I have often found that the difference between success and failure at a task is determined by a complex relationship between motivation and resources. For example, if I wanted to become a professional skier I would have an immensely difficult task regardless of my personal motivation- Ireland receives a few inches of snow each year and the cost of living at a European ski resort is outside of my pay bracket. On the other hand if I had to learn about Hannah Montana for some unknown reason and was located beside a vast resource of information on Hannah I would find it extremely difficult to take in any details as my interest is utterly lacking.
I hope the overly elaborate analogy above hasn’t put you off and hopefully it will help you understand my current excitement about this new endeavor of mine. I picked up the Unreal 3 Collectors Edition this week and by working with the bundled tutorials from 3DBuzz I’ve managed to get that great feeling of progress and optimism that only comes when motivation is high and resources are plentiful. I have no doubt that without the 3DBuzz tutorials my progress would be far slower.
Everyone who's completed the 3D Buzz tutorials will recognise this scene.
I’m sure a lot of the people who read this will recognise the above scene. It was all done within a couple of hours in UnrealEd and using the supplied VTM’s. It is really amazing the results that you can get from a small time investment and I look forward to doing more work with the tutorials and with more time.
I ‘ve also been reading Challenges For Video Games Designers by Brenda Braithwaite and Ian Schrieber and The Ultimate Guide to Video Game Writing and design by Flint Dille and John Zuur Plattens, I would recommend both books as good starting points for a game designer- maybe starting with Challenges for Video Game Designers and once you get up and running on a few of the challenges take a look at The Ultimate Guide to Video Game Writing and Design.
I hope this gives you guys a bit more of an insight into how things are going for me thus far!
-See you on the flip side!
