A small step on the indie path
by Brian Carter · 03/07/2008 (8:56 am) · 5 comments
I guess if your reading this then your either: a) deperate for things to read, b) at work bored and desperate for things to read, or c) see a) :)
I don't normally blog - and to be honest never really had much of interest to say, at least in my mind - and that's not to say that I've got anything interesting to say now; however, I've decided that this would be a good tool to help me keep track of where I am on this new indie game trail thats I'm traveling down.
So, yeah, usual story, boy meets TGB/TGE, boy falls in love with TGB, his head fills with dreams and visions of things so wonderful and inspiring and decides to follow that dream to see where it goes. On the plus side I've got 15 or so years of C/C++ programming experience, and some hobbyist experience with photoshop, maya, and poser (just wish I had some real artistic talent to go with that experience) :)
So here I am. Like many before me, and the many that will follow I want to make a game - come on don't groan like that ... and you at the back I saw those eyes roll :) However, unlike most I'm aware of my limitations, and I know what I produce is unlikely to be the best thing since sliced doodads. To be honest that doesn't even matter to me. What does matter is finally living a dream, and taking the time to learn how to make a game (even if its one that only I end up playing), and having fun in the process. I've completed my initial boot camp training (meaning the obligatory create your own 3 gems in a row matching game from scratch learning exercise), so I know I can do this - actually I like TorqueScript a lot.
On saying that, and even though I have the TGE/TGEA license I'm going to start small with 2D and the TGB engine. If I can make the game that I want with that then I will move onto translating that into a 3D world, but for now I just want to concentrate on the basics with sprites and not fail before I start.
With all of that preamble out of the way - wow your still reading, you must be bored - heres the initial plan (and btw, this is more for my benefit so I'm kinda talking to myself - yes I know, the insanity of it all).
THE PLAN .. SO FAR (dun dun derrrr)
1. Genre : I've chosen to make a form of RPG type game (hey stop groaning already) but initially I will focus on a single player game - no point getting ahead of myself; however, the design and coding will be undertaken with a view to making it multiplayer at a later date.
2. Tools : I've settled on TGB (a sprite based game), and will user Poser, Maya and Photoshop for the artwork - programs that I already own. My understanding from all that i've read is that Poser allows you to do anything you like with rendered images, just not the meshes - this is great news for sprites especially with sooooooo much content out there (and some really nice stuff too in terms of eye candy) - even better given my low and lacking artistic abilities.
3. I've purchased the RPG adventure kit content pack to give me a foundation - more to examine the scripts and learn from those a little. What I think I will do is refer to it and modernize it a little to fit my own needs and convert it to be more "behavior" orientated that "dataconfig" orientated.
4. Another reason for not using the RPG kit completely is because I'm not overly keen on that perspective. I really like the 2.5D isometric (2:1) perspective - yes I know, TGB doenst support that right now, but having spoken to Neo Binedell he appears to be working on his "nxISOBuilder" version of TGB and is looking to get that out of the door ASAP. This would fit in nicely with my plan .. and I have more than enough behind the scenes work to do, so I can afford to wait in the actual builder right now. For those that havn't seen what Neo is up to, search on his a name and view his blog entries - it looks amazing (and dont even get me started on the excitement level for nxAnimator). If it doesn't materialize then I can still fall back on the top down isometric view initially.
This is really where I'm at right now, and I have some set design parameters to work from. I've been playing around in Poser and I managed to create an animated walking sprite, and slot it into the RGP starter kit (as per GamerGirls excellent tutorial seen at www.garagegames.com/index.php?sec=mg&mod=resource&page=view&qid=11968). With that nailed down that solves my graphics content problem initially.
I've also been playing around with World Creator 2.5++ (www.inet2inet.com/Main/Main.htm) in anticipation of Neo's development of the nxISOBuilder. Hopefully that will all tie together. I actually like the WC, and having completed most of the tutorials I can see the power in it as a world creation tool.
I've also been playing around with getting Jonathon Steven's ODBC code (www.inet2inet.com/Main/Main.htm) to work in TGB, and more importantly to work with an MS Access database file. This I've finally managed to do that (Jonathons code compiled and linked with no errors, but minor script changes were needed for MS Access compatability), and there are still a couple of minor problems that need to be addressed, and I'm still debugging it. On saying that I've managed to access a datafile with a simple select and output specific rows and columns. That is a big step forward and it gave me a chance to examine the engine C++ code and understand how that works a little more. This will be invaluable and central around my RPG design for data (weapons, skills etc..)
Didn't really mean to write this much, not that your still reading at this point anyway ... hey wait a second, your still here!
Anyhoo, my "to-do" list for things to do next (which is probably why they call it a to-do list is as follows:
1. Start working on a storyline (yes I plan on having one)
2. Start creating some generic foundation scripts for objects (most likely focusing on the RPG adventure kit and making it more "behavior" friendly.
3. Keep bugging Neo about his awesome creation
4. Start working on rendering and creating some initial sprite artwork
5. Work on pulling it all together and get a sprite walking around a small village map.
No pretty pictures this go round - sorry, dont you just hate long text blogs!
I don't normally blog - and to be honest never really had much of interest to say, at least in my mind - and that's not to say that I've got anything interesting to say now; however, I've decided that this would be a good tool to help me keep track of where I am on this new indie game trail thats I'm traveling down.
So, yeah, usual story, boy meets TGB/TGE, boy falls in love with TGB, his head fills with dreams and visions of things so wonderful and inspiring and decides to follow that dream to see where it goes. On the plus side I've got 15 or so years of C/C++ programming experience, and some hobbyist experience with photoshop, maya, and poser (just wish I had some real artistic talent to go with that experience) :)
So here I am. Like many before me, and the many that will follow I want to make a game - come on don't groan like that ... and you at the back I saw those eyes roll :) However, unlike most I'm aware of my limitations, and I know what I produce is unlikely to be the best thing since sliced doodads. To be honest that doesn't even matter to me. What does matter is finally living a dream, and taking the time to learn how to make a game (even if its one that only I end up playing), and having fun in the process. I've completed my initial boot camp training (meaning the obligatory create your own 3 gems in a row matching game from scratch learning exercise), so I know I can do this - actually I like TorqueScript a lot.
On saying that, and even though I have the TGE/TGEA license I'm going to start small with 2D and the TGB engine. If I can make the game that I want with that then I will move onto translating that into a 3D world, but for now I just want to concentrate on the basics with sprites and not fail before I start.
With all of that preamble out of the way - wow your still reading, you must be bored - heres the initial plan (and btw, this is more for my benefit so I'm kinda talking to myself - yes I know, the insanity of it all).
THE PLAN .. SO FAR (dun dun derrrr)
1. Genre : I've chosen to make a form of RPG type game (hey stop groaning already) but initially I will focus on a single player game - no point getting ahead of myself; however, the design and coding will be undertaken with a view to making it multiplayer at a later date.
2. Tools : I've settled on TGB (a sprite based game), and will user Poser, Maya and Photoshop for the artwork - programs that I already own. My understanding from all that i've read is that Poser allows you to do anything you like with rendered images, just not the meshes - this is great news for sprites especially with sooooooo much content out there (and some really nice stuff too in terms of eye candy) - even better given my low and lacking artistic abilities.
3. I've purchased the RPG adventure kit content pack to give me a foundation - more to examine the scripts and learn from those a little. What I think I will do is refer to it and modernize it a little to fit my own needs and convert it to be more "behavior" orientated that "dataconfig" orientated.
4. Another reason for not using the RPG kit completely is because I'm not overly keen on that perspective. I really like the 2.5D isometric (2:1) perspective - yes I know, TGB doenst support that right now, but having spoken to Neo Binedell he appears to be working on his "nxISOBuilder" version of TGB and is looking to get that out of the door ASAP. This would fit in nicely with my plan .. and I have more than enough behind the scenes work to do, so I can afford to wait in the actual builder right now. For those that havn't seen what Neo is up to, search on his a name and view his blog entries - it looks amazing (and dont even get me started on the excitement level for nxAnimator). If it doesn't materialize then I can still fall back on the top down isometric view initially.
This is really where I'm at right now, and I have some set design parameters to work from. I've been playing around in Poser and I managed to create an animated walking sprite, and slot it into the RGP starter kit (as per GamerGirls excellent tutorial seen at www.garagegames.com/index.php?sec=mg&mod=resource&page=view&qid=11968). With that nailed down that solves my graphics content problem initially.
I've also been playing around with World Creator 2.5++ (www.inet2inet.com/Main/Main.htm) in anticipation of Neo's development of the nxISOBuilder. Hopefully that will all tie together. I actually like the WC, and having completed most of the tutorials I can see the power in it as a world creation tool.
I've also been playing around with getting Jonathon Steven's ODBC code (www.inet2inet.com/Main/Main.htm) to work in TGB, and more importantly to work with an MS Access database file. This I've finally managed to do that (Jonathons code compiled and linked with no errors, but minor script changes were needed for MS Access compatability), and there are still a couple of minor problems that need to be addressed, and I'm still debugging it. On saying that I've managed to access a datafile with a simple select and output specific rows and columns. That is a big step forward and it gave me a chance to examine the engine C++ code and understand how that works a little more. This will be invaluable and central around my RPG design for data (weapons, skills etc..)
Didn't really mean to write this much, not that your still reading at this point anyway ... hey wait a second, your still here!
Anyhoo, my "to-do" list for things to do next (which is probably why they call it a to-do list is as follows:
1. Start working on a storyline (yes I plan on having one)
2. Start creating some generic foundation scripts for objects (most likely focusing on the RPG adventure kit and making it more "behavior" friendly.
3. Keep bugging Neo about his awesome creation
4. Start working on rendering and creating some initial sprite artwork
5. Work on pulling it all together and get a sprite walking around a small village map.
No pretty pictures this go round - sorry, dont you just hate long text blogs!
#2
Your profile reminds me on my own ... i got also a strong c++ background and loved TGB&TGE since the first moments :)
03/07/2008 (1:47 pm)
Good luck with the game, keep us informed!Your profile reminds me on my own ... i got also a strong c++ background and loved TGB&TGE since the first moments :)
#3
03/07/2008 (7:18 pm)
Hey I'm pretty much on the same path as you, maybe a bit further along in that I have a few RPG specific systems in place (dialog, battles, party, fancy GUIs, spells/items/equipment, saves and other good stuff). I just need to work on my story and art now. I have to stop slacking off and playing WoW so much lol. For art I was considering Poser, but I'll most likely use Daz3D because it seems easier (to me) and free! Yeah, people tend to think RPGs can't be done in TGB.. but they could be in for a few surprises over the next year.
#4
@Markus - Thank you for the comment, and I plan on updating the blog as I go. I've invested too much $$ not to see this through - especially with the wife looking over my shoulder now and wanting to see something done with all these fancy smanshy tools (no pressure .. lol)
@Joe - Thats awesome that you have so much done. I purchased Poser mainly because of the built in animation tools and the dynamic cloth simulation. Although ironically, after rendering out my first animated sprite with a wonderful walk animation and cloth the moved with it, I then realized that the figure would be so small on the screen that it wasnt worth all that setup :) I still like Poser though, and it will be my saving grace initially on artwork. I also think so many people get hung up on games that have to be multiplayer, and have the latest and greatest graphics (as I mentioned above to Kevin. I'm well and truely of the opinion that 2D can still offer huge gameplay value in the RPG field. Hopefully, both of our will at some point in time show that :)
03/07/2008 (7:37 pm)
@Kevin - Thank you, and I agree - trying to start out with a MMO of anykind isn't the wisest move to make. I've been coding client/server for a long time now, but I know my limitations. I'm going to have my hands full enough with story / design / art without having to worry about that too. So many people judge games by the graphics these days, I'm of the opinion where I would much rather have a good storyline / plot / fun game play with good well thought out mechanics than a pretty pile of trash thats boring.@Markus - Thank you for the comment, and I plan on updating the blog as I go. I've invested too much $$ not to see this through - especially with the wife looking over my shoulder now and wanting to see something done with all these fancy smanshy tools (no pressure .. lol)
@Joe - Thats awesome that you have so much done. I purchased Poser mainly because of the built in animation tools and the dynamic cloth simulation. Although ironically, after rendering out my first animated sprite with a wonderful walk animation and cloth the moved with it, I then realized that the figure would be so small on the screen that it wasnt worth all that setup :) I still like Poser though, and it will be my saving grace initially on artwork. I also think so many people get hung up on games that have to be multiplayer, and have the latest and greatest graphics (as I mentioned above to Kevin. I'm well and truely of the opinion that 2D can still offer huge gameplay value in the RPG field. Hopefully, both of our will at some point in time show that :)
#5
03/07/2008 (8:10 pm)
Good wishes with the game Brian, I'm also using poser for a project and it is indeed a good time saver (even if it is a little familiar to the odd few ;)) 
Torque Owner Kevin James