by date
Foundations of Hope - A Year in Review[Image Warning]
Foundations of Hope - A Year in Review[Image Warning]
| Name: | Leathel Grody |  |
|---|---|---|
| Date Posted: | Dec 30, 2007 | |
| Rating: |  4.0 out of 5 | |
| Public: | YES | |
| Comments: | YES | |
| RSS Feed: |  or Subscribe with  . | |
| Profile Page: | View profile page for Leathel Grody |
Blog post
Game Name: Foundations of Hope Online
Technology: TGE + Torque MMO Kit
Genre: Christian Fantasy MMORPG
Company: Lethal Games Corporation
Game Website: Foundations of Hope Online
Background:
The Foundations of Hope Online is the online game based on my Christian Young Adult Fantasy book series and is being marketed as a Christian Fantasy MMORPG.
Goal:
To create a Christian acceptable game that can be played and accepted by both mainstream and Christian players.
Foundations of Hope Online a year in review. To look back at what has transpired over the past year helps to look at what has been achieved in the overall picture of things. I am usually focused on tasks day-to-day or week-to-week. In the beginning of this year I was still using RealmCrafter, but decided to switch over to use PG's MMOKit instead. I had never touched Torque before. So all my RC Models had to be scrapped and I had to learn the adventure in modeling for Torque. Using fragMOTION, UU3D, and Milkshape is quite an adventure without any tutorials, but I finally figured jumps and hurdles and the process works great.
Then I had to move on and learn about Torque's terrain and .dif formats. I finally began to understand the Torque editor. It always cool for things to finally click and what once was a puzzle of choices becomes an understanding. I have come to the conclusion that for now I will have to rely on .dif content packs. I just have not had time to sit down and work with Constructor enough. Hopefully I will be able to replace buildings later, but for now that is not an option to make the DreamGames Contest deadline.
Next I moved into trying to understand the massive amount of python involved in the MMOKit. I probably have touched on only 25% of what is there. I just take it in bits as per what I am working on. Server, Spells, NPCs, etc... Each little bit teaches me to add to the big picture.
Currently, I have been working on the special effects. MoM uses small portions of AFX and I have been learning how to implement more. I have had to break apart each AFX script into bits to work properly for an MMO and to work with the MMOKit. I have it working and have an understanding of the process so I am pretty pleased. I wished I could say I have made major changes so the effects do not look so AFXish, but I am not there yet. As a non-coder I am just happy to have everything working. I will probably spend the next couple weeks still working on the special effects. I am having a blast with the stuff. I have not figured out how I will "Christianize" them and not look dorky. Most effects will be left the same, others will need to be modified. My January post will show videos of what I have accomplished with AFX.
So besides the game I wrote and released Book Two of the Foundations of Hope Trilogy this year. I wished I could say it did tremendously well and I was on the New York Times Bestseller list, but well, that is far from the case. So besides being a one man team for the Foundations of Hope Online, I am an author, publisher, work a full time job, father of four(6 months, 2 years, 4 years, 11 years). I also do all my own website design for my multiple websites and a couple others. So pretty much all my game development has to be worked around diaper changing and after the kids go to bed. I try to sneak in 15 minutes here and there if the kids are off somewhere else. My wife has been patient. My nights of TV watching must entail me working on the game as we watch our shows. When she asked what I will do after the game was done, I said "Work on another game". Her response, "I don't think so." I do have another game planned after FoHO. FoHO better pay for itself and the time lost or else I doubt that game will come to life.
Will I make the DreamGames deadline? It will be close to have a demo ready. I still have to model some more characters, I have only two partial zones created, no quests, no npc's. Should be an interesting next couple months.
So for a year in review, I will post some screens of the year. I just implemented a new Media area at the FoHO website if interested in more.
www.foundationsofhope.com/screenshots.php
Spiritual Warfare Critters:
Dragons:
Humans:
Saurians:
GUI Examples
Unfinished Scenes:
Testing Combat:
AFX Testing:
Recent Blog Posts
| List: | 10/07/08 - Foundations of Hope: In-game Guis 09/23/08 - Foundations of Hope: The Mounts 09/15/08 - Foundations of Hope pre-Alpha 2.42 05/23/08 - Foundations of Hope pre-Alpha 2.0 01/31/08 - Foundations of Hope: Some AFX 12/30/07 - Foundations of Hope - A Year in Review[Image Warning] 11/25/07 - Foundations of Hope: Some GUIs 09/30/07 - Foundations of Hope - The Timeline |
|---|
Submit your own resources!| Pesto126 (Dec 30, 2007 at 18:06 GMT) |
| Frank Carney (Dec 30, 2007 at 21:45 GMT) |
Are you silly? Is this a "hobby project at best" www.garagegames.com/products/149/?
Leathel,
It looks good so far. So are the bald chicks going to have replaceable hair? What kind of leveling/skill system are you going to use? Also, stop watching TV. It took some convincing, but we do not watch TV anymore. The kids are allowed to watch 30 minutes of PBS, but that is it. If you need more time and want to save money cancel cable. TV will suck the life out of you. My family is nearly the same age as yours. I have 4 kids (3,6,8,10).
What finally helped me convince the family was that there is nothing but trash on TV. It is certainly not a place to find Christian values. Any show that has any promise of having Christian values is quickly "modified" the next season. I do miss not having Discovery channel, but I can live without it.
Edited on Dec 30, 2007 21:57 GMT
| Novack (Dec 30, 2007 at 22:20 GMT) |
| Leathel Grody (Dec 31, 2007 at 01:52 GMT) |
@Frank,
I definitely agree. I personally listen to music all day and probably my favorite TV channel is the Christian Contempory music channel.
All the figures will definitely have hair. There will be alot of fluff(different hair and face styles), I just haven't gotten to that point yet. The leveling/skill system will be the same as MoM uses, but modified to fit my game. I have spent the last week organizing the Professions(Races) and what Specialty(classes) options will be available. Then I have to compare what standard skills each Specialty will receive and work in what Faith based 'gifts'(replacing magic system) they will receive if a player decides to follow the Faith quests.
| Joe Rossi (Dec 31, 2007 at 02:04 GMT) |
Minions of Mirth seems to be doing well, and I believe there are other games that are "MMO" and using Torque.
@Frank Carney
I also stopped watching TV long ago. It's such a time wasting, brainwashing device. I watch movies occasionally, but that's all. If only more people could pull themselves away, the world would be much better off.
This looks great so far. Keep it up! Just be sure to make some time for the wife every now and then ;)
| Pesto126 (Dec 31, 2007 at 13:22 GMT) |
Are you silly? Is this a "hobby project at best" www.garagegames.com/products/149/?
Frank - you are referencing a SINGLE MMO game that has been successful using torque in the over 5/6 years this has been available... so, no, I'm not being silly when I say that torque based MMo's are mostly hobby projects that will not "pay for itself and the time lost"... I truly hope I'm wrong here.. but it just my feeling based on what I see in the market place...
Sensitive topic alert... I'm really just curious.. not trying to cause any issues.... /Sensitve topic alert
Instead of a "Christian" based game - why not create an "Ethical" based game (ie: no gore, swearing etc...) What makes a game a Christian game?
| Leathel Grody (Dec 31, 2007 at 14:09 GMT) |
One of the reasons I chose the PG MMOKit was its ability to offer as an MMORPG or Single Player. If the MMORPG does not do well, I strip that out and offer only a Single Player game. That alteast gives me a backup plan :)
Not sensitive to me anyways. My main goal is to make Christian acceptable games. I am not into make you feel good stuff. The Christian acceptable part comes mainly that I do not offer things like wizards, sorcerers, etc... The "magic" in my book series is replaced by Gifts given to those that follow God. Due to the fact that my market is to Christians and the game has Christian aspects it is considered a Christian game. If I was focused on a broader audience, the more "Ethical" style game would be better choice, but I am not. But as stated, I am trying to design the game so the Christian aspect is not in your face. A player could play the whole game and not get into any Christian aspects. It is a player's choice. On the other hand, I do make it clear to players that if they do not want to touch the Christian part, stay away from the Paladin profession. To battle the Spiritual Warfare critters, there will be Bible references and no way around it. And the Spiritual Warfare critters are off in their own zones that only Paladins can access keeping it away from the general public.
| Frank Carney (Dec 31, 2007 at 18:16 GMT) |
That is a very interesting approach. I do like the idea.
I was thinking of approaching the magic stuff as physics and science based. Pulling out a Taser would be very "magical" to someone from the Dark Ages. Another interesting tidbit is that Newton and many scientists in his day, were very interested in alchemy. What is cool about it is that they were using the scientific approach and had good reason to believe what they believed. One of their hypothesis was that animals and plants "grow". That should mean that metals, sand, dirt, etc may be able to grow too. Even though the theory is flawed a lot of good science came out of it. Newton came up with his theories of light and color from this work, the methods used today for reducing materials to their constituent forms came from this work, and some chemical reactions were discovered. It is really an interesting subject. All of this would look very "magical" to someone 500 years ago.
For a game I was thinking of creating magic, but have it be revealed to the player as they master the art that it is a sequence of physical effects that are very mundane. Of course you would have to increase the energy a bit to make it more flashy, hey this is fantasy.
| Novack (Jan 02, 2008 at 17:33 GMT) |
You quote the fact that in 4 years just 1 MMO made it through Torque(?). You should add "Indie Development". If an enterprise with the resources of an indie, reaches that point... well its to me the perfect demostration of the Torque capability.
And just to finish my point: NCSoft little time ago began the development of an MMO with Torque.
You must be a member and be logged in to either append comments or rate this resource.
