3D Modeling: A Discipline of it's Own

     Having a friend of mine show me what he puts into his 3D modeling projects has shown me what I'll be in for once I start making 3D games. In my 3D modeling class we've used 3DS Max to create simple things like rooms, dressers, and furniture. Another friend warned me that just one modelling class would be nowhere near enough to teach me the basics of everything that goes into making interactive 3D objects for game worlds. I feel like I'd be in over my head with this stuff when I haven't even started on textures, animation, and collision detection yet!

     It seems to me that in order to master this art form I'd need lots of dedicated practice. I don't think I can do that. My plate is full already with all the things I'm balancing. If I ever get into using 3D assets I plan to hire dedicated people to do it. I finally completely understand why it takes a hundred people years to make a game. Right now I intend to learn the concepts and terminology in order to best direct such people. It's a good thing I have a grasp on 2D art and conveying ideas, because I think that will be how I best communicate and illustrate my intentions to a team.

DragCore Loading Screens

     DragCore tends to freeze for a second or two when switching scenes. I think it has to do with the objects being created on the spot. I want to try new ways to cover up the lag. I'm debating how they should be, a loading image obstructing the scene before the freeze happens, loading a nearly empty scene with  load image then use a global variable to decide the next scene to load, or having some "please wait" text or symbol pop up in a corner.

     I think this is something to play around with near the end once I get a feel for how long loading takes when all the game's assets are ready and working together. I also kind of want to figure out how loading bars work. I have no clue how the measure loading completeness. It might even be based on expected load time, which I think depends on RAM. It's a complex thing and I think I should hold off on that for now though. DragCore is behind schedule and I want to finish what I started first.

Planning Mach-Arena

     I am the designated project manager for my college group project. I was put in charge of making a development schedule and coming up with a unified system for us to work as a group to finish the game. As far as feasibility goes I already minimized features down to something my group of four can handle. The professor was pleased with the feasibility and has faith in our team being able to finish this project by the end of the semester.

     We're using Microsoft Project in class to maintain a schedule. Up to this point I've been using a checklist in Word and I've been experimenting with Smartsheet (a free online version of Microsoft Project). We have to decide who will be working on what and when they'll do it. Right now, we confirmed Ben and I handling most of the programming and I volunteered to make all the GUI assets and game placeholders. I set up a blank Unity project full of temporary game pieces for us to start with. I'm working with Ben to establish a coding standard so neither of us gets confused on how to script the game.

     The race is officially on! Our project is due in about 14 weeks. Development goes fast with four of us instead of just me so I'll post if anything noteworthy happens. Take a look at our pre-production checklist after the break!

Enemies By Accident (DragCore Design)

    Much like Rockstar accidentally inventing reckless police car chases, I made a feature of my bugs. When trying to get enemy behaviors from the DragCore prototype to work I came across interesting patterns and decided to replace the old features with the happy accidents.

     Orange and green enemies were supposed to dart away when the grid gets close. Now, the green ones only move when the player touches the screen and the orange ones change directions to move toward the player's finger's last position. The way I transitioned from one idea to the other is too complex to explain and I don't really remember the back-and-forth that took place in my head.

   Basically, enemies in the new DragCore are better than they were in the prototype. They are more varied and interesting this time around whereas the old ones felt like clones. When the game is closer to release I'll make a post with details on how each enemy works.