Oh, the things we're learning.
At this point in the production, we've taken a step back and re-evaluated what we're doing. One of the most evident take-aways so far: Good games take a long time to make. We're about 3 months into this thing and, while we've made huge progress, we're still a fairly long way from completing the game and its Learning Flow. Therefore, over the last month we've transitioned the artists (me, Tim, and Jonathan Lampel) from 100% game production to about 25% game production, 75% education production. Because man, have we learned a ton along the way. Personally, I've not learned this much new stuff, in a new context in a long time. It's been an absolute blast. So while it's fresh, we're eager to get the initial game asset courses recorded so we can share with you ASAP!
- Designing the Robot - Tim is wrapping up a course about designing the game's robotic character. By the way, if you have any name suggestions that's cooler than "The Robot" please post a comment!
- Normal Mapping Primer - This conceptual Blender course from Lampel is almost ready for release. It's littered with valuable tips about baking high-quality normal maps for games.
- Building the Robot with Blender - I'm in the middle of recording this beefy course. It's a culmination of the workflow I used to build the game's robot. The character is complex and the course will be full of intricate techniques.
Game Progress
While we artists are currently only 25% devoted to game production, Jonathan Gonzalez (Gonzo) is still full force!
The past few weeks have been quite a challenge. We've been working on getting our robot character into Unity with animations from Blender. Getting them to work properly was a bit of a hassle at times. Certain bones would rotate and/or we'd get weird subtle movements in the animations due to the humanoid rig we created. IK control in Unity was also something I wanted to include as it opened up the opportunity for more procedural movements such as dynamic aiming or even just crazy poses such as shooting your gun in the air. I've also been working on the weapons. While the final models are being finished in Blender, I was able to develop weapon functionality with proxy geometry. It's neat to see animations, muzzle flashes and, general weapon mechanics coming together. -Gonzo
One thing Gonzo didn't mention was the online multiplayer work he's been doing! We have dreams of hosting the game online so you guys can take a break between courses to face off against us, the CGC Crew. How cool would that be?! This past week we successfully tested the possibility - a first for us!
THE ROBOT IS FINISHED!
You may have noticed in the video that the robot has textures now. That's because it's done! Game-res model and PBR textures are complete:
i wanted to build a robot in blender for so long, glad cg cookie is putting a course out involving it
Bipedal Intelligent Locomotive Lutador (B.I.L.L.). Looks like fun.
This is really cool. I can't wait.
Hey, I like what your doing. If you interested in naming the "Robots", here are a few things to think about. Based on the industrial, yet colorful, design, I would guess these robots are some sort of commercially made war-toys. In light of this, it would be wise to name them something appealing to the ear so that consumers (in the game world) would be more likely to purchase them. Also, I get this happy non-competitive feel from your work, so I would name your robots something lighthearted and happy. My personal suggestion would be something like "Battle-Buddies".
Keep up the good work and I hope it turns out all right.
Overall this looks amazing. Not only am I excited to work through the course, but if you guys decide to host a multiplayer event, you can certainly count me in!
Hey cool name suggestion - Thanks! We've mentioned body fragmenting potential but haven't tried implementing yet. It would a be a fun effect for direct rocket hits.
LOOKIN SNAZZY! I like the little faces you gave the robots. I am not sure if the intention is for them to show emotions like emoticons or not but that could be fairly entertaining.. He could be known as "rEmoticon".. I am also curious to know if you are going to implement a robot body fragmenting element where body parts can be blown off. I know that these things take tons of time to create so keep up the good work! Very exciting!
Oooo I'm liking your name ideas! Don't want to take Kenji if it's your mech anime name. But CR17 has a great ring to it. Thanks for the suggestions!
Looking very Nice Kent and Team. Always good to see you guys at work. Give us motavation for sure.
The Robot Names.
Kenji (mech anime name of mine)
CR17 = ( Cookie Robot series 17(2017)), This will allow for upgrades to the robot to be called CG17.2 ect when members recreate the robot into their own version for the game or when you sir want to create a new robot.
We appreciate the enthusiasm, John! Very encouraging :)