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Showing posts from March, 2014

Mysterious Doll Studios Update 3-26-14

I've learned more than I thought I would in a few weeks in regard to Unity 3d and game development thanks to all the easy to use tools and great tutorials out there- so I'm like to I start a real game now or more learning exercises? I've learned enough game design basics so that I can now make a real fps game- I even know how to do boss fights now ^_^ BUT before I jump into a real project I have to learn how to do a game with a third person character and get a better understanding of the Mecanim system in Unity- so thats what I'm doing today- I tried bringing my rig that I use for all my characters into Unity but it doesn't like them so I need a new skeleton setup/rig- as I was doing some research I found that that the mocap site Mixamo rigs/skins your characters for free! If their under 10,000 polys- I tried it last night and it works great- it makes a skeleton that is %100 compatible with Unity's humanoid rig and mocap use- So if you have a character yo

Robots are Dicks: Release and what I learned

So you can now go download and screw around with my second game project "Robots are Dicks" get it here for Win/Mac/Linux I learned a ton with this project! I've found the best way to learn is out of necessity- want to learn how to make films? Well then make films! Want to learn how to make games? Well then make games! I learned so many things I can't write them all down but I'll list a few of the big ones... With this project I learned how to use basic enemy AI using the awesome and FREE Rain AI - it was SO much easier than I expected 0_0 There are AMAZING tools out there for game development! So I was able to create NPC's that patrol a defined route- then when the player gets within a certain distance they chase the player and fire at them- once the player is out of range they go back to their route- I was so stoked to get this working ^_^ Enemy AI was the big thing  I wanted to learn with this project- I also learned how to create enemy and p

Game development == nonstop problem solving (this is fun!)

One of the things I enjoyed the most about making animated films was the problem solving aspect- Visual fx/Special fx require the most problem solving and I really enjoyed coming up with solutions to technical/creative problems. BUT most of the work making animated films does NOT involve that kind of problem solving- the problems to solve come down to the storytelling-pacing-plot- and with those "problems" there is no "right" answer as its entirely subjective- so you can wrestle with them for weeks/months/years and come up with an answer you believe to be "right" but someone else could see it as totally wrong as again its totally subjective- After being presented with these problems for so long and answering them to the best of your ability only to realize that no answer is "right" it sort of loses the fun- As do most geeks I LOVE problem solving and I got sorta bored with animated filmmaking problem solving.... Three weeks int

Check out my first game experiment with Unity3d+thoughts on the process

Here's some images from "Dicks will fall on your head" I don't know what this is exactly so don't ask me haha- its just a by product of my first Unity learning sessions- for some reason if you play it on any quality above "simple" the lighting gets screwed up so try it on simple or lower Download for PC -   Download for Mac I'm almost two weeks into teaching myself Unity3d- there's TONS of great free tutorials for Unity3d- I was doing ok with it- The creation part is pretty close to what I've already been doing with some limitations when it comes to work with Cinema 4d---> Unity All models must have UV's- cubic, flat mapping doesn't come over to Unity Morphs and deformers are not supported Shaders are not supported- have to bake all shaders to textures Displacement/SPD maps are not supported In C4d I've been using segmented characters to increase viewport speed BUT in Unity this makes y

Cycles of excitement and fear

The first day I started learning Unity3d I was excited and also afraid- afraid because it was something new- something I knew very little about- something I was uncomfortable with- Then after a few days it seemed less scary and seemed to be something I could really do- Then after a week+ I'm like yeah I can really do this then the fear comes back again as I'm a total beginner in this field- the fear wants me to run back to what I'm comfortable doing which is making animated films...but I'm not I need to test some new waters... I'm about halfway through the first part of my test game level- It's nothing fancy- just a simple walkthrough with a few triggered events so I can start to practice how these things work- Here's my hand drawn idea sheet for what I'm doing- Now I have to add the character animation stuff- add the skybox and do the scripting before this part of the level is done- there's three more parts after this- I&

Thoughts after my first week learning Unity3d

So I've gone through about 25-30 hours of tutorials for Unity3d- I'm at a point now where I can create my first test level- as I know how to design/create everything, use basic scripts to trigger events like opening/closing doors, playing triggered sounds or animations and a few other little things- I'm really exciting about the little things I've learned though haha- I was originally going to start on a 2d sidescroller based on my Badassery series BUT after learning more about Unity and seeing the depth of the application I need to start with something simpler- and of course do many tests before trying to make an actual game- I watched a documentary about Walt Disney last year where he commented on the reason he opened Disneyland- he did it so the theme parks would be extensions of the movies- so an experience based on the films- Since I can't create a real theme park I want to use gaming to create my own theme parks- When people contact me and ask me to make