 |
 |
 BUY TC2M!! |
|
MAIN
|
| home |
| forum |
| awards |
| faq/info |
| mods |
| downloads |
| screenshots |
| INFO |
| support |
| TC2M SDK/Modding |
| links |
| archives |
| TC2M BUZZ |
| Reviews/Previews |
|
|
FAQ/INFO
|
||||||||
|
Games
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
Company
|
||||||||
|
MadMinute Games is our dream of making our own games. Some time ago two guys got together and decided that instead of watching TV at night we were going to write our own computer game. So we've been spending our nights and our weekends/vacations/holidays, writing what we like to call the Take Command engine and our first game "Take Command 1861 - 1st Bull Run". It all starts with our Designer who is a big war gamer, he had some very innovative ideas, but where ever he tried to shop them he was told that war games were dead. Dead, maybe? Maybe for a large publisher or development house, but maybe not too dead for a small group who just want to have some fun. So he found the other ingredients and added his own sound, game, and level design skills, along with his love for history and got the ball rolling. As far as programming goes, the best that we could get is someone who knew very little about games. So we bought him an inexpensive 3D engine and locked him in a room until he could come up with something halfway decent. He's not doing too bad a job, maybe we'll let him out someday. Of course we couldn't get everything, this guy had no idea about war games. He plays first person shooters and RPG's. Norb spent two years at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD before getting injured playing football and realizing that it wasn't for him, before transferring to Penn State and finishing up his Computer Science degree. Norb has worked on "Waterloo - Napoleon's Last Battle", "Civilization III Conquests", "Emperor - Rise of the Middle Kingdom", and Strat-O-Matic games. So we took these two guys that have nothing in common except their love for computer gaming and formed a team. Their goal to innovate war games. Everyone has their own idea of what would make a great game, so we took the best from all worlds and mixed them together. What we ended up with was an amazing 3D regimental based combat engine. Yeah, we have a few tricks that we're not going to let out of the bag at this point, we can't give everything away. But I'll tell you this, by 3D, we mean 3D, not top down angled weird view, no camera locking. You can go anywhere, look anywhere, basically play general to your entire army and try to keep them alive while we do our best to code a non-cheating AI to kick your butt. |
||||||||
|
Credits
|
||||||||
|
The following list are the people that are currently involved or have previously been involved in the creation of TC1861. All of these people have contributed in some way even if it was just to answer questions. We want to thank everyone that helped us get where we are and where we're going. MadMinute
Games, Inc. is
Take Command - 2nd Manassas Team Art Music Business |
||||||||
|
FAQ
- MadMinute Games - Take Command Series
|
||||||||
|
1. What is the purpose of the Mad Minute Games website? This site was created for your feedback. Since we are working on a Garage Game (game being developed without outside funding), we are interested in hearing the viewer?s opinion about such a venture. Your interests will most likely fuel and speedup the development of such a project. 2. When is the release date? January 2005 3. Will you have a demo? Our demo plans have changed a little. After speaking with some industry veterans, we heard only one thing. Releasing a demo without complete game functionality only hurts the game. We may do a demo after the game has been out for a while, but it is not definite. 4. Who is MadMinute Games? A designer, a programmer, and a dream. We are all currently happily employed in the game industry. The purpose of us getting together on this project is with hope of creating a Garage Game. We feel that a great game doesn't necessarily need a team of 60 plus with a huge funded budget. 5. What is MadMinute? Mad Minute refers to the horror, stress, & fury of combat and the number of times you can load & fire your musket (in a Mad Minute) all the while looking straight into your enemies eyes as they try to reload theirs..... 6. How can I contact you? Please post general questions in the forum. We check it regularly. This site and the Game are still in their early stages of development, the FAQ we most likely grow from your anticipated feedback. You can also email (help at madminutegames dot com) for more specific questions. Our individual emails are available on the contact page. 7. Are these real screenshots & movies? We've also seen games where the screenshots seem to be impossible to recreate when actually playing the game. But all of our screenshots and movie clips are taken from the game while playing. 8. Will there be multiplayer? We have to wait until after the initial release of the game to work on multiplayer. We just don't have the time or resources to develop both the singleplayer and multiplayer games at this time. 9. What are the system requirements? Currently the lowest end machine that we have played on is a P3 1000 and a high end GeForce 2 with 512 MB RAM. The game runs ok on this system depending on the number of units in the scenario. We will test it on some lower end systems as we get closer to the release date. But right now our goal is make sure the game continues to run well on the P3 1000. We did run it on a P3 600 with a GeForce2 MX and 256 MB RAM and it ran poorly. Not really what I would call good, but it was playable. I would recommend that players get a P4 1.8 with 512 MB RAM and a 128 MB DirectX 9.0 compatible video card. Currently the game takes about 800 MB hard drive space. We will have some options for lower end systems. 10. What platforms are supported? We are only writing the game for MS Windows platforms. That's all we know how to code. The minimum will be Windows 98. We also require DirectX 9.0 to be installed. Currently we have tested the game on Win2000, Win98, Win98SE, and WinXP. All of these OS's seem to run the game well. It may or may not work on Win ME, but we won't support it since ME is just not worth anyone's time. 11. Do you need Beta Testers? We have an initial group of beta testers. People we've known for a while and whose opinion we really value. After we've past their inspection we may call for a more public beta, probably consisting of friends of friends and maybe some of the people that have been helpful on our forums. But we'll make sure that everyone concerned knows when we're ready. 12. What types of gameplay are supported? For our first release of the game we are going to support a single historical battle, a random battle generator, and a custom scenario mode for all the modders out there. We will be writing historical and what-if scenarios for the 1st Bull Run. 13. What aspects of the game can be modified? One of our main goals was to make this game as moddable as possible. Order of battles, scenarios, all art, all sounds, unit movement, ballistics, add new units, etc... everything EXCEPT map making. Unfortunately, the map making process is very complicated and can only be done by MadMinute until we get a more user friendly 3D game engine. (Hint: Our Bull Run map also includes the area of 2nd Bull Run and is just begging to get made/modded!) 14. What are your plans for the first release? Our first release will be the battle of 1st Bull Run. This was the first major battle of the Civil War. We are creating very exact maps of the battlefield with historically accurate orders of battle. There will also be a random battle generator to provide many many hours of gameplay. Thank
You, |
||||||||
|
Contact
Information
|
||||||||
|
We are currently working from our homes near the Mason Dixon Line. We've set up a couple of emails so that people can contact us directly. Please read the forums and the FAQ first because hopefully we've answered most questions there. Also please feel free to contact us through our Forum, we check it regularly. help at madminutegames dot com Business Contact: norb Adam Norb
Thank
You, |
||||||||
|
Game
Info
|
||||||||
|
?Civil War Bull Run Take Command 1861? is what the industry is calling today a garage game. A game created by a group of individuals on their own time using their own resources with no external funding from publishers or investors. Towards the very end of the project, we made a deal with a publisher to put the game on retail shelves. We looked at many options, but felt that this was the best way to get our name out to the masses. Our goal is to create a fun real time war game. We follow all the rules and use the weapons, strategies, and tactics of the Civil War. The game engine that we are developing will be fully customizable by the player. You will be able to modify ballistics, replace all the artwork, and basically change the entire game. Features
List updated 12/29/2004: --
Real-time tactical combat with a 10:1 soldier to sprite ratio. |
||||||||
This
award winning title is not longer being printed by Activision
Value and therefore is not available anywhere except by resale
from existing customers. The same award winning engine is used
for all of our titles. So please look at other MadMinute Titles
to purchase.