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Hey all,

Well I have been gone for a while, Holidays, new baby. So thought I take some time and share what I have gone through with FPSC so those that may just be getting into it might know what to expect. By no means are my experiences the norm for everyone. However I think the basic reasons for starting with FPSC are the same.

I started about two years ago, on a crappy hp laptop that would limit the ability to design the levels I was seeing in my head. However I pressed on for about the first year. Once I realized how much I enjoyed working with Fpsc and trying to come up with cool ideas. I upgraded to a much more powerful laptop. Which allowed me to bring the ideas in my head to fpsc reality.

My first piece of advice for someone who is first using FPSC. Get the latest upgrade. Also don't get carried away with scripting, modeling, retexturing, reanimating etc. Start off with jsut having fun getting to know what the software does, what it can do. Build a few basic levels, try a few design ideas. See how everything works together, or doesn't work together.

When I first started I had it in my head I was going to come up with the next great game. I was going to put Halo,Doom,Duke Nukem, MOH, left for dead and so on to shame. Some day they'd put my game in the video game hall of fame.
Then I realized something. I could probably make a cool playable game with FPSC. But I wasn't going to be inducted in the game maker hall of fame with it.
I jumped in with both feet downloading anything I could find and just clouding up what was really there. I had all this stuff but had no clue how to use it. I tried to learn scripting right from the begining, which didn't go well. I tried modeling from the start, that didn't go well either. It was only after about a year of not really getting anything done, that I thought lets just design a level from start to finish, then go back and add the little extras like custom scripts, custom models etc. That is when everything started to click. I started to see things in a way I hadn't before. Scripts made sense I could read a script and follow along and have a general idea of what it was telling the enginge to do. With that came editing or customizing scripts, and actually writting some that were good enough to post on the forums for others to use.

Soon after I started populating my level I started to notice that I needed some custom models to fill out my scene. In this case the level took place in an old Bio Lab. The whole level had entities placed common to what you'd see in such a setting. I needed a carboard box that had the red cross on it and the term medical supplies on it. There were a few out ther in the cyber world that others designed, but it wasn't exactly what I was looking for. So I taught myself, along with blender cookie tuts, blender and desinged the exact model I was looking for. From start to finish learning what I needed to make the model took about two days at about an hour 1/2 a day. With that came texturing and later on shaders. After a short time I was really making some good flowing levels, with several custom scripts and models that challaged you and made you think.

Which brings me to my second piece of advice: After you spend some time getting to know FPSC. Start to explore the other things like modeling scripting and the like. It's a good distraction when you hit a level design wall. It's good to step away from the level your working on and come back to it. Youll likely have fresh eyes and possibly new ideas . Spend some time checking out the finished game videos on Youtube and on the forums to get new ideas or inspiration.

My third piece of advice: spend some time on the forums, read the questions others ask and the answers they receive. You'll get quite a bit of insight from the more seasoned FPSC users. And you may jsut find things that you didn't think possible with fpsc.
And always remeber to give back to the forums. There are new people joining everyday. And those people are going to have the same questions or issues you had. So help out where you can.

My last piece of adviceon't take yourself too seriously, your not under a deadline from EA, or Ubisoft. This is supposed to be fun, not a pressure packed someone over your shoulder game design firm. Its software, not a game design test. Yournot going to get fired if you don't finish your game in time.

Fpsc can become all consuming. As Black Fox will attest you'll find yourself going about your everyday life and think to yourself hey my broom closet would be a good place for a med pack, or wonder if the automated doors at the super market were opened by a trigger zone. I worked on a script once so hard that I would close my eyes at night and see script lines. Or Id find myself thinking in scripting terms. :state=1,plrbladder=full:Etimerstart,plrsound=$0
:state=1,etimer=200,plrbladder=empty:state=4
It seems funny but if you get into enough you'll find yourself doing it too.

Well thats all I can think of at the moment. Just writting that made me want to bust out the Laptop and get to designing. It's like Crack.

If anyone wants to add their input, please do.

Have fun.

Well I am like your first point. I don't want to do anything stock. I want to change everything, write my own scripts and like you said I really don't know much of how the software works. I am going to for sure take this advice. Build some levels with just stock stuff and learn things. I have ideas that don't have any stock stuff in them.

I am into RPG's but can't seem to get the mod to work right and right now would probably not know what to do with it if I could. This post is really good advice!!!

Well congratulations! Hope all is well with the new born, and
best of luck.


LOL That's a good one, I can relate. Hey that is actually good. Can it be implemented some how

How do you design your levels? Do you sit down and just start throwing segments down? or do you think about it for a few days and then draw it on paper?

I seem to just start throwing segments down and nothing seems to ever look good or work out. I got to get a better system going for working with FPSC

Well Dragon let me first say im by no means a level design guru. There are others on here that are way better than me. And maybe thats part of it; not getting too full of yourself.

Some would say that you should write a story, design your level on paper sketch out badguys etc. If that method works for you, then great. If looking at other game designs and mimicing them to an extent works for you thats great too. If standing in your kitchen, or anyones kitchen for that matter, hiting yourself on the side of the head repeatedly with a frying pan while applying tobasco sauce to your eyes works for you then great!
(is it Tobasco or Tabasco?)
My point is, in my opinion, it's largly what works for you as far as level design story etc.

Again the way I see it and I am sure many would disagree. What kind of gamer are you? When you play shooters do you care about the story or not? Think about it, all shooters have the same things in common, your either retrieving something, saving someone, saving the world, mankind etc etc etc. When I play the likes of COD,battlefield,halo,duke,Moh,Bia etc I always find myself frantically pressing the A button to stop the cut scene and get back to the action. There are lots of gamers who are all about the cut scenes, and there is nothing wrong with that. They are a great part of any game, and as someone who remembers the Atari 2600 and still has it stashed somewhere. I am in awe sometimes at how amazing some games cut scenes are. But to me if I wanted to watch a movie I'd watch a movie. I want to play a game and shoot stuff up I want to accomplish the task at hand and move on.
So again it's largely up to what your tastes are.

As an example of where I got a design idea: i was watching tv one night and they were talking about a plane crash in the jungle of brazil a few years back. That stuck in my head for some reason I was thinking about it a few days later and came up with an idea that the survivors were trying to hack their way out of the jungle and stumbled across a Secret goverment bio lab that had appeared to have just been abandond, but as it turned out, it was more than it appeared. So now I had the begining of a story, and it just went from there. I designed the basic lay out of the first level, tested it added rooms, took away rooms. Figured out potential ways to funnel the player to where I wanted, making sure they went into every room at some point. As I was doing this I also would be thinking of the lighting I was going to want, where I might place certain entities. Then when I was happy with the layout, Id get my lighting set up, that way when I'd place the entities i'd have a good idea where the light and dark areas were. what good is it to place a painting on a wall or a box in a corner if its too dark to see. And to be honest you really don't have a ton of stuff in it to make it look like what you want? A bio lab, a few lab looking rooms a few bio hazard decals and your well on your way. And TEST, TEST, TEST. Cant stress that enough. I personally like populating one room at a time, adding a few things to give it the feel I want. I can always add final touches, a book on a table, papers pn the floor whatever, later.
All the while I am always thinking why does this person have to get to the next level? Is it to save somone, find something,save the world or just to find a way out? Then when I get the first level lay out where I like it and somewhat populated (no bad guys yet) I'll repeat the process with the rest of the levels. I always save the bad guys for the last step. I do this for a few reasons. Some of which are I'll have a better idea how the bad guys will interact with obstacles like crates,tables chairs,pipes etc. Whatever i placed in the level to make it look like whatever it is I am trying to make it look like. I also have a better idea of how the bad guys will respond to the player. I'll have a better idea where I can have a bad guy spawn in a dark area so the player won't see. And it will give me a better idea of what I have for resources to play with as far as badguy numbers and AI after most of the level has been designed and non badguy populated. Generally I use what I call the domino method to spawn badguys. When I destroy the first bad guy the next one or three are activated and so on. This save resources and helps minimize lag. You can attach a spawn script to almost anything so if I open this door a badguy spawns behind it or if I use that key a badguy spawns behind me. Think outside the box make the player jumpy. When your jumpy you take your time, when you take your time you get more out of it. When you get more out of it you enjoy it more.

Well Dragon, I hope this helps you in someway. and I didn't ramble too much. It's difficult to lay out one way to design a level and say thats the way you do it. Watch the news, thumb through a history book, pay attention to how other games are layed out. get inspiration from everywhere. Maybe there is a cool building near where you live, or a historic structure. Ideas are everywhere, you just have to look for them where you don't expect to find them.

Thanks Troutflies Helpful!

There is an old RPG from the mid 80's That I loved and I would love to re-create that game. Not exactly, put my own spin on it. It was basically a 2D sprite driven game. The dungeons and city looked like you were moving in a 3D world but it was all 2D. I don't remember exactly how they did it but I do remember reading about it on the web.

That game had a city level and about 17 dungeons and I have all the maps. For now just to learn some things I can recreate a level or 2 with stock segments. Who knows where that may lead!

To re-create this game would first be changing it from a 2D game to a 3D game. I would want custom buildings and textures. I would need scripts for player to pick options, a buy/sell system, an inventory system, midevel weapons etc... Like you said take it slow learn first which is what I will do. When I am ready to do this I am sure I will be able to get RPG mod working but I would really like to create the game systems myself. Probably won't I will probably use the RPG MOD but who knows what I may come up with during my practice!

Hopefully a new more powerful gaming laptop

Hi Troutflies

Congrats on the baba - they're precious: Best advice I ever got was not to wish them past any age as each age has it's unique joys - enjoy every age, once it's gone, it's gone.

I agree with all your points stated in the OP as I went on a similar route than you, but

I only learnt last December after two years of using every spare moment to work on the game, every waking moment to think about the scripts and envision and plan the next level. I'm in the lucky position to adapt my work according to my needs and I currently have Tuesdays and Fridays off "work" to focus only on my game.

@ Dragon slayer RPG Mod is amazing and allows you so much more freedom and opportunity than a standard shoot-em-up. What I'm attempting would be impossible without the attributes of RPG Mod and the invaluable, patient assistance from Flatlander.

Eugene

Well thanks everyone for the congrads which dragon, got me thinking again.it would be cool if you designed a few mean looking baby models. You know maybe with an eye patch, scars and the like. And they'd be mele characters. I mean giving a baby a ar15 might be a little extreme. Albeit cool. But there would be like a baby rattle that could be a mele weapon, you could have drool traps, diaper bombs. You could have "biters" too. It would be cool.

Ideas for games can come for anywhere. Even a poopy diaper which I seem to have and abundance of.

Yeah, "creche wars - survival of the cleanest, but meanest" has a certain, um, ring to it.

Or "Die, aper", the return of the mini chimps or some other "beings".

Nuff said

Die Aper!! thats great. How funny would that be?

I always like using something like:
http://videogamena.me/

A lot of the results are silly, but it will get you thinking. Once your brain starts going, the names start flowing, then from a name you pick a concept. From a concept you make characters, and so on.