Hermione

MIDDLE WEIGHT CLASS
Camper Meredith
Picnicker Brittany

LIGHT-HEAVY WEIGHT CLASS
Psychic Morris
Engineer Archie

HEAVY WEIGHT CLASS
Hiker John
Rocket Wayne

ITEM CLASSES
TBA; in the process of being rehauled

BOSSES

• Pewter Gym: Brock
• Cerulean Gym: Misty
• Vermilion Gym: Lt. Surge
• Celadon Gym: Erika
• Fuchsia Gym: Koga
• Saffron Gym: Sabrina
• Cinnabar Gym: Blaine
• Viridian Gym: Agatha
• Final Boss: Altair

FEATURES

• 32 tracks
• 8 challenges
• Items galore
• Unlockables
• Multiplayer functionality
• Star Piece Runs
• Grand Prix
• Time Trials
• Vs. Mode

PROGRESS
In its planning stages
Preliminary list of initial selectable characters
Icons being designed
Preliminary racer icons designed
First map(s) currently being drafted
SCREENSHOTS
Coming soon

CREDITS

Seriously? Are you serious? Again? After everything that already happened, you're doing this again? Dude...you're going nowhere...really fast. Focus on one thing/project at a time (since that already appears to be too big of a task for you).

Fotomac said:

but it'd be nice to have someone on board who can handle the physics, among other complicated things. Also, I'm looking for people who can compose and/or arrange music, record character voices, do artwork, help write the dialogue, create character and vehicle models, and other stuff.

Click to expand...

Don't even get me started on that part.

Luka S.J. said:

Seriously? Are you serious? Again? After everything that already happened, you're doing this again? Dude...you're going nowhere...really fast. Focus on one thing/project at a time (since that already appears to be too big of a task for you).

Click to expand...

You gotta admit, I'm no quitter. As for C++-based engines, which would you personally recommend I use as a source?

The difference is, I've already got someone on board to do something. Obviously, you can't do anything without, well, anything, and I've already been promised a map for this, so that's a start. The map currently in progress is one of four tracks for the Pewter Circuit (apart from, of course, the boss track and the challenge course), and is, in fact, the first track on which most players will race. It's a pretty simple track, just north of Pewter City, with only a Kabutops for an obstacle.

However, a map will obviously not be enough; I will also need a character and a vehicle, and I'll come up with some code from there.

Out of curiosity, what engine are you using?

Also, since this is somewhat a Mario Kart-style game, I would suggest modifying SuperTuxKart's source code (because it happens to be open-source) since the physics and other logic stuff are already there, instead of writing the engine from scratch.

Best of luck with this!

rigbycwts said:

...I would suggest modifying SuperTuxKart's source code (because it happens to be open-source) since the physics and other logic stuff are already there, instead of writing the engine from scratch.

Click to expand...

I guess I'll do that, then. Of course, I would first have to learn the ropes, so to speak.

Admittedly it's an interesting concept, though without any demonstration that you can do any of the work, you'll run into the same roadblocks while recruiting as your other projects.

That said, it does strike me as odd that such a game didn't appear in the n64 era, so you may have got an interesting stylistic niche. If you actually make demonstratable progress on this, it could be an interesting game.

TBM_Christopher said:

...It does strike me as odd that such a game didn't appear in the n64 era, so you may have got an interesting stylistic niche. If you actually make demonstratable progress on this, it could be an interesting game.

Click to expand...

Come to think, I probably could make the graphics N64-style. Of course, though a map is already in progress, I'm going to need at least one character, including said character's kart, before I can do any tests, plus the stk-assets folder is forcing me to download everything manually, so there's been a bit of a stall on that end, but progress is being made in acquiring the STK source code.

That said, can anyone build up a character/Kart model I can use for the initial test, which will utilize the Time Trial function? (I forgot to mention earlier, there'll be three kinds of vehicles which will be used, and the Kart will be one of them.)

You can do tests if the kart is just a cube, you know. You don't need the final graphics and models just to make sure that the engine and map plays properly.

You could also try to learn this stuff yourself. There's no such thing as "can't".

Maruno said:

You can do tests if the kart is just a cube, you know. You don't need the final graphics and models just to make sure that the engine and map plays properly.

You could also try to learn this stuff yourself. There's no such thing as "can't".

Click to expand...

Good point. I still think it works better with an actual kart, though.

It'd work exactly the same. The only difference is in how it looks, which is probably not the point of any "tests" you'll be doing for a while. Aesthetics typically come later on, or at least, after the proof of concept which is what you're trying to do now.

"Four wheels and goes" doesn't need an art department or even an artist. Heck, your "wheels" don't need to be circular, as long as they've got circular collision. If you can't get a cube to do what you want, you won't be able to get a fully modeled kart to do it either, and you're frankly wasting folks' time by trying to solicit an artist for a game you have no demonstrated capability of making.

Right. Of course, I'm going to need to fully analyze the source code before I decide whether I'm going to need a new set of physics each for the other two vehicle types, one tailored for the water tracks and one tailored for the sky (and considering the only vehicle I've seen so far as I continue to download the STK assets is the Kart, it looks like I might).

As for the track itself... there's been a minor delay; the designer caught a stomach bug. Nothing to worry about, though; it's just a minor setback, as it did little to affect the timeframe of the design process. Hopefully, the basic track should be drawn in the next week or two (he does have other projects to work on, of course, but he did say he'd take care of the map along the way), followed by gradual fleshing out of its surroundings.

UPDATE: Frustratingly, my map designer has pretty much fallen behind with, well, everything. In the meantime, I guess I'll acquaint myself with Microsoft's Visual Studio to make sure I know what I am and will be doing.

UPDATE 2: I just got back to it and am working on preliminary graphics (even DKR and MK64 didn't get them right the first time around, as The Cutting Room Floor can attest), including the game's typefaces and the racers' sprites. I may also rethink my strategy regarding the casting of the racers and use Trainers with up to six Pokémon partners at a time as racers instead of Pokémon.