I dunno if this would be the right place for this idea but I’ve had played a little wario ware game (the one with the hundreds of 4 second games) and the game have given me a idea that maybe the Blender3D communities could try to create a series of minigame designed to get a person used to the interface of Blender3D and such. For example a person here could create a minigame designed to practice basic manipulation (Grab, Rotate, Scale and stuffs) that look like several object scattered around the 3D space that you would have to assemble and the end result would look a little like …
I know that there have been alot of game suggestion/ideas that have never took off but the beauty of this is that the minigame would be small and simple enought (in some case) that only 1 or 2 blenderuser are needed to make the game and should more of these minigames be developed we could assign those games with certain numbers in degree of difficulties and all in 1 .zip file. By doing this the minigame would close the gap that the confusing interface would created for beginners and stuffs. This would mean we only need to make 1 or 2 minigame at a time and stull can be usable for the general blender3d communities.
Dunno if it have been brought up before but if anybdy here need a more clear explanation then i’ll try to explains better.
Social I think you misunderstood the idea. The game you presented is nothing like what is being suggested. That game involves completing objectives in a very short amount of time. The game in question involves putting pieces of a 3d puzzle together using the Scale Rotate and Grab (G for grab is how i remember it) keys to put it together without limiting the time. I think its a great idea for learning Blender. It’s much more hands on and interactive than just doing an online tutorial or watching a video tutorial.
Right, but the purpose of the minigames is to help beginners to learn blender and i dont think he mentioned a time limit. The minigames would use blender shortcuts to help them understand the blender interface.
i think the best practice would be to open up blender itself and learn to use scale rotate and grab while you are also learning how to model.
the difficult part of blender isn’t the movement of 3d objects or scaling them, but finding where certain options are located and what they do ect… blender has a lot of features that new people have a hard time figuring out how to get to and figuring out what they do(imo).
i personally dont think a game like this would really help with what new people need to learn to become more proficient.
Well that would be one minigame, (the first one of course) the second could involve loop cuts and the third could involve lattices, and so on and so forth. It wouldnt help people learn to model but it would help them learn the shortcuts and how to use the tools provided to manipulate the geometry as they wish.
Social: I see what you mean but what I meant by mini-game is like only a few minutes long (Not in seconds) and somewhat simple though there would be increased difficulties for in case anybody like those games and want more challenges. And MagicMan are not focused only on game that are made for teaching blender user beginner concept and technique.
Ven0mSevenX: you seem to have gotten exactly what I was trying to say, thanks (right, there would be no time limit requirement though it might be a good addition for a speed practice goal with everything)
Frig: sure you could practice in Blender3D itself but with these minigame you would have a chance of the game saying what you are doing wrong (or at least that you are not doing what u should) and in this way you could learn to avoid some bad habits and stuffs. Plus for some users have difficulties trying to find out what to do without some guidance (Like me especially, I’ve been messing around with blender3d on and off for about 2 yrs and still have not created anything at all execpt through some of the more basic tutorials) This would be a great practice for me and others cause in this way I wouldn’t have to fix every single unrelated mistakes and end up wasting more time than learning anything.
Yeah I know, sometime I simply don’t explains things clearly or uses some really bad analogue and stuffs sometimes so I may need somebody to tell me what they don’t understand. But this is the reason why I added the “…but if anybdy here need a more clear explanation then i’ll try to explains better.” at the end of my first post so next time if you are not sure exactly what I’m saying please let me know so I’ll explains better.
:EDIT: anyway what do anybody else think of this idea too? wanna see if somebody would like to at least attempt it?
:BUMP: Description of a idea for the first level game
Basically this would be the grab, rotate, and scale minigame where a player would have to move the parts for the wooden dinosaur or animal (Like the pic in the first post above) together properly and once it is done, the player would press the render button and it will render the scene using the Blender3D internal renderer. Most of the game would be pretty much using Blender3D itself as a interface for the game execpt for the fact that the game control where and how you do stuffs inside the program.
the next level would be to create models, based on the wooden items as described above, from a scanned images of the boards that the parts is taken from, similar to … (the images is from the board of the wooden ant that I have)
I really love the idea. It takes a similar approach I wanted to try using the blender program to run a python script that would “play out” a tutorial in front of you using the blender interface.
The true test would be in creating games small enough to be quickly downloaded, appear to be played in the blender interface, fun, and to the point.
I know very little about the Game Engine, but I am pretty good at the development side of things. I would be interested in at least helping you bounce some ideas around. Maybe that could give you a good platform to recruit small teams to help accomplish this goal.
My advice would be to stick to the first idea you have of the Grab, Rotate, Scale idea and assemble that. What I have found is that most people have good ideas, but very few people have finished products. If you could show the community a final product you will get several things. One being something testable in the hands of users (their feedback) and comments from the community. Even if someone bashes your work, you have still created something and can learn from the bashing.
Thanks but unfortunately I’m one of those who could use one of those game myself. Like I’ve mentioned somewhere, I have not even modelled anything (beside something from some of the more basic tutorials) yet after 2 yrs here. Just been very busy trying to find a job lately and now I have to find out how to pay the lease cancellation fees so I could move to a friend home and save on rent money (Split between me and friend) so I just don’t have any time to really get into and learn anything useful yet with Blender3D yet. I’m mainly hoping that maybe somebody here might like the idea and are willing to help out. Just imagine all of the tutorials on the forum seperated and joined into a “module” of a game so we could have a guided game to learn how to model certain stuffs and in this way organized in difficulties and categories. With a time limit added into it, these game would be useful even for advance users here to practice some speed modelling and workflows and stuffs.
Well, Here’s hoping to somebody willing to take up this poor orphaned Idea and raise it into a full fledged plan at least.
I hate to say this but I must. The truth comes out now. You are a beginner in blender who has an idea of what would help you to learn blender better. In this you are hoping someone will take your idea and move forward with it creating a new way to teach users to use blender. Now, please do not see what I am saying in any way a flame or a “looking down on you” type attitude.
What I am doing is explaining to you that by saying what you have, most people will immediatly be turned off by not your idea, but by helping you. We all have little precious time in life and to get involved in a project with someone who has no expierence in the product you are going to work from runs off just about everyone.
I still love the idea, but am such a beginner at blender Game Engine that it would be hit and miss for a while.
Would this be something you could work on, or just something you are looking to direct? To direct well means you have to know the limitations and workings of blender. Only then will you be able to fully maintain the quality of your game.
Sorry if this hurts to read, I did not intend to write so negativly. My advice would be this. Do not start out so ambitious, but keep the ambitious attitude. Learn some modelling techniques and hold this idea in storage. As time allows look for ways to implement it and when you have something to show the world you will get the support you are looking for.
Start small. Instead of making a full fledged game for Rotate, Grab, Scale with a bunch of pieces that come together to form a puzzle make a quick 4-second game. Call it “Grab” and the user has a few seconds to hit the “G” key to grab an object and move it across the screen. In this way you could work on small modules of games that are quick and simple to play (and create). This game would not really help out with the larger goal of training in the full use of blender, but would be a great game to help people learn and memorize blender shortcuts.
Again, I love the idea and if I can help please let me know.
JABayne, I didn’t know that I seem to be begging for helps for me. All I really meant is that If this is developed then I would be one of the many who could benefit greatly from this kind of games. This game idea is meant to help the entire group of beginner with Blender3D, not just me.
I would be willing to do some of the more simple thing like modelling the parts for the woodset though It may take me a little while to get used to Blender3D interface again. at least I’ll start it off this way. Umm I think I could finish modelling the wood set on tuesday (My Mom (In the army) coming back from Iraq (after a year there) today and Grandma flew here from alabama to suprise her so it’ll be busy until grandma go back home this monday).
The 4 second thing may be too short for beginner to be able to do anything for real. This game will basically have the same set-up as the game that you have described execpt that there would be no time limit (Until u beat it, then you could specify the time limit and try to beat it for speed practice)
Maybe we could start with your idea first then if it get good review then we could try to adapt it better based on others member of this communties opinions and usabilities.
I’ll keep this idea in mind until I get better in general Blender3D usage then I’ll try to actually develop the game but until then I might as well bash the idea out and see what kind of change would be good for it to work even better.
Sorry GTG so I could buy a welcome back gift for my mom and to see my grandma. Have a good day, y’all. Bye.
P.S. another reason why I thought that this game would be great for Blender3D communties in general is the fact that it is free and probably will be the only 3d program with such a teaching programs. This would make it so much more easier for many people who check this out to actually go further with Blender3D at first.
I didn’t mean you were begging for helps, just wanted you to know how most people would view this post. Glad to hear your mom is coming home. The timer was just an idea, doesn’t have to exist.
Let’s try to figure out a way to set up an area so we can converse over this without having to constantly bump this post in the forums. I’ll see about setting up a php board on my site.
I think it’s correct that most newbie problems are not with learning the scaling / rotation etc… most people into blender are visual-spacial thinkers to be interested in the first place and that’s why 3D fascinates them rather than scares them off. My own difficulties have been with trying to figure out how to give a single mesh multiple colours or why a lattice suddenly affects an object on the wrong axis… I still haven’t got a renderfarm working yet.
…but having said that, I think your idea is great, especially for classroom use, as I want to be teaching blender to students this term.
Without a series of tasks & games like you describe, blender is kind of overwhelming, especially when trrying to teach multiple students simultaneously. Any number of them could push all the wrong buttons and the “what do I do now?” nightmare was precisely the reason I didn’t try to teach blender earlier.
I’ll be very intested in seeing how your ideas develop for other blender skills.
Lancer, I know that most people don’t really have a issue with the grab, rotate, and scale but this is only meant as a beginning of a series of minigames designed to improve a users skills in particular area in Blender3D.
Without a series of tasks & games like you describe, blender is kind of overwhelming, especially when trrying to teach multiple students simultaneously. Any number of them could push all the wrong buttons and the “what do I do now?” nightmare was precisely the reason I didn’t try to teach blender earlier.
That is precisely why I would like to see these games being made cause with these game I would be able to have the game prevent me from doing anything that I should not do and explains why it is not related to the Lesson of that particular mini-game.
(right, there would be no time limit requirement though it might be a good addition for a speed practice goal with everything)
