Ur-Quan Masters HD: 2D Animators and 3D Modelers wanted
Hi everybody!
New here but I was suggested this site by one of our forum members. I could use some help with animation of some 2D Characters I've created. It's for a high-definition remake of a game called Star Control 2. It was open sourced later under the name: The Ur-Quan Masters. My goal is to release 1.0 of the HD remake by January 1st 2012.
While doing that, we've also been busy working on a 'sequel' to the game called Project 6014. We've released a demo, with another one planned in the next 20 days. My problem is trying to find talented people that can help. I'm making both since the two are so closely related. So some of your work will probably be featured in both games.
If you look here:
http://star-control.com/community/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=552
You'll find some of my characters that I could use some help with the 2D animation.
The animation would look similar to this: http://www.star-control.com/hosted/happycamper/outfit.html
We could also use some additional help from 3D Modelers, and additional programmers too.
Mostly re-creating the ships, adding features, etc.
If you're wondering why you should help us out...
- We've got an amazing, hardcore dedicated fan community.
- We've actually released stuff! Our demo is available on Windows, Mac, & Linux.
- All our stuff is open-sourced (or will be).
- Everything will be available on Windows, Linux, Mac, and Android.
- We've been around for a while, and our awesome team is all around the world.
- Thousands of people will see and play your stuff!
Feel free to check out my stuff here:
My stuff: http://dczanik.deviantart.com/
Project 6014: http://code.google.com/p/project6014/
The 6014 Intro: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_33UT50Y0RE
The Ur-Quan Masters: http://sc2.sourceforge.net/
Ur-Quan Masters HD: http://code.google.com/p/uqm-hd/
Okay, first off, I love SC2, and provided the legal stuff is in place, I'd like to give this my full endorsement.
My question is this -- I know SC2 was released for free as the Ur Quan Masters (those of you reading this who haven't played UQM should go do it now!), but the art licensing wasn't truly open source (maybe it was noncommercial only or something?). Do you guys have a license from Toys for Bob to make use of their IP? If the license to the original art is CC-BY-NC or CC-BY-SA-NC, then you should be good to go.
(Edit: My question is answered below. While the art isn't technically Libre, there are no licensing issues with this project.)
To everyone else: If the licensing is in place, THIS IS AWESOME. Help this guy out! :)
Also: In your demo release, please put the files inside a folder in the tar file so I don't uncompress them and have to manually delete a bunch of stuff from my home directory. :)
Also also: I'd prefer to compile myself than having to install 32-bit libraries on my 64-bit system. Can you put up a source download for the demo?
As far as licensing goes:
http://wiki.uqm.stack.nl/The_Ur-Quan_Masters_Project_FAQ
The content (voiceovers, dialogue, graphics, sounds, and music) may be used freely under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 license. The content may also be copied freely as part of a distribution of The Ur-Quan Masters.
It's also all original artwork but obviously based on their original designs. Code-wise, Ur-Quan Masters has been open sourced since 2002. We're not selling it. Some people have been re-selling the original game off e-bay (obviously not us).
I've also been in personal contact with the TFB guys, they wished us all the best of luck and loved our demo. They're really great guys.
I'm assuming you're a Linux user? I'm developing on the Windows side. I'll let the Linux & Mac programming team know to put the stuff in a directory.
As far as the source, I believe you can download the latest stuff here:
http://code.google.com/p/project6014/source/checkout
Hopefully this helps. It contains some spoilers so please keep it 'hush-hush' for the next 20 days or so. We'd love to surprise people when the new demo comes out (which is a little hard when your stuff is all open-sourced).
I won't even look at the code -- I'll just compile it. :)
Do you have some small tasks or simple art jobs you could post?
Here are lurking some people around, including me, who are not looking for a complete project to get heavily involved, but are interested in contributing some stuff that is needed.
Best thing would be a small list of things to do and a short guideline what is to consider. (style, resolution etc.)
For example:
- Alien portrait (should look a bit like "link") (Style needed like this: ref_picture1, 2,3...) (50x100px)
- GUI Icon set (bla...)
Sure thing! There's always work to do :-D All stuff should be in PNG format. The final size is about 4 times the original. These pictures are enlarged that amount. However, I'd like things larger if I can one day get the resources to make something at an even higher resolution. It's easier to scale down in resolution, then upscale it (and have it still look good).
I could use somebody to redo the icons for the 3d0 menus.
For example: This scan menu. I've got a set of planets you can use already made here:
http://star-control.com/community/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=376
Some shields for the different lander upgrades.
As far as menu style, something that looks like it belongs in this universe. You can see our ship outfit screen here:
http://project6014.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/sc2/content/addons/hires4x/u...
Do you have a list of specifications and to-dos for ship modeling? The ships are pretty simple from what I can remember, so I could probably knock out a 3D version of a few during my lunch breaks. :)
Also, what license is being used for the assets?
As far as licensing goes: I've been going under the CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 license. People are free to share your work, and alter it but you must be given credit for it, and it's for Non-commercial use only. That only refers to the rendered sprites in the game though. I'm hoping people will be kind enough to make their 3D stuff available too. As far as I'm concerned the more people people making Star Control stuff, the better! The better chance we'll get a real sequel to the game too :)
Regarding 3D Models:
I'm currently in need of a planetary lander! I made one, but it was only intended to be used as a placeholder. It looks awful. My stuff isn't an exact duplicate but a re-imagining of the original. So if you try to keep the same basic sillouhette, you can do what you will. Just make it cool ;)
We're planning on using a plugin-type system, where the user will be able to choose what models they want, or use them all (if they wish). It should add to the variety of the game. Certain options (like a 'force default models' option) will be made for multiplayer though to keep the game balanced.
There's no way I can satisfy everybody when it comes to the artwork. So, I'm letting the user decide and the fans can provide assets for it.
You can re-make any of the models you wish. Many people have expressed their unhappiness with the Ur-Quan Dreadnaught. You can see it (and read some of the comments) here:
http://star-control.com/community/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=552
Also for the HD project, we've run into a snag when it comes to the main flagship of the game. The 3D modeler we had just gave up on it. This is one model I'd need so I can render the different views.
This ship varies a bit in the original game. A problem with different artists doing the artwork. Sometimes it's blue, sometimes it's silver. Small things are different. We're trying to merge the styles a bit, while still maintaining the look of the original.
Critiquing our recreation, you can tell it's not as wide as the original. The 'feet' are not far apart enough from the body. Of course, it was never finished either. I'm hoping to get something that looks really good since it's the ship the player will be staring at the whole game. The ship with the covered modules was just something I made in Photoshop using the unfinished ship.
Had some free time and played a little bit around with the scan logo. C&C very welcome
I read up on your links a little... so you're working on both a revamp and a sequel?
Scritl! That looks awesome! I love it when people go a direction I wouldn't have thought and yet make it look amazing! As far as crits go, The jagged angled lines was an unfortunate problem of having such a low resolution. Is it possible to lose the inner jagged lines?
And, could I get the the different layers posted. I hate to say "Okay. You did one, now do the rest of the scan pics!" If I could get the different layers, I can tackle the rest of them myself. Of course if you wanted to, I'd love for you to do the other scan pics ;)
@Johndh: Yes! I'm a glutton for punishment! Project 6014 is a sequel. Ur-Quan Masters HD is a complete graphics revamp. Both are sharing a lot of the same resources, so it's really not as crazy as it seems. So a lot of the graphics are probably going to be used for both games.
Also, Scrittl, if you could PM me your name, I'd like to put your name in the credits.
Hi,
I remade the metalic border and attached all layers as png's.
Currently im not in the mood for making the other icons ;)