First Game

[Creator]

Hello,

A few of my mates and myself are begining to make our own game after being truly inspired by your games especially Penumbra: Black Plague, but it is very slow seeing as none of us have very much experience with the process. We are using GameCore Indie version and so far only have sketched a few ideas on paper and had a bit of play with GameCore. One of my mates is very good at sketching and I pick up ICT quickly so thats a start but we would like to know if you could give us a bit of a kick start?

Yours sincerely,
Creator and Team.

[RedShift]

I am working on a game myself and I could try and help if you want. My advice is the first thing you want to do is figure out what your game engine is capable of. Without doing this you can't even write a story for it because you don't know what your limitations are. Once this is done you are gonna want to create a detailed outline of your story and begin sketching level designs and concept art only then can you begin to put anything together.

[Creator]

I am working on a game myself and I could try and help if you want. My advice is the first thing you want to do is figure out what your game engine is capable of. Without doing this you can't even write a story for it because you don't know what your limitations are. Once this is done you are gonna want to create a detailed outline of your story and begin sketching level designs and concept art only then can you begin to put anything together.

Thanks,
How do I work out my engine limitations? To be honest we don't even have an engine yet but I was thinking of using the HPL1 Engine since it is open source. Or is GameCore the engine since it is the program I'm using to design the game? We have begun to put a storyline together and started to sketch some level outlines.

[RedShift]

Its hard to say it looks like GameCore is your engine and lucky for you it isn't just a graphics engine it does more. Now if you are considering going to HPL1 I am just going to advise you that GameCore is probably a bit easier to use than the HPL1 engine as there are more development tools available for it. As for working out its limitations: just poke around on the company's website and look at what it is capable of and if it can do what you need or want it to then i would say go for it. My last pointer would be that your story is likely to change once you figure out what the engine will let you do so keep that in mind and don't get discouraged when and if you have to change it or parts of it.

[Creator]

From what I can see it will do everything I need it to do. I'm going to have a bit of trouble learning all of the tricks though.

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It even looks like someone has tried to make a Penumbra look alike with it. http://www.gamecore3d.com/content/pages/...re-gallery#

[RedShift]

Yeah its a problem I am facing as well with Ogre 3D but with the right amount of study and application I'm sure you will figure it out. If there is anything else I will be glad to help.

[Creator]

Question, How do you get your player to 'swim' when in water?

[RedShift]

I don't really know how you would do that in the engine you are using as I am using a different one. But my guess would be that you set it to change your walking animation under certain circumstances: those being when you are in water and to change back when not in water.

[Redeemer]

If this is truly your first time making any games, I would seriously suggest that each of your team members, including yourself, pick exactly one discipline to study and learn; such as, programming; art; or level design. Then, find a good game engine that will allow you to practice these skills without worrying about the low level processes of game creation.

Personally, I suggest you guys use "3D Gamestudio", an all-in-one 3D game creation system that includes:

- A fully-functioning "world editor" (level creation program)
- A simple but usable model editor
- A script editor
- And a physics engine, to name a few things

You can download the free version of this engine here. If you like this engine, you may purchase a commercial and/or professional license that allows you to use advanced features such as shaders, as well as the ability to sell your game on the market, by going here.

I myself have used this engine to create multiple games, one of which will soon be commercially released. If you need any help, my username on the Gamestudio forum is "Redeemer".

Good luck, and remember: making games is NOT easy. There is a very good reason games take a few years to come out with a staff of 100+ people. If you want to make a good game with a small team, you must have a few things: determination, and patience. In addition, you should keep your games short and simple. Visually, you should try to go for a style that looks good, but doesn't require much detail. Also, a bit of general game design advice: the purpose of a game is to entertain the player. If your game is entertaining, it isn't a game at all. You need to try very hard to see how you can bend and shape the gameplay to yield the maximum "fun factor". Pick up a few books or magazines and see how the professionals do it.

You will be at the very bottom of a very long ladder, but don't give up and you will eventually make your way up.

[Creator]

Well thats sort of how we have set up things. I'm working on the ICT game creation side of things, someone else is working on concept art, models and textures and another is working on level maps and gameplay ideas. I don't really want to change editors now because I've learnt so much already with GameCore. We are all aware and prepared for the long haul so thats not a problem either. It's just some of the more refined fiddily bits that are hard to get working.
Thanks for advice

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I don't really know how you would do that in the engine you are using as I am using a different one. But my guess would be that you set it to change your walking animation under certain circumstances: those being when you are in water and to change back when not in water.

I thought it may work like that but although I can find how to change circumstances when in water I can't seem to find the circumstance swim or even fly. I thought something basic like getting your charcter to swim would have a tutorial but it looks like I was wrong.