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- {subhead} Faction Wars diary, February{def}{p}
- Article by Jeroen Knoester
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- {bold}Jeroen Knoester{nobold}, Project manager:
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- As this is my first entry into this diary, I'll first tell a bit about
- Random Intellect and our first game, Faction Wars.
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- Random Intellect is a new freeware games design group. Our goal is to
- create high quality, multi-platform games-software.
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- We currently are designing an epic space based game, based on Master of
- Orion and Civilization. This game is Faction Wars.
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- In Faction Wars, the player is the leader of one of five different factions,
- each with their own strengths and weaknesses. Apart from surviving the
- overall hostilities of space and the other factions, there also is the
- imminent threat of an alien invasion. Though often hostile towards each
- other, both the factions and the earth state share one common goal: To
- destroy the alien fleets, before they destroy humanity.
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- In this diary, several members of the Random Intellect team will describe
- how we go about making this game, from a personal point of view. If
- you're just interested in the facts, you should check our status report,
- which is ( or will be ) available on our web-site:
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- {link http://www.randomintellect.com}http://www.randomintellect.com{end}
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- Oh, before I begin.. You can find a list of project members on the
- web-site as well...
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- December - February:
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- As much as I'd like to believe otherwise, the sad truth is that Random
- Intellect is fast turning into another 'JIT' ( Just In Time ) group...
- This diary was supposed to be written during the period it describes...
- However, it is now one day before my deadline and I've only just begun..
- ( There's a lesson in here somewhere... )
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- Since the founding of our 'group' in august 1998, we have mostly been
- deciding what type of game to make, how our logo should look and whether
- or not we should have a web-site... In December, however, we had enough
- of an idea to start designing. Since designing is all we've done, this
- diary will focus mostly on design..
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- The first month ( December ) was used mostly to build our web-pages, which
- are finally beginning to look like a professional design. ( The logo is,
- by the way, an Imagine 4.0 trace, made on my Amiga 1200 ( It took four
- hours to render.... ) )
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- During January, we started making real progress when Gideon and me got
- together and started working on a 'global game model'
- ( which is now finished ).. This global model contains the inner workings
- of the game, on an abstract level. It will ( hopefully ) be deepend over
- time, right down to the programmer's application level.
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- On the fourth of February, we had our last monthly meeting so far
- ( The next one is, surprisingly, held at the 4th of March ). During that
- meeting ( Which, incidently, is one of the most productive ones so far ),
- we discussed our model and decided on a name for the new homeworld of
- the earth government. The earth goverment is called Starcom in our game.
- It's home world lies in the remote Tau Alpha system ( As seen on our
- web-site ). However, no-one could come up with a suitable name for it..
- So we decided to write our suggestions down and vote. We had a list of five
- names, all remarkably similar, and started arguing about which name to
- vote for.. We where in a bit of a fix, since only two people ( myself
- and Ricardo ) where left to vote.. The problem was that two of the names
- had an identical amount of votes.. Basically, if I voted the one, Ricardo
- would the other... In the end, we just decided on Isharo, later changed
- into Ishara.. Hope you like it, cause humanity is stuck with it...
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- Well, that's it for the february edition of the Faction Wars diary.. If
- you have any questions, don't hesitate to e-mail us..
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- Till next month, Jeroen Knoester.
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- {bold}Ricardo T. Verver{nobold}, Story designer:
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- Hmm, a diary... Ok, what shall I begin with?
- I am one of the two guys responsible for a good story during the game
- (the other one is Alex). To reach this, we have decided to write a
- novella. That novella should be the base for the game. Sounds good? Well,
- we thought so too. But a novella isn't written in a day. The different
- elements of the game (earth, Starcom, aliens, factions) should all have
- their proper place.
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- To get some good ideas for the story, Alex and I have been playing chess
- and drinking whiskey for several weeks now. And yet, we haven't got the
- faintest idea how to end the story. Where the game starts, the story
- should end. But who would like to read an unfinished novella? For as
- long as this problem isn't solved we'll be drinking whiskey and playing
- chess...
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- {bold}WWW{nobold}: {link http://www.randomintellect.com}http://www.randomintellect.com{end}{p}
- {bold}eMail{nobold}: jeroen@infothuis.nl