I havent done much personal programming in a long time. Due to a number of reasons it's probably been about six months since I wrote any code for myself but inside I've been starving for a reason to code again.

Maybe 4e6 will help me out with this?

Here is my idea for a 4e6 game (I'm sort of fleshing this out as I go along):

The elements seem distinctly Old West. The basic storyline I'm planning on fleshing out is that you are an accountant at a financially-strapped, possibly not optimally managed, bank. One day the stagecoach carrying a large amount crystals from a client's account is overtaken by outlaws and the crystals stolen. Since the bank cannot afford a proper bounty-hunter to find and take back the client's crystals and since the loss of this client would mean the end of the bank, your boss assigns you the task of retrieving them. If you are successful then you get to keep your job!

The game will mostly be centered around looking for clues as to

1. Who stole the crystals


2. Where the crystals are being kept


3. Retrieving them from their locations

Searching for information will require the player to travel to different towns; talk to the various inhabitants; read newspapers, wanted posters, etc. Getting to different towns and hideouts will always be by pony since this is the Old West (Pony Express anyone?) and there will probably be gratuitous use of dynamite (again, Old West Bad Guys = Dynamite + Guns!). Retrieving the crystals will involve fighting or sneaking your way to the hideout and definitely defeating some sort of outlaw boss.

Here's The Catch:
I cant draw for the life of me. Not at all. Nada. My graphics skills are somewhere between nonexistent and laughable.

Here's how I'm planning on working around that:

First, I figure I can just make the game a bit comical by using stick figures. It works for Stick Soldiers, right? I can probably draw stick figures well enough to use them in a game. I can also apply this talent to draw stick homes, stick horses, sticks of dynamite, etc. This restricts the game to be a sidescroller since I cant draw stick figures from the top down.

Second, since sticks arent very colorful I need a way to mitigate that. The game is an Old West game so I figure it would be fun to make the entire thing in shades of yellow and gray - like an Old West film. Since I'm going for the film look, I might want to add some of those film artifacts (those dots and lines and such that are due to either dirt or degradation of the film itself) for fun.

Finally, another issue I had with past games that ultimately was a factor in the death of the project is sound. I need some background music for the game and some free sound effects. I've looked briefly at those Free Sound websites but have been largely disappointed at their selection. I'm hoping that since Old West is a little more attested than pirates, ninjas, and robots, that I could find some basic gunfire and explosion sound effects to suit my game. I'd also like to find some free ragtime. Even if it has the background fuzz of a poor recording - that might even work with the old film style that I'm going for.

How you can help me

Suggestions? Ideas about libraries to use (my primary language is C++)? Can you play some ragtime on the piano and would like to send me some sound files?

Help!