The Game Design Thread of Epicness!

[Art]

If you want to download 'game music' then there are a decent set of archieves for MODs and MIDs which might help when you get round to the soundtrack part.

-Art

[Rob Van Der Sloot]

If you want to download 'game music' then there are a decent set of archieves for MODs and MIDs which might help when you get round to the soundtrack part.

-Art

Thanks, those are great to get some inspiration. Frankly, I've been giving the soundtrack a lot of thought lately. Especially since the game will combine two very different art styles, so I guess that also means two very different formats of music: modern and retro. It could be quite amazing to have two different worlds that play the same theme song, but in two different ways. Anyway, I'm probably getting ahead of myself.

I should probably first decide which parts of the game actually need a song of their own. There's a lot more to a game's soundtrack than just the main theme. I have various characters, that all deserve their own song, since they all play an important part in the story. Think of Star Wars for example, in which Luke, Leia, Darkvader/the empire, the emperor, Lei and Han (the love song), Yoda, all have their own themes. Thankfully my game only has about 5 characters that are really important to the plot (not counting other dangers that could be considered a character), and I'm not sure if in a videogame the main character should be considered one of the characters that needs a unique theme song (so that would make it 4 characters that need a theme). When deciding on the theme song for each character, it will be mostly about their emotional connection to the main character obviously.

I also think I should probably divide the game's world into clear separate areas, with theme's of their own.
For example, the forest areas, the desert and the city should all have a unique song to distinguish them. And there will probably be about 2 or 3 more important areas that also need a unique song. And then there's scoring the cut scenes, but I'll wory about those once I actually got any.

[The Pointless]

Bleh. Tried to watch a UDK tutorial, but tiredness seems to have gotten the better of me.

[Guided Daggers]

Yeah, I sometimes feel like the hardest part in this business is to keep motivated and keep going... :P

[Rob Van Der Sloot]

You can't force yourself to be interested. Usually I just take a break when I'm low on inspiration, or work on something else. For example, I still need to do the whole crafting system, and it is really important. But until I have a good idea of what it should look like, I'm working on other stuff first.

Two days ago I had a really good idea for one of the connecting rooms. It is basically a mineshaft that leads to an abandoned city. I really felt that those two areas needed something in between, cause it is a bit of a sudden transition. So I came up with this cave/tunnel room with a briljant puzzle. I spend the whole day doing the graphics for it, and another day doing animations, scripting and dialogues. Scr*w the crafting system, when I have an idea like that, I just work on that instead. Only work on something with a passion, or wait till you feel more passionate about it.

[The Pointless]

It's not so much lack of interest as it is genuine tiredness. I've been spontaneously waking up in the middle of the past couple of nights and my job has been sapping all will to live at the moment, despite it being the quiet part of the month when I usually -don't- want to smack someone upside the head.

I'm also a tad concerned about the use of Maya in the vids that I have watched.

[sorudo]

i see the problem there, maya isn't exactly an easy way to make models not to mention cheap.
i personally use milkshape 3D but lately can't activate the darn program so i can't save my work >_<

[The Pointless]

What about Blender, despite its notorious difficulty to get into?

[Rob Van Der Sloot]

i see the problem there, maya isn't exactly an easy way to make models not to mention cheap.
i personally use milkshape 3D but lately can't activate the darn program so i can't save my work >_<

Unreal also has plugins for 3dsmax I believe. And there's always the option of exporting from 3dsmax to Maya. And btw, no one except big companies actually pay for Maya or 3dsmax. Those programs are so absurdly expensive, there is no reason to buy it legally as a home user. And I think companies like Autodesk are well aware of that. In fact, they thrive on the piracy, because it makes more than half their user base. People who, when they decide to go professional, will eventually buy the program anyway.

It's not so much lack of interest as it is genuine tiredness. I've been spontaneously waking up in the middle of the past couple of nights and my job has been sapping all will to live at the moment, despite it being the quiet part of the month when I usually -don't- want to smack someone upside the head.

I know how that feels, the exhaustion and bad sleep rhythm. Though that is mostly something I do to myself. I find myself more creative at night, and thus end up coding till morning. But can't really help you with that. I hope this thread though, is an inspiration to everyone to just start working on their dream project. That is why I post so much, so others can see the work being done, appreciate it, and perhaps feel motivated to also work on something.

[Art]

Maya went free for use (apart from commercial use) about 10 years ago - I see since Autodesk snatched them up they still wear the veil of 'free trial' and all that jazz.

Rob's right though - Autodesk is ridiculously expensive with its costings for programs. However when you consider that everything around you had a DWG file (at the very minimum) sitting around somewhere which conforms to international standards you'll see why they can pull off that price with legit users.

Blender, btw, is really hard to use. Like as bad as it gets - try Bryce for starters - it's about grouping shapes and textures together and gives a nice easy beginners feel to what you'll deal with later.

-Art