A is for Alone.
If you wanna get anywhere with this, you're gonna spend alot of time on your computer alone. Your only friends are digital. Lets be honest, people in the real world just get scared when you start talking about Bipeds and FPEs.
B is for Broke/budget
Wanna get into game dev? You have to accept that it aint all champagne and playboy mansion. You're gonna be broke as hell. So you gotta learn to budget. Get a student overdraft (interest free), buy off ebay and charity shops. Beg on the streets. Seriously, if this is what you love, make it work for you. Go freelance, the tax breaks are awesome, and you can make your hobby work for you.
C is for Crying.
No man will ever admit to crying. THey would much rather express their depression by hitting a rabbit with a baguette or something, but at the end of the day, when that 6 hours of work corrupts, or your level crashes, and you were
just about to save... you know there was at least one solitary little tear dribbling down your cheek.
C is also coffee
Starbucks, Kenko or fair trade. The more caffeen the better. Interesting bit of genetics : If you don't like coffee you are gentically unlikely to be any good at game development. It appears the "Liking coffee gene" and the "hours at computer" gene are closely linked.
D is for Direct X
You need to know everything there is about this. Read up on the difference between DXT1-DXT5, get the latest SDK and plugins. Auto update the SDK all the time. Sure you can save out in TGA or PNG, and sometimes they're more suitable, but most of the time, your gonna use DDS. Also, it's the first thing to check when getting a modelling package. Does it support .x files? Import and export? anims or just meshes? If you can't get your meshes into it, it's all but pointless.
E is for Entity Bank.
Keep it tidy. Put things in sensibly named folders. Create icons. type FPEs propperly. that kinda thing. sure you only have 4 custom entities right now, but eventually you'll have 100s. And then you'll end up being like... "where did I put that zombie in the pink spandex?...is it in the pink spandex folder....no..(20minutes later), oh here it is, in my vehicles folder"... just get organised.
F is for FPE/FPI/FPS
These are key to the understanding of FPSC. If you don't know what im talking about, it's time to go diggin around in the FPSC folders. Sure you can use the entity/segment maker, but I still do everything by hand. Nothing beats the amount of control you have when writing your own FPE. Knowing how these work will help you to understand how the engine works as a whole. Allowing you much more scope for customisation.
G is for Geek.
You are not a geek.... ok wait a minute. Get that ink protector out of your shirt pocket, loose the biros and get down to spec savers (it's 2 for 1 on designer glasses)....now you're not a geek.
H is for Having a Laugh
FPSC is the most frustrating thing you will probably ever try to use. But get the demo of C++. Now FPSC looks like a walk in the park with a beautiful girl. It's a laugh man. Just make what you feel like and have fun. If you hate it (also starts with H), then quit. Don't come bitching to the forums about limitations and lack of expanadability. Everyone here will guarantee you're wrong.
I is for Ingenuity.
You're gonna need it. The model packs have been milked dry. Nobody wants to see another tiled bathroom, or a WW2 bunker. The stock media is there to learn on, but the real good stuff has to be user made. If you want people to "dig" you, you're gonna have to come up with something original.
J is for Jerusalem.
Because I couldn't think of anything else.
K is for Killing.
There's alot of it in an FPS. But that shouldn't be your primary concern. Thing to see is another bland screenie of a zombie getting blapped in a bare stock room. Fill your levels with scenery and entities, then worry about the killing. If your level looks sick, and has a good atmosphere, you won't even need 100s of enemies. Your player will be scared enough of the environment as it is.
L is for Love.
Love your work. Put everything into it. Not just the boss at the end, but the whole thing. Even that chair in the corner that's only just lightmapped... love that chair. Texture it like you were texturing your own child (?).
M is for Milkshape.
If you haven't jumped on the bandwagon already. Get it. Sure it aint as pretty as 3DS or Maya, but it does the job, and once you get over the mid 90's interface it's actually really powerful. Don't go pirating high end stuff. TO be honest, most of the features of 3ds and Maya won't actually be compatible with FPSC. Whats the point in having to worry about hair shaders or dynamic surface emitters, when they aren't ever going to make it into FPSC. Starting out? Get MS, if nothing else, it'll make the high end stuff a heck of a lot less scary when you get to it.
N is for Narcotics.
Not essential. Infact (in the interests of not getting a heavy digital beating) I'm not in any way promoting their use. But they can lead to interesting results... in other words... play Umbra.
O is for Oh my god Oh my god Oh my god
which is what you'll say when you make something that noone has done before and it works. Best feeling ever*.
P is for Polygons.
And FPSC doesn't actually like them much. It once got invited to a polygon party, but no-one chatted to it because it lagged so much. Bottom line, FPSC is all about low poly meshes. Forget Poser and stuff you got off TurboSquid. If it's more than 3000 tris, you're pushing it.
Q is for peeking left.
R is for RC1.05
WHich is pretty good, all things considered. We've had a bumpy ride through the update perios, but lee seems to be hitting it on point every time now. Backup all your work to another drive and give the new update a go. It'll transform your work.
S is for Stock media.
See "I"
S is also for Search and Stickies
After having tried something yourself, and failed horribly, go pick up the mouse from where you threw it and check out the stickies. Then perhaps it would be an idea to search for the answer. Try searching in google (using FPSC in the criteria), or the forums own search box. Everyone has at least 1 shameful example in their "my Threads" of the time they just couldn't wait/be bothered to search for the answer and got told "SEARCH".
T is for Trial and Error.
I have a motto that anything complicated that you try in FPSC wont work the first time. You'll have to go back and give it another burn. Forget posting for help here. If you're thinking outside the box, pushing the bar or whatever, then you're better off toiling through it yourself. It may never work, but you'll have learnt a bunch of other tricks and techniques on the way. And if you don't you could always read Nickydude's Tutorial and get a bunch more
T is also for Tutorial.
Read as many as you can. I'm not just talking FPSC. Read them for every program you use. THe more you know, the more you can do.
U is for User
This is your main concern when you're making a game, or a piece of media. Unfortunately, if everyone tells you it sucks, it probably does. At the end of the day, you're making a product. Something that other people are going to use, and if they don't like it, they won't use it, therefore defeating your purpose. If you post something here, be prepared that people will have Criticism. And that you should take it on board and use it. Sometimes we may be wrong, but if you have a thread of 20 people telling you that the UV mapping sucks, it's probably time to get reading some UV mapping Tuts.
W is for World Wide Web.
You're here and you're reading this, so I'm guessing you're pretty web savvy. You probably even have an animated sig, or something don't you, you clever little beaver. Well. Use it to your advantage. If you can't find what you need here. Search it on google or something.
On the flipside, you can probably find a buch of FPSC related stuff that you shouldn't be able to (recent warez issues spring to mind). If you do come across stuff like this, the answer is NOT to download, but to report to TGC. Or the whole village will be out with burning torches and pitchforks...
X is for X10.
start saving for that Nvidia8600... or raking alot of leaves... ir selling alot of lemonade...or starting a pyramid scheme. It's going to be the future, but not without diggin deep into your bank account!
Y is for Yeah!
Which you are permitted to say whenever you do something cool.
Z is for Z axis.
which is pretty self explanitory.
