The Dink Network

Everyone,

I am looking for a few creative geniuses for a pet project of mine. This pet project probably has something to do with the release of Windemere.

Are there any writers/drawers/artists/thinkers/designers out there with free time who want to contribute to the next generation of that which is Dink?

Merlin...are you sure you should be looking here??

I could help, I'm quite creative.

I'm good at writing and designing (not drawing, unless you mean stick people.

I've been working on Windemere, and I'd like a few people to work on the initial mod that will be released with it. Any takers?

Try tracking down DraconicDrink, I think I remember him once saying he was a creative genius.

Seriously, though... that sounds quite tempting, but I'm notoriously unreliable when it comes to creative projects. However, if you could provide a steady supply of gray market stimulants, I might be able to do something.

Wow, I can already see the title for that one.

Windemere: Demonstration Dmod 1

I would be very interested in contributing to the "W-mod" in some way.

I'm sure i could supply the porn, Schnapps and metal.

Other then that, I have written numerous stories/ histories for mods and drawn maps, but I always procrastinate, so i make nothing.

can you say "deja vu?"

deja vu.

I wanted to give people an adequate chance to respond. I will have some work to dish out when the engine is in a more usable state. Right now it's pretty dang hard to develop for (the language spec is done, but the functions are not).

If there is something that you think I'm capable of doing, then I could do at least something

I could help!! I come up with good ideas and am pretty creative (i think). I am also willing to learn anything new if that's a requirement. So count me in if you'd like!

I'm also interested in contributing to the project.

Send me some details...

Firstly, thank you all for responding so far. Now, here is the low down:

I am a full-time student and have a job. Normally I have a lot of spare time, but finals will be approaching soon, so I will have periodic disruptions in this project, lasting a week at most. The good news is they will only occur until the beginning of December.

The new engine will take full advantage of threading, 32-bit hardware rendering, 3D audio for 5.1 folk, and be cross-platform. I was able to save some of the old Windemere code, which helped my progress a bit. Right now the Talon (scripting language) parser fully and correctly parses ANSI C. I may change this to a slightly more object-oriented model in the coming weeks.

Status:

Linux abstraction layer - Done
Windows abstraction layer - 0%
GL Windowing - Done
Events - 80%
Audio - 50%
MIDI - Done
OGG Vorbis - 80%
Rendering - Done
Sprite Interpreter - 0%
XML Parser - Done
Talon Parser - Done
Talon Implementation - 0%
Resource Stack - 90%
Mapping Implementation - 0%
AI - 0%
GUI - Undecided.

--

Unfortunately, I'm just designing the engine. I need a mod to release with it. This is where you guys come in. This is made for the community, so I'm glad it'll also be *by* the community.

Here are the roles I've 'picked' for everyone. I chose based upon past performance/releases, but if there's something you really want to do or don't want to do at all (for example, if you hate mapping), we can change the list easily.

Story Development
-----------------
Marpro
Merlin
Nawal
Simeon
SimonK

Graphics
--------
SimonK
Anyone else?

Mapping
-------
Marpro
Nawal
Simeon

Scripting
---------
Merlin
Nawal
Sabre
Simeon
SimonK

Miscellaneous
-------------
Striker

Testing
-------
Pillbug
Glenn

--

Now I'd like the story to be planned out before we start developing. This should give me enough time to get much of the stuff out of the way such as mapping and part of the Talon implementation. What I'd like everyone to do now is brainstorm some ideas. These ideas should be on the order of magnitude of an epic, like the original Dink game. Once we have an underlying idea of what our storyline is, we can piece it out in detail.

If you have an idea or two, feel free to PM me or post it here. If you come up with one later, you know the drill: edit your post instead of posting again.

Thanks guys.

A single question - who is the star of the legend?

Whoever you want.

You could count me in as well, Merlin. I'm not so good in other things (look in my profile ), but I always come up with a good story, so I could be the Story Developer. (Did I spell it right?)

If Talon is anything like DinkC I'd be glad to help with the scripting.

Choosing the protagonist of the story also depends on the direction we want the project to go: if we want a 'Dink 2' then it makes sense to choose Dink as protagonist, if we intend to create a 'Dink-inspired' engine then we could choose a different protagonist (the character would need to have the same humor etc though if we want to preserve the traditional Dink feeling). In both cases, the protagonist could also be accompanied by others of course. If we choose Dink, there's already a background story in place which we can refer to or give it more depth by developing the aspects that the original game didn't cover (like Port Town).

Is there a Talon scripting reference? I'd like to see how it is compared to DinkC.

i would like to help in anyway i can.

Sorry to leave everyone hanging for a while. School got crazy busy.

Glenn: there is no Talon scripting reference yet. It will not be like DinkC.

As for the story, I think we should take a Dink approach to everything. Unfortunately, the main problem is that the graphics kind of suck right now, so....

Hey Merlin! I just finished my exams and I'm ready to rock in this project. Just tell me what u need me to do and by when. Cheers !

Hey guys! What happened to this project?? Aren't we supposed to start it?

Heh, My computers broke so Im installing dink on my sisters computer, so Slow...
I might make a Epic Dmod.
Although my last result was... unpleaseing

Sounds awesome. I'm an exceptional writer. My programming ability is questionable. I have limited C++ experience. I'm very interested in this project, though.

On a side note: Am I to understand that SimonK is not dead?

More reason to celebrate!

-rcbanks

Nah... SimonK can't die, HE is the Necromancer!

What the hell, I can help.

Probably. Planewalkergames doesn't need me anymore, and I still think Windemere is a good idea.
I still can't code my way out of a wet paper bag though...

I'd love to help too. I'm good at scripting and I love story writing.

Although I am currently working on a DMOD, it won't be an epic one so it shouldn't take more than a few weeks to finish it (and it won't be a problem working on both projects. I can handle it ).
Anyway, if I can help with anything at all, tell me.

Unstickied because this seems to be dead, at least for now. Maybe Merlin will reappear out of the blue (again...) one day and resurrect it