I have wanted to develop games since I was a child.
I actually made a couple of horrible games back when I had a Commodore 64 using a Basic compiler and some Assembly (and I wasn't even 12 yet!), but never had any experience developing games for PC before, let alone working in a 3D environment. On the other hand, I have always been a quick learner, specially when it came to software development, so I figured I might as well give it a try.
In most tutorials I've read for newbie game developers you're advised to start very small, maybe just a Pacman or Tetris clone until you get a hold of the basics. However, I've always been very ambitious (and stubborn) when starting projects, so I figured a good way to learn the works was to make a reusable engine and deal with all topics at once instead of separately. Time will tell if this was a wise decision. :)
The first thing I noticed is that learning how to render 3D graphics seemed like way too much to study by myself considering I have a day job, a daughter, and -hopefully- a life, which doesn't leave me with THAT much spare time. And even if I did, I would have to constantly update the render code so that it stays fresh, which would be too much work for me alone.
So I decided to focus only on the game logic, and leave the rendering to a third-party engine. This is when Ogre3D comes in. Ogre3D is a free open source 3D rendering engine with a very big community using it, and I've already seen it in action in "Ankh", by Deck13 Interactive, so I knew it was mature enough to handle the kind of job I needed.
I play lots of games, and have particularly enjoyed point-and-click adventure games ever since Maniac Mansion came out on the C-64. So, considering they're not so resource intensive and dependent on cutting edge graphics, I decided that my engine would be tailored to make adventure games.
This engine is called Derange, and has already been in development for several months, making quite a slow progress as my spare time allowed. This will be its development diary.
This blog does NOT intend to teach ANYONE how to develop a game engine. Actually, I've never developed one. I'm just learning how to do it by practice.
So don't forget, I just made it because I wanted to:
I actually made a couple of horrible games back when I had a Commodore 64 using a Basic compiler and some Assembly (and I wasn't even 12 yet!), but never had any experience developing games for PC before, let alone working in a 3D environment. On the other hand, I have always been a quick learner, specially when it came to software development, so I figured I might as well give it a try.
In most tutorials I've read for newbie game developers you're advised to start very small, maybe just a Pacman or Tetris clone until you get a hold of the basics. However, I've always been very ambitious (and stubborn) when starting projects, so I figured a good way to learn the works was to make a reusable engine and deal with all topics at once instead of separately. Time will tell if this was a wise decision. :)
The first thing I noticed is that learning how to render 3D graphics seemed like way too much to study by myself considering I have a day job, a daughter, and -hopefully- a life, which doesn't leave me with THAT much spare time. And even if I did, I would have to constantly update the render code so that it stays fresh, which would be too much work for me alone.
So I decided to focus only on the game logic, and leave the rendering to a third-party engine. This is when Ogre3D comes in. Ogre3D is a free open source 3D rendering engine with a very big community using it, and I've already seen it in action in "Ankh", by Deck13 Interactive, so I knew it was mature enough to handle the kind of job I needed.
I play lots of games, and have particularly enjoyed point-and-click adventure games ever since Maniac Mansion came out on the C-64. So, considering they're not so resource intensive and dependent on cutting edge graphics, I decided that my engine would be tailored to make adventure games.
This engine is called Derange, and has already been in development for several months, making quite a slow progress as my spare time allowed. This will be its development diary.
This blog does NOT intend to teach ANYONE how to develop a game engine. Actually, I've never developed one. I'm just learning how to do it by practice.
So don't forget, I just made it because I wanted to:
- Keep track of the development -and learning- process somewhere, for my personal archiving purposes. Might be nice to have some day if I finish it.
- Allow anyone that might be interested in it to follow the progress.
- Get feedback. Remember, I'm learning, so it's very possible that I pick a completely fucked up way to do things, and feedback helps me get back in track before it's too late.
And who knows, it might even help a fellow newbie in a similar quest.
Hope you enjoy it!
Hope you enjoy it!
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