This week was rather uneventful, as we only got the engine we are to use on Friday. Once I had access to it however, I was able to explore a few of the examples given, and started to get an idea of how the engine did rudimentary tasks. In all honesty, I was just happy to have the engine up and running, as now my personal work schedule can begin, be that as it may, unhindered by the lack of proper tools. It’s a small comfort, but a comfort nonetheless.
I also read through the week’s readings, even though a lot of it was just a brief overview of games in general. It was interesting to lay such a basic framework and think about games in essential parts of a whole. For example, under fighting games it lists high precision controls, accurate hit detection, and rich animation to be its basis. Even while attending this school, and having made a fighting game in first year, I’ve never thought of them in such fundamental terms, and realised that every fighting games, or at least the quality ones, can attribute their success to this basis, regardless of the actual game built around them.
The book then transitioned more into the structure of commercial engines, and listed some features that were common amongst some or all of them, such as graphics renderers, character animation packages, and (although much less common) low level AI tools to get developers started.
All in all it’s been a nothing week in terms of the course, which coupled with the awkward deadline of this post made for a meagre experience to draw from in terms of things to write about. Hopefully once the course gets into full swing these will get more interesting.
