Blogs - sinisterrainbow

Showing the 'Stickman' VLW system's diversity:

Showing the 'Stickman' VLW system's size (a later version is being prepared for infinte world, the current size can be larger than anyone can reach within 2 days of flying straight). Here I tkae the character out past 64miles (skyrim size):

SO - I keep like 4 blogs all over the place, and I don't even know why. One for other team members, one to recruit new talent, one for programming.. Why not just blog all the time instead of making a game..*grumble*

I need a place for feedback to stay in touch. Making a game is rarely cut and dry. You usually start with one killer idea, then have 1,000 more, most of which would take too long, wouldn't be fun, or way too complex for the amount of fun they'd bring game. That being said, I don't want to be the only person playing it, so feedback is welcome. You know, preferably not the kind where you're in pre-alpha state and everyone points out what needs work. More like, "What if you tried this, or that, or aoijwejfwef!" That's the kinda attitude all game devs like to hear - it shows excitement and a kind way to add input (while remaining positive). You'd be surprised how many things we have planned and what we know we need. It's just, working 15 hours a day *every day* is about 1/25th the time I wish I had. I am relentlessly efficient, only getting to what needs to go next, and working on back end to make future development even faster. It's a constant efficiency thing - do i make one mission this week or do I hold off and implement a quest registry system so doing the orders of quests won't conflict with each other? Do i implement more music now, or do I write a music logic control so a musician can tweak it later? It makes things slow at first, but the time saved debugging and rapidly making new quests is likely way worth it.

TEAM AWESOMENESS, and lack of team gripes: We have, so far, no animation talent on board, expect that to lag for a few months, we have no true artists (for visuals anyway), so many models and especially terrains will be redone (some is ok, the snow looks good - that's from Paul Jackson though, our very part time level designer).

He is awesome, but talented in so many things we can never get enough from him until guys like you bug him (which i hope you do after he makes the monastery and you see his talent).

We have a programmer/scripter (myself, let's get out of 3rd person right this second), and though i labored to learn everything possible about every field, the fact is I'm just not that good at it. You need serious talent for a 3d game. Indie game the expectations are still high, but no excuse not trying to find better talent than oneself. That being said, so far I have to do AI, music logic (cryengines doesn't work, i have to do a new one), quest system, mini games, power system, chi system, spirit system, story line, particle effects, keep the team together, update the repo, post videos, do PR, save states, xml readers and game saving/loading, network serialization, memory management, integrate profiling, debug mostly my code but figure out the occassional cry bug, and make it all so we can constantly upgrade engines (hopefully cryengine 4 comes out next year for example), so it doesn't take more than an hour or two to upgrade, perhaps learn some animations, perhaps learn actionscript so we can have cool scaleform menus, and about 45 trillion other things i can't even bother to think about yet! Add on top the 30 minutes lost a day due to editor crashes, it's a crashing heap-load (programmer joke?). In fact, I'm so used to seeing cryengine crash I dubbed anything I do from now on is going to be by the handle: Cr1t1cal Excep10n

Also with this type of project you get people who come and go. We've had two modelers who probably learned to model a week before they joined the project. One asked me every single question imaginable, even after i told him i have 5 jobs and he'll have to read some stuff on his own. He quit two days later. Learning lesson there. I started doing apps after that, easy stuff, but people who aren't serious won't fill them out which is fine, you need less headaches when faced with a project this size, not 10 *fist to face*s. One guy made some great trees for us, but got a job modeling toys and went with the 'big' bucks.. :) that's cool. Luckily, we have a couple modelers who really devoted to the project and are less than a month in still learning cryengine and using a non supported package (Blender) on top of it. They've made great stuff (old pull cart, weapons, pillory, more).. Should see some more soon. (efficiency, they're learning vegetation, fill out the level faster). I find myself having to do a few models, trying to modularly make them so we can reuse them. This isn't Infinity Ward, we don't have 80 staff of everyday professionals, u cut corners whenever possible.

Side ntoe: Before I made games I was asked how big do you think a game company is, I said probably 200-250.. I was surprised the average is a lot less, and many indies are like 4-5 man teams in my later years.. We're less than that right now if you count positions, and much less if you count hours that can be devoted... This is serious stuff, I'm going broke and I need to turn out a game this century - making a game is the biggest game of all. With much higher stakes and no 2nd lives!

Back to raves: We have 2 musicians, both super talented, who are also cool with doing sounds and one is trying to learn some tech stuff. Kudos, cryengine is harsh for non-techies. :) They've already made great headway - broken up one sound track completely so it will work with intensity levels if we go that direction (fade's in similar tracks, with more or less punch).. Very cool AAA game feature.. I set up a random incidental sound module so they can play with when and what small tracks should fire off and when.. But it's a long ways to go til we find a great mix. Music usually comes later anyway, but the first two guys on the project are musicians, you don't pass em up just because it's supposed to come later in the process. Besides, i have a new song each time i put a vid out - how many indie games can do that? 1-up for us.

And of course, everyone is part time except me, so it's slow going - but SURELY going. If you ever find your calling in life, the thing you'd do without pay - then do it - it's rewarding no matter what. I'm going broke doing this, and I care but never enough to stop. I will live in my parents basement til this comes out if I have to, forego all desires, fail to eat properly (if at all). i will peddle dvds like rappers peddle cds on Venice Beach in Cali. Why? I *have* to do it. It's tough and worth every second i sit down and ignore my health to try and have someone say 'that was really fun'. Regardless if we make money or not, go broke or not, if enough people say that, i'll feel accomplished, and so will the rest of the guys.