Let’s finish fleshing out the plan:

• 5. Work out the dialogue.

The whole point of the exercise is to try and implement some of the techniques in Freeman’s book, Creating Emotion in Games, so we’re going to need dialogue. A brief look at the theory implies that the Unreal II dialogue system is very powerful indeed, if somewhat unwieldy to write the code for. Suspicions are raised by one overiding factor: they didn’t use it to it’s full potential in the game. The conversations were simple, linear and compulsory for the most part with little in the way of optional approaches or complex interactions. Unless I missed something, of course.

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More planning. With the backstory looking slightly more interesting let’s look at the next thing on the list:

2. Sort out some character models.

The Liandri Angel models have three ‘weights’ (light, medium and heavy) and a few headswaps and skin changes available. Lets guess that we can reasonably handle probably about five major NPCs without completely drying up and pick some names at random:

• 2.1 Agnes - a ‘light’ model, possibly the commanding officer, a lieutenant.
• 2.2 Beth - a ‘medium’, the blonde variant
• 2.3 Sarah - also a ‘medium’, the variant with the funky purple hair
• 2.4 Anna - another ‘medium’, the default type this time, bald as an egg
• 2.5 Lucy - the ‘heavy’ trooper in the somewhat striking heavy powered armour

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Make a Plan! Stick to the Plan!

It’s time to make a plan. Based on what I was thinking about last time a rough plan of the forthcoming project might look like this:

The Plan

• 1. Figure out a backstory.
• 2. Sort out some character models.
• 3. Create the map geometry for them to inhabit.
• 4. Set up the timed events.
• 5. Work out the dialogue.
• 6. Work out the scripting to go with above.
• 7. See how much is feasible to get voiced.
• 8. Work out the packaging.

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Part Two! A personal best!

So I’ve poked around the Unreal II editor (perversely called UnrealEd 3) for a week. They say that you buy your next car based on what you disliked about the previous one and so far UnrealEd 3 is shaping up. I’m going probably going to get techy every now and again so you should skip those bits if they bore you to tears. However, everything I know about beating up game engines I learned from all the far cleverer people who have figured it out before me and graciously decided to share their knowledge on the internet (helpful link list at some point in the future), so if you’re skipping bits because you don’t understand them but would secretly like to then stop, find a copy of the game and figure out what the hell I’m prattling on about because that’s the best way to learn.

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This article spoils the end of Unreal II.

Just sayin’.

Going over the Managing a Mod Project presentation again reawoke a collection of old mental processes. It’s fun creating inside a game environment, watching your ideas come to life and then jumping in and being among them is something that only a few media can provide. Maybe that’s how architects feel when they walk around a building that began life as a few scrawls in the back of a notebook, or how a composer feels when he conducts an orchestra playing a piece that came to him on a bus one day.

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In March 04, for reasons I still don’t fully comprehend, I was invited by a net friend to go all the way to Melbourne (Australia) and speak to a seminar about the mod I worked on.

The seminar was part of an independent game developers conference called Free Play, in turn part of the wider Melbourne arts festival called Next Wave. When I heard the offer I started all the metal processes to dismiss the idea as too expensive/too far/too wild and then suddenly overode that and decided to quit playing safe for once in my life. In an explosion of recklessness and disposable income I bought a plane ticket and went and had an adventure. This isn’t the story of that adventure.

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The Cassandra Project is a modification for the game Deus Ex by Ion Storm. If you don’t know what a modification is then I’ll tell you:

When a videogame gets released commercially the game’s developers sometimes include a set of tools that allow you to create new content using that game as a basis. This can sometimes help to extend the life of the game, because some group of smartarses create a new game that everyone wants to play but they have to go and buy the original game before they can play it. This is how Counterstrike, arguably the most popular online shooter ever, got started. Sometimes it can be way for people who are trying to get jobs in the industry to get noticed by people who want to hire them.

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