Good news for No Mercy modders

[jessejohhavoc]

Hey there guys,

I wanted to let the community know about a game I've been working on for some time now, based loosely on the outstanding games of the 90s from AKI. GrapplePro is a 3D N64-style wrestling game for PC. It features a fully moddable engine and cool customization features (think of the CAW as a cross between No Mercy and Fire Pro). More details, videos and screenshots can be found at the GrapplePro Facebook page @ http://www.facebook.com/grapplepro/ if you're interested. We also have a YouTube channel which can be found at http://www.youtube.com/user/grapplepro/

I'm also constantly looking for new ideas, texture designers and talented animators - so if you dig whats being laid down, follow us and stay in touch

The reason I thought I'd post this here is because I'm also a huge No Mercy fan, and I generally use No Mercy as the measuring stick when it comes to incorporating game features. Many of the other wrestling games coming out right now promise "classic style", but I can assure you that this one will truly fit that bill - because as we all know the graphics are only half of the equation. This game will play very much like No Mercy - which I believe to be a good thing.

Thanks for checking it out! I'm very dedicated to making the best game that I possibly can. :hi

 

[Meh.]

This interests me not as a modder but as an 'ex-video game designer'. (www.tophat-studios.co.uk). It seems very amateur so far ( more like a very ugly pre-pre-pre-alpha) which isn't a bad thing, as all prototypes start out far from perfect. Just a few questions.

What engine are you using?

Are you planning on making the modding relatively like WWF No Mercy? ( Drop and load ).

The reason I ask this, is I made a post regarding what peoples thoughts on a wrestling game that would please them. I wrote a design document of ideas for planning to build my own wrestling video game using WWF No Mercy as a solid base and then exponentially optimize it to make it better in feature assessment. If can offer my services/expertise of being in the industry for a lengthy amount of time.

G'luck.

 

[Swifty]

I don't know bro,i appreciate all the hard work you're putting but this looks like a bad clone of Mdickie's games,i liked those for a period but then it got boring.

make sure you put something other indie games don't have you know,something special and i wish you the best of luck.

 

[baal666]

The wrestlers models remind me a bit of MDickie's games, even if the graphics are not awesome it's wonderfull to see a new member showing what he made on a new game.
Good luck with you project Jesse

 

[treefrog]

This is the type of WWF No Mercy related game advancement/devlopment I've been hoping for. A game that uses the same type of fighting engine or close to it but it made for the pc itself. A pc based No Mercy type game that would be more readily customizable without relying on replacing textures or making codes would most definately be better.

The problem for now would be how good would this new game actually be? If it's not as good as the original game I, like most people will stick with playing the old game. I like what you're doing though and I'll give feedback if you want. This could be a first step what I think is a new and better direction for the game.

If I could do more than give opinion I would but I'd have to take courses or train myself either way it would take years before I could do any usefull tech stuff.

Imagine a game with an advanced in game editor (like current gen games) but still based on No Mercy style and engine. It would eliminate much of the need of relying on others for new wrestlers and arenas.

I really like type of things you and Bombardier are doing or potentially doing.

 

[jessejohhavoc]

Thanks for your replies guys:

- Yes, the graphics are work-in-progress and have been rushed in order to build a better game engine.
- The engine is being developed from scratch by myself, using DirectX
- Modding for this game is simple. Textures can be easily dragged and dropped into the game folders. Same goes for animations, character models, etc. What this means is that in the future if someone wanted to import all of No Mercy's actual graphics, I'm sure they could.
- Although the graphics arent "top of the hill" right now, if you take a look at the CAW you will notice many features that the competitor games don't have
- I should note that although at the moment it looks somewhat like an MDickie game, graphics are not a representation of how the game plays or functions. There would be no point in making an exact clone of a game with limited playability. I will do an excellent job with the game engine - but I'm going to need help down the line in terms of graphics (and I'm aware of that)

<blockquote class='quote\\_blockquote'><dl><dt>Quote:</dt><dd> </dd></dl><div>This is the type of WWF No Mercy related game advancement/devlopment I've been hoping for. A game that uses the same type of fighting engine or close to it but it made for the pc itself. A pc based No Mercy type game that would be more readily customizable without relying on replacing textures or making codes would most definately be better.[/quote]

Hey Treefrog - you definitely get the point! This is exactly what I'm going for. I don't want to release *yet another* wrestling game with sub-par gameplay. I wan't to build upon solid ideas of the past. I've done a great deal of research with regards to all of AKI's games.

As I said above - I'm a half way decent programmer and the engine I can definitely do -- it will likely be up to others to help with the graphics however.

Thanks for the support guys

 

[Meh.]

I figured it was programmer graphics.

I wouldn't really recommend building from scratch, at least not in this day an' age. I would hint at using an actual game engine ( Unity/CE3, definitley not UDK ) or graphics engine ( Ogre3d ) - merely because a lot of the handy work is done.

If I were you, I would rip WWF No Mercy's models and use them as placeholders, it'll allow you to emulate under No Mercy's circumstances and restrictions. ( It's what I was planning to do ).

 

[jessejohhavoc]

I figured it was programmer graphics.

I wouldn't really recommend building from scratch, at least not in this day an' age. I would hint at using an actual game engine ( Unity/CE3, definitley not UDK ) or graphics engine ( Ogre3d ) - merely because a lot of the handy work is done.

If I were you, I would rip WWF No Mercy's models and use them as placeholders, it'll allow you to emulate under No Mercy's circumstances and restrictions. ( It's what I was planning to do ).

Hey There,

I've developed games for almost 10 years now and have made a proprietary engine - thanks for the suggestion, but I know what I'm doing The engine is wrapped and will be portable to OpenGL (Linux, MacOS) in the future as well. I'm also trying to avoid the resource overhead of an "all in one" engine - I wan't to keep this game running as smoothly as possible on as many systems as possible - and the current engine allows for that.

Unfortunately I can not import No Mercy's actual graphics, because the legalities don't really fit what I'm trying to do. The good news is that people will be able to do this themselves in the future.

The game will likely be free for single player, and a low fee for multiplayer - and so I'm trying to avoid anything that would draw copyright red flags.

 

[Meh.]

I figured it was programmer graphics.

I wouldn't really recommend building from scratch, at least not in this day an' age. I would hint at using an actual game engine ( Unity/CE3, definitley not UDK ) or graphics engine ( Ogre3d ) - merely because a lot of the handy work is done.

If I were you, I would rip WWF No Mercy's models and use them as placeholders, it'll allow you to emulate under No Mercy's circumstances and restrictions. ( It's what I was planning to do ).

Hey There,

I've developed games for almost 10 years now and have made a proprietary engine - thanks for the suggestion, but I know what I'm doing The engine is wrapped and will be portable to OpenGL (Linux, MacOS) in the future as well. I'm also trying to avoid the resource overhead of an "all in one" engine - I wan't to keep this game running as smoothly as possible on as many systems as possible - and the current engine allows for that.

Unfortunately I can not import No Mercy's actual graphics, because the legalities don't really fit what I'm trying to do. The good news is that people will be able to do this themselves in the future.

The game will likely be free for single player, and a low fee for multiplayer - and so I'm trying to avoid anything that would draw copyright red flags.

Well if you've developed games for almost 10 years, you would know that these 'all in one' engines do support a lot of platforms & end user systems, at the same time benefiting from a substantial amount of framework tools. Not to say the framework you've built doesn't compare to those out there, I'm stressing that it would appeal to more people if you would use those engines.

I'm not talking about releasing the video game with the models - I was implying that you would show off your development with them so people who aren't technically minded in video games development can compare yours to No Mercy; later on down the line replacing them with your own content.

Doing comparison videos will draw the attention from any community interested in No Mercy or PC modders.

 

[jessejohhavoc]

Quoting limited to 2 levels deep

Well if you've developed games for almost 10 years, you would know that these 'all in one' engines do support a lot of platforms & end user systems, at the same time benefiting from a substantial amount of framework tools. Not to say the framework you've built doesn't compare to those out there, I'm stressing that it would appeal to more people if you would use those engines.

I'm not talking about releasing the video game with the models - I was implying that you would show off your development with them so people who aren't technically minded in video games development can compare yours to No Mercy; later on down the line replacing them with your own content.

Doing comparison videos will draw the attention from any community interested in No Mercy or PC modders.

You're certainly welcome to use a pre-built game engine for your own game - and I'll be happy to play it The technology I use makes no difference to the end product - the game mechanics are going to be the most important part of the project - and the development of the mechanics will be very similar no matter which engine I use. I've chosen my technology and have put about a year off/on into the underlying engine and I'm fine with it. When you play it, you're not going to be able to tell which engine I used anyways. I understand that there are tools and engines out there built to help - but I've already made this decision long ago.

For a simple No Mercy style game, I don't see the use in adding a huge amount of overhead including many features that won't be needed.

With regards to graphics - I will work on improving what I have for sure - but I don't want to promote the game using any 3rd party resources. I can definitely do better graphics, but this is time that I don't have at the current moment (but I will be improving everything slightly on a daily basis). I can certainly do better than I have - for example the textures need more "depth" and better shading - and I will get to it when I have time.

Thank you for your interest Bombardier. When it comes to actual gameplay, game mechanics and suggested features - I'm all ears

 

[AKI Man]

Really excited. I am all for a similar game to NM that is PC based and easily accessible and free to customize.

Best of luck on this.

 

[jessejohhavoc]

<blockquote class='quote\\_blockquote'><dl><dt>A.K.I</dt><dd>Sep 2 2013, 10:42:02 PM</dd></dl><div>Really excited. I am all for a similar game to NM that is PC based and easily accessible and free to customize.

Best of luck on this.[/quote]Thanks AKI

I figured life would be much easier if we didn't have to resort to using memory hacks. Too much work for too little gain

 

[portgazhyde]

Gameplay is more important than graphics.
If it can run smoothly in my pc like No Mercy, i have no problem in supporting it