2012-09-12, 15:50:41
(This post was last modified: 2012-09-12, 15:56:25 by Belshamaroth.)
Hi,
first of all: nice work!
But I have a question and a warning: where from will you get your assets?
Me and some friend of mine (all of them are computer scientists, mathematicians, designers or musicians) tried to develop the same, what you are trying now: a (non commercial, developed in their free-time ) BT standalone system. But we failed. (The project was stopped 2 years ago)
The coding (C++ based) has never been the problem (as there were professionals involved) but after we finished the raw framework for a game (3D-Engine, Controls, Menu, Network) we got a lack of content. We had one sound designer (me) and one (2D) graphic designer in our team. But nobody of us was fast and skilled enough to produce the needed amount of animated 3D models in a quality that would be satisfying. Also we had to learn that one graphics designer does not suffice to create all textures for menus, backgrounds, models, terrain ... We thought about using free-licensed material from the web but without an overall design such a game looks like a patchwork rug. And no code can save an ugly game... ("ugly" does not mean "no eye-candy" - "ugly" means no harmonious design of all components like models, textures, sound, user controls etc.).
Now I'm working as freelancer (sound-design & coding) for a couple of game studios and advertising agencies (ad-games, web-software etc.) and got to know that EVERY professional team has one guy (an artist or a designer) who acts as a chief of design. Most of the assets are not created in-house but are bought from different freelancers for a notable amount of money. They constitute the main development costs as they require the most of man hours. The chief designer now put this fragments together to create a harmonious general impression - a job which is a challenging piece of art.
I think this is the reason why AAA games have these huge development costs... As original BT shows: code seems to be minor problem in game development..
So what is my conclusion of this long post:
Coding is important, coding is nice. And yes, games are not too hard to code (compared to some simulations I worked on during my PDE-courses at university for example )
But a game is no database tool. It needs content, content, content... So your project will stand or fall by its design. You should care early about modelers, texture-artists, sound-artists (open sound libraries will not give any satisfying material as it will not sound belonging together) and most important a chief-designer who puts the pieces together.
Maybe the BT-Community provides such experts - I would hope so :-)
Best Regards
first of all: nice work!
But I have a question and a warning: where from will you get your assets?
Me and some friend of mine (all of them are computer scientists, mathematicians, designers or musicians) tried to develop the same, what you are trying now: a (non commercial, developed in their free-time ) BT standalone system. But we failed. (The project was stopped 2 years ago)
The coding (C++ based) has never been the problem (as there were professionals involved) but after we finished the raw framework for a game (3D-Engine, Controls, Menu, Network) we got a lack of content. We had one sound designer (me) and one (2D) graphic designer in our team. But nobody of us was fast and skilled enough to produce the needed amount of animated 3D models in a quality that would be satisfying. Also we had to learn that one graphics designer does not suffice to create all textures for menus, backgrounds, models, terrain ... We thought about using free-licensed material from the web but without an overall design such a game looks like a patchwork rug. And no code can save an ugly game... ("ugly" does not mean "no eye-candy" - "ugly" means no harmonious design of all components like models, textures, sound, user controls etc.).
Now I'm working as freelancer (sound-design & coding) for a couple of game studios and advertising agencies (ad-games, web-software etc.) and got to know that EVERY professional team has one guy (an artist or a designer) who acts as a chief of design. Most of the assets are not created in-house but are bought from different freelancers for a notable amount of money. They constitute the main development costs as they require the most of man hours. The chief designer now put this fragments together to create a harmonious general impression - a job which is a challenging piece of art.
I think this is the reason why AAA games have these huge development costs... As original BT shows: code seems to be minor problem in game development..
So what is my conclusion of this long post:
Coding is important, coding is nice. And yes, games are not too hard to code (compared to some simulations I worked on during my PDE-courses at university for example )
But a game is no database tool. It needs content, content, content... So your project will stand or fall by its design. You should care early about modelers, texture-artists, sound-artists (open sound libraries will not give any satisfying material as it will not sound belonging together) and most important a chief-designer who puts the pieces together.
Maybe the BT-Community provides such experts - I would hope so :-)
Best Regards