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I'm going to ramble for a bit; if you're looking for a game, piss off and come back in 6 months or more. This is a progress log/diary for a little something I'm going to start doing. I'm going to keep coming back with information and screenshots whenever I make something happen. Read on for more info. So, I'm always ripping on other fangames...I guess I need to go ahead and prove my worth, huh? Before I start on what's going on, let's get a few thing straight. Either read the spoiler if you intend on posting, or be labelled a twat forever-more. Now that's all out of the way...McJobless, what the f**** are you doing?! That's a great question, and here's the two phase, idiotic and baffling plan that I've been thinking about for a while. - WHAT AM I DOING - Phase 1: Make a "World of Mechanics"... I know it sounds absolutely ridiculous, but carefully follow along. The first goal of this game is to practice programming game functionality. The best way to do that? Copy other games! That might sound a bit cheap, but hear me out; every game we have today is built off the backs of the work from those before us. You couldn't have Halo without Wolfenstein, and even World of Warcraft has roots in Chess. Learning to read and implement previously made mechanics is a fantastic way to experience the process of making them from scratch; the difference is that you have a very clear, replayable example of what you want to achieve that you can study. You look for all the tiny rules, bits of polish, and even try making changes and improvements. There's one game I've wanted to remake the mechanics from for a long goddam time. That's my favourite game, Ratchet & Clank 3: Up Your Arsenal. The game has a wonderful mix of third person shooting, platforming and puzzles. The actual mechanics that go in to these games are small, manageable pieces that link into each other, which is great for learning and playing with Object-Orientated Programming. Just today, I sat down and jotted down a page worth of work on how I'd organise the various weapons, gadgets and enemy items in a hierarchy of objects. This will not be easy, it will take a long time, and there will be a lot I don't attempt or give up on. For example, I will likely not try and code Ratchet's animation system, or the Plasma Whip's physics system. I also imagine I'll give up on the Tyhrranoid AI at some stage (in a developer commentary, Tony Garcia noted that he developed a pathfinding system called "Seeker" that handled most cases without hardcoding), but the important thing will be trying. I have a lot of resources at my disposal; multiple versions of the game with multiple saves spanning different levels, the PS2 emulator, YouTube Let's Plays, the Developer's Commentary, the Wiki and much more. It's just a matter of getting to work. If you asked me; the ultimate goal of this phase is not just to straight rip Ratchet's mechanics, but to start building a library of mechanics from multiple games which I could turn into generic libraries that I could import into future projects. I'll likely start finding other games that I might want to borrow mechanics from (such as KotOR's dialogue and reputation systems), and I might even come up with my own stuff to build (I want to really refine my own localisation system I've built). Phase 2: Make a LEGO Game with those mechanics... Here's the real knife twist. I've blabbed on a lot about how much I don't think anybody else has made a good "LEGO" game. Maybe I should prove I can make one? It'd also be nice to actually create a decent LEGO fangame, since that side of the fanbase seems to be lacking... I'm not making any plans for this before I know what mechanics I have at my disposal. The idea here is that I can switch entirely to design, pick some mechanics I think would be a good fit for the LEGO values, and then start producing something. I'm not expecting anything amazing from an aesthetic perspective (I'm not an artist or an audio designer, mind you), but so long as I can nail the game from a mechanics stand-point (and maybe even throw in a half-decent story), I'll be content. Now, this phase is the one I'm really not putting any expectations on. I may not even get here in the long run. It's just a long term goal that's supposed to get me motivated and practising for what I can do. At the end of the day, I may go on to make my own game that I can sell, but I don't see why I should discuss it this early on. This is just another far and off goal to think about it amongst the other work. - HOW AM I DOING IT - Well, this is essentially project start, but it's not like I'm completely empty at this point. I've already produced the basis for one mechanic in Unreal; there's an enemy weapon that's used frequently in the game which spawns a large number of missles around and at the player from the sky. The issue I have with Unreal is that...it's not that great for my purposes. I have no clue where to start with the C++ intergration, and Blueprint is just too painful to go back to after months of working with typed code. That's why I'm now jumping to Unity; I reckon that if I can really push my C# skills, it's going to make the eventually planned transition to C++ a lot simpler. C# might lack constructs like pointers, and may have additional features like Lists, but the logic is really what I'm testing, and at the end of the day it's much closer to C++ than other languages. I'll be starting with the weapons. They have shared properties, so I can develop a class structure, and each weapon has its own unique mechanic to deal with; there's nothing super complex, but interesting little challenges that will take some time. I also figure that I can build these items without player interactions just yet, and I think the player would be a very complex system to deal with (and I don't plan on using Unity's prefabs; I need to learn how this stuff works for myself). The good news is that the weapons have pretty particle effects, and so I'll be ducking into shader code at some stage; that'll hopefully make for some pretty screenshots. Because I have access to services like Mixamo, I might just be able to put in some rough animations and other polish to better help my work, but I'll consider that kind of stuff low priority. Any time I make headway, I'll post here and on the Blockland Forums. I'll also be posting code snippets for the experienced coders to pry and laugh at, and the young coders to learn off. I'll do my best to comment. Screenshots and videos will be a must, as that forces me to produce more and work harder. - WHEN DO I START - Well, it won't be bloody tonight, I tell you that much. Since this week is preloaded with the Disney-Pixar Masterclass and my overdue Character Design homework, I'll hopefully start on Monday afternoon with a simple weapon, such as the blasters or shotgun. Feel free to nag me about working on this more; I'll need it.

Completed: --> Veronica Voltage <-- --> Basil the Batlord <-- ------------------------------------- In progress: -Rocket Racer- Finished: 2 faces WIP: 4 faces / chest / helmet / legs -Commander Cold- Finished: helmet / chest WIP: 6 heads

Completely legitimate. No strings attached. http://store.steampowered.com/sub/94153/ EDIT 1: The above bundle seems to be no longer available. Now there is another one! This one requires an email address entry and an up to 24 hours wait. Scroll down on this page and click on Redeem Prize: http://www.makewarnotlove.com/results.php

oops I broke it

New video, this time showing off some the builds from 2015 that impressed the devs: