Starchild

An anime life simulation with space, comedy, mystery and rpg components, being developed almost solely by a single person. Create your alter-ego, take decisions which will shape him, grow and adventure through the universe. You can find the game site link at the signature below.

Games have historically been better with very simple storylines. Complexity is best explored in the lore of the world your creating. The only games I can think of that can make due with highly complex stories are point and click adventures (or those similar, like Heavy Rain).

Come up with a simple story, for example: “player must find and kill so and so.” Come up with some circumstances for the character, and immediately start working on the lore (including plants, races, and enemies like bosses and minions).

peace,
-nick

Just wished I understood that earlier, now this year I will probably get really busy, and my game will proceed very slowly

Just wished I understood that earlier, now this year I will probably get really busy, and my game will proceed very slowly

and I wish you luck, my dear Prinny. You seem to have a rather rational head on your shoulders. I certainly can’t garuntee that your project will be finished, but you’ll have a good idea of how to design a good game based upon what you learn.

peace,
-nick

So you know this funny little character :smiley:

I meet him while playing Nippon Ichi´s Playstation 2 game, Makai Kingdom, he was a special type of charater there. In fact I really like most of NIS games.

I thought my game would proceed very slowly, but thank Lord things have stayed smooth until now, and i hope it continue this way ;), so I can continue developing my game without worrying about anything else.

We shall be looking forward to your progress!

Thanks, your support is appreciated!

I have decided to really finish the game this time, if I do not finish it, I swear I will never make a game again in my life. My task is much simpler now since the history isn´t that complex and the game is short.

I do not understand why I started to want to create a complex game, when originaly my game was supposed to be very simple and short, at least now i´m in the right way again

Progress looks good, and it’s nice to see that your using the BGE. =)

Games have historically been better with very simple storylines.
I’m going to have to disagree. Deep stories allow the player to become more immersed in the game. As a result, it makes the game more interesting and memorable.

However, with that said, you should know your own limits. A game with deep story requires much more work on your end. Therefore, I think that reducing size of the story might have been a decision. It would be a good idea to complete the game itself first, and worry about the story later.

Besides, if you ever wanted to extend the story (and if you had extra time), you could always make a sequel.

Well my friends, I have been busy with my last months in Graphic Design university, also I´m waiting for the new blender and GIMP versions before starting the game demo.

I would like to say which i now use deviantart to show my project progress, the link is at the end of my first post. I use it as a point where threads about the game both in brazil unidev and blenderartists sends you if you wish to know more about the it.

Another post by me only when I have a game demo.

I do not have a blender BGE demo yet, but was close to have one in Panda3d. I was expecting blender 2.5 for a long time, it was fun and I learned a lot of things since I left the old BGE and travelled by Blitz3D and later Panda3d lands, let´s see what I can do with it.

I heard about UNITY development software, but blender has a linux version, is one with the Game engine, uses Python (which I learned a lot with Panda3d) and I can see in it what I´m actually doing instead of just coding. Changing to Unity would lead to learning a new language too, I just want to finish my game, I cannot afford to lose any more time now.

I ended my university, that leaves me with more time, but also, I now work as a freelancer illustrator and graphical designer, so I won´t have full time all days for my project, except weekends and holidays.

I find it funny that your posts are exactly a year apart. :slight_smile:

You might want to take a look at using Bgui for your GUIs. It’s still in beta, but it makes creating more complicated GUIs a lot easier.
http://code.google.com/p/bgui/

Hey, you have your own game too! that is nice. Everything which comes to easy a game development, providing production speed is welcome. I will take a look at bgui; nowadays I code only when there is no better way of doing things, I´m more artist than programmer, just someone who wants to finish the game as I promised long ago.

I think I will change my thread management politic, what I was doing was only updating my first post, and I would only add a new post in answer to another person; but this made my current game thread and another ones always “fade in oblivion” as I like to say, as a stable number of thirdies replies is only possible to game consolidated for a long period of time.

I looked at another works in progress games, and from all replies to a particular thread, only around 25% are from people which are not involved in the game develoment, and from these 25% around 40% are from people which really like the project and comment more than once.

So I think I´m not doing that stuff which is characterized by doing posts only to keep the thread at top of the forum, as I´m updating a lot the game project.

That said I´m still having problems uploading the game package, maybe when I install ubuntu later(around 30 april) this can be solved, if this is a windows usb minimodem driver related stuff. I will not repeat what I already said in the first reply, I will only create new posts for updates from now on; but know these recent updates:

At “Status”, right below the images, you can check what is being done.

There is a separate selected musicpack rar above the game specs(as game itself will not have audio for some time still), I do not understand why i could upload this file, if because it was small or if I was on linux ubuntu when I did so.

Default character for Nightkin race, called Luna, almost done. There is a ingame printscreen(done with python and BGE input) of her in the images.

Frogman Elmore Batraquius,yet unamed bird like old woman and hover car models are being improved and are probably ready for texturing.

Moguri kindly provided his project bgui beta for use in this game, I´m still learning how to use it for what I need, and if it is capable of doing it all or if it will need to be improved by him or by me(if I know how)

Hello, lately I have been doing the game creature models base meshs with reference(which i will later modify to be more alien); I also came up with a better main menu design, and I´m ready to make the first underground ruins level after I plan some things out about it.

Regarding game universe I´m currently deciding base stuff, some of them are below:
What is the form of goverment between the planets members of the interstelar society; currently Federation(ex: star trek) seems nice
Why the player travels so much throught the universe? He can be from the planet inspection service(finds new worlds), a trader(needs new worlds for profit), member of the galactic police(that would solve why he is always fighting nasty people) or a mercenary(which can have any of the above jobs). The last one looks quite wide, so looks a nice pick
Startship travel technology and speed(warp portals, hyperspace, etc), comunications system, sensors quality and fuel type.
Overall Technology level for the game universe

After these I can proceed into(regarding game universe):
making the default starting solar system, planets and planets surface(with believable data)
thinking more about the default race society
think more about quest1 planet, Sera
the player starship

By now the new ubuntu should have been released, I will download it and install, hopefully fixing my file upload problem, and thus making the current files avaible

It is an outrage for me not to comment on this project!
Space game? I’m making one too!
On you last post you talk about interstellar travel, planetary generation and planet detailing, etc, I’m now very interested in your project. How exactly do you intend on doing that and how big will the universe be? What kind of game play are we talking about here? I don’t quite understand the storyline! Could you post screenshots of the game’s evolution, let’s say from Panda3D?
I’ll be watching this spot, and if you need any help, I may be able to give you as well!

The question of fuel will enable me to have a certain control over how far the player will get, player will be able to get free refuels from his home planet, that is if I decide the fuel is not unlimited, then a lot more planning will have to happen.
The base game will have only the default race and the first quest solar systems, I think I prefer to set warp points as mean of interstelar travels, they provide more control to where the player will be able to get.

the game would work with packages, the following ones are planned:
.quest .planet .system .music .ship .race .character and .part
The player can get more things for his game universe by downloading these packages, either made by me or by others. So the universe will be as big as the player wants.
Storyline as you could see is still in development, but it will be quite generic, as the starting race will depend on the player.
I preffer to post only my best screenshots here, at my art site there are old ones, but they will be erased with time.
Each solar system package will bring its planets(acessing .planet packages), by entering one atmosphere you will see more details of it(like earth from space). By approaching to land a planetary map will be presented so you can choose a random landing spot or a city or something. I do not plan on having planetary surface travel in real time for now. Game gets real time 3d again in the place you landed. It will involve a lot of python randoms when the player lands in a random place for uh…random landscape and creatures.
But i´m not sure if there will be random landings in planets with goverments or protected by the space society, most it will happen in new planets or with no sentient life ones.
I intended for the creation of a software to help in solar system, planet, planet surface and quests creation, but in the worst case users will have to know python, blender and BGE to make their stuff.
I will take a look at your game thread, I will comment there. Thanks for the help offer too :slight_smile:

EDIT: Forgot to talk about other aspects of the gameplay:
After you press main menu new game you will go to a screen which asks which race you will want to play, after one is selected it will offer the default character for you to play, if you do not want it, you can create your character with the parts each race has(.part packages).
Then you start at your homeword in space map view. You decide what to do from there, if there are quests loaded in your game you will receive transmissions like “planet X needs Y” “planet Z needs help”; of course it do not need to be a planet to have quests, may be a space station, asteroids, spaceships…
When you land the game is First person, when you engage in combat action or talk your view change to third person.
combat action involves anything which is not running or walking, like attacking or something. A thinking cloud will appear above your head when you do a combat action so you can decide what to do regarding something(you, your partner, the enemy or the enviroment). The game will pause then, after you choose your action the game unpauses, your player do the action automatically and you will have to wait for your action bar to fill up before taking another combat action.
There is room for improvement on the above combat system of course, and many aspects of it may change yet.

Sorry for the delay, I got very ill last week, bad stuff. But here I am again! I have generated randomly the default solar system using GURPS Space, for the default race, the nightkins. I think the result went well, the base info of the system is below(there is a early screenshot of it in the first post with almost accurate scale):

The system has a Subgiant class IV orange star, since one of its planets will be home of the nightkins race, a dark race; the solar system will be called “Nix IV”(Nix is a word related to night and IV is the star class). A Orange Star(K type) is older than our sun, emits less radiation and brightness. The system has 11 orbits, detailed below(note: AU means astronomical unit,1AU is the distance from the sun to earth, earth diameter is 12.756km, its density is 5,52 and gravity is 1):

---------------------------------------------------------
Distance in AU from sun | Orbit nº | Details
-------------------------------------------
--------------
0.1 | 1º | Planet Caldera
A rocky and hot planet. 11.200km in diameter, 7.1 density, 1.1 gravity, 5% inclination. Got some valuable non-organic resources on it.

0.5 | 2º | Void Orbit

1 | 3º | Planet Lunaria
Current home of the known nightkins. Diam 17.600 Den 5.8 Grav 1.2. 12% of inclination(less than earth), providing small seasonal effects; it has rarefied atmosphere. Estimated population of 500 millions. Originally was just an small colony, but after contact was lost with the rest of the race centuries ago, the colony was left alone in this solar system planet, and managed to somehow survive and grown. The planet surface is harsh, but underground, the conditions are acceptable for life.

1.7-3.3 | 4º-5º | Asteroid Belt, provides valuable resources

6.5 | 6º | Medium Gas Giant, with 9 very small moons, 7 small moons and 5 medium moons.

12.9 | 7º | Medium Gas Giant, with 8 very small moons, 9 small moons, 3 medium moons and 3 large moons. Have a faint ring, like Uranus

25.7 | 8º | Small Gas Giant, with 5 very small moons, 11 small moons and 3 medium moons. Have a faint ring, like Uranus

51.3 | 9º | Planet Glacius, Terrestrial planet, with no atmosphere. diam 14.400 Den: 4.8 Grav 1 6% inclination

102.5 | 10º | Small Gas Giant, with 10 very small moons, 9 small moons, 3 medium moons and 1 large moon.

204.9 | 11º | Small Gas Giant, with 8 very small moons, 7 small moons and 2 medium moons. With a faint ring line Uranus

Will be generating the last system for quest 1, currently named Emerald.

EDIT: I left the outer orbit(small gas giant) out of the image(first post), as it is very far away

All right, already randomly generated the last system base. It will be called Ceres-V. It has a class V red star(m) from the main sequence. It got 9 orbits:

---------------------------------------------------------
Distance in AU from sun | Orbit nº | Details
-------------------------------------------
--------------
0.1 | 1º | Planet Sera
11.200km in diameter, 5.9 density, 0.9 gravity, 12% inclination. Has minor atmospheric changes during seasons. Planet with a lot of forests, has some unusually big life forms. Initially occupied only by research centers, but now got some colonies too.

0.4 | 2º | Medium Gas Giant, with 16 very small moons, 3 small moons, 3 medium moons and 1 large moon. Has a faint ring like Uranus

0.7 | 3º | Asteroid Belt, provides valuable resources

1.3 | 4º | Small Gas Giant, with 6 very small moons, 8 small moons and 6 medium moons, with a visible ring like Saturn.

2.5 | 5º | Void Orbit

4.9 | 6º | Small Gas Giant, with 16 very small moons, 1 small moons, 7 medium moons and 2 large moons. Have a faint ring, like Uranus

9.7 | 7º | Void Orbit

19.3 | 8º | Asteroid Belt, provides valuable resources

38.5 | 9º | Planet Iceberg, terrestrial planet, no atmosphere; has 9.600km diameter; density of 6.2 and 0.8 G; has 15% of inclination.

I have not defined yet where exactly the two systems warp points will be as Gurps Space left it kind of open.

EDIT: I left the outer orbit(planet iceberg) out of the image(first post), as it is very far away and almost invisible in the scale

I have been looking and Planet Sera would be tidally locked, with a very hot side, a middle one where all the forest and the quest can happen, and a very cold side. Sun would appear around 5 times bigger than it does on earth, and the nearby medium gas giant would appear in the skies like a considerable size star in the dark size. This gas giant so close to a habitable planet make me wonder if GURPS rules where right this time. A gas giant that close would not have allowed the formation of planet Sera

Hello, I think this text I have taken from my deviantart profile explains well what has been happening:

Sorry, I forgot to update my journal lately. […] I plan to make a section on my site(http://felipearts.com.br) only to my game, but know which my site is in brazilian portuguese only currently, multilanguage will involve php and additional programming, and I do rather work in my game programming right now.

I got myself the current mid-end 21.5 imac, it is really as good as they say; sure I can’t change my mac hardware anytime like a PC, and which it is around 2x more expensive, but the positive aspects overthrow its weak points, both in hardware and software. […]

I passed many weeks leaning all I can about my new hardware and software, and must say GIMP is horrible with mac currently, I will check again in october, when the new version will come out; but for now I’m using as replacement seashore(a kind of mac exclusive gimp, free and open too), and inkscape still, which on mac runs with X11(which has very unpleasant integration with the system), but I found no replacement for it, so it will do until a new release of it comes in the near future(I tried openoffice draw, it is seriously crippled in the export image department)

[…]So my game target OS is mac OS only now, but lately, when the game is ready, players may do the conversion to the other 2 main Operational systems themselves if they want to, I would enjoy a lot a linux version.

Note which I’m using the BGE now, but the one I used before, panda3d, is quite nice too,and their forum people are as nice as blenderartists ones; if you dislike BGE you should check panda3d.

I decided to gave up on third party file hosting; since I have a site now I will host my files there; note which my north brazilian internet is horrible; that is part of my upload problem, but I will try once more uploading my game files.

I’m having severe difficulties regarding how can I do what I did in panda3d in BGE, mainly how the BGE can handle several external scenes, models and so on currently; also it seems the BGE dynamic importing is still incomplete(all blender.org pages I visited about its API say that). I managed to use .py codes outside the .blend already, but I do not know if I can already run the game from a single .blend(which would get resources elsewhere in the game folder), and if not, would I need to split my level in several self-contained .blends, how would I cycle throught them at runtime? But even then the character creation I had previously in panda3d would not work without dynamical importing. And I won’t return to panda3d or learn a new software for this as I said, or it is in BGE or never.

Bgui have been quite difficult to set up as I intended to, but I do not know if it is my fault or the program still has some undiscovered bugs; i will keep messing more time with it to know better. In last case the game will go on, but with blurry guis, then later I fix that.

Would I give up if I can’t reproduce the character creation menu I made in panda3d? Not at all, if this happens the game will be reduced to fixed characters(player included) and it will go on until finished(even needing heavy reduction), then when the BGE is ready I do the other things I intended to.

Anyway I have noticed I have been giving too much energy in details and progressing very slowly; I saw an old japanese sentai, changeman; which made me think, the execution and concept was very simple, but very effective with the public; making things more simple, finishing them and only then perfecting it may not be something so terrible as I first thought; it seems something do not need to start or be 100% perfect, maybe starting and finishing it is more important, after noticing this again and again I think this may be truly right(at least in my situation); I had set my game to be small already, but I was overperfecting this small game still…

Moguri’s BGUI module actually isn’t that hard - I once thought that it was, but after getting a simple example, I saw how easy it was to set up. Did you see the example that comes with the BGUI? I can’t find it right now, but there was also another example that someone made that was very simple - it just consisted of making a System, a Label (which was attached to the System), customizing the Label, and then drawing the System via the logic.postDraw variable.