Game Development Kits

For the sake of efficiency, we are currently sidelining the development of our own Java-based game engine, and will instead select a game development kit/application for the creation of our platformer. Below is a list of potential kits, and we will be spending the next week or two testing them, and selecting one that best suits our group.

Game Maker 8
001 Game Maker
JumpCraft
Golden T Game Engine
Scrolling Game Development Kit 2
Reality Factory
VERGE 3
Sphere
Lightweight Java Game Library


Comments and grades will be applied as we test the applications.

New Semester, New Plan

We lost a lot of members this semester (graduation, etc), so we gotta deal with less until some new members pop up.

Additionally, as a result of getting essentially nowhere last semester, we're going to be changing the game we'll be working on. It's an extension of the plot of the game we were working on last semester, but it's a prequel and a platformer; we already have a basic plot, so most of the bickering can be skipped this time. On top of that, a basic platformer is fairly easy in comparison to the ambitious RPG we were planning last year.

We're going to be splitting development into a variety of stages, starting with a basic, sprite-based 2D graphics engine, and later moving onto a pseudo-physics engine, and a user/AI control system. if we have time, we'll add sound/music and an event system, but for now, we're trying to keep it simple.

Design Document

*The linked file at the end of this post is the current design document, detailing things like game-play mechanics, structure and story of the in-game world, character interaction, etc. It is very much liable to change.

It's amazing is how fast this much was generated, in only two hyperactive/manic meetings. Anyone who frequently attends GameDev can attest to the fact that we normally spend our time goofing off, so when we sat down and started hammering out details for the game, at the end of the day, we found ourselves fairly surprised.

Now there's barely any distinction between the Primary and Secondary Story designers, with the exception that the Primaries simply try to sort through the endless mountain of suggestions supplied by the Secondaries, and keep the game from sounding overly cliched. Everyone has contributed at least a little bit to the story, as well as to how the game should play out.

It's obvious that we as a club will not be reaching my initially proposed goal of four mini-games, nor will we finish this one game by the end of the semester, but as long as everyone has fun, and learns how to grow and organize ideas that can later be transformed into a game, then I'm happy. The purpose of the club, by the way, is not strictly the programming of games, but learning how they go from planning to implementation.


The file: game concepts.txt

New Semester

The fall semester has begun, and ShipGameDev is back in business! Meetings will be held Fridays in MCT 165 again, from 2-5PM, though some members have already claimed a later time may be better. If enough agree, the time will be moved up an hour, but the day and room will remain the same.

Last fall, I attempted to steer the entire group into working on a single project. Unfortunately, we were incapable of coordinating, some of us had different ideas, and others couldn't get a hang of the software. Come spring, I decided to break us up into many groups, and work on several projects, which seemed to work a whole lot better.

And so, this year we will be working on independent projects. Those who are semi-knowledgeable with game design shall form their own groups, while those who are new will go through a couple "lessons" with me, then join whatever group piques their interest, or form their own if they are confident enough.

By the end of the semester, I hope to have 4 mini-games finished or near-complete. This isn't that hard of a task, so let's try our best!