I am taking a game design class...

[IEatFriedPikmin]

... and by the end of the semester, we have to have a demo of a game we created. It is a CS course, so he is allowing us to have artists help us out if needed. Sooo if anyone is good with Photoshop or Lightwave 3D and is interested, let me know. I am pretty knowledgeable on Lightwave, but not when it comes to creating real-time low-poly models.

I still am not sure what my game will be. It is obviously going to be a pretty simple game... nothing too complex like an FPS or RPG. I am leaning towards something like Asteroids or Geometry Wars... maybe something like that with a mix of that tank game on Wii. If any of you guys have any ideas when it comes to this kinda gameplay, just let me know, and I will give you credit on the project if I use it.

Our games have to work on PCs, but I really want mine to be compatible with a 360 controller, and hopefully port it to Live Arcade using XNA software. I also would really like to add Wiimote compatibility at some point if it could apply well to the game, so if you know anything about that when it comes to programming, let me know.

I'll keep you guys updated on how things turn out.

[D3adcell]

I am also taking a game design class this semester. Will just be a simple game we end up being able to make, but I plan on making a shmup of some sort. Going to be making it with c++.

[IEatFriedPikmin]

Same here. Ours is centered around 3d game development. Last semester they did handheld.

[HPK]

I'm not in any game design courses, but I am in a game developement club. We have a few programmers, modelers, and concept artists. We are hoping to get around to making a casual game or two this year (last year, most of the time was spent on learning stuff and working on a pen & paper game).

Hopefully something happens this year, since I'm itching to learn a bit more about the developement process outside of a slideshow we got from an actual game developer. I might dabble with animation if I have to.

[WolfmanNCSU]

Good luck IEFP and D3adcell on your classes. My senior year I took a gaming design and development class for a semester. It was actually a pretty sweet class.

Our final project was a mod for Unreal Tournament (mostly because Epic is located just down the road from here). Our final mod was a spin off on the campfire game "Moffia". We successfully demoed our finished design, it was a blast. Now if I could only get back into that industry.....*goes to update resume.

HPK, does your group have a website to showcase their skills?

[SuperLuigiBros]

Sounds pretty fun! How long do you have to do this? I've been doing my Games Design course for almost 2 years now so I have some experience in 3D and photoshop and, well Im sure youve seen some of my older things.

Im pretty busy so Im not sure how much time I can invest, but I feel Im beyond the 'beginner' stage of 3d modelling, so if you need any simple models let me know and Id be happy to help out.

[IEatFriedPikmin]

There are 3 semesters worth of classes, 2 of which are upper level. The other is an intro class anyone can take, and isn't a prereq for the upper level courses.

The class actually isn't that great so far (I'm hoping it gets better). The professor, who is also the head of the CS department I might add, is a total joke. He always starts and ends class late. He rushes through everything, isn't too helpful when you ask questions, and honestly just gets on my nerves. Last class period, he spent the whole time lecturing, and at the end he said: "You actually don't really have to know any of this for any of your assignments... some of this stuff is just nice to know." He then did a brief 5 minute overview of how to do our next assignment with code we aren't familiar with.


He did provide a sweet lab for us to meet in though... the computers are top notch (I don't remember the specific specs... they are upgraded every semesters though). He also has Unreal Tournament 2004 installed on them, which is pretty cool, and we can bring our own games on external HDDs.

I hope it gets better today.

[Delirious]

Thats friggin awesome dude, I have tried to mess around with video game making before, its tough stuff. I never have the determination to finish anything though. Ive tried C++ and a couple other programs personally.

[IEatFriedPikmin]

I know the models are a bit crude, but 95% of the project so far has involved coding, so there has been little time for me to make my models prettier and my textures cleaner. However, now that I have been able to get my program to output images on the screen, I may start creating fresh, new models:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v247/IEatFriedPikmin/renderImage1.jpg

I was also able to scale some models in the coding itself, as well as rotate models. The trees are also continuously rotating 1 degree per frame, which is why the tree on the right looks slightly tilted.

Next class period, we are going to learn how to manually move the camera so we can view the scene in-game (like a FPS).