I Thought I would start a thread in case anyone is interested following my story, I intend to blog or diarise the journey so if you are interested now is the time to start following
If you follow the link there is an About page which explains the story but briefly…
This whole thing is the realisation of a life long ambition, well I say life long since I discovered PacMan I guess. I have for a long time now dreamt of creating my own FPS, I never thought that would happen because of skill and the time required, and it still might not lol ! However, I’m going to give it a good go.
During the day I’m a business systems developer and I have been doing this for about 20 years now, but I really want to try and fulfil this ambition of mine. I’m doing this primarily for fun in my spare time but I’d really like to see how good a game I can create on my own using my own game play ideas coupled with assets created by other talented people. The coding side of things I have no fear of at all, but I’m definitely not a graphic designer so I’m going to concentrate on making the game fun, challenging and interesting by filling it with all my favourite features that good FPS’s have, and if in the end others enjoy playing it then thats a bonus !
So the plot features you as a scientist working on the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) follow the link if you have never heard of it as the plot will make more sense if you do. So you are working on the LHC and you keep ramping up the energy until one day, Zap ! You can’t really remember much but you awake in what seems like a candle lit cave. It’s weird because it looks like someone’s been here before and tried to hide away, but from who or from what? Where am I? Where is the lab? The door is barricaded, sunlight streams through but what’s on the other side? Home I hope…well I guess you’ll have to wait and see, but I think getting back home is going to be harder, and take longer than arriving did, and so the game begins.
If you are interested I hope you enjoy the ride, I’ll keep this thread up to date as often as I can along with the blog, the blog is linked to twitter also so you can keep tabs if you like.
There’s nothing better than just going for it and making the game you’ve always wanted, and I’m interested to see where your story is going! Best of luck!
In answer to your questions I’m aiming to have a playable two maybe three levels by Christmas this year, thats my plan, I have the whole story, gameplay etc mapped out, it’s just making it come alive !
As for the modelling no, this is one of the key parts of this project, I’m a programmer so the scripting is fine, making things move, jump, shoot, explode, interact with you etc, is all clear in my head, but modelling aside from basic stuff like boxes etc, is beyond me. So this where I’m really interested, I have put together a library of assets I have purchased I I believe work well, so I want so see just how good this can be using the asset store concept of content linked with my storyline and skill in making it all come alive. I can mess around in blender and alter things and cut them up and animate the parts you’ll see this in some of the mechanised adversaries you’ll come up against in Level 2.
The cave model for instance comes from Dexsoft I have managed to find most of what I need from various sources but graphic content is just one part of a game, and you can I have the best looking game in the world but if the gameplay is slow or boring or both then its a waste of time. So what I’m trying to do is speed up the development by using whats out there because its just me working on putting this together
“Is it going to be primarily an FPS or more of an adventure game with FPS elements?”
Its primarily an FPS, but it tells a story, the main character (and I need to figure out a name) that’s you, went to work at the LHC that morning to continue the work to discover what happened when the world was created, they ramp up the power just a little too much and he/she ends up somewhere else. Have you ever thought that to keep us alive the earth has to be a precise distance from the sun, has to be tilted at an exact angle, spin at an exact speed, etc etc. Well I think this is all to precise to have been just luck, so in the course of battling his way to find away home the scientist will un cover one possible theory to how we came to be here. Whether he figures it out and gets back is up to you…
Hi, no more pictures at the moment, I’m working really hard on the HUD and messaging system, it is taking a little longer than I thought but I’m getting there, more very soon… I’ll keep you posted… need sleep !
HUD finished at last, phew, that was a few days coding. Really pleased as its not just the GUI its the message hooks and handlers so I can now display any message in the centre HUD and call to update, Health, Ammo and Clip pickups from any where in the system. In addition I can display sprites in those clipping panes for amour or grenades or anything I can think of. Happy thats done, right next finish this level off with some more props scattered around for you to practice shooting, and then I think I’ll make a video so you can see level 1 and the game play in action…Stay Tuned…
P.S. Yep, I probably need a Mini Map but that can wait for now…
LOL !! Hmmm, you have given me a few ideas here I could lower the tone and add a bar with some strippers Duke Nukem style, that’s got to be a hardcore bonus level !!
By the way thanks for the positive comments, really trying to make this slick, it’ll never be Crysis 3 but taking my time to get the gameplay as interesting, attractive and professional as possible, you’ll be able to shoot plenty of stuff but I’m conscious of the storyline and I want to make it challenging and make it an FPS but kind of role play for one at the same time.
So many ideas, so little time, still Rome wasn’t built in a day.
I’m hard at developing the scenery and dynamics of level 2 (I think I need names for these levels). I don’t want to give too much of the game away but its a reasonably large level. I’m creating a feeling that you are somewhere, and not just anywhere. So the little details are important and the world should be believable and the different levels should naturally link together to give you a feeling that one, you are going somewhere and two, the player can connect with the world and the story that develops. Well thats the plan anyway, I’m going as fast as I can, which isn’t easy for a one man team, so please stay tuned, and thank you for your continued interest.
Hey tryharder looks great, it is very logicly thought out well that’s what games area bunch of logical ideas put together xd. The ambient music has a good feel to it and sounds great. The gun particle looks good is it like a sci fi ish gun? All in all this looks like its gonna be a great and enjoyable game to play.
There are some new screen shots on my blog for anyone interested, www.thehadroneffect.com I’m really torn between showing more and spoiling the plot, so the Images are in no order and actually the latest ones are midway through level 2, and i haven’t shown too much of the start, so hopefully not giving too much away.
Having so much fun doing this, just need 48 hour days. loving the AI more on that another day !!
