Game Design Methods .. Comments Welcome
by Dr Doolittle · in Game Design and Creative Issues · 03/22/2007 (1:29 pm) · 2 replies
Hi,
I am a programmer/network specialist from India and I'm interested in developing games. Have always been a big fan of RPG's and Online MMOG's.
My dream is to make a ground-breaking MMOG. I have some good ideas, and I've come up with a project document, looking at the commercial, as well as the gameplay angle.
One of the most daunting challenges I have faced is facing the learning curve when it comes to level design on Unreal Ed, etc, and getting familiar with Maya for modelling/animation, texturing etc. I've just barely gotten started and its apparent that you need to be a specialist, to make something stand out from the crowd.
I thought I'd get my feet wet with the development of an fps based on the Torque Advanced Engine from garagegames.com, first.
Now I've heard all about content development, with concept art work, texture artwork, modelling, animation. And Ive heard all about the wonderful level design software such as the Unreal Editor, and the Torque Game Engine.
The trouble the Unreal Editor, is that in order to get Unreal inc. to help you with game development, as opposed to making levels, you have to buy a commercial license, which can set you back a cool million USD, or so, which despite its great feature set and marketability, is still pretty steep for an indie developer.
So, to get started, I thought Id get myself some content, a license of the Torque Engine, and get started ..
I had a few specific questions .. For my 'getting started ...' project:
1.0 The question is .. Can I do it all alone? Make an fps with a few levels, back story with cutscenes? And how much time would it take me, say putting in my weekends, and evenings? About a year? A few months? How much time does a single level 'good' level take to make?
1.1 The choice of Game Engine .. Torque Advanced 1.0 or Torque 1.5 .. ? Or is there someway I can begin with Unreal?
2. How many levels should I aim at building, 5-6 like the classic Doom/Heretic/Hexen/Quake?
3. What do I need in order to make some good cut scenes, and making a presentable backstory?
4. How much coding and custom modification will I have to do make a decent single player fps using Torque, and how easy is adding multiplayer features.
(I have good programming and networking experience)
I look forward to start the process, will keep everyone posted.
Thanks for reading, Sorry for rambling,
Nerfster
I am a programmer/network specialist from India and I'm interested in developing games. Have always been a big fan of RPG's and Online MMOG's.
My dream is to make a ground-breaking MMOG. I have some good ideas, and I've come up with a project document, looking at the commercial, as well as the gameplay angle.
One of the most daunting challenges I have faced is facing the learning curve when it comes to level design on Unreal Ed, etc, and getting familiar with Maya for modelling/animation, texturing etc. I've just barely gotten started and its apparent that you need to be a specialist, to make something stand out from the crowd.
I thought I'd get my feet wet with the development of an fps based on the Torque Advanced Engine from garagegames.com, first.
Now I've heard all about content development, with concept art work, texture artwork, modelling, animation. And Ive heard all about the wonderful level design software such as the Unreal Editor, and the Torque Game Engine.
The trouble the Unreal Editor, is that in order to get Unreal inc. to help you with game development, as opposed to making levels, you have to buy a commercial license, which can set you back a cool million USD, or so, which despite its great feature set and marketability, is still pretty steep for an indie developer.
So, to get started, I thought Id get myself some content, a license of the Torque Engine, and get started ..
I had a few specific questions .. For my 'getting started ...' project:
1.0 The question is .. Can I do it all alone? Make an fps with a few levels, back story with cutscenes? And how much time would it take me, say putting in my weekends, and evenings? About a year? A few months? How much time does a single level 'good' level take to make?
1.1 The choice of Game Engine .. Torque Advanced 1.0 or Torque 1.5 .. ? Or is there someway I can begin with Unreal?
2. How many levels should I aim at building, 5-6 like the classic Doom/Heretic/Hexen/Quake?
3. What do I need in order to make some good cut scenes, and making a presentable backstory?
4. How much coding and custom modification will I have to do make a decent single player fps using Torque, and how easy is adding multiplayer features.
(I have good programming and networking experience)
I look forward to start the process, will keep everyone posted.
Thanks for reading, Sorry for rambling,
Nerfster
#2
I'm a fast learner and improviser by nature, I am sure I can pick up TGEA pretty quickly. But the question is, what exactly does TGEA give me?
It gives me the ability to place basic game elements in game, script changes, and the ability to add custom game elements, actors, and content, such as audio and special effects and animation, into a game from what I can gather.
Where that leaves me confused is, how difficult is it to use Torsion/Torquescript to script an action sequence, as in for example, in game actor is in room, tries to shoot at the player character.
Do in game actors/elements, follow pre-defined basic/customizable scripts or do you have to start from scratch, and do the physics of the 'weaponry', the animation, etc?
Thanks,
Nerfster
03/22/2007 (11:25 pm)
Thank you for your comments, and a very helpful post.I'm a fast learner and improviser by nature, I am sure I can pick up TGEA pretty quickly. But the question is, what exactly does TGEA give me?
It gives me the ability to place basic game elements in game, script changes, and the ability to add custom game elements, actors, and content, such as audio and special effects and animation, into a game from what I can gather.
Where that leaves me confused is, how difficult is it to use Torsion/Torquescript to script an action sequence, as in for example, in game actor is in room, tries to shoot at the player character.
Do in game actors/elements, follow pre-defined basic/customizable scripts or do you have to start from scratch, and do the physics of the 'weaponry', the animation, etc?
Thanks,
Nerfster
Associate David Montgomery-Blake
David MontgomeryBlake
You can go it alone, but the process is extremely time intensive.
Since you are skeptical of your art skills, I would recommend that you grab a copy of Unreal 2004 and install UnrealEd and Maya PLE and get comfortable with modding an engine with a comfortable pipeline. Do not worry about advanced bloom shaders and such. Instead, just get the basics down. Once you have them, see if you want to continue on a larger-scale commercial product. In fact, you'll also figure out which sections you need help with or need to brush up on as you move through UnrealScript and the editing suite.
Make as many levels as necessary for your learning purpose. I wouldn't recommend setting out on a commercial venture without any idea of your skillset or how fast you will learn the requirements. It is like barely balancing your checkbook and then applying at a large accounting firm. You need to assess your strengths and weaknesses and compensate through learning time or hiring others.
If you start learning on Unreal, you will have a number of great tools at your disposal. When you move to another, less expensive, engine, you will then know what questions to ask about the pipeline that you KNOW you need.
Torque by nature is multi-player. It is the single-player side that most people find challenging. Of course, designing a level that works in both single-player and multiplayer (as the comment you made seems as though multi-player is tacked on) is quite difficult depending on the type of game (easier on "arena" games than on "story-oriented" games.
As for TGE or TGEA, I would recommend TGE since it has a more usable interface. But since you are a programmer, TGEA might be your cup of tea. If you're looking at FPS's, then you'll want the bling of TGEA to compete with other box-titles on the shelves (or at least in screenshots online).