12 replies to this topic

[VearmiPone]

I have been reading several of these threads and started learning how to make/program my own game and have a basic knowledge of C++. Ok, so I have an idea of what the game will be like and I wanted to start it as an MMORPG. From what I read that would take a long time at my level. So I decided to make it just a single player rpg. I want it to be a 3D third person rpg (like wow, oblivion, or dungeon lords.) I have looked up some engines to start with but still need a little help.
What I am asking is can anyone help me to get started? What engine is the simplest to start with? Which 3D modeler is good to use? What should I use to make my maps? Anything will help.

[SigKILL]

I guess the best advice is to make something simple so you learn that things are usally a little bit harder than you think. Making a top down RPG using SDL or allegro and your favorite tile editor (find one at google) sounds sensible...

[VearmiPone]

Hmm, ok. I will start with that. And I do know that it will take me a couple of years to even game a small bit of my game running. But i would like to get into the 3d game making. Any suggestions? Also I would like to know if I should create my own engine? I eventually want to know how to work every aspect of my game.

[Sturm]

My advice is don't try to learn it all. First you need to figure out if you are going to create a game engine, or you are creating a game.

Creating a Game Engine is usually something that takes years, specially if you are doing it in your sparetime and alone.

Creating a game takes a lot of effort and you must have a sense of story writing in order to take a game all the to the end.

[VearmiPone]

I want to create a game. But maybe somewhere down the line learn how to create my own engine. So for now im just focussed on the game creation part. I have the story line written down and a couple of characters too.

[Sturm]

If creating the game is what you want you should focus on that, there's a lot more to it than having a few notes and a couple of characters.

I think that the red line though the plot is much more important than having a billion effects, but others find effects much more important than a plot. There isn't a good answer to what is important, so you have to decide this yourself.

Once you get started on creating the game you should keep in mind that everyone on the team wants to set their footprint, but it's your game. A graphics designer might say that a blue theme in a scene would look better than the red you've decided. Though he might be right a blue theme might not be in line with the major plot of your game, and you have to reject that proporsal.

So what kind of game is it?

[BitTamer]

A good graphics engine for 3D applications is Irrlicht.
Find it at http://irrlicht.sourceforge.net
Its very easy to start with and has a very large community that'll help you if you get stuck.

[Rubicon]

I don't mean to be rude, but it does strike me as odd that so many people say something a long the lines of "I'm new at this. I'd love to learn how to program a MMORPG, can someone tell me how?"!

A decent MMORPG probably had about 20 experienced programmers working on it for around 2-3 years, sat in a room nextdoor to 50 experienced artists. That's the first thing you need to learn.

I'd recommend grabbing hold of a gamers SDK like SDL or something and trying to knock up a game of pacman or tetris or similar. You'll pretty soon start learning both how to program, and how to set yourself reasonable goals for the next project. An MMORPG will not be it. However, you'll hopefully learn that aiming to do something doable and having fun doing it, is one of the most rewarding things you can do sat at a desk.

Aim low, stick with it, and enjoy!

[karligula]

I don't mean to be negative, but questions like this are similar to a novice artist saying, I'd like to paint the Mona Lisa, can anybody help me?

Basically, my advice is, don't even try making a MMORPG, because you're biting off far more than you can chew and you'll just end up frustrated and disappointed. Start with something simple and work your way up. If programming is your thing, Asteroids or Pong would be a good start. Or in a more art oriented direction, try designing a map for one of the existing RPGs. That would give you an idea of how much work is involved (LOADS).

Good luck!

[AticAtac]

eh guys, as you can read, the author already knew that mmorpg is hard and wrote that he want to try single player rpg.
So there is no need to be "rude" or "negative".
Starting simple or not, you need to know your tools. If you are a newbie you have master this "overhead".

[juhnu]

Creating a single player RPG would be quite a formidable achievement as well.

[TMichael]

Formidable, yes, but you can learn so much in the process. I'll do my best to provide as much constructive help as possible.


GAME ENGINE

As has been stated already, you really don't want to build one of these for your first game! The database here is a great place to start. There are lots to choose from, but here is just a sampling of engines that, in my opinion, are a bit more RPG friendly than others.

Panda 3D:
Panda is free, feature packed, and uses Python scripting for game logic and to access it's C++ underbelly. Documentation is great, including full API docs, a manual with tutorials, and video tutorials. Community support is good and a number of games have been created with the engine including Disney's Toontown MMORPG. Engine performance is good. It's a nice engine with which to begin the learning process.

TV3D:
Version 6.2 is free to develop with, but to access the latest version, 6.5, which is more mature, faster (rebuilt in C++) and game ready, you should purchase a license for $150. The TV3D engine allows you to program in either C++ or any of the NET languages, such as VB, Delphi, and C#. Documentation comes only in the form of tutorials for 6.2, and some wiki tutorials, but there is very strong community support which closes the gap. Complete and exampled 6.5 docs are in on the way, but as a community member, I can verify that virtually any question can be addressed and answered by simply searching on the forum or posting a question. The developers and community "experts" answer many questions daily, and they are a very patient and polite group. I would rate both engine performance and feature set as excellent. You can complete a game from start to finish with TV3D, and while it is flexible like Ogre (see below) it has all the basic functionality of a full game engine to expedite the development process.

Ogre:
Ogre is essentially a graphics and rendering engine and not a full game engine, but if you have the time, it could very well be your best option. Ogre is incredibly full featured, is very well documented, and has strong community support. Learning it takes time, but with such excellent documentation, wiki support, and forum support, I considered this a fun journey. With Ogre, you will work in C++ (although many language bindings are available from the community, I still think C++ is the best way to go), and you have a great deal of flexibility related to scene management, asset management, and really every other aspect of rendering your scene that you can imagine. Most game specific elements can be plugged in or created yourself depending on your needs (OIS for input, CEGUI for your interface, etc.). There are numerous community examples and wiki pages devoted just to these plugins. The number of games created with Ogre is quite impressive and the engine performance is excellent. Best of all, Ogre is free to use.

There are many other great 3D game engines out there, but most of them are oriented toward or based originally on FPS style games, are feature incomplete, are very buggy, are too low level for one person with limited time and experience, or are very expensive (or some combination of the above).


3D MODELING

Blender: The ultimate free 3D modeling program (IMO)
3D Studio Max: The ultimate low polygon modeling program if you have the $$
Maya: As fully featured as 3DS Max, but better with high quality/film quality creations (NURMS), not quite as capable as Max with the low poly stuff.


2D CONCEPT ART/TEXTURE CREATION
The Gimp: The ultimate free 2D paint program (IMO)
Photoshop: The industry standard for art manipulation and textures


ANIMATION

3D Studio Max: Includes character studio
Motion Builder: One of the best animation programs available-- expensive, but well worth it if you have the $$
Cal3D: Free to use animation plugin


LANDSCAPE/TERRAIN

World Machine: Heightmaps with incredibly realistic erosion algorithms
Terragen: Beautiful heightmaps
L3DT: More beautiful heightmaps
Bryce: Full landscape and tree/vegetation/sky/other creation, can use imported heightmaps or make them (FYI: currently on sale for 50% off at just $50 for new version 6.1)
Freeworld: Full landscape tool, can also use imported heightmaps


Additionally, please check out the articles here:

http://www.devmaster.net/articles.php

Many of them provide a great big picture perspective of many aspects of the development process.

Again, this listing is not comprehensive by a long shot, but hopefully this will be enough to get you pointed in the right direction. Good luck!

Cheers,
Tim

[SamuraiCrow]

If you want to learn SDL, you could learn from the tutorials of LazyFoo and start from there. It's written entirely in C++ and starts from the basics of graphics programming.

When you are ready you can move up to 3d modelling using Blender and try to get the hang of it from there but personally, I wouldn't advise using 3d for a first project. A 2d single player offline RPG is enough to keep you busy for a long time.

Regarding the :offtopic: MMORPG crap, you've made a wise decision to NOT make a networked game. It's hard to make them fair and, as has been mentioned, everybody wants to make one except the people that realize what it would take as far as skills are concerned.