Curse the internet. I've decided now I have a love-hate relationship with our fair world wide web. As I mentioned previously, I decided to kick off my modding dreams by making a map of the house I'm living in. Well, so far for my efforts I have a floor, and the four outside "marker" walls in place.
All that in the space of gods knows how many hours, and for that, I blame the internet. Why? Because it's so easy to just get yourself lost. I ended up spending a while with pen and paper jotting down the layout of the downstairs area, and decided to take a bit of a break and surfed the web. By the time I actually got back around to doing any work on my map, it was only about an hour ago, and not only that, but I decided I was not happy with what I had, so I decided to redo it.
So long spent, yet so little progress. I should be ashamed of myself. Oh well, at least the major stuff is out of the way, and I can spend tomorrow getting into the meat of the work.
Sunday 18 May 2008
Saturday 17 May 2008
Modding - The Final Frontier
As I kind of mentioned in my last post, I have a dream to create games, which has been with me ever since I was young. With that goal in mind, I've decided to set out and start in the world of modding.
Of late, I've been playing Team Fortress 2 on my computer, and enjoy it thoroughly. The bonus with any of Valve's games is that once you have purchased one of their games, you are allowed free access to the Source SDK, which is a collection of tools allowing you to create custom content for the games of theirs you own. Seeing as though I was given Valve's Orange Box for my birthday last year, I've got access to the SDK and quite a lot of pre-built material to play about with. Because I'm enjoying Team Fortress 2 so much, I figure it would be good to get into the Source SDK and have a go at making my own maps.
Over the last day or so, I've been trolling YouTube for some good tutorials ([Link] and [Link]) to show me just what I'm doing, and I think I've got a good handle on the basics. I can create walls and rooms, doors, and all number of interesting little things which any FPS map makes use of. With that knowledge under my belt, I figure I should begin work on something more substantial than a small room with various objects strewn over it.
After brief discussion with my housemate (read: "what do you think, dude?" "yeah, sweet"), I've decided to make a basic map in the layout of the house we live in. While as an FPS map our house would play pretty badly, it's still a nice little test to see just how much knowledge from the tutorials has actually sunken in and taken hold in ye olde grey matter. I would have started on it about four hours ago, however a thunderstorm passed over, and than I got caught up playing some Guitar Hero 3 along the way...yeah. Anyways, I'm going to give this mapping business a go, so wish me luck.
As well, I thought that every good blog needs to have a bunch of links to things that are amusing and interesting attached to each post. So, here you go.
Construction worker's foreplay (via Gizmodo)
Amazing Illustrator work (via Gizmodo)
Of late, I've been playing Team Fortress 2 on my computer, and enjoy it thoroughly. The bonus with any of Valve's games is that once you have purchased one of their games, you are allowed free access to the Source SDK, which is a collection of tools allowing you to create custom content for the games of theirs you own. Seeing as though I was given Valve's Orange Box for my birthday last year, I've got access to the SDK and quite a lot of pre-built material to play about with. Because I'm enjoying Team Fortress 2 so much, I figure it would be good to get into the Source SDK and have a go at making my own maps.
Over the last day or so, I've been trolling YouTube for some good tutorials ([Link] and [Link]) to show me just what I'm doing, and I think I've got a good handle on the basics. I can create walls and rooms, doors, and all number of interesting little things which any FPS map makes use of. With that knowledge under my belt, I figure I should begin work on something more substantial than a small room with various objects strewn over it.
After brief discussion with my housemate (read: "what do you think, dude?" "yeah, sweet"), I've decided to make a basic map in the layout of the house we live in. While as an FPS map our house would play pretty badly, it's still a nice little test to see just how much knowledge from the tutorials has actually sunken in and taken hold in ye olde grey matter. I would have started on it about four hours ago, however a thunderstorm passed over, and than I got caught up playing some Guitar Hero 3 along the way...yeah. Anyways, I'm going to give this mapping business a go, so wish me luck.
As well, I thought that every good blog needs to have a bunch of links to things that are amusing and interesting attached to each post. So, here you go.
Construction worker's foreplay (via Gizmodo)
Amazing Illustrator work (via Gizmodo)
A Child's Dream
I've always been interested in the field of game design. Ever since I was eight years old and my parents bought me the Sega MasterSystem, (ah, the nostalgia, good old Alex the Kidd!), I'd wanted to make my very own games. We only had one television in the house when I was young, so when it came time for the evening news, mum would swoop in to claim the TV, and I'd be sent off to play in the much more mundane "real-world". However, unlike most other kids of that age, I didn't go to my room to play with my cars and lego. Instead, I took out pencil and paper and started scribbling down crude sketches for my own games. At the time, my parents probably thought it was cute; little me sitting down so intent upon his little drawings! Now-a-days they're probably cursing the day they bought me my Sega.
High school went for me like it does for most teenagers; painful, "I HATE SCHOOL", with a dose of "do your schoolwork and pass, otherwise you'll regret it later on." If I had a dollar for every time I heard that...whew!
Ironically, for someone with the dream of making video games, they were also my high school downfall. With a lack of discipline towards schoolwork, and too much discipline at leveling up my characters to beat the next boss in Final Fantasy 7, I eventually fell too far behind, and ultimately crashed and burned. With terrible grades, my chances of entering into university or further study to bring me closer to my dream were all but gone.
That said, despite the path to my dreams being shattered, my passion for it hadn't lessened in the slightest.
These days, I've been looking into new ways to push myself along towards that ultimate dream, and despite the lack of the necessary education, the path to games design has opened up some.
Going back to 2000, when I was last at school, the face of PC gaming was very different. Back then, you'd go to the store, buy your game and play. The internet in those days - while established and going strong - was still a young and tender thing, and it's full potential had not been realised.
For PC gaming, and people in a similar situation as myself, 2008 - and the future - holds many promises. Today, while you'd still go out and purchase your games and have fun playing them, now they tend to come bundled with their own content editors. Having full games packaged with tools like this allows people such as myself to have a chance to get in and live our dreams, and at the same time - while not in a professional way - give us experience into the way the industry works.
Mods, and the modding community, are a massive benefit to the gaming community. It allows talented individuals to showcase their ability, and for the games themselves, it helps drive sales. I say this, as every new mod that takes off increases a games playability, and draws more people into it. Mods - whether it adds a new weapon, or introduces a completely new play mode into a game - help to keep a game fresh. Keeping a game fresh keeps people playing, and for the big companies, people playing = $$$.
So many games now come with their own content editors. The Elder Scrolls series, Unreal, Half-Life 2, and many, many more. So there are many options available for anyone who wants to get into that scene.
Now here is where I say the path to my dream has opened significantly (well, maybe not, but assuredly more than in the last five or so years). Most games would have heard of Counterstrike. In the beginning, it was a simple mod for Half-Life. However, through the magic and power of the internet, it became the next big thing. The one guy who created it in the beginning had found a formula, and it went off like a bomb. Thousands of people were playing it, and still do so. As far as I remember, Valve (the guys responsible for Half-Life) picked up this modder, and is now a member of their design team. It's a wonder story all like me dream of, and while I'd like to think that I myself would be able to pull off a success like that, I doubt it would ever happen.
However unlikely the success story might be for me, just having the experience in using such tools brings me that extra step closer to the ultimate goal of becoming a games designer. I have my dream, and despite the set-backs, I can never let it go, and will do all I can to attain it.
So wish me luck out there. Next time you log into your favourite game and click "play", you might wind up in something I've created.
High school went for me like it does for most teenagers; painful, "I HATE SCHOOL", with a dose of "do your schoolwork and pass, otherwise you'll regret it later on." If I had a dollar for every time I heard that...whew!
Ironically, for someone with the dream of making video games, they were also my high school downfall. With a lack of discipline towards schoolwork, and too much discipline at leveling up my characters to beat the next boss in Final Fantasy 7, I eventually fell too far behind, and ultimately crashed and burned. With terrible grades, my chances of entering into university or further study to bring me closer to my dream were all but gone.
That said, despite the path to my dreams being shattered, my passion for it hadn't lessened in the slightest.
These days, I've been looking into new ways to push myself along towards that ultimate dream, and despite the lack of the necessary education, the path to games design has opened up some.
Going back to 2000, when I was last at school, the face of PC gaming was very different. Back then, you'd go to the store, buy your game and play. The internet in those days - while established and going strong - was still a young and tender thing, and it's full potential had not been realised.
For PC gaming, and people in a similar situation as myself, 2008 - and the future - holds many promises. Today, while you'd still go out and purchase your games and have fun playing them, now they tend to come bundled with their own content editors. Having full games packaged with tools like this allows people such as myself to have a chance to get in and live our dreams, and at the same time - while not in a professional way - give us experience into the way the industry works.
Mods, and the modding community, are a massive benefit to the gaming community. It allows talented individuals to showcase their ability, and for the games themselves, it helps drive sales. I say this, as every new mod that takes off increases a games playability, and draws more people into it. Mods - whether it adds a new weapon, or introduces a completely new play mode into a game - help to keep a game fresh. Keeping a game fresh keeps people playing, and for the big companies, people playing = $$$.
So many games now come with their own content editors. The Elder Scrolls series, Unreal, Half-Life 2, and many, many more. So there are many options available for anyone who wants to get into that scene.
Now here is where I say the path to my dream has opened significantly (well, maybe not, but assuredly more than in the last five or so years). Most games would have heard of Counterstrike. In the beginning, it was a simple mod for Half-Life. However, through the magic and power of the internet, it became the next big thing. The one guy who created it in the beginning had found a formula, and it went off like a bomb. Thousands of people were playing it, and still do so. As far as I remember, Valve (the guys responsible for Half-Life) picked up this modder, and is now a member of their design team. It's a wonder story all like me dream of, and while I'd like to think that I myself would be able to pull off a success like that, I doubt it would ever happen.
However unlikely the success story might be for me, just having the experience in using such tools brings me that extra step closer to the ultimate goal of becoming a games designer. I have my dream, and despite the set-backs, I can never let it go, and will do all I can to attain it.
So wish me luck out there. Next time you log into your favourite game and click "play", you might wind up in something I've created.
ZOMG!
Well, as any blog goes, one must have the obligatory "ZOMG First Post!" So, this is it. At the point in time, I'm not 100% sure on what I'll be talking about here, but I'm certain as it gets going, a theme will develop, and we'll see some semblance of a consistent theme.
Oh yeah, Hello World.
Oh yeah, Hello World.
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