A List Of Questions From A Blender Noob

Game Engine Game Engine Support and Discussion
1

-What is the easiest way to make a playable character?
-Is there a way to texture blocks with constraints? For example, like a minecraft block that only has 16x16 pixels on it.
-Has anyone ever made a map editor using blender? Like making a game in which you build, and have editing tools.
-How reliable is the Blender Game Engine compared to other game engines?
-Has there been things known that are impossible to do with the engine?
-Does Blender posses the power to create a legitimate game for a company to use and make money off of?
-Is there gravity manipulation, or must that be coded?
-How long does it usually take someone to get familiar with Blender?
-How well do Multiplayer games made off of Blender work?
-What is the recommended coding language for blender?
-What is the best way to make character and block collision?
-Is it possible to implicate a coding language to relate to the environment of the game, such as LUA? (Or Ex. Roblox?)
-Can you create a snap grid system into the game?

The reason I ask these questions, is because I have an idea for a game, and I have has experience in the past with coding and map design. I have self taught everything I know, and wish to aim bigger. For now, What I want is a game with a simple block character. The character can walk in an environment that is nothing but cubes, he can run, walk, and jump, The blocks can have textures applied to them or simply drawn onto them from the game itself. I want 1 pixel of an image to account for 0.0625 of a cube. (1 of a 16x16, and no I am not trying to re-create minecraft here) I want the blocks in the game to be sizeable with a tool, and another tool in which you can select a face and draw in pixels on a GUI grid, or upload an image to overlay the pixels onto the block. If you use the move tool to move a block I want it to snap to a grid, a grid that only allows for one pixel movements, instead of free drag. I hope to use this in a multiplayer game in which others can make maps, and show off creativity. I also wanted to add a reaction concept of Input and Output in order to affect blocks with special triggers.

For example, if BlockA has a Touch trigger, and the output is “Move_BlockB” and BlockB has an Input of “Move_BlockB” then the trigger of BlockA can trigger an affect in BlockB and when this event happens, you can edit properties of the block, such as position, rotation, etc.

I wanted the player to fit in a 64px High by 32px Wide block, but do not have an idea for a character design yet. I want it to have joints, and eventually evolve to where people can create custom character animations and scenes. The purpose could turn into a community to make very simplistic games and visual storylines with ease. I am still debating about the trigger system however. If there is a way I can implicate a language to work into the game, I might do that for more precise creation.

Thank you if you have read this far. I am not that old, only 18, almost 19, but I do have a passion for making games. I also have ideas for 2 other games, but I wanted to start small, a game that only uses cubes. :smiley:

2

If you go over to the world tab, there is gravity manipulation. I’ve contributed to helping someone!

3

The BGE is a game engine and everything you have asked about is possible to do in the engine. Some of it is not very easy or would require significant efforts to get working. For example, the BGE does not have built-in networking support. It is possible to do but you have to get a system that has been created as an add-on or write your own.

4

-What is the easiest way to make a playable character?

Keep it simple. Use simple geometric primitives throughout development, and only spring for “high-quality art” when you have a playable game that’s actually fun to play.

-Is there a way to texture blocks with constraints? For example, like a minecraft block that only has 16x16 pixels on it.

Yes.

-Has anyone ever made a map editor using blender? Like making a game in which you build, and have editing tools.

Probably, but I think a lot of that was fairly redundant; Blender itself is a pretty good map editor, or can be made to serve as one, with minimal scripting.

-How reliable is the Blender Game Engine compared to other game engines?

Define reliable. I think that, on average, it is bound to crash more often than something professionally maintained (such is the nature of open source software), but that “more often” is still approaching “never”, unless you’re doing something really exotic, in which case, many things can go wrong, and most of them probably have nothing to do with the engine.

-Has there been things known that are impossible to do with the engine?

The BGE can’t compete with the cutting edge in games technology. Games that need to leverage the full fledged capabilities of something like CryEngine or Unreal are currently beyond the technical limits of the BGE. However, that doesn’t really matter, because even if those technical limits didn’t exist, lone developers (or even small teams) would not have the resources to actually create such AAA, cutting-edge block-busters.

Even with the best tools, that still takes around 20-50 million dollars, an army of talented artists/programmers, and ~5 years.

-Does Blender posses the power to create a legitimate game for a company to use and make money off of?

Define “legitimate game”. As far as I know, you can use blender to produce games, and you’re allowed to sell them. So I guess the answer is yes.

-Is there gravity manipulation, or must that be coded?

There is a setGravity function on the logic module, which, I assume, takes a vector (the documentation doesn’t specify, which is weird). So, if you just want to change the direction of the global gravity force, it’s fairly trivial to do.

Beyond that: it all depends on the complexity of the “manipulation” you wish to apply.

-How long does it usually take someone to get familiar with Blender?

Define familiar. It all depends on what you actually want to do.

-How well do Multiplayer games made off of Blender work?

It depends on your network code. Unlike basic gravity manipulation, there are no built-in features to make that easy, and it can be quite difficult, even if you’re doing something relatively simple. Case and point:

-What is the recommended coding language for blender?

It’s all Python. In theory, you can “choose” to edit the C/C++ source code and add other managed languages (lua comes to mind), but it would probably take less time to write your own engine in straight C, then to really grok the BGE source to a point where you can actually do something more significant, and do it right.

-What is the best way to make character and block collision?

Keep it simple. The collision bounds for a character can just be a block itself, and then block-block collision works fine for most cases.

-Is it possible to implicate a coding language to relate to the environment of the game, such as LUA? (Or Ex. Roblox?)

In theory, anything is possible.

-Can you create a snap grid system into the game?

Yes, you can do that and a lot more, provided that you know Python. If you don’t, you’re going to struggle for a long, long time.

So, learn Python first (you might want to give my Python video tutorial series a try)

I also have ideas for 2 other games, but I wanted to start small, a game that only uses cubes.

Pong is starting small; Tetris is starting small. You’re talking about a simulation that allows user customization on a fairly involved level, and if you’re considering a multiplayer component on top of that …

I think you would do well to check your perceptions, and scale down accordingly, but that’s just a friendly suggestion.

5

Blender is brilliant, it provides the tools the most powerful one
is you, a AAA game ain`t nothing if its not fresh and bringing
great ideas and raw hunger to want to make the best product!