[MadMax]

Do you remember Bubblegum Crisis Online?

Heya guys, haven't been here for quite a while. It's winter, 'tis the season, and winter generally makes me want to do two things:

- play computer/video games,
- make games.

That's right, I'm spending some of my time creating games. Most of the time during the past year it has been pinball, with a neat little creation software called Future Pinball that allows you to do amazing things. But, pinball isn't all there is when it comes to computer games and I've found myself thinking about what went wrong with that game project some of you might remember, Bubblegum Crisis Online, and whether it would be the right time to kickstart it again with a fresh perspective and, of course, smaller goals.

For those forum members who don't know what I'm talking about, BGCO was an idea and a concept for a computer game based on Bubblegum Crisis that Rach and I conceived, and a number of people tried to work together to build a game that would tell a BGC story and be playable online in teams, such as Knight Sabers, Genom Boomers, and ADP. The idea was that BGC (not 2040) has a lot of content and plot that could be transformed into an action/RPG game, especially the battles of the Sabers and all their gadgets, and we wanted to recreate that on the computer. The project froze when people left the team because nothing was happening, and we were stuck with the engine because we didn't have experts for programming and animation.

Maverick and I talked about the game after the project was cancelled and C3F went down, and I remember that we brainstormed about a game that would be either single player or co-op play, so it would be easier to tell a linear story and build paths for the player(s) to take instead of pitting huge teams against each other in complex maps. It would mean less work to complete a working game and could be done without reprogramming the whole engine to be an MMORPG when it was a first person shooter to begin with!

Currently I am researching a bit on engines because what we used back then (Unreal Engine 2) isn't the most efficient and beautiful engine nowadays. I also have all the ideas and concepts as well as old model and map files lying around on my harddisk and I feel that lots of that stuff could be reused. But before starting such a project again, I would like to know if anyone in this forum would be

- interested in joining a team to make a game/mod/TC based on BGC
- helpful with technical and artistic talents, such as mapping, modelling, programming, drawing, designing
- crazy about BGC and excited to see it redone in a virtual way!

Blast away with ideas, tell me what you would like to see in a BGC game and how we could pull it off. I'll post some of the leftover ideas from BGCO later.

[Maverick]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO NOT AGAIN!!

We're going to FAIL MISERABLY............You can so count me in!

*does the serious discution on MSN*

[Hawkeye]

'SIR if I can Volounteer in Any Way , I am Down for it Sir!'

[Maverick]

Pick one of the tasks that Max mentioned, if you don't know what you want to do then no

I mean... in general, the "if there's anything I can do I'll do it" way of thinking will not do it, there are specific jobs that we need for this, modeller, mapper or coder, maybe a texturer and concept artist, we don't need any profesionals, only people who wants to work in one of the later jobs and that won't leave the team when things slow down. When I joined BGCO I barelly knew how to use 3dsmax and I learned while working in the project, that's one reason why BGCO progress was slow, then again we had a professional onboard but left us after modelling Priss's arm half way. If you wanna learn to use 3dsmax or Blender then this is a good excuse for join us.

I'm a bit reluctant about getting any real help from C3F, I remember the "???" guy who only got support words and nobody for do some real work. But dunno, asking won't hurt XP getting help for a BGC game IS tough, since most modding people will go for a traditional no-anime ala counter strike type of game

anyway we should look for a simple goal, just a single map with one player and one boomer, no plot nor pointless stuff, if we can't do that then we should give up for real.

[MadMax]

I agree, making a single map with a simple goal is a good test to see what's required.

Maverick is right; back in he day there were a lot of people who came and said, "I wanna help, what can I do?" The result was that those people were no help to us at all unless they had skills in one of the departments Mav mentioned. If you can program, map, model, design, THEN let us know. I really want to restart this project, but this time without wasting time and people for it.

[Hawkeye]

Well do you have any refrance material as I never done a map before, but I'm willing to have a go at it

[Lynk Former]

Good luck with it.

[MadMax]

Thanks, Lynk. Luck is what we need most

Well do you have any refrance material as I never done a map before, but I'm willing to have a go at it

I'm sorry to burst your bubble, but that's not good enough... you would need SOME sort of experience with mapping or architecture for this; it's not like you just build something you see in the anime. I've been building maps for years every once in a while and have tried out different editors and editing styles, and that gives me some background about what makes a map good and playable, and how architecture should be built up in it. If you've absolutely never done it before, you're not what we need.

Of course, if you take up mapping one day by yourself and create something useful, you can come back to us



Here are some pictures from BGCO back in the day.

The logo, created by Lynk:



Two screenshots from the test map with the Priss model:



One of Maverick's weapon concepts:



My attempt at the Ladies 633 building:



Maverick's Priss hardsuit model:



Artwork drawn for the game by SadiPriss:

[Maverick]

@Hawk, don't listen to him if you really really wanna help grab some Source tutorials (looks like we're going for Source now ^^), learn the basics and do something, dunno, map your home, we may put it somewhere as an easter egg XD

Anyway since Max put some screenshots, this is how Priss model looks right now, this time with a pose



Anyway I'm not gonna work much for this month, I have other stuff to do

edit: *looks at Priss's fingers* =_= I gotta fix the fingers of the arm-gun, i always forget

[Chimasterwang]

They just look so good the screens and model by Mav =P
I dont realy like BGC that much but the ingame Priss model looks cool XD

[Lynk Former]

Unk, that's the old logo I created, remember I made a newer one that was way better.

[Kiai]

I remember there was some beta mod for unreal tourney, and some wanker went and stole it or something... or was it some other game...

Anway, I've still got some of the midi files from the original project ( volunteered for the music portion) and was wonderin if ya'll needed help in that area at all.

[Maverick]

Unk, that's the old logo I created, remember I made a newer one that was way better.

that's right, this one

Anyway the project needs a new name, BUBBLEGUM CRISIS ² or BGC² are the ones I can think of...... I'm so clever

So here's something that anyone can do, think in a name for a BGC game, come with something nice and original and I get you a cookie.

@Kim
we'll need help in that area, but since we already failed once, we should wait until we get at least a playable level before going futher

[Lynk Former]

That's the one So proud of that XD

[Kiai]

So if this gets serious enough, are you going to start a seperate forum for the game again?

[Lynk Former]

Yup, why wouldn't I?

[Maverick]

we're getting seriously serious! *points at room full of monkeys with computers*

Bungie made Halo that way, right?

[Kiai]

I know this is probably out of the question... fuck it!

Why not make original characters? Completely homebrewed characters that have or don't have anything to do with the current bgc 2040 universe. It would definitely expand our options and make finding possible voices that much easier. Just throwin it out there. Even if this won't work out in the end it'd still make a great addition to the site's webcomic.

[mainframe]

Wow never would have thought I'd find a mod based on this anime ... anyone still messing with it ?

[Kiai]

Hey there! Post a hello in the introduction area please! To answer your question though, I don't think so. The people responsible for creating most of the original mod have either moved on or quit trying to work on this. Feel free to bring the idea up to the mods though, they're friendly enough.

[Maverick]

Max has been reaaal busy with his stuff and we haven't talked about the mod since a lot of time, and myself, I have been working on it now and then but for improve my 3d modelling rather than for the mod itself, and since now I switched to GNU/Linux things might get messy with the development.

All the other people that worked on the mod quitted or vanished without a trace.

[mainframe]

ahhhhh thats too bad ... I know a bit of 3dsmax and have some free time to work on some models and I know a bit of unreal ed for ut2k4
Here is a character from BGC, I spent the last few days of my little free time to make her this far

[Maverick]

that's real nice... yet we have the same problem, without a programmer we're not gonna get too far. We had several artists before but not a single coder, all we could do was a deathmatch with knightsabers.

Also, the mod we were making was based in the original BGC, not BGC2040.

[Kiai]

HOLY SHIT, THATS A SWEET 3D RENDER! NICE! I DEFINITELY WANT TO SEE A FINISHED MODEL. (I only write in all caps if I'm excited)

Do you have an online portfolio somewhere?

[mainframe]

that's real nice... yet we have the same problem, without a programmer we're not gonna get too far. We had several artists before but not a single coder, all we could do was a deathmatch with knightsabers.

Also, the mod we were making was based in the original BGC, not BGC2040.

Yeah that seems to be the problem all the time .... makes me mad that most of the good coders are either on a ww2 kick or something to do with insurgents in iraq I know nothing really new, except this dystopia mod that got me back into making anime type models. I guess I can just focus on getting a few players in game

What does the original BGC characters look like.

Thanks Kiai but no portfolio atm m8. Really soon though hopefully.

[Chimasterwang]

I dont see any image of his model XD
Btw ive played a BGC mod for Doom something to do with Otakon or something like that XD

[Maverick]

yeah, coders that like anime aren't quite common, we can only wait for one to show here since we aren't actually searching for one, as I said before we're busy with other stuff and for make things worse I'm starting to lose interest in BGC.

as for bgc characters, you can look here and complain to Lynk for why the bgc site isn't finished yet (yell him a lot) or look in google or wikipedia

[mainframe]

yeah, coders that like anime aren't quite common, we can only wait for one to show here since we aren't actually searching for one, as I said before we're busy with other stuff and for make things worse I'm starting to lose interest in BGC.

as for bgc characters, you can look here and complain to Lynk for why the bgc site isn't finished yet (yell him a lot) or look in google or wikipedia

Yeah I here ya ... a full blown mod based on bgc wouldnt be worth it tbh ,... but i like the characters well most of them and wouldnt mind making a few for fun to get into ut2k4 or even hl2

I'm a pretty busy fella as well, I watch my son in the morning and go to work in the afternoons. One eye on the computer one on his lil butt which is tough lol

[WhitePaw]

Um...BGC was the driving dream behind my major in college. I've an MS now in AE and a dozen years experience coding engineering and ground test simulators for actual spacecraft (think targeting systems on board "orbiting platforms") in FORTRAN/C/C++ (it's not the language that matters. Any idiot can program. It's the physics that's tricky). I'm coming back around now thinking 'bout doing at least some BGC twiddle in the world.

I've never programmed for a gaming physics engine, but they look simple enough (um....to me). I'd like to have a go at learning Bender too. I've angry Photoshop skills if need be.

Drop me a note if I sound like an asset. I'd at least like a copy of whatever hardsuit models you've got. I'd like to twiddle in a corner for a bit with 'em...mebby code up a working physics model, "thrusters" and all. Should be a simple matter of picking an open-source 3D gaming engine, shoehorning the formats and tuning the parameters. Write a few handlers mebby for the weapons n' displays. Cinch: four, five years of spare time tops.

2033, 2040? Don't care. Whatever.

-Paw.

[Lynk Former]

To be perfectly honest, this isn't really a great place to be looking for opportunities to test out any skills you may have on any kind of videogame project worthy of those skills. One or two members are working on small projects who may be interested in your help, but overall, there are better places to look than here.

[Maverick]

yes, like Lynk said, Max finally gave up on a BGC game and I moved to other projects, we weren't thinking in putting any physics to the game anyway, but If you still want to work in something you can look in some open source physics engines like ODE or Bullet, they probably have a list of games using their engines and you may like to join in, but no BGC unfortunately