Movie!

Grab a 5 liter cola, put on your 3D goggles, and get yourselves some ear protectors to survive the noisy sound. Yes, the quality is not superb (I didn’t try the DVD recording thing yet), but at least there is finally something to look at. Now the verdict is up to you, shoot me! But please don’t kick me in the balls ;)

Well you can’t expect too much from a half finished engine + some programmer art. But since this is supposed to be a horror game, I hope this little movie gives you a few sweaty thrills. Just a little bit. The problem with being the “producer” of such a thing is that you really don’t know anymore whether your product is good, bad, scary, or just plain stupid. After programming, playing, watching and thinking about it at least 7 million times, I really don’t have a clue what others may think. Yes of course I tested it first on a big television with my girlfriend, but she is also afraid of tiny spiders, thunders 200 kilometers away, me, cheese and everything else. So that’s not a real good reference.

For that matter, I’m quite relieved its finished now. Not only because it is a first milestone, also because I can finally move on to something else. I haven’t been really programming on bigger techniques last 5 months, such as AI or a new ambient lighting system.

Don't know if it matters, but it was encoded with H.264, MP4 format. In case you can't play it or something, please let me know. I have zero experience with online movies and stuff.

In the meanwhile, let’s see what this movie does. As I have told a few times before, one of the goals with this blog and demonstration movie is to hopefully get a few talented artists. So I can focus more on the technical part, while the creative guru’s are make dreams come true. Just for a start, a mapper/modeler and concept/texture artist can make life so much easier. I’d love to see what a next movie would do with the touch of some true artistic talent.

Maybe that is wishful thinking, but you’ll never know if you don’t give it a try. One way or another, if I ever want this project to grow to something more serious, I can’t do without them. The days of programming Pac-man on the attic are over.

In case you are reading this as a programmer; yes I’ll probably need a few experts on specific matters(physics, IK, sound for example) as well, but not yet. Maybe nothing will change in the next months, but if, IF one or two artists come in touch, I’ll first want to put my energy on that. From other amateur-hobby-projects I’ve learned not to choke yourself in your own enthusiasm! Be easy, don’t rush! First things first.


Finally, is there something to say about this movie? Well those who have read this blog the last months probably have seen most of the visuals and techniques already. However, I think I should add that some of the contents were used from other games:
- Halflife 2 some of the wall and floor textures, a few footstep sounds
- Doom 3 many of the sounds, a few blood decals
- Crysis Warhead Concrete texture

To be very honest, I have no idea whether this is illegal or not. Yet another reason to search for some artists quickly, so we can replace that content (that means it also needs a sound engineer in the future)! How about the TO DO’s? Allright, here’s the 2011 plan:
• Hopefully find one or two talented artists, and create a second movie
• AI module (improving navigation mesh, task system, …)
• Realtime Ambient 2.0
• Volumetric fog & lightshafts
• Adjusting the rendering pipeline to something like Inferred Lighting
• FMOD sound, maybe
• Switching over to Newton 2.0 (still using the older one)
• And tweak about anything else

Ok, I’m going to rest for a moment. All coding and no play makes Jack a dull boy.