Hey Tom I agree with what you are saying here. If it's freeware then I'd expect it would be ignored. I've also been a fan of SW from the 1977 start. Had many of the toys growing up, and my nephew has a good collection going as well. Steering it back to games I'd love to play something accessible like the game you suggest here. I'll help out however I can. And remember the force is like duct tape. It has a light side, a dark side, and keeps the universe together!
----- Original Message ----- From: "Thomas Ward" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, December 01, 2010 6:19 PM Subject: [Audyssey] Creating Accessible Star Wars Games Hi all, Thanks to all the discussion about accessible Star Wars games over the last day or two I've decided to reconsider my position on releasing some Star Wars projects I've had in mind for litterally years now. It really has been something I have dreamed of doing as long as I can remember, and I'm personally fed up with rediculous rules and procedures that would bar me from persuing my own happiness and enjoyment. For one thing despite what they say I don't really think they would try and sue me over it as long as I kept the games as freeware and specified that these were designed for VI gamers. After all, it would likely cost them more to take it to court than they could get out of me in a settlement/lawsuit. About the most they would do if they found out about the games is get a judgment to have the content/material removed from my website. That would be a pain in the butt to be sure, but no biggy as I'm sure someone would slap it up on Sendspace, Dropbox, etc the next day and share it anyway. More importantly as I said earlier this has been a dream of mine. Ever since I was old enough to watch television the first time I saw the original Star Wars movie I became a serious fan of the movies, books, toys, games , etc. Just ask my wife as I've got a large glass display case in my living room filled with hundreds of Star Wars action figures i've collected since i was three or four years old to the present. In the mid 90's when the Star Wars PC games began coming out like Dark Forces, Rebel Asalt, Jedi Knight, etc I purchased each and everyone. Unfortunately, for me as the games were coming out I was also really starting to lose my vision so the graphics were pretty much just blobs of color on the screen. I could play them, sort of, but had to depend on cheat codes to help me as everything was fuzzy and not very clear. All the same, I was very happy witht the games, and played them constantly. once I lost my sight I was pretty disappointed over the fact I owned all these cool games and couldn't play them. While in college I decided I'd be a programmer and write my own Star Wars games. Now, 12 years later I still really haven't done it, because of copyrights and licensing. Both of which had originally been created without any thought or planning for special cases such as being barred from a certain product based on disability. So what to do about it? Well, the answer seams quite simply. I should do what my heart tells me is right, and that is to follow my personal dreams. Go ahead and take the plunge and just write the games I want to play regardless of rules and regulations. After all, i have the means and motive. to do it. I shouldn't let that go because of some company's short-sighted polacies. When it comes to the means I'm litterally the perfect developer to do the job. For one thing I have personal experience with the games themselves so have a pretty good idea of what the final product should be like. I went to college, learned to program, and obviously have the technical skills to create a full 3D FPS game similar to the originals. I've got the original media to work with. In fact, I still own all the original software cds in my closet, and all I'd need to do is grab the discs, unpack the gob files, and grab the sounds, music, etc I'd need for the project. Finally, I just spent like two years working on the Genesis Engine which was designed specifically for this type of game. Since all that work is done I have the tools to do the job at my disposal. When it comes to motivation I have plenty of that as well. It was precisely because of the FPS games of the 1990's Tomb Raider, Jedi Knight, Doom, Quake, Soldier of Fortune, etc that got me into writing accesible games in the first place. When I showed up on Audyssey around 2000 or 2001 I looked around and was disappointed the only game that was up to my previous standards was Shades of Doom. Everything else was disappointing, and not at all what I had been hoping for. Which brings me back to my point. Back around 1998 my favorite Star Wars game was Mysteries of the Sith. For one reason it was the first Star Wars game to feature Mara Jade as a playable character, and I've always been a fan of her's since she first showed up in Timithy Zon's book, "Heir to the Empire." Not only that it was a good game with decent graphics for the time, lots of action, and it was fun. I've pretty much decided that I should start with Mysteries of the Sith as it is both my favorite SW title to date, and would be a great introduction to the series for new VI gamers. Later on I can probably produce other Jedi Knight titles or one of the Rebel Asalt games. Cheers! --- Gamers mailing list __ [email protected] If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to [email protected]. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to [email protected]. --- Gamers mailing list __ [email protected] If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to [email protected]. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to [email protected].
