16/07: Sadness in Our Time.
No. No famous person died or any serious event happened. It's just that The Stratagus Engine is no longer being developed on a basic level. Only Stratagus 2.2.4 will be the last one!
It's sad to think that since I was developing Colony 2220 on the Stratagus engine and with it gone, I guess things aren't going to go well with patches and I'm going to have to patch it.
(What's Colony 2220? Uh...another game project I'm working on on the side while I get stuck with Relic.)
Sigh, life will go on though.
It's sad to think that since I was developing Colony 2220 on the Stratagus engine and with it gone, I guess things aren't going to go well with patches and I'm going to have to patch it.
(What's Colony 2220? Uh...another game project I'm working on on the side while I get stuck with Relic.)
Sigh, life will go on though.
11/07: The Pain of C++
C++ is a pain in the neck! Anyone who has ever tried to learn this computer language probably understands what I mean (or you're one of those few genious' who learned it in the first sitting. I know I'm complaining, but I've been beating myself in the head with the book for awhile now and trying to grasp the concepts is rather difficult. I don't plan to give up, but I wanted to whine to my blog about the language and how they could have designed it a little better and friendly to people who are lousy at thinking logically and have a degree in math.
Whew! Got that out of my system. Suffice to say that I have been reading through my book I bought "C++ for Dummies" (Make a comment about that and I'm going to whack you with the book) and the author has done a really good job of taking hard concepts and simplifying it down to the point that even a dummy could learn it (pun intended). At the moment, I'm trying to understand classes, polymorphism, and encapsulation. Each day I sit down and study I get closer to my goal of completing my very own game.
Speaking of games, the development is coming well. Tommorow you'll probably see the concept art if I remember to bring my USB drive and upload the pictures and the post (Yes, I sometimes write post entries ahead of time...I always did live in the future.)
I've been shopping around for a graphics artist who will help me out with some of the graphics for the game, but I haven't had any success yet. Hopefully it will come soon. I write more tommorow.
Whew! Got that out of my system. Suffice to say that I have been reading through my book I bought "C++ for Dummies" (Make a comment about that and I'm going to whack you with the book) and the author has done a really good job of taking hard concepts and simplifying it down to the point that even a dummy could learn it (pun intended). At the moment, I'm trying to understand classes, polymorphism, and encapsulation. Each day I sit down and study I get closer to my goal of completing my very own game.
Speaking of games, the development is coming well. Tommorow you'll probably see the concept art if I remember to bring my USB drive and upload the pictures and the post (Yes, I sometimes write post entries ahead of time...I always did live in the future.)
I've been shopping around for a graphics artist who will help me out with some of the graphics for the game, but I haven't had any success yet. Hopefully it will come soon. I write more tommorow.
Mr. Wilson has completed the first character sketches and I'm impressed! The characters of the Marines and Mistress Tiifa of the Horde have brought my idea to life. Now the Modelers have something to work with!
The Relic manila envelope continues to grow larger as more work and ideas grow in my mind. I'm just considering releasing the artwork for you to look at. :)
Stay tuned. :)
The Relic manila envelope continues to grow larger as more work and ideas grow in my mind. I'm just considering releasing the artwork for you to look at. :)
Stay tuned. :)
08/05: The First Drafts Are In!
The first draft of the concept art arrived in my mail yesterday and I am really impressed. Mr. Wilson (the artist) has done a grand job in taking my descriptions and turning them in to seeable, believable characters. This game seems more real now as the first concepts come off thre press.
At the moment I'm not releasing any of the sketches because I don't want to spoil the surprises. Why show the work half done.
When they are done, I'll post one or two so you all can see what it looks like. :)
At the moment I'm not releasing any of the sketches because I don't want to spoil the surprises. Why show the work half done.
When they are done, I'll post one or two so you all can see what it looks like. :)
30/04: PyOgre - The next step?
I was tossed up between Irrlicht, OGRE, and the Baja Engine. I had liked the different formats that were provided in Irrlicht, but it's rendering didn't equal OGRE or Baja. Baja on the other hand was an engine that didn't have the same level abilities (that I noticed) that programming in C++ could have and everything was accessed in one LUA file.
That left OGRE. OGRE standing for Open Graphics Rendering Engine is a good top quality engine that has been used in a bunch of commercial applications. I finally decided to stick with this and that was cemented even more when I discovered they had a Python wrapper. (For all of you who aren't programmers. That simply means that the wrapper is a language that goes "around" the other language making it simpler. Instead of having to write in the hard C++, I just have to write it in Python, a very simple language compared to C++.)
So, as it stands, Relic will be created using PyOgre, a Python wrapper for the OGRE engine. With this decision finally set in stone, all the exporters and tools downloaded, and the workspace created on my machine, it's time to get to work on the game itself.
That's all the updates for now.
That left OGRE. OGRE standing for Open Graphics Rendering Engine is a good top quality engine that has been used in a bunch of commercial applications. I finally decided to stick with this and that was cemented even more when I discovered they had a Python wrapper. (For all of you who aren't programmers. That simply means that the wrapper is a language that goes "around" the other language making it simpler. Instead of having to write in the hard C++, I just have to write it in Python, a very simple language compared to C++.)
So, as it stands, Relic will be created using PyOgre, a Python wrapper for the OGRE engine. With this decision finally set in stone, all the exporters and tools downloaded, and the workspace created on my machine, it's time to get to work on the game itself.
That's all the updates for now.
19/04: The Art of the Game
Developing a game is tedious, difficult, and frustrating...and I haven't even started programming yet.
Things are going as smoothly as expected as I have been finalizing the aspects of my game and finishing the "bible" for the universe. For those who you who don't understand the term, the game bible is a compilation of every piece of relevant information for your universe that the game is taking place in so that anyone who works on the project can look it up the information.
Example:
You're a programmer who has to get the effects of a Warbler working.
What is a Warbler?
You look it up in the game bible and you find out the Warbler is the nickname for a Hyper Disc Drive system used by Terran starships to propel it through space and their cool down period is like letting of steam.
Other things done is that I've hired a Artist by the name of Robert Wilson to do four commision works of 2 characters from the game. The Terran Marine and Mistress Tiifa of the Horde. Of course you don't know who these people are since I haven't released much information on the game. I guess I've always been a secretive type person when it came to my projects.
I'll probably post the artwork when I get it and see what you all think.
Things are going as smoothly as expected as I have been finalizing the aspects of my game and finishing the "bible" for the universe. For those who you who don't understand the term, the game bible is a compilation of every piece of relevant information for your universe that the game is taking place in so that anyone who works on the project can look it up the information.
Example:
You're a programmer who has to get the effects of a Warbler working.
What is a Warbler?
You look it up in the game bible and you find out the Warbler is the nickname for a Hyper Disc Drive system used by Terran starships to propel it through space and their cool down period is like letting of steam.
Other things done is that I've hired a Artist by the name of Robert Wilson to do four commision works of 2 characters from the game. The Terran Marine and Mistress Tiifa of the Horde. Of course you don't know who these people are since I haven't released much information on the game. I guess I've always been a secretive type person when it came to my projects.
I'll probably post the artwork when I get it and see what you all think.
28/03: Slight Pause on 3d Game
Work on my 3d game has come to a standstill because of my lack of knowledge. I have been plugging away at the Visual C/C++ books in hopes of getting my understanding to the point that I can begin making games with OGRE 3d and Irrlicht 3d.
The big problem? Math. My math never got above General Mathematics because I had never pursued a profession that needed it. I was looking towards being an Author then and now that I am looking at programming, it's time to crack open the dusty books and get back at improving my math.
Trying to write 3d oriented models in to the code takes Geometry, Algebra, and all sorts of high level math and I just cringe when I think of them.
Tim and I still working on the back story, look and feel of our game so we haven't halted progress completely. Will update more when I get anything done.
The big problem? Math. My math never got above General Mathematics because I had never pursued a profession that needed it. I was looking towards being an Author then and now that I am looking at programming, it's time to crack open the dusty books and get back at improving my math.
Trying to write 3d oriented models in to the code takes Geometry, Algebra, and all sorts of high level math and I just cringe when I think of them.
Tim and I still working on the back story, look and feel of our game so we haven't halted progress completely. Will update more when I get anything done.
