Blog Post #2 - Toying with Engines/Middleware

Hey all, I'm back for another blog post. So I've been toying around with Game Engines, and Middleware, seeing whats out there, what it does, what it is, and how it integrates into the game. Remember all, I'm still learning here, but what I'm finding is very interesting. Much akin to the plugins for say, Mozilla's Firefox Internet Browser, Middelware kind of seems to do that. And I know to some that may be a 'dur' thing for me to say, but I do find it neat that having middleware can help make a cohesive development environment, and take some of the shambles of developing the particular features you're looking to put into your game, yourself.

But, I wonder, what cost, besides financially, does that come at? Is it more sound, say for a HUGE A-List Game, to use Middleware? I mean, its all still under investigation by me, but, it seems that the smaller scale you go, the less of what it is the middleware offers, I find that you need.

Because I was thinking about it, and really... a game like... Bob Came in Pieces, I can see that in Unity 3D, being only built by the Indie version. I'm not up on what all the terminology is in Unity 3D, and whether or not the Indie version would let you import assets from Maya, or 3DS Max, or Blender, say... but I'm curious as to whether its possible to just make a game, with one program? Would that have any bearing on whether that game is good or not?

Well, if you're reading this, you already know that I'm on an adventure, to find all this stuff out. So here's a summary of what I've looked into:

• Trinigy Vision SDK
• Gamebryo Lightspeed SDK
• Torque Game Engine SDK
• Procedural's City Engine
• NaturalMotion Euphoria Endorphin Engine
• Filterforge
• FMOD

Now I know I'm probably getting ahead of myself here, but I like to find out whats out there, and then sort it all out. Like taking a big spoonful of potato's, and letting it digest.

I'm almost at the point where I'm going to start implementing things I've learned into the tinkering stage, as that always seems to work for me. Watch, Listen, Learn, Tinker, Fill it in, Watch... etc.

Its my hope that, if I can get the Unity Web Player to work, that I'll be able to post (though I've mentioned this before) build's as they happen, but I also think I might upload links to things I've learned through tinker, with a description of what I was going for, or tinkering to try and see.

Anyways, for Raindrop Studios, this is Stry, or Marc, and I'm off to learn it up.

Over and out Fellow Gamers

Blog Post #1 - The Game and what I'm Learning

Good Afternoon Ladies, Gentlenerds, and Fellow Gamers,


So this is the first blog post I'm doing. I decided a little while ago, after I had this sudden brain fart idea, to make a game. Not knowing how to do it, I scoured the internet for resources, tools, ideas on how to use those, tutorials and what-not's.

So the game, while it lacks a title, there's definitely a workable, and fun idea behind it. I'll post what I've written down for ideas for it from my notes. Bear in mind, this is all copyrighted material, likeness and all, but, being an indie or aspiring one like myself I'm sure you can respect that my ideas are my own, and vice versa. They were inspired by seemingly insignificant parts of other games, when you really look at it all I suppose. I did some digging about why I wanted to make this game, which I'll talk about in a blog post to come.

Without further ado here are the notes:

 You play as a newly formed raindrop, and you have to move yourself in order to shift your arrow dynamic form to land on leaves, or anything else than can absorb you.

Start game from high point, seeing the island as a bit smaller

Slower fall speed that slightly increases as you go down, like Tetris speed increasing as you go up in levels

Increase fall speed by the size of the droplet

Droplet size increased by moving into and through clouds grabbing condensation on the way through

Also, Urban city scape, having to avoid smog clouds which lower points or point value, and having to land on potted plants, tree’s in parks, plant’s on windowsills,

Urban setting creates higher difficulty outside of easier one set on island where there are more trees

Use Fluid Dynamics, or Fluid Physics so then when you move in a particular direction it’s the shifting of the water encapsulated in the droplet itself shift its mass in one particular direction to sorta of ‘flip’ itself into the specific direction.

 So as you can see, there's definitely something there.

I'm really trying to arrive at the engine that would fit this game the best. Using soft body physics won't work very well with Unity, as from what I can tell it doesn't support it. If there's an external plug in, or a way of using say... the nVidia PhysX to enable it or handle it outside of the game... would be really great. But I also don't want to limit people, I'd really like for everyone, on multiple platforms be able to pick it up, play it, enjoy it, and find it visually appealing. So we'll see. I'm still in the learning phases.

Anyways all, hope this will suffice for the first post. Look forward to the next one, not sure how I'm going to do it, but, I will be posting as frequently as I can.

Also, if I can, I'll be posting small builds of the game on here, if that's possible, using the Unity Web Player, so people can play the game as it evolves :D.

Enjoy,
Marc aka Stry - Raindrop Studios