Tile-Based Build/Exploration Game DevBlog 6
by Jesse Allen · 01/23/2014 (11:42 am) · 3 comments
You can find the last blog here:Tile-Based Build/Exploration Game DevBlog 5
This week I have been productive in several areas. While I haven't updated tons of code this week, I have expanded the horizons of the project dramatically. Since I recently reached a good 'resting point' in the project (before adding space environments), I decided to do 2 things this week: 1)Rest and 2)Plan. As for the resting, I suppose we all need a bit of rest to clear our minds and rejuvenate ourselves to be as productive as possible. I have worked tirelessly on the project (and will continue to do so!) for over 2 months, so this week there were a few days I just played my guitar and spent time with family :)
Planning is something I feel like you can't really ever do enough of, so I've spent some of my time this week planning out upcoming additions. Despite thinking to myself that I had planned out the game's concepts well, when approached with the addition of new content and features of course it turns out there are many other things to look at! Luckily I've spent some time at the drawing board this week, and have come up with lots of nice stuff to implement (basically creating more work for myself oh my!). Here are this week's build notes:
Updates:(build 074)
Art
Obviously any game worthy of being named as such needs some interesting graphics. To this end, I have made an invaluable contact this week to help with this. I am basically getting all of the props and materials I need to render 3D scenes from a talented artist, and then I am using several stills from these scenes to add different graphical aspects to the game. This is, of course, quite a bit of work but it is rather enjoyable. So this has caused me to expand my production to also encompass 3D art (by use of other software of course). I'm not quite ready to reveal any of these stills just yet since there is so much work involved with these, but rest assured the game is going to look the best that I can manage! I am especially putting a lot of details into planets, so that if you see a planet you are even going to see things like its atmosphere rotating independently of the planet itself!
Onward!
As usual, I've set some general goals to help with keeping 'slightly' organized:
I hope you guys enjoyed the blog this week! I haven't included a teaser screenshot this week since there isn't too terribly much to show just yet. The 3D renders I've created so far are all very fresh and need a bit of work before I'll be ready to share :) Just fyi, the renders I'm working on now all have to do with planets and space in general so that I can get the space environment started asap! Cheers and stay tuned, lots of good stuff just on the horizon!
This week I have been productive in several areas. While I haven't updated tons of code this week, I have expanded the horizons of the project dramatically. Since I recently reached a good 'resting point' in the project (before adding space environments), I decided to do 2 things this week: 1)Rest and 2)Plan. As for the resting, I suppose we all need a bit of rest to clear our minds and rejuvenate ourselves to be as productive as possible. I have worked tirelessly on the project (and will continue to do so!) for over 2 months, so this week there were a few days I just played my guitar and spent time with family :)
Planning is something I feel like you can't really ever do enough of, so I've spent some of my time this week planning out upcoming additions. Despite thinking to myself that I had planned out the game's concepts well, when approached with the addition of new content and features of course it turns out there are many other things to look at! Luckily I've spent some time at the drawing board this week, and have come up with lots of nice stuff to implement (basically creating more work for myself oh my!). Here are this week's build notes:
Updates:(build 074)
- Created several SimSets for collected resources.
- Optimized manipulation code.
- Randomized image frames of dirt tiles in certain tilesets.
- Updated digObject images.
- Different resources are now collected from ground tiles depending on type of planet.
- Began work on several 3D renders for use in the 2D environment!
Art
Obviously any game worthy of being named as such needs some interesting graphics. To this end, I have made an invaluable contact this week to help with this. I am basically getting all of the props and materials I need to render 3D scenes from a talented artist, and then I am using several stills from these scenes to add different graphical aspects to the game. This is, of course, quite a bit of work but it is rather enjoyable. So this has caused me to expand my production to also encompass 3D art (by use of other software of course). I'm not quite ready to reveal any of these stills just yet since there is so much work involved with these, but rest assured the game is going to look the best that I can manage! I am especially putting a lot of details into planets, so that if you see a planet you are even going to see things like its atmosphere rotating independently of the planet itself!
Onward!
As usual, I've set some general goals to help with keeping 'slightly' organized:
- Can always use more GUI elements.
- Add more resources.
- Manipulate and add 3D art assets.
- Get started on space environment! (code)
- Finish planning general layouts of certain gameplay aspects.
I hope you guys enjoyed the blog this week! I haven't included a teaser screenshot this week since there isn't too terribly much to show just yet. The 3D renders I've created so far are all very fresh and need a bit of work before I'll be ready to share :) Just fyi, the renders I'm working on now all have to do with planets and space in general so that I can get the space environment started asap! Cheers and stay tuned, lots of good stuff just on the horizon!
About the author
Skilled Artist and Musician. Intermediate Torque Developer.
#2
Anyways, that's neither here nor there. Right now, being a 1-man show (outside of any acquired art assets) I am already performing duties across many areas that would normally be handled by separate teams or people. Since this is the case, and I'm learning all of it as I go as well, I figured learning yet another syntax might not be very productive for now.
I began the project around the holidays, and for me that means plenty of time indoors to work on things. As it warms up and moves on into summer, of course, I'll be getting out a bit more so progress may slow slightly but that's just life :) I enjoy hiking in the nearby mountains here, I'm a musician, I'm a Dad, etc. etc. Never fear, the project is something I'm working on daily and will continue to do even amongst the business of summer. Just the amount of progress per update may not be quite as big, depending on how much time I was able to put into the game. Anyways, I'm probably preaching to the choir at this point lol so I'll cut you loose. Cheers and stay tuned!
01/25/2014 (12:44 pm)
Hi Jose, nah I won't stop. I really enjoy the use of Torque, and I've got an idea that I want to see through! Probably the biggest discouragement for me right now is multiplayer, because of course I'd like to see something like that in the game but don't have any idea about how to implement any of that stuff. I'm just making everything work for now, and perhaps I can find someone to do the networking code. I'd imagine that the entire game would need to have some of its current code changed to take into account that there are multiple connections etc. Anyways, that's neither here nor there. Right now, being a 1-man show (outside of any acquired art assets) I am already performing duties across many areas that would normally be handled by separate teams or people. Since this is the case, and I'm learning all of it as I go as well, I figured learning yet another syntax might not be very productive for now.
I began the project around the holidays, and for me that means plenty of time indoors to work on things. As it warms up and moves on into summer, of course, I'll be getting out a bit more so progress may slow slightly but that's just life :) I enjoy hiking in the nearby mountains here, I'm a musician, I'm a Dad, etc. etc. Never fear, the project is something I'm working on daily and will continue to do even amongst the business of summer. Just the amount of progress per update may not be quite as big, depending on how much time I was able to put into the game. Anyways, I'm probably preaching to the choir at this point lol so I'll cut you loose. Cheers and stay tuned!
#3
Looks like you're fine with your project :D
01/25/2014 (4:16 pm)
A break from time to time should be taken to recover the prespective.Looks like you're fine with your project :D
Torque 3D Owner Jose Salinas