This thread will be my showcase for development of the game Zero which is my first attempt to actually do anything using the Esenthel Engine. I'm a programmer and not an artist so don't have any big expectations. To earn my living my occupation is C++/C# programmer and has been since the mud was invented. Although that fact may help a bit in the game development process, I'm regard my self as a beginner. This is a new engine to me and I have no 3D-math knowledge that’s worth mentioning. Shader programming is a black hole of which I know nothing. To make things even worse. I'm absolutely no artist although I try to be. However, the fact that I'm now 62 years old does give me any excuse to stop learning. This is fun.

Zero will be heavily inspired from the old game ""MYST" released back in 1991 without being a clone. The game is an exploring type of game where you have to solve different problems to get further on. No guns, No blood, No fighting.

It will be a First-Person game where you only use the mouse. No keyboard. Point and click where you want to go, or what you want to pick up or move. A simple inventory will help you collecting useful things. So actually no fancy stuff, just a simple traditional game. I have tried alone and together with others to make that "Fantastic Smashing High Graphical" game several times before, with different engines, without success. Reasons may be many for the failures, but one of them is certainly trying to make something alone or in a team with a few individuals that would take 20 or more experienced artist and developers to achieve, on full time. So now I'm out of that circus and will try by my self with something simple. Maybe it will work, maybe not. If not I at least only have my self to blame, not the engine, not any one else, not
the lack of superior effects ... the list could go on.

I have an idea on how the game will be, but no written plot or something like that. Thats not what I would recommend to others, but I will take things as the come, which may lead to throwing away stuff that did not go as expected or adding other things. I don't worry to much about that as I'm alone on this.

The name "Zero" sounds good to me. The background of that name should not be to hard guessing. Yep. Zero simply states that I'm starting from scratch or zero. Besides that I like the title although it actually has no direct meaning in the game.

My first step is to get my game-player mechanics done. Here is what I planned and also implemented.

The player should
* Go where you click with left mouse button, limited to a distance.
* Look around holding right mouse button down
* Pick up things by pointing at them and click

The player will also be able to either move things, carry them along using the
inventory for later use.

Here is a short video showing the above.
To hear my voice you have to turn up the volume really high .
My Mic settings sucked. Will do better next time





If any beginner (as I am) has any questions I will be happy to share anything.
Oh one more thing. English is not my native language (I'm from Sweden) so my writing isn't perfect everywhere

good luck on your project !


ps: one thing, i cant hear you on the video, might want to check your mic settings for the next one

(07-10-2015 11:16 PM)RedcrowProd Wrote:   good luck on your project !


ps: one thing, i cant hear you on the video, might want to check your mic settings for the next one

First of all Thanks

Yeah. The volume came out VERY VERY low. If you turn up your volume the voice is actually there. I will check that better next time.

That's a great start.

We actually need more Esenthel beginners like ourselves showcasing our efforts as we progress. We all have different levels of proficiency and skill in the various areas of 3D graphics and programming, so in this manner we can all learn from each other. Also, in the case of us 'lone wolves', it keeps up our motivation

A great solid start Roland and a lovely example for people new to game development of concentrating on getting the main mechanics working first. I love the Logo too ... very cool!

I've known Roland for some time and he's a talented guy who's projects are always worth following. Looking forward to seeing this one develop, having been a big MYST fan myself

Thanks Guys.

Yes this great engine surely need more showcasing around on the net.
Making a progress diary also (as 3DRaddict) keeps the motivation up.

I'll be following your progress in the hopes of being able to play Zero one day

Here is a little quick update.

Have been working on getting the pick object system stable. Had some problems with the picked objects bouncing around to much but that solved now.





Next thing is to have predefined object-sockets so that a picked object can be placed at and used with the object-socket its linked to. A simple case could be having a pick-object which is a key to a door lock and then the object-socket being the door keyhole. The key can be picked (and stored in the inventory), then later tested against the door. If the door has a object-socket that goes with the key an event will be triggered. In this case 'open door'.

So this will end up in a system with PickObjects that can be picked, stored in inventory, restored from inventory, dropped to ground or activated on a PickSocket object as described above. If the idea holds I will have a generic system for most of my game-puzzles. However if things goes as they usual does I have for sure forgotten about some things so there will be changes and additions. But I think the idea will hold.

The PickObject will be of either USABLE or MOVABLE types. The only difference is that a MOVABLE type can't be stored in the inventory and can't interact with a PickSocket. It can simply be moved around with the mouse pointer for inspection or maybe its blocking the way or what ever.

So that's my plan for next update.

I like your concept of object sockets. Looking forward to seeing this in action

Been sketching a bit on what I think will be needed and could as well show what my
ideas are in an UML form. Now this is just what I'm thinking of and may change ... or
actually WILL probably change if things goes as they often do. But I had to do this to
get a clear picture of what I'm going to do and how the relations are. Maybe it will hold
and maybe not. Its not complete either, more a diagram of what's initially needed.

   

My main will contain 4 global items. A Player (of course), a list of PickItems, a list of
PickSockets and finally a GameControl.

GameControl:
Is responsible of keep things going and take care of the other components needed. It
contains the inventory, the player and a picker object which helps picking and grabbing
things. It is also is an EventListener taking care of events sent from various components
(so far just the Inventory). Items to be picked are detected here and handled by the Picker.
This control is actually a state machine with the states shown in the diagram

Player:
Not much to say here except that it contains a HealtMeter so we now when to die. This
meter will be visible on screen all time. Besides that it lives its own life.

PickItem:
This is the base of all things that build puzzles and events in the system. It can be
picked, moved around, dropped and stored, all depending on its type. There are some
different types shown in the diagram, all with their own speciality. Each type is
implemented as classes inherited by this base class. I wont go into the details, some
can be guessed by just reading the diagram.

PickSocket:
Some PickItem's are designed in order to work witch other specific object. They must
match each other, like a key and its keyhole. So this type of object only works
together with a specific PickItem. Together they will generate some action.

Besides this classes described here, there is a simple event-system for sending events
between components.

Oh.. and I'm very open for suggestions, questions and critique.

Looks like a nice object oriented design to serve as a foundation and extend as required. Thanks for sharing and again good luck with this.

Presumably the pick socket or the base game item object contains a list of pick items that can trigger that game item's action, for example unlocking a lock as a result of having the required key or a lockpick in the inventory? Not quite sure where the linkage is.

The pick socket has a ID of the pick object it will work with. When selecting a pick object (either from ground or the inventory) it will check its near surroundings (raycast) for pick sockets and tell the socket of its presence. If the id of the pick object is equal to the one stored in the pick socket we will have a match and both objects can do their 'play' thing.

Now... All this just became history as I discovered the Visual Event System here on the Esenthel Store. It already does more or less exactly what I'm looking for. So the nice plan above will be replaced by the Visual Event System. I didn't know of this system until this morning. But that's great. I have now saved the time of implementing this design and can go further with other things .. there are plenty of them

(07-11-2015 08:08 AM)3DRaddict Wrote:  That's a great start.

We actually need more Esenthel beginners like ourselves showcasing our efforts as we progress. We all have different levels of proficiency and skill in the various areas of 3D graphics and programming, so in this manner we can all learn from each other. Also, in the case of us 'lone wolves', it keeps up our motivation

Agreed. I love reading this kinds of threads, esp. if my motivation/inspiration is a bit down.. but I admit I myself could post a bit more in this manner..

Just wanted to tell that I have been into other things for a while. That's the reason for lack of updates. Now continuing where I left of. I decided to not use the Visual Event System although its a really great piece of work (bought it). I will use my own simpler framework instead where I fully understand each part and thereby have full control. But again. Visual Even System is great, but I already had much in place with my own system. I will make a video update when the last 10% is done.

Feel the heartbreak Tottel!
Good to see you back in the saddle rstral.