quote: Original post by beantas
(...)
modification for Half-Life? It'd be simpler to distribute than a Q2 distribution.

(and Q2 mod suggestion)

I fear I'll end up changing (or wanting to change) so much, it'll actually be more work making a mod work than using a "bare" 3d engine like Cube, CrystalSpace, genesis etc. Any thoughts on that? I don't see Torque (mentioned above) as an alternative for me.

And nobody (in the Game Design forum) had anything to say about the actual game in the design document? Or is it too much to read or bother with?

This thread was sort of a test trying to find out if it's meaningful to bring discussion here :-)

[edited by - Teodric on November 25, 2002 7:15:03 AM]

quote: Original post by Run_The_Shadows
If you do want to go commercial with this, you may want to look into the TRIBES2 engine, which licenses for $100(USD), compared to a possibly much more expensive one, like any of the Quakes.

-Ryan "Run_The_Shadows"
-Run_The_Shadows@excite.com
-<u>The Navidson Record</u>! The best film you''ll never see!

Yes but Tribes 2 engine, aka the Torque engine is a rendering engine not a game engine. You have to do everything else yourself and fit it within the way they do things (ie: you may as well write your own engine from scratch).

quote: Original post by Anonymous Poster
Yes but Tribes 2 engine, aka the Torque engine is a rendering engine not a game engine. You have to do everything else yourself and fit it within the way they do things (ie: you may as well write your own engine from scratch).

"May as well"? Why on earth would I want to write a dozen model loaders and renderers and so on, when my starting point is a desire to implement a design? "Rendering engine" is just fine with me.

I read over your design document. Pretty neat. It doesn''t look like you have anything there that would require an entire engine source open to you. IMO, you could do everything there with the limited code that the Half-Life SDK offers you. You''d be surprised how much you can change via their SDK.

The Torque engine is a complete engine. In fact, from what they give you, it''s almost playable game. The only thing that''s really missing is game logic. Its hardware requirements are a bit steeper than Q2 and Half-Life. Also, it''s oriented towards large open terrain levels. So this might not be what you''re looking for. If you decide to go with Torque, lemme know. I bought a license and I don''t use it at all.

One big reason you might want to choose a mod over an engine is documentation and ease of use. If you go with Half-Life, there are millions of tutorials which will help the learning curve. There are also still lots of modders out there who can give you help. But with Q2, you''re pretty much on your own.

Thanks beantas and thanks for taking time to read the thing! I looked at the HL SDK a while back, I''ll see if I still have it lying around. Outdoors isn''t as bad as it might first appear - the idea my son first stated is outdoors, and I''ve been assuming I''d end up making a fake outdoors arena (probably with odd pathfinding and whatever). That means I should probably have another look at Torque as well.

Thanks again - is it ok if I send a message later if I need to look at more of torque? (best torque info, that''s at garagegames, right?)

- Olof

Sure. Email me at reantas2003@yahoo.com

I read through your design document and I''m impressed. It''s cool that you''re willing to put forth the effort to help your son turn his idea into an actual game. I''m also impressed that you''re letting him flesh out the details, and that he''s interested in doing so. I haven''t met many 6 year olds with the patience to lay all that out.

About the game itself: it sounds like a pretty good idea. The impression I got was a cross between Diablo and MechAssualt(XBOX).

Good luck with the project; I''m sure it''ll be a good experience for you and your son.

quote: Original post by Naaga
I read through your design document and I'm impressed. It's cool that you're willing to put forth the effort to help your son turn his idea into an actual game. I'm also impressed that you're letting him flesh out the details, and that he's interested in doing so. I haven't met many 6 year olds with the patience to lay all that out.

I should clarify...
The effort is just a spur for me to get around to actually implement some of my many ideas. I usually do much more research-like things that don't tend to be easily made in anything publishable (for instance, I put some time into looking into P2P distribution, mainly meant for MMO games, and another favorite is automated creation of dramatic content (ie, quests), also aimed primarily at MMOGs - documents here and here). My son wouldn't have asked me to make a game if I hadn't been possessed by games to begin with - at least I don't think so - and I wouldn't have agreed to do it unless I thought it was within my grasp.

Second, the document about Cruyk (which is his name btw) contains among other things a very long list of items. That list is written by me. However, it is based on what I read into his wishes. He's seen me play games like Diablo II, and described something like it. I took the things he said and expanded and formalized.

In all, his statements are about one page of text. He has no grasp of item economy, I have to do that for him. He has no concept of challenge (it's just starting to appear).
Where it's possible, I let him decide. Where I need to provide things, I do.

Hope that puts things in perspective. It's not some super-kid we're talking about. He's my son and I love doing this with him, but that's just ... what it is.

When this becomes something I can look back upon, perhaps I will write down my experiences from it.

At the moment, things are stalling a bit as I try to find the right tools for the tasks. I hope we'll get moving again soon.

[edited by - Teodric on November 26, 2002 8:05:18 AM]

I think Reality Factory would be really useful for you, especialy if you want to easily prototype your game. It is designed for the non-programmer but comes with the source code for anything you want to change.

It is a 3d engine, full of features and best of all, its free.

Many types of games can be made with this engine and there is a friendly user support group and 1 steady programmer (part time but always there)

Check out the site at
http://rfactory.uber-geek.ca/

Good luck