Tutorial Art Design: game

Articles by "game"

BGE / Loops and Other Stuff 1

I have a feeling that Blender Game Engine (BGE) is very under-utilized by many of Blender Artists. BGE can certainly do a lot that is not necessarily for game creation, but potentially useful and powerful.

I had looked at BGE some times ago while reading one of the available book on BGE and now decided to look further details.

In the past, I casually made these using BGE:
- Interactive 3D Portfolio
- 360 viewer

Hopefully, we can together come up with simple ideas that can be useful for general usages.

INTERACTIVE + REAL-TIME

Recently, I found some big interest in interactive applications and real-time Computer Graphics creations. Game productions make use of these "procedural" real-time stuffs. Animation (like dynamic), music/sound, shaders, etc. all working and can be controlled in real time.

The great thing about game or interactive applications is its immediacy. Unlike Film production where we need to worry about render time where the result is final, in Game production, we will end up with products and applications that is interactive and continuously being changed and rendered in real time. The users have control over the final product.

I mean, this is obvious, right? But very powerful if you think about it.

If we can connect the interactivity and real-time nature, we can create automation which relates to robotic. Customization is also possible.

UNITY 3D

By some chances, recently I had access to a game design workshop on Unity at Sydney's Powerhouse Museum. It is basic workshop for young brilliant kids (7+), however, I like the approach of going through a complete project from A to Z.

The teacher at Powerhouse Museum, James, said their method is to teach game hollistically. Meaning like going through whole production, not getting too much details with things, but giving enough general (yet complete) understanding of game production and design concepts, so that learners can then continue on their own.

I found that Unity 3D is a very "scripted" game authoring tool. You need to know or understand programming or coding if you want to go far. However, Unity is also very good and organized. I love the Unity interface and workflow.

Unity works well with Blender.

There is this great book on Unity by Penny de Byl:
http://holistic3d.com

https://vimeo.com/channels/412849'

The book is very balanced in Technical and Artistic contents.

SCRATCH AND STENCYL

If programming and coding feels scary, you can start with Scratch programming. Then you can move to Stencyl, which is like a more advanced version of Scratch, specially made for game programming.

These kind of tools are great for starting.

Blender BGE & its Python programming

BGE is interesting. Unlike other 3D packages, BGE inside Blender is quite solid. It is probably "limited", but it is sufficient for many applications or game creations, and can be expanded.

I am hoping that slowly, I can collect some informations about BGE and Python game programming and reshare it with you as I understand it.

These areas are what I interest the most

Animation and Procedural Animation
Procedural Shader (GLSL, CG language)
Some scripting trigger and action, such as creating control and automation

USING BGE AS MOSQUITO REPELLANT

Ok, this one is probably the weirdest subtitle you will ever read, that sounds like totally unrelated to Blender.

But read through, it will make sense very soon :]

We are going to create a super simple Colorful Motion Graphics "Mosquito Repellant" using BGE. How can that possible? Let me explain.

Do you often have Mosquito problem at home? Everyone must have experienced how annoying it is to have mosquito flying around before sleeping. You can turn on Air Conditioner, mosquitos are usually afraid of cold temperature. But for me, I don't like using A/C to repell them.

I figure out a strange theory that mosquitos are either attracted or totally distracted by a bright colorful light that keeps on changing. So, if you actually have a "computer screensaver" that keeps on changing color, mosquito will stop disturbing you (hopefully). Work best in a dark bedroom.

NOTE:
If you have iPad or iPhone, I recommend this app called "Flashlight" that allows you to create a changing color. Other smartphones probably can find similar apps.

ANYWAY, for the rest of people without iPad or iPhone, do not be afraid or feel disappointed, we have a computer (with monitor) and Blender, and definitely we can create that "Flashlight" program. Very easily and no programming or coding!

We just need to use this ability in BGE:
Changing Color (RGB) value and Alpha transparency of an Object in Blender and make it Looping.

When I am researching for "how to change Material color" in BGE, I found too many answers. Some answers are too old (older version of Blender) and some are not straight forward. However, luckily, there are few exceptional people that explain and answer the right problem, the right way.

Blender always needs more Blender evangelists and teachers who are developers and artists. Thanks to forum like Blender Artists and many blogs out there, everyone can continue advancing their Blender skills.

This one video tutorial helps me a lot.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jodWo9ryb4E

Another one also really good demo showing the capability.:
http://www.blenderartist.org/forum/showthread.php?299708-Changing-opacity-of-objects
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2jbxH3BTyQ

More useful links that is related to the topic:
http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?126051-BGE-materials-textures
http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?325609-How-set-object-s-material-and-texture-in-game-using-python-script-BGE-python
http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?202264-Changing-material-in-bge

So, apparently there are many ways you can setup "Object with changing color" using BGE:

Use Python scripting way to change color in realtime, this is more sophisticated and can make a more interesting application.
Use Blender Actions (Animation). Luckily, thgis method is actually quite simple. It can be made by anyone, even someone who use Blender for the first time.

Once you have the Material setup for object and simple animation of changing color, you then just need to LOOP the animation of changing color and then run the BGE creation as a Standalone application.

Enough talk, let's make it.

1. Startup BGE scene
What we are going to create is very, very simple. We just need an object that continuously changes color overtime. Since the final will be a BGE application, it will run in realtime.

ENVIRONMENT: Set Blender to "Blender Game" environment. You should find this option at the top bar.

CAMERA: Reset the default camera, zero the Position and Rotation in the properties and then slightly bring it up.
The final Game/Application should make use of this camera view.

For our application, we really only need a flat basic Plane Mesh with Material that changes color.

Just for reference (on how camera is facing the senece, I added Suzanne the Monkey object, I smooth her and add some divisions. The setup is like below. We can have 3D view on the left and another 3D view on the right layout.

Remember hitting P will activate the Game Engine and hitting ESC will escape that running BGE.

We can test our BGE application using Standalone Player. Which should result like below. You see how in Standalone app we are getting a view from camera. This is what we want.

We get just black looking render, because we have not applied shader yet. We will do that next.

You can set Standalone playback test to be Full Screen.

2. Apply GLSL Materials
Change BGE environment setup to use "GLSL" for rendering. --- CORRECTION: Use "MultiTexture" if you want below to work.

Add some Materials to the object. For my scene, I give Blue Material for the flat Plane and Red Material for the Monkey.

Test the game.

That is the default basic materials. Notice how the default light is shading the scene and the Materials look quite nice.

Look at this old BGE tutorial, I like the simpliticy of this tutorial and look at the result, it is so good looking even back then. Today, with GLSL render, we can get a lot better looking result:
http://otothecleaner.free.fr/tutorials/LevelDesign2/level4/level2-4.html

3. Get rid of jaggies/aliasing.
You may notice the jagginess of Suzanne. We do not really need Suzanne but anyway, increase the AA (anti-aliasing) Samples to higher than zero and now you have a nice smooth blending between Suzanne and the background.

No jagginess on the edge of the monkey.

I actually like BGE real-time renderers look. With proper texturing, nice GLSL shader, you can have a very nice 3D visualization. Definitely something to explore at later stage.

4. Make flat Material (WARNING: Blender Bug) --- Read below, but SKIP FOR LATER
For our purpose, we do not really need a light shading, we actually just make the Material = Shadeless.

HOWEVER, if you at this stage make the Material = Shadeless, there is a bug in BGE that will completely make the next step is not working.

So, I think it is best to make the Material shader flat later. Please skip this step for later.

I recommend you to create Color Animation first, then make Shadeless.

NOTE: Unfortunately BUG like this happens. It took me a while to figure it out. I need to report this to Blender Foundation.

I could be wrong about the bug, but I am using Mac, and I tested many times, if I change Material to Shadeless, I use the ability to animate material color overtime.

CORRECTION:

The reason animation didn't work is because I use "GLSL" mode for BGE. Use "Multi Texture" for BGE instead.

If you want GLSL mode to work, you need to use Object Color. You can animate Alpha (transparency) of object this way.

If you make Shadeless before animating, you will not get the animation as expected. Weird and very annoying bug.

5. Changing Material Color
To change material color overtime, we simply animate the Color RGB. Set keyframes on Material Color, and change the color for 100-150 frames. The animation range is up to you actually.

6. Loop the animation in BGE.
This step is the most important for Blender Game Engine. We will LOOP the animation using Action actuator.

SENSORS: Always (enable that button greyed below)
CONTROLLERS: And
ACTUATORS: Action (use Ping Pong, set the Start and End Frame).

Ensure you select the right action related and linked to the object.

Connect all three.

You are basically done and if you playback in realtime, you will create an app that will repel the mosquitos. Really.

It's very simple, but you just created an applications that will work on any operating systems.

You can export it as a packaged app on Mac or exe on PC. Just enable the export as Stand-Alone Running Game inside the Add-On menu.

OF COURSE:
- You probably should add some basic UI to quit the app, etc. Simple controls/interactivity to rotate the monkey for example.
- Add other beautiful looping things

You may think you do not learn much, but wait for the next post in the series. This simple LOOPS is enough for you to create many useful apps. Even interactive point and click games for kids.

This looping thing is an introduction. You can create multiple scenes and add some button interaction to jump to different scene quite easy in BGE.

INTRO SCENE
LEVEL SCENE
CREDIT SCENE

BGE Color Changing, the Python Way

Below is a quicky example:

EXAMPLE CODE:

import bge

import random

cont = bge.logic.getCurrentController()

own = cont.owner

# print(random.random())

myR = random.random()

myG = random.random()

myB = random.random()

myAlpha = 1.0

newColor = [myR, myG, myB, myAlpha]

own.color = newColor

So with above Python script, we can randomly update and change the "Object Color". Apparently it is rather simple to modify the "color" attribute of Game Object like above.

http://www.blender.org/documentation/blender_python_api_2_67b_release/bge.types.KX_GameObject.html?highlight=gameobject#bge.types.KX_GameObject

REGARDING THE GLSL PREVIEW BUG...

GLSL should be the mode where our game just works and displaying properly, but as you may notice, in 3D view, if we tap the P, the GLSL mode does not work properly. But it works on Stand Alone Player!

I am asking this GLSL issue at the forum here:

http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?327553-Different-GLSL-view-result-when-P-and-Stand-Alone

There is somewhat this "inconsistency" of Multi Texture mode, GLSL mode in BGE that sometimes bug me. Such as having to enable "Object Color" in order for GLSL to obey the Action animation of Color. I believe Multi Texture is the older mode for BGE.

Hopefully we get the answer soon.

UPDATE 2014.02.18:

I figure out myself why I am getting a weird result when using GLSL. Viewport Shading: Texture Mode and Solid Mode. It needs to be in Texture Mode!

By default, it is set to Solid Mode. For users switching to GLSL on BGE, when they press P and getting something flat like below:

All you need to do is change Viewport Shading from Solid to Texture.

And you should be getting a more expected BGE realtime playback below:

It was a bit dumb, but anyway, at least if you encountered this, you know how to fix it. I really think it should not be the default result, or at least there is a notification or something.

Now, the GLSL mode will require you to use Actions from "Object Color" if you ever want to animate the Color RGBA (RGB and Alpha transparency). Material Diffuse will not work. I have to double check this again, but I think that's correct.

FURTHER ON...

Think of different ideas that uses ANIMATION and LOOPING for BGE, you can create SCREENSAVER application this way!

This kind of simple apps is something you can make quite easily using BGE. Of course, from simple apps, we can start building a more complex interactive apps, then games.

GLSL inside BGE

I feel challenged to get into GLSL Programming. I know this is probably more complicated than the OSL, but worth looking into.
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/GLSL_Programming/Blender/Minimal_Shader

Looking at some examples of GLSL on WebGL like below is quite amazing:
https://www.shadertoy.com

ONE MORE THING... DEMOSCENE

I don't have much knowledge or experience about things called "demoscene", however, I have seen some DEMOSCENES back then when Internet was still slow. There are some really memorable demoscene, which was tiny in file size, however, it was captivating.

I didn't see "demoscenes" as much, however, I think the artform is still growing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRkZcTg1JWU

Now, I am really wondering if Blender Game Engine could be used for DEMOSCENE of some sort. Why not? I think it is there. It's open source, the BGE is great, easy to use. Maybe not 100% DEMOSCENE pure algorithms, however, imagine something that is more interactive, less linear, has some kind of narrative, you got something that is kind of DEMOSCENE. It can be poetic, but most important, it needs to be REALTIME, not rendered. Maybe it also needs funky Machine Made tunes? Tell me what you think in the comments, if you have similar thought. Thanks!

UPDATE 20140216

Researching around the idea of using BGE more than just for game creation, I stumbled into this old post from Blender Nation. Mike's Pan examples. Will check if these examples still work, maybe can learn few tricks.
http://www.blendernation.com/2006/12/03/using-blenders-game-engine-for-more-than-just-games/

BGE / Game Logic 2

Simple game where players control the Box and collect Spheres.

I decided to continue with this BGE post series right away to keep the ball rolling.

From the previous post, you should be able to create a simple BGE setup where user/player can control an object or a hero character.

In this post, you will learn how this hero character can collect points or store values. Very simple but super important concept to understand.

BGE: Point Collecting / Property + Value

There are probably many ways you can set this up, but let see one way that I can explain.

From the above screenshot:

We have a simple game environment, from a Top View ortographic camera.
Our hero character is that Box that moves in 4 directions (up, down, left, right).
There is that green sphere that this hero character must collect to get points.

Ok, now how to make it happen?

For the Ball object to collect, we create this setup:

SENSORS: Collission -> Property: Hero

CONTROLLERS: And

ACTUATORS: Edit Object -> End Object

For the Box object (Hero character), we create this setup:

SENSORS: Collision -> Property: Ball

CONTROLLERS: And

ACTUATORS: Property -> Add -> pointP, with a value of 1

What is really happening here? A lot:

We basically use SENSORS called Collision here and it will detect collisions event, all kind of collisions in fact even when our Box character is touching or colliding with the floor as Dynamic physic object. For our purpose, we only want to specifically detect collision event when Box is touching a Sphere. To do this, we created special Game Property for our Box (we call it "Hero"), and our Sphere (we call it "Ball").
Your noticed there is another Game Property called "pointP" as Integer value, for Box object. You can actually attach this Game Property into anything, maybe even on an Empty that stores everything Value related, and this is probably a better practice. Anyhow, for now, I added pointP as Game Property of the Box. This stores the number of POINT and keep adding the value whenever Box is Touching a Sphere.
With our Sphere, we also have SENSORS Collision that detects collision from Box only. But for Sphere ACTUATORS, we tell it to end/kill itself with ACTUATOR: Edit Object -> End Object.

In short, what we setup for BGE is really simple but very useful:

Whenever box collides with sphere, add +1 point.

Property and Value play a very important part in Game.

There is an alternative to this below.

BGE: Point Collecting via Message ACTUATOR and SENSOR

This is a really nice trick shown by Ian Scott, I will have to point the YouTube links again because I learned this nice trick from him:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8eMfWSbsKc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJNnFw0Qlic

So, this is a cool technique and probably a concept that you will use more often, especially when you started to use Python for the BGE.

Basically, instead of relying so much on Collision SENSORS and ACTUATORS, we also use Message SENSORS and ACTUATORS.

The Logic Network becomes like this: (here we use Near SENSORS)

On the Sphere:

SENSORS: Near

CONTROLLERS: And

ACTUATORS: Edit Object -> End Object

ACTUATORS: Message -> ping (this subject can be anything)

Now, with that setup, whenever our Hero Box got near the Sphere, it will "broadcast" a message to the whole scene, and hopefully the message got delivered, only if we specify a listener.

On the Box:

SENSORS: Message -> ping

CONTROLLERS: And

ACTUATORS: Property -> Add -> PointP -> value of 5

By using Message SENSORS and ACTUATORS, we can have something that is more logical.

The same concept is used again and again: TRIGGER and ACTION. You also learn a new things here: to store and update a value inside Game Property.

It maybe quite a lot to digest already, but hopefully by now you understand how you can CONTROL and then STORE POINT.

TIPS: Showing Debug Property / Show Property + Value as HUD

To show the Game Property and its Value while you are in game, you activate the "Show Debug Properties". This of course will be updated in real time in game. It gives a quick easy feedback for user.

So, now, for every Game Property with (i) toggle active (like above), it shows up as game HUD that you can track and evaluate.

Text In Game:

For text in game using UV, I probably cannot explain it any clearer than this video tutorial by Ian Scott:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKO4jfAHtjk

(I might make additional note here later.)

Dynamic Text Object In Game Using Python:

From the Blender Artist Forum:

http://blenderartists.org/forum/archive/index.php/t-246300.html

Maybe clearer explained in this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJloTwG-mnU

My quick attempt to Python code a Dynamic Text that is reading Property Value is like this:

Well, that seems to work. The script basically keeps on monitoring and updating the value and assigned it back to the Text dynamically.

But maybe not very efficient or there is a better way? Anyone knows?

import bge

def main():

scene = bge.logic.getCurrentScene()

player = scene.objects['Cube']

dynamicText = scene.objects['Text']

def Update():

moves = player.get('pointP')

dynamicText.text = str(moves)

Update()

main()

(I bet I will need to revise this code in the near future.)

I guess the reason game written in code eventually is just because things are still faster to modify and to recreate as a code or module, but more logical and easy to visual as nodes/brick and noodles when you are still prototyping.

I am not from programmer background so I am more used to the node based system compared to code.

MYSTERY: Text Game Property

What does Text Game Property do anyway?

BGE: SOUND

I am going over a lot of things very quickly, hopefully your brain can still take it.

You learn above how you can use Message SENSORS and ACTUATORS as messenger to trigger something? The same setup can be used to broadcast Message to trigger Sound.

On Empty: (to store all kind of Sound Message SENSORS)

On Sphere:

Above, we are using the non-direct way to trigger Sound: An object send/broadcast Message to the Scene and another object listen to Message the do something.

Sometimes if the object end/kill itself, it tends to disappear before Sound being triggered, but it will still send Message. Maybe there is some kind of Logic Order in BGE.

Anyhow, it seems to be a lot safer if you use the non-direct method via Message.

In simpler Sound setup, you may directly hook the Sound ACTUATOR triggered by Keyboard SENSORS, say if the character is shooting and the sound can be triggered at the same time.

SOUND IS IMPORTANT(!)

Remember: Sound is really super important feedback in a game, apart from visual or animation feedback. For example: Coin sound and 1UP sound in Super Mario Bros is so enchanting that you remember it forever and the game will not be the same without it!

Read this article about Sound Design of Journey from Gamasutra:
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/179039/the_sound_design_of_journey.php

SOUND: Pacman Paku Paku Sound

Another example: The sound that Pacman made whenever it moves and eats the yellow sphere.

Recall your Pacman game memory here:

http://worldsbiggestpacman.com

Download this sound:

http://www.freesound.org/people/kMoon/sounds/90783/

Recreate the sound in Blender: (I found this by accident)

WHAT WE HAVE SO FAR

So this is a very rough prototype of potential game already:

Here we have our CONTROL, HERO Character, SCORE, and SOUND.

What else can we add: Objective? Enemy? Obstacle? Actions Animations? More Colorful Environment? You see that how quickly now you started to have the "game logic" happening inside your brain.

Try making the environment more pretty and have your own model with texture.

GAME: Snake

Can you create SNAKE game from here? That will be an interesting challenge.

Logically, whenever the Box eats the Sphere, the Box will duplicate itself and have a delayed Box that trails and follows behind the original Box, so it gets longer and longer The original Box cannot touch the Box trails.

Well, probably not that simple, but I think it is possible.

STUDY OTHER GAMES

I think it is best to look at the many BGE Video Tutorial out there first. Many game artists already kind enough to share their knowledge.

Study some of the classic and popular games. Study Flash Games and also look at some recent creative Indy Games.

Look at some games created using Scratch:

http://scratch.mit.edu/galleries/view/26995

Some of the most popular or the best games are using simple Game Mechanic.

Sooner or later you started to develop better understanding of Game Design. Eventually you start to think about the Game Mechanic and maybe even come out with brand "new" nice idea for a game.

That is exactly what I will do:

To look at some games and try to deconstruct the game inside Blender Game Engine.

BGE / Game Logic Start

I am starting to get into Blender Game Engine (BGE) recently.

This BGE study and research is in tandem to my Python programming study specifically for 3D packages (Blender, Maya, Houdini) and Unity 3D and all related matters.

As of today, I am very much beginner with game development and BGE. I am still looking into many YouTube videos and also I am referencing many books as much I can get from the library. All the references I found useful will be listed here on this first post on BGE.

Most of my understanding of BGE is actually by reading this book title "Blender Game Engine Beginner" by Victor Kuller. There are few old books and articles that I read previously that touch BGE, and that also helps my interest with BGE. But that book by Victor is really the basis of this article.

This post will probably just be a summarize or collected notes from many other sources.

WHY INTO GAMES?

Game Design and Development is probably another area that I deeply want to get into from the day I started to learn about animation in Computer Graphics. I bet that your interest in Computer Graphics also came from Film Visual Effects or Games.

These days, in the field of Computer Graphics, both Film and Games, and also Multimedia (AR - Augmented Reality - being one of the latest exciting technology) are kind of merging more than ever. Virtual world is brought closer into physical world via AR, and games interaction and environment is something we should understand better so that we can provide users with 3D contents to interact with.

Games being very important at the moment because today's game can give more immersible experience than film. That statement is arguable. However, I think some recent games that are story-character based, such as "Sleeping Dog" are very immersive. One can play or watch games like that for hours (longer than film), and still interested to see more!

Understanding Game Logics in general will help you further the capability you have within Blender and perhaps to understand Computer Graphics Animation and User Interaction in general.

You could setup a Machinima type of presentation or entertainment that you can record and play in real-time. Not just that, you can probably use Game Engine to create cool behaviour effects (based on Near, to Trigger Action) that you can bake and use normally for Cycles Render.

There is a nice note on "recording" BGE Physics here at Blender Wiki:
http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:2.6/Manual/Game_Engine/Physics

Also this YouTube Video from CGBoorman:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMOtQ_ZswAA&feature=plcp

GAME RELATED BOOKS:

Game Design: Principles, Practice, and Techniques - The Ultimate Guide for the Aspiring Game Designer by Jim Thompson, Barnaby Berbank-Green, Nic Cusworth
http://www.amazon.com/Game-Design-Principles-Practice-Techniques/dp/0471968943
Game Development Essentials: Game Interface Design by Kevin Saunders and Jeannie Novak (2nd edition)
http://www.amazon.com/Game-Development-Essentials-Interface-Design/dp/1418016209

GAME RELATED LINKS:

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/134942/classic_design_lessons_what_.php?print=1

GAME PRODUCTION USING UNITY BOOKS:

Game Development for iOS with UNITY3D by Jeff W. Murray

BGE RELATED BOOKS:

Blender Game Engine Beginner by Victor Kuller Bacone (Blendercat) --> this book is A MUST
http://www.packtpub.com/blender-game-engine-beginners-guide/book
Mastering Blender Game Engine by Make Pan and Dalai Velinto --> I pre-ordered this
http://www.amazon.com/Mastering-Blender-Game-Engine-Mike/dp/1435456629
Creating 3D GAME ART for the iPhone with Unity iOS: Featuring modo® and Blender Pipelines
http://the3dninja.com/unitybook/

BGE RELATED YOUTUBE VIDEOS AND CHANNELS:

Ian Scott's on "Making Car Drive Around Collecting Gems":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8eMfWSbsKc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJNnFw0Qlic

Spencer Dupre on Navigation Meshes and Pathfinding
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMWeTXL98mM
Dalai Felinto
http://www.dalaifelinto.com/
Many from Blender Cookie
http://cgcookie.com/blender/2010/05/13/game-enginecharacter-part-1/
Few from Blender Nerd
http://www.blendernerd.com/blender-2-5-basic-game-engine-tutorial/
DrealityInc
http://www.youtube.com/user/DrealityInc
SolarLuneTube
http://www.youtube.com/user/SolarLuneTube
Sam Dearn
http://www.youtube.com/user/samdearn
CG BoorMan aka BornCG
http://www.youtube.com/user/cgboorman
Dark Scarab
http://www.darkscarab.com/resources/

BGE CREATED GAMES:

Lucy and The Time Machine
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIMX25tqFo4

BGE RELATED LINKS:

Burster - Online BGE Games Publishing
http://geta3d.com/
http://www.tutorialsforblender3d.com

ONE'S FIRST EXPLORATION OF BGE

Ok, so you know Blender (or other 3D packages) and you have some 3D knowledge on modeling, texturing, rigging, animation, lighting, rendering, particle, etc.

Now, you probably thinking: "I am ready, I want to make my own game!". But, where to start?

Do I need to know programming?
Is it difficult?
Can I create game just by using Blender and a single computer?

Those are the questions that arise when I started as well. The answers, if I were to answer my own questions:

No, you don't need to know programming to create a 3D game. There are tools that allow you to create game, without a single code. BGE actually gives you the tools. But, eventually if you are serious with game development, you need to learn coding. Python, Javascript, Java, C++ are some of the codes commonly used.
Easy or difficult is relative. But I think creating game is both challenging and fun. Providing time and dedication and guidance, you can create games. I am sure it used to be more difficult. Well, technology has changed, so nowadays the quality is more demanding. While often we have to "reinvent the wheel, trying to solve the old questions", but resources have never been so available. If something too easy, you probably get bored really easily. It should not be the case. Like learning programming, of course you found sometimes you are stuck, but there must be another way or maybe you will get it some other time. Just never give up.
Yes, you can create high quality games by using Blender and a single computer.

UPDATE 2012.10.08:

This great YouTube video by Goran Milovanovic explains the basic of BGE:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wqysuzsK0Q

(Thanks to eBoy for the link!)

Goran goes over the advance feature of BGE via Python:

http://www.youtube.com/user/goranmilovano/videos?sort=dd&flow=grid&view=0&page=2

Goran's Website:
http://www.nilunder.com/

THINK SIMPLE AND CLASSIC GAMES FOR NOW

Simple games:

- Platform games

- Shooting games
- Puzzle games

(Simple does not mean easy.)

Creating 3D for Games, unlike 3D for Films, will require you to setup a real-time environment where user can interact with. The game render is in REAL-TIME, which is the main difference to film, where 3D is pre-rendered into still images. This is quite similar to how Animation, Particles or Physics simulation is set, but in game, everything behaves in real time. NOTE: Although, there are of course games that uses rendered Sprite images as assets.

What cooler with game is that you actually create an INTERACTIVE media that users can play and interact with. So you don't just create something that is linear in term of experience, but you can create some kind of non-linear story.

Blender comes with its own Game Engine, a platform, a framework, whatever it is called, that allow you to build game with all connected assets (3D model, animation, sound) and test your game right away from within Blender interface. You can also easily export out the executable package (EXE) or APP to be played in any computer platform (PC, Mac, Linux).

BGE is really a fantastic special feature that is really not integrated normally in other 3D packages.

NOTE:
These days Unity is the "Game Engine" or "Asset Management" that is widely used for Game Creation. But I think before learning Unity, BGE is a good starting point to understand the Game Logic and also you can practice Python scripting for Game Programming inside BGE.

I reckoned that for us learning Unity 3D workflow is good idea as well. This is one of the authoring tools used mainly in commercial game production or maybe for your independent game project. Concept is very similar anyway. True Blender artists should be able to easily blend to other tools!

To switch to Blender Game environment, all you need to do is to switch to Blender Game (renderer), and hit P (play) on the 3D Viewport or click on that button "Start" on the properly panel. Hit Esc on the keyboard to get out of real-time BGE rendering mode and back to normal 3D viewport.

Get used to the idea of switching from normal 3D Scene View and Game View to test your game.

To get a better representation of the real-time 3D game rendering, with proper texture and lighting, you want to switch on GLSL and Texture Mode.

BGE: STATIC DYNAMIC

At the moment, nothing exciting will happen inside the 3D Game Engine when you run it. Everything is just static. That default Cube is static and does nothing, same case with the default Light/Lamp and Camera.

By default all 3D polygon mesh Game Physics is set to Static. As Static, it will just stands still but it will collide.

If you change the Physics to Dynamic, per object basis, Blender will also turn on also the "Actor" option and your object now will fall with Gravity.

You could go further setting Physics Type as as Rigid Body for more accuracy. Watch also the Collission Bounds settings.

Dynamic Object falls with Gravity.

Being "Actor", Blender explains, it will be detected by Near and Radar Sensor. What is that? We will touch this Near and Radar and Sensor later.

Watch also that option "Collision Bounds". Certain Bounds option will give you more precise collision.

From here on, I will start to talk in BGE and Game Terminology.

BGE: PLAYER CONTROL

With game, you always have something that user can control (give input to computer). And for this you need INPUT DEVICE, or in BGE this is set by SENSOR brick.

The REACTION or OUTPUT is set using ACTUATOR brick. Kind of FEEDBACK (output by computer) you want it to happen.

Wait, what is this SENSOR and ACTUATOR? How would you set this up? I almost forgot to explain this very important environment you will be working on. You do it inside the Blender LOGIC EDITOR.

If you switch to Blender Game Logic Layout, you will see the Logic Editor panel at the bottom.

That is the workspace you will be working on most of the time. You seem there is additional panel in this layout to write Python code. But don't worry about that for now.

You can create a simple game just by working on the Logic Editor and 3D scene. All you will be doing is connecting Nodes which is divided into 3 different types of logic block or bricks:

SENSORS
CONTROLLERS --> if you use Python code, the Controller here is set to Python. But if you are not using Python, this CONTROLLERS is behaving more like "operators" (AND, OR, etc).
ACTUATOR

SEE: Blender Wiki on Game Engine for more details.

You can think the Nodes like this:

IF SENSORS (detect something), THEN do ACTUATOR (CONTROLLERS is usually set to AND)

This is actually pretty much all you need to create a 3D game in Blender. Amazingly simple right?

The setup or recipe goes like below examples:

IF user press certain keyboard button THEN do certain action/motion
IF character get close to certain object THEN earn point (add VALUE to PROPERTY)
IF character hit a wall THEN reset the scene
IF object A is touching object B THEN make object B disappear (End) and replace object A with a new geometry
IF object A hits object B THEN make sound
IF all the target completed THEN change to new scene
IF character get near door object THEN open door automatically
... and SO ON.

Anyways, so for now, to control our character in the typical 4-directional axis, usually the setup is like this below:

1. With your object selected:

2. Set the Logic Editor Like Below

SENSOR: Keyboard

CONTROLLER: And

ACTUATOR: Motion

Note: Don't forget to hook up the noodle between SENSOR - CONTROLLER - ACTUATOR

Now, you should be able to control Object in 3D in realtime to move in 4 directions. Well, you can actually setup all kind of controls using Keyboard or Joystick. Maybe Spacebar for Jump.

4 directions can be:

forward, backward, rotate left, rotate right
up, down, left, right (top view)
left, right, duck, look up
etc

If your character is parented/skinned/bound to Armature, you apply the ACTUATOR: Motion to the Armature object itself. Blender will still figure out the Dynamic Physics based on the animated Mesh. You kind of separating Pose/Animation/Action with character's Physics, but in the end they work together.

Think of some games you have played from memory and focus on the hero character control mechanism:

Pacman (Top View)
Boulder Dash (Side View)
Sideway space shooter
Vertical space shooter, eg: Ikaruga
Side Scrolling Platform, eg: Mario, Sonic, Super Contra
Megaman/Rockman (Top View)
Tetris (Front View)
Bomberman (Top View)
Battle Chest (orthographic with angle)
First person and third person game (usually in Perspective)
Classic Prince of Persia (Side View) --> one game with strong animation and memorable character and story
Doodle Jump hopping game (iPad/iPhone/Android) --> apart from the accelerator input, the control is super simple, you can recreate this game easily
Angry Bird --> feel challenged to do this using Blender?

TIPS: Reorder Logic Brick

When collapsed, the Logic Brick you can sort and arrange the brick using the up and down little arrow buttons. This to ensure the noodle is nice and untangled.

Sooner or later you end up with lots of bricks and noodles.

TIPS: Copy Logic Brick To Selected
If you have one object already set with bunch of Logic Bricks and you want to copy those setup into another object, you can do it like this:
1. Select Object B you want to copy Logic Bricks into.
2. While Object B still selected, select Object A, in which you have some Logic Bricks applied.
3. Tap Spacebar and find: "Copy Logic Brick To Selected".

TIPS: Switching Camera
When you press P, the game will start right away and continue on from that single camera view.

If you want additional cameras to switch while in game, you prepared them before hand. One way to do it is like below:

Blender respects the Perspective, Ortographic, and Focal Length setting of each camera.

NOTE:
Looks like you could also use this ACTUATOR: Camera to make character "jump" or "teleport" to a new position. Not sure this is the right way thought, maybe it is.

Can you auto-switch camera if character is near certain bounding area? Yes, I believe you can do so. Logically it is a matter of triggering that ACTUATOR: Camera, with "something".

If you want a camera with additional overlay camera, you can do this in BGE by creating additional Scene(s) that is overlayed on top.

We will discuss camera more in depth a bit later, I do not want to overload you with too much info.

TIPS: Control with Additional Modifiers
You can set character control that receive few button combinations like this:

Normal Walk = Arrow
Fast Walk (Run) = Hold Shift + Arrow

(If I found another way I will add note here.)

BGE: Animation & Action

Now, what if you want to also assign Animation feedback for user while the Object is in motion? You simply assign ACTUATOR: Action. Of course you need to create an animation first.

As you may or may not already know, every animation in Blender is applied as Action block which can be assigned to game.

SENSOR: Keyboard

CONTROLLER: And

ACTUATOR: Action

Action includes F-Curve, NLA and also Armature animation.

---- BELOW SECTIONS MAY BE INCOMPLETE ---

(will continue writing the whole topics, but maybe wiser to break this introduction)

But, I recommend you this book title below as your main reference. That is pretty much what I am using to get my Game Logic going and also understand the BGE:

"Blender Game Engine Beginner" by Victor Kuller
--- MUST READ ---

Anyways, the rest of BGE topics that I wanted to cover are listed below.

BGE: UV Texture (Normal map, etc) --> how you setup texture mapping correctly for BGE

BGE: Environment / Game Level / Map Design

BGE: Collision Detection and Near Trigger

BGE: Camera Follow and Multiple Cameras

BGE: Overlay and HUD

BGE: Sound Trigger --> sound is important feedback!

BGE: Concept of Looping

BGE: Game Property and Message Passing

BGE: Enemy AI Behaviour

BGE: Shooting Projectile
BGE: Life Bar

BGE: Game Credits, Game Opening Scene, Ending Scene
BGE: Exporting and Publishing

So, the future post will be more snippets of Logic Connection that I collects, that hopefully you can also apply to create your own games.

And we can also deconstruct some of the classic games and recreate it in Blender using the Logic Editor and also Python codes.

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INTERACTIVE + REAL-TIME

UNITY 3D

SCRATCH AND STENCYL

Blender BGE & its Python programming

USING BGE AS MOSQUITO REPELLANT

CORRECTION:

BGE Color Changing, the Python Way

REGARDING THE GLSL PREVIEW BUG...

UPDATE 2014.02.18:

It was a bit dumb, but anyway, at least if you encountered this, you know how to fix it. I really think it should not be the default result, or at least there is a notification or something.

FURTHER ON...

GLSL inside BGE

ONE MORE THING... DEMOSCENE

UPDATE 20140216

BGE: Point Collecting / Property + Value

BGE: Point Collecting via Message ACTUATOR and SENSOR

BGE: SOUND

WHY INTO GAMES?

GAME RELATED BOOKS:

GAME RELATED LINKS:

GAME PRODUCTION USING UNITY BOOKS:

BGE RELATED BOOKS:

BGE RELATED YOUTUBE VIDEOS AND CHANNELS:

BGE CREATED GAMES:

BGE RELATED LINKS:

SEE ALSO TOOLS LIKE

ONE'S FIRST EXPLORATION OF BGE

BGE: STATIC DYNAMIC

BGE: PLAYER CONTROL

BGE: Animation & Action

"Blender Game Engine Beginner" by Victor Kuller --- MUST READ ---

UPDATE 2012.11.21

MKRdezign

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"Blender Game Engine Beginner" by Victor Kuller
--- MUST READ ---