Hiya all i need some expert advice on what i need to make a game from everything to hardware to software, please spare no detail please,
1.(Hardware)what would i need as in, what type of computer set up would i need 2 or 3 and how fast would they have to be and would i need to use different video cards to get results for ati and nvia?? and also do i need a mac or custom made PC (Specs would be nice pleae guys and why,
(Software) this is a biggy here i need to know everything in this department and why if itās not to much to ask such as plugins or standalone software like maya and other things bryce comes to mind i need to know all the software iād need other than the game engine to produce a truley good game.
(Game Engine) i know this might qualify under software but i wat to poiint out my needs and concerns about this , to me it seems like my most important piece to the puzzle is the engine itself can someone give me solid answer on the best engine to produce high poly count charās that don;t look dated like the torque engine or blocky chars. i really like quality engines with lotās to offer in way of this quailty my budget is 3,000.00 us dollars for this alone!
The gameās at hand weāre making are a horror survial game and a mmorpg with diablo2 style playing note iām confused at whether or not diablo2 countās as a mmorpg or a solid rpg.
5.(Cellphone Games) is this feasable to make cellphone game using this same engine if not then could you point me in the right direction. :applause: :eek: :eek:
6.Thanks to all you guyās that response to my post and give me helpful advice my website will be up in march 2006 for further in depth details about my companyās gameās. Iād love any help from you guyās if possible when we finally get the ball rolling in terms of programming prowness and artist. thank you again for all you guyās do! your the best.
Because we were all absolute beginners once, Iāll take a stab at answering what I know. The key thing for you to understand is that there arenāt any definite right or wrong answers to any of your questions. There are many choices and each comes with its set of compromises.
Youāll need a robust setup for every member of your team. Hereās a good source for pc hardware information: http://www.extremetech.com/ If you decide to go Mac, youāll be limited in your 3D art creation tools (Maya) and game engine (Unity).
Photoshop for 2D and either Maya, 3DS Max, Softimage XSI or Lightwave for 3D. The choice is really dictated by your budget and your artistsā preferences. Everything else is optional.
I thought I just might add that Autodesk aquired Alias (Maya) so the future of Maya is sorta sketchy but I think Autodesk will be smart and let the two live side by side rather happily (or incorporate both into one program, and shoot the price of said product sky high!)
The gameās at hand weāre making are a horror survial game and a mmorpg with diablo2 style playing note iām confused at whether or not diablo2 countās as a mmorpg or a solid rpg.
Well from the sounds of it you are relativley new to game development (as am I but I do think atleast i have some sorta knowledge about it :D) and I would suggest that your team concentrate on one game at a time especially if you plan to do an mmorpg, I was talking to my cousin the other day (he is a proffesional coder with a masters degree in computer science or something like that, has professional experiance, and right now is a professor) and he was talking something like a professional studio employs a quite large team of programmers when making an mmorpg he said something like 20 (I dont know if he was exaterating but i assume he means alot atleast). Just my 1 and a half cents.
wow. If thereās a forum where I go for the evil amusement of watching kidsā dreams getting shattered, that forum is here. Thank you, game development forum!
Haha, well reality bites. Peoples perceptions of what goes into making games cracks me up. Half the people I meet want to get into development because they love playings games. I always anwser with āThats great, but making them isnāt anything like playing themā. I think itās good for people to get some doses of reality.
It looks like youāre really new to developing games. Just wondering, are you the project manager or something like that?
Either way, I think it would be better if youād join an existing company and get a feel for all that goes arround making games. Once youāve got a better general idea, start your own company.
Iāve been testing several engines, comercial and non comercial, and the best is UE3,
but there are other interesting options like
renderware
half life source
reality engine
and Unreal engine 2
and I was testing some german engines that are good and cheap, but I donāt remember the names.
Anyway you can call to the companies and ask for an evaluation version, it should be enough
to know what is the best for you.
AS if I actually know, seeing as I have never held a job in game developementā¦ maybe one day, but I will try to add my view on infrastructure.
Depends on what you WANT to do, and how much work you are willing to do, AND how many ppl you have on your team. Letās break it down into task.
Task 1. Programming. This doesnāt take a whole lot to do, but testing the software you produce afterward requires you to either run it the dev computer or a testing computer. With that being said, set a goal for your game, and make sure you can plan it out all the way to target machine. So for actual programming you can build a custom PC for less than oh lets say around $600 including a cheap monitor. You donāt need much for actual programming, but once you test it either make your dev computer fast enough to run the game or build a custom PC fast enough to test.
Task 2. Resource Developement. Depends on what kind of game your producing, but
if itās 3D youāll want something with fast FSB and a decent workstation card. Newegg.com is your friend, and I suggest researching workstation cards. While they may seem expensive for what seems like comparable stats, your viewport FPS will be amazingling faster. You also want alot of HDD Space. You may devide task further to 2D art and 3D art. Though I would suggest Hardware requirements be same for each task, if you do devide it in two computers make sure that proper sharing infrastructure is in place for the two developers can share resources.
Task 3. Testing. I mentioned this earlier but I think it warrents another mention. For PC I suggest the very latest, or just enough for what your making. Make sure the video card and memory (system memory like ram) meet the needs of the technology your using in your game. Like HLSL or HDR lighting, and even normals (though shader technology has been in hardware for awhile.) Testing machine should at least support some sort of shader techonology. Radeon 9800pro (or comparable) would be as low as I would go.
Software
Again depends on certain things, but mostly it depends on what your developers can use, and how much your willing to spend on license.
I like to program in C# and C++ there are a couple of good free IDEs for these languages, but Microsoft offers some āexpressā versions of VS .Net 2005 for free (for the first year of course ā¦ but this isnāt the place to bash M$) after that its 50$ (not bad). I donāt know what the license lets you do with any of those options, but keep in mind there are restrictions of commercial production of many of the software you need.
For 3D Development I would choose Maya, but thatās just cause that all I have ever used.
You can find free Modlers, but the key is exporting and filetype usage. exporting to .x file is almost required.
Which brings me to API. I like DirectX but openGL would be supported on more platforms than windows. The DX SDK can be used in more than just VS .Net.
Adobe Photoshop I would say is a given, but you can get away with gimp(Gnu image manipulation Program) perfectly fine, and yes they have a windows port.
Windows XP - get a legal copy of windows. To cover your legal side since your comercial now.
Anything else would be specific to what your needs are, and I canāt forsee them now at this time.
Game Engine - make it your self. No if and or buts. Make it āin houseā if your Serious about game programming/developement. Anything else is just a hassle. You want to be flexible enough to do anything, and im not just talking about actual programming. Iām talking more in licensing terms. Plus your not gonna find a good enough engine for 3k.
Of course again this is all dependent on what kind of game you want.
Well I guess the above is answered with your question 4. Diablo 2 was an isometric rpg, with online suport. It was not Massivily multiplayer. You connect to other players via lobby server (b.net) I donāt know what your question is other than that.
I have no clue how to answer that, but Iām sure you can find an SDK for a particular cell phone architecture. Google it?
Good Luck, and PM if you have any other questions, or post if you just want to ask more openly to others.
edit I forgot probobly the most important thing when starting a game from start to finish. (this is true for alot of things in life) You need a plan above all else. You can have all the infrastructure and hardware/software you want, but without a clear and consice plan you will easily get lost. The best way to come up with a plan is divide it into larger task, then smaller task, and so on and so forth till you have manageable task that you can complete. there is a standard out there that deals with the four phases of developement. I recommend researching planning before anything else.
As far as engines go, the Half-Life 2 source engine is good. Itās incredibly cheap and comes with some games. As long as you have Visual Studio 2003 it should work out fine.
How is the Terrain handled in the Unreal 3 now? Sculpting/Painting and all, is it still the same as it was in UE 2 or better.
Oh!, you forgot Gamebryo. The art pipeline is defenitly one of the best. Probably the fastest to get started with is also Gamebryo. Integration time is way too fast for renderware to compare.
LOL! He said 3000 is his engine budget! How cheap are we talking about. Let us keep it the real of our newcomer ya ?
To Akuma-Enokii
In terms of creating a game goes, I think you have the wrong idea. If you are thinking about learning about game development, there is no better way to start than developing one. But if you want to go professional, it would be better to start small like handheld games and take it slow and steady. Looking at engines that are prices 50K+ is not a good option. Also, development cost contains other things weigh more than all of the topic you listed there (combined).
That is 100% true. You can not estimate all costs for a big scale game since you never know what problems occur during the development. With more finished games you and the team will become more professional.
But nevertheless, a detailled concept will save you month of dead-end work.
LOL! He said 3000 is his engine budget! How cheap are we talking about. Let us keep it the real of our newcomer ya ?
lol, Valve offers 3 packages. HL2 bronze, which is 50 bucks, HL2 Silver, which is 60 or 70, and HL2 Gold which I think is 100. So yes, incredibly cheap for someone willing to spend 3000 XD Visual Studio on the other handā¦ughā¦
ā¦no, you do get the engine. By using the source SDK which comes with the 3 packages, you can access all the source code for the engine. You just canāt really compile anything without a C++ compiler.
Sure you get the code, but you canāt sell anything that was developed using it, because you need another license for that purpose. The pricing for that is not public, but you can be sure that you could get a few new cars insteadā¦
Perhaps you donāt really know, but when buying the game you wonāt get the complete code for the engine. You just get the parts that you need to modify an existing game (maybe a total conversion). But you canāt recompile it and run it as a standalone game. All users still need to have the original gameā¦
You can get more information about the source engine license here
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