Crazy 'ol procrastinator

#1 You are not the only one. I'm also working on three projects and going to school so you can imagine how little progress I'm making on all three of them. Good luck and I hope to see some screen shots soon.

Thx!
- BigPapa

#2 Venita,

Didn't see the screenshot link, would you mind posting it?

Good Luck!

Vince

#3 Good Luck, and happy coding

#4 Which game engine are you working with, TGE? I like the idea of a 'cloud kingdom'... how about creating a mission that has a white/gray colored terrain, and then add some really thick mving fog layers, then add your billboards (be sure they are slightly translucent). If your terrain is white (and you fake it as the surface of the cloud), you wont need to bother with your own collision handling.

If your using TGEA (formerly TSE) you could even make the billboards shaped like real clouds and add a normal map for shadows. Then top it all off with a dreamy full screen bloom.

Yep - there's a lot you can do with a concept like that. I hope you post a screen shot when you get a chance.

#5 Thank you all for your comments and support =)

Please do check my webpage at: http://www.greatgamesexperiment.com/user/Atinev for more information on the games I'm working on.

I do want to put up screenshots as soon as possible as I'm thinking it will look good.

@John I'm using TGE so don't know if I'll be able to do the full screen bloom. Will probably try "fake it".
As for the terrain idea, I did think of that but then because there are other kingdoms I do want only the "Cloud people" to be able to walk on clouds and fly. However, I might not completely scratch it off as I could put it in for closed up areas and once a player reaches a portal then it will go back to the other setting.

Thanks again for the input. All comments are most welcome.

#6 Venita, Unless I am mistaken, there are community resources that add bloom to TGE and many other fancy things as well.

I thought about doing a cloud/sky bound game a while back. Basically I was going for a sort of reduced gravity with "some" flight control, or maneuverability while in the air. The clouds would have simply been clusters of well planned billboards around a non visible simple collision volume. In effect, it would have been a 3d platform game, but with a non linear level design (I am sure there are much better ways to do it, but that would have been my non coder approach).

I think you could make some very strong visuals this way. Add in the sun fx you can do with stock TGE and you would have some pretty nice stuff. Of course that is assuming there is an interesting play mechanic behind it. Otherwise its just sort of a dream state flight sim ...which could be fun in its own right.

I can't wait to see what you come up with.

#7 By the way, have you looked at this post?

www.garagegames.com/index.php?sec=mg&mod=resource&page=view&qid=11919

#8 Boy, procrastination can trouble in terms of getting stuff finish. In most cases I wouldn't recommend working on several projects at once (and definitely not without a decent size team). I've been battling with this myself (loads of of unfinished/started projects, very little complete projects). I'm now trying to stick to one, well managed and doable project, to see if I can get a better completion turnover.

Nonetheless, I look forward seeing the screenshots/updates! Hope it all goes smoothly :0)

#9 My pusblisher told me to pull my release date back 2 - 3 weeks simply becuase the holidays. I was honestly thinking I could make good progress with the holidays around. Venita how many people are working with you on this project and why didnt you choose to make something a little less grand?

#10 @Todd Thanks Todd will take your advice. There is a great story and play mechanic behing the game so it won't just be a dream state flight sim. Although as you said that could be cool. Checked the post and not sure if it will help as it uses Irrilicht.

@Leroy & Donald A few people have offered to help out so I'm not all alone, but I have to pitch in most areas. I could have been wiser and worked on something smaller but the passion would not be there so it would have been even more fruitless. Therefore I prefer to go with my dream no matter how ambitious.

#11 Fair enough, it's good that you've got some help also. Regardless of the size of the project the key thing is to get the organisation and project management spot-on (nothing overly hardcore of course), this will help you hit your milestones successfully.

And even if you don't make all of them, it allows you to review mistakes and get a better feel for how long particular tasks may take in future ;0)

Anyhow, I hope you smash your milestones :0)!

#12 Thanks Leroy! ;)

#13 @Leroy - You beat me to the punch I was just going to say with 3 projects on your hands make sure you manage this. It can be painful and boring when you get into the spots where there is no... visable return on your efforts. But knowing you hit a milestone does give you the energy back to keep on trucking. If you are the leader of the group I suggest you invest in a dreamhost account. It has project management tools and SVN for code management. My team and I use it quite a bit and its pretty cheap. Anyways good luck and keep us posted. Also one other big thing... make a GAME DESIGN DOCUMENT then say good bye to feature creep!

#14 @Venita - I am interested to see how you went with the clouds. Did you get all that stuff done?