Last year on school, and we then have to make a project in something... I am looking for an idea for what I can make, but it is not that easy. Many ideas I have had is proving too big and complicated. This is what I have to work with: 3 people including my self. 4 months, full time avaliable to create something. Programming something in c++ (maybe java or c#). I have yet not found any one to work with, but that is more because of I have no ideas yet. Many of my ideas to projects (game, engines, tools, libs) needs people that is willing to spend time to learn win32, directx, opengl, or something other large libs more or less on their own, so they would be able to do something on the project. My biggest fear is that this task alone will criple the project (ppl generaly don't like to learn something new, especially not on their own). So my question is more like this: Is there a program/lib/tool/format/standard that the game dev community is lacking? Do you have ideas for a project that could be made by 3ppl that have good knowledge of programming generally, but with little knowledge of supporting libs like opengl, directx, win32, whateverlibyoucanthinkof.

Why not make the project yourself? We have the same things in my school and Im working on my own.

For ideas, just make a game clone. Games are fund to make. :) Something like tetris, pacman or supermario bros isnt to hard to make if you already know most of the stuff you should know... and if you got that much time.

Good luck. :)

Agree, games are fun to make. But I can't really be alone on the project. So I need 2 more ppl. These ppl would have to make an effort to learn new libs (gl, dx, or whatever) and things like that to be productive and be an asset.

The upside with creating a game, or game engine is that it should be a motivating factor alone. But I also see the danger of making too much work. I have had a good look at 2 other engines made in project like this, and they are not pretty or finished.

Then I started to think ... there is alot of finished libs I can use (irrlicht, ogre, sdl, etc). Why not use them to make something, or to set the framework around a project. Maybe I could make an addition, or a lib, or test out something fancy... but then I just think this is a bigger problem than just make an game/game engine.

so then it is back to basic. what basic stuff can I make. Maybe addition to C++ STL (or a boost lib). Compared to java, c++ lacks alot of fancy tools in regular C++. You need libs from others to make something decent (QT, Win32 etc), and they have strings attatched. But what...

my head is quite empty these days, and therfore looking for help in this manner. It would be nice to do something more exciting than "make an CV generator", and something alot more doable than "make an cool 3d engine".

If they are programmers, SDL is a piece of cake :).

I like to play online games. One such game is Magic Online. But other games do make fun also. So why not create a system that allows to play those games ? I would suggest using Java for this, since it is easier to learn and use.

Here comes the idea:
1) First you have to create a base system, that allows users to register and login. After login, a user may enter a game room, i.e. one for chess or one for poker. In this room the user may create a new game or join an existing one. This system should not depend on the games available. This way you can easily add new games like bridge to the system. (A nice idea when programming in Java is to have a properties file, that contains key-value-pairs of the form game_name=class_name. That way you only have to edit this file to add new game types.)
2) Each game may have a setup before it starts, to allow different rules to play this game with. For instance you may offer a difficulty level, or select the number of players. Create a common interface for this, i.e. hasSetup(), showSetup(), startGame().) For your project you may choose to implement just one game, maybe chess.
3) Create a communications protocol, the easiest form would be text-based. This also allows for easy debugging and logging. The protocol should allow to send chat messages, game dependent data and what else you will need.
4) Create a client that displays the game state. Make sure that you only communicate important information to/from the server. For instance a client may display a chess board as a grid with letters, or it may provide a 3D view that rotates while you play (remember the old battle-chess?).

Do you feel you can do this ?
If you have questions to this, just ask.
If you wrote this game, pm me. I would like to test it. ;-)