XCom 6 is recruiting

[jdan]

From my experience, I'd recommend steering clear of the "X-Com" name.

At the moment you don't seem to have shown up any work (that I've seen yet), so you're of no concern for them.. But they're quite likely to come after you if you're making use of a registered name.

 

So, a word of warning.

[foxhound525]

well i think without the hyphon it SHOULD be legal. does any 1 use msn cause it would b easy for me to contact through msn. my adi is foxhound525@tiscali.co.uk

[AlanatXcomHQ]

Hey Chris. As I said before. All you have to do is find the other members of the team and view their profiles to find their MSN contacts. But is you want it the simple way. Then here goes:

 

Mine - optimaljetstormexcess@hotmail.com

The Veteren - pantlessavenger@hotmail.com

Bulma - BulmaXP@hotmail.com

Jman4117 - jman4117@hotmail.com

Danial - danialcarroll@hotmail.com

Tucky - pdtuckett@optusnet.com.au

 

As far as the use of a registered name goes. The name is going to be XCom (No Hyphen.) So the name is all legal. There was even talk of the very same subject at the very beginning of this very thread.

[foxhound525]

so how do u lot work then, do u create files and send them to each other or is there a place you meet when actually developing the game?

[The Veteran]

I've put you on my msn list Chris but be warned I'm logged in 24/7 but I'm very rarely actually there! Check out the codeplex site that Bulma linked to earlier in this thread for our new workspace but to be honest this is the best place for discussion and file transfer can be done either by msn or email.

[AlanatXcomHQ]

Usually we have Team Explorer to send files to the "project." It's technically called Microsoft Visual Studio 2005.

Artists can put their artwork in folders aside from the game, people contributing to the game itself can submit files so that people on the team like Bulma and Tucky can then programming those files into the game.

 

But as Veteren said. MSN and E-mail are the usual ways of letting others know of your work.

 

If you have any problems with Team Explorer, like using Linux instead of Windows, let one of us know. Via the file transfer on MSN or by attachment via E-mail, we can make a folder for yea and submit it for you. I know, JMan4117 uses Linux and he usually lets me know of his work and I then submit it in Team Explorer for him.

[Dezerin]

Hello

 

Ive recently posted in another post saying i cant do anything to help and i still cant . But I do have a friend who is a talanted artist and is a massive fan of all things sci-fi, you have only to see his house to know what I mean. Hes a great bloke though and if you still need some concept art I could ask him to do some (if he says no we havent lost anything). You may not need this any more but if you do let me know what you need and i can see what I can do.

[AlanatXcomHQ]

Being that I'm one of the Concept artists, I would very much like to have a chat with this friend of yours. I'm sure Vet would also like to know about this.

[Dezerin]

Unfortunatly he isnt on the internet and never will be, hes good with a pencil or a paintbrush but useless when it comes to computers, he would swiftly say that computers is my job and he's just the artist lol. I will ask him what he thinks of the idea first before you get your hopes up because I would hate to let any of you down. If he says yes do you want me to ask him to draw anything in particular so you can have an idea of what his abilities are and if they are the type of style your looking for?

[AlanatXcomHQ]

Thereby hangs a question. If he does do any drawings, how is he gonna be able to show us? Do you have a scanner with your computer to help?

 

As far as to what do we want him to draw... I'd have to ask on what does he prefer to draw? Characters and Aliens or Weapons or buildings or storyboarding?

Based on his preference and abilities, we can probably give him some work to do.

[Dezerin]

I can get hold of a scanner so no problem on that score, and ive just spoken to my mate (Ross by name) and he asked to sleep on it before he gave me a definate answer. He sounded very interested and was tempted at having a blast at a few aliens/characters and perhaps spacecraft, he can storyboard as he has recently done one for a short film for a film student friend of ours but he is worried he isnt good enough for you. If he does agree I said that if he did the one piece of work to start off with and I showed that to you we would know if his style is what your after.

 

Anyway I will let you know in a few days what his answer is, by the way I assume there will be plenty of new weapons, aliens, and armour etc so he doesnt need to worry to much about sticking to whats already been done in previous xcom games and he has free reign on what these creatures look like. If there is a certain set of rules or style these have to be in let me know so I can pass it on.

 

Ross isnt the most confidant of people but he fights against it bravely so he may say no based on fear of failure, hopefully he wont and I will be there to badger him lol.

 

I have one skill I can bring to bear if you need it. I am fairly imaginative and I enjoy writing though admittedly I usually dwell in the heroic fantasy genre, but if you need that skill I can offer up my meagre talent for you to heap scorn upon I hope you don't because then I will suffer from fear of failure

[The Veteran]

I'm glad I've finally given myself a morning off to check the boards, this is all fantastic news if you can convince this friend of yours to help us. I've been asking for pen and paper artists for a long time so I'd be very interested in your friend helping us.

If he wants something to try out then I know exactly what to give him just ask and I'll email you all the details.

 

More importantly if this friend of yours is slightly shy of his work then tell him very few people will see it, especially the early concepts. Alan will back me up on this as he's sent me concept art that noone other than myself has ever seen!

 

Just let us know what he thinks and I can send you some stuff to get him started on. I very much look forward to hearing back from him, his help would be absolutely invaluable.

[Dezerin]

Sorry guys

 

after all that he said he wasn't up for it. I will work on him but I wouldnt get your hopes up. I should of said nothing and asked him first before I posted in here and raised peoples hopes. Once again im truly sorry but if you want me to show him some of that stuff you were talking about Veteren you can email it to me if you want because I think it's his confidence getting in the way and he does want to have a go.

 

Either way good luck guys and im sorry for wasting your time when I thought I could help.

 

p.s.

 

Check your mail veteran you should find my email addy if you want it.

[The Veteran]

I've emailed you a few images I think may help us out with your friend. Hope they do!

[Lincolns Mullet]

Hey everyone, just checked out this great project. As a long-time fan, count me as one who has been salivating for a "real" new X-Com.

 

Just to introduce myself, my name is Tim and I have experience working on three professional game titles (Empires: Dawn of the Modern World, Rise and Fall: Civilizations at War, Titan Quest). My primary experience was in design. I was part of a team that created the story-based scenarios for the campaigns using a proprietary in-game editor. I'd create the maps, objectives, drop down buildings and units and of course make sure it was a fun (and balanced) experience.

 

I also did a lot of QA, primarily on my own work and those of my co-workers. I'd love to be able to contribute some how to this project. My time is pretty limited though between school, work and fiance so I'm not sure how much help I could be other than testing current builds for bugs.

 

Also, I believe even using "XCom" without the hyphen would still be considered copywrite infringement. It is the same reason a company couldn't name itself "Micro Soft" or "Micro-Soft". If it were taken up legally I'm pretty sure the courts would side with the owners of the IP as "Micro-Soft", for example, is clearly trying to capitalize on Microsoft's name.

 

If you don't plan on selling it I'm not sure how much of fuss Atari could make over it (they own the X-Com IP right?). I imagine they could come after that as well if they wanted to. Imagine if they were working on a new X-Com game to sell that is similar to concept of "XCom", and "XCom" is released for free and is a great game (let's just say, it ends up being a better game). Then Atari may get upset and claim it's losing sales to a game that is playing off the X-Com name.

 

Not trying to be the boogeyman, but if this is a serious project it'd probably behoove you to look into it and make sure what, if any, legal ramifications there are. Worst-case scenario you change the name of the game, all the aliens and weapons, etc. and modify the story a bit so nothing can be directly "linked" to X-Com. In the end, while we'd all love a true X-Com prequel/update/sequel, etc. I think we'd still take a carbon copy of "XCom" than nothing at all.

[foxhound525]

well i have looked into it and i think atari have no plans whatsoever of reviving the x-com series. however, i think when it comes to thier attention that fans want x-com so much that we make our own version, atari will open thier eyes and acknowledge the demand. at worst they will negotiate a deal where the project will be handed over to them or we will conform to changing it so no legal issues remain. but atari WILL eventually notice but how they deal with the situation could be in our benifit or destroy the main aim of our project, to produce an authentic x-com game. so i think before we let it come to that, in the late stages of the game making process, we should take it upon ourselves to contact atari before they contact us.

[AlanatXcomHQ]

Absolutely agree with you on the Atari issue, we should definately have a chat with them. But that means we have to be as a team, with a team name and a representative/s who will speak on the behaf of all of the team and to chat with them regulary.

 

My personal opinion would be to have us being credited as the development, build, FAQ, playtesting and music team, (basically the people who made the game) whilst Atari can handle the publishing and distribution (With our collaboration on distribution)

 

However, if Atari accept, they may decide to give us an impossible time to finish it. Which means we have to work like crazy during this summer to get as much done as we can do.

 

We'll just have to wait and see.

[Lincolns Mullet]

Be wary of publishers. They are like hawks after delicious eggs. If this team were to be picked up by Atari, for example, a contract would be signed that would likely go like this: You have one year to complete the project. We get 60% of the profits (or more) and you'll be funded with $400,000. You will be required to meet milestones each month (likely, per week). If you don't meet them to our standards, we'll rip the rug out from under you at any time and hand it over to another team to finish. Have a good day.

 

However, the more complete this game is before officially showing it off, the better. If you can create a working, fun demo to show off to Atari it may pay off. Or they may wave a legal wand at you and try to claim it is their property, I don't know. If you were to switch gears and make it a non X-com game, you could shop the demo out to any publisher and see who bites.

 

Since it's running off the X-Com franchise, your first and only customer needs to be Atari. If they aren't interested, then you'll have to switch it over to an original IP so you can do what you want with it (make it free or publish it). It'd be great if Atari would be interested but I'm really unclear about fans creating games with an IP that is already copyrighted, and then shopping it to the owner of the IP. Atari may look at it and say, "Hey, looks great and they've already done a lot of the work, let's give them a contract." The thing with publishers is, if there is money to be made, they'll pay attention.

[Jman4117]

Or maybe a different game with an X-com mod pack or something.

[Lincolns Mullet]

This reminds me of the recent attempt at modding Warcraft III to be a new Starcraft. I will point you to the modders website so you can all read some of the discussion on the front page regarding the mod, how they believe they are skirting IP laws, and Blizzard's stance on the project.

 

https://www.blizzplanet.com/content/560/

 

What I gathered from the site is, if a "prequel" to X-Com was made, it would be violating IP laws. It wouldn't be any different than titling it "X-Com 4" or something. Since Atari owns the IP, they could technically send the team a Cease and Desist order if they really wanted to protect their IP.

 

One way they believe to be skirting IP laws is by requiring the original Warcraft III disks in order to play this "mod". Since X-Com is so old I'm not sure how that would work for this project.

 

In any case, just some more info to chew on. They seem to be going forward with it until, and IF, Blizzard tells them to stop. Colonisation could conceivably move forward in the same fashion, and would need to be released as a free game.

[foxhound525]

lets get on the ball now. a team name and someone with good persuasive skills and a lot of time on thier hands for our representive. we need to get practicle now. and we really need to get a QUALITY demo not rushed to give atari a nudge in the right direction. we also need to sort out a permanent communication stream instead of emialing things to each other at random. maybe all development once every month would be collected by one person and all compiled into our demo. so far what system specs does our thing need? and does it use a certain graphics engine. lets start thinking seriously and start being a proper DEVELOPMENT TEAM.

[AlanatXcomHQ]

One way they believe to be skirting IP laws is by requiring the original Warcraft III disks in order to play this "mod". Since X-Com is so old I'm not sure how that would work for this project.

 

Well concerning that, there is the Original Dos version that came on floppy and CD, not to mention the CE edition versions of the game. So they could.

 

But I think seriously that Colonisation will have to be put on a DVD disc or at least a BitTorrent. Because the way its looking in terms of graphics and audio and such. It might very well be at least the size of UFO Aftershock. And that game is 4GB in size.

 

As far as demos are concerned. Our current release only does a single battlescape mission. There isn't a Geoscope attached yet. Its purely battlescape. This could be a "Demo" if you will. But we still need to work on it. Stuff like models for humans and aliens and stuff like that.

 

If you sign up to the sight and get Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 and download the release, you can download the latest version of the project. Stuff like documents and images and models and such. Ask Bulma about what you need for it all. But be aware that it is for Windows only. We haven't worked out on how to get our game for Multiple OS's. Yet.

 

Anyway, I think Bulma and Veteren will definately have to have their say on the matter before we charge headlong.

[foxhound525]

well maybe the game should be made on windows only for now and when we make some progress we can think of making it compatible for macs etc.

[AlanatXcomHQ]

Although I would go along with that, Jman4117 himself uses a different OS then Windows. Thats why I presented the option to make the game and project itself compatible to Multiple OS's.

[The Veteran]

Good grief have I really been gone that long!?

 

Right everybody settle down and sit up straight, there are quite a few points to bring into the equation here before people decide what x=!

 

Atari basically has no idea of what we're trying to do and lets be honest they do't really care. Way I see it, for now at least, is what they don't know can't hurt them!

 

In the long run yes it could be a copyright and ownership issue but lets not get ahead of ourselves. Any team of professionals could achieve what we have so far in a matter of weeks if not sooner! They won't want anything to do with what we have at this stage which means no legal action, no contract and no financial aid.

 

Put simply they're going to want nothing to do with us...

 

Now the point is, once we have a final version of the game, completed to the best abilities of all of us here working on it, they might be interested... But who says we have to present it to them as an XCom title which, if interested, they could seize on site? Why not name it 'Colony Wars' or 'Martian Conflict' or something else completely obscure. Rename Sectoids to Greys and all of the other aliens (save Ethereals which is a dictionary term for otherworldly and therefore not copyrightable) are different to the originals anyway!

 

We show them this game and its fairly obviously a fanmade prequel but legally they wouldn't have a leg to stand on as it doesn't once reference any of the previously released games. Now at this point it's very easy to show them what we have and ask if they'd be interested in funding us enough to make it into a new XCom game, really what it already is.

 

Now, worst case scenario they say no. Big deal. Try and sell it, if we can't we change the name back to XCom, take our names off the credits and spread it as far and wide over the world wide web as we possibly can!

 

I think we all know it would take an impossible collaboration to control whats available on the internet and where it came from... Mission accomplished!

 

However, we may get lucky and they might say yes. Whoop-di-do, five minutes changing the names back to what they originally were, splash half the budget on a professional team to redo textures, clipping and code checks. Split the rest between the people who have made it what it is and take whatever percentage of the sales we're offered. What's easier than that?

 

Nobody gets sued, we have a new XCom and I get to put a manager in this place and take a holiday in the Bahamas.

 

Super!