School Project

This is far from the polished product that our group envisioned for our class product but figured I might as well stare it anyways.

Terrain Tutorial Part 2: Creating and Applying A Material To Your Terrain

First off I want to apologize for this second half of the tutorial both because it took me so long to get posted and because it is nothing like what I had intended.  My goal for this second half was to show you how to create a material that would randomly generate a terrain based on several textures that you would choose.  Sadly though I was faced with the bane of all programmers, the bug that by no logical reasoning should be there but yet still is.  Because of this I will be explaining something that has been explained thousands of times before.  The one upside to this is that while i was trying to create something new for you guys I did discover something else cool that I will be posting about within the next few days so you have that to look forward to.

Terrain Tutorial Part 1: Generating Basic Terrain and Importing to Unreal

Hey guys, I know it has been a while but here is a tutorial on how to make an easy desert map using Unreal Engine 4 and TerreSculptor, both of which are available for free.  This is a map for a school project and thought it would make a good tutorial for any beginners out there.  This map is fairly large as well as realistic looking and all done in less than 30 minutes.

Game Development - The Titans vs The Underdogs

AAA and Indie are the two different types of game developers.  Triple-A games are made by major studios who sink millions into their development.  Indie games on the other hand are usually made by small operations with minimal to no funding.  They are completely different setups but that begs the question, does it effect the final product?

Because of the amount of resources that is put into developing AAA games their first and foremost objective is to make money.  They spend millions upon millions on everything from graphics to sound to the cinematic trailers that get all us gamers hyped for the new release.  All these things that are used to make a game top of the line can have a drawback however, and that would be what I like to refer to as "red tape."  Now what I say red tape what I am talking about is the corporate side of the development.  

As the old saying goes you have to spend money to make money and after spending millions on making a game you can be damn sure that Mr. CEO wants to turn a profit.  Ask anyone and they will tell you that there is nothing wrong with wanting to make a few bucks and I agree with this whole heatedly but there have been more than a hand full of games that were released riddled with bugs because the had promised a release date and they had to meet it.

One incident that comes to mind when you think of this is the Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare launch where there were problems on both PS4 and Xbox One the day of release.  These issues were later resolved through several patches but there in lies another problem.  It used to be that once a game was released there was no going back to fix anything you missed.  Today however, any bugs can be fixed after the game is released.  This is a nice feature to be sure but some developers are taking advantage of it as a way to release an incomplete game.  In some situations this is fine by me but only when a game is still in development.  If people want to spend money on a game they know is incomplete that is their choice but I do not think studios should release a glitch filled game while calling it complete.  Another way to look at it is if you turn in a paper to your teacher you cant come back the next day and say "do you mind if I get my paper back for a few minutes?  I forgot to check my spelling and grammar."

Indie games are becoming more and more common today with all the tools available to anyone who wants to give it a shot.  Because of this there are a ridiculous amount of them out there and I am sure a good number aren't worth a piece of toast that landed butter side down in a public bathroom.  Just because there are so many bad games out there does not mean that all indie games are bad.

Someone I greatly admire is the developer of Unturned, Nelson Sexton.  He released this game in 2014 at the age of 16 and has since made millions off the sales on steam and continues to update and add new content to it.  The game has been described as a DayZ Minecraft hybrid and having spent a considerable about of time playing it myself I can say that it truly a fun game.

Because they are usually smaller operations, indie developers usually make smaller games or take much longer to make bigger ones than a triple A studio.  The upside to this is that they are in less of a rush to release it.  They have no investors pressuring them to release before they are complete and they can work at their own pace until they are satisfied with the result.  Another huge upside is that they have more creative freedom.  They are not being pressured by outside forces so they can do what they want, they only have to answer to themselves.

Indie developers work with few resources and are almost always guaranteed to have on financial backing.  They lack the resources, finances, and man power of a AAA developer and yet they manage to keep coming up with games that people love to play.  I believe the answer is that the larges resources that triple A developers have does effect the final product.  They can make bigger and fancier games than indie studios but who's to say that's a bad thing?  As far as I am concerned it is the player who gets to decide what makes a game good, not the developers.

Becoming A Video Game Design Programmer

When most people look at a video game all they see is the game itself, not all the work that goes into it.  This is especially true for the programming behind the games that make it work because unlike graphics or sound, it can see be need or hears.  Even though it cannot be seen or heard it is there, and without it the game would not function.  Without a programmer all you would have it a bunch of images, 3D models, and sound files that would do nothing, programming is literally what holds all of these pieces together.

Dota 2

Dota 2 is a MOBA (multiplayer online battle arena for those of you who don't know what that stands for) developed and produced by valve and released in July of 2013.  I have way more experience playing this than I care to admit but it falls somewhere around the amount of 1070 hours (YES I DO HAVE A LIFE...) so you can trust me that I know what I'm talking about.  As far as I am concerned Dota 2 is one of my top 5 games.  To win it requires skill and teamwork coordination which are two of my favorite things to find in a game.

Shower With Your Dad Simulator 2015

Well to start off lets just say that this game is a little... unorthodox?  Ok maybe that is understating it by a fair amount.  A warning to those of you who are easily offended or under age because this game may be inappropriate for some.  If you have a twisted and somewhat immature sense of humor keep on reading.

Life Force

I know that I usually talk about current games and tech but lets go back in time and talk about a game from 1986.  I found this gem in the corner of Galloping Ghost Arcade and played it for longer than I care to admit.  I call this game a gem not because it is beautiful but because it is old and kids these days may in fact believe it was formed millions of years ago.

I'm Back

A friendly hello to all my non-existent readers (if there actually is someone who reads this then my apologies and I assure you that you most likely exist).  Starting now I will be writing at least one new post a week so if you are a geek make sure to check in  regularly for new posts.  I will be giving you guys more game reviews as well as some other odds and ends.  If you would like to see anything in particular just tell me in the comments.

A list of All My Games

Here is a list of all the games I have that I have not covered in any posts yet.  If there are any games on this list that you would like me to cover please let me know in the comments and I will make covering those games a priority.