These will include Blender, Unreal (UDK), Game Maker and Unity.
Okay so I already covered some aspects of Blender in some of my daily updates HERE and HERE, so now I want to check out what Unreal, GM and Unity can do. I already mentioned the Legends of Equestria game in one of my Blender posts, but just to recap; a team over at LOE created an open world MMO RPG based on the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic series, which was created using the Unity engine.
As an MMO RPG, you interact with other ponies (people) playing on the server.
There are also NPC's (non playable characters) you can interact with who either tell you something arbitrary, relevant or can task you with a quest. The interactions appear by a typical RPG text box, sometimes giving you options to answer questions the NPC's may ask you.
The game feels fine when you're walking around, though it's still a bit glitchy in places.
It also has an optional 1st person perspective mode and two different 3rd person modes.
There have been various games created with Unity and is one of the most recommended for building games on a profecsional level.
However CCP Games announced they were switching from the Unity engine for their game -Eve: Valkyrie- over to the Unreal engine. This was due to the teams greater knowledge of Unreal, not necessarily because it is any better or worse. It's just personal preference, however their Senior programmer Sigurður Gunnarsson has said how Unreal's lighting engine is a 'huge improvement' over that of Unity.
(http://www.computerandvideogames.com/461745/eve-valkyrie-ditches-unity-for-unreal-engine-4/)
Unreal itself have produced some pretty awesome games, one quite close to my 3D project idea;
-Stanley Parable-
PewDiePie playthrough
Stanley Parable is a very unique game; the premise is your a guy called Stanley who is trapped inside his work place with an obnoxious narrator telling him what's going to happen.
The story can be multiple choice but decided using immediate options rather than text boxes with YES or NO answers. For example, the narrator says ''Stanley takes the door on the left'' - however you have the option to walk down through the door on the right if you please. This will take the story in a different direction giving you one of many different endings depending on your decisions.
The game looks very well crafted and seems to work by voice activation triggers (similar to what I will be using in my game). This work like; you walk into a room and walk over by a desk- that desk will have a ''trigger'' you stand into or near which activates a pre-recorded voice giving you the narrative.
Every aspect of the game will work like this- the voice will change depending on door and buttons you press. I suspect my game will work more like- you look through a window and watch a video clip; the clip will stop on the moment of decision making and play alternate endings of said clip depending on the answer selected. Kind of like a YouTube game by Tippexperience called A Hunter Shoots A Bear
https://www.youtube.com/user/tippexperience
also tried a similar idea with interactive YouTube games, along with Edatlin;
This is similar to what I'm thinking for the video based choice selections on my game.
However I don't think I'll bother with the free typing section, it doesn't always work and can be a little difficult thinking of the man different possibilities. A fine example of why this doesn't work is a French Indie game called Façade, created by Michael Mateas & Andrew Stern.
The game focus is on Grace and Trip who are just happening to be reflecting on their relationship as you arrive to visit them. From the moment Trip opens the door you can type in anything you want and see how the characters respond to your comment. If you go a bit over the top or they really misunderstand you then you will be asked to leave the house. They tend to stick to the same topic regardless of what you say.
Trip will talk about his painting and his drink making skills and Grace will question her interior design and go on about how art was her passion till she met Trip. They just fight it over and you can choose to lead it to a break up on either side or patch up the relationship some how. It doesn't always work out very well.
The best way to complete the game with a good ending is just say YES every now and then..
Giving the player too much freedom to direct the story leads to complications so I think I'm best using multiple choices.
Anyway, back to the Unreal engine.
Morten Nobel-Jorjensen, along with 4 other students, created a first person puzzle game, titled Para Dime, using the UDK engine. Lucky for me he has so kindly blogged his experience with the engine HERE.
After reviewing his blog I feel Unreal might be a bit too code based for me. I mean, so is Blender to an extent, but at least I have some experience using Blender already, plus I can do all the models in Blender too.
(Will continue this later)
(Will continue this later)
Bibliography:
http://www.legendsofequestria.com/media
http://www.equestriagaming.com/2014/01/play-legends-of-equestria-tomorrow.html
http://www.equestriadaily.com/2014/01/exploring-legends-of-equestria-alpha.html
https://unity3d.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PetZNW7xvrQ < Unity Review
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w21VD8JWrss < Best Engine compilation
http://www.computerandvideogames.com/461745/eve-valkyrie-ditches-unity-for-unreal-engine-4/
http://evevalkyrie.com/
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2150501/eyes-on-eve-valkyrie-adds-unreal-engine-4-battlestar-galacticas-katee-sackhoff.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0Gk3Zf9v4g
http://www.stanleyparable.com/
http://kotaku.com/tag/the-stanley-parable
http://www.interactivestory.net/
Unreal tutorials >
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0Gk3Zf9v4g
https://www.youtube.com/user/UnrealDevelopmentKit
Unreal >
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLnUMNtPPLc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfVl_SNKYJU
http://blog.nobel-joergensen.com/2010/06/03/the-best-and-the-worst-of-udk/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HvVZkHhGLc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76Ljp3KdXEs
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