Feral Heart

smh at the trolling in that dA journal's comments, but lmao at their ammo.

I can confirm @CometTrail's comment on the staff boards being pretty empty. There wasn't much activity going on. There were a lot of moments where some of us would brainstorm and try to spark some life or activity for a while, but it'd never really go anywhere, for multiple reasons.

For Aro'kai we use Ogre3D for rendering and mainly code in C++; Codeblocks and Visual Studio (2008/10) Express are the IDE's used.

Textures and art are made in Gimp, Photoshop, and/or Paint Tool SAI (depending on the staff member).

The primary version of Blender3D that we use for models is 2.49b.

We used Flash for the UI.

And when it comes to coding it really depends on what you want to learn, though I do remember that starting smaller than a major coding language is better. Memory's kinda fuzzy but stuff in HTML and I think..CSS? had some things that would make tackling stuff like C++ more bearable than nosediving into it from the getgo.

Though when starting C++ this site seems rather helpful.

To be honest I am completely fine with leaving footprints in the sand that fizzle out as my friends and those that I left impressions on in my life follow me into the graveyard. As long as memories they have of me are happy ones or give them motivation or insight on how to better live their lives I am completely satisfied.

Leaving a lasting impression on thousands of people isn't something I'm interested in because people wouldn't truly know me as a person, but for what I did. The drama and rumors that somehow crop up after people who've left marks on thousands of people (or more) is something I do not want attached to my name when I'm gone because coffins are incredibly cramped and I really don't want to have to roll around in it because people simply can't help themselves.

I live for myself, my friends and my goals; the decisions I make have potential to leave impressions on those I meet in every encounter. Whether it's large or small doesn't really matter to me.

Another big thing is that it's not just the ability to create the game that's important, but public relations and the ability to interact with the fanbase/community of the game maturely and not to get too caught up with emotions. It's human to slip every once in a while, yes, but if you can't own up to your mistakes or if those slip ups or constant then odds are you aren't mature enough to be in the position to run, admin, or let alone maintain a game.

A lot of these teams I see pop up are incredibly young and haven't reached a level of maturity where they can handle the pressure or the patience to learn the skills required and eventually crack and abandon the project because of it. Or they take offense to heartfelt advice or tips as harsh criticism and leave because it doesn't exactly meet up with something they agree with.

I think the major problem however is that they simply set the bar too high when it comes to the game they make. They envision it in their heads, with perfect controls and everything they see. Yet at the actual workdesk it becomes frustrating because there are limitations with hardware and programs that have to be considered in order to make the game just as good, but also playable. As I mentioned before though I often see models with far too high a poly count to be workable on computers in an online setting. An animated movie? Sure! A one player game? Absolutely! An online MMO with potential of the models being in large crowds? ...Yeah you're gonna wind up cutting off a lot of potential players due to computer demand, there.

Asking people for help, however, I can slightly understand. I first started looking into modeling when I was around 15-16, and Blender sat on my computer for a good year from me being impatient with it before I took a deep breath and just practiced and modeled again and again. My models went from being sloppily low/high in poly to a nice inbetween and my UV map organization is decent and easy to understand.
This level took me 4 years to reach and I modeled near constantly. I originally didn't want to do it because I knew how much time would have to be put in for it, but it was worth it. xD

For people that do have some of these skills (particularly in the learning area maybe) that do sign up for these games to help, I somewhat feel a little sorry because of just how much the workload is for these things. An example from me is my work for Aro'kai; I model, animate, and texture things (and concept art; the more ideas to discuss from multiple angles the better; everyone on the team does concept art), from rocks to NPCs to the player models, and the amount of work required for all of it is astounding. xD Each little thing done just sets up more work to be done before it's completely finished, and even then - as a developing game - there's the chance where things can easily change and cause that work to be wasted (from the idea being scrapped) or for something to be edited, and that itself leaves everything 'up in the air'. There's never something that's truly 100% done because of how open everything is.

So then when it comes to these games that pop up it is slightly frustrating and even worrying because there is so, so much work put into these things and with staff applications it's really hard to come by people who would actually do things (for free, no less!) and as those learning I worry about them getting frustrated and giving up because it's not going at the pace they want it to go. This stuff takes time and a far amount of patience and skill D : And I worry that potential dreams may be shot down because they simply aren't ready for the burden.

When it comes to games the main issue that I see is that it's often run by people who are very young and always intend to "have the game out soon". The average development time of a game from a professional company is anywhere between 2-5 years, depending on the deadline they've set for themselves.

Another part about it is that games usually aren't fully announced until there's something going for it. Like, you would hear someone saying "working on a new ___ title", but you don't see exactly WHAT it is until there's some actual footage of the game most of the time. A lot of these in-development games that pop up are simply the idea and not much more, which can put up a lot of pressure because there is just so, so much to be done with making a game. So much.

There's also times where these games steal material for their forums or game or don't give proper credit or even permission to use it, or that the models being used for the game are so high poly that they shouldn't even be used for the kind of game they're aiming for (or are stolen as somewhat alluded to before).

The most annoying part of them is probably when there's 'staff applications' for these projects. You want to make a game...but...are asking a programmer to help you...? For free...? It doesn't work like that, mate.

I enjoy that people have imagination and want to make games out of it but...the sheer underestimation that people have in how hard it is to make a game and all of the little things that go into it incredibly irk me. It's not like making paper planes, it's folding thousands of origami cranes. And the weird lack of understanding in that is just...eehhhhh