Following on from the FPS template I thought it would be a good idea to create a customisable template for the front end of a game. It should speed up the process of developing a game considerably. I’ve created this thread to get some feedback on what people would like available when creating a menu for their games. So far the options that can be altered and saved are:
10 different keys.
5 different game settings.
Mouse sensitivity & invert options.
Sound & Music toggles and volumes.
When it’s done I’m planning on a step by step tutorial to accompany it. Simple enough so that even relatively new people to Blender can integrate it into their projects. Once you’re into your game you’ll have a set of global variables to use which were generated from the front end (eg. GameLogic.Key[1] or GameLogic.SoundVolume).
I hope to make it as flexible as possible for experienced designers, whilst still making it usable for less experienced developers. The key thing is minimal knowledge of python should be required to use this, and where it is required it will be fully explained how to do it.
Here’s a few screens of what I have so far…
Variations on title bar textures (several will be provided and the tutorial will explain how to create new ones)
Variations on button design (these could be combined into ‘themed’ templates)
Key configuration window (10 slots mappable to any function)
Thoughts so far? Would people use something like this? I hope the template will be customisable enough so every game’s menu can look noticably different with just a few changes to the graphics. If anything it will be helpful for me to use in my own future projects so I don’t need to build a whole new front end each time
Considering the number of complaints I always receive about my game controls, I think I’d be very interested in a customization option. I look forward to seeing how that works.
Update: The template itself is almost finished now, just a few bits of code to tidy up and add comments to.Once that’s done I’ll start writing the tutorial on using it. Here’s a few screens of the various aspects…
Blender & Bullet Intros (Optional, can be removed / replaced if you don’t want to use them)
Menu Loading Screen (Time shortened considerably now. Change the texture to suit your game)
Menu Screen (Layout & graphics can easily be altered. Set a background scene / image for your own game)
Options Window
To begin with I’m trying to keep it simple and flexible, then once the tutorial is written I can update the template with new features…
Great work, this really looks like a solid system.
I’ll probably implement this in the fps template, when I get the chance.
PS: This should work fine with 2.43 right? I’m asking because there were some things with the fps template that I still have to rewrite with the RC1 build. I’m sure you won’t have to do anything, but you might want to check if everything is in order with the preview builds, just in case.
Maybe we should have a sticky thread with a bunch of templates in. So far we have FPS template, Menu template, maybe somebody could make a walkthrough template(though that would just be a modified version of the FPS template probably)
Thank you so much! This will help me tremendously. I will credit you and Social in my current game project, you guys are awesome.
If these templates keep coming, the game community is bound to have a large boost in serious game projects due to the amount of time saved by using your templates.
Also, I completely agree with rm5248, these templates should definately be in a sticky of their own.
It’s not been tested in 2.43 yet, but unless anything significant breaks in that version it shouldn’t be too difficult to fix any issues. I’ll download the RC1 build once the template is done to test it.
