Small questions in development

[Cheynise]

New to the forum and I am thinking of making a custom story with a few friends of mine (but not right now cuz we're overworked with uni~!).

We're pretty much learning as game designers/programmers in our uni so we often make game projects. Although, I have to say we've never really made games like for horror genre (...not too sure if school's against blood or what) and I like horror games to a T. So yeah, I'm hoping to make a group and we could do a project custom story during our next semester.

The only thing is about the engine, HLP2 (and yes, I am reading the documentation...sloooowly). I have a question about it now and may have more in the future.

We've touched game engines like UDK, Unity, etc in our projects, even created our own engines. I've also learned from a few of my programmer friends that they can create or tweak mechanics in them engines (of course if they know the engine like the back of their hand). So I'm curious. Just how far can we go with the Amnesia engine? Is it possible to make new mechanics or different kinds of puzzles related to Amnesia's interaction (that we would never expect to see in the engine)?

I guess that I want to see if we can succeed in a new kind of custom story, right down to the code if possible. I see that C++ is (mostly?) involved in the engine so I'm just wondering of the possibilities we could do without disrupting the gameplay. If not, then well, guess we'll see what we stir up.

Any suggestion or answers would be grateful. Oh and if this thread don't belong here, let me know. Thank you for hearing me out.

Now I shall go away because my heavily-designed 3D modeling assignment is beckoning me to work...shoot me...

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Oh second question, 3D program for third party resource is only blender?


Ah hell. <---- 3DsMax user.

[palistov]

There's plenty of cool things you can do with HPL2, but it's not anywhere near as flexible as those engines you've mentioned. The development pipeline for HPL2 is much more constricted than in those engines. We don't have access to source, and a lot of the gameplay elements like AI and entity types are hard-coded into the application.

Anything you want to do you've gotta do with level-based scripts. We don't even get global scripts Also, the language used for scripting is Angelcode. It's very similar to C++ but they have some differences.

As for 3D modelling programs, lots of people use Maya and 3DS Max as well. Exporting can be a pain but I believe you want the openCOLLADA plug-in, not the Autodesk Collada one. Don't take my word for it though, I can't model for @(&$.

[Cheynise]

There's plenty of cool things you can do with HPL2, but it's not anywhere near as flexible as those engines you've mentioned. The development pipeline for HPL2 is much more constricted than in those engines. We don't have access to source, and a lot of the gameplay elements like AI and entity types are hard-coded into the application.

Anything you want to do you've gotta do with level-based scripts. We don't even get global scripts Also, the language used for scripting is Angelcode. It's very similar to C++ but they have some differences.

As for 3D modelling programs, lots of people use Maya and 3DS Max as well. Exporting can be a pain but I believe you want the openCOLLADA plug-in, not the Autodesk Collada one. Don't take my word for it though, I can't model for @(&$.

Hm, ok, this gives me a better idea. And I understand. The engines I mentioned are indeed more flexible (but then again, engines we create are about as flexible as HLP2) and in every way, I don't expect a miracle out of the engine. We'd probably have to read finely and closely throughout the documentations and tutorials to understand (and the project...give bout 5 months or so till we can be used to the engine)

As for Angelcode, hm. I am not sure if the programmer guys know this code. Technically, the code I've learnt in my course is only flash (game designers learn this in my uni) while the programmers...um, I guess I'll have to find out from my friends when I get the group together next sem.

Hm, noted on the plugin. I'm happy to hear 3Dsmax can be used because true be told...I'll never know how to use blender (too different! Too different!!!).

And hey, I'd say you need practice in modelling. No such thing as bad modelling. Take my word for it. Depending on the program you're using, modelling can be done easily (You'd be surprised if I told you how my lecturer taught me on doing rock meshes).


Oh the bright side, at least you don't have to model a whole landscape with trees, plants and extra stuff like a graveyard and import allll that into UDK for an assignment due next week.

Take my place...pleeeeeease....

[palistov]

Haha that's why I didn't want to be an artist

Angelcode is really easy to learn. If any of your guys know C++ they'll get the hang of Angelcode easily. Besides, the engine functions are what you'll need to learn most, and learning to use them in creative ways is how you make the cool game mechanics in Amnesia.

[Cheynise]

Haha that's why I didn't want to be an artist

Angelcode is really easy to learn. If any of your guys know C++ they'll get the hang of Angelcode easily. Besides, the engine functions are what you'll need to learn most, and learning to use them in creative ways is how you make the cool game mechanics in Amnesia.

May you suffer with sleepless nights as I have suffered these few nights.


Well, if that's the case, hopefully it'll be easy for them (don't want to make them do the impossible). And thanks for pointing out the engine functions. Hopefully some of the puzzle ideas I am thinking of can be made (simple but still challenging)

[Omyn]

Haha that's why I didn't want to be an artist

Angelcode is really easy to learn. If any of your guys know C++ they'll get the hang of Angelcode easily. Besides, the engine functions are what you'll need to learn most, and learning to use them in creative ways is how you make the cool game mechanics in Amnesia.

May you suffer with sleepless nights as I have suffered these few nights.


Well, if that's the case, hopefully it'll be easy for them (don't want to make them do the impossible). And thanks for pointing out the engine functions. Hopefully some of the puzzle ideas I am thinking of can be made (simple but still challenging)

3DS Max does have limitations with importing. You need to resize/rescale the model a million times before it is perfectly the same as before. Once you import it into the model editor the size, pivot point, and scale of it gets all messed up. I heard this problem doesn't occur with Maya. Also, from what I'm told, you can not import animations from 3DS Max into HLP2 either. I put up with these problems because I use 3DS Max as my primary 3D software.

Care to share any of your past works?