You and game creation

[OptimusHagrid]

So have you ever done anything in the realms of designing/modding games?

I've done quite a few things, but annoyingly my attention span has a tendency to wear thin a lot. I used to play around a lot with Game Maker, making some basic platformy stuff. I also designed (but never completed) a multitude of balls-to-the-walls awesome adventure games in the AGS studio, some of which I worked on with Mountbatten. And then there was playing around with the FPS Creator for several billions hours. Yes, I know the FPS Creator was a piece of crap, but it was so joyously simple to use it captivated me for a very long time. And then there was the brief bout of coding in Python. While it was fun it never really got anywhere.

I also quite like to do some light modding. I made some awesome maps for Quake 2 and 3, and I did some extremely bizarre modding and mapping stuff in DooM, one of which was so surreal I gave myself nightmares. Sound design is an obsession of mine, from recording to synthesising them. I've nearly replaced all the Counter-Strike samples with my own variants, and I'm working on doing Minecraft's. I've also done texturing stuff for all sorts of games, either in GIMP or in, well, Paint, and I'm working on a Minecraft texture pack also.

I also have a question for those who have taken/taking a game design related university course. I'm going for an interview in a few weeks and I need to create a portfolio for one of these courses. What experiences did you have in game design before you took the course?

Finally... can somebody please tell me how to make a Team Fortress 2 map?

[697134002]

I was quite into modding Civilization 4... until I got minecraft. My post count on the main fansite of that game also took a plummet after playing minecraft.

[SneakyPie]

Ah... memories.

I remember RPG Maker 2000 and making an awesome game. It's actually still online somewhere. I think it's still playable too.

Another project that actually got really far was making a browser-based game. It was basically a Civilization type thing (except with team based alliances) but it eventually stopped because we could never find a web programmer. I still have all the design docs for it.

I've always wanted to make a horror game and came close to initial production of it with another friend of mine using Hammer and Source Engine. I handled art and story while he created the maps in Hammer. It ended due to his lack of interest. To date the only game to actually scare me has been Amnesia, but before that was released I wanted to create something terrifying. It's still something I would like to pursue one day. Had the story taken care of and everything.

I wouldn't mind getting back into it. My problem always seems to be never finding the necessary help or enlisting those who doesn't have the same ambition as I do. I've always wanted to make something with Lovecraftian themes.

[Furdabip]

I USED to make web-based games out of HTML/JS/PHP/SQL, then World of Warcraft happened. I also messed around with RPG Maker 2000 a lot back in the day. I still have a project using it going on, that I abandoned for World of Warcraft as well. Thurr be videos showing a bit of it off here and here (linked so it doesn't clutter). It looks different currently, and was abandoned mid-way through it's menu revamp, otherwise I'd show it off as it is now.

Unfortunately, from all I've done, I actually have NOTHING but the RM2K videos to show as my work. I WISH my big web-game was available for play still... it was sexy.

[SneakyPie]

Watching those vids I can say mine wasn't nearly as technically impressive. I know how much a pain scripting was.

My web project was nothing short of ambitious. It was going to be called Society and basically you start with a society in ancient times and would progress technologically up to modern. We had a pretty vast tech tree but the real fun of the game was diplomatic relations with other players. You could join up in alliances and have different styles of government, war with other societies/alliances, that kind of thing. Just looking over the docs again and seeing our ideas gets me pretty thrilled.

As far as I know, a browser game like this hasn't been done to the extent where we wanted to take it.

[Furdabip]

Watching those vids I can say mine wasn't nearly as technically impressive. I know how much a pain scripting was.

My web project was nothing short of ambitious. It was going to be called Society and basically you start with a society in ancient times and would progress technologically up to modern. We had a pretty vast tech tree but the real fun of the game was diplomatic relations with other players. You could join up in alliances and have different styles of government, war with other societies/alliances, that kind of thing. Just looking over the docs again and seeing our ideas gets me pretty thrilled.

As far as I know, a browser game like this hasn't been done to the extent where we wanted to take it.

Duuuuude, when reading your description, I was immediately reminded of an idea I had for a web-based game that I, of course, never completed or even started work on. It was almost the exact same idea. I called it "10,000 BC" and it started with VERY basic stuff such as "you are a tribe, form a village" through 9 different technological periods, ending in a fictional "advanced technological" era. I never got any further into the idea than a bit of the design doc, though.

Looking through all my random ideas, I have a LOT of crappy ones, and one I think would make a good horror game. I'mma post the idea doc for shiggles; http://richinnovations.com/game.txt

[Lord_Mountbatten]

I also designed (but never completed) a multitude of balls-to-the-walls awesome adventure games in the AGS studio, some of which I worked on with Mountbatten.

We had awesome ideas (possibly), just we're both very lazy. At least, I am.

Example: Evan von Krunkle, a man with a blonde afro wig living in a dystopian society in which resources are literally drained for the sake of efficiency, listed as one of the nation's most dangerous men (the lead-in to that was "This man's name is Evan von Krunkle. He has a blonde afro..."). Intellectuals, that prime target in all good dystopias, just don't have that kind of danger factor.

and I did some extremely bizarre modding and mapping stuff in DooM, one of which was so surreal I gave myself nightmares.

I'm disappointed you told me you deleted that. That's the kind of shit I want to see.

I'm pretty awful at any design part usually. In any Hagrid/Mountbatten collaborative schemes, I leave anything to do with design to him. I'm artistically inept. When it comes to it, I like to write, although I hate to mention it because that's something rather a lot of people like to do, and mention, constantly. Of course, I'd love to work on games in such a capacity - as Hagrid can attest, I like to place story above gameplay rather a lot.

[SneakyPie]

That's the same way I approached it too, Lord. I was more in it for the story telling than anything else. When planning out for the horror one, I felt almost like a director when figuring out pacing and when events would occur ingame, melding it altogether with a solid story. Doing some of the art (I'm no artist but I can handle the graphic design stuff) was rewarding as well.

I've always thought it would be fun to write something Lovecraftian. I enjoy the time period those stories are often in and there aren't too many games with that kind of style. I also just love horror games. Real horror games I mean, not like the ones that go Boo! in attempts for a cheap scare. Psychological stuff like the first couple Silent Hills, Penumbra series, and Amnesia.

Furd, that's crazy. I know I'm certainly not the first to have that idea and actively pursue it, but it's interesting to see somehow else with the same baseline and approach. Our docs were pretty well thought out in an effort to keep everything balanced. It was a lot of fun through the design process.

[Tehbeard]

source SDK for TF2 maps --> http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki ... l_Creation


As for game creation, I built a few over the years (never got them to the polished stage), currently working on this
.

If you ever played the tanks game on a website, this is the same idea, but with LAN/ possibly internet multiplayer instead of hot seating.

The list of stuff to do stands as follows (Bold == done):

Destructible Terrain
physics for shells, tanks and props
Procedural terrain generation (sort of a biggie, but i've done it before in a worms style DT engine, the benefit is sending only ~30 Bytes to generate a map versus 2KB)
Terrain backgrounds
Multiplayer event handlers (in the process of learning how these work with the network engine I have)
menu
Lobby
Sounds
The shop (to buy new shells, upgrades etc)

I also have one shelved game Idea (Steampunk RPG) and one shelved library (an advanced inventory engine, with local and global metadata tables for buffs and debuffs). Shelved mainly because while Uni work isn't to taxing at the moment, it's enough to stop me from being able to pursue HUGE projects.

[Sti_Jo_Lew]

If you coded in Python, does that mean you know how to use Blender? I believe thats that language Blender uses for its game engine.

[OptimusHagrid]

No. When I say brief, I mean brief. The most advanced thing I made was Wolfenstein, minus all features relating to entertainment. However I did it on my old computer and it's gone now.

I need to start making my portfolio, and my weakest area is 3D modelling, so I'm going to see if I can make some stuff in Blender or Milkshape. Hopefully it won't be too mental hard. Here's a video of somebody making something in Blender, because.

[Callex]

I was really into Warcraft 3 modding at one time; to this day my two largest projects, Cruiser Command and Solar Conquest hold the 2nd and 7th highest rated spots on The Hiveworkshop.

I've been meaning to work on something for Starcraft 2, but I can never find the time...

[SneakyPie]

I'm always pleasantly surprised when I see the bountiful talent our users possess.

[Sti_Jo_Lew]

Yeah, Blender is a pain to use but you can make pro-quality stuff with it. I know how to do some modeling, but texturing, rigging, and animation are not on my skill lists. Actually, if I ever make something in Blender, I'll try to post it on the forums through a video or screenshot or whatever random format I can do. One thing I want to try is exporting a creature from Spore into Blender (yes, it's possible) and modifying it.

[Tehbeard]

Bump for windows users.
That tank game i'm creating inbetween coursework/minecraft addiction, here's a public alpha of sort (with a notch beating 100% off the retail price )

Readme -> http://dl.dropbox.com/u/13651437/Artila ... Readme.txt Don't read and you fail.
The game -> http://dl.dropbox.com/u/13651437/ArtilaTank.exe Windows only.

Enjoy, and remember, they're not bugs, they're features.

[Blackadder51]

Cool game is cool

[luke2006]

I haven't done very much development for a while. This is a game from a couple of months ago, actually. Like most of my projects, it is not finished
--------------------------------------------------------
This is a arena-based top down shooter. You can play team or FFA (up to 8 teams and a total of 16 players) game types (currently Deathmatch, Victim and Domination) on tonnes of user created maps (there's an advanced map editor so you can create and share your own battle fields, as well as 12 default maps to start with).

Here's a screenshot from a team game, red vs blue.
http://img38.imagefra.me/i3b2/nd4spd/11ir_2fd_ubes7.png

It features destructible terrain, a map editor, 8 unique weapons (Assault Rifle, Sniper Rifle, Sub Machine Gun, Shotgun, Grenade Launcher, Flame Thrower, Akimbo Handguns and Machine Pistol+Riot Shield), advanced AI opponents that work together, take cover, etc), and so on.

There's a download link if you're interested:
http://host-a.net/ND4SPD/HAVOC.zip

[Sir_Luke]

I'm good with blender! I once made a USP 45. that looked so awesome, my friends even thought i stole it off of a game. But I can do that if anyone needs my help.