Kyle: Choosing a Game Engine

Kyle here.

Whether it be a personal bias, project requirement, or maybe for the sake of trying something new; choosing a game engine to use for a project or endeavor will certainly bring a lot of differing opinions from many people. In this article, I (Kyle Bardiau) will discuss some of the engines I prefer to use when I decide to work on both personal and professional projects..

1. Unity

I was introduced to Unity a few years back when it was just another engine and since then Unity have stepped up its game and is starting to become an indie favorite due to its low-cost, huge asset store, and the fact that it is more friendly to programmers than other engines.



I suggest to any one who is looking to get their hands dirty game development for the first time to start here. You will be able to make small playable prototypes by yourself in Unity far easier than other engines, such as the next two editors I'm about to bring up.

2. CryEngine

I find that CryEngine is one of the more awesome editors that has a lot of little neat tools and tricks. This editor is one of the more fun I've worked with but is very complex to bring out the true beauty and power of this engine compared to others.



If you want to learn what it's like to get down and dirty in some big boy editors and create quick,  generic first person shooter levels, you might find this editor more to your liking. If you're willing to put more work into it, you can code in your own game-play to make a game of any genre: i.e. a Tower Defense game or another genre of your fancy; but the learning curve for doing so is much steeper than other engines.

3. Unreal Development Kit aka UDK

One of the more popular, as well as a favorite of mine, is the UDK. In my experience this was one of the easier editors to pick up. Using UDK is never a bad choice as it's an industry-standard and the majority of games you may have played are developed with Epic's Unreal technology.



If you're looking to learn how those big AAA games get made or want to start on a smaller project, I suggest picking up UDK as this editor can produce projects ranging from a simple indie game to AAA within the same tool set.

Conclusion

These are the main three engines I have come to know, and in my experience if you were to give these engines a go you will start learning the similarities across all engines. Once you understand these similarities such as working with the concepts of levels, game-play, and art content, you will find that you can pick up any other editor very easily and the issue of choosing an engine to use for your next project will become obvious and you'll be one step closer to reading the Matrix, like Tank.

Kyle's Modular Building!

So if there was any way to build a level fast and efficient its some modular building. I suggest if there are any of you artists out there that love environmental building, look into this because you will instantly make a level designer your best friend.  Here below are a few pieces I modeled & textured out, with this set I can make hallways all day, throw in some rooms and clutter... Waala! You have yourself a pretty decent level to go around go play, tweak, and then refine.

If you are going to try to start making some modular pieces here are some tips:

- ALWAYS stick to the grid, make sure everything will snap just right.

-Try to work within the a power of 2 (specifically 256 or 512 sizes) .

Everything has to be extremely precise, otherwise it will end up not fitting correctly when you import it into your favorite editor. But once done right, can be super powerful. One good read about modular pieces is this. I will update the hallway above, maybe even with some game-play!

Kyle's Hand of Nod

If there was any reason I had any interest of games, or what inspired me to become a video game developer. It had to be the Command and Conquer franchise, BEFORE Electronic Arts took over. I'm talking about Westwood Studios, they probably had to be one of two main reasons why I love games and why I am where I am today.

As a result, I have a little drawn up sketch of a FPS Multiplayer map below is a building that you might see!

Beginner Level Design Tips by Kyle

Everyone has to start somewhere, even sometimes you will have to refer to your foundations when it comes to making something. Here in this topic I will give you some tips before it comes to blocking out or modelling your level. This is a workflow that I have used that can help you get started.

The Idea

Movies, games, history, music, photos;  anything can be your references and inspiration to create these epic and memorable play spaces.

Here are some sites to help:

Fuck Yeah Concept Art
Reddit
Bioshock
Mongkok, Hong Kong
Nasa - Image of the Day

My Idea: Space Station on a meteoroid.  

Restrictions/Limitations

Once you have constructed your idea, there are a few questions that you have to ask yourself.

• Is it single player or multiplayer map? Multi-Player


• What is the gameplay like? Deathmatch


• What kind of Engine will be used? Unreal Development Kit


• What will make this map memorable? You are able to launch players in space


• What is the story that this map will tell? A warehouse in the shape of a bio-dome controlled by a mercenaries now being raided by cops.


• What is the deadline (if none give yourself one)? One week. 


• What is the theme? Sci-fi,


• Where do my limitations lie? Shortage of assets

Draw it Out/Reference

Now comes to bring the look of what you had in mind. Start looking about on the internet on where you can grab photos on what you want your map to look like. When grabbing your photos you also want to try to grab some ideas of the lighting or maybe how you want your background to look. Here are some images grabbed from Google and Flickr.

This is the time you want to also draw something out. Personally I love doing a bird's eye view of what the map could look like. Only start thinking about how this map is fun; there is plenty of time to worry about balancing out the map, placing  power weapons, and making play spaces used more but that is to be done later during play testing. By the end you will have many iterations of your level.

This is the basic pre-production on how to create your level. Thanks for reading!

A Challenger Has Appeared! (Kyle)

I know with the cliché gaming title you must be wondering on who I am.  To get a super quick idea of who I am, my name is Kyle Bardiau. I'm a level designer/world builder by heart, but sometimes caught acting like an environmental artist. Love long hikes, pizza, etc. Now lets talk about levels!

Below is something I started, being inspired by a certain picture done by Gia Nguyen Hoang. Tell me what you guys think of it so far, and what you are working on!