I've been talking this over with some of the staff and so far they all seem pretty keen on the idea.
Its basically what the title says, a game that is built by the community for the community. Participation can be anything from spriting and faceart to just mapping out a town. Everything a game needs to be completed, RRR Needs You
(There was also the suggestion of Rev Points for participation, though that hasn't been confirmed).

So basically this post is to establish who would be interested in such a project, what engines you have access to (could always download a demo of another if we end up using one you don't have) and really just any ideas, suggestions or questions you may have.

Well, I'm down for it any particular idea of what kind of game it is? Brief story to go off of? Or is this ground zero and we can just start shooting ideas out there? lol

This sounds like a good idea, but the only skill I could contribute to this would be writing. Still, it sounds interesting on the surface of things.

I'd imagine somebody will have to run the project, implementing everything into the game, while others contribute maps, events, and what not?

We should just have a dropbox or something. Create folders for each participant to throw something in. Like a map, an event system, or other forms of intellectual property. I don't mind heading it up unless one of the staff was going to do that. Just let me know. About the storyboard and gameplay, I'm sure we'd need to have some sort of discussion about a theme. Just a little more structure and I think we could have a very interesting thing going here

Spot on amerk, and yeah vvalkingman I was thinking the dropbox system myself.

I didn't want to be too dominant with ideas to start off. First I want to hear what people would want and be excited about, otherwise it just seems like I'm making the community implement some preconceived project plan. But you're right, at some point we'll have to draw a line in the sand and follow it.
Initially I thought of having a sort of 'heads of department' system, just for quality control and such, depends if this really ends up with that much attention though. I don't mind being the guy that handles and implements it all, but maybe something of this potential scale should be handled by someone a bit, y'know, better

Agreed. I'd like to offer whatever I can to the project. I just offered heading it up because it didn't look like anyone was, haha. Figured with alittle more structure we'd be able to attract more people *shrug*

I'm good with using resources not made by me. My main issue is just not having the time to deal with the demands this sort of thing entails. I'd be able to drop box things, if there was a request for writing, music, or design ideas I'm up for those kinds of things.

As for the main theme of the game, we'd have to decide if we wanted it to be dark, happy, or some kind of mix of the two. Basically, what tone will the game have at the end (note, I said end, contrast is very good for deriving emotion).

One of the better sides of VX were all their horror game themes, but they also made comedy games using Ralph (poor guy).

I'm making my own sort of community game, with a theme of noobs trying to take over RRR. The base of operations happens to be at AMerk's Treehouse. The world sets on one small island called Shitty Island, and they travel along meeting several staff members. While one comm project would be great, if it's easier to do, we could have a few smaller one man projects as well.

I do plan to leave the game open so people can use my ideas and maps, but the game uses SwapXT, so that would only be possible if I inform people specifically which swaps to use for which maps.

@vvalkingman: Yeah, you're probably right about making it look like a more serious affair. When I posted this I just wanted to know if people would actually be interested in contributing.

@Cleril: We haven't got any ideas yet, I was hoping more people would say what they wanted rather than just suggestions. You scoundrels and your manners.

@amerk: I get people have their own projects, for the community and for themselves, I just figured if 50 members dropped off a map Bam! 50 maps. Couple of people make a custom sprite, got our main party. I don't expect too many members to take it seriously, just drop something in the box now and then. Also...
...I better be in your game >:]

Lol, good luck on organization. I would like to help, but then again 1000 people could do my job and probably better (or worse).
Also, what about potential vandalism? How would you control that?

*** quickly checks his resources ***

Yes, I have you down as one of the sprites Penguin never made. I'll probably use CharCreator as I'm no spriter, but I'm going to try to get all current staff in, even if it's a small part. Some staff in there (like Redd) have left since, but it'd be too much work to go back and rework everything, but I'll definitely try to get all current staff in as well.

I'm not a great mapper, but I may drop a few I've created for my game into the comm project for others to use, once a drop box is set up.

You have my permission to steal any common events/monster party events from my game (that was most of my original work besides mapping which was just ok), but my art kinda sucks (unless it was predrawn my art talent lies in editing/color-swapping rather than freehand art). As for active work, probably not, but I wouldn't mind posting stuff.

Vandalism would have to be controlled by having one member take all the submissions and organizing them then posting them on their (password-controlled) site, like Mediafire. I can organize things, so we know who is doing what, though.

Let's find out, by people volunteering what they wanna do. We need the following (people can double up, or multiple people can volunteer, this is a loose guideline).

Game Producer: (The person in charge of organizing submissions into one game, and then posting it. Limit one person.)
Game Director: (The person in charge of concept, plot, and artistic effects, like a traditional director. Also limit one person, mainly due to the "too many cooks" principle.)

(Ideally, the director will take the various ideas together submitted in bits, and send them to the producer, who will package them as a game. Also, I'd strongly recommend Install Creator as it puts together a self-extracting package. Even better, the producer is the director, and simply takes submissions, organizes them, and reposts them as a package.)

Next, we have the roles that can be doubled up.

Artists:
Writers:
Mappers:
Coders:
Battle Editors:
General Submissions:
Other: (Musicians, scripters, and specialized experts)

Game Producer: I, because I am a highly organized person (I found that ironic, being a mod at the spam topic)
Other: I as 'cutscene' editor (unless that goes with mapping)

Depending on the engine, I could attempt to become a mapper.

Preferred Engines: RM2k, RM2k3, RMXP

Damn, should've dibbsed that, oh well. You'll have to manage events anyways, you'll be implementing everything xD
I'll act as a sort of jack-of-all-trades I guess, just dropping stuff in as I come up with it. I dont really have a specialty and I sorta imagined most members would go down this route anyways.
Can I act as director? I don't want to be too disconnected from this.

wow! sounds amazing and i think its a great way for People to see what each other is capable of doing so i would like to help out although im just a lowly Composer but i will try my best!

Well, technically this is your idea, so I'm okay for you to direct. I've got too much going on in my life right now to take control of anything, but I'd like to offer whatever assistance I can. My thoughts on this, Kaust, is to first start a forum somewhere where people can toss their ideas for a story dealing with the community (I like the hybrid dark comedy theme Cleril mentioned earlier). Then take those ideas and form them into a logical story. I do a crapload of writing on the side, so feel free to PM me if you want to discuss further once things get going.

Once you have a sort of tale in mind, then break down into a planning stage of what you would like (ie., puzzle game, rpg, length, areas to visit, etc). Then we can start having people throw out artwork and maps and battlers. Being a community game, I'd say if you have battles, don't make them overly difficult, but we will need to a way to make them fun. A lot of community projects usually stay with RTP to make it easier for people to contribute, I say do the same, but maybe come up with an agreement on what you want for TileE.

You'll probably be putting this together, but we can all talk about events and how to code them if needed.

Anyways, that's my thought on how to man this.

I could maybe lend a hand on mapping depending on the game's theme and size you want your maps to be. (Depending on the size it can take me hours or days. Say a map of around 100x100+ could take me between few hours to 2-3 days to finish, this depends on my imagination at the moment I'm creating it.)

I used only rpg maker xp, I don't have any experience with the other rpg makers.

I guess I'm directing the project right now in a sense, but more or less I wanna gradually hand the game direction over to the writers and the producer. So, ummm... (Oh, kaust wants to direct) I'm call what I'm doing now, as brainstorming... I'm the "development team."

Game Producer: kayden997
Game Director: Kaust
Artists: shinyjiggly, Titanhex (possibly some mapping for these guys)
Writers: vvalkingman, kaz (seems like, anyway)
Mappers: Albino Parakeet, Vexus
Coders:
Battle Editors:
Composer: khachuchrian
General Submissions: Maybe me...? And some other ppl.
Other: Me (development team), kayden997 (cutscene editor)

-----------------------------
I'd prefer it if we kept it here (even if that makes this thread super-long). Okay, as part of development, we need to talk about a few things (which is where the director comes in, I just organize and ask questions).

1. What genre of game? (Puzzle, typical RPG, gothic RPG, strategy, horror, epic, etc)
2. What is the basic plot? What are the hero's goals?
3. Who are the heroes? What are they like?
4. What are the villains like? Are there villains, or is it like a No Evil Whatsoever (see the thread earlier) setting?
5. What type of battle type is it using (side scrolling, faceup nochars (Earthbound), lufia style faceup with chars, etc)
6. What battle features are we using (limit breaks, hp using techniques, etc)
7. Are we using scripts or just normal code? For that matter what engine are we using?
8. What features does this game have (day/night, weather, seasons, party changing)
9. In terms of party are there developed characters, or is customization allowed (or as a compromise, is there a job system like final fantasy V)?
10. What about the world around? What is the setting? For that matter, is the game in a small world where you're expected to be somewhere, or is it a Wide Open Sandbox?

Okay, aside from adding people to the list, my work as developer is done. You guys need to agree on this sorta stuff.

@Vexus; Well we'll have to see what others are saying engine-wise but so far XP has been a popular choice, I don't mind getting a copy of it if it ends up going that way, I hear it has a number of benefits over VX. I'm glad to hear you're onboard

@Khachuchrian; So humble! You can always try something outside of music too, I'm thinking of giving some spriting a go =]

@amerk; If we can get enough people interested I'll probably start up a GUC thread with the dropbox (to please the mods, even though this isn't exactly a 'personal' project), idk I answer to Kayden now xD

@bulmabriefs; thank god your onboard, I dont think we'd have any direction without you xD

Whoa! Part of something Big!............

Well lets get this shindig on the road Shall we?

I'm Uber Stoked

Sweet! This thing is happening!
I'd like to help out with spriting/drawing a little. Nothing too huge, just things that are kinda needed.
Also, I made a design document that anyone can edit. Make sure that you fill it chock-full of ideas and don't delete anything on it!
Design concept document

Definitely liking the organization and buzz this project is bringing in.

I'm bogged down with many other projects here in the forum and in my personal life, so my participation would vary off that.

I will gladly pin the thread for it's development when it's fully organized and the game director (Kaust) gives the go-ahead. Continue to hash it out here and I'll try to keep an eye on it.

Meanwhile I can do some spriting, so I can make a community sprites for myself and put it in my profile. Then anyone can use it. Likely I'll get that done soon.

Edit:
*Removed*

Might I suggest instead of making it a rather serious project with a planned design it's rather light-hearted and loose going.

It would definitely help if we allowed a lot of community involvement in the story. Polls on what will happen next, brain storming sessions, and general things of the like.

Also to keep a semblance of community we should loosely use community members and staff, so that the project feels RRR exclusive.

A benefit here is more enjoyment and rapport for members coming and joining in to see the development of the story. However because of the loose structure some organization should certainly be in place, and guidelines established.

This project should see the ability to introduce and remove characters at will. Cameos and guest appearances.

The main character would have to be neutral, represented by a fictional character. Certainly for that reason we can borrow from walkingman's design here.

The villain should be obstacles that all RPG Maker users face. Lack of motivation, low proficiency in certain skills, writers block, poor design, over-ambition, etc. Whether in a literal sense or personified, we'll see as it's created. The journey therefore should be metaphorical for making an RPG.

Perhaps the locations then can also be representative of boards and topics in the forums and outside it.

How about a battle against boredom? That's the point of actually PLAYING a game. We could have a customizable character instead of a developed one, but have some evil organization called BOREDOM that is trying to suck all the fun out of life. It's up to you, who seems to be immune to boredom's powers, to defeat boredom's evil plot. Fun can be a currency that you use to bring other characters to life(this is where cameos/staff/member characters can come in) and to upgrade them. Similar to paladin's quest or disgaea, where you just have a massive amount of characters you can choose from and have join you while only really having the main character and maybe one more "main" to keep the story interesting and allow it to flow. Just an idea. What do ya'll think?

That sounds pretty cool!
Maybe when the character arrives at a new place, it will be missing most of the interesting things and monochrome until you add something to certain weak spots (areas that were once the funnest in said area)?

Things to think about:
What could be good ways to stop something from being fun? We need to figure some of these out so that we can know how BOREDOM is doing it's thing.
Also, what is BOREDOM's reasons for wanting to suck the fun out of everything? Where is this fun going? What are effective ways to combat boredom in a place that has no fun? (perhaps once boring things can be used in interesting ways to restore fun?)

We should be able to let you have an area to use- this seems like a great idea.

We are trying to get the community spirit and some of the love back into RRR ..this is a great place to start.

Make me a meany and I will close it down ha!

Here some examples:
-They took the waves from the ocean, so surfers can't surf.
-They took the flavor out of sweets, so kids have nothing to look forward to after dinner
-Stole all the fiction books in a library, so there's only history and non-fictional books
-Stole all the creativity from a group of writers, so now they are stuck with enormous writer's block (i'm thinking they have to go into their brain to literally remove a giant block..idk lol just a thought)

Television, video games, books, board games, parks, etc it's all a distraction! All the energy put into these things can be put to better use, creating a utopia of plainness where society GROWS UP putting all these stupid "fun" things behind them!

So I guess, FUN is a tangible energy in this world. Something that can be sucked up or negated through the use of...idk..crystals? that generals or foremen of BOREDOM control and use to power something dull and random like...mass producing staplers for all the surfers who will have to take desk jobs now.

As for combating boredom, we can have puzzles where you find creative ways to fix the problem. This reveals the boredom agents, leading to the crystal sucking up all the fun. Something like that lol. Let's build on this, i think we're on to something here

Seems like a legit idea.
I think we should do a Mass Effect type idea and have some options change the way the game should end.
Options will be provided my poll, opinions, or suggestions

Also, how about including the directors in the game?

-Hmmm... fun-sucking crystals? I think that crystals are a little too interesting-looking. Perhaps the fun could be encased within a plain gray box? The fun would escape if the container were to be too interesting.
-For the library thing, maybe you would have to create your own fanfiction by entering a historical document with a recipe for a messy food-item and cause chaos? There's a lot of ways that this one could be taken. And even the non-fiction section has some fun reads in it as well (I read something about a real chute that lead deep into a real salt mine and it sounded pretty fun to me).

(This is mostly some rambling thoughts, feel free to apply them or ignore them.)
About BOREDOM forcing people to grow up through removing fun, I know for a fact that removing fun things to do will just cause people to try to invent their own ways to have fun-many of which often break the rules. Even "grown-ups" like to have fun, just not in the same ways as children do most of the time. For example, why do some women watch soap operas? It is because they probably enjoy watching soap operas. According to BOREDOM, soap operas are a distraction. With that in place, nobody can watch their soaps and the TV station goes out of business. Now tons of people in the TV show business are unemployed because some chumps decided that nobody should be watching their shows. With all the good shows gone, all that's left is infomercials and the guide channel, which also shows infomercials 24/7. If the main character goes to TV land (pun unintended), thon will have to buy certain products to somehow create fun together. This alone won't change TV back to normal as buying things on infomercials doesn't impact the shows. To do so, thon would have to take a trip to the dilapidated TV station and somehow record new things to go on TV.

Things to think about:
-What roles would homeless entertainers have on the story?
-What exactly happens to homeless entertainers in a boring society?
-If said entertainers attempt to entertain, how will BORDOM try to stop them? Can they in-fact succeed at that?
-Where are the origins of this mysterious main character? Where did it come from? Why did it come exactly? How did it know to come to such a boredom-laden place? Does this main character even resemble a living thing?

Random idea: The main character could be the essence of creativity. Does that sound like it would fit?

Homeless entertainers join together in secret circle- only they have limited "funness" that they have stashed away in secret places. The funness when found release happiness atoms which confuse the boredoms....( boredoms are grey colourless people)

We could use a plain box, they could be called pandora boxes. Seems fitting because BOREDOM sees fun as bad. Anyway, so how about BOREDOM takes away all non-informative programs leaving only the news, infomercials, and the shopping networks.

Now, the danger with this idea is that fun is a relative term. So, as shinyjiggly pointed out, we need to draw a line about what is fun and what is boring. Also, I think that the draining process used by BOREDOM to drain the energy should brainwash those drained to be boring. So all those entertainers that are now out of work, should now be paper pushers or something for BOREDOM INC or forced to make infomercials idk, still working that out.

Something I've been holding back is that the leader of BOREDOM is perhaps someone who was sheltered as a child and told to grow up by his parents. The perfect enemy for a game about fun imo.

As for the main character, I'm thinking he/she's just a normal kid trying to have fun when their home is drained of all fun. For some mysterious reason, he/she is immune to the drain. By mysterious reason I mean I haven't thought of it yet lol. There needs to be a rogue scientist or agent that tells you what BOREDOM INC is up to and that YOU are the only one who can stop them! This provides a hook of sorts that I think is better then "OMG, all the fun is gone I MUST give the world it's fun back!" lol thoughts?

The child is immune because their "real father" was an entertainer who discovered the secret to destroying boredom. He left behind a small statue of a clown ( now a banned icon) which contains funness crystals. The father is rumoured to be wondering around with the secret societies...

I love it! XD

You guys are coming up with some funny and interesting ideas here - keep up the great work!

That is a GREAT idea! Anyone who has been drained is drained of color and turned grey/black/white. I also like the idea of rebels or small circles of people still able to have fun(via stashed objects of pure fun or simply a comedy troupe that being together gives them fun energy, etc), perhaps the draining wasn't as complete as they thought. Push the idea that no matter how much you take away fun, that it's part of a human's nature and can't be "drained". Idk, i think we are on the verge of forming a moral or something lol



Hmmm OR perhaps he is the rogue scientist! Originally thinking that the cause was just, seeing you playing with your friends and having fun made him see the error of his ways and he found a "loop hole". He gives you an object(small statue of a clown....or some kind of funny bracelet...idk "I'm BANANA'S!" with a picture of a monkey on it going crazy which for some reason negates the draining process lmao) which will eventually be destroyed by the leader of BOREDOM but the hero and their cohorts find fun anyway...within themselves?

Anyways, since nobody seems to be adding things to the design document, I added some things that were discussed here. here's another link to it.

Has anyone here seen the movie Pleasantville? That movie seems like a good one to get a couple ideas from.

A game that could perhaps be looked at is Drawn to life, which doesn't really pull it off very well in my opinion. (if I were the "creator" of mimiga ripoff village, I would let them create their own things instead of locking it all to myself and making it so that only eldrich abominations can be made by my creations. Bring on the inception layers!)

EDIT: I placed the design document into the dropbox so only use this link if you aren't able to get added.

Alright, I've set up a dropbox folder... via https://www.dropbox.com
In order for me to add you guy (who ever is willing to work on it), just let me know via PM.
I'll need an e-mail address for this to work.

Not saying we have to start it now, but we could put document, pictures, ideas, and such in the folder.

Gone for a day= mind.blown.
I was also thinking, forget staff/directors/mods all those boring structures, anyone who contributes should get a cameo, even if its just an npc on the side of creativity.
I love where this has gone. I'm afraid there can be no set line of boring/fun as there is no real right and wrong. Which is why I think you should establish between fun and creativity. They certainly often coincide, even to the extent of synonymous, but 'boring' people such as taxmen have the fun of problem solving, though their jobs are not creative (at least, not the legal kind xD)

Niiiiiice work guys. I've added to the list of people involved on page 1 (I dunno if you can still edit stuff expires after a few days, so if it does I'll repost it). We still need coders and battle editors though. If you guys are indeed using XP (thank god it's not VX, VX sprites are beyond suck), I might not be able to help much since my free trial expired (yea, I'm a cheapskate), though you can have a code translator type who figures out what I'm trying to do. I might send a group of stripped down codes that you can fuss with.

That reminds me, what sort of spriting style should we try to shoot for? I was thinking that we could use a custom one with rigid guidelines (and plenty of documentation on how to pull it off) so that this game can be unique out of the swarms of RTP (even though I have to admit that XP's RTP sprites do look pleasing to the eyes).
I can work on some prototypes for some directions that we could possibly take the overworld sprites.

Just a reminder:

I've set up a dropbox folder... via https://www.dropbox.com
In order for me to add you guy (who ever is willing to work on it), just let me know via PM.
I'll need an e-mail address for this to work.

Not saying we have to start it now, but we could put document, pictures, ideas, and such in the folder.

wowy!

ok so what time is this modern, I'm assuming?

it would be cool to have it set in feudal japan? and have still the same ideas but just current to that time but again just a musician.

Going for a custom spriting style looks more polished, but it also has the problem of not being readily available.

People would have a much easier time using a generator than editing a template.

We don't have to use RMXP, though.

Alright, then what are we agreed on?
Should we vote to see which is more favoured...

You could set up a poll.

I'm back with three potential possibilities for the sprite style.

I can also make template clothing pieces for those that would like an easier time with spritemaking.

Then again, I have a feeling that I might be trying to push stuff a little too much. Saying that, I should probably let you guys decide fully what goes down next in terms of choosing a sprite style to use for a project as large as this one.

freakin cool jiggly freakin cool