Any Programmers Looking for a Challenging Project?

[Tynion]

I am looking for a few good programmers who would be interested in working with me on an online CCG with unlimited potential for the future. Forgive me for being very vague, but I am fearful of idea stealers out there!

I have a gaming system in development that requires a few programmers who are ambitious enough and willing to keep up with me and grow with the game. I have an NDA with your name on it if you are interested in talking.

Why do I post this here? Because I am a Magic: the Gathering guy at heart. I grew up with the game, I know the game and its community, and this is the community that I love and want to give back too. This is a good opportunity for a programmer looking to get into the gaming industry from the ground floor and swing for the fences at the same time. If you want to see more about what I am about and my level of standards, please check out my website: www.eyeofthevortexonline.com

I look forward to talking with you in the near future.

Chris Newton
President, CVNP ~ Eye of the Vortex
c.newton@eyeofthevortexonline.com

[Jorbes]

What's the pay?

[Tynion]

Negotiable. Being a new company, payment would come after the product sells. I am very confident in my concept and my ability to move this game. I absolutely understand the trepidation involved in joining something like this.

I am definitely interested in getting a quote for your services though.

[MageKing17]

What language are you looking for?

[Tynion]

I'll be honest with you. I am not a programmer or coder, etc. I don't know how to answer that question. I just know what I need as a final outcome. It's a browser type game with a lot of database management. It needs to look hot too

One of the guys on the design team had mentioned doing a social media type interface, sorta like Facebook (for an example). Where the players would have a profile, can interact with each other, and yet there is a game state as well.

I am completely open to getting an expert opinion on what the best way to present the game is.

[MageKing17]

It's a browser type game with a lot of database management.

Completely out of my area of expertise, then.

Well, good luck to you anyway.

[Tynion]

Out of curiosity, what is your expertise?

[MageKing17]

Out of curiosity, what is your expertise?

I'm not entirely sure, but anything to do with networking and/or the internet is definitely outside of it.

[Jorbes]

So you want to run the game via database calls?
Wouldn't Silverlight or even Flash be more suitable?
Html5 might even work too.

[Tynion]

Not being a programmer, answering these questions is proving to be difficult. I spoke to one of my designer friends over the weekend about the game, and he suggested trying to figure out how to do the card game portion in MWS, as it is database oriented. If that is the case, then if MWS can handle the game side, then a rules engine (and prettier) version of that would be a possibility. There is still a profile/account aspect to look at, plus the card store, chat room, storybook viewer... etc. to think about.

Hope that doesn't scare anyone off. I am venturing to say that this is a large project. However I also think that the payoff at the end is worth both of our (my company & designers/programmers/etc.) times.

[Huggybaby]

You don't want to use MWS for anything, it's dead and not fixable. You want something new that is under development by a developer you can work with. Ask Jorbes about OPT.

[Incantus]

If you want to add a rules engine (later), you probably don't want to start with a simple tabletop engine like MWS or OPT. I don't have any extra time to work on it, but the source for Incantus is available under the BSD license, and I believe the general framework of the project is such that it could be used for other CCGS - definitely not out of the box, but I believe that my designs for things like replacement/override type effects, the layer system, etc can be reused in other projects.

[mtgrares]

I could code something like what you want. The user interface would look like the current version of Forge. I think I could write a better user interface, it just takes much more time.

[Tynion]

I have been looking and thinking about this more and more and I am still not sure what path I want to take with this. Should it be a browser type game, should it be a downloadable, should it be... eh. I appreciate the comments. I think I have tried out Incantus as Forge. I really like how Incantus looked, but was a little buggy last time I tried it out. I just read up on the running thread and I see that the steam is seaping out of the project now. When I tried Forge, I remember getting ticked off because the AI was beating my butt and because the interface was pretty bleh as you mentioned.

I had not considered playing my game against the AI, however that does hold an interesting appeal now that I am.

How much 'doing' is really involved with re-working Incantus to fit different game rules and such? The game has different zones and turn structure FYI.

[mtgrares]

Let me be realistic. Incantus is great but reworking it for anyone else but the author is impossible. Even if the project had a ton of documentation, it is very hard to repurpose someone else’s code.

When I tried Forge, I remember getting ticked off because the AI was beating my butt and because the interface was pretty bleh as you mentioned.

Well at least the AI was working. Unfortunately 4 years of college and a bachelor's degree means that you can write a user interface like Forge only if you are good. Most of my fellow students can't do any sort of a user interface.

I understand that "blah" from a non-programmer means that it doesn't look exciting. Forge's user interface "only" has 2,000 - 3,000 lines of code.

You're looking for an awesome ace programmer that doesn't exist. Programming is tough, how many times has Wizards messed up Magic Online?