Xenocell : Introduction
by Konrad Kiss · 09/24/2008 (9:32 am) · 21 comments
This being my first blog post, let me introduce myself. My name's Konrad Kiss. I am developing a sci-fi role playing game called Xenocell.
I am cautious to use the term MMO, because on one hand, there's a shy witch hunt for mmo developers here. If a new guy starts off with an mmo, developers (partially understandibly I must add) jump at them right away. Well, add me to that list of crazy people. ;)
Another reason however why I do not like to use "MMO" is that this game is not exactly an mmo. It's more like a SLFNSMMO - which - as we all know - stands for Server Load Friendly Not So Massively Multiplayer Online game. I'll skip the part where I am trying hard to find what I'm talking about, and just say it: I want something like Guild Wars - concerning the multiplayer side of questing - except one map, where I want players of opposing factions to be in PVP. So the game's story driven, until you hit the ceiling, where it becomes faction pvp.
Anyway, I had this idea that I'd make this game. After trying to build my own engine, and spending a month to correctly display a shaded terrain, I set out to find the engine that was gonna help me achieving my goal.
By this time, I had a number of meetings with an investor, for whom I've created a detailed design document and a budget plan.
I've found Torque, and through forum posts I choose TGEA 1.0.3 instead of the stable TGE, hoping that TGEA would eventually get better attention from GG. Lucky me, a few days after I made my payment, TGEA 1.7.0 Beta 1 came out.
On the 1st of March, my daughter, Lia was born. (pic :) I thought I couldn't be happier, but then I got a call, that the investor was onboard, which not only meant that I was gonna be able to finish my game - but also, that I was gonna be able to do it all from home, and see my little girl grow up while doing it.
I was contracted to develop the game in 1.5 years. Then the project is reviewed, and if everything goes well, and content requires, then a new one is created to lengthen the development. Not only this, but with some u-bar marketing skills, I managed to get 50% of the new company that's gonna publish the game. I was pretty happy with the way I got out of nine-to-five. I too had to make sacrifices though. I gave up a nice salary, because I did not want to put weight on the company that's not even earning money yet.
Anyway, development had begun. For a while I spent time only to get familiar with TGEA and it's features like atlas, shaders. I also spent a lot of time porting old 1.0.3 and TGE resources to 1.7.0+, and beefing them up where I understood it enough to do so.
Considering the game industry, I used to be a full/part time composer. However, I did programming ever since I got my Commodore 64, so I eventually became a coder, simply, because it paid me better. I am happy with this, since I can cover the soundtrack, audio fx and the programming.
However, I am graphically challenged. The only gfx I know is 2D, and that's not something I'd be too proud of either. I was really happy to see content packs and freebies, but I knew that this was not going to be enough, so I started experimenting with Constructor.
No miracle happened. I wasn't born for this. Soon I got distracted by Constructor's plug-in system. See, the point is - I know what I want to do, I just can't seem to find the right icons. Once I see %brush.setTexturePlanes and %edit.deferMapBrushTextureLoading I feel a little more oriented.
Anyway, since I don't have enough time for the game, I figured that I would have to procedurally generate much of the content if I want to finish in time. I made a plug-in to create dungeons. First, I concentrated on tunnels, but it turned out that I can pretty much use the same plug-in for the roads of a city. I spent a lot of time to optimize brushcount, and finally this is what it looks like:
I am going to make it available soon. I will spend another month working on it to add dynamic lighting, portals, decals, textures, detail brushes. If it turns out right, I will want to put that up for sale to get a little financial extra back into the game.
Recently I concentrated more on graphics. I created a gui design base that I'm happy with. Of course it still needs some tweaks, and lots to add, but I like this look, and I've decinded to stick with it.
Because of my lack of feel for anything graphics, I've spent a week reading stuff about 2d CG painting - prerendered stuff, photoshop, etc.. I looked at how concept art is made, and today (finally huh?) I did my very first concept art for the game.
The game begins with the player crashing on an alien planet. The UNS Eden - Earth's first spaceship to leave the Solar system - is destroyed in orbit by a force that is not known at the time. Survivors crash on the northern hemisphere (snowy tundra) and near the equator (desert).
Well, I'll stop now, and leave something for my next blog. I enjoyed making this concept very much, so expect to see more. :)
Thank you for reading.
@konradkiss
KonradKiss @ GitHub
konradkiss.com
I am cautious to use the term MMO, because on one hand, there's a shy witch hunt for mmo developers here. If a new guy starts off with an mmo, developers (partially understandibly I must add) jump at them right away. Well, add me to that list of crazy people. ;)
Another reason however why I do not like to use "MMO" is that this game is not exactly an mmo. It's more like a SLFNSMMO - which - as we all know - stands for Server Load Friendly Not So Massively Multiplayer Online game. I'll skip the part where I am trying hard to find what I'm talking about, and just say it: I want something like Guild Wars - concerning the multiplayer side of questing - except one map, where I want players of opposing factions to be in PVP. So the game's story driven, until you hit the ceiling, where it becomes faction pvp.
Anyway, I had this idea that I'd make this game. After trying to build my own engine, and spending a month to correctly display a shaded terrain, I set out to find the engine that was gonna help me achieving my goal.
By this time, I had a number of meetings with an investor, for whom I've created a detailed design document and a budget plan.
I've found Torque, and through forum posts I choose TGEA 1.0.3 instead of the stable TGE, hoping that TGEA would eventually get better attention from GG. Lucky me, a few days after I made my payment, TGEA 1.7.0 Beta 1 came out.
On the 1st of March, my daughter, Lia was born. (pic :) I thought I couldn't be happier, but then I got a call, that the investor was onboard, which not only meant that I was gonna be able to finish my game - but also, that I was gonna be able to do it all from home, and see my little girl grow up while doing it.
I was contracted to develop the game in 1.5 years. Then the project is reviewed, and if everything goes well, and content requires, then a new one is created to lengthen the development. Not only this, but with some u-bar marketing skills, I managed to get 50% of the new company that's gonna publish the game. I was pretty happy with the way I got out of nine-to-five. I too had to make sacrifices though. I gave up a nice salary, because I did not want to put weight on the company that's not even earning money yet.
Anyway, development had begun. For a while I spent time only to get familiar with TGEA and it's features like atlas, shaders. I also spent a lot of time porting old 1.0.3 and TGE resources to 1.7.0+, and beefing them up where I understood it enough to do so.
Considering the game industry, I used to be a full/part time composer. However, I did programming ever since I got my Commodore 64, so I eventually became a coder, simply, because it paid me better. I am happy with this, since I can cover the soundtrack, audio fx and the programming.
However, I am graphically challenged. The only gfx I know is 2D, and that's not something I'd be too proud of either. I was really happy to see content packs and freebies, but I knew that this was not going to be enough, so I started experimenting with Constructor.
No miracle happened. I wasn't born for this. Soon I got distracted by Constructor's plug-in system. See, the point is - I know what I want to do, I just can't seem to find the right icons. Once I see %brush.setTexturePlanes and %edit.deferMapBrushTextureLoading I feel a little more oriented.
Anyway, since I don't have enough time for the game, I figured that I would have to procedurally generate much of the content if I want to finish in time. I made a plug-in to create dungeons. First, I concentrated on tunnels, but it turned out that I can pretty much use the same plug-in for the roads of a city. I spent a lot of time to optimize brushcount, and finally this is what it looks like:
I am going to make it available soon. I will spend another month working on it to add dynamic lighting, portals, decals, textures, detail brushes. If it turns out right, I will want to put that up for sale to get a little financial extra back into the game.
Recently I concentrated more on graphics. I created a gui design base that I'm happy with. Of course it still needs some tweaks, and lots to add, but I like this look, and I've decinded to stick with it.
Because of my lack of feel for anything graphics, I've spent a week reading stuff about 2d CG painting - prerendered stuff, photoshop, etc.. I looked at how concept art is made, and today (finally huh?) I did my very first concept art for the game.
The game begins with the player crashing on an alien planet. The UNS Eden - Earth's first spaceship to leave the Solar system - is destroyed in orbit by a force that is not known at the time. Survivors crash on the northern hemisphere (snowy tundra) and near the equator (desert).
Well, I'll stop now, and leave something for my next blog. I enjoyed making this concept very much, so expect to see more. :)
Thank you for reading.
@konradkiss
KonradKiss @ GitHub
konradkiss.com
About the author
http://about.me/konrad.kiss
MaxSneak