I am currently toying with the idea of making a total conversion mod for Unreal Tournament III; more specifically, a paintball mod. I realize that such mods are fairly cliche among amature developers and by no means “original,” however - I absolutely love paintball and have not seen it done well since the days of Quake II. The largest hurdle to overcome is going to be the art assets; particularly the paintball guns themselves. I just recently recieved my Unreal Tournament III collectors edition (which contains hours upon hours of video tutorials for content creation with the engine and editor), and stumbled across quite a few excellent resources. While in the long run the mod would have to become a total conversion, for now it is going to start out as a simple GameType modification. (more…)

Well, I’ve finally played around in the Sandbox2 editor for CryENGINE2 enough to where I feel confident in making a decision as to what projects would mesh well with the technology, and what projects would not. For now, I wish to concentrate more on multiplayer experiences than singleplayer, so I’ve decided to check out the new version of an old favorite of mine. Unreal Tournament 3 recently launched, and I hopped on the ability to purchase a collectors edition tin (could not find one in person so I ordered it from GoGamer). The more I use the engine, the more excited I am about starting a new total conversion mod (though, I may do it as a simple gametype addition for now and change it to a TC mod further down the line when I feel more confident starting from scratch). Anyhow, read more for some links to useful resources getting started with the UnrealED experience; also, I have attached a download with all the exported scripts from Unreal Tournament 3 (the areas of the source code that are available to the public, just not yet hosted at an official source). (more…)

Well, I have now tinkered around quite a bit with the editor bundled with the new Crysis game, Sandbox2. I think the editor is amazing for what some people need, and has it’s shortcomings in other areas. The general idea I’ve gotten from it is that, if you are looking to make a primarily outdoor, single player experience - CryENGINE2 may make an incredible base for your game. However, if you are looking to create a primarily indoor experience - or a multi-player experience (or both), you may want to look elsewhere.

In the full article I touch briefly on my impressive on the terrain editing and texturing, the A.I. control and scripting, solid creation (from-scratch simple geometry construction), as well as some uncategorized thoughts. (more…)