What are you doing in game development today?

[Dracos]

Hey, twentytwo.  You should share some of your experiments up here =)

Dracos

[twentytwo]

I think I'll do that when I get a chance.

Right now, I'm trying to figure out what kind of tools I have at my disposal. Usually, I'm pretty good at making the most of what I have. It used to be just Paint, but recently I found a couple interesting things like Paint.NET and Blender. I didn't realize there were so many interesting open source programs readily available for use. If I can somehow tie them together, I'll try to make something from them, and maybe even try building a game or two...

I'm actually quite excited...
-22

[twentytwo]

Hey, speaking of tools, I just ran into the Torque Game Builder. Tell me, what do you think of it?

-22

[Dracos]

Torque game builder?  You mean the engine from garage games right?

It's not for beginners.  At least  the 3d one.  It does handle a lot of the optimizations you'll want in a serious game right off the bat, but I generally found that you spend a lot of time fighting with it as the documentation is pretty wretched.  That said, Puzzle Kingdom and Pirates were both done in it for what it can do.

I'll probably have more when I finish learning panda and can really compare it against another serious engine, rather than homebrewn.

Dracos

[twentytwo]

Torque game builder? You mean the engine from garage games right?

They have two: Torque Game Engine and Torque Game Builder (previously Torque 2D).

The Builder was released earlier this month and I was wondering if you had any thoughts on it, considering your experience with the Engine.

I just got back from vacation, so once I get some time, I'll check out their demo...

I would rather not have to remake the wheel...
-22

[Dracos]

2d is a lot easier and it sounded like they had their heads on a lot straighter with the design of that, but I've not touched it myself actually.  I was entirely into 3d design during my time there so didn't purchase it or spend tiime with it's demo.

Dracos

[twentytwo]

Yeah, that's kind of what I figured. I'm still going to stick with OpenGL for now. When I get something interesting, I'll post some stuff up here.

-22

[Dracos]

Better for learning.  I feel in a way while using the engine was good development training, it also skipped handling many things.

Dracos

[baka]

I'm learning sockets! And realising that expecting to update the network every frame is dumb. So I am pondering.

I'm programming in a pansy language, though, so I don't know if it really counts as "development". (Python)

[Dracos]

I'm working in Python at the moment.  I remember Jason loving it.

Dracos

[twentytwo]

Argh... work's been tough lately. I haven't had any time for much else...

Right now, I'm trying to figure out how to make a good software synth and music mixer for my next game attempt. Since I'm working with Tao, I'll probubly go OpenAL; it seems simple enough, and I'm looking forward to working with it.

Sadly, things won't get much easier. Next week I start back in school. Last semester was Game Programming. This semester will be Artificial Intelligence and Computer Graphics (OpenGL and GLSL); both are very difficult classes from what I've heard (though I'm not too scared - I aced that Game Programming class without too much trouble and these next two were intended to be prerequisites for it...).

My number one plan is to stop working on my Chrono series parody and get back to finishing that Oekaki thread...

Argh... I need more time!

Sixteen Tons...
-22

[Dracos]

GLSL is something I should learn.

You find OpenAL easy?  It gave me a headache when I first glanced at it after the ease of fmod.  But then I was using pregenerated  rather than synths with fmod.

Good luck with your classes. =)

Dracos

[Dracos]

More now since I'm using a fair bit of shaders in my current project.

Anyhow, my current class is having us churn out a game for random platforms every two weeks.  Project 1 was solo'ed and was a paperboy 3d thing with collision issues.  

Project 2 was more detailed with two weeks for it and I'll fling it up when it's done.  It's a sort of bike building vr game.  Not very exciting, but decent enough for the time frame.

Dracos

[twentytwo]

Anyhow, my current class is having us churn out a game for random platforms every two weeks.

Sounds pretty cool. What platforms are you working with?

***

Well, finished a couple simple projects for my CG class. For AI, I did a maze with A*, Greedy, and Simulated Annealing.

Current Topics:
..CG - Matrix Multiplication/Transformations, Axometric/Perspective Views
..AI - Consraint Satisfaction Problems, Alpha Beta Pruning, Expert Systems

Busy Busy...
-22

[Dracos]

man, for working on a game every two weeks, I've been quiet here.

Since last post I've produced a horrible asymmetric mars rover game, which folks tell me is better than the museum varients but is up for most ambitiously idiotic game idea of the term.

Then I kind of stopped producing 'games' as the course isn't about that and started producing shows.  Whipped up a nice juggling show using some image capture technology.  Was at one point a pretty damn fun game, but I shattered that quite much to make it a better audience show.  Shittily, the computers were broken when we were demo'ing it and it pretty much wrecked the show.

Fourth round was making an interactive story game to deliver a story in under two minutes and thirty seconds.  We didn't quite steal the show, but were definitely among the top dogs and it was so amusing watching the technical staff do a dance when we finished that the computer hadn't exploded from the strain we put on it.  The strain of a cartoon bunny bouncing innocently around with a little girl.  Apparently, panda really doesn't handle 2d animation well, and having about a gigabyte of it when it finished uncompressing lead to some interesting cross your fingers moments.  Especially on machines that only had a gig of ram.

Fifth has been making predator world.  We have the odd position of being way the farthest along the game development track with the least assets in.  Made folks laugh by using the bunny for all the aliens in it, but next week will be hopefully replacing all the assets.

---

Twentytwo:

I've been working on the Panda engine over the Jam-o-drum (a weird themeparky type thing), the playmotion (a finicky image detection device), and some vr headsets and motion trackers.

I become less of a hard technical coder and continually more of the 'oh, it's already done' style.  Sort of fell off of shaders for the most part.  A few are really becoming quite expert in them and while it's useful, I keep finding it as more postprocessing art stuff rather than a core tool to bring forth a design.

Dracos