Hello,

Hello, my name is Josh Ritter and I am a game industry veteran turned independent developer. I am flying our current title around to see what people think... it's called "Minions of Mirth" it's a *massively single player game*.

We are currently getting the web page up... but here is a temporary page where I posted some screenshots, a video, and some features: http://www.prairiegames.com/momtemp

The direct link to the video is here: http://www.prairiegames.com/mom_preview1.mov it is an extended version with a runtime of 8 minutes to give a good idea of gameplay... it is in Quicktime format (http://www.quicktime.com)

The game currently runs on both Windows and OSX ... We will be selling the game online... the project is currently 6 months old... there are 2 developers working on it... myself and my wife to be... we have worked very hard to get it to where it is... it will ship before the end of the year...

A gory truth is that we are desperately in need of some financial help on the title. We also need help with promotion and sales...

Serious inquiries only to jritter@prairiegames.com

Vibes,
-Josh Ritter
Prairie Games
http://www.prairiegames.com

The game art looks fabulous - well done! I think "Minions of Mirth" is a terrible title. Is it just me ? Don't worry though. I used to think "Viewtiful Joe" was a terrible title but now I have the game and I love it :)

it's openSource, does that mean we can just change the graphics and sell one ? ;)

pat.

WOW!
Congrats on the game! I have seen only the screenshots since I can use only a IDSN and the 80mb vide file isn't a good option to me :)
I see it's clearly inspired by Everquest game (has the same feel) and surely it's a good thing.
The graphics are nice, I see that I am not the only one using Poser and DAZ models ;)
I am looking forward to see the demo. Of all indie game I have seen this is the first one that I could really buy :)

I'll get in contact with you with email to give you some hints ;)

Best of luck with this title. Looks very, very impressive.

Cas :)

I must say i was skeptic when i read the title of this thread. I see hundreds of promising (and many, many that dont) Indie MMO games come and go thinking that completing (or at least show results like this) are simply impossible.

nice to finally see someone who reached this level, and isnt afraid to keep going despite of the long road ahead.

Gladiator, i salute you!

A friend downloaded the video and made me a "smaller" download of 24mb, so I could see it too myself.

What I can add? if you need money you can just go to a normal publisher and show the demo asking 500k$ to finish the game, I'm sure you have good chances from what I've seen!!!

Screenshots looking great. So, what is the concept ? I mean single player ? Does it play on the local computer without server but results affect the percistent world ? Or something else ?

@Everyone: Thanks for the great comments.

@patrox: Yes, the game is Open Source. Yes, you can change "just" the graphics, create a database, create the game levels, play balance it all, make the source effects, etc... and then, sell one :)

@Jack_Norton: It's great to read your comments. I also got the email... good stuff. We are needing $10k to finish the game... and we definately will keep the game independent. I believe this is to be a modest sum given the game's uniqueness, appeal, and Windows + MacOSX support. We'll see what happens... this is kind of a sneak peak... The explosion will be going off shortly!

@Serg3d: The game is written for multiplayer... and we will support multiplayer probably next year in an expansion pack. The probably is based on if we are overwhelmed with the reaction to single player.. then, we will concentrate on a single player expansion. The thing is, that it is impossible for a team of 2 people to release a kickass single and kickass multiplayer game simultaneously. The single player experience uses the network and persistence that the multiplayer does... it just goes over a short circuit instead of the wire.

-Josh Ritter
http://www.prairiegames.com

Josh - you've got an awesome game on yer hands!! Best of luck :)

What tech are you using: terrain CLOD/ROAM + quadtree for the buildings/units? How is character animation done - skelatal/keyframe? Any info on collision detection / physics? Any middleware?

Thanks for sharing the info.

Again, I wish you luck - from the screenshots you must be one very productive coder to get all that up in 6 months!

grimreaper

I watched the video and I'm very impressed with how much content appears to be in the game. It's pretty clear that an enormous amount of work has gone into this title. Especially for only 2 people.

Are the characters sprites? Kind of an interesting way to go.

Originally posted by Grimreaper

Again, I wish you luck - from the screenshots you must be one very productive coder to get all that up in 6 months!



True... awesome quality! Hmmm.. you're not using Half-Life 2 code are you? ;)

No, he's using a modified version of the Quake II Evolved codebase.

I branched Quake 2 Evolved back in December... it's been a fair amount of work, engine, game, and tool side. Quake2 had more than one limitiation that needed removing.

Here's some technical points, on what I affectionately call "The Prairie Engine":

Prairie Engine Technical Features:

+ 100% Open Source. The engine, tools, and gameplay code is available under the GPL.
+ 100% compatible Quake3Arena shader support which can be applied to world geometry, dynamic geometry, or even GUI elements!
+ Single player. The game is fully playable in single player mode. It does not have limited single player content.
+ Multiplayer. The engine and gameplay code is written for multiplayer. The game server is capable of running more than one zone in the same process. This is a really big deal(tm).
+ 3d sprite system allows character, item, monster, and other graphics to be created and integrated very quickly. A tremendous amount of game characters can be on screen.
+ Terrain with inside/outside support and no hard limit to size
+ Day and night cycles with seperation based on inside/outside.
+ Robust pathfinding
+ PVS generation is used by networking and graphics systems
+ Extremely powerful particle system and surface clipped decals!
+ GUI system with support for animated palettes, per pixel clipping, and shader effects
+ Cross platform support provided by the incredible SDL library. http://www.libsdl.org
+ Integrated RDBMS backend provided by the tremendous SQLite library. http://www.sqlite.org
+ Lua scripting. http://www.lua.org
+ Extremely fast toolchest with innovative methods for level creation. Examples include, extrusion from 2d level data, custom Python language based processors, procedural entity scattering, light brushes for quick/dramatic lighting, etc.
+ Created primarily with free and open source art programs
+ Based on a heavily modified QuakeII branched from Team Blur´s Quake 2 Evolved. http://www.planetquake.com/blur

-Josh Ritter
Prairie Games
http://www.prairiegames.com

In addition to shopping it around to publishers, you might earn a few bucks with pre-orders. If the price was right I'd probably plunk down some money on a pre-order, just from what I've seen so far. However, if the game doesnt come out, you'd have to refund the money, so its risky.

Have you talked to gamespy / realarcade as well?

Hey, funny you should mention preorders... I have a number of people wanting to donate money to help see the game done. I can't believe how cool this is. I believe a donation deserves a copy of the game when it's completed :) I have setup a PayPal account... but it takes a confirmation to verify it, this takes a couple days...

Preorders would be on the order of, if the game isn't done by a certain date, you get a whole/partial refund... and a copy of the game.

-Josh Ritter
http://www.prairiegames.com

The game looks awesome and you seem to have a boatload of content in there.

+ Created primarily with free and open source art programs

That sounds interesting, what programs are you using?

Josh,

You seem to be on to a stunner here! Congratulations! I wish I could see this level of scope and quality more often in the indie scene.

Everyone, thanks again for the encouragement.

Breaking Minions of Mirth News!!!

In preparation for the game´s first Press Release... I have cut the final version of Preview Video #1.

It comes in two flavors:

An 8 minute, 60 meg, 400x300 Quicktime at medium compression:

http://www.prairiegames.com/mom_preview1.mov

or

An 8 minute, 20 meg, 400x300 Quicktime at high compression (quite grainy):

http://www.prairiegames.com/mom_preview1_lowres.mov

For anyone who is curious, the sneak peak version was 12 minutes long, didn´t have any contact information, or introduction text... I also reshot the Epic Battle sequence because I wasn´t happy with the units being lost in the ground texture (changed the texture).

I think the pace of the video is a huge improvement... but yeah, it´s pretty much the same thing. Only better, and a little more suited to the masses.

-Josh Ritter
http://www.prairiegames.com

The graphics are great, based on the objects/clothes/characters shown on the web page! (no matter what a friend told me... he said the video looked like Everquest in 1999)

It's fun to see this MUD type of game again (I've been playing MUD quite a lot during my uni times).

Any chance of getting the video in another format? Like MPEG or XVID (an open format :-) ). (I don't have anything to play quicktime files here, and I really don't want to install this terrible quicktime player)

I'm guessing that, since it'll be open source, you're going to sell the gfx/sound data?

The video left me speechless. Two people did this in 6 months? Amazing!

Best of luck to you with getting this project done and released.

Just to agree with everyone else, for the timescale and the size of team, it's frankly miraculous.

You sound like a pretty clued up guy when it comes to games, so I imagine you know the amount of work still left to do to get it into shape as a sellable product and I wish you good luck with it. I have only one negative thing to say and that is about the name -- where's the mirth? Perhaps mirth is a name of a place or a character in your game? If so, I'd recommend changing it. I was expecting some sorth of Monty Python's Holy Grail RPG from the title. Is it meant to be funny in some way?

Oh, hang on, two negative things. I, like a lot of people, don't like .MOV as a format. It forces me to have a utility I don't want on my machine and I find it's not as flexible or as accessible (streaming, for example) as MPEG (very widespread) or WMV (Windows only, but great in every other way).

"... was expecting some sorth of Monty Python's Holy Grail RPG from the title."

The primary delivery of mirth in the game is via it's writing. The quests, etc... There will be some sight gags too... I'll work on getting more visual mirth in for the next preview. :)

Just to prove there is a modicum of mirth... Here's a sample item: "Crappy Ring of the Brazen"

Really, the game is Minions of Mirth it's meant to be a quirky mix of the sinister and the ridiculous... contrast.

On Quicktime, hmmmmm... I'll have to check to see if I can export MPEG... I do have a game to make during all this too!

-Josh Ritter
http://www.prairiegames.com

PS: I have every Monty Python episode, every Black Adder Episode, every Faulty Towers, Red Dwarf, Yes! Minister!, Are You Being Served? ... there's so much mirth to draw on it isn't funny! Oh wait, yes! It is!!!

Okay, glad to hear that the title matches your intent. I'm also glad to hear of a game that is embedded in the idea of writing as a way of geting people involved through emotion.

If you're interested in talking about the writing aspects via email, then I'd be glad to talk about it.

Shirley!

I am very open to collaborating... There is certainly room for it! Contact info is on my site... I also have some forums setup that can be used... There is a development section... this is exactly their purpose, it's nice to have discussion in the open so that it may stimulate others...

I have made some trial runs with MPG format (MPEG1)... with horsepoop results... the 80 meg MPEG file I generated is absolutely horrible looking... I was also forced to use 320x240 instead of what I captured at 400x300... I used MPEG4 with the Quicktime... any advice?

-Josh Ritter
http://www.prairiegames.com

Don't call me Shirley : ) (Airplane, I get it.)

I'll have a look at the movie stuff and get back to you. I know a few people who have dealt with WMV and MPEG. I'll check out your forums too.

This post is just so people here know I responded as much as anything.

Hi folks,

I did an interview over at RPGCodex (http://www.rpgcodex.com/content.php?id=105). There's some new info in it.

Also, Minions of Mirth (http://www.prairiegames.com) has an official Gold date of Feb 1st, 2005. :)

We've also been updating the site...

Vibes!,
-Josh Ritter
Prairie Games (http://www.prairiegames.com)

I know it's been said before, but that is an amazing looking game :) It reminds me a lot of the Might and Magic series (6,7,8, etc), and Daggerfall. I'm looking forward to this one... big time.

I agree, the graphics of the game are VERY good! congrats :)
But why you show only 4 screenshots now? I think it would be better (also to sell more) to show more content on the game (not everyone has a fast connection to download the movie!).

Also what 3d program did you use to make the models? they're very detailed! :)

I don't like the name, either. (Might just be a personal bias on my part.) In fact, I almost didn't read this thread because after I saw the title I thought, "Sounds like some goofy 'comedy game'."

There are lots of commercial products on the market that have funny sounding titles (Deer Avenger, Pyst, Trailer Park Tycoon, etc.) but I don't think they sell very well. Generally, these games try to get by on [questionable] humor instead of great gameplay, and this has left a bad taste in a lot of mouths.

In my opinion, the title of your game may "trivialize" your herculean development efforts... and I'd hate to see that happen. Minions has the potential to be one of the best indie RPGs ever created -- so why run the risk of limiting your market with a gimmicky moniker?

Here's another way to look at it... (This movie analogy is a stretch because of the license, of course, but I think you'll see my point.) Do you think "Bored of the Rings" would have been as successful as "Lord of the Rings"? "Bored" might do okay boxoffice as a low(er) budget comedy, but considering the resources Peter Jackson had at his disposal it really wasn't necessary to rely so much on high concepts and cleverness.

I don't know, I could be WAY off on all of this, but I honestly believe that if you showed people two titles for an upcoming indie RPG: "Minions of Mirth" and, let's say, "Dragon's Realm", most would choose to download the latter. Maybe it's too late to change the title -- I guess you would have to worry about losing mindshare, at this point -- but perhaps you could just shorten it to "Minions"? Might be worth some informal focus testing, if you haven't already done that.

For the sake of argument, I thought the title was fine. Game titles may sound cheesy or odd, simply because of a bad association the gamer might have with the title (it makes them think of something, etc). Once people play a game, the associations with that name are changed, and people see it in a whole new light... assuming the game is good, of course.

The classic name is Blizzard. It's a poor name. It's the name of snow flying around. It has nothing to do with games, or excellence, or strength (etc) at all. But, once people played and realised the brilliance of Blizzard's games, everyone now feels the name has some serious weight to it. The name now has a better feeling about it, not because of what it's about, or how it sounds, but because you associate it with excellent games and good times.

Anyway, if I saw the name "Dragon's Realm" I wouldn't go anywhere near it, because it sounds so A-typical. And yes, that is because of bad associations ;)

My concerns about the "Minions of Mirth" title could definitely be a "John" issue. Though, I ran it by my wife -- my personal litmus test for casual game ideas -- and she didn't like it either. (She wasn't biased; she thought I was considering that title for one of MY games.)

You're right "Dragon's Realm" feels very generic, which is not a good thing, but I *still* think I'd be more likely to download a game by that name. This may not even be an issue... Maybe names aren't that important, in the scheme of things. In any event, I don't want to hijack this thread, so I started another one in the Game Development and Technical forum.

I just had a look at the video. I must say you have done a great job! 1 question though. Why is there no sound in the video? I understand that it may still be early in the piece. But to me music and sound is such a big deal. Ok, i'm coming at this from a different angle as a music composer and sound designer. What excites me about a game is not only the graphics and gameplay. All you need now is a breath taking musical score with some realistic sound design.

If you haven't found anyone to write music and/or create sound fx let me know.

I wish you all the best with Minions of Mirth. It looks like it will be a great game!

Cheers

@Everyone: Thanks for the input and complements!!!!

@Peter: I got your email and forwarded it to Lara, she is handling music and sound. Just so you know, we have had 4 sound and music guys email us within the last few weeks... It's a bit crazy out here on the plains. We can use help, but juggling this project has been getting more and more difficult. We can't spin too many more plates. Please bear with us...

I am stopping in to let folks know that I packaged up a combatibility test of the engine. It's pretty much an interactive version of the video. The engine isn't optimized (long load times, etc) and uses quite a big of RAM. If you have less than 512 megs of system or less than 64 megs of video ram, you should probably skip it.

Otherwise, just note that this isn't a proper demo. If you aren't a fan of indie games, rpg madness, Open Source development and are looking for something to play: There's not much to see here....

More information can be found in our "MoMTests" forums:
http://www.prairiegames.com/phpBB2/viewforum.php?f=11

I am currently working on the OSX Build... I have it running from XCode, but I am a total novice at making OSX packages... If you are an XCode overlord, with experience making distributable OSX packages, and want to help... please shoot me an email.

Vibes,
-Josh Ritter
http://www.prairiegames.com

Alright, the OSX Build of the test is now available. This is the first time I have packaged up an app for OSX... So, if you have any problems running it... please email me! Thanks!

The disclaimers about performance and memory usage for the Windows build also apply here...

Download and other information is available in our MoMTest forums: http://www.prairiegames.com/phpBB2/viewforum.php?f=11

Vibes!,
-Josh Ritter
http://www.prairiegames.com