Sunday, January 30, 2011

UDK Makes My Head Hurt

Tigress here! So even though I have plenty of experience in UDK, I used it for several projects, about a year's worth of work in school, it still makes my head hurt.  I just got the newest edition and I have to say I am not exactly pleased with all of the 'new' features.  Not a fan of the fact that every viewports changes when I move just one of them. Sometimes I just want to move slightly and seeing all the viewports move makes me kind of sick. I guess I will be using the 'fullscreen' view option a lot more.

Also, I apparently have conversion issues.  I tried to make a room, but I kept making it a bit too small. Now that I have gotten some of that out of the way, I hope that I will be able to adjust my numbers so that future areas are not as hard to create.

I have the first room completely made, now I just need some textures and then for Raven to finish the bed, dresser, and lamp for the area.  Then I am going to get them into the room. I expect screenshots of it by the end of this upcoming week! Even if we don't have everything ready!

Saturday, January 29, 2011

Becoming a Supermodel...er

Tigress and I have revamped our roles in the game design process a bit since she prefers the level design process and I have at least some abilities with 3D modeling... so I will be booting up 3DS Max and creating some models for the game, starting with the furniture and other things that are normally found in an average studio apartment.  Keep an eye on this blog if you're interested, as screen shots of these models are sure to follow... assuming they aren't so crappy that I want to hide them in the most remote locations on my hard drive... lol!  Just kidding about that, I feel confident I can have something presentable soon.  Thanks for reading!  ^_^

Changes? Already?

Tigress here, and yes, there have already been changes made to how getting Dream World up and running is going to occur.  First off, I will no longer be doing any modeling.  After attempting to create a simple dresser I gave up.  It took me six tries and I hadn't even come close to getting it right. What's so hard about making a box look interesting anyway? I guess modeling and art really isn't in my genes.  Second, we have opted to go with a standard PC platform instead of the iOS as Apple charges $99/year to be a developer. Taking that cost in addition to the cost of getting a liscence from UDK, at $99 (at first I might add) well that is $200 I know we don't have.  That being said, perhaps we will be able to store some money away and be able to afford the distrubtion cost of $99 when we are ready to publish.

But, on a good note, that means I am going to be able to do more work on levels, planning them out to fruition better and other good things.  It also means that overall, our game is going to be bigger.  And while bigger can sometimes be better, when the game starts out as 8 levels and is now getting bigger, well, in my honest opinion, that is better. At least we will have a game that when people buy (hopefully) they aren't left thinking, "I paid $5 for this? It has hardly any levels. Its like paying a dollar per level, that just sucks."

Anyway, I better get back to work. GDD is almost, well, sort of done. And I am starting to plan the first level layout. Hopefully screen shots come next!

Raven Knight

Hi, I am the other half of ORS (Outer Realms Software).  I am working with Tigress on this project, which is the first game project of ORS.  We will be documenting our progress on this game right here on this blog, we are making it using the Unreal Development Kit with iOS support.  We should be able to release it for the iOS when it is done, so those of you with iPod touch, iPhone, and iPad will be able to download it and play it.  Like Tigress, I will be doing a bit of everything in the game... modeling, level design, coding... that's what has to happen when the company consists of two people working out of their living rooms!  ^_^  So check back here often for the latest update!  Thanks for subscribing to this blog!  ^_^

Introducing Myself!

Hi! Tigress (yes, that is an alias) here! I just wanted to drop a note saying hi to everyone, and to let you know a little about me, the company, and the game.

I am a game dev here at ORS.  I have a degree in Digital Entertainment and Game Design from ITT Tech, and currently I play the role of just about everything as ORS is extremely small.  I will be the writer for the game design document (GDD) for Dream Game (working name), as well as level editor, and simple 3d modeler.

ORS is a game design company that is trying to get a start in a cut throat world, and by start I mean we are brand new! We currently have no games out, and most of you probably haven't heard of us.  But we aren't worried. You'll be speaking our name soon enough!

We decided that we would start by creating a simple game. We don't currently have a name for the game, but we are calling it Dream Game.  The premise of the game is that the lines of reality are being blurred and it is up to the player to restore the balance.  It will be simple in that there is only going to be about 8 'levels' or so. There is much more complexity about the game after the level limit, but I can't go into too much detail, yet!

Well, I'm off to get started on the GDD. Hope to be back with some good news soon!