9 replies to this topic

[skullo]

Hi everybody.
First let me apollogize for my bad english ^^

I'm doing Science Computer in college and for my graduate project, i'll developed an educational game. The idea is to develop a game that is atractive to play and at the same time educational, something like a history game.
Well, first of all I need to choose which engine I'll use, and for this, one topic of my documentation is an poll about the game engines feature, for this, I make a list based on the features that I found here in the 3D engine database.

My objective here is to get notes for this features. The notes are from 1 to 10 and higher notes means that the feature are more important. If you can answer this, giving your vote, I'll be very grateful. xD

------------------------------------------------------
Scene Manager
- Octree
- BSP
- ABT

- Terrain Renderer
- Shadow Mapping
- Shaders
- Dynamic Decals
- Template System
- Load/Save System
- Multiplayer

Physics
- Basic Physics
- Collision Detection
- Rigid Body
- Vehicle Physics

- Level Editor
- Terrain Editor
- Artificial Inteligence
------------------------------------------------------


I thougth in this features, but I'm opened to opnions on how to get this poll better.
Thanks for the ones who reply this post.

Edit: It will be a RPG game, singleplayer.

[starstutter]

Well we can't really answer these unless we know what the gameplay or design is like. It very much changes from game to game. For instance, if you have a tennis game, shadows are extremley important (allowing the player to judge distance and depth). If you have a stat-based game (like an RPG) they're unnecessary.

[skullo]

It will be a RPG game, singleplayer.
I was thinking in use the Aurora Engine, based in Never Winter Night game, use this base, and modify everything that is permited, but talking with my guiding he said that we have to justify the choose of the engine that we'll use, and a poll was an idea to help.

[fireside]

Well, I think you already have your justification don't you? If the Aurora is built on Neverwinter nights it probably has a lot of base code that you can use. A general purpose engine will require a lot of coding for an rpg. For a school project, it's not practical. That doesn't really mean I agree with your choice. I think it would be better to make a simpler game and use a general purpose engine. I'm surprised you haven't been using an engine of some kind up till now. It takes time to learn the functions of an engine and how it works. For a quick engine to learn, I think Unity is pretty good. Haven't used it myself. What about models, etc?

[starstutter]

Well, now that we know its an RPG:

Sorry btw, don't know a whole lot about scene managers.

- Terrain Renderer - 8 - fairly important in an outdoor RPG

- Shadow Mapping - 4 - nice to have but not neccessary, especially if you have nice static lighting (lightmaps)

- Shaders - 9 - shaders give you a lot of power over customization.

- Dynamic Decals - 2 - I personally wouldn't bother if its a classic style RPG (as compared to a shooter

- Template System <- not sure exactly what you mean by this

- Load/Save System - 10,000 - YES of course you need a save system XD

- Multiplayer - totally depends, but if its an educational RPG, probably not


- Basic Physics - 7 - all 3D games need some form of basic physics

- Collision Detection - 5 - customizable collision detection isn't of the utmost importance unless you're making a physics-based game

- Rigid Body - 8 - falls under the catagory of basic physics

- Vehicle Physics - 2 - not unless you explicitly need vehicles in the game

- Level Editor - 9 - yes, you need to build the world of course

- Terrain Editor - 9 - double yes, you need at least some form of an editor

- Artificial Inteligence - 6 - not overly important in RPGs, but you will need some basic pathfinding

[fireside]

Quote

Artificial Inteligence - 6 - not overly important in RPGs, but you will need some basic pathfinding

I think it's a little more than that. They have to choose targets and many times types of weapons to use. Then you have to work out a battle system. I think even on the auto fights of the newer games it's still basically turn based, but there's definitely some AI going on there.

Also, an rpg has to be able to switch weapons and gear, and needs special animations for a lot of weapons. It would be a big job for a school project, I think. Not to mention the amount of models needed. Doing some type of mod might work out, but how is that educational? Anyway, I think it just wouldn't happen unless it was a mod, and hopefully you can use the models, at least some of them.

[starstutter]

fireside said:

I think it's a little more than that. They have to choose targets and many times types of weapons to use. Then you have to work out a battle system. I think even on the auto fights of the newer games it's still basically turn based, but there's definitely some AI going on there.

well yes but I was referring to the engine features. Pathfinding is about the most you're going to get for a generic engine (a free one I mean). I kind of doubt there would be pre-built battle AI. If you're not trying to be too extravigant, you can just program the enemies to do certain attacks under certain conditions, and I kinda "borderline" count that as true AI.

Quote

Also, an rpg has to be able to switch weapons and gear, and needs special animations for a lot of weapons.

Doesn't have to have real fancy animations. One good thing about RPGs is that people tend to be very forgiving of the visuals and animations. I think the most harshley judged is the pure FPS genre (thanks crysis!).

[starstutter]

Oh btw, here's a piece of advice. For the love of god and all that has ever been sacred, don't ask school questions to determine if you hit the enemy or not :lol:

[fireside]

Quote

Doesn't have to have real fancy animations. One good thing about RPGs is that people tend to be very forgiving of the visuals and animations. I think the most harshley judged is the pure FPS genre (thanks crysis!).

That's true. I can't remember the name of it, but the rpg that I played for the longest time just had some pictures of the characters on both sides of the world and they showed the creatures with hardly any animation. The game was just written well and I think I put hundreds of hours into it. I don't put nearly that amount of time in the newer ones. The center of the screen was 3d, first person. Really, if I still had it, I'd probably still bring it out and play it some more. I think they kind of screwed them up as they got more 3rd person. They're actually less interactive. Clicking on a picture is a lot more organized than trying to find your little character in all that mess so you just let them do their thing.

[skullo]

First, thanks for the replies ^^

I think I was not very clear with the term educational, so let me try to explain better.
Because its an school project, it need to have something different, something that maybe, can be used as a different learning tool.
For example, a game that tells about an striking fact of a country, taking brazil as example, a game about the "Bandeirantes" (idk this term in english ;x ), the player will be a traveler that will be at the time the history pass on, and will have tasks to do while the history in question (Bandeirantes) happens. In a few words, the game will teach the player about the history.

Idk if I was clearly now, of make it worse XD

Well, the engine is not defined yet, Aurora is just an option. It can be a big project, but Im still have time to do it, something about 1 year and 4 months...
My needing know is to choose the engine that I'll use, and write a simply documentation about this first part, an overview about engines, write about some engine features, what it means and what is used for, and other topics related to this "introduction".

starstutter said:

Oh btw, here's a piece of advice. For the love of god and all that has ever been sacred, don't ask school questions to determine if you hit the enemy or not

usahuashsa, sure XD