What is the steps in game development?

I trying to understand how does the game developers create the games, like what is needed to create a 3d game? I’ll tried to find the infor online but it just make me more confuse. I don’t need to know about the planning and designing. I wish to know the steps starting from after you created the models. Do you create it in any 3d software or do you do everything in a game engine? How are programs input to the game? Is there another software needed?

infor -
http://gpwiki.org/index.php/How_do_I_get_Started

well, lern blender first… make some simple models, and learn about lighting a bit… (most game engines only allow a lamp, not sun or hemi…)

later. make small mini games…

challenge yourself every day… DONT MAKE TOO BIG OF A PROJECT… just simple stuff at first…

most people burn themselves out by setting unreachable goals

Be right back with some links for you.

EDIT:

here you go…
this is for blender game engine:
http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/BSoD/Introduction_to_the_Game_Engine

you might want to start even simpler… I suggest anything from Unreal game engine…

make a few maps , and see how the “pros” have set thing up.
later you can apply things you learn to blender game engine.

after you make a few blender games… you might want to try out a game engine with more modern features…
Crystalspace is the best I know of right now… it has a way you can even script things from inside blender!! (see CEL)
http://www.crystalspace3d.org/main/Main_Page

crystal core might be released soon… that will provide us with an AWESOME 3d shooter template.

crystalspace is the nicest community on the web too…
no RTFM bullsh!t… people actually go out of their way to help you.

you can use quake 3 now too, it is open for everyone to use…
be careful tho… quake 3 is a pain in the ass to map for…

p00f has gotten you on a good start. It’s always good to start small and build on it.

Even if you say you don’t need to hear the design or concept phase, I’ll tell you this:You have to be as clear as possible on what you want, from the simple questions as what’s the genre of the game to complex questions as what are the abilities and limitations the characters do in-game. Be as thorough as possible, and write everything down.

Once you have all this information set in stone, you have to start looking for the tools to make your game. These tools depend on what type of game you want (as in, a 2D sidescroller, a 3D game, a MMO, etc) but I’ll limit myself since you’re clear you want to make a 3D game.

A game engine is, basically, the backbone of your game. It’s a set of tools that help you make your game, and it’s usually tailored for the type of game you want to make. For example, a 3D game engine would probably come with a 3D renderer, a physics engine, collision detection, animation tools, scriting tools, sound… They simplify your work because they usually come with a lot of stuff previously done, and all you have to do is fill in the gaps with your idea.

A good example would be a quake mod. It’s not exactly a game engine, it’s more of a map editor, but for example purposes, it can work. It comes with a map tool, a library of creatures, objects, and weapons, and it has all the quake physics, collision, animation, music, and all the rest of the stuff. All you have to do to make a Quake mod is create the map you want, place all creatures, objects, and weapons where you want them to, and you’re done.

But that’s a little restrictive, as in, you’re forced to do a “quake like” game. Game engines give you a little more freedom. They may come with a map tool, physics and collision, and tools to include music, sfx, and creatures, but they usually don’t come with a library of characters, creatures, objects, weapons, terrain, or anything else in-game. It’s up to you to provide them. It will be more work: you will have to create 3D models of all characters, creatures, weapons, items, objects, terrain, etc. You will then have to animate all those that can be animated, and you have to program them to work the way you want them to. That’s why it’s important to be very thorough when coming up with the concept. But in the end, the game will be just like you want them to (or a close approximation). And Game engines usually give you the tools to do all this.

Sadly, the best game engines aren’t free. There are some fantastic tools, like, for example, the C4 engine (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C4_Engine) which will let you do almost anything, but it isn’t for free. But there are some good free tools, like the crystal space engine p00f mentioned. They require a little more programming, but if you’re clear on what you want, they should suit your needs.

Hopefully this was helpful.

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All I know is to be as simple as possible.

if you have to ask…

So you saying that a game engine is like a set of other tools to create the game? Software like 3D max is just another 3d software where I can build 3d stuff and animation. After that I have to import it to the game engine and maybe do some adjustment to get it to work the way I want? The programming is also input from the game engine? So blender is actually a game engine? Just that blender can also render video & image files?

For 3D games I believe you start with OpenGL and build up from there.

OpenGL is a graphics programming API. It’s not a 3D software like Blender.

It lets you program a 3D world using C or C++ programming languages.

Once you’ve learned OpenGL, you start learning Direct 3D programming (Damn you Microsoft!).

This is if you want to program proper 3D games.

The game engine you build is basically a graphics world that has physics and allows you to import models from files such as OBJ, 3ds, COLLADA etc.

Examples include IRR LIGHT, Cry 2 (one of the most powerful game engine I’ve seen), Bullet (Blender’s game engine), Crystal Space and a few others I believe.

Blender is a 3D creation package. It’s just that the developers decided to add a game engine to Blender to make it even better :slight_smile:

Good luck pal.

Or DirectX if you really want to.

I thought Bullet was an open source physics library (well, at least it is that). Also, don’t forget Ogre since it’s maybe the best free graphics engine out there (www.ogre3d.org).

Hi! I try installing Ogre and took a look at the tutorial… I was expecting like a interface to work with, but nothing. So how do I use Ogre engine? Do all the game engine work like this with out an interface?

What I understand is that Ogre engine just hander the graphic part of the game. So there is no physics, sound… So I need other engines to hander that. Am I right? So I need another software to write the programming? How or what software is use to combine all these parted together?