Hey. I am sure a lot of you from the DBB remember a game called Core Decision.
I am going to tell you all a story about that title and what happened with that whole situation.

Long ago, I decided that since there had been no word from any company regarding any Descent title of any kind that I must create one myself if it took me ten years and I had to learn how to program it alone.
Immediately after that decision I went to Chi lan and met Zach Briggs in person and agreed to work on his project instead of my own. That project was Core Decision. He had released some artwork previously that had not been well recieved and I knew I could help steer the project back towards the community. I produced a movie of that title in action for a publisher who actually did give us an LOI stating he would publish the title when it was completed. I also took a rack of screenshots from that movie level I created and posted them online here. Many of the objects are textured with simple base textures because of the two week time limit I had to create all that material.

From there, I tried to get code written to shape the game further and was unsuccessful due to the fact that the engine (Artificial Studios' Reality Engine) had been sold out from under us and support had therefore ceased. This coupled with a lack of documentation on the engine itself forced us into a dead spot, at which point I decided that the engine was holding the project back and switched it to Torque. After much unsuccsessful searching for someone willing to do the work, I have undertaken a Bachelor of Science in Visual and Game Programming at the Art Institute of Portland and I intend to finish my original project myself. I plan to make it a multiplayer only title in the interest of speed and simplicity so that the pilots will have a new 6DOF game to play as soon as possible.

It is of course unfortunate for me that gamesas has now announced that they are again active and considering a new Descent title. I have no desire to compete with them, and in fact would love nothing more than to work on this new Descent title with the same goals I had in mind for my own project, Geocore. I have left messages and sent emails containing links to the work I have done in an attempt to get their interest and show them that I understand what must be done on this title, but heard nothing in response. I know that my artwork is not that of a talented professional but my designs and ideas are more than strong enough to carry a new descent title into success, and I intend to prove exactly that as I complete my degree and create a playable 6DOF title that exemplifies the essence of what I felt as a descent player.

Ok. The point of all that was to catch up some people and also lend some credibility to what I want to contribute to the forum in this post.

I know that incredible graphics, although they do not hurt, are not what a multiplayer Descent pilot prefers to be the strong point of the game, it is fact the competition grade gameplay that really makes this title have such incredible replay value. For the single player lovers of the title, they need a long and involved storyline with lots of fantastic, frightening machines and science fiction ideas to get their imaginations going, but it needs to tie together in an intelligent way while not being overly complicated and also adhering to the tried and true get-keys-open-doors-blow-reactor-escape routine. I will offer my paraphrased mission statement in closing in the hopes that even if I am not chosen to work on this project that I can offer at least this one small piece of direction.

-Mission Statement-
First above all, any work done on any multiplayer title should maintain a primary focus of creating a competition grade atmosphere. Competiton grade means that the various components of the game be balanced well and work predictably and with as little latency as possible when playing online with other humans.

Second, replace the blood and gore common in games with the various fluids, particles, and smoke/steam that come out of the machines you are destroying. This will produce the same satisfying feelings without being directly tied to killing or mutilating other humans or living creatures. This goal is simply in the interest of promoting positivity towards other lifeforms.


Thanks for reading.
Jeromie Esterline

Maybe they are listening to suggestions but maintaining a safe distance from commitment. Honestly, can we blame em?

Agreed.

I imagine at this point they are not even really planning Descent yet, my hope is that by the time I graduate I will be a viable candidate for a position on the team. Can't hurt to start early :]

First, you need to understand that gamesas did not make Descent. They only published it. It is very unlikely that will ever see a sequel carrying that name.

So, good luck with your project. I can play it from a wheelchair if it takes too long!

First above all, any work done on any multiplayer title should maintain a primary focus of creating a competition grade atmosphere. Competiton grade means that the various components of the game be balanced well and work predictably and with as little latency as possible when playing online with other humans.

This is what I attempted to do with all of my levels. Many people were critical of them because I didn't fill them up with dark tunnels, pipes everywhere to get hung up on and other eyecandy. Simplicity and fast gameplay with 16 players was my aim, and should be yours too. Use muti-layered textures for the walls and such to create the illusion of many faces and players will be happy. Some of the prettiest levels built had 10,000 polys in view, and was 5fps with one person. Unplayable online. Key your eye on the ball. Also, (not knowing this engine you will be using) keep polys limited to areas. In D3, boa-vis was your friend to keep happy. Very few others learned what this meant. Some even told me "why didn't you combine these faces"! Lol! They had no clue what vis was, probably still don't. http://RipTeam.com
http://FreelancerCommunity.net
http://UnderVerse.us

I understand the situation with the name and rights pretty well, I simply did not want to bring that up in the interest of remaining optimistic. I assume that gamesas has something up their sleeves or they wouldn't be marketing it on their homepage. Whether they have the rights or not is not for me to guess at.

Good advice on the design part of things. The engine I am working with is called TGEA by GarageGames.
After I complete my degree I will be able to write an engine from scratch, and I plan to do that down the road. I will just have to wait and see what things look like in a couple years, after I actually know how to program :]