@those who are to lazy/busy to read: the last three paragraphs capture the main subject of the thread, thank you.
I've read Suggestions for recruiters and so I know you're going to look at my post number and ask: Is he just meat shopping? I think that's just half true. I realized I can recruit people here AFTER I signed up and I think it's a chance I just shouldn't let slip away.
Before I start I may tell some things about my other projects so far. I'm more the programmer and because of the lack of grafic designers I hate to tell you I haven't completed any game so far. But let's have a short look what I did by now, in (mostly) chronologically order:
- My calculator (Pascal, Delphi, C, C#, Java): The first thing I mostly do when I get a new language is to implement my formula for drawing a bunch of cards from a deck. I notice I'm still saying "my formula" even after I got to know it's known as the multivariant hypergeometrical distribution one year ago.
- MineSweeper and Snake (Pascal/Delphi): Two very old games of mine, imitations of the two known games.
- Kirby Jump'n'Run (Pascal/Delphi): Got to move this little guy, let him suck up enemies and take damage. Project got frozen because I missed a sprite creator and a level designer (through I didn't really looked for help, I was just about 18 and inexperienced).
- Field Games (Java): My first real Java project (after the calculator): I was told to program TicTacToe for the console but I overdid it and created a package with which it got easy to create a 2-dimensional field of any size with any number of win combinations and players. The most interesting part of it is the AI.
- RPGMaker (Java): Out of boringness I started to create an RPG-Maker (yes, an own). The mentionable thing is that I completed the map creator, with loading images and splitting them into tiles, the whole direction thingy and so. Then I somehow lost interest because, you know, it already exists and isn't half bad.
- SoS vs. DN Beat'em'Up (Java): Basing on the stories of a friend of mine and me I started a Beat'em'Up game, got them moving, taking damage and the first steps of attacking, but I froze it because of missing images. It was hard to determinate where the damaging objects (like fists) are to be placed if you can only see a red and a blue square.
- FractalGenerator and Turing Machine (Java): The fractal generator takes a polygon line to reproduce it on itself and the Turing Machine is just a Turing Machine and well, I didn't create a GUI for it (but for the generator).
- Sebastian's own Stories, short: SoS (Writing): Since I was six I was thinking of stories and when I got 16 I started writing them down. Before I started studying I did a chapter (~20 A4-pages) half a year, after starting studies I haven't published much new, but created a wiki which aims to be bilingual (German and English). I should mention that I find my stories hillarious and I'm aware others mostly do not.
- Pokémon Dating Sim (Python/Ren'Py): The project I'm now working on and this thread is about, see content below.
- Pokémon GTA (Ruby/RPG-Maker XP/Pokémon Essentials): After I finished the Dating Sim enough (something about Version 2.x I guess), I wanna continue this. Like Firered/Leafgreen, just with the possibility for the protagonist to be evil. And not the "Oh no, he just stealed my Pokémon and now I'm a completely defenseless girl" evil but two, three steps after that. The possibility at least. First off I have to mimick Firered with Pokémon Essentials. By now I copied the maps from start town to Mount Moon.
So, I want to make a Pokémon Dating Sim, where you can date various girls from the anime/manga/games/whatever. My dreamy, unrealistic team wishes and a huge introduction to the game are to found here. So in this thread I'll concentrate more on what I actually need and what I already have by now.
First off, by now I have new software, an Intel Core i7; Ren'Py works. I started this project around New Year (because I was bored or something), created the game concept together with a friend and scripted the core things like character objects and interaction methods, in Python only because Ren'Py didn't worked on my hardware back then. And when I write "game concept" I do not mean ideas but really game concept like how the relationship system will work and which stats are available and some formulas e.g. how the charm factor will affect interaction with the girls. Concerning the programming I want to have everything reuseable and extendable. When the project is finished (Version 1.0) I want to make the code open source. I've programmed everything so far in such a manner that it is no problem to add any number of girls to the game later. Also switching the target gender to boys or use a complete different theme (like Naruto or something like that) would be relative easy (easy as in much easier than to write everything from scratch again). The code is well subdivided and so files like character.rpy could be copied completely and files like girlsNavData.rpy would only need a little change in the programming and of course the new lines what the characters want to say.
So, I'm not just the designer, I'm also the programmer. And the game is pretty far in this manner, except for dating the basic Dating Sim is playable from the programmer's view and also from the player's view (even if it's almost only text-based). I wouldn't like to give a screenshot (because duh, no pictures and stuff) and don't want to share source code just yet (Edit: Except when seeking for problem solutions like this), but I'll tell you I have 1549 lines of reasonable Ren'Py-/Python-code. Reasonable in that way that I counted the empty lines you need for readability. options.rpy and screens.rpy are not included but the few database entries we have so far (especially items). I would guess about half of it is pure programming (without empty lines :P).
My work before Ren'Py ran on my hardware lasted about 2 month and I started again this August, after I got this i7. By the way, I only learned Python for this project, through I have to admit it's a nice language.
So now, what do I need? Girls ain't gonna add themselves. While I like Pokémon I have to admit I'm not really familiar with most of the girls. So I need some guys who can write their lines for when the protagonist is speaking to them. Like, when he is a stranger, she says "Go away..." or just "...", you know. But with Bulbapedia I could do this part alone, it would just take longer. By now I'm taking care of Misty (so I get something done) and together with two friends I started Bianca. After getting accepted as a writer (or developer, as part of the project), one will join the board for it with detailed information for writers (hidden for guests).
But more important are the images. As stated in the very third link of this thread backgrounds can be found at the internet, although I would prefer vector backgrounds. But the girls need to be vectorized, or traced, to say it more properly. As my thread at the PokéCommunity has shown or this example at my DeviantArt-Page shows, I can do that part to. But that takes way to much time and I'm really not happy with me doing that (while I'm completely satisfied with the quality (except for the eyes maybe)).
The trick is that any volunteer can trace or write any girl (from Pokémon) he/she likes, I'll store the effort and when I have vector image and lines both for one girl she will be added to the game. And I would like to mention that I think tracing is very easy, because I have no talent and besides those three images I haven't worked with vectors before, so anybody can learn it. Please join for creating a fun game!
Edit: I forgot to mention we need just one traced image for a girl for the start, so the player can at least see who he is talking to.
Edit: For anyone who wants to trace a character: It should be no problem for you if your work gets reused and/or modified later on, e.g. when we need another expression.
What else is there to say about the game? We plan a lot of features, but they are exactly that and thus they play no role for the first release. You gotta start small, after all. One of this is the adult content, for the game is a Dating Sim after all (just compare the flash dating sims out there). But this is still far away and one should only worry the project he take/took part in will have such things later on. But you can switch the content on/off of course.
Second it is no 100%-serious game, so we will have some jokes and internet culture references in it (someone knows Gary Mother ******* Oak?), the Pinky Pie Scene when a girl becomes Best Friend FOREVER! is already written in stone. But of course it won't be too silly either, so no "LOL drugs!"-jokes like they were in the Love Hina Dating Sim (seriously, did this game consisted of anything else?). I go for a 80-90% seriousness level.
And no I haven't to offer anything than fun and credits, sorry.
I'm wondering if I could do write for Pokemon champion Cynthia. Maybe?