Create Computer Games - Get Started on Creating Your Own Virtual Worlds

HOW TO MAKE 3D CHARACTERS :

I’ve always loved video games, ever since I first played them on a friend’s computer in the afternoon after elementary school. There’s something almost magical about the fact that we can move images around and interact with virtual worlds, a living fantasy presented for us to interact with however we please. I’ve also always wanted to make games myself but, until recently, didn’t have the technical knowledge to do so. Now, I’m a second year software engineering student, so if I weren’t able to code a game without too many dramas there’d be something drastically wrong. But what about the common person: the person for whom the term ‘memory leak’ conjures up images of their grandfather, ‘pipeline’ is where the water flows, and ‘blitting’ is unheard of? Well, everyone can get in on the game creation process, and you don’t even need to learn ‘real’ programming to do so.

Create Computer Games - Get Started on Creating Your Own Virtual Worlds

So where do games start? With an idea. Games, like all fiction, require an idea to be successful. Sure, in the same way you can just sit down and write a story without foresight, you can jump on in and slap a game together. However, unless you get ridiculously lucky, the best works are usually the ones that have been well thought out beforehand.

There are two methods of planning a project. You can start from a known technological standpoint and build your project on top of that or you can just go for the design, add as many features and ideas as you like, and then remove the ones that you can’t use when you’ve decided on the technology you’re going to implement the game with. In general, the second type is probably the best one to go with when designing games. When you’re first starting out however, the first option will save you many headaches.

So, for a first game you’re going to want a pretty simple idea. Don’t get me wrong, crazy-go-nuts game ideas are fantastic, and there should be more of them out there, but you’re not going to be able to create a real world simulator with fifty billion virtual people all interacting real time with your actions having a butterfly effect on the future of the virtual universe when it’s just your first game. Really. Many people try it; none that I know of have succeeded. Imitation is the best way to start out. Simple games such as ‘Space Invaders’, ‘Tetris’, ‘Pacman’ or even ‘Pong’ are great places to start. All are largely simple to create but have some inherent challenges. ‘Pacman’ for example, requires path finding for the ghosts. I recommend that you start even simpler than that for your very first attempt. ‘Space Invaders’ is a nice point to jump in. You can make a simple, complete game without much effort and it’s almost infinitely extensible.

If you’re stuck for an idea, pick a genre that you enjoy. Do you love adventure games such as ‘Monkey Island’, ‘Grim Fandango’, ‘Space Quest’, ‘King’s Quest’ etc.? Design one of those. Are you into fighting games like ‘Street Fighter’, ‘Tekken’, ‘Soul Calibur’, ‘Mortal Kombat’ and so on? Come up with an idea for that. Do you like first person shooters such as ‘Quake’, ‘Half Life’ or ‘Doom’? I don’t recommend it as a first project, but you can always give it a go. Feel free to be as generic as you like, this is a learning experience after all.

Now that you have your idea it’s time to flesh it out. Don’t worry about the technology or the fact that you may not know how to actually implement a game just yet, just grab yourself some paper and a pencil and go crazy with ideas. Describe the main characters, game play, goals, interactions, story, and key mappings, anything you can think of. Make sure you have enough detail so that someone can read through the notes and play through the game in their head with relative accuracy. Changing game design during the coding process is almost always a bad idea. Once it’s set, it should remain set until the tweaking phase (I’ll go into this more later) or you’re likely to enter ‘development hell’, where the project goes on and on; more and more work is done with less and less outcome.

At the end of this period of your game creation, you should have the following:

- A written outline of the game’s characters and possibly a sketch or two (be they space ships, yellow circles, cars or the prince of the dark kingdom of Falgour, you need to know who or what the player will be and who they will compete against)

- A written outline of the story (if there is one, this isn’t too vital for ‘Space Invaders’ or ‘Tetris’, but for ‘Uber Quest: An Adventure of Awesomeness’ it’s a really good idea)

- A description of game play, written or storyboarded. Storyboards are visual representations of ideas. Draw your characters in actions, with arrows showing the flow of action and short written descriptions detailing the events occurring in your image (because some of us aren’t fantastic artists and our images can be a little… open to interpretation…)

Now that you have a fleshed out idea, it’s time to work out how this will all get put together. If you’ve gotten to this point and are worried that you’re going to have to spend years learning complex programming languages in order to implement your idea, fear not! Others have already done the hard yards for you. There are many RAD (Rapid Application Development) Tools available for game creation, a number of which are available for free online. Some of them still require you to learn a ‘scripting language’ (a simplified programming language made for a specific task) but in general this isn’t too complicated or involved. I’ve compiled a brief list of some of these I have found at the end of the article. The free ones are listed first, organized by game genre.

Well, that should be enough to get you started in the creation of your game. The most important thing to remember once you’ve gotten this far is that you need to complete your game. Many people start a project and then lose interest and it fails, or they keep moving on to one new project after another without finishing anything. Start small, build a working (if simple) game that is, above all else, complete. When you get to this stage you will always have a huge number of things that you wish to change, fix etc. but you’ll get a great feeling from knowing that it is, in its way, finished.

From this point, you can start the tweaking phase. Play your game a few times and ask others to do the same. Take note of what isn’t fun or could be better and change things here. At this stage, it is more important than ever to keep backups of previous versions so that if a change doesn’t work you can go back and try something different without losing any of your work. It is at this point that you can add all new features, improve graphics and sounds, whatever you please, safe in the knowledge that you’re working on a solid foundation.

When you’re happy with your game, why not share it with the world? There are many cheap or free places out there for you to host your files on and then you can jump on link lists and forums and let everyone know about your creation. Well, I hope that this has been a helpful introduction into the art of creating games. It’s a great deal of fun, and can open whole new avenues of creative expression for you to explore. Jump in and have fun!

Links:

General Game Creation:
(Tools that allow easy creation of many different game types)
Game Maker: http://www.gamemaker.nl
MegaZeux: http://megazeux.sourceforge.net/

Adventure Games:
(Games such as Monkey Island, King’s Quest, Space Quest etc.)
Adventure Game Studio: [http://www.bigbluecup.com]
AGAST: http://www.allitis.com/agast/
3D Adventure Studio: http://3das.noeska.com/
ADRIFT (for text adventures): http://www.adrift.org.uk/

Role Playing Games (RPGs):
(Games such as Final Fantasy, Breath of Fire, Diablo)
OHRPG: http://www.hamsterrepublic.com/ohrrpgce/
RPG Toolit: http://www.toolkitzone.com/

Fighting Games:
(Games such as Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Tekken, Soul Calibur etc.)
KOF91: http://sourceforge.net/projects/kof91/
MUGEN (unfortunately the site is largely in French): http://www.streetmugen.com/mugen-us.html

Side-Scrolling Games:
(Games such as the 2D Mario Games, Sonic the Hedgehog, Double Dragon etc.)
The Scrolling Game Development Kit: http://gamedev.sourceforge.net/

There are many others available as well. One particularly useful site for finding game creation tools is: http://www.ambrosine.com/resource.html

Also of note, although not freeware, are the excellent game creation tools available by Clickteam at: [http://www.clickteam.com/English/]
Klik and Play and The Games Factory in particular are the programs to have a look at and download the free demos of.

If you really want to do things right and program the game yourself, there are some excellent programming resources available at the following locations:

Java Game Programming:
http://fivedots.coe.psu.ac.th/~ad/jg/
http://www.gamedev.net/reference/articles/article1262.asp
http://javaboutique.internet.com/tutorials/Java_Game_Programming/

Visual Basic Game Programming:
[http://markbutler.8m.com/vb-tutorial.htm]

C++ Game Programming:
http://www3.telus.net/alexander_russell/course_dx/introduction_dx.htm
http://www.rit.edu/~jpw9607/tutorial.htm

General Information:
http://www.gamedev.net/
http://www.gamasutra.com/

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Rift PVP Build Guide - How To Create The Best PVP Build In Rift

HOW TO MAKE 3D CHARACTERS :

Do you want to learn how you can create the best PVP build for your Warrior, Rogue, Mage and Cleric? Well if you want to know how to create the best PVP character to dominate your friends at Rift, here is small guide of what you should do to turn your Warrior, Rogue, Mage and Cleric into the ultimate PVP character.

Rift PVP Build Guide - How To Create The Best PVP Build In Rift

Rift Warrior PVP Build Guide

If you want a solid Warrior PVP build, select Riftblade as your main soul and the Champion and Paladin as your off-souls. This PVP build is well balanced and relies on a few synergistic mechanics.

The first mechanic is that this build relies on key Riftblade abilities, for example Fiery Burst DoT and Flame Spear. I recommend that you do not scale based on the damage of your weapon, so use a one-handed weapon rather than a two-handed weapon because is not much DPS difference.

The second mechanic that makes this build solid is that it is very durable because you are able to equip a shield. Remember to put points in the Paladin tree to further increase your tanking and durability for PVP.

Rift Rogue PVP Build Guide

A good Rogue PVP that has been working for many people that participate in Warfronts is the Nightblade, Blade Dancer and Saboteur combination.

This PVP build is very good if you want to concentrate on dual daggers and swords as your weapons. You will also be able to make good use of the dodge and parry skills, which can save you in critical times.

Remember to use your traps and charges efficiently. Traps and charges are very easy and effective in big group battles because other people will not see you setting them up.

Rift Mage PVP Build Guide

Using a Mage with the right PVP build can be very useful in group battles. A solid Mage PVP build is using the Dominator as your main soul and the Necromancer and the Warlock as your off-souls.

This build has good self-healing capabilities as well as the ability to wear your enemy down with mana and energy drains and also a +50% heal-debuff. These abilities are very good in group PVP's and you will have your enemies on the run quickly if you can properly use this build to its max potential.

Rift Cleric PVP Build Guide

For a good solid PVP Cleric, choose the Shaman as your main soul and the Justicar and the Sentinel as your off-souls.

This build allows you to make use of the Shaman's abilities of survivability, AOE attacks and stuns. Stuns are very useful in PVP situations as you can unload on your opponent when they are temporarily incapacitated.

The Sentinel and Justicar soul combination are also important because you will be able to suffer sustained attacks while casting spells and healing yourself. The Justicar soul will enable you to boost your damage by +25% as well, so overall this Cleric PVP build is quite solid.

This guide should give you a general idea of how to put your souls together to make a PVP character for each class. However, each PVP situation is different and you may be up against different classes with different builds, which means that you have to create a PVP build accordingly...

So what should you do if you want to know how to the ultimate character for every situation?

Well, the best thing you can do to learn exactly how to create the best PVP character is to use a Xerxes Rift Mastery Guide.

This strategy guide will also show exactly how to combine souls and exactly how to allocate your points and even show you the top strategies to help you win 95% of your PVP battles.

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Rift DPS Guide - How To Create The Perfect DPS Build In Rift

HOW TO MAKE 3D CHARACTERS :

Do you want to learn how to build the perfect DPS Warrior, Rogue, Cleric and Mage in Rift? Well if you want to know how to create the best DPS character to dominate your friends at Rift, here is small guide of what you should do to turn your Warrior, Rogue, Mage and Cleric into DPS.

Rift DPS Guide - How To Create The Perfect DPS Build In Rift

Warrior DPS Build Guide

The Warrior has eight souls in total, four of which are DPS souls. The DPS souls are the Beastmaster, Paragon, Riftblade and Champion souls.

If you want a Warrior DPS build that is terrific for leveling, I recommend that you choose the Champion as your main soul and the Beastmaster and the Riftblade as your off-souls. Put 38 points into your Champion, 28 points into your Beastmaster and 0 points into your Riftblade. This is considered as a pure DPS Warrior build and is also great for raiding.

Rogue DPS Build Guide

The Rogue class has many DPS builds depending on your style of play. However, I recommend that you use your Assassin as your main soul and the Bladedancer and Riftstalker as your off-souls.

This is a terrific DPS build for dungeons and group play. Remember to allocate the majority of your points to your Assassin and focus on getting skills that allow you to inflict the maximum amount of damage such as Magnify Pain, Physical Trauma.

You may also want to consider building your soul tree towards getting the +5% critical chance and the Foul Play, which is a 4 second stun!

Mage DPS Build Guide

To build a Mage focused on DPS and nothing else, I recommend that you choose the Pyromancer as your main soul with the Archon and the Elementalist as your off-souls.

The Pyromancer will enable you to do lots of direct damage on your enemies as well as AOE. Keep in mind to watch your mana bar as you are spamming Fireballs at your enemies.

The Archon soul should be chosen as an off-soul because it compliment fire spells really well. This soul also gives you mana every time you land a critical.

The Elementalist soul is very important as well to this combo because you can summon a pet that can take all of the damage from enemies and also this soul increases spell damage and critical by 50%!

Cleric DPS Build Guide

Creating a good DPS build for a Cleric is difficult because they are not very strong and is used as a supporting role in a group.

However, if you have no choice and want to create a DPS build for your Cleric, here is what you should do. Choose the Cabalist as your main soul, and the Sentinel and Druid as your off souls.

This build will allow you to solo 2-4 same level mobs, heal and do some AOE attacks at the same time. Currently, this seems to be the DPS build that many players turn to if you have no choice but to play as a DPS Cleric.

There are many different DPS builds for each class depending on the situation you are in. Knowing which DPS build to create for every situation is the key difference between a pro and a noob Rift player.

If you want to know exactly what to do in every situation so that you can completely dominate your friends at Rift, using a step-by-step strategy guide will be very helpful and will definitely give you a huge advantage.

By using a strategy guide, you will be able to learn exactly how the top players of Rift will combine souls and allocate points to tackle each scenario.

All you have to do is follow the step-by-step instructions as well as the screenshots and soul tree maps and you will have created yourself the ultimate DPS build whether you are in PVP, PVE, solo, group play or raiding.

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Create Free Look-Alike Cartoon Avatar Pictures - Website Review

HOW TO MAKE 3D CHARACTERS :

Creating an avatar can be fun. Many people find that making a cartoon form of yourself, or one that looks like one of your friends is fun and amusing but avatars are becoming so popular these days that you are unlikely to surf the internet without seeing one.

Create Free Look-Alike Cartoon Avatar Pictures - Website Review

A free avatar maker called Create My Picture can offer many different options available to creating your desired look. Here is a look at the various options you have when creating an avatar with this kind of website

Skin

Choose from 20 different skin types. Pick your desired skin color from the huge range, starting from the more traditional colors to the more outrageous - green and purple! It's fun!

Chin

With a range of different 5chins, you can choose a square chin or a round chin, the choice is yours!

Eye Shape

With a massive 59 different eye shapes to choose from you can create whatever look you want your avatar to have!

Eye Color

24 different eye colors choose from. Combine this with almost 60 eye shapes to choose from and you can see that you have a great deal of possibilities with this free avatar marker

Hair Styles

There are over 80 lovely hair styles to choose from. Ranging from the simple "bob" look, to the more out there styles there is everything you could be need when you come to create avatars.

Also an additional 14 extra styles to choose from you can have the extra long hair if you desire!

Hair colors

Choose from a massive range of 24 colors.

Mouth shape

70 different mouth shapes to choose from. Whether you want bright, puckered up lips or a big wide open mouth there is the style you would want!

Facial Hair

Choose from a mixture of 10 moustaches or 6 different beards to add the facial hair shape that you want to your free avatar.

You can also add some extras to your cartoon picture with this free avatar maker.

Ear-Rings

Choose from a massive range of ear-rings, headsets and ear cuffs. There are over 50 to choose from which all add their own style and look to your avatar

Glasses

There are also over 4 pages of glasses to choose from. Ranging from either the more stylish, fashion orientated sun glasses to the more prescription looking glasses.

Skin Accessories

With 2 pages to choose from, you can add an extra touch to your avatar with facial tattoos etc.

Hair Accessories

Last choice on this list is your choice of hair accessories - Ranging from clips and bobbles you can add some extra when creating your avatar.

Avatars are a fun way to express yourself online. Many people use them for fun or to replace an existing picture. An avatar is an expression of a person but in fantasy, children and adults alike use these symbols and they will be around for a long while to come. I think the internet has brought these designs along and has made avatars what they are today.

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Create an Avatar Free - Make a Cartoon Character of Yourself

HOW TO MAKE 3D CHARACTERS :

Nowadays, being anonymous behind the computer is becoming the lesser preference as many people are more daring in letting their individuality show, whether through the use of real pictures or avatars. An avatar is an animated picture that is used to identify an individual in internet forums and chat boards. Creating an avatar is becoming a trend for many internet users especially with the elaborateness some websites that allows you to create an animated picture that looks exactly like you, for free.

Create an Avatar Free - Make a Cartoon Character of Yourself

There are lots of popular online websites that let you go wild in creating your avatars. To create an animated character of yourself for free, you will have to just go and visit those sites and follow the instructions given. A blank character should be visible in a box before you start creating one. To set the character at default, you can just click on a button and start experimenting with as many as 16 tabs which allow you to have your unique pick of hairstyles, eyebrows, and clothing. A single tab will offer you dozens of different choices so that you are able to create an avatar that looks exactly like you.

There are also some websites that allow you to create dynamic avatars for free for your personal use almost anywhere on the web. Some offer an easy method that does not use any Flash, ActiveX controls, downloads or toolbars. To create an avatar, you will only have to click on the 'create' tab at the homepage. You will be given the choice to select your gender, skin color and eye color of your own preference. As you click on the 'next' button, several options for expressions, hair and eyewear can be customized according to your taste. Every time a selection is made, you will notice changes in your picture. Once you are satisfied with your creation, you can save the animated picture onto your computer.

Creating an avatar is so much more fun and interesting today as you are able to have it look exactly like a cartoon version of yourself.

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New Year's Resolution - Teach Your Child How to Create One

HOW TO MAKE 3D CHARACTERS :

The tradition of creating a new year's resolution would be better if the parents are the ones who are teaching their children to create one for themselves, how to start the process and how to make it happen. But the first one that needs to be thought to a child are things that they want to improved from themselves.

New Year's Resolution - Teach Your Child How to Create One

The concept of this usually has a target result by the end of the year. The usual things that they want are to improve their relationship with their friends, family and peers.

First, ask your child what are the things that they want to improve: is it school achievement, their character, things they want to accomplish etc, once these are establish, as much as possible make the steps specific. For example read a book at least once a week or clean the bedroom every night before going to sleep. It is also import to make the terms as short as possible to accomplish things like to lose weight five (5) pounds per month instead of thirty (30) pounds per year.

The problem with having your terms too long is that the chances of becoming lazy is high and one may think that since there's still a lot of time, rescheduling of activities to a later time would be highly likely. That's why it's not realistic to make the terms too long.

Second, create a chart for every member of the family who was able to create their new year's resolution. Display it in front of your refrigerator so they can monitor their progress and inspire them to continue to achieve their targets.

Third, determine the specific time each week to talk about their progress and inform them if an adjustment needs to be done. Be sure to give praise for their achievements or give a little push if they need one.

Fourth, remember the milestones of each individual mark them with stickers or tape some coins on their chart. Visualization greatly helps children, they would surely enjoy putting stickers on their progress and reaching their targets slowly one by one.

Lastly, make sure this activity affects them in a positive way by choosing realistic targets and achieving it more or less, most especially to children.

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