I just watched a demo of a video secret message (VSM) for our player. Placart Alert. I LOVE it! I love the style of it. Way to go Bill!! We'll need a way to paint an object in the game with a video.
Monday, February 1, 2010
Choosing a game engine with valid evidence
We have an edge piece to lay down
When putting together a puzzle, I always start with the edge pieces. (No, not the corner pieces. And I have no philosophical reason why not.) I feel like we have an edge laid down now.
It’s good to start out with a game idea. Bill had the idea.
However, during our brainstorming sessions, we dreamt up all aspects the golden version of the game. I pictured a detailed, opulent 3D multiplayer world with amazing cooperative features and a deep story woven into the gameplay. The learning aspect would be so subtle, so full of analogy, and so graduated, that people wouldn’t even notice they were learning theory as well as practice. I pictured eventually moving the game to Xbox and using the new NATAL input device where people could make the motions of turning the wheel of the press and would see their character doing it on screen. I had definitely left reality.
When I started trying to implement the game in SecondLife, then Unreal, I got bummed out cause I didn’t see how those engines could fulfill our golden vision. Then, doubt crept in when I heard things like Bill lamenting that he couldn’t get anyone in his demographic to log onto SecondLife. Or that they might not have the hardware required for Unreal.
Postmortem: I think if I knew last year what I know now, I would’ve asked for data from our player demographic as soon as we finished with the game concept and before we got emotionally invested in gameplay details. Now we can choose a 3D game engine and begin detailed design and development with total confidence. What a difference that makes!! I’ve been working more on the game in the last 48 hours than in the last couple months. I’ll be showing Bill a demo in Silverlight on Sunday. When we discuss what we like and want to change, I’ll know ahead of time what’s possible.
Game engine choice
First, since I already had it, I looked up the system requirements of Unreal 2004. Funny. If I used Unreal 3, only 40% of Bill’s survey respondents would’ve been able to use the game. With the older version of Unreal, almost all of them could’ve used it. But now that I’ve seen Unreal 3, it would break my heart to use Unreal 2004.
I won’t go near the Source engine because of the massive frustrations I experienced, with both Valve’s Steam delivery mechanism, and using Source in a school environment. Of course, I was reminded that I hadn’t tried Steam since 2006, so I tried it again last week. It STILL brings my computers to a standstill.
Last night I found a game engine that looked positively awesome! Game Studio. It was inexpensive and came with lots and lots of assets. Also, it boasted rapid and easy development with the use of behaviors that you can tack onto game objects.
But then I found a discussion comparing Game Studio with Torque 3D here. Wowsers. I wasn’t thrown by the negatives people raised about Game Studio because they really weren’t that bad. I assumed some loss of detail and flexibility in a rapid application development (RAD) tool. However, the comments people made about features Torque 3D were illuminating.
With Torque3D, I’d get everything I wanted, plus some things I didn’t expect. You can publish your game to the web!! Holy crap! Since when?! That would help for Bill’s customers who can only use a library or internet café computer, with which they wouldn’t be allowed to install anything. Also, if we build an installable game, you can build for the Max and Linux as well as the PC. Awesome!! And, if we use TorqueX 3D, we can build for Xbox 360. In school, I preferred Unreal to Torque, but I’m gonna have to get over that. Yes, Torque has less assets and it takes more time to get things going, but on the up-side, Torque was not built to favor shooter games. Yay! That satisfies Bill’s concern about “Engines conceived *outside* of socially redemptive cultures (cultures based in competition, aggression, exploitive imperialism, etc.) are less likely to serve.”
OK. On with developing the demo. I have 5 days.
When putting together a puzzle, I always start with the edge pieces. (No, not the corner pieces. And I have no philosophical reason why not.) I feel like we have an edge laid down now.
It’s good to start out with a game idea. Bill had the idea.
However, during our brainstorming sessions, we dreamt up all aspects the golden version of the game. I pictured a detailed, opulent 3D multiplayer world with amazing cooperative features and a deep story woven into the gameplay. The learning aspect would be so subtle, so full of analogy, and so graduated, that people wouldn’t even notice they were learning theory as well as practice. I pictured eventually moving the game to Xbox and using the new NATAL input device where people could make the motions of turning the wheel of the press and would see their character doing it on screen. I had definitely left reality.
When I started trying to implement the game in SecondLife, then Unreal, I got bummed out cause I didn’t see how those engines could fulfill our golden vision. Then, doubt crept in when I heard things like Bill lamenting that he couldn’t get anyone in his demographic to log onto SecondLife. Or that they might not have the hardware required for Unreal.
Postmortem: I think if I knew last year what I know now, I would’ve asked for data from our player demographic as soon as we finished with the game concept and before we got emotionally invested in gameplay details. Now we can choose a 3D game engine and begin detailed design and development with total confidence. What a difference that makes!! I’ve been working more on the game in the last 48 hours than in the last couple months. I’ll be showing Bill a demo in Silverlight on Sunday. When we discuss what we like and want to change, I’ll know ahead of time what’s possible.
Game engine choice
First, since I already had it, I looked up the system requirements of Unreal 2004. Funny. If I used Unreal 3, only 40% of Bill’s survey respondents would’ve been able to use the game. With the older version of Unreal, almost all of them could’ve used it. But now that I’ve seen Unreal 3, it would break my heart to use Unreal 2004.
I won’t go near the Source engine because of the massive frustrations I experienced, with both Valve’s Steam delivery mechanism, and using Source in a school environment. Of course, I was reminded that I hadn’t tried Steam since 2006, so I tried it again last week. It STILL brings my computers to a standstill.
Last night I found a game engine that looked positively awesome! Game Studio. It was inexpensive and came with lots and lots of assets. Also, it boasted rapid and easy development with the use of behaviors that you can tack onto game objects.
But then I found a discussion comparing Game Studio with Torque 3D here. Wowsers. I wasn’t thrown by the negatives people raised about Game Studio because they really weren’t that bad. I assumed some loss of detail and flexibility in a rapid application development (RAD) tool. However, the comments people made about features Torque 3D were illuminating.
With Torque3D, I’d get everything I wanted, plus some things I didn’t expect. You can publish your game to the web!! Holy crap! Since when?! That would help for Bill’s customers who can only use a library or internet café computer, with which they wouldn’t be allowed to install anything. Also, if we build an installable game, you can build for the Max and Linux as well as the PC. Awesome!! And, if we use TorqueX 3D, we can build for Xbox 360. In school, I preferred Unreal to Torque, but I’m gonna have to get over that. Yes, Torque has less assets and it takes more time to get things going, but on the up-side, Torque was not built to favor shooter games. Yay! That satisfies Bill’s concern about “Engines conceived *outside* of socially redemptive cultures (cultures based in competition, aggression, exploitive imperialism, etc.) are less likely to serve.”
OK. On with developing the demo. I have 5 days.
Data from our player demographic
Bill got over 12 responses to his email survey, and he did me one better—he put a due date on it, and offered respondents a set of collectable artist trading cards if they answered all of the questions. (I love those cards.) He totally knows how to run a show like this. It probably comes from being a professor.
Here’s a small summary of the data we received:
Hardware
Only 5 out of 13 people had the minimum requirements for Unreal Tournament. Geeze.
However, 10 out of 13 had the following:
> 1.5 GHz processor speed
> 1 GB memory
If we dropped our requirements to 512 MB memory, we’d add one more person.
Graphics hardware followed a similar curve.
On a side note, one person had a Mac.
Game consoles
One person had a Wii and one person had all three (Xbox 360, PS3, and Wii).
2D vs 3D and moving around
This surprised me. One person didn’t care because they focus on other aspects of games, and one person preferred 2D. Wow!
The pressure is on to find a 3D game engine that would produce something that could run on 1.5 GHz processor and 512 MB RAM.
One person mentioned the frustration of moving around in 3D. We need a solution for this. I like Neverhood’s solution, of a solitary path of travel. You can’t move to every spot of the surface you’re walking on—you can only click to move a few steps in any valid direction, as if you’re in a roller coaster car on invisible rails. I also like the solution of the original Myst. When you move, the scenery that you’re looking at changes in regular intervals, creating the illusion of movement, as if you’re clicking through slides that were taken by pressing a camera button every 2 seconds. I might use this tactic in my demo.
Granted, this grievance against moving around in a 3D world is mostly coming from me. I HATE it. I hate how you can’t be precise, and how easy it is to overcorrect your direction, and so on and so on. Maybe, I won’t worry about movement too much until we’ve had some of Bill’s clients playtest the game.
Game preferences
What a diverse list. Some refer to physical games that aren’t on the computer. Here is a chart of likes and dislikes: (page down to see the table)
Here’s a small summary of the data we received:
Hardware
Only 5 out of 13 people had the minimum requirements for Unreal Tournament. Geeze.
However, 10 out of 13 had the following:
> 1.5 GHz processor speed
> 1 GB memory
If we dropped our requirements to 512 MB memory, we’d add one more person.
Graphics hardware followed a similar curve.
On a side note, one person had a Mac.
Game consoles
One person had a Wii and one person had all three (Xbox 360, PS3, and Wii).
2D vs 3D and moving around
This surprised me. One person didn’t care because they focus on other aspects of games, and one person preferred 2D. Wow!
The pressure is on to find a 3D game engine that would produce something that could run on 1.5 GHz processor and 512 MB RAM.
One person mentioned the frustration of moving around in 3D. We need a solution for this. I like Neverhood’s solution, of a solitary path of travel. You can’t move to every spot of the surface you’re walking on—you can only click to move a few steps in any valid direction, as if you’re in a roller coaster car on invisible rails. I also like the solution of the original Myst. When you move, the scenery that you’re looking at changes in regular intervals, creating the illusion of movement, as if you’re clicking through slides that were taken by pressing a camera button every 2 seconds. I might use this tactic in my demo.
Granted, this grievance against moving around in a 3D world is mostly coming from me. I HATE it. I hate how you can’t be precise, and how easy it is to overcorrect your direction, and so on and so on. Maybe, I won’t worry about movement too much until we’ve had some of Bill’s clients playtest the game.
Game preferences
What a diverse list. Some refer to physical games that aren’t on the computer. Here is a chart of likes and dislikes: (page down to see the table)
| Likes | Dislikes |
| Flight Simulator Myst (3 people) Q/A games Jigsaw puzzles Flash games on Facebook like Farmville Tetris (2 people) Strategy Chess Poker Memory Action (avoiding capture) Cribbage Sudoku Arcade Card games like Solitaire Mario Galaxy Little Big Planet Scrabble Monopoly | Shooting Racing Killing Most (oh no!) Violent ones So complicated that you give up Q/A games that give no aid or resources or allow a difference of opinion Flat, superficial feeling Themes of societal greed and consumerism Too simple Games with activities that aren’t incorporated into the final goal |
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