So since we last spoke I have been evaluating technologies. I loved working in Python Ogre but the simple truth is that working at that level was becoming a bit of a time sink. Having to implement a full "game engine" and editors is a lot of work that eats up the majority of my research budget. I had hoped to be further along but the implementation of scripts and loaders and all sorts of other systems was starting to really drag on and I did not feel that I was getting to the "meat" of what I was aiming to accomplish.
With that being said I started than evaluating what technologies would be a better host for the project. Since I was using Blender for a lot of my pipeline I thought that making use of the Blender game engine might be a good call (it is also Python) but I found it to have a bit of a steep learning curve (like a lot of blender) but unfortunately there were not a large amount of resources to get started with the Blender Game Engine and I did not have months to learning an entirely new Python api.
What I really needed than was some kind of base to get my project off the ground that would provide more than I had for less time investment. When you make a move as big as the one I was planning in terms of tech, you have to go back and re-evaluate all your options including options you had previously abandoned for various reasons. It is also important to "narrow down" your requirements.
In my case I started to look at UDK. UDK has a lot of desirable attributes. It has a great editor, a strong first person base (which I decided would be the perspective for my game), and very good physics integration.
While Unity would also be a good choice for creating a game, I felt that the "free" version had some strong limitations that discouraged me from using it. While UDK also has limitations I felt that it was already close to the type of game I wanted to make and it is well battle tested. Overall I simply liked working with UDK better after playing around with both Unity and UDK, and so I decided to use UDK over Unity. Another huge factor were the video tutorials for UDK which I have found incredibly helpful in getting comfortable with the toolset.
Unfortunately the choice to use UDK has left me with a bit of a cut to my desired criteria in the fact that I have lost my cross platform support. However in my projects current iteration and with the timescale that I have available, I decided that this was a sacrifice that had to be made in order to get my idea off the ground and to start making progress in the time that I have left after tech changes.
Here is a current screenshot of what I have done in UDK:
As you can see from this screenshot I have created a level with a picture of Albert Einstein on the wall and a giant "golden" microscope statue in the center of the level. The video tutorials I watched helped me understand the process of level design in a 3d space a bit better and I have been working to improve my 3d modeling skills. The textures for this environment were created exclusively in Genetica 3.5 (The only software I currently use that is not free for use).
I am currently learning Unreal scripting which is exciting. While some might dislike being forced to work in the unreal way of doing things, I like the constraints as it forces me to make decisions. Having a blank canvas in which to work is sometimes very daunting! If you have infinite possibilities than moving forward can be a challenging task because you do not wish to box yourself in. However if you have those constraints than it is easy to continue because you know what you can and can't do. It to me helps me create a design because it narrows the way I can do things. To some this might sound counter intuitive and might make no sense but to me it works.
The next step from here is to customize the HUD and start creating my lab game. I need to work on a dialog system, learn how to manage an inventory, and all sorts of other things! I can see strong uses for both Kismet and Matinee and so I will be writing journal entries about all of those subjects in the near future.
I would like to take my blog on a new direction to providing some of my UDK progress and to provide some resources I learn along the way to help you all who are also starting out with this cool tool. There are several other blogs out there that cover the process of creating a project far better than I could ever hope to achieve, but the aim of this journal will be to do it all using free (or in Genetica's case affordable) tools and from a perspective of creating an edutainment type game (IE non violent and actually teaching stuff). I will aim to provide full assets that I use to create the content in my upcoming journal entries as well as potentially some video tutorials (if time permits).
Thank you for reading what has turned out to be a long blog post, but I guess I have a lot to say after a month or so of not updating my journal! I hope to talk to you all again soon.
