Is this still "active"?

Doesn't look like it from the look of things. If it is, I'd like to offer my hand as a Unity Programmer. I'm fairly experienced with Unity, and I've made a couple of games in it as well. If you are interested I'd be more than happy to give you some builds/pics of games I'm working on/have made.

I also have some criticism of the project.

Taking a quick glance around at Pipeline in it's current state and Project Coalesce there seems to be very little "action" going on. Starting a project with as many people you want involved(according to the OP) is going to be a big mistake.

Reason being, Pipeline is filled with people with different skill levels - from beginner to intermediate, and perhaps advanced knowledge. The project seems super ambitious, and frankly speaking, it looks as if the team is composed of *complete* beginners and those who actually know what their doing(and there are very few of these).

A successful project requires those that have experience and know what they are doing. You cannot expect a great project to be produced by first-timers(like described above). This is naive.

I don't know who is organizing the project either( I am assuming the person would be Glitch), but leadership and organization plays a big role in getting stuff done. You have to know how to handle inactive dev team members and everyone needs to be able to work, virtually, independent of each other. While everyone depends on each other(for the finished product), everyone needs to realize their role and execute it. If you have members of the team that lean on others to get the work done, then you have a broken "cog". Everyone should be productive, and everyone should be working to complete a task by a set date. Deadlines are required if you want to get stuff done. Otherwise you will never get your foot in the door.

This is what we would call an "indie-title". There is no funding, I'm assuming, and this is being done independent of Valve, so you must think like an indie. Right now, in my opinion, you are thinking way too big. The community is very small, and I doubt you will get the roles your require filled up with people of experience - and even then how will you get them to "stick together" and play their part. Usually, the answer to this is incentive - and that would be money. Again, it looks like their is no funding involved or incentive, so in a matter of speaking "You get what you pay for". This project sounds very ambitious.

I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings, but I feel that this needed to be said. It's just advice, and if you can take it with a grain of salt if you choose, but it's based off of my past experiences. I like the idea of the project, and what you are trying to do here, which is to bring a community made game - this early, but I feel that the "nature of the beast" is at odds with you here.

Good Luck,

~Syrup


EDIT:

You guys are in very early alpha and you already want people for Marketing? This doesn't make any sense.

Language has nothing to do with the type of game you want to make, honestly *

You can learn anything from Actionscript, Java, C++, C, HTML 5 + Javascript, and even Lua to make the type of game you have described above. You show an avid interest in developing for the old N64 platform and in that case, you should make the language of your choice C.

On a side note, I'm not too sure why you want to develop for an outdated platform. Is it for experience or is it just to say that you've done it? There are not a lot of people that still play on an N64 so if you plan on sharing your game you're only going to have a select few people to play it.

The C programming language is still used in some of today's games, so don't limit yourself to just the N64. There's are other platforms out there, that - should you complete your game, will allow you to reach a wider audience.

Here's a link to get you started on developing for the N64:

http://n64.icequake.net/doc/n64intro/kantan/step1/index.html

Good Luck,

~Syrup

I'm a web developer my self, and I have to say, your site looks very nice. The design is very peculiar, but it just adds that much more uniqueness and personality to it.

*Sorry for Necro'ing This*

Since you have programming experience, jumping into game development should be a breeze ;)

That is... for the most part, haha. You want to make sure that you have enough projects and experience building games so that people will think of you as a game developer. You're on the right track, but I'll give you some advice that I give to most people who want to strike out as a game developer.

Firstly, start small. I can't stress this enough. Don't try to embark on your dream game right away. You don't have enough experience so it's probably going to end up as failure. This doesn't apply to everyone(and those that make their dream game in their first go are really talented and super rare), so just take it as a grain of salt.

Secondly, Get Involved. Join Forums, go to meetups, whatever. Not only will this serve as a place for inspiration - it allows you to communicate and perhaps collaborate with other game developers. It's just a place to grow your skills and show people what you're working on. I would recommend TigSource.

Thirdly, Don't Give Up. Everyone is going to hit a bump in the road at some point. You're going to feel like you're not cut out to be a game developer, but don't listen to it. I'm sure you've run into situations where you felt like giving up but you just pulled through. This is exactly what game development is. It's not something that you can get good at overnight and in order to get good at it you're going to have to slog through millions of swamps and you're going to have to climb a lot of mountains.

You may fall into "slumps" where you lose inspiration, but just keep "fighting" through it. Your subconscious can be very powerful, at times, but a disciplined mind learns to ignore these things.

Good Luck,

~Syrup

Hi There!

Here are my answers to your questions :)

1. First off, the way you use a tool depends on the person behind the keyboard. That's you. You've got to make your tool work. There are games on steam(specifically, indie games), that were made with Flash and Game-Maker. For example, Hotline Miami was made with Game-Maker, and I think it sort of fits the description of the game you are trying to make(in terms of art style, haha). Flash and Game-Maker both support "sprite-based" graphics. That's something all game-making software/tools have to support(that is if it's a game that designed to give visual feedback to the player).

There are a lot of tools at your disposal but since you seem to not want to use Flash and Game-Maker(both are valid-tools), I would recommend Unity. For some it has a high learning curve, but I found it fairly easy to learn. It's not drag and drop but it certainly speeds up the time your game is being developed. Unity has all the necessary features that you require for your game. They also have an asset store, where you can purchase(sometimes free) code samples(perhaps 2D Dynamic Shadows) or assets for your game, if you don't want to develop the implementation on your own.

A note about steam integration: I am not too sure about this, but I think you have to get your hands on a Steam DLL for Steam Integration and that's going to require your game getting pass the greenlight process(and this is really difficult - believe me).

2. Chiptune-sy music eh? Well there's a lot of music programs out there that you can use. One I like is SunVox, but it's not for *everyone*. SolarLune has some nice tutorials on youtube that you can check out. There are others you can use like, FamiTracker(this is another good one). In the end, it's up to you to make the music up to your level of expectations. Making music is super hard to do, and it's going to take some practice.

3. These are all nice genre's. You are a developer that's just starting out so try to "lower your expectations" a little. In my experience if you start out with games that are at your skill level. Maybe make a little asteroids clone? A pong clone? Then from there, make a few other games to build up to your dream game. Rome wasn't built in a day, and your dream game won't come together with just a few tidbits of experience. You can try, and I actually encourage it but be prepared for failure.

Sidenote:

Game Development is an art, and it takes a while before your games will actually start to look "good" and play "good". It's going to take hours and hours of sweat and hard-work before you start seeing improvements. You have to ask yourself are you really willing to work hours and hours, and perhaps pull an all-nighter just to achieve perfection in one little "feature" or aesthetic of your game. It's more than a notion, and when most people find this out, they quit. I hope you are not easily discouraged.

Good Luck,

~Syrup

I guess it's time for my introduction.

I've been programming ever since I was 12. I'm 14 now, so I've been programming for about 2 years... on and off. I go by Syrup in the "Steam Universe" but I also go by Code_Assassin and Grey Stranger. Over the years, I've achieved proficiency with C++,C#,HTML5,CSS3, and a little bit of Javascript. I make games! It's the reason I learned how to program in the first place and it's really opened up the doors for other things.

I'm currently working on two projects. One, an experimental platformer, and the other is a 3D platformer with elements of an rpg/board-game(hoping to get it into indie cade). Right now, I develop most of my games in Unity, although I've developed games in Game Maker, XNA, SFML and SDL.

That about sums it up for me. Looking forward to meeting like minded individuals :)

Website: http://thecodeassassin.intellisenseless.com/
Twitter: @_CodeAssassin
Email: cod3assassin(AT)gmail.com