OT - My First Video Game
ebergerly
Posts: 3,255
Well, after more than 3 decades of building, programming, and using computers (well actually quite a bit more than three decades, but that's all I'll admit to...Heathkit H89 and assembly language, that's all I'll say....) I actually played my first video game. Go no, right? Never before played a video game. Used to look at Pac Man and Mario and just scratch my head wondering what anyone saw in those games. And more recently the long list of zombie shoot-em-up games that hold absolutely zero interest for me.
But recently I stumbled on a game where you build cities, kinda like the old Sim City (?) I think. You add roads and homes and electricity and water and it starts to come alive. And nobody gets shot or gets their head cut off. And no orcs or zombies, which is nice. And I even started making assets (buildings mostly) in Blender, that you plop down in the game and people start to inhabit it. You design an entire city with trains and buses and ships and airports.
Pretty cool.
But after less than a month doing it I'm bored. But it got me thinking....
Wouldn't it be cool if you could make a scenario with your own characters and your own buildings and so on, kind of like making a movie, but the animation is somewhat pre-programmed but you can customize it. Kind of like a blend between a Sim City type video game and the customization of a DAZ Studio. Not sure exactly what I mean, but it sure would be cool....
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Comments
Cities: Skylines? I really liked that one but also got kind of bored after about a month.
If you wanted to do character simulations The Sims is still a thing.
Yeah, that's the one. I finally got the hang of making assets and figuring out all the mods you need to make it less annoying (yeah, I had to learn what a "mod" is too...), so maybe if I start making a bunch of assets and can get more control of the simulation it might become fun again. Otherwise my gaming days may be over.
reading your topic i thought you have made your first own video game
so try unity as lots of people do here
Take a few minutes and search up the Unity3D game engine. It can design most types of games, and has an Asset store that can offer Game design templates for the type of game you would want to create, be it a simulation or a RPG or a strategy game. There's also game ready content that will work int he game you want to create.
Im a big video game player. I have Skylines as well, its fun but does get old rather quick. I used to play a couple of game non-stop back in 2001 (ish). It was called Zeus, and its expansion (which I can't recall now).
It was a city builder with resource gathering. So, you needed sandstone to build your monuments and marble to build the statues. It wasn't immediatly built either, took hours of game time as the carvers cut the sandstone into blocks, then they were carted to the building site where your building or monument was slowly assembled. It was interesting to see it all unfold. It was a bit more indepth because your citizens needed luxery items and it was all gathered/produced by people in the game.
Would love to see something like that brought up to current tech.
I like the old Sim City games but my favourite city building game is Caesar III. The Caesar games use supply chains a lot, for example you need a clay pit to provide materials for a pottery, and you have to send pots to the markets to attract people to your city. And every so often Caesar sends a demand that he wants some number of pots of olive oil, some amount of furniture etc and if you send it to him in time it helps your game progress. I think Zeus may have been made by the same people, and they did an Egyptiian themed game called Pharoh. The Settlers game series uses resource gathering and supply chains as well.
Your idea sounds a bit like The Sims which sort of grew out of the Sim City series. I tried the Sims once, from what I remmber of it you sort of influenced the people but didn't control them or the city. I didn't take to it at all.
I've never heard of a game called Skylines, I'll do a search and see what I can find out about it.
Yeah, I suppose I could try Unity, but my brain keeps telling me that if the serious games out there are developed by a big team of skilled developers, what kind of game would a single, lowly hobbyist like me accomplish? I'm guessing it would be less of a hobby and more of a full time job. I suppose if I really loved video games in the first place it might be an option, but as it is I'm ambivalent at best about the whole thing.
On the other hand, I do love programming and building assets and stuff.....
If you enjoy sim games and Daz studio you may enjoy planet Coaster.
it allows you to build a theme park with a huge focus on design, giving you full control over every object in the game.
here's a link to some mind blowing creations people have made with it.
(aztec park starts at 10:56)
I'm thinking of having a look at Unity as well. I don't expect to create anything that would rival commercial games but for me that isn't the point. I don't intend to distribute anything that I create. I enjoy programming and it's nice playing with something I've made myself. I haven't done much programming recently, the last game I put together was a snake game in python (appropriate I suppose) on a Raspberry Pi. It's not much of a game but I enjoyed writing it.
My sons looked at Unity and Unreal Game Engine 4.0 and we went with Unreal. Be sure and compare both and see which you like. Udemy has a FANTASTIC beginner course (we just picked it up for $10, it goes on sale fairly often. 87 lessons included.)
Ue4 is much harder to handle than Unity if you are not good at programming
Not true. UE4 has blueprints, full blown visual programming ideal for exactly those kinds of people.
Yep. We did a lot of research between the two and watched tutorials to get a feel of both. Everyone is different in what appeals to them so I can appreciate Ruphuss preferring Unity (there's a lot to like about that too) and expressing that opinion. My sons started the Udemy videos on Unreal last week, as did I, and even being non-technical, I could follow along and move through the interface quite easily. (Just have to say though- even people who are good at programming like Unreal, it's not just for non-programmers.)
I haven't personally shopped (so disclaimer) but the professional review sites say Unreal also has a bigger asset store. I would love to learn both engines but had to settle on one, and can vouch for Unreal being good with the interface and the relative ease of setting things up. I would get the Udemy beginner course (it goes on sale for $10 down from $200) as it really guides you through.
@bluejaunte How much experience do you have with Unreal? Any games out?
UE4 overall is a bit more professional as it has a better base architecture in place that are a result of years of game-making experience by Epic. Stuff like GameMode, GameState, PlayerController etc. are all things that you have to either try and buy from the Unity asset store or come up with yourself. To start hacking away at a game you don't really need these, which means you don't have to learn them, and so Unity might seem a bit easier to grasp especially to people who are not used to software architecture, but eventually it will bite you in the behind and you end up with code sprinkled everywhere that's hard to manage and nobody knows what's what anymore. You can read about this often, how easy it is to start in Unity and how hard it is to actually finnish a game with it.
Not that making a game is easy in any case. It's extremely hard and takes obscene amounts of resources. Hardly anyone actually gets to finnish a game, and neither have I. I was involved in a fairly popular indie game that eventually died despite even the brightest of outlooks. Doesn't help that you're almost certainly going to want to make a way too ambitious game with a way too small team to begin with. Everyone with big dreams and lots of games played that were made by teams of hundreds. So yeah, let's do the same thing with way less people and way less experience!
Yeah I'm fairly proficient in UE4, haven't touched it since I became a PA here sometime last year though.
I have no programming experience here, only created some Doom maps a long time ago.
It's normal to tire of a game... that's a reason why there are so many. Also, online games often offer more longetivity since you're interacting with people.
which of these engines is easier for implementing daz models and characters and their animations?