Undertaking to learn a game engine is, needless to say, a daunting task.
I've chosen to learn the CryEngine for no super intelligent reasons other
than a. I liked the graphics, and b. creating a level was easier than doing
the same on Valve's Source Engine. I think a lot of folks get hung up on
the prospects of licensing when choosing their game engine. In my
professional career, corporate lawyers and technocratic busy bodies did
nothing to add to the business, but rather slowed things down... often to a
halt. I try not to let legal and/or "business" considerations get in the way
of the prime goal which is making a unique gaming experience.
When I watched the 2012 documentary movie, 'Indie Game', I was most struck
by some comments from Braid designer, Jon Blow. One of his primary goals was
to actually finish something. He indicated that he had never really
completed any of his many personal projects, but this time was going to be
different. I think these are sentiments that many of us in the computer
gaming arena can relate to. While they never seem like a huge endeavor,
computer programs and particularly video games are deceptively large and
time consuming endeavors. They are the proverbial icebergs where the bulk
of the object is submerged and hidden from view. Even today when I log on
to Facebook, I see only a few web pages with some well-designed forms. For
the life of me I can not figure out why it would take teams of coders and
support personnel to design, implement and maintain such a seemingly simple
interface. But I know it does require that much effort and then some. And
for this very reason, most of us indie-minded game designers end up biting
off far more than we can chew.
I guess what I am driving at is there appears to be a psychological
component to undertaking a technological design. It is the psychology of
the task that we often overlook or underestimate. We need to don blinders
and work feverishly even though this is something we are doing in our off
hours, our spare time, the little time we have between getting to work,
doing our jobs, watching our kids and keeping our stations neat and orderly.
These are the precious hours in which we are supposed to enjoy our lives.
Psychologically we need to prepare for this. We also need to scale back our
ambition and not take on too much lest we risk running out of steam before
anything of consequence has been accomplished.
Undertaking a game design requires carefully considering the building
blocks, tools and resources you're going to put into this endeavor.
Building a game engine from scratch is a non-starter for me. I may as well
try to design the operating system. Using Valve's aging Source engine ultimately
was too clunky and filled with undocumented problems even if I followed a tutorial step by step. The
CryEngine Sandbox Editor got me from nothing to a little island that I could
package and ship in a very short amount of time. I was encouraged. But now
looking through the documentation, I realize there is a huge milestone to
reach in understanding the engine well enough to start crafting some unique
game play. An FPS with different characters, levels and weapons is NOT what
I consider unique. So for now, I scale back my goals to first gaining a
rudimentary grasp of the engine and blog about the journey that I need to
take in order to gain that rudimentary grasp. In the process I hope to
craft some clearer descriptions on how to use the CryEngine in new and
unique ways, develop a portfolio of sample code and assets, generate some
video tutorials and perhaps publish a book about what I've learned.
Finally for the purposes of completing something from start to finish. My plan is that this blog will
have a milestone of first completing and commenting on the current
documentation that exists for CryEngine 3+. Once I have covered that
material, I will then propose an outline for a workbook that can be used as
a primer to becoming proficient with CryEngine development.
For next time, I'll be diving into Tracy and Reindell's CryEngine3 Game
Development: A Beginner's Guide.
