Videogame Discovery

For my first game I wanted a very simple idea, so I wouldn't have to deal with complex mechanics, animations, rigging etc. My goal was to have a working, finished game, not a breathtaking revolutionary multiplayer game I had no chance to manage; I had many big ideas in the past, but every time I got stuck after spending days and days on details, losing interest while complexity grew too much. So, this time I decided to try and focus on the bigger plan first, and make it beautiful later. My first idea was a simple top-down space shooter, maybe with the rotating capabilities of  the classic Asteroids . After some days, I thought I could go even more simple, and make it a turn-based puzzle game. I decided for a hexagonal pattern grid, and I started prototyping it in Java. Java is my daily bread at work, so it was the ideal choice for me to have something working in no time... and so it was. I created a fast graphic framework using base Swing and AWT functions, and aft...

Everything started with a Kickstarter project: "Learn To Make Video Games - Unreal Developer Course In C++" by Ben Tristem. I always looked at Unreal Engine with reverence, thinking it was a huge, powerful, inaccessible tool for professional developers and big software houses; but this project meant that everybody could have a chance to learn it, so I decided to support it. Bundled with it, was another course, the "Complete Blender Creator" by Ben Tristem and Michael Bridges, for 3D modeling. Both these courses are now available at Udemy, here are the links in case you're interested (just wait for the recurring Udemy discounts): https://www.udemy.com/blendertutorial/ https://www.udemy.com/unrealcourse/ I never used Blender before but I had some previous knowledge of  3D Studio Max, so I didn't have any particular problem learning the (not so user-frienldy) interface of Blender. After a couple of months I was able to create nice models, rig and...

Hi everybody! My name is Davide and I work as software developer. My passion is to create art in every form, be it digital painting or music, and after taking a couple of nice online courses about 3D modeling and game design with Unreal Editor (I'm going to talk about them later), I finally decided to create my own videogame. And I thought "why not start a blog, to keep track of my trial-and-error process? Maybe my struggle will help some other fellow game designers!" So, welcome to this page and I hope I can show you a finished, successfull and worldwide known game in some months! (Okay, a finished one will be my goal for now). I'll be working mainly in Blender, Unreal Editor 4 and C++, with an initial fast prototype for game mechanics in Java.  Game you next time!