Blog for Anthony at GarageGames.com

TGE, Add-Ons, what a wonderful world :)

Anthony — 2007-07-29T22:31:18+00:00

So, I have returned to game development as an actual potential for of income. And so I have began work adding a lot of the needed resource for our (my small team) first project back at the wheel.

Basically, we want to create a modern war game, with an in-game lobby, with a persistent ranking system and online stats. The game will be released for free, but supported by in-game ads... Wait, in-game ads? Well, not actually in-game, but in-menu. In the lobby there will be banner and text ads displayed in a designated area, that will allow for un-obtrusive, but effective ad placement. I believe CPM ads would do extra well in this case. At first, grabbing dynamic content off the web would have been a doozy, but luckily this resource: http://www.mmoworkshop.com/trac/mom/wiki/TGBBrowser allowed me to add it to TGE, and now, because it is a mozilla based plugin and users can navigate to the site, we can use Google AdSense without breaking the ToS.

We are wanting to use as much content from this website as possible, so we don't have to waste time or money reinventing the wheel. But, some content will have to be paid for due to the need for higher quality game art. For this, I extend a question to those who are 3d modelers. Can you email me (anthonybertoloATgmail.com) and let me know what you would charge to:

Build a Torque ready vehicle model with animation
Build a modern war soldier based off the orc skeleton (as there are plenty of animations we can make use of)

I have also got the cg water resource plugged in with TLK and working perfectly :)

Thanks to Stefan Lundmark, I have obtained a copy of TGELobby and will be making the needed changes to allow for user accounts, and visible ranking system in-lobby.

The one thing I want you to keep in mind is that all add-ons to things like the TGELobby that we do, will be released as a resource.

I will wait to begin posting screenshots until we have some original art, or I get a request to see something of which I discuss in a future plan. I am sure none of you want to see a screenshot filled with stuff you have already seen!

Until next time,

- Anthony "Dorkula" Bertolo

We've Got The Rights to a WWII Movie

Anthony — 2006-11-13T10:12:23+00:00

My game development team have just gotten the approval to create a game based on an upcomming wwII movie (Coming 2008).

The story behind the movie is a compelling, untold story about American Paratroopers and their role in the D-Day Invasion. It is actually an untold story that had to be dug up from a historian who is working with one of the VERY few people left from the mission flown that night.

I also have the previledge of being on the the leading roles in the film.

We are planning on using Torque Advanced Tech as our underlying game engine, but due to the lack of updated to this engine, we may have to look another direction (Help us out here GG :) ).

We are really wanting to exploit some of the features on the Wii, and at first glance porting from TorqueAT to the Wii might be a little more trouble than it is worth, but Nintendo is working on opening up their doors to us Indies, so we will go ahead with Torque as it is the fastest way to develop a quality product (hands down).

What I would really like is to get some input from the community as to what is missing in WWII games today? The WWII theme has been used so many times, what do you think would make a WWII game stand apart from the rest?

I will be sure to keep you all updated as the project will offically start January.

Monday Oct 24 5:23

Anthony — 2005-10-24T05:23:13+00:00

Basics for AI Game Pack

Well, becuase it is very fitting for our own inhouse project, I have decided (with the help from others in the community) that writting an AI Game Pack, is a good thing to do. I have contacted GarageGames and am awaiting an okay to go ahead with the project.

Once we recieve word from GG I will post the entire plan for the pack. Keep on eye on this plan is it will hold important information regarding the future of the pack.

TTYS

Anthony Bertolo
BBiGames

Friday Oct 21 6:32

Anthony — 2005-10-21T06:32:21+00:00

A little tutorial posted on the forums, plus an update on how our Project here in Portland, OR is going.

We have all been busy here in Portland. The Ardonia demo is nearly done and we are working with our sponsor in LA who is aiding is in the investor category. We have also launched our website (which is a little buggy at the moment) where we host a couple videos of in-game footage.

I have also posted a small tutorial in the forums that addresses the "having a player fallow and fight for you" issue. Very basic as of right now, but very easily expandable. I will be posting another plan soon that will include some big news, and possible part one of the AI tutorial (which I have been thinking about making into a pack, but seeing as how there where already two in production, it may just be a waster of time, on the other hand, they both don't seem to be active anymore).

Ardonia Game Demo Trailer: http://bbi.winding-road.net/bbi/media/Trailer.wmv
Website: http://www.bbi-games.com
Short AI Add-on tutorial: http://www.garagegames.com/mg/forums/result.thread.php?qt=29398

As a note, the AI tut I posted is just an add-on for Mark Halcomb's ctfbot. He did a great job on the code, but I have made many changes which have allowed me to have many more bots in the level without the lagg. I will release all my changes with the upcoming tutorial.

TTYS

Anthony

Tuesday Oct 4 5:24

Anthony — 2005-10-04T05:24:53+00:00

This is my very first .plan here at GarageGames. First I should introduce myself, and what I have been doing as of late.

My name is Anthony Bertolo and I am the founder of BBiGames (http://bbi.winding-road.net/bbi). I have been working in the game industry independently in my free time for 3-4 years now, and have just recently went full board. I also currently run a team here of 6-7 members, who have been working on a demo for our upcoming game, Ardonia, which in the end will use the Torque Shader Engine.

I am sure you will get to know more about me as I post more plan's, but now lets get to the stuff that involves you (or that you can benefit from). Our team had cought a lucky break and has been hooked up with a sponsor (we are not releasing the name of the company as of yet). They have many investors interested in the game industry, and our sponsor is setting us up with them (to say it short). Since we are becoming semi succesfull on the business front, I had to look into what I want to do as a hobby (seeing as how my old hobby of game programming is now my job). And I decided to stay close to the game industry, and start writting some tutorials (as I did with Genesis3D a while back) for Torque. While we have been developing the Ardonia demo, I have learned many things about TGE, TSE and TorqueScript in general. I plan to share my knowledge with the GG community just as it has so freely given to me.

Here is a quick summary of what I plan to do in the near future:

- Write AI resource (including many techniques we used in Ardonia)
- Write a Campaign Mode Tutorial
- Write an article on "Getting Funded" including resources and a "What NOT to do"
(note about the above, I do understand that GG is an indie focused development site, but in my opinion many of us, not all, have the inner hope of growing their company into something big, and the article would include some ways to make steps toward that goal)

I can go into more detail once the free time comes closer, I look forward to investing it to a good cause.