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I'm making this post because i am kinda stressed a little, and since i stopped writing on my blog, i thought it would be a good idea to "spill" my thoughts here. About 3 weeks ago i teamed up with an old friend of mine, and decided to start working on a game. He is great with 2D graphics and 3D Modeling, and i have avrege to medium coding skills in game development. We both agreed on a game genre, title, we did some brainstorming sessions, made some concept art, a design document, and a concept engine in DarkGDK, so we could see if where the game will be going. Got the engine up and running after 2 days of coding, this including I may not bee a Mac user, but all my machines have both Linux and Windows installed. Anyway i decided to go with irrlicht but it takes me a while to get used to it. Now the reason i am writing this is because i feel a little down since 3 days ago i had a working "game example" and right now i only have an idea how to get it to work again, and i keep switching between Tutorials and Documentation in order to learn allot more. My question to you guys: Have you ever changed your plan when doing one of the games? And if so, how hard was it to get back on track? Thanks for reading. |
Submitted by zapakitul
Mon, 03/23/2009 - 20:56
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A Running Game is Important
I have only done custom "engines" of my own, so I have no experience regarding either irrlicht (thoug a few students of mine used it in a project quite sucessfully, so it's definitely usable and learnable) nor anything from the game creators.
I think you should ask yourself if your game really needs the extra performance or is it just some "coders pride" to get things as fast as possible?
You get extra polygons, but will you really use them?
The real risk in game development is that the game is not fun, so the top priority should always be to test the gameplay as fast as possible on real people.
Yeah well i wanted to move
Yeah well i wanted to move to Irrlicht because i want to learn something new, i do not expect to get a job next year just by knowing DarkGDK. Also i want to get that "extra polys" so we can take a better care of how the game looks and feels. Also better frame rate, means it will work better on older system(*cough, timer based movements hate me*), and openGL also means Portability, the engine being open source means i get to do some adjustments if i feel the need to do that.
Also it's great you made your custom engines, and i was wondering if you used your own engine for SpellOfPlay games. My knowledge of OpenGL and DirectX isn't that big right now so yeah, i can't really think of working on one myself. Well that goes to show that i need to learn more
I hat you mean; learning new
I hat you mean; learning new stuff is important and then it boils down to what you really want from the project and your time frame.
If you want a game to "sell" the least risky path is to go with DarkGDK. As this will obviously let you get a working game demo out there asap. You can then start working on it iteratively and improving as you have the need to improve.
If you want to learn/work on portfolio, maybe a full game is not the best way? You could opt to start with doing some tech demos using DirectX or OpenGl. Imho if you are looking for a job in the industry hands on experience with the graphics apis are a big plus. While having a complete game is of course a big thing, it also takes a lot of time and effort to make a complete game...
I'd love to take a look at your game! Any chance of a download?
Well since it's our first
Well since it's our first project as a team, we are not looking to sell, but to show our skills and let people enjoy it, and maybe open up a path for future games.
The game is not yet available for download (since we only did a small Sand Box to play in, and test things and features that would be included in the levels), maybe some in-game screen shots i took, or some of Xelu's work on the 3D Models.
I agree with hObbE
I agree with hObbE that focusing on the game play is very important and if you really want to create a game, get the basic game play working first.
i have a ton of abandoned game projects that almost all of them had a "Engine" thinking behind them. Now i try to focus on the game itself instead of working with stuff like scripting or optimization.
Don´t get me wrong, optimization and working with game-technology can be very fun, but it might also consume all your time.
Great if you would like to post some screen shots from your coding
Thanks for the tips guys. As
Thanks for the tips guys. As promised, here are some in-game screenshots since the start of the project, till we switched to irrlich(from which i have no screen for now, all of this being DarkGDK)
Anyway:
Day 1
http://www.imagesl.info/uploads/0299454a5f7697b35063c7b7899a59de.jpg
Day 3 [Level Design Images, 3D Max Screenshots]
http://www.imagesl.info/uploads/6c4a9812c909dfd1d1075eba6f583a03.jpg
http://www.imagesl.info/uploads/16d0d26842fd30336d3fb5d22726f13d.jpg
3 Days ago [The "Swift Sandbox", level in which we did all the tests, like Collision with Objects, Wall Climbing, Color changing on different platforms, buttons, gravity switch, and allot more]
http://www.imagesl.info/uploads/d9b1c4f685ddecb918fc5448150c60f2.png
http://www.imagesl.info/uploads/5e2c7d113b7cde010784cdc09f77905e.png
And some of xelu's concept art and 3D Models:
Level Design idea:
http://www.imagesl.info/uploads/a814c714ad0c98b0edd866f9ebe90d61.jpg
Player's Character both colors
http://www.imagesl.info/uploads/9622f6e7aa32127d46a8ba860a84a3d7.jpg
Some info 'bout the game: You are in control of a "balldroid", a tiny bot which is undergoing tests in the lab. You must prove that you are worthy of being named "The Most Advanced AI bot" by solving some puzzles like getting at the end of the level by pushing buttons in a sequence, picking up blocks and forming ladders, solve some color puzzles(you can only stand on platforms of the opposite color, eg: If you are white you can only stand on black platformers and viceversa). Also we are planning on adding different endings based on which approach you take while solving the puzzles and Xelu has also been working on some "sentry" models that can be used to increase the difficulty in solving the puzzle. Right now we are contemplating on a possible "boss fight" in which you have to solve some fast puzzles before the boss gets to reach you.
That is all i could post for now, i'm hopping to post some new screenshots after i'm done fooling around with irrlicht.
great screens, I like puzzle
great screens, I like puzzle game and this sounds fun, looking forward to test it
Looks like a fun game, and
Looks like a fun game, and it's quite impressive to have it up and running in such short time! I like the "portal" kind of style to it also action puzzlers are a great genre!
Good work, keep it up!
Today we opened up a youtube
Today we opened up a youtube account and uploaded a small Teaser for the game.
Youtube Account: http://www.youtube.com/user/FacePalmStudio
Teaser: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrHrmsiR3-4
Nice teaser!
Nice teaser!
Really cool and somewhat
Really cool and somewhat dramatic. Makes you want to see more
Fantastic
That teaser feels a lot more professional than a lot of mainstream teasers to me, great job! The game itself seems quite interesting too, although I can't help but feel that you got the colours mixed up. To me it feels more natural to be allowed on black platforms when you are the black balldroid (ballroid?). Maybe it's just me and it will feel more right when and if I get to try this game out. I agree with h0bbE that it reminds a little of pOrtal, not necessarily a bad thing, but it might be worth mentioning if that is something you are aiming for or perhaps want to avoid. Either way it looks great and the idea is awesome, I hope you do get to finish it!
______________________________________________________________
There's no kill like an overkill!
Well initially we wanted to
Well initially we wanted to do black on black and white on white, but Xelu' came up with an idea of making the puzzles a little more challenging. And yes, it does feel a little like portal, this is because we both are huge fans of that game, and we got a few ideas from there, but we do not want to make a "portal-like clone".
And thanks for the kind words, Xelu did a great job on the Teaser.
Also, i started working on a small model viewer for the game so that Xelu' could test his models and effects without having to get me to change part of the source. Did some tests with Cube , Normal and Light Mapping and everything turned out well. We are quite happy with our current progress. If what xelu' says is right, we may get a playable beta in about 1-2 months, so keep your fingers cross. We are gonna need a howl lot of feedback.
Well time for another small
Well time for another small update and 2 new in-game screenshots from the Sandbox level.
Newly Implemented:
- Gravity switching
- Level rotation
- Collision
- Buttons
- Time based movement (yay)
- Sliding doors
Working on:
- Improving the jumping code (kinda buggy)
- Wall Sliding
- Slow brake
- Physx
Also we have been talking to a few voice actors in order to "breathe" life to the game. Also we have been working with an action script "coder" in order to make a small replica of the game playable online. And off course, two new screenshots showing the "outer glow" effects, and the way the new camera is positioned
http://www.imagesl.info/imagine/Anonymous/Anonymous/white_sandbox_1.png
and
http://www.imagesl.info/imagine/Anonymous/Anonymous/black_sandbox_1.png
Good progress!
You seem to have some really good progress there
Voice acting is fun, give it a go yourself first. Me and dntoll made the voices for PirateQuest using a "studio" made up from cardboard boxes. Not that professional but great fun!
Now I want to try a demo of the game so I can give you some real feedback
well hObbE, if we get to fix
well hObbE, if we get to fix that jumping bug and manage to finish object grabbing and throwing, a demo may be available in 2-3 weeks.
Hey guys, long-time since i
Hey guys, long-time since i posted. I kept working on swift, and today we got to release a video featuring some in-game footage. Here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlHL1P7QAVs . Tell me what you think *wink*!
P.s i just fixed the "rotation" bug that appeared in the video.
Looks good!
Looking forward to trying the demo
/johno
"you can't stop the change"
Neat! You got some really
Neat! You got some really interesting game play stuff going on there. Good work! Looking forward to the demo
looks awesome!
looks awesome!
Updates :D
Some new updates: We just hosted a presentation at a meeting in Bucharest(capital of my country), and we got some greeaattt feedback and ideas, opinions and.. everything went better then I expected. Also we have recorded our 2nd Developers Diary there. Also, I made some progress porting Swift to Linux and (taddaaam) Nintendo DS. Won't work on the port to much right now, not until the Romanian IT Contest will be over. Anyway, here's the new Dev Clip:
Great stuff! Really good
Great stuff! Really good idea doing an event at a store, seems like a cool place! Makes me want to do some recording of my own!
I'd love to see more from the game though
I embeded your vid in the comment (need special rights to do that).
Keep it up!
Thanks hObbE! We are
Thanks hObbE! We are preparing the alpha version for that IT Contest, and we will release it in about ~5 weeks! ANd you shooouullld do some recording of your own! I'd love to see that! To be honest, I find it really friendly, really easy to show people that you do care(at least in my view, lol). Just don't put to much swedish in there or some of us will have a hard time getting the words exactly and google translating_t them xD!
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