Re: [kidsgames] Just Subscribed.

[Steve Baker <sjbaker1@airmail.net>]

Kidsgames Project Coordinator - Jeff Waddell wrote:

> -->Pretty soon, Oliver got frustrated with the S-L-O-W pace of development,
> -->and I decided to rope him in to the effort.  He wanted a house for
> -->Tux to live in - and so I showed him how to build one using the AC3D
> -->model editor.  Well, to cut a long story short, Oliver is now pretty
> -->good at throwing together models quickly.
> -->
> 
> So has he made any of the TUX AQH levels?

None of the ones in the current distribution are 100% his - but he
has built some complete levels.  They tend to be a bit - um - arbitary,
things happen without warning - and - well, they just don't "work"
well enough to put into the main distribution.

So he's contributed a lot of the individual objects in the scenery. On
one level, I needed some spikes to shoot out of a wall - he built the
spikes and the wall - I needed a model of a refrigerator - he made me
one, that kind of thing - perhaps 40% of the 3D objects in the game
are his.  He's also built some objects like a dog and an elephant
that are really GREAT - but require a lot of software effort to
animate them and have them participate in the game play.

Planning a whole game level takes a lot of thought - it's quite
hard even for an adult.  For example, there is no use having a
bunch of spikes shoot out of a wall when there is no reason to
walk along next to the wall.  It just doesn't "work". You have
to have a narrow path that leads you past the wall - and a reason
to walk along the path (you can see a golden herring at the end
of it) - and some way to know that there are going to be spikes
shooting out of the wall so you stand a chance to avoid them.

That kind of complex reasoning still seems to elude Oliver. He
wants to use his imagination to design interesting things that
can happen - but doesn't seem able to piece them together to
make a complete level.  That's fine though - it'll come with
time and experience...and his levels are in the version of
the game that runs on our machines here at home.

Level design is a hard skill to learn.

(BTW: Tux_AQFH really is a 'cute' game - despite the spikes! Tux
doesn't ever get really hurt and there is no blood or anything.
The spikes make him say "OW!" and push him sideways off the path
so you have to go back and try again.)
 
> -->This would fulfill the desire to have a free video game that would
> -->never end - since new levels would be constructed as fast as we could
> -->solve them.
> -->
> 
> Now that DOOM and Quake have come into being "free", there seems to be a
> lot of "developer drain" as they put resources there instead.  I don't
> know if that is good or bad...?

Well, it's a shame those games are *so* violent.

Quake has a 'M' ESRB rating - which makes it suitable for the 17+ age
group...that's NOT good.

They are technologically pretty amazing.  The rendering quality leaves
Tux_AQFH in the dust - but that's the difference between a 100 man year
project and a one man year project.
 
> -->Regrettably, the number of significant contributions to the Tux game
> -->hovers around the zero level.
> 
> Don't despair!!!!!  Perhaps they love the level that is there so much it
> has not occurred to them to make there own.  As a "kids" game the
> "serious" gamer's won't go near it yet I think.  And kids don't have the
> skills (Oliver excluded) to make their own levels, or have already done so
> and are happily playing them without realizing they need to send those
> levels to you.

No - I'm pretty sure nobody else has built a level.

> -->However, it's become evident that the AC3D modeller that Oliver and
> -->I have been using is somewhat inadequate to the job of building
> -->Tux levels - and perhaps that explains why I've had no help (but
> -->perhaps not - I don't think people have been trying to build new
> -->levels and failing - they just aren't interested in offering their
> -->time).
> -->
> 
> Considering most people I know DON'T have 3d hardware I think it hardly
> surprising that they aren't making more levels.

Well, 15,000 people downloaded the game - and a survey on HappyPenguin
showed that 80% of it's respondants have 3D hardware.
 
> -->So, my current project is 'Pretty Poly Editor' - a polygon-level
> -->3D editor that should be PERFECTLY suited to building 3D models
> -->for Linux-based OpenGL games.  Once Prettypoly is working well,
> -->I'll return to finish Tux.
> -->
> 
> I noticed that sourceforge has about 5 different 3d editor projects going,
> I wonder if they could either be merge or otherwise help each other?

Well, it gets a bit technical - but none of the other projects are
suited to the needs of amateur games writers.  Most are aimed at
high-quality non-realtime rendering.

-- 
Steve Baker                  http://web2.airmail.net/sjbaker1
sjbaker1@airmail.net (home)  http://www.woodsoup.org/~sbaker
sjbaker@hti.com      (work)


-
kidsgames@smluc.org  -- To get off this list send "unsubscribe" in the
body of a message to majordomo@smluc.org