Just a quick update, mostly to put to rest concerns that I've given up. First off, I have to thank TripHamer for pointing me to a series of videos on Unity called 3D Buzz. My initial impression of the site wasn't good; there are a LOT of videos there; so much, in fact, that it's easy simply to get overwhelmed and leave immediately. Eventually, though, I took the time to explore the site a bit, and found a series there called creating a simple 2D shooter in Unity with C#. I figured that project didn't sound too bad, and if I couldn't even figure out how to create a 2D shooter in Unity (something I can do in my sleep with Gamemaker), I was out of my league.

Space TaxiAs you all know (this is the seventh installment, after all!), yours truly has been working on becoming a hobbyist indie game developer. It's an interesting and very enlightening project, and not just because I get to work with cool software and possibly make some cool games. The aspect that's been the most rewarding is realizing just how much work goes into making modern games. I'll definitely never play a game like L.A. Noire again and not have to pause a moment to think, "WOW. Somebody had to sit down and make every single 3D object in this game..." Somebody had to rig every animation, and somebody else had to script each behavior. The sheer enormity of the task pretty much takes your breath away when you really understand how much effort went into it. And let's not forget the producers, as well, who somehow have to bring all of this work together. It's no wonder the credits on a game can take upwards of an hour to scroll by!

Thrust Lifter: You salty dawg...Matt's Valentine's Day Preparation Guide.

First off, stop playing Thrust Lifter. I know it's hard...VERY HARD. But this is Valentine's Day. It's about HER, not rescuing the Chilenoids. I'm not even going to provide a link to the game. Hey, don't click on that!

Now that you're NOT playing videogames, let's set the stage for a wonderful Valentine's Day.

Step 1. Breakfast in bed. How about some heart-shaped waffles? Don't even think about fake butter, buddy.
Step 2. Say: "I had an amazing dream last night. Then I woke up next to someone even more amazing."
Step 3. What's that? A box of chocolates! Nice. But say: "Chocolate is great. But let's face it...Mr. Hershey never tasted your lips."
Step 4. Present your clipboard. "I made a list of everything that's great about you. Let's begin with item #00000001."
Step 5. Hold on a minute! No background music??? ZOMG, you fool!!! Download Thrust Lifter OST on your iPod NOW!!!

Thank Gawd I'm here to save your marriage.
Download the Thrust Lifter OST right now.

Thank me when you have 4.5 children and a dog to fetch your slippers.

Well, it had to happen eventually. For awhile now I've felt that I've been making steady progress towards making my own CRPG using Unity and Blender, but for the last few days I've had the sickening feeling that I'm in over my head. Although I can watch endless tutorials that make the whole process look like a breeze, when it comes down to actually trying to implement anything myself it's just bewildering. I'm finding that I just can't seem to wrap my head around some of the concepts of 3D animation and control. I don't want to give up, but I'm feeling very tempted at this point to just throw my hands up in the air and either go back to trying to make something worthwhile with Gamemaker or beg and plead someone with more experience to be my mentor.

Today I spent most of my time working with Blender. The first order of the day was to learn all about lighting. Blender has a dizzying amount of options for this, but I'm not even sure I'll need any of it so I didn't spend a lot of time here. UNITY has its own lighting system, and I'm not sure to what extent I'll be able to use lights I make in Blender anyway, but I figured the knowledge would be transferable in a general sense. In any case, it is fascinating (and addictive) to just experiment with all the lighting options and see how they affect shading and such. You can really get some nice shading effects with different kinds of lighting. Here's just an example:
Cube with Lights
The next chapter was on Character Animation, and the author pointed out two different people-making tools you can use. Both were free in terms of cost: Make Human and Daz Studio. While you can try to make humans from scratch, these tools essentially give you an interface similar to those seen in games like Skyrim where you can adjust and tweak your face, nose, etc. The exciting part is that you can export your creations into Blender. I may know next to nothing about modeling and animation, but even I can use these interfaces and my combat mode looks a helluva lot more feasible.

Invertion: Is that GLADOS?I love Portal, and I love a good platformer. What do you get when you combine the two? Invertion! Go check out this awesome free game by my friends at HighUp Studio, game developers from Bogota, Colombia! My good friend David Arcila did the great artwork. The music is also excellent. I love it! Go play it now.

This week begins my interview series with Mark Soderwall, an awesome guy with 20+ years in the industry. His resume is huge, with jobs at Mindcraft, Atari, and LucasArts. He's worked on games NBA Live, the Terminator games, Demon Stone, and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, just to name a few. Now he's devoted himself to training the next generation and inspiring indie developers with his Game Creators Vault. Enjoy!

If you haven't supported the show, don't be a scrooge! If you like these videos, please put a dollar in my stocking!. Come on, McDuck, it's Christmas! As always, you can download the MP4 for playback on your mobile device.

Just in time for Christmas!

Armchair Arcade is proud to present a spanking new game from Matt Barton: Thrust Lifter!
Download Thrust_Lifter.zip

Thrust LifterSpace. For most people, it's just an abstract concept, like Hollywood or an honest politician. For you, it's a day job. Sure, you won't find "rescuing trapped space miners" on your resume, but that's because you don't have a resume. You're known in this galaxy simply as "The Captain." Most folks think you're a hero. Others think you're just plain nuts. But one thing's for sure--they all call YOU when it's a matter of life or death.

Admiral Blount

Thrust Lifter is a game of timing and precision. Guide your lander into narrow tunnels, avoiding collisions with walls, fires, lava, electricity, and all manner of aliens. Get to the Chilenoids before they run out of oxygen and bring them back to the home pad before taking off to your next destination.

Features:

• 15 beautiful, massive levels for you to navigate
• Five original songs composed by Matt Barton with keyboards and real electric guitar
• Amazing fire, lightning, and particle effects
• Sprites built from 3D graphics made with Blender
• Two boss fights
• Compete to finish levels in the shortest time
• High score list

What the heck are you waiting for? Download it right here from Armchair Arcade today!
Thrust_Lifter.zip
If you like the game, please purchase a registered copy--starting at only two bucks!