[DISCUSS] Game Development

Game Engine Game Engine Support and Discussion
1

Hi,
I haven’t been very involved in the game engine community here lately. Game development became sort of stale to me over the past year or so, and I turned my focus to other things. Very recently I’ve drifted back towards it with a sense of curiosity.

I’m not posting here to ask for BGE help, but just to invite anyone who’s interested to take part in a conversation about game development. Tell us about how your experience with developing games has evolved over time, what new interesting things you’ve learned, what sort of ideas you’ve come up with - which ones you kept, and which you’ve discarded or abandoned, and why.

I look over this forum section and see a lot of threads asking technical questions - which is great.
I think it’s a nice idea to be able to take a break from the details for a moment, think things over, and discuss them with others who share similar interests in a very general and open way. (This isn’t a thread to explicitly promote your games, but simply to talk about things.)

This post is a bit long, so I apologize for that. But take what you want from it.
You can safely skim/skip through the rest and make a reply of your own.

I’ll start, with a bit of history:
I picked up Blender in 2009 back in the 2.48-2.49 days, and had absolutely no 3D program experience. I discovered the game engine a while later, then delved into Python programming for game development a couple years after that.

My most noteworthy project was a maze creator game. The game played like a level editor program that had a demo-mode that would let you test the level as a first-person character. Development for it spanned around two years, and included several rewrites from the ground-up. Eventually the project became too bloated to manage, and ultimately I just lost interest. One problem was that I never set any well defined goals for it, added content as I went along, and amended bits of old code to make way for new and somewhat arbitrary features. Eventually I realized there was no meaning behind it to me, besides, perhaps, “I want to make something to make other things with.”

That game involved a lot of Python code. Programming has always been interesting to me. I think it’s neat to write code and see what kinds of results it can produce. After losing interest in game development, I got into website design/development (html, css, javascript, php, mysql), and started experimenting with making websites. PHP and JavaScript were easy to get into, since I already had a good understanding of general programming practices with Python. Now we’re at the present time. Making websites is fun, and being paid to do it can be nice (although not necessarily rewarding), but I think my true calling may be in making games.

I think it’s really interesting to spread some message or communicate with other people through games, where the game acts a medium for storytelling. The first game that comes to my mind when I think of this is Abe’s Oddysee (from the Oddworld games). On the surface, it was a fun platformer game with very detailed environments and characters, but it had a deeper meaning that related to our own lives and the world we live in.

There are other games I find interesting where the story is vague/less obvious, or completely lacking, but are nevertheless very enjoyable to play. I find that these types of games often have a lot invested into the game environment and atmosphere, which gives me a fantastic sense of exploration and wonder, and perhaps some subtle references to an underlying message that can keep you thinking about it for a while after playing. I’m thinking of games like LIMBO, Antichamber, Closure, and Bastion.

The sense of wonder and exploration of something new and foreign is something I would love to focus on attaining when making a game. It’s a very peculiar feeling to see some structure that looks interesting in the far distance of a game’s background, and want to get closer to it and find out what it’s all about. This natural human curiosity also pervades many aspects of real life as well.

To wrap this up, I’ll mention a few very general things that I think are important when thinking about making a game.

  • The most important thing is to make sure that the game means something to you, or is important to you in some way. If you’re making a type of game you enjoy, then that means it’s important to you. If your game loses meaning to you, then you’ll become uninterested in working on it, and pushing yourself to do so may be a waste of time and effort.
  • It’s generally a good idea to set goals. Big or small ones. Make sure they’re attainable within a reasonable amount of time respective to the type of goal they are. Working on something without goals is also possible and may result in something interesting, but as a long-term project, it is likely to become unstable.
  • If you are overconfident and pick a project you can’t handle, you will soon find out that this wasn’t a realistic project for you at that moment in time. Don’t let that stop you from trying though. If you want to make the next WoW or Minecraft, then give it a try and see what happens. You’re bound to learn something along the way.
  • If your project presents you with challenges, understand that those are potential learning experiences in some way or other. If you can’t get past them, try saving it for later and work on another project or activity to freshen up your mind. You may come back with a different perspective or new knowledge that can help you get past those challenges.
  • The journey is often more rewarding than reaching the destination. It is easy to lose motivation on an uninteresting journey where the destination is far away.

These are just my personal thoughts, so take from them what you will.
Again, I apologize for the length of this post.

As mentioned at the top,
Feel free to add your own thoughts on your own game development experiences. Maybe it will spark up an interesting conversation.

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This is a good thread - more general game design / development topics are nice.

It’s cool to hear your history, Riyuzakisan. I also picked up Blender before GLSL mode was integrated, and started learning Blender after I saw that it was a fully-fledged game engine. It’s been a long time, but Blender and the BGE have improved a lot since then, as well.

Those points you mention are really nice, as well. Being able to push through development obstacles is important, but so is not forcing yourself to work on something that isn’t working well. Figuring out what the issue is and why you’re having trouble working can be important. Doing other tasks to help you refresh yourself is also important.

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Hello, I will first talk about how I came to the game development then my ideas axis about it.
I’m sorry for the lenght too, you can skip to the ideas part which is a sort of very brief resume.

Movie, comic and 16bits era, the beginning.
When I was kid movies was my most enjoyed media with fantastic and sci-fi, mostly because of fx, future technologies and surreal worlds.
At this time was also the 16bits console era, I played it mostly like toys, but it was miles away better than regular toys because the response of the interaction was no longer biased, it wasn’t my or someone else fingers that make toys react but the toy reacted itself to the interaction.
In parallel of this, comic make me enter in drawing on paper and computer.

32bits era, the grow.
With the 32bits era, ff7 and mgs showed me that what I considered mostly like enhanced toys before began to ressemble to movie, and this ended to make gaming my most enjoyed media.
The two showed me interesting plots ideas and character developpment, ff7 has statistic evolution and management and a surreal world, and mgs has realtime cutscene, voice acting, enhanced ai.
With ff7, I began to tell to myself that if I was able to draw before maybe I will be able to write and create a surreal world myself too, so I began to write fantasy stories in a surreal world.

128bits era, the end.
Here the 128bits era, where I come with shemnue which is my main best game ever, this game make me enter in the thinking of the game technologie. How it tried to replicate lot of thing that we find in real life amazed me, the precise grab of objet with avatar hand that no game still come close today, npc life routine tied to real time day and night cycle, all npc which we can talk with with voice acting, labial syncronisation, mutliple layers of body animation and cutscene feeling via camera traveling, interactives cutscenes, softbody, etc, etc.
After that came rez with shape interaction, where each interaction are tied with fx and sound effects that are made to enhance music and visual background, simple concept but very effective in my opinion.
Finally came metroid prime where the level design of the entire world can be seen like a natural dongeon, where almost all room have a puzzle to solve, that we travel and where we unlock paths in relation to accessories that we collect throughout the game world.
In parallel of this, this is the time where I began to tried some computer music creation.

Xenogears, the climax.
Now I must mention xenogears my secondary best game ever, a game of the 32bits era that I knowed and studied way later after it come out, this game blew my mind with its story more than anything else, whether game, movie or book.
the game was meant to be the fifth of its backstory that take place through multiples generations, and I don’t talk about a 30 years generation here but a thousand years generation, with a world create from its beginning to its end and with a plots and a civilisation that was developped in almost every way,
This game has made me completely rethinking about the scale of the story I could create, and so I began to write the story of my life.

2d development, the test project.
I began the game development with a software called gamemaker before 2000, the logiciel was made for 2d game and used a sort of visual programmation that ressemble to logic brick.
I only used it as an entrance to the logic of game developpement and to test of some ideas because my goal has always been about 3d.

3d development, the life project.
I came to blender around 2008 with blender2.49, this was my entrance to 3d modeling and scripting, I directly began by modeling my main character that will be followed by my cs project which is still in work today, planned to be more like an adventure rpg game at first, but I rapidly see how huge will be my first idea to make the first chapter of my story, not only because I had almost all to study in 3d and scripting, but also because of it’s unreasonable scale.
So more the project goes and more I refined it and rethinking about which part of my story I would want to communicate first.
In parallel I began a racing game project that I simply called futur race developed just in some months where there is only the display of leaderboard and the indication that a race has already been completed to add for a complete prototype.
And finally after some time I came back to cs with the concept of a “little” adventure game that take place in an annexe of one of the last chapter of my story.

My ideas.
I won’t talk on motivation and other thing like that here because I don’t think I’m the best to talk about it, but I agree about almost all you have said about this.
The ideas I list are my game reflexion axis, I could talk about why I keep these ideas instead of others but the message would be a bit more big so maybe for another.

  • world and story.
  • character development and evolution management.
  • npc ai and time cycle.
  • cinematic feeling.
  • interactive shape.
  • transparent dongeon level design.
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I think the hardest part of game development is finishing. Here are a couple things I focus on to keep moving towards my goal:

  1. Focus on the Minimum Viable Product: The minimum viable product has only the core features that allow a game to be played. I want my game to be complete before I polish it. By focusing on the MVP I keep my project moving instead of spending hours trying to get that model looking “just right.” Always ask yourself if what you are working on is absolutely necessary to being able to play your game.

  2. Persistence solves everything. This is important to remember when you start to feel overwhelmed by the scope or complexity of your project. Iteration makes everything better. Always remember that you can try something over and over until it works. I animate this way. I make the first animation quickly and don’t worry about it too much. As I play I move the arms a little here, the legs a little there, add more twist to the spine and after awhile I realize I have a pretty good animation.

  3. FINISH the game. A terrible finished game is better than the perfect game that never gets finished.

Here is a background I made to help motivate me. Hopefully it will help inspire others.

bg.jpg1920×1080 241 KB

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Background -> I have been learning python and the game engine for 1.5? years, the entire time wanting to make a specific game,

I wanted to make a game that is like a Lego inventors kit for pyrotechnical psychopaths, that also taught kids science, in the “background” of the puzzles and stories.

I started with very limited coding ability, and a large head equally full of thoughts and ego. I wanted everyone to jump on board so we could make a 5 star game, that made ad revenue and “boosted” the BGE through a development fund specifically for the bge.

Things I have learned,

  1. Coders define a project - without the ability to code a project, you have to wait for a game to be coded, and they usually fall apart.
  2. Coding is the easy part, thinking about how to achieve it is the hard part.
  3. I need more vector math in my brain…

I would say I am 80% done with my gameplay mechanics.

I have continued to drop failed tests, and integrate working tests, until now I can say it looks like my game will be smooth.

I would say the most important part of writing a game is not to give up, and make sure it’s your dream.

I have a 100% physical walk system (thanks Jackii !) which many people have told me was a dead end.

Don’t Give up
<u>

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@BluePrintRandom: That is a really cool physics-driven locomotion system. Sure, it looks pretty goofy in that video, but it definitely conveyed a real sense of weight for the character, which is something you don’t see very often in games.

My Background:

I’m a storyteller at heart. I’ve been writing since I could put words down on a page. Growing up, I was introduced to video and computer games in the mid-to-late 90s. I both watched and played a lot of games on PC and Nintendo 64, mostly with friends. The interest in computer games continued through middle school and high school before it gave way to filmmaking, which is what I’m apprenticing in now. The interest in game design and development hasn’t faded all that much, it’s only become more refined and realistic.

Since graduating high school, my interests have broadened. I putter around pretty much daily with filmmaking, electronic music production, sound design, audio recording, screenwriting, 3D modeling, texturing, rigging, animation, game design and development, and various other computer-related creative activities.

I’ve been learning Blender for about 6 months now, in hopes of using it for at least one of my handful of projects, whether that’s for a 3D animated sci-fi web series, a first-person science-fantasy adventure game, a first-person sci-fi action-adventure game, or a 2D isometric CRPG.

What I’ve Learned:

Preparation is Key - Having a clear idea of what you want to do is absolutely necessary if you wan to see the project through to the end. Spend as much time as you can planning and organizing your project: Create a vision document to motivate yourself and others to work on the project. Create a game design document to detail and track all the tasks that are going to need to get done in order to create the game. Create a technical document to chronicle any and all technology-related tasks that need to get done, such as writing specific scripts or shaders, or game code.

Start Small - While it’s human nature to dream big, you have to be a realist when it comes to complex projects like creating a game. With my latest idea, the 2D isometric CRPG, I’m going with a very small-scale idea to test it out: The player character in a single room with an NPC, two searchable containers, and a locked door. The goal is simply to leave the room. That short and simple scenario allows me to create, implement and test all the core gameplay mechanics without deluding myself into thinking I have to (or even can) create something on the level of Planescape: Torment or Baldur’s Gate.

Focus on Gameplay and Story - If you don’t have well developed gameplay, the player isn’t going to want to play the game long enough to experience the story. If you don’t have a half-decent story, the gameplay is going to feel meaningless. Basically: Gameplay is the challenge, the story is the reward. If one outweighs the other by too much, you’re going to have problems.

7

It’s still a WIP, but part of the problem is I am silly and use my phone to Capture,

but I want a realistic frame rate,

So I was not operating the arms :smiley: (mouse controlled)

The rig needs work, but It takes time, and at the moment I am the only one coding, animating, etc.

but the rig uses Ik actions, so I just have to get good at that now :smiley:

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I like drawing and sculpting, few days ago I wanted to make one of my sculpts move and games are easier to do than movies. Used to play with blender some years ago, so I know the basics quite well.

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I have been using BGE for 3 years now, I just use it as a hobby because right now nothing I would make, would make much money on the market. Speaking from failure after failure (I know it leads to success) learn the basics as well as possible. I watched 10 hours or so of tutorials before even understanding anything and I still need more to get beyond where I am. Moral Learn The Basics. There is other stuff like practice and other things (Some stated in previous things said), but the most important thing, especially when starting, is learn the basics

Fredstash
P.S. keep at it no matter how difficult it gets

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I started working in Blender when I was around eight or nine. Since then, I started analyzing every game I played, and as I grew in Blender, I started seeing what portions of professional games are impressive, and what portions are lacking. Gaming was always an escape to me, and Blender became part of that. Last summer, I started working in a development team making an RPG game using Blender models to be exported into various engines.
There are three of us, and progress can often be slow, especially since I still have school, which I often view as wasted time I could be spending working on projects. But I feel that this team is rather where I belong, even if not much is getting done. I learned more since the time I joined than I did in all the years before then.
Beyond the RPG project, I often enjoy working in BGE, for it’s clean and fun interface, but mostly because it’s more experience for me to be more prepared for when I (hopefully) get a real job in the industry.
And outside of idle work, gaming, and working on the RPG, I pick up odd jobs, mostly off of this site, mostly volunteer work. Most of the people who offer pay will have me do a whole bunch of work before telling me they picked up a different artist, but at least I get to keep the models.
I also would like to note that many people in this field seem to not game much anymore, even though that’s what originally drove them to this work. I recommend to anyone to continue gaming, if that’s what started your passion, as it’s not a time waster, but a way of life.
I’m quite fond of your work as well- your MouseMove script has helped my BGE work beyond compare.
Thanks for reading

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Just want to start off by saying… I am a Blender head :rolleyes:

Just a little about me: I am currently a student going for a tri-major bachelor in game design, game programming, and Advance Computer Science. I’ve worked on my fair share of game/art projects, solo and with other (a lot of which turned WIP or were canceled).
I am aspiring to start my own game studio very very very soon. I have plenty of games that I can polish to put under my belt (and it is always import as a game developer or artists or anything really to keep your old work so that you can show your skills. That also goes for when you are looking for member(s) to join your project - no one wants to enter the battlefield of developing a game just as blind as their fearless leader, have a little something to show)

I picked up blender in its early 2.4 series and have been using it since. I took a long break after 2.49b till 2.58 :o
But in that break I’v tried my hands on other game engines because honestly, I wasn’t seeing “enough” impressive games done with blender, it had a strong focus on digital art-modelling-animation-and such. I soaked my hair in GameMaker (horrible experience), then CryEngine (good but was hard for me to get a hang of, and it looks too much like Crysis (the game)…) then Unity (it was ok, I liked it for its mobile capabilities), then UDK (that was an interesting experience, i picked it up easy enough but there is SO MUCH that goes into UDK i don’t know how anyone can use it without duel-monitors… or more :spin:).

Shortly after I return to good’ol blender and DANG did it change (2.49 to 2.58). The UI was different, so much was updated, I felt like a little kid in a Willy Wonka candy store).

I quickly remembered why I loved blender so. It was simple (one monitor would more than suffice :D), it was the WHOLE package (i could make my models, add textures, rig and animate all in the same engine I was making my game in, I could even create my own art work for games through blender’s Cycles).

Now as a game developer/designer I loved blender for this. I could make some pretty hefty game in not time at all with blender

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gam3.jpg1080×608 158 KB

Finishing a game is definitely the most important part of game development. It’s nice to have a WIP locked away for a bit while you finished other small game projects that you can use as a learning experience to finish that WIP.
As a Game dev, I would say use whatever you can use to your fullest potential. Don’t give up on it just because “it’s not that popular” or “-you- haven’t see much of anything from it” (my lesson learned).

-Learn, experience, and innovate.

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I used other 3d packages a long time ago but fell in love with Blender when it reached version 2.5.
I was always fashinated on how games function and back in school times I always had a least good computer so I had trouble playing with my friends. For example I took Half-Life engine and dug up all elements I could make it lighter so I could play it. I ended up optimizing Counter-Strike 1.x versions to be able to join friends on LAN.

I managed to model a few models and animate too, I planned to make a MOD for Half-Life but never got around to finish it.

I work mostly on graphical designing but coding interests me more and more. Thanks to Blender I started to relearn coding again and Python has opened many new wonderous paths.

I have suffered the classical “Start a project and never finish it” syndrome and I have started to simply study pieces, single mechanics that are like tiny projects and I learn a long the way. I have also studied myself on how I could organize my projects so that I wouldn’t get stuck.
I found out that the actual progress on making the game on computer is sometimes not even most important part. Thing that works for me is to take lots of papers and pens and start to layoug a design for a game on those. If I plan things well it is so much more easier then to sit on to the computer and start doing things.

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also - set goals for each night