Mass Effect and SecuRom
Written on 17 June 2008 by Chris AustinWell, I’ve been wanting to pick up a copy of Mass Effect for the PC since console gaming just does not do it for me. But, a friend just forwarded me some disturbing news about the restrictions of the SecuRom DRM that the game is using. Apparently, things like tinkering with the hardware on your PC could cause game activation issues and lock you out of your game. Personally, I upgrade hardware and Operating Systems pretty often. So, until there is a work-around or EA drops SecureRom Mass Effect is something I wont be willing to purchase or play.
BFG Tech: Great Tech Support
Written on 10 May 2007 by Chris AustinToday, my brand spanking new NVIDIA card by BFG Tech decided to act a little odd. I was seeing blurry/static artifacts only on certain portions of my display regardless of the resolution, display or, operating system that I was running.
When I called up bfg’s tech support number I was pleasantly pleased with the wait and how quickly the tech support agent on the other end of the line realized that it was an issue with the card. He proptly gave me a case number and tranfered me to the RMA department. On the RMA side, they quickly gave me the info I needed and let me go on my way.
Hopefully, the rest of the RMA process will be as issue free.
Choosing an engine
Written on 6 May 2007 by Chris AustinThis is the next post in my little series about planning the RPG that I want to build. Before I got a bit off track with last post about the importance of a game design document (GDD) I was delving into some of the choices about game engines. In short I’ve decided to use and existing game engine.
Just doing some quick research, you will find that there is a near overwhelming choice of game engines available. Just take a look at this list that I found at wikipedia .
When you research just a bit further you find that these engines vary in price from “free” to “a whole lot of money”. Besides price you will also find that the feature sets, capabilities and, the number/quality of published titles vary greatly.
For myself, as I am evaluating these engines I am looking at the following items:
- Price: I can afford a few hundred dollars but, not much more.
- Features: As I further build out my design, I will be able better discuss this. For now, I am looking at generalities such as shaders, lighting, indoor and outdoor environment capabilities.
- Documentation: This is universal for the free and “cheap”engines and SDKs. Since this is my first independent attempt at a game I don’t want to spend a lot of time fighting the platform.
- Scripting Systems: A scripting system is imho vital for prototyping features.
- Support: Obviously, if you are counting on an engine to be the foundation to your “dream” game you’d like the assurance of an active community in the case of a free engine. Likewise, in the case of a commercial engine you’d like a reasonably responsive support.
At this point I’ve narrowed the decision down to one or two engines. However, I’ll save that for hopefully the next post in this series.
Building a good design document.
Written on 4 May 2007 by Chris AustinFor those of you have who’ve seen some of my post, you know that I’ve been writing a little about building my own RPG. Before I go any further, I’d like to address one of the absolute most important things in any software project; the design document.
For the uninitiated, a design document is your project’s bible. It is where all of the high level decisions and features are documented. It should be the basis for all scheduling and planning. I’ll say it again another way, without a design document, any schedule or, talk of a percentage of tasks that are complete, is purely fiction. Having stated that about as strongly and politely as I know how, lets look at what I think a design document should be.
A design document contains every screen, every item, every piece of data, and every feature that will be in your product. It provides these items in detail enough for you to estimate how much time it will take to produce them. However, be cautious that it does not go to deep into detail that it hinders the actual development process.
Once your design document is finished, you can begin to plan your work at a high level and start scheduling tasks. You do this by taking all of the features in the document and breaking them down into task. You can then break these high level items down even further until you can look the time it take to accomplish the task in terms of weeks or months. Additionally, the design document is useful as it eliminates unnecessary discussions about requirements. When there is such a moment, all parties should consult the design document and move forward based on it.
At gamasutra, this article is a great example of a well written design document.
So, I hope you can see why I think that a design document is absolutely vital to the success of a software project. A well thought out and written design document eliminates developer time wasted on feature creep, it servers as a starting point for all scheduling activities and, it provides the big picture of your project.
For those reading that are interested in such things, drop me a note about what you think.
All hail the monstorus nerd
Written on 4 May 2007 by Chris Austin
Funny enough, I didn’t think I’d score so high.
Looking at Python web frameworks
Written on 3 May 2007 by Chris AustinLately I’ve been investigating alternatives to ASP.net. I don’t have any real gripes with ASP.net but, I am interested in alternatives just for the sake of looking at different approaches than webforms.
What I am finding almost overwhelming is the sheer number of Python frameworks that are available. For a quick look, you can see a nice long list here at python.org.
From my research, the most popular frameworks are
Additionally there are some up and coming players
In order to really get a feel for these I am going to build a not to trivial web app in Django, TurboGears, Pylons &, web.py. I am leaving out Zope because I’ve read that there is a steep curve and I’m trying to have fun with it.
As I build up the apps in the different frameworks I am going to be looking for a few things.
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Database integration.
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How easy apps can be deployed.
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AJAX intergration.
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Performance.
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Stability.
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Development tools.
Of these I am most concerned with production stability and the deployment options. I’ll try to evaluate one framework at a time and report as I go.
Rolling your game engine vs using an existing engine.
Written on 1 May 2007 by Chris AustinThis post will further discuss the RPG that I am going to develop. In the last post I covered the choice of top down vs 1st person. In this post I will discuss some aspects of the game engine.
When starting out on this one will I have to make a choice from the beginning that will affect almost every aspect of the game. This decision is, should I roll my own game engine from scratch (based on existing rendering engines) or, use an existing engine or sdk?
The obvious benefit of rolling your own engine is control of how every aspect is implemented. Of course the corresponding downside of this is the time and difficulty involved in doing so.
Conversely, the downside of using an existing engine is that you have little to no control of the implementation. The benefits are that you will have an existing base or platform and tools to get quickly up to speed.
Since I am the only person working on this project currently, I think the choice to cede control of the internal implementation details to an existing engine is the best. Also, many of the existing game engine SDKs have available source code; this in my opinion mitigates some of the concerns about losing control of you game’s base.
Choosing game style.
Written on 30 April 2007 by Chris AustinAs I mentioned in my last post I am going to produce a RPG on my own. So, I need to make some choices about the basic make up of the game. In this post I am going to look at the “play style” of the game. By that I mean do I want to build the game to be a “top down” game similar to the Final Fantasy franchise? Or do I want build a 1st/3rd person style game akin to the Knights of The Old Republic franchise?
I’ve played numerous top down games like FF and Baldur’s Gate and found that they are very fun as they seem to introduce very enjoyable combat systems.
On the other hand I’ve also had a blast with the First Person games like Deus Ex and some of the online RPGs. These seem to be a bit more immersive and popular these days.
Based on my playing experiance and the fact that I want to build something that I would like to play I deciding to go with the 1st/3rd person style rpg.
My next big decision will be about the engine behind the game. There are a lot of choices so that may take a while.
My new pet project.
Written on 29 April 2007 by Chris AustinI have always wanted to develop a role playing game. So, I’ve decided that someday is now and I will use this site as journal and a feedback mechanism as I develop my ideas and the game itself. All in all, I want to have fun doing this and not turn it into “work” as I don’t expect to make a dime off my initial efforts.
The theme will follow the standard “Heros Journey” type of theme in a SCI-FI setting.
Some of the items that I am going to journal and comment on will be
- settings
- tools
- game engines
- technology (shaders, OpenGL, DirectX, lighting)
- design choices
I’ve been scribbling down ideas for this project for over a year now. Sadly however, I haven’t come up with a name yet 
Getting through the development slump
Written on 28 April 2007 by Chris AustinAlmost every developer I have ever known has their ups and downs, myself especially. One thing I have noticed with many really good software developers that I have met is that they have a method to get through their slumps.
From what I’ve gathered by asking and attempting to practice myself is that it isn’t something magical or some kind of secret obtained through years of work. It is, on the surface, pretty simple. You just work through it and find ways to enjoy your work.
For example, I have a project that I am working on that I don’t find very interesting. And, it is difficult sometimes to keep myself focused and on task. But, if I don’t I’ll lose the contract and ruin my reputation. So, I just work through the mundane parts and take as much joy as I can in writing solid code.
How do you get yourself working may be different from person to person. For me, it is often just opening up the IDE or editor and reading my “TODOs”.
For the few readers I do have, I’d be curious how you get through your slumps, assuming you experience them.
