I'm being a good newbie.
by Andrew Wiblemo · 01/01/2008 (12:38 pm) · 5 comments
I'm sure everyone on this site knows how hard it is to suppress that urge to start full bore on that killer game idea that's been haunting you for a good chunk of a decade, the minute you download the torque SDK. But I'm doing it, I'm being a good newbie programmer, I'm starting small!
Just to test the waters I'm making a simple little deathmatch type game with two character choices, the USA-G10 Glitterboy and the PA-06a SAMAS
I still need to obtain permission to use the armors likenesses and names ofcourse, but as I plan on releasing it free, if ever, I'm not going to hold everything up on this point.
I've ported in the Turrets and Player Flight resources, which are both pure awesome.
Next comes replicating the starter.FPS base armor and figuring out how to give the player a choice between armors to spawn in.
After that, recreate the weapons the armors use. Adding in projectile spread relative to the chance a level 1 player could hit a stopped target at half max range.
Then script in the turret code for rooting the glitterboy, and the flight code for the samas.
And finally, redo the GUIs to a Rifts theme.
While that's all happening, find someone to model the two armors for use.
Alright, I've got my plan all written down, I can do this. No getting distracted, no taking breaks to work on some other idea, I have to get this one up and running so I can finally claim I've made a game.
Just to test the waters I'm making a simple little deathmatch type game with two character choices, the USA-G10 Glitterboy and the PA-06a SAMAS
I still need to obtain permission to use the armors likenesses and names ofcourse, but as I plan on releasing it free, if ever, I'm not going to hold everything up on this point.
I've ported in the Turrets and Player Flight resources, which are both pure awesome.
Next comes replicating the starter.FPS base armor and figuring out how to give the player a choice between armors to spawn in.
After that, recreate the weapons the armors use. Adding in projectile spread relative to the chance a level 1 player could hit a stopped target at half max range.
Then script in the turret code for rooting the glitterboy, and the flight code for the samas.
And finally, redo the GUIs to a Rifts theme.
While that's all happening, find someone to model the two armors for use.
Alright, I've got my plan all written down, I can do this. No getting distracted, no taking breaks to work on some other idea, I have to get this one up and running so I can finally claim I've made a game.
#2
01/01/2008 (2:19 pm)
Nothing wrong with going straight for your ultimate game idea. I jumped right in, went for the big, and it's still going extremely well.
#3
It's nice to see someone who's inspired by Palladium/Siembieda concepts. As a Rifts guy, you're no doubt aware of Palladium's financial struggles of late. Perhaps, once your project start solidifying, you might contact Kevin S. and explore the collaborative possibilities. You mentioned that you were looking for experience and a finished game rather than monetary gain. If the resulting game were used as a fund-raiser (with 100% of the proceeds going to Palladium) it could be solid win for you as a budding developer and a potential shot in the arm for the company that made Rifts (as well as Heroes Unlimited, TMNT & Other Strangeness, and the Robotech RPG, among others).
It's possible that Palladium may already have an exclusive games license for the Rifts properties -- which might prevent official sanction of a project like this, but it wouldn't hurt to ask.
As for technical concerns, you may not need need the turret resource for the Glitterboy anchored attacks. One very simple option would be to have the player spawn and mount an invisible 'wheeled vehicle' object with a high mass and friction and 0 speed. If you mounted the player as a passenger rather than a vehicle, it would allow normal freedom of turning and retain use of the player's primary weapon image. Another, possibly better, idea would be to modify the player's speed and/or mass prior to firing the rail gun and revert back once the player is finished. There is a resource for variable player gravity which is easy enough to adapt/extrapolate for variable player mass. That could get you anchored fairly well.
Player/armor selection systems gave me fits for well over a year before I finally figured out how to do it in Torque. Someone once suggested that not including a player selection system in stock TGE/TGEA was a way of weeding out wannabee developers. I don't think it's true, but it can sometimes feel that way.
There are a few Palladium games fans who frequent these forums so you might run into some potential teammates on the boards.
Good luck and have fun.
01/01/2008 (2:22 pm)
Hello,It's nice to see someone who's inspired by Palladium/Siembieda concepts. As a Rifts guy, you're no doubt aware of Palladium's financial struggles of late. Perhaps, once your project start solidifying, you might contact Kevin S. and explore the collaborative possibilities. You mentioned that you were looking for experience and a finished game rather than monetary gain. If the resulting game were used as a fund-raiser (with 100% of the proceeds going to Palladium) it could be solid win for you as a budding developer and a potential shot in the arm for the company that made Rifts (as well as Heroes Unlimited, TMNT & Other Strangeness, and the Robotech RPG, among others).
It's possible that Palladium may already have an exclusive games license for the Rifts properties -- which might prevent official sanction of a project like this, but it wouldn't hurt to ask.
As for technical concerns, you may not need need the turret resource for the Glitterboy anchored attacks. One very simple option would be to have the player spawn and mount an invisible 'wheeled vehicle' object with a high mass and friction and 0 speed. If you mounted the player as a passenger rather than a vehicle, it would allow normal freedom of turning and retain use of the player's primary weapon image. Another, possibly better, idea would be to modify the player's speed and/or mass prior to firing the rail gun and revert back once the player is finished. There is a resource for variable player gravity which is easy enough to adapt/extrapolate for variable player mass. That could get you anchored fairly well.
Player/armor selection systems gave me fits for well over a year before I finally figured out how to do it in Torque. Someone once suggested that not including a player selection system in stock TGE/TGEA was a way of weeding out wannabee developers. I don't think it's true, but it can sometimes feel that way.
There are a few Palladium games fans who frequent these forums so you might run into some potential teammates on the boards.
Good luck and have fun.
#4
@Chris- I reallyreallyreallyreallyreally want to just dive in, but I know that if I don't wade in slowly I'll never figure out how to get all the features I want and actually know how they work enough to debug and patch them.
@Aaron- I never even thought of the fund raiser thing. But the problem is last I checked Palladium did infact have an exclusive deal with a game company to develop the Rifts IP, and that company deals exclusively with the NGage. Now, whether the deal is still inplace I don't know, because I found that out back when the NGage was newly released and before it flopped the first time.
My hope is that even if they have an exclusive deal for commercial development of the Rifts IP in electronic game form, that they can atleast host a free download for their fans to play.
01/01/2008 (5:24 pm)
@Mike- Thanks, I keep sticking to the resources and forgetting to check the forums, I found a great little offsite tutorial on doing it as a menu selection before connecting.@Chris- I reallyreallyreallyreallyreally want to just dive in, but I know that if I don't wade in slowly I'll never figure out how to get all the features I want and actually know how they work enough to debug and patch them.
@Aaron- I never even thought of the fund raiser thing. But the problem is last I checked Palladium did infact have an exclusive deal with a game company to develop the Rifts IP, and that company deals exclusively with the NGage. Now, whether the deal is still inplace I don't know, because I found that out back when the NGage was newly released and before it flopped the first time.
My hope is that even if they have an exclusive deal for commercial development of the Rifts IP in electronic game form, that they can atleast host a free download for their fans to play.
#5
But for safely id create a second rift-like world. That way if you do succeed, you can try to submit your intentions to Palladium and see about making a demo presentation.
01/01/2008 (8:54 pm)
I would at least check with Palladium, making a fan game i dont see too much of a bad things as long as its done tastefully and you arent going to make money on it. Im a big fan of Rifts/Palladium timeline and it has a nearly infinite amount of material is over a wide range of mythos.But for safely id create a second rift-like world. That way if you do succeed, you can try to submit your intentions to Palladium and see about making a demo presentation.
Torque Owner Mike Rowley
Mike Rowley