Game Dev Story

Game Dev Story is about my adventure in developing a game. Syntax Highlighting provided by SyntaxHighlighter

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I haven't been doing a lot of game development at the moment. I have started a new little project in Flash to build a Massive Multi-Player Real Time strategy game set in space.  For this I have been doing some research into Network game play principles as i will likely develop my own server in PHP , Python or ColdFusion and want to know what shape it should take. Currently is just uses static XML pages , though I will more than likely move this to AMF.  

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A rethink ...

So I have spend this last week planing my game idea out and have come to the conclusion that I am trying to run before I can walk. The idea that I was going for is sooo massive that it would probably take a whole development team with professional experience and good few years. With that in mind I have gone back to the drawing board and have started a smaller project based in the Unity package. 

After looking at development in the Unreal Development Kit ( UDK ) I decided that this engine although a very exciting prospect is probably a bit bigger than I really need. I am not ruling out for future projects just the first project. The other reason is that using UDK would require learning C++ / Unreal Script where as been a web developer I can already write in JavaScript which is one of the languages support by unity . This was also what made me decide against another game engine called Shiva which uses C#. 

I am going to start getting something together in unity hopefully over the weekend , more than likely doing some "developer art" in the Blender 3D package. I went for blender as it can be directly support by Unity and is free. 

I am sure that the issue of have ideas bigger than you abilities isn't only a problem that I have come across and normally I wont even consider it problem as it is how you learn and stretch yourself. 

If I come up with anything worth sharing I will get it on here.... 

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It does exactly what it saids on the tin. Teaches you C++ and whats more it is free. If you are looking to learn C++ for whatever reason check it out. Also if you need a C++ IDE / Compiler and you are using Windows , get Visual Studio Express a free ( but cutdown hence express ) version of Visual Studio. You need however to download each application you want i.e C# , C++ etc. You can get it here http://www.microsoft.com/express/Default.aspx .

Happy Coding 

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In light of the terrible things that have happened in Japan with the Earthquake and the Tsunami the British Red Cross are appealing for funds to help those effected. 

Please make a donation of as little as £18 or as much as you can afford at http://www.redcross.org.uk/Donate-Now/Make-a-single-donation/Japan-Tsunami-Appeal . You can also read more on the appeal. The loss of live and homes is huge and they need our help! 

For up to date information on the Japan Disaster check the BBC. 

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Earlier I spoke about the new tech demo that Epic released detailing where the Unreal Engine was heading. The Tech demo was called Samaritan and represents what Epic wants to see in the next generation of games. See what the future holds!!!

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UDK March Beta is Out

So the new version of the UDK is out now. I think they update the UDK every month which is pretty cool. So head over to http://udk.com/news-beta-mar2011 for all the update information and download the latest version. Shame the don't dont have it in version control then you could just run an update. 

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A video on the HTML 5 Rocket Engine by Rocket Pack

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Rocket Engine HTML 5 Gaming Engine

Today the news broke that Disney has acquired an exciting little finnish startup called Rocket Pack. Rocket pack build a HTML 5 game engine. As a web developer and a massive games fan this is a very exciting prospect. This does some to provide some interesting features including the game editor and the plug-in free support for Internet Explorer. This is definitely something worth watching and see how it develops. My game plan is for a massive multiplayer experience so this could add an unique sell point. It would also be in a language and on a platform that I know and have a lot of experience with.  For more information on the Engine look at http://rocketpack.fi/engine/ and more info on Rocket Pack http://rocketpack.fi/. The news was in Edge Magazine online http://www.next-gen.biz/news/disney-acquires-html5-engine-startup.

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been a while

Sorry I haven't been blogging , to be honest I haven't had a serious amount of time to spend on the whole game design stuff. Had a lot of work to do recently , got a big project coming to an end. Though mainly been playing video games , I am an absolutely massive Killzone fan so I have been spending a good few hours a night playing Killzone 3. I have also been trying to get back into doing sound design and recording , which I did at college so I have been buying new kit for that. I am still planning at creating some 3D assets so that I can start properly looking at the game engines.  This is an equally confusing task with things like polygon limits. So I am going to have to research that before I really can get in to it. I also need to learn about the Blender world. 

Cool Well I will try and write some stuff on what I have been up to soon. If there is any help or recommendations that you guys can give me that would be great. Keep and eye on or follow us here and me at codenamewhitedragon.com

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Just read this on where Epic are planning to take the Unreal Engine next. It looks awesome. I know that the UDK wont be updated for a while after the engine comes out but I still think that UDK is a very exciting thing. 

Artical is on http://www.1up.com/news/epic-next-generation-engine?pager.offset=0

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3D asset Construction

So the biggest part of my game will be the 3D assets so I have started researching these. I have done 3D graphics work in the past and have used Maya [Though it was PLE] and 3D Studio Max , as well as the Free Blender. As Maya and Max are prohibitively expensive it looks like I will be using Blender for asset creation. I have got the official book "The Essential Blender: Guide to 3D Creation with the Open Source Suite Blender, Book/CD Package" (you can find that on my amazon list) for it but that is as far as I have got. Then on Sunday after my post about been overwhelmed by UDK adinolfi posted a reply with a link to CG Tuts + which looks an awesome website. So i am all fired up about creating even some basic assets that I can use in my game.  So where as I was planning to start with the engine and work from there I think I am going to start with building some basic assets to play with. The reason that I am saying basic is because I haven't had that much experience with modeling I wont be creating amazing professional assets any time soon. hopefully I will be able to bring other talent to the project in the future. 

I will post on here my efforts and my experience with Blender. 

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Overwhelmed by UDK

So I was planning to spend this weekend with the Unreal Development Kit (UDK). I must admit that I am real excited about this engine. As I said before the UDK is one of few industry standard game engine that amateur game developers can get there hands on. It is also powerful , flexible and the UDK can be used to develop for the PC and iPhone. The full version of the engine can also be used on consoles. Been a game fan and a total nerd that is very exciting. So I downloaded the latest update ( if you are not aware they update it every month or so , you can download the latest version from UDK.com ).

The UDK is overwhelming though I am not really sure where to start. Epic Games the people that build the unreal engine and all its tools have a developer network called UDN. Epic Games have also worked with 3D Buzz to build a set of tutorial videos. There is also a set of books that I am considering investing in called Mastering Unreal Technology which is also created by epic games (You can find these on my Amazon List ). The real issue that I am having is where to start with building a game , I am currently reading "Level Up!: The Guide to Great Video Game Design" (also on my amazon list) but this is about general game design.

I am still excited about building a game and want to do it but I think that I need to do a lot more research on how to develop a game and what is needed to develop a game in UDK. UDK remains an exciting prospect and I feel that learning it would be a worthwhile. If any ones reading this knows any good tutorials or books please let me know. 

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This looks interesting but I haven't used it much yet 

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This is my amazon wish list with books that I want to , or am reading about video's game development. I will add books as I come across them , at current there is  only a few titles 

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UDK v Unity, Which one should I use?

So the first chapter in the Game Dev Story is to pick an engine on which to build this game. I am an experienced developer but as this is my first ever game I would rather build it on something than try and add engine development in to the works. After a lot or looking at and reading about game engines out there I have narrowed it down to just two. The UDK ( aka Unreal Development Kit )  or Unity 3D. [see now the title makes sense]

So lets start with UDK

So the main advantage of using UDK is that it is a big and an industry standard game engine. Some big titles on all platforms are developed in UDK , one of my favorite games borderlands, of course all epic games Gears of war 1 - 3 and the very exciting upcomming Bulletstorm. The other advantage that something I am very keen on is that it is going to be a massive investment of my time to learn the engine and I feel that learning a industry standard engine such as UDK would be a good use of that time. The main disadvantage of UDK is that it is a totally new language it is build on a Java / C++ style language but does use its own scripting system called UnrealScript . The answer to that is that all the tools need to develop are under one roof in UDK. Also if I do invest the time in developing in UDK I can transfer those skills to larger projects and on a verity of platforms including Playstation 3 , Xbox 360 , PC and of now iOS as the engine has been ported to all these platforms. 

and now Unity 3D

 So the biggest advantages of unity is it uses Javascript , as a web developer I already am very familiar with this language and should be able to pick this side of unity up relatively easily. Like UDK unity is also a full game development environment with a vast range of tools. Unity also has a large community behind it which they are taking advantage of by providing the assets store which allows you to buy assets for your game. Large companies are also getting behind unity now such as Qualcomm's Augmented Reality plugin. This community also provides a large range of scripts to help you learn and build your game on. Unity is also multiplatform with versions working on the Web , PC , Mac , Android and iOS. The biggest disadvantage to Unity is that the free version does't come with all the features of the fully licensed version. It also doesn't have the large professional backing of UDK although it is very big on the indie scene.

The plan is to download the latest version of both engines and do some investigation in to the ease of use of both engines as well as the suitability for the project that I am considering. If you have any help or advice about which engine is best then please let me know, in turn I will keep you updated on what I find out. 

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What is Game Dev Story?

Game dev story is a tumblr / blog about game development and my adventures in it. I am playing around with developing a game and as I do I will blog on here. The Idea is to allow others to learn from my experience's. I am planing to use Mercurial which is a version control system to control my code base and possibly assets. I will then share these online using Bitbucket which is a Free source code sharing site similar in idea to Github but for Mercurial. I am also hoping to get I have got syntax highlighting working on here to. So check back for updates on my adventures. 

You can follow me on twitter I am @cnwhitedragon or view my other tumbler at codenamewhitedragon.com 

Please note : I am a software developer by profession but never had anything to do with game design so this is purely an amateurs adventure! 

This blog has nothing to do with the game for the iPhone by the same name.