Lost My Momentum

I did it.  I did exactly what I said I wasn't going to do.  I lost my momentum.  

I haven't touched my game in over a week.  Ugh, what to do, what to do.  Well, enough farting around I need to get back to designing.

I have been working on another game in my spare time.  It's sort of a comedic Mario Brothers.  I wanted to approach this project a little differently.  I am starting with the Game Design Document and working from there.  I thought this was pretty boring at first but just sitting there writing down every thing that popped into my head was amazing.  I have absolutely no idea where I am going to take Eternal Light.  Yes, I know it will be an MMORPG and yes, I know it will have a decent story line, but what else?  Without the GDD I have been jumping around every where.  From working on my enemy AI, to different camera views, to terrain features.  But its like why am I working on terrain?  I don't know where any of story will take place or what it will look like or anything.  Gah!

So the GDD, is the most important part of any game, at least for its production.  I truly believe this, now, after creating one for my Mario Brothers game.  I can start focusing on graphics and know exactly what to draw.  I know which characters I need to make.  I know which levels to create and how the scoring system will work.  The best is anyone can read it and start working on assets right away.  Its brilliant!

I really recommend this to any aspiring game designer.  The GDD will cut down on your production time significantly.  Wow, totally lost track of what I was originally going to say.  Tomorrow I will fill everyone in, well like 10 people, on what I have done so far.  Cya Soon!

First-person Camera Setup and Testing

And on the first day, Steve created heavens and the earth.

Okay, maybe its just a skybox and a simple plane, but still pretty impressive, no?  Thats actually pretty far for my first day of designing and implementation.  I started working on a projectile system, to test out spells and ranged weapons, but I completely ran out of time.  Well tomorrow I have no plans and I think I might make a build for public use.  Then everyone can see how the game is coming along, just by playing it.

I have been trying to recruit people online and some of my friends but everyone is either too lazy or a terrible speller.  I hope I can at least share this project with someone along the way.

Momentum is VITAL

 I am finding Unity to be very challenging to use, AND, I lost my Hero Engine account!

So yeah, they switched to $99 a year, which is cheap, but I just have an issue with buying things online haha.  Anyways, Unity3D, as I said before, is proving to be very challenging.  Not as bad as starting from scratch but there is a lot more programming involved.

All the stress this past week have been purely from reading.  Its like brain exercise 8 hours a day.  I was trying to learn Unity, Blender, Maya, C#, and the concepts of an MMO all at once.  Not a good idea!  I have started my own "time management" paper thing.  Basically, I write down all my major concept ideas and things I need to learn.  Then I break apart each section into smaller tasks.  Then I try to complete one at a time.  So far its going pretty good and can actually feel the momentum coming back.  One thing I refuse to lose is my momentum.  Momentum is VITAL to any indie game developer.

Switching to the Unity3D engine

I am finally back on track putting all my focus into the Eternal Light project.  When I went back to HE to log in, I was confronted with a "You must pay $100 to login!"  So, yeah I got out of there pretty fast.  One of my main goals for this game is completing the project without spending a penny.  Gotta stick to my goals!

Any way, there is a loud ass lawn mower coming my way and I gotta pick up some friends.  I will post more this evening.

Switching to the Hero Engine

Ever since I made the decision to create an MMO, I have been stuck with a simple yet very complex decision, 2D or 3D? At first it seemed like a no brainer. 2D was easy and was really a good starting point for a first time game designer. After nearly four months of work now, the 2D perspective has been too limiting. Every idea is halted until it can be adapted to the engine. This is something I really can not put aside. I do not want to sell my self short or put something out there knowing it could be better if I had a better engine. Personally I feel if this is going to work then I will need to switch to 3D. For any G2D fans, there is nothing wrong with the engine, it's probably the best one out there for Dx7 and soon Dx8 support. I have different needs in the end.

So, I have switched to the Hero Engine. This has got to be the most advanced 3D engine out there. Although I have not spent more then an hour with it in development, I am very excited with the features this engine will bring. I have been following them closely over the past two months and I feel their professional standards and friendly community will reflect on my work ethic and allow me to produce something far better than running off into a corner with the Unreal Engine and hoping for the best. As my girlfriend would say, "oh god, another idea Steve?". I just like to think of myself as ambitious. :)

Switching to Maya I think will be the hardest part of all of this. Sure I can make a ball in Blender but a monster in Maya? Ouch time. I figure I will start with very simple textures and models. Over time I can improve on them and update them as necessary. Updates are so easy with HE.

I have other things to wrap up today and tomorrow. Hopefully my account will be completed this weekend and I can start setting up all the directories and so on.