Well, I probably should have made some of this before posting a placeholder - oh well. Here's my guide - tell me what you think!
First off, you should probably stop reading this. If you are just looking to do something casually, game development isn't really for you. You need a good idea, appropriate tools, and above all, endurance. Game development is for people with a decent amount of free time on their hands (as I've learnt the hard way ;_
.That being said, making games is very fun, and if you do have time and the will, it's a great way to burn time and make something you could become almost famous for.
The following is essentially a resources list, giving tools, libraries, and help sites that will assist you in making the perfect indie game/mod.
As a general rule, everything listed here is free (beer or freedom), and commercial stuff is indicated as so. This is for indie development, after all.
---General Game Development---
www.devmaster.net - In-depth discussion of topics facing game developers, from how to implement 3D graphics algorithms in practice to the problems of inducing fear in the player. Good stuff.
www.gamasutra.com
www.flipcode.com
---3D Modelling---
Most games are 3D now, and at some point you are going to have to create the characters, vehicles, objects and terrain that feature in your game. You can either be masochistic and manually create your objects point-by-point in text format (some people are insane enough to do this), or use 3D program and an exporter for your engine. I know which one I'm doing.
-Blender-
Blender is a free 3D modelling, animation and rendering package. Everything is built for speed - the renderer is insanely fast (especially with particles), EVERYTHING has a shortcut key, and most functionality can be accessed simply by pressing 'space' in the 3Dwindow. Hell, it even supports cel-shading and compositing (video editing). Although it has a somewhat unusual interface, it was designed for efficiency, and once you spend a few hours you'll be making stuff quick as a rocket. There's even a 3D game engine built in, although it really can only be used for small games. This is my 3D app of choice, even above commercial packages. Besides, how can you argue with an application that has "Monkey" as a standard shape you can add? Now, for the links...
www.blender3d.org - The main site. Download it here, as well as the PDF manuals (totally essential), YAFRay (an advanced 3rd-party renderer) and example files.
www.blender.org - The Blender development site. If you're a coder, you can help make the next version. Blender announcements are made regularly here.
projects.blender.org - Blender plugin development (and downloads). Cool stuff.
www.elysiun.com - The Blender community site. Great tutes, and a very active forum (with some great art in the Gallery and Challenges sections).
www.python.org - A required download if you want to use any Blender scripts. (2.23 is the version to get.)
www.dedalo-3D.com - Home of MakeHuman and MakeManga, scripts that allow the user to quickly easily create lifelike humans by altering "morph targets".
Fiber Generator - Search for this on Yahoo, I've lost the address. Easily creates realistic fur and hair. Includes wind simulation!
-Wings3D-
wings.sourceforge.net
This is a modelling-only program, but since you would be using the models in real-time in an actual game, it doesn't really matter. It has a VERY weird workflow - you HAVE to start with a closed primitive, and there's very little freedom for point modelling. This being said, you can still produce great models with it, and many people prefer its modelling to Blender. Exporters are much harder to find for it, though.
-Art Of Illusion-
A relative newbie on the free 3D scene, AOI is implemented in Java, and has rather limited functionality. It might be one to watch in future though, especially if it takes a different tack to currently available software.
---RPG Making---
Going back the old-school is appealing to many of you, and 16-bit RPGs are probably the most accessible thing to make from that era. There are a lot of free makers out there, and I'll start with my personal favourite, Sphere.
-Sphere-
sphere.sourceforge.net
Sphere is a very robust and flexible RPG engine. It allows you to create a standard RPG with trigger events and such, but you are free to turn your game's battle system into a FFTA/Disgea clone, or even override the tiles engine altogether and make a side-scrolling shooter game. Very well documented as well, and anyone who can think moderately logically is more than prepped to work with this IDE. RM2K resources are even supported straight out of the box.
-IKA-
ika.sourceforge.net
ika is another engine quite similar to Sphere, save that it uses Python as a language instead. There is also no automatic organisation of resources, and no password-protecting of faster game files, but many people prefer the Python language.
-Verge-
http://www.verge-rpg.com/
Verge is a fork of IKA, using VB as the language instead. Can't get much easier than VB.
Random links:
http://www.2dgame-tutorial.com/
www.gamasutra.com
www.devmaster.com
http://www.generation5.org/
http://www.xconq.org/
http://pitchfork.pmsoft.org/
http://irrlicht.sourceforge.net/
http://www.openxdk.org/
http://devkitadv.sourceforge.net/
http://opensteer.sourceforge.net/
http://k3d.sourceforge.net/
http://neoengine.emedia-solutions-wolf.de/
Life kinda got in the way of this thing. I may improve it later.
[ April 28, 2005, 01:10 AM: Message edited by: Heaven Smile ]
