Friday, November 26, 2010
A late post and not much to report for November. The murmillo character is all modelled and texturing has begun on each object. The final face count is 11 100. That may sound like alot, but bare in mind this game is a two player fighter and I believe I'll be able to get away with it. I've also run into some problems with baking textures that will hopefully get resolved soon. Just sort of a before and after to show the progress.
Monday, October 11, 2010
Normal Maps: High poly to Low poly
For October's post I've started using the high poly to low poly method for creating textures and have so far really liked the process as opposed to creating textures solely in Gimp. It eliminates a lot of the guess work and calculating that goes into creating a height template, then generating a normal map in Gimp. Plus it's been a nice change creating high poly meshes with being able to model and not having face count constantly in the back of your mind. Baking ambient occlusion maps and adding them as a layer to textures created in Gimp also creates a bit of noise which produces a little bit of flavor to solid colors as well as emphasizing light and shadow. In general I've found it to make the texture process quicker and less painful. I have a couple shots of before and afters. They are still in need of few tweaks and adjustments though. Unfortunately there were no updates to the coliseum as my brother's hard drive crashed. We didn't lose anything, but we also didn't gain anything this month. Thankfully he's back up and running now. I'd also like to give a quick, really vague mention of a third project brewing on the back burners. “The Invincible Man” As far as it's use in Blender, it will be making use of renders as opposed to the game engine. In what form, is yet to be established. So ya... “The Invincible Man”... it's coming... watch for it.
Monday, September 6, 2010
Attention to Details...
I've decided to start updated once a month, this being September's post. I've finished two models: a gladius and a helmet worn by a murmillo. These models are game ready. Some details have been added to the emperor's box. The awning has a shader map and the throne is being modelled. We are trying to put alot of attention towards details. I'm currently working on the murmillo's body. Hopefully by next post I'll having some decent shots.
emperor's box
murmillo helmet
gladius
emperor's box
murmillo helmet
gladiusFriday, July 30, 2010
Update: Slowly, but surely.
Just some updated screen shots of Gladiators:Death or Glory. Tournament of Champions has been put to the back burners. Another idea we are playing is one using Arthurian characters. We are slowly making the switch over to Blender 2.5. By slowly I mean my brother has committed to it, but I'm still hesitant. We have been focusing on texturing lately and one thing I've learnt is to take your time with unwrapping and plan it out. It will save alot of time having to unwrap and re-unwrap over and over again.
Friday, July 2, 2010
Sunday, June 27, 2010
???
Okay, so I'd like to give a little more detailed explanation of what you are looking at. My first post was a little rushed, so this time round I figured I'd sit down and organize a better presentation of my thoughts. It's a bit of a read, but this will probably be the only post of this length; it's more of a summary, as opposed to later posts which will more than likely be just notes, screen shots and videos. The purpose of this blog is to create public documentation of a project I'm working on. It is two game demos I'm creating using the Blender Game Engine.
A Little About Me
As I stated earlier my name is Jayson Nordstrom. I'm 30 years old. Between my wife and myself we have 7 children. I currently work full time and work on this after everyone's gone to bed and on breaks and lunch at work, with meetings with my brother to update each other and toss ideas around(usually once a week). I have a college degree in CAD as well as drafting being my high school major. A lot of my spare time in my youth was spent drawing and painting and among those who knew me I got stuck with the artistic guy stamp. I've been working with Blender, Gimp and Inkscape for about five years now. In the game developing process my strengths would be in modelling and animating though I've had to deal with all aspects thus far and I continue developing them. My weakest as of now being in the programming end.
This is not a hobby, I'm taking this project quite seriously as my main intentions is a career change, but perhaps it can be of use to someone else. To any who may request blend. files or tutorials, I would have to say I want to wait till I have a finished product and in turn more time.
In General
Gladiators:Death or Glory(D.O.G.) and Marvel:Tournament of Champions(T.O.C.) are both a two player fighter at the core. Aspects of role playing and turn-based games will be incorporated as well. Both will be 3D rendered and in a 3D environment. Gladiator and comic book battles were large and epic and both games will try to capture that. Most locales will be large with lots of room to manoeuvre and play in. Both games will try to place focus as much on defence as on offence, with an emphasis on learning to use more precise control of your character. Button mashers will still be able to play, but more skilled, experienced players would or should be able to work around it(button mashing).
A few notes in the interest of development(perhaps to the Blender community or other game developers):
-the Yo Frankie project is being used as a benchmark for specifications and limitations, though I am aiming higher
-the goal is to create a game in contention with next-gen standards
-the characters will be 6000-10000 faces(as I believe this to be the next-gen standard)
-Blender's glsl shaders will be used
-I've heard the term rag doll used and if I understand it correctly, it will not be incorporated in either title, but rather I'm going the route of having sensors and other parameters linking and manipulating animations.
Marvel:Tournament of Champions
Why? Growing up, I spent a lot of time drawing and a lot of that time was on drawing people, particularly comic book characters, myself being a fan of comics(not that I've ever gone to any conventions). My favourites were Marvel's X-men, Avengers, and Spider-man and their casts of heroes and villains. Batman would be the only one from D.C.'s library that had any appeal to me. So to design a game based on Marvel's characters holds a lot of interest to me. I believe their library is not exhausted and still has a lot of potential. The era I'd like to try capture is the early 90's. I believe that's when Marvel was in it's prime.
Now to get back on track, I could be wrong, but it seems to me I've heard the debate: “Who would win in a fight; Batman or Superman?”, several times in my life. I don't know if it extends to any other part of the world, but it is the major theme of the game. That being said, there will be a major focus on character development. This would be the role playing aspect of the game. Through animations, action and reaction time, movement, controls and capabilities I want to give the user the opportunity to feel what it would be like to fight as the Juggernaut, Spider man, Ms. Marvel, etc. To further emphasize the characters uniqueness, I'm developing the game with the mindset that every match up is a different game. I'm doing this by creating animations and parameters based on the character he/she is pitted against. No cookie-cutter characters. Ex. Juggernaut's animations and parameters would be different when his opponent would be the Hulk as opposed to his opponent being Spider man.
There is no set story, but something on the back burner is using a character like Mojo and his TV show to bring them all together. The plan is to get a workable demo between Spider man and Juggernaut and then work in other characters till I get an 8 character base. The next definite character is Ms. Marvel. Other possibilities are Dr. Doom, Daredevil, the Hobgoblin, Iron man, Sabre-tooth, Giant-girl and Dr. Octopus. That's what intrigues me the most; the uniqueness of the characters and the possibilities of the different characters and how interesting a game like this could be.
Gladiators:Death or Glory
In Gladiators:Death or Glory, I want to pit gladiator vs. gladiator in a battle to the death with one emerging victorious and to emphasize this fact. Two ideas I want to introduce or elaborate on are that of consequence and mercy. In consequence, that the user feel the loss of his/her character and the frailty of life; that it can be taken in an instance. It would be interesting to see an overly aggressive player run carelessly into his/her opponent only to have the fight end in seconds. The focus on the game would be to get the user to stradegize and plan their attacks. With the aspect of mercy, given the user the option to plea for mercy and preserve their gladiator. I'm curious as to how often such an option would be used and if used how many would look over at their fallen buddy and comply. It would also play on the thumb's up/thumbs down decision of a battle.
In regards to D.O.G.'s role-playing design, it would play off of a gladiator's equipment more than the character himself. Gladiators were classified based on their equipment. Different gladiators had different strategies based on their gear.
Similarly, in respects to a story, there is nothing currently set, but I'm leading towards a career mode(similar to most sports games) through the eyes of either a slave or slave owner. As with T.O.C. I'd like to first develop a two character demo(the murmillo is the only set class) and then move to an 8 character base, the only difference being that in the future I'd like to integrate a create-a-gladiator mode.
The Process
I began about a year and a half ago, developing two base models. One of a male and one of a female named Adam and Eve respectively. I then use these models to create the characters I need, adding or removing vertices as required.
As I stated earlier I've been the sole developer with my brother helping on environments. The current state of the projects are:
Characters
Juggernaut(T.O.C.)
-face count-9604
-modelling-some minor tweaks needed
-textures-partial; mainly base colors
-rigging-rigged and weight-painted; shape keys needed
-animations and game logic-basic movements; more tests than anything
Spider man(T.O.C.)
-face count-6692
-modelling-some minor tweaks needed
-textures-partial
-rigging-rigged; partially painted; no shape keys
-animations and game logic-none
Murmillo(D.O.G.)
-face count-9388
-modelling-partial
-textures-minimal
-rigging-rigged; partially painted; no shape keys
-animations and game logic-none
Environments
The Coliseum(D.O.G.)
-modelling-partial
-textures-none
-animation and game logic-none
Temple of Cryttorak(T.O.C.)
-modelling-partial
-textures-partial
-animation and game logic-none
To conclude, my thanks to any who have found this site and have taken the time to read it. This is my first time on such an endeavour, so any constructive criticism is encouraged and appreciated. Till next post.
Okay, so I'd like to give a little more detailed explanation of what you are looking at. My first post was a little rushed, so this time round I figured I'd sit down and organize a better presentation of my thoughts. It's a bit of a read, but this will probably be the only post of this length; it's more of a summary, as opposed to later posts which will more than likely be just notes, screen shots and videos. The purpose of this blog is to create public documentation of a project I'm working on. It is two game demos I'm creating using the Blender Game Engine.
A Little About Me
As I stated earlier my name is Jayson Nordstrom. I'm 30 years old. Between my wife and myself we have 7 children. I currently work full time and work on this after everyone's gone to bed and on breaks and lunch at work, with meetings with my brother to update each other and toss ideas around(usually once a week). I have a college degree in CAD as well as drafting being my high school major. A lot of my spare time in my youth was spent drawing and painting and among those who knew me I got stuck with the artistic guy stamp. I've been working with Blender, Gimp and Inkscape for about five years now. In the game developing process my strengths would be in modelling and animating though I've had to deal with all aspects thus far and I continue developing them. My weakest as of now being in the programming end.
This is not a hobby, I'm taking this project quite seriously as my main intentions is a career change, but perhaps it can be of use to someone else. To any who may request blend. files or tutorials, I would have to say I want to wait till I have a finished product and in turn more time.
In General
Gladiators:Death or Glory(D.O.G.) and Marvel:Tournament of Champions(T.O.C.) are both a two player fighter at the core. Aspects of role playing and turn-based games will be incorporated as well. Both will be 3D rendered and in a 3D environment. Gladiator and comic book battles were large and epic and both games will try to capture that. Most locales will be large with lots of room to manoeuvre and play in. Both games will try to place focus as much on defence as on offence, with an emphasis on learning to use more precise control of your character. Button mashers will still be able to play, but more skilled, experienced players would or should be able to work around it(button mashing).
A few notes in the interest of development(perhaps to the Blender community or other game developers):
-the Yo Frankie project is being used as a benchmark for specifications and limitations, though I am aiming higher
-the goal is to create a game in contention with next-gen standards
-the characters will be 6000-10000 faces(as I believe this to be the next-gen standard)
-Blender's glsl shaders will be used
-I've heard the term rag doll used and if I understand it correctly, it will not be incorporated in either title, but rather I'm going the route of having sensors and other parameters linking and manipulating animations.
Marvel:Tournament of Champions
Why? Growing up, I spent a lot of time drawing and a lot of that time was on drawing people, particularly comic book characters, myself being a fan of comics(not that I've ever gone to any conventions). My favourites were Marvel's X-men, Avengers, and Spider-man and their casts of heroes and villains. Batman would be the only one from D.C.'s library that had any appeal to me. So to design a game based on Marvel's characters holds a lot of interest to me. I believe their library is not exhausted and still has a lot of potential. The era I'd like to try capture is the early 90's. I believe that's when Marvel was in it's prime.
Now to get back on track, I could be wrong, but it seems to me I've heard the debate: “Who would win in a fight; Batman or Superman?”, several times in my life. I don't know if it extends to any other part of the world, but it is the major theme of the game. That being said, there will be a major focus on character development. This would be the role playing aspect of the game. Through animations, action and reaction time, movement, controls and capabilities I want to give the user the opportunity to feel what it would be like to fight as the Juggernaut, Spider man, Ms. Marvel, etc. To further emphasize the characters uniqueness, I'm developing the game with the mindset that every match up is a different game. I'm doing this by creating animations and parameters based on the character he/she is pitted against. No cookie-cutter characters. Ex. Juggernaut's animations and parameters would be different when his opponent would be the Hulk as opposed to his opponent being Spider man.
There is no set story, but something on the back burner is using a character like Mojo and his TV show to bring them all together. The plan is to get a workable demo between Spider man and Juggernaut and then work in other characters till I get an 8 character base. The next definite character is Ms. Marvel. Other possibilities are Dr. Doom, Daredevil, the Hobgoblin, Iron man, Sabre-tooth, Giant-girl and Dr. Octopus. That's what intrigues me the most; the uniqueness of the characters and the possibilities of the different characters and how interesting a game like this could be.
Gladiators:Death or Glory
In Gladiators:Death or Glory, I want to pit gladiator vs. gladiator in a battle to the death with one emerging victorious and to emphasize this fact. Two ideas I want to introduce or elaborate on are that of consequence and mercy. In consequence, that the user feel the loss of his/her character and the frailty of life; that it can be taken in an instance. It would be interesting to see an overly aggressive player run carelessly into his/her opponent only to have the fight end in seconds. The focus on the game would be to get the user to stradegize and plan their attacks. With the aspect of mercy, given the user the option to plea for mercy and preserve their gladiator. I'm curious as to how often such an option would be used and if used how many would look over at their fallen buddy and comply. It would also play on the thumb's up/thumbs down decision of a battle.
In regards to D.O.G.'s role-playing design, it would play off of a gladiator's equipment more than the character himself. Gladiators were classified based on their equipment. Different gladiators had different strategies based on their gear.
Similarly, in respects to a story, there is nothing currently set, but I'm leading towards a career mode(similar to most sports games) through the eyes of either a slave or slave owner. As with T.O.C. I'd like to first develop a two character demo(the murmillo is the only set class) and then move to an 8 character base, the only difference being that in the future I'd like to integrate a create-a-gladiator mode.
The Process
I began about a year and a half ago, developing two base models. One of a male and one of a female named Adam and Eve respectively. I then use these models to create the characters I need, adding or removing vertices as required.
As I stated earlier I've been the sole developer with my brother helping on environments. The current state of the projects are:
Characters
Juggernaut(T.O.C.)
-face count-9604
-modelling-some minor tweaks needed
-textures-partial; mainly base colors
-rigging-rigged and weight-painted; shape keys needed
-animations and game logic-basic movements; more tests than anything
Spider man(T.O.C.)
-face count-6692
-modelling-some minor tweaks needed
-textures-partial
-rigging-rigged; partially painted; no shape keys
-animations and game logic-none
Murmillo(D.O.G.)
-face count-9388
-modelling-partial
-textures-minimal
-rigging-rigged; partially painted; no shape keys
-animations and game logic-none
Environments
The Coliseum(D.O.G.)
-modelling-partial
-textures-none
-animation and game logic-none
Temple of Cryttorak(T.O.C.)
-modelling-partial
-textures-partial
-animation and game logic-none
To conclude, my thanks to any who have found this site and have taken the time to read it. This is my first time on such an endeavour, so any constructive criticism is encouraged and appreciated. Till next post.
Friday, June 18, 2010
Characters(so far) and colliseum
The Roman Colliseum(D.O.G.)
Juggernaught(T.O.C.)
Spiderman(T.O.C.)
murmillo(D.O.G.)Thursday, June 17, 2010
.jpg)
Inroduction
Hello, my name is Jayson Nordstrom. As the title indicates this is a process diary. Gladiators-Death or Glory is one of two game projects I am currently working on using the Blender game engine. The other is based on characters from Marvel Comics. I'm leaning towards the title Marvel-Tournament of Champions. The main purpose of this blog is to publically document my progress on both projects. I am not sure of the fate of these two projects. Currently this is not a profession, but this is something I am hoping to change. If nothing else, I suppose I am creating a portfolio, though I would like to see both these projects come to something more. I guess I'm following the white rabbit and we'll see where he takes me.
As of now I have devoted most of my spare time to this project with my brother helping on enviroments. I've been working on this since December 2009. It began with T.O.C. and most effort has been put into that, though lately I've been trying to catch D.O.G. up to where T.O.C. is at. D.O.G. was brought in mainly due to the fact that T.O.C.'s characters are not my own. I'm not aware of all the legal boundaries, so D.O.G. is more of a fall back. Both games will be very similar but I will get into more details in later posts. With that said we're off.
As of now I have devoted most of my spare time to this project with my brother helping on enviroments. I've been working on this since December 2009. It began with T.O.C. and most effort has been put into that, though lately I've been trying to catch D.O.G. up to where T.O.C. is at. D.O.G. was brought in mainly due to the fact that T.O.C.'s characters are not my own. I'm not aware of all the legal boundaries, so D.O.G. is more of a fall back. Both games will be very similar but I will get into more details in later posts. With that said we're off.
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