3D Chess Complete / 4X Space Game Plan / 2020 Goals

It has been awhile since my last blog post back in 2019! I've decided to do away with my mini challenges and focus on making a single game which I intend to release on Steam if it becomes commercially viable but who knows. I’ve also decided if I do participate in any GameDev challenges I might just focus on simple 2D games due to time constraints. Heck, it might give me a reason to brush up on my programmer art as I’m far from a 2D artist in comparison to my 3D work.

1 – 3D Chess Challenge Conclusion

First I wanted to get the 3D Chess Challenge game out of the way. ? This was a challenge I started in 2019 and I did finish the Unreal Engine version back in July 2019 I believe but the only task was to complete a music score, and sound effects. As I got tied up with a lot since then I haven’t had a chance to compose anything. Honestly, I would rather move on and just release it. In my spare time following I did however convert the entire project from Unreal to Unity which barely took in anytime as all the logic behind how the pieces move and capture is 100% transferable. I did add in all possible moves which includes En passant and Castling.

Just to go down memory lane this is from the UE4 version:

Here is the new version done within Unity:

The game has been uploaded as project and can be downloaded here:

https://www.gamedev.net/projects/2139-3d-chess-challenge/

2 – 4X Space Game & Choosing an Engine

With my personal challenges aside, I’ve made the choice to start working on a 4X Space game which has been something I’ve wanted to do for awhile now. My intent is to start a full development blog here from start to finish. My goal is to have a prototype first, then work on addition features along side improving graphics as I go and then looking at purchasing music and sound from a third party.

I’ll be drafting up documents for the game and sharing my plans as I go. One of the major choices I need to make at this point is which engine to use and really, I have three options at this point: Unity, Unreal, Godot.

I’m still steering towards Unity as I have a lot of personal issues with the Unreal Engine and how much Blueprints are pushed. Even though I love C++ I really don’t like using C++ in UE4 but it is manageable. The only way I think I could go back to UE4 would be by accepting Blueprints as a tool and merging C++ as needed.

I’ve looked into Godot a bit but to be honest I don’t have any experience in the engine and my knowledge is nothing more than what other people tell me. If anyone has used Godot I would love to read your comments.

3 – 2020 Goals

At this time I have a few goals for 2020 related to game development and programming.

1. Create a prototype for my 4X Space Game

2. Get back into openGL (I’ll be making a blog in the future regarding this)

3. Continuing to work on my 3D art as I’ve been putting this off for awhile now

I also have other goals on the go, mostly business related. I'm still working on putting on some video lessons for game dev.

My next blog post will be about my 4X Space Game. ?