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Author Topic: Need Partner, Help Me Make PC Gaming Better!  (Read 9228 times)

Epicmaster

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Need Partner, Help Me Make PC Gaming Better!
« on: October 05, 2011, 12:17 AM »
So for the past year now I have been obsessed with the idea of improving PC Gaming, making it better.
I already knew in my head what needed to be done, I've just never had the time to actually write this down, so here goes:

PC gaming is awesome
its better
its faster
and stronger
than any other form of gaming out there.  :D
Yet people still get drawn to what I would consider the crappy quality of the actual in game experience of the Console.

It lead me to think, what's wrong with gaming on the PC?
Why would people compromise for
-lower graphical fidelity,
-slower frame rates
-barley any flexibility (mods, ect)
-and overall limiting hardware which essentially limits developers from making super cool games.


Well PC Gaming does have its faults, those of which are mostly non-existent on the consoles
The primary fault PC Gaming has is cost of hardware, which is a legitimate issue. The fact that PC Gamers must upgrade their PCs every year or so can be daunting.
HOWEVER, this a problem outside the reach of a university student who can only deal with software, so lets move on.

The next problem is the complexity involved in actually playing a game.
The console only requires you Insert a Disc, and voila! you can play the game instantly
no installing (unless your using the ps3)
no looking through  blogs and websites for the correct day one game patch
no looking in the AMD or Nvidia website for updated drivers
and finally no having to navigate around your messy desktop or start up menu or wherever you put your game short cuts
              ^
Most of THESE  problems can be solved through software which I will discuss later,
but we are not done because we don't want to just Solve the PC gaming (software) problems but we also want to make it BETTER

The final problem I seem to have with PC gaming which even consoles don't seem to get the hang of is the "Gamer Experience"

The Gamer Experience is just a term I made up to explain the idea that we as gamers have certain things we use and need outside of the actual game to
help us in games
allow us to socialize with other gamers
know more about different games
and finally to actually Get Games!

Each and Every Single one of these Things, these Services we use OUTSIDE of the actual game is typically a separate service
To Help Us in Games we look for -> Youtube Videos of Walkthroughs, or Websites for Cheats and such
For socializing -> We go to for example Steam Forums, Facebook, Twitter, Game Websites!  
To know about games we go to -> Read reviews at Gamespot, IGN, Metacritic, ect.
and To get the games we go to -> Steam, D2D,Impulse, (The retail store <-why would you do that?)

Each and Every single one of these services work together to make up the "Gamer Experience" of course this is a simplification but does admittedly speak for a large percentage of PC gamers.
The simple fact is, Why has this not been put together yet?
Why can't it all be ONE Experience?

Well this is what im planning on doing.
Very ambitious, I know
But, I am Willing and Passionate, and from what I have seen and experienced that's all I need.

First, lets talk about the solving of PC gaming complexity.
Complexity originates from having too may steps in too many confusing ways of performing said steps

Bringing the whole PC Gaming Experience into One App that takes care of it all would literally be a revolution
The Computer could have a PC Gaming mode and a PC working/browsing mode, the possibilities are endless!

 So, how would we go about to make this One App that does it all, well we start with the basics

PC Game Library -> a simple library allows you to add and remove games manually, but also has capability to automatically detect games.
Gamer Profile - > Gamers love to see stats: playcount, hours played, last played, genre, favourite ect.
Online Portal-> a portal to the online world, which would feature the "Gamer Experience"

These are the basic and HIGHLY simplified features of an app I am currently working on.
Its Part of a Much Much bigger Project dedicated solely to IMPROVING THE PC GAMING EXPERIENCE.

I Realize this is a fairly long post
I also realize I need to sleep

So, as much as I would Love to keep on going I will stop here for now


The point of this post is quite simply that I might need some help to get this done  :D

I need One Person, Who would do this for Passion and Pleasure, no gain (yet)
This person must Love Technology, Love PC Gaming and Love To Learn!
This is something ive been working on for the better part of a year now and know that It will some time to get things done

Im currently nearing an Alpha release of the preview App i'm working on for this project.

If you read through this whole thing than thank you very much, I sincerely appreciate you reading this, as you can't believe how much I want to make this a possibility

if you want to contact me personally, my e-mail is [email protected]

Thanks again for your time and consideration, I hope to hear from you! :)

 
EDIT:

For those interested, here are a couple links to project pages:

Behance Page for code name Project Aurora description: http://www.behance.n...roragm/frame/1258589
Sourceforge Page for Aurora Game Manager: https://sourceforge....t/projects/auroragm/
Dev Diary for Game Manager: http://auroramanager.wordpress.com/

that's it for now!

« Last Edit: October 08, 2011, 11:32 PM by Epicmaster »

40hz

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Re: Need Partner, Help Me Make PC Gaming Better!
« Reply #1 on: October 05, 2011, 01:46 AM »
Just out of curiosity, would this project you're talking about be the "Aurora" thing found here and here?




Epicmaster

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Re: Need Partner, Help Me Make PC Gaming Better!
« Reply #2 on: October 05, 2011, 02:02 PM »
Just out of curiosity, would this project you're talking about be the "Aurora" thing found here and here?


Yup, I knew someone would find out eventually, I was going to mention it as people got interested, but I guess It was not too hard to find anyways  :D

40hz

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Re: Need Partner, Help Me Make PC Gaming Better!
« Reply #3 on: October 05, 2011, 02:44 PM »
I only asked because I think the fact you have prototype code and a SourceForge presence goes a long way towards establishing credibility for your project. Don't downplay it. Many projects never get beyond the "bright promise for the future" speeches. If yours has - let people know. :) :Thmbsup:

KynloStephen66515

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Re: Need Partner, Help Me Make PC Gaming Better!
« Reply #4 on: October 05, 2011, 02:56 PM »
Seems like you want to just "Click and Play" without limitation of hardware...Which is already available, and ive been using the service since it launched.

www.onlive.com :)

Epicmaster

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Re: Need Partner, Help Me Make PC Gaming Better!
« Reply #5 on: October 05, 2011, 03:43 PM »
Seems like you want to just "Click and Play" without limitation of hardware...Which is already available, and ive been using the service since it launched.

www.onlive.com :)

unfortunately Onlive is not what I was talking about, Onlive is a very limited service with few supported games, however I will say the interface provided has been a slight influence to what I am thinking of.

The system I am proposing allows PC Gamers to Manage and Interact with Practically ANY game in existence, the user needs only the name of the game and should be able to access a huge amount of content available online and offline.

A game manager would be the first step towards this system, the simple ability to organize and provide a simple, vivid interface to accessing and tracking PC Games would be a great stride forward.

I know that many people will start naming alternative, but I have seen them all, and they are all
narrowly focused on a specific feature (Steam)
Very Unintuitive (Gamespy Comrade)
and ugly (Raptr, xfire)

In an effort of making things simple we need The Dashboard Interface found in Xbox 360 and PS3 combined with the power and flexibility of PC to design the Next generation PC Gaming Focused App, leverage all that content and power into one thing, one experience, just imagine how epic this could be!


JavaJones

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Re: Need Partner, Help Me Make PC Gaming Better!
« Reply #6 on: October 07, 2011, 01:42 AM »
Interesting idea(s), promising that you've already got some code put down. Unfortunately I have no spare time to contribute, but I'll be watching the progress with great interest.

- Oshyan

Epicmaster

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Re: Need Partner, Help Me Make PC Gaming Better!
« Reply #7 on: October 07, 2011, 02:47 PM »
Interesting idea(s), promising that you've already got some code put down. Unfortunately I have no spare time to contribute, but I'll be watching the progress with great interest.

- Oshyan

Thanks!

I actually have a blog where I track my progress if anyone is interested, mostly to help me write down and track what I accomplish

http://auroramanager.wordpress.com/

JavaJones

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Re: Need Partner, Help Me Make PC Gaming Better!
« Reply #8 on: October 07, 2011, 07:08 PM »
Excellent. Added to my RSS!

- Oshyan

kwacky1

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Re: Need Partner, Help Me Make PC Gaming Better!
« Reply #9 on: November 01, 2011, 06:40 AM »
Awesome!  When I first installed the Steam client (very recently) I thought Steam would do what you've described and I tried to import my games into Steam and failed miserably.

I'll keep a keen eye on this one.

40hz

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Re: Need Partner, Help Me Make PC Gaming Better!
« Reply #10 on: November 01, 2011, 09:24 AM »
@Epicmaster - just thinking out loud for a minute...have you ever considered talking to the Good Old Games people? I'd think figuring out a way to hook your app in with their site could be a killer combo. Just imagine: DRM-free classic games with an active web community matched to a snazzy all-in-one like you propose? That could be awesome!
 :)

Epicmaster

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Re: Need Partner, Help Me Make PC Gaming Better!
« Reply #11 on: November 01, 2011, 05:04 PM »
It would be awesome come to think of it.  ;D

but then again, lots of things would be awesome.
If I could do all these things It would be very awesome, the only awesome all in one gaming app.
The only problem is that I am one guy, and one of the reasons I posted here was to get help.
If I do it all my self could take a year at the very least with university chasing me all around ;)

So again if anyone is interested passionate to work this awesome project, I am willing to work triple hard to make this frickin thing happen with them.  :Thmbsup:


« Last Edit: November 22, 2011, 06:37 PM by Epicmaster »