Blog for Brian Wells at GarageGames.com

Back In The Swing...

Brian Wells — 2006-07-20T02:42:12+00:00

Hello!

It has been a while since I have been able to get any work done or even walk for that matter. I was in an accident and had some pretty major injuries. I had some breaks, bruises, etc. I am just trying to get back into the swing of things and then maybe contribute to a project or two. Nothing too heavy, just something to get me going. Eventually I hope to get into some T2D scripting work, since I am attempting to be a pseudo coder. While rehabbing I was able to do some SQL/PHP work and I am pretty good at both now. I wrote a little app for cataloging my RC Aircraft Plans. I put them up on a website at www.rcblueprints.com (if you are interested).

Eventually I plan on actually churning something out. Given enough time.

Cheers!

Thursday Oct 13 3:27

Brian Wells — 2005-10-13T03:27:55+00:00

cold sweats, the fetal position, puddles of my own waste....ahhh! post IGC withdrawls!

Had a great time at IGC. I got to see some cool games, ate some great food (the caterers kicked ass!) and lets not forget the XBOX360 stuff! I think overall the best part was meeting all the folks from the GG community finally. Now, it could have been the beer, but I think I met some interesting folks! Overall networking with other GG community members was the best part of IGC. You get to know some of the guys personally and it helps you realize who you will be able to work well with.

We also got great feedback on the projects we were all working on, and what we need to do to make them better, and most importantly viable commercial products. No one wants to "sell out" by not making the perfect game they would want to play, but we learned something very important: if you don't sell some games, you can't make games for a living. What matters most is if you make a product that others would want to play/buy.

Oh, and there was beer! This is also the first time I have been to a place with alcohol and a microphone where I wasn't the first one to get up in front of everyone and make an ass out of myself. Thanks Justin!

I hope everyone made it home from Eugene safe. I brought back a cold with me, but other than that I am better off than before IGC :)

Friday Sep 16 14:18

Brian Wells — 2005-09-16T14:18:13+00:00

Going to IGC, woohoo!

I convinced the wife to let me go! This required a lot of alcohol and ass kissing, as I am sure several of you can understand. The alternative was having her tag along, and I would rather use a cheese grater as a water slide!

I am wondering if anyone will be getting to the airport on Friday morning? My plane arrives at 10:30AM that morning. I need a ride into Eugene from Portland International Airport. I don't bite, and my case of tuberculosis is hardly contagious the doctor says.

If I can't find a ride I have to explore other options. Does anyone know if there is a commuter train? Or is there a truck stop somewhere closeby that I can hitch a ride, and not be viciously raped???

Any and all ideas are welcome. I already have a ride back to the airport Monday morning.

See ya at IGC!!!

Tuesday Mar 15 1:38

Brian Wells — 2005-03-15T01:38:07+00:00

Recording Voiceovers, Creating Quality Audio for Indie Games

I am not an audiophile. Not that there is anything wrong with being an audiophile. I can think of many other types of *phile I would not want to be. So if you are audiophile, take that as an indirect compliment. What I can directly say is that I have great respect for those who edit and create audio content. Especially since I have been doing some voiceover work for a project in progress.

I have been creating character voices by in part using my own voice, and in part altering with pitch/amplitude changes. This seems to work pretty good to make the voices sound different from how I usually sound. It is actually extremely intimidating to think that your voice will be most of the voices used. If you are embarrassed to speak in public, imagine that amplified by the fact that you are intentionally making a stupid voice.

If anyone reading this has any industry or personal experience editing audio, I have a few questions:

1) I have a pretty good quality digital mic, but I seem to always get a background "white noise" sound. Are there filters available for Audacity or Audition to remove these? I did the "noise cancel" thing but it seems to affect the voice as well as the noise.

2) The audio files all seem to have different volumes. Can I normalize a set of audio clips so that they are all roughly the same volume? How?

Overall I think the recordings came out pretty well for being done on a computer mic by an amateur, but I am always looking to improve things. I don't really want to do audio work as a hobby or anything, but I think Indies should be at least somewhat "jacks of all trades". I am sure that not purchasing studio time will save us huge chunks of change.

I also like the idea of having a lot of original voice content in an Indie game. It seems to add an extra dimension that most games lack when they leave out voice work. Well, we will see at least.

P.S. I wet myself when I saw the TSE water/terrain screenshots the other day. I know I can not be the only one that had to change my jockeys early that afternoon...

Wednesday Feb 23 4:22

Brian Wells — 2005-02-23T04:22:35+00:00

Flash Menus, PlayGUI and Real Life, OH MY!

I am obliged to update this thing like once a year, so here I go...

Working on a combination of things now for the little project. Things have been moving quickly lately, but with everyone having work, work and school, kids, etc. things never go as quickly as they could. Too bad we can't all just quit our real jobs for a few months to work on this stuff full time. No problem for me though. With the 10 hours of life I have every weekday after school and work, I would gladly spend most of it doing this than sleeping.

Tom Lund did a great job in getting the GameSWF working with torque. We have a basic menu system working in game, and once we work out a few kinks I think people will see how great menu systems in Torque can be. The flash completely puts the basic bimap buttons to shame as far as what is possible. We are also crunching in a PlayGUI with all the In Game Controls we need. Nothing final, just prototyping until we find a balance we like.

I can't wait until we are able to get the final prototype in place. Once we get to that stage, I think things will start flying ahead.

Tuesday Aug 24 8:09

Brian Wells — 2004-08-24T08:09:57+00:00

Working on models for a WW2 naval combat game I an planning right now. Skinning a battleship and Destroyer and hopefully I will start the Cruiser soon. I willl work on the website this weekend as well.

I am currently skin mapping this German "Pocket Battleship" model as well as a model for a floating naval mine, a destroyer and a depth charge. This model as is now is 2266 Polies, although I belive when the railings are added it will be around 2400.

This game will view the ship from the 3rd person perspective, but the controls will look and feel more like an FPS. The mouse would move the weapon turrets on the ship while the KB would move the ship, fire flares, switch views etc. The emphasis would be on team cooperation and tactics, as a well placed shot would knock out a turret or sink your ship. Since the naval guns are fired at a distance ballistically, it wont be simply like a quake rocket launcher fest. More to come on the game features....

I really need an experienced Torque programmer to help me if they are available. I can handle pretty much all the art myself, and I can even do some light scripting (basic vehicle scripting, particles, animations, etc) but I am horrible at anything with a lot of numbers ;). Best of all I really think this would be a quick (as games go) project to complete which means we could release it on GG.

I would be nice to be able to focus on the models and animation and not have to dabble too much in the code if I can help it. In all honesty I dont think the programming side of my game idea will be that difficult since many of the engine requirements are already resources.

By the way if you have not seen my free Cargo Ship (space) model, you can check out the resource for it here. It would be easy to drop right into a game for those who need a practice space vessel to play with vehicle specs, practice particles for engines, etc.