Warscale 38 - On being afraid
by Guimo · 04/23/2009 (6:29 am) · 9 comments
Hi all you stamping your occular globes this walls-of-text I call blogs,
First point in my list. I have decided not to but Torque3D for now. Yesterday I was 1 click away from buying it, with my finger just a few milimeters of the final click. But I didnt. Dont misunderstand me, T3D looks like an amazing engine and I really covet it, but right now I will enter a stage where I need model packs and that means $$$$. Just go to 3DRT and take a look at the dragons, the skeletons or the trolls. They are fantastic but the price is high also. Just three of those packs will use all the budget for the engine. And I also need a lot of tools like packagers (Molebox), good audio tools and converters (if anybody knows about a free one tell me), and music scores... that is a lot of money I will need to spend the following months.
My point is, I dont want to buy T3D just to keep it stored in my HDD accumulating virtual dust. I want to buy it when I really need it. I really hope GG extends this discount offer permanently for anybody who bought TGEA since a specific date. Anyway, I guess I will have to pay more later... just a missed cost of opportunity.
Now, pleas skip the next 6 paragraphs or you will just get into a lot of self pity... well, you have been warned.
Last week I told you I fell into a burnt state. I still have that feeling but now I think I know the reason. I'm quite afraid of Warscale... specifically of finishing it.
I think I'm just afraid of starting a new phase.
You know, last week I have been fixing some problems in the equipment and implementing some summoning rules. This week I started fixing some models because there is no way a falchion has the size of a dagger. Then I stopped and implemented some functions I noticed were required for administration (like how to kick out a player or manually ban him from enterin again). Why Im doing that instead of fixing bugs in the animations and implementing nice spell effects?
And thats when it hit me... Im actively avoiding fixing the game presentation because Im just afraid of finishing and releasing it.
Warscale is indeed ready to be publicly tested. Of course its not finished and it still has a lot of bugs and plenty of room for improvement but I know I could open it for public testing and you will have a nice experience... maybe not the best experience but at least a nice one.
The problem is that one part of me is afraid that nobody will like it and the deception of putting so much effort into something and see it go down. Of course I tell myself its not a loss at all as it has helped me develop all this technology and its an amazing starting point should I continue the development.
But there is another part of me which is more afraid yet. What if the game does succeed... Warscale is a server based game and I dont have the resources to setup a large server farm. Maybe a dedicated box in a cool corner in my house (ok ok... in a small server hosting company for $100/m), with a nice bandwidth plan and setup an automated backup service to save the DB each 12 hours and an automated server to tell me if the service is down so I can restart the box. But of course that means I will need to be there to restart the box.
But its not only that. Warscale is a game about creating new content, new weapons, armor, units and spells... each new item or each new rule needs to be modelled, textured and tested in the game before the release. Its a daunting task and is basically a full time job and Im just not ready to leave my current job for this.
Not that I will stop development. I may be an idiot and a bad blogger but I have never backed up from something just because I was afraid of it (except a cute blonde once many years ago when I was still young and handsome because his boyfriend was like Arnold). I just feel overwhelmed... I think I should have programmed a pacman clone... :)
That makes me remind I need to add a Fear spell.
Back to work!
What was planned
I tried to keep this week objectives simple.
Equipment fixes
I added some restrictions when mounting weapons. You can use a two handed weapon, or a large weapon and a shield, or a large weapon and a small weapon or even two small weapons. The only restriction is that both weapons must be the same type (sword, mace, axe). Crossbows, spears and bows are naturally 2 handed.
I also fixed a bug while mounting the weapons in the game, cleaned the code and simplified the mounting process a little.
Summoning adjustments
I added a new rule relative to the summoning process. Now the avatar has a property called SummonRange. This property represents the maximum distance from the avatar where a unit can be summoned. The default is 3 spaces. Items, artifacts and spells may increase the range.
Logo!
I posted a blog midweek because I received my logo and I really loved it. Here: http://www.garagegames.com/community/blogs/view/16965
What wasnt planned
Weapon resize
Some weapons were to small in scale. I dont know how I didnt noticed that before but now I have to resize many weapons (like 16). I have already fixed like... 2.
The biggest bug in history
No, Im not talking about Windows or Linux. Have you ever commited a bug which span for about 100 lines in your code? I just did. Dont ask. I feel ashamed... as a C++ student writing his first Hello World program.
Administrative functions
Implemented a generic command packet for my custom TCPObject in order to transmit generic commands across the master server and the shards. I think I should have done this earlier. It really saves a lot of work. Basically this means I can send commands like Client.sendExecuteCommand("disconnectPlayer 1234") and on the other side of the connection the client will execute the method Server.onDisconnectPlayer(%this, 1234). Its akin to a RPC. It allows me to implement a lot of commands and quickly prototype them.
Using this command, I added some functions which allow me a rudimentary way to monitor the server like getting the number of running games or functions to ban a player forcing its disconnection across the network or a shutdown system which broadcasts the shutdown messages to all shards and players ("The server will shutdown in 5... 4... 3... 2... 1... Shutting down...").
I should implement more functions for network profiling but I can leave that for later.
Screenshot
Everything this week was about internal changes and administration. I dont think you will have any fun from any screenshot but... have you seen my logo? :)
The plan for this week
I want to keep everything simple so I can focus on those problems. So he plan for this week are different small bug fixes.
Buttons for the equipment editor
I will create some bitmap buttons for the filters in the editors. I wanted to do something fancy like small spheric icons but I guess I wont have enough time for now.
Fixes in the game room
The units are slightly out of focus. The problem may have appeared while adjusting the model library where I setup all the available collection.
End game gold
I defined a new rule for assigning gold and its more simple than the previous one. Will update the rewards code.
Backgrounds
Final touches on the game backgrounds. The framework should be ready just to be replaced for the final ones.
Fix the lights
Does anybody knows how to avoid a player to be affected by the light? I mean... the sun must still drop a shadow but the character shouldnt be affected. Alternatively I may increase the sun and ambient lights but risking some washed colors. I really would like a view like Warcraft. If someone may give me some hint on how to set the camera and environment it may be of great help.
Fix the camera
Make it easier to control the camera while in the game.
As you see... many small things which are required in order to get a nice user experience.
Luck with your projects!
Guimo
First point in my list. I have decided not to but Torque3D for now. Yesterday I was 1 click away from buying it, with my finger just a few milimeters of the final click. But I didnt. Dont misunderstand me, T3D looks like an amazing engine and I really covet it, but right now I will enter a stage where I need model packs and that means $$$$. Just go to 3DRT and take a look at the dragons, the skeletons or the trolls. They are fantastic but the price is high also. Just three of those packs will use all the budget for the engine. And I also need a lot of tools like packagers (Molebox), good audio tools and converters (if anybody knows about a free one tell me), and music scores... that is a lot of money I will need to spend the following months.
My point is, I dont want to buy T3D just to keep it stored in my HDD accumulating virtual dust. I want to buy it when I really need it. I really hope GG extends this discount offer permanently for anybody who bought TGEA since a specific date. Anyway, I guess I will have to pay more later... just a missed cost of opportunity.
Now, pleas skip the next 6 paragraphs or you will just get into a lot of self pity... well, you have been warned.
Last week I told you I fell into a burnt state. I still have that feeling but now I think I know the reason. I'm quite afraid of Warscale... specifically of finishing it.
I think I'm just afraid of starting a new phase.
You know, last week I have been fixing some problems in the equipment and implementing some summoning rules. This week I started fixing some models because there is no way a falchion has the size of a dagger. Then I stopped and implemented some functions I noticed were required for administration (like how to kick out a player or manually ban him from enterin again). Why Im doing that instead of fixing bugs in the animations and implementing nice spell effects?
And thats when it hit me... Im actively avoiding fixing the game presentation because Im just afraid of finishing and releasing it.
Warscale is indeed ready to be publicly tested. Of course its not finished and it still has a lot of bugs and plenty of room for improvement but I know I could open it for public testing and you will have a nice experience... maybe not the best experience but at least a nice one.
The problem is that one part of me is afraid that nobody will like it and the deception of putting so much effort into something and see it go down. Of course I tell myself its not a loss at all as it has helped me develop all this technology and its an amazing starting point should I continue the development.
But there is another part of me which is more afraid yet. What if the game does succeed... Warscale is a server based game and I dont have the resources to setup a large server farm. Maybe a dedicated box in a cool corner in my house (ok ok... in a small server hosting company for $100/m), with a nice bandwidth plan and setup an automated backup service to save the DB each 12 hours and an automated server to tell me if the service is down so I can restart the box. But of course that means I will need to be there to restart the box.
But its not only that. Warscale is a game about creating new content, new weapons, armor, units and spells... each new item or each new rule needs to be modelled, textured and tested in the game before the release. Its a daunting task and is basically a full time job and Im just not ready to leave my current job for this.
Not that I will stop development. I may be an idiot and a bad blogger but I have never backed up from something just because I was afraid of it (except a cute blonde once many years ago when I was still young and handsome because his boyfriend was like Arnold). I just feel overwhelmed... I think I should have programmed a pacman clone... :)
That makes me remind I need to add a Fear spell.
Back to work!
What was planned
I tried to keep this week objectives simple.
Equipment fixes
I added some restrictions when mounting weapons. You can use a two handed weapon, or a large weapon and a shield, or a large weapon and a small weapon or even two small weapons. The only restriction is that both weapons must be the same type (sword, mace, axe). Crossbows, spears and bows are naturally 2 handed.
I also fixed a bug while mounting the weapons in the game, cleaned the code and simplified the mounting process a little.
Summoning adjustments
I added a new rule relative to the summoning process. Now the avatar has a property called SummonRange. This property represents the maximum distance from the avatar where a unit can be summoned. The default is 3 spaces. Items, artifacts and spells may increase the range.
Logo!
I posted a blog midweek because I received my logo and I really loved it. Here: http://www.garagegames.com/community/blogs/view/16965
What wasnt planned
Weapon resize
Some weapons were to small in scale. I dont know how I didnt noticed that before but now I have to resize many weapons (like 16). I have already fixed like... 2.
The biggest bug in history
No, Im not talking about Windows or Linux. Have you ever commited a bug which span for about 100 lines in your code? I just did. Dont ask. I feel ashamed... as a C++ student writing his first Hello World program.
Administrative functions
Implemented a generic command packet for my custom TCPObject in order to transmit generic commands across the master server and the shards. I think I should have done this earlier. It really saves a lot of work. Basically this means I can send commands like Client.sendExecuteCommand("disconnectPlayer 1234") and on the other side of the connection the client will execute the method Server.onDisconnectPlayer(%this, 1234). Its akin to a RPC. It allows me to implement a lot of commands and quickly prototype them.
Using this command, I added some functions which allow me a rudimentary way to monitor the server like getting the number of running games or functions to ban a player forcing its disconnection across the network or a shutdown system which broadcasts the shutdown messages to all shards and players ("The server will shutdown in 5... 4... 3... 2... 1... Shutting down...").
I should implement more functions for network profiling but I can leave that for later.
Screenshot
Everything this week was about internal changes and administration. I dont think you will have any fun from any screenshot but... have you seen my logo? :)
The plan for this week
I want to keep everything simple so I can focus on those problems. So he plan for this week are different small bug fixes.
Buttons for the equipment editor
I will create some bitmap buttons for the filters in the editors. I wanted to do something fancy like small spheric icons but I guess I wont have enough time for now.
Fixes in the game room
The units are slightly out of focus. The problem may have appeared while adjusting the model library where I setup all the available collection.
End game gold
I defined a new rule for assigning gold and its more simple than the previous one. Will update the rewards code.
Backgrounds
Final touches on the game backgrounds. The framework should be ready just to be replaced for the final ones.
Fix the lights
Does anybody knows how to avoid a player to be affected by the light? I mean... the sun must still drop a shadow but the character shouldnt be affected. Alternatively I may increase the sun and ambient lights but risking some washed colors. I really would like a view like Warcraft. If someone may give me some hint on how to set the camera and environment it may be of great help.
Fix the camera
Make it easier to control the camera while in the game.
As you see... many small things which are required in order to get a nice user experience.
Luck with your projects!
Guimo
#2
Good use of <BR> this blog, but pics - even rehashed ones - would still help to break up format, and be easy on the eye.
04/23/2009 (7:24 am)
Quote:Does anybody knows how to avoid a player to be affected by the light?Try looking at the code for static objects, you can disable sunlighting for them so maybe you could port that into the player object.
Quote:I think I'm just afraid of starting a new phase.Fortune favours the brave! Who dares wins! errr ... other such mantras ...
Good use of <BR> this blog, but pics - even rehashed ones - would still help to break up format, and be easy on the eye.
#3
1. What if nobody likes it
and
2. What if it's more popular than I can handle
And the good news is there's reasonable answers for both:
1. What if nobody likes it
Who Cares?
As game developers we all want people to see our games, and be impressed by our games, and love our games, etc. It's part of what we do this for. That's especially true of the first few games anybody releases - the wanting to feel that "energy" from players fed back to you through positive reviews and responses. The reality is that at the end of the day, if you've made a good game, and you feel it's good, then you've succeeded. Games lie in this odd place between a technological problem, a psychological effect, and an artistic effort. And 2 of those are largely the perspective of the people playing. At the end of the day if you get a game out and people don't seem to love it remember 2 things: You made a game (most people will never finish one), and you made a game you feel is good. You made one, now you can make another - maybe more people will love that one.
2. What if it's more popular than I can handle?
Good.
This is what we call at my office a "high-class problem" - similar to "oh wow I had to pay too much on taxes this year because I made too much money last year" - we're crying for those people, really we are. If your game becomes popular to the point where it's requiring more resources than you have, then hopefully it's made you enough money to afford those more resources. Unlike the response to the fail case, the success case is purely logical and business. Either you've made enough money to afford to grow it, and manage it full-time (either yourself or have someone else do it) or you haven't and can't justify the cost. If it's popular enough to warrant needing more servers or bandwidth, then you should have made enough money to afford to build a couple servers and host them somewhere. If the player-base is sufficient that you have people expecting the game up and running 24/7, then it should be sufficient for you to afford to either focus on it more full-time (which can sometimes mean 3am drives to the colo) or hire someone to help manage it.
Any time you're talking about a server-based game, trying to release it really is like a full-time job, as well as the maintenance work that goes with it - and if you're charging for it then people have the right to expect at least some level of response time to server issues and what not. The real question is simply, do you want to do it badly enough to take that on.
04/23/2009 (8:13 am)
It seems you really have two opposing fears here:1. What if nobody likes it
and
2. What if it's more popular than I can handle
And the good news is there's reasonable answers for both:
1. What if nobody likes it
Who Cares?
As game developers we all want people to see our games, and be impressed by our games, and love our games, etc. It's part of what we do this for. That's especially true of the first few games anybody releases - the wanting to feel that "energy" from players fed back to you through positive reviews and responses. The reality is that at the end of the day, if you've made a good game, and you feel it's good, then you've succeeded. Games lie in this odd place between a technological problem, a psychological effect, and an artistic effort. And 2 of those are largely the perspective of the people playing. At the end of the day if you get a game out and people don't seem to love it remember 2 things: You made a game (most people will never finish one), and you made a game you feel is good. You made one, now you can make another - maybe more people will love that one.
2. What if it's more popular than I can handle?
Good.
This is what we call at my office a "high-class problem" - similar to "oh wow I had to pay too much on taxes this year because I made too much money last year" - we're crying for those people, really we are. If your game becomes popular to the point where it's requiring more resources than you have, then hopefully it's made you enough money to afford those more resources. Unlike the response to the fail case, the success case is purely logical and business. Either you've made enough money to afford to grow it, and manage it full-time (either yourself or have someone else do it) or you haven't and can't justify the cost. If it's popular enough to warrant needing more servers or bandwidth, then you should have made enough money to afford to build a couple servers and host them somewhere. If the player-base is sufficient that you have people expecting the game up and running 24/7, then it should be sufficient for you to afford to either focus on it more full-time (which can sometimes mean 3am drives to the colo) or hire someone to help manage it.
Any time you're talking about a server-based game, trying to release it really is like a full-time job, as well as the maintenance work that goes with it - and if you're charging for it then people have the right to expect at least some level of response time to server issues and what not. The real question is simply, do you want to do it badly enough to take that on.
#4
04/23/2009 (8:23 am)
I think Bryan said it all :) 
#5
I have read every single one of your blogs, beginning to end. I do not think I have ever done that for any other user's project (no offense to anyone else). Why?
1. You write awesome blogs
2. The genre of Warscale is one of my favorites
3. Each blog you show progress, which is inspirational
4. I really think your game is going to be finished
This blog brings to light a major problem our users face. They get to a specific point in their game's development and either lose interest or hit a wall they do not think they can get past. Dude...please keep pushing. I believe in the project, and I will definitely be a tester or purchase the game when you release it.
04/23/2009 (9:13 am)
@Guimo - Bryan pretty much stole most my words. So let me say this:I have read every single one of your blogs, beginning to end. I do not think I have ever done that for any other user's project (no offense to anyone else). Why?
1. You write awesome blogs
2. The genre of Warscale is one of my favorites
3. Each blog you show progress, which is inspirational
4. I really think your game is going to be finished
This blog brings to light a major problem our users face. They get to a specific point in their game's development and either lose interest or hit a wall they do not think they can get past. Dude...please keep pushing. I believe in the project, and I will definitely be a tester or purchase the game when you release it.
#6
@Guimo - Awesome blog as always. When you get closer to ready for online testing, give me a shout (trichards at gamesbysarge dot com). I think I can help with a hosting solution (and possibly more).
04/23/2009 (10:16 am)
@Mitch - Hey, not even Fractured Universe blogs? ;-)@Guimo - Awesome blog as always. When you get closer to ready for online testing, give me a shout (trichards at gamesbysarge dot com). I think I can help with a hosting solution (and possibly more).
#7
04/23/2009 (12:28 pm)
@Tony - I think I followed *nearly* every Fractured blog. I might have missed one, which disqualifies it for the term "every" =)
#8
@Bryan. Good points... thanks!
@Tony. Will do. I really will need all the hands when this gets release.
@Michael. $WARSCALE_PLAYERS++;
Luck to all!
Guimo
04/23/2009 (11:37 pm)
Hey thanks for all your comments! @Bryan. Good points... thanks!
@Tony. Will do. I really will need all the hands when this gets release.
@Michael. $WARSCALE_PLAYERS++;
Luck to all!
Guimo
#9
04/24/2009 (8:49 am)
Hello Guimo, what a fantastic work, I hope become as you jejejeje, indeed, I tried to looking for your email but I can't find it, just to grateful your comment in TGE spanish. New again thanks
Torque Owner Sebastian H
anyways good luck man.