@MWM I'm trying to learn to create video games and need a rundown of the "poor man's" tools of the trade. I know 3ds max, photoshop, and unreal engine/cryengine are the top tier tools, but could you give me an idea of what free or cheapware products I could look into? I know this is off topic, but looking for a way to beef up my skills prior to coughing up dough for the top gear products.I am going to take the Game Institue course and wanted to know what your feelings are on that program.
my money situation is tight, and If I save for some good tools I want to make sure I have the necessary ability first otherwise its a waste of my money. I have telecommunications and LAN/WAN skills and certs 16 years of exp, but I am determinted to take the programming/game design plunge. Any help or guidance would be greatly appreciated.
Good Luck MWM,
Jon M aka Krazy_Ivan
Hey Krazy Ivan!
I can't speak for someone else but www.sourceforge.net is always a good place to start with.
As for the engine:
Mostly it depends if you want to create a comercial game or not.
If your game stays for free, it's mostly your engine of choice. It doesn't matter.
If you want to create a comercial game you'll need either plenty of money or a good open source engine.
Ogre 3D for example was used in City of Heroes, Neocron and plenty of other games.
If you don't want to code everything yourself, you could also buy basic products like gamecreators (RPGMaker, RealmCrafter and 3d Game Maker comes to mind).
Those are of cause limited in their features.
As for art:
Gimp 2
Blender
Also I am not an art guy, but those would be my choice.
I don't have a clue about sound, because I personally use Magix Music Maker.
But I guess some of our sound guys have some good advices.
Hope that's a little help. Most tools above are open source.
Greetings,
Cere
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Look at Unity3D. They now provide a free version.
Thanks Cereomonious, I am downloading blender to check it out. Blender looks a little intimidating I must say but, it looks like it has a lot of functionality for the great price of free. My main goal is to ultimately create a FPS/RPS hybrid something first person in combat/missions then have a non-combat area in third person. A Lofty goal for someone starting from where I am, but I intend on making simple games to learn the basics. I will look into Ogre 3d and Neocron too.
I'm not an artist either. I have average art talent at best, my strongpoints are lore as writing short stories is a hobby and device configuration from my work experience. I am hoping the programming part is something I can pick up the fastest. I plan to find someone else to do the artwork once once I have the project layed out and semi functional. I am starting an online program by the game institute because it's 100 bucks and it looks like it covers everything from C++ to art/and engine design. Have you heard of the game institute?
ok thanks again, hopefully I can pick your brain again ina few months when I am a bit closer to my goal.
Jon M
Hi Izzy,
I will check out the website. Unity looks like its made for many platforms too. I love the price of free.
Thanks!
Jon M
If you have a knack for visualizing in 3D, some prior experience with any sort of CAD, or both, Blender can be relatively quick to learn despite the initial shock. I recommend a Youtube search for Blender tutorials (especially the series by cgboorman).
If you'd like a practice file, you can try this rough "stadium" concept I shared with Plan Z last year, when the art team first selected 3D modeling software.
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B-VKUm5ztDn0Vkt4U2NBTXJrQVk
Once you are familiar with some of the copy/paste/rotate features, structures with uniform features (non-"sculptures") can be created quickly. This was the first thing I made in Blender, but prior AutoCAD and SketchUp experience helped.
For an example of a much smaller structure, here are two subway entrances:
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B-VKUm5ztDn0ZFB3V2pSQ25vb28
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B-VKUm5ztDn0Ym5fcWw3a2VFZHM
I would note, both Unreal and CryEngine are available in for free as well.
Technical Director
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Here are some free art tools that I used.
Paint.net
Gimp - http://www.gimp.org/
Blender - http://www.blender.org/
Bryce (they have other programs that can be used too) - http://www.daz3d.com/
MakeHuman - http://www.makehuman.org/
TrueSpace 7.6
If you want to get into the programming side.
http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/eng/downloads#d-2013-express
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I don't know very many tools, but I can link you to a video series you should watch:
http://www.penny-arcade.com/patv/show/extra-credits
Extra Credits has a lot of useful information on games, game design, and game development in general.