Maya is such a b****!

So, I've run into problem with rigging my first character. Maya keeps wanting to save for some reason to a directory it shouldn't be, and that causes it to crash. Not fun. I'm hoping by going back to an earlier revision I won't encounter this anymore. If it does, I might have go back and use a different skin bind tool or an earlier version of Maya.

Some initial work done.

So I found out that naming scripts the same name as a class that is part of the engine will not resolve accessing members of that class. I solved the problem I was having by renaming the script file. Makes sense now.

I've also started working on the base human character mesh. I'm about half way through the low-poly version. Hopefully I can finish the rest tomorrow, and start adding some detail.

I hate uncooperative software SO MUCH!

So, I've trying to do something ridiculously simple in Unity, but unity is being a bitch and complaining about things that are not true. I don't know why.

There are a few solutions to this problem.

1. I could uninstall and reinstall Unity to see if that fixes anything.
2. I could give up on Unity and work with another engine.
3. I could give up all together!

This is why coding late at night is a bad idea! UGH!

Thinking of starting this again.

It's been almost two years since I went on hiatus. In that time, I've developed actual game making skills, enough that I think I could at least make a working prototype by the end of the summer.

Some of the changes to the project I had in mind were:

• Allowing use of non-free software to create content and code. Originally I was set on using Blender to make the models, GIMP to work with textures and such, Eclipse for the IDE, and the OpenJava JDK for code. But trying to teach myself to use Blender was a pain in the ass (the default UI and controls are just a headache, and given that the new version seem   s to change a lot of the UI, I put it off). I've learned to use a wealth of other 3D authoring tools, namely Maya and have my own copy for personal use. I'm also much more proficient with Photoshop than with the GIMP, which is nice since Photoshop is industry standard. I also decided to change the development environment entirely, which is explained below.
• Using a different engine - Unity. Originally I wanted to use jMonkeyEngine as I was impressed with the work done on JCRPG. But having worked with Unity over the past year, it is incredibly simple to prototype in Unity (I've done two 48-hour game jams using the engine). It just seemed like a natural choice to start the project at this point.

I hoping to get started some time this week, but work keeps me pretty busy (two jobs will do that to you).

Some other issues I have on mind:

• Hosting: Right now I have a web host for my personal website, and I think it would be possible for me to install some type of code repo (though I could also go with a decentralized repo like Mercurial).
• Attracting talent: I do not want to do all of this on my own. So there a few positions I'd like to have before really setting off
• Art Director: someone to set the style of the game.
• Musician: The game will need music and sounds.
• Web Developer: This person would be in charge of the web PR for the game, so they would build a website for the game, handle social networking (Twitter, Facebook, etc.)
• Mac tester: I'd like to have someone test builds on a Mac just in case. I don't have a Mac personally, so I couldn't do it.
• As for the art content (chracters, and other models), I'd like one person or a small group to be in charge of each of the non-player characters (NPCs). So they would design character based on the established art style, write backstory and dialogue, and possibly voice act for them.
• Animation wise, all the characters will be built off a base model, so they'll have the same skeleton and pull from a common library of animations. But each character group can customize with individual animations if they so choose.

The first thing I'm going to do is create a simple base model, create two animations (idle and walking), and then load that into Unity and make it control by walking.

If anyone is interested this project, leave a comment! I'd like all the help I could get!

On Hiatus

I'm putting Open Animal Crossing on hiatus while I work on projects much more smaller in scope. Right now everything about this is too large for me to even think about tackling, especially since I'm considering changing the language.

Right now I'm going back through some old school projects, fixing bugs and implementing features I never got around to. So far, I got the recursive algorithm for a Minesweeper game working correctly. Now I'm going to add a GUI, which requires a little rewriting that's a pain in the neck.

There haven't been any new commits but as always all the code I have is available at the Google Code page: Open Animal Crossing Google Code Project.

Version Control is confusing

I'm just getting the having of using Subversion (through NetBeans 6.1 Beta). I'll probably read through the documentation this weekend. You can take a look at some of the code on the SVN repo.

I've also started learning to use Blender (which is how I plan to create models). I've decided to use the jME (jMonkeyEngine) as the core game Engine (as Bang!Howdy was actually implemented with jME and there's a few open source games that use it as well that I could learn from).

That's all for now.

Google Code Project created!

I've created a project on Google Code for Open Animal Crossing.

Basically I want to make an open source clone of the Animal Crossing series. I plan to code it in Java. See the project page here.

Google Code hosting is pretty cool (mostly because it's free :) ) but it lacks some features I would like. Mostly their wiki engine needs some work, but support for a built in website, and blog would be a nice touch as well. Still, free is free!