Life and Code

Well I have finally decided on the concept I will move forward with as the game I will develop. This decision has been a long time coming. I think the genre I have decided on is rather underused and the game will be fun above all else. The work required is not too bad either, I will disclose more after I have fleshed out the design documents. A page here is forthcoming as well.

Code concept, design, eureka, game

The Moon looked awesome

Life ares, moon, pictures

So I am all set up to write my excellent game (demo). I have come up with and shot down several of my own ideas. I think I have coder’s block. I know I have the ability to code this, however, I seem to be having problems designing. I think I need to just take some time off and unwind. The cold spell has actually given me a few ideas. We’ll see how it turns out I guess.

Code coder's block, demo, game, programming, suckage

The last two weeks off work have been a very creative time for me. I have been playing around with a few tools that I can see making garage/one man game development easier. Before last week, I was very much into Irrlicht and Newton, but this all has changed. My toolbelt has been helped out quite a bit by changing perspectives. My new tools of choice jME (the jMonkey Engine), jME physics, Blender and MakeHuman.

JMonkey and JME physicis are pretty cool tools, for Java. The game/graphics engine is very well featured and the physics engine seems to be the same. They use jinput and LWJGL and provide very simple and useable starting points for creating games. I very much like both of these projects. C++ will always be the king of speed but Java doesn’t do that badly anymore.

Since I have been weaned from the high cost 3DSMAX and Poser, I have been using Blender. Blender has served me very well, it is an excellent tool. It provides functionality that you would otherwise have to pay high prices for. The place I have lacked here is in my ability to create good looking humanoids. Enter MakeHuman, this tool may not be as deep as Poser is but I really like the models it produces. The project seems to be heading towards a good place and I like it alot.

These tools are ecellent, and I have played with them quite a bit in the last two weeks. I am looking forward to finishing my demo now. 

Code 3d, engine, human characters, java, modelling