i am a beginner at this so i need some opinions. first off should i really buy this program or are there better ones out there? and second what game would be a begginer game and pretty easy to make? (like a Quake 3 or Half Life?)What was your first games like?
thanks for your time and help.
Matt

Hi Matt,

I'm speaking on experience here. I have looked on the net for 3D game creation software before, and most of what you'll find is mostly just 3D game engines that require that YOU do all of the programming in C++, or VC++. I dabbled in both and unless your good in trig, it's really not worth the manhours it would take to create a game from scratch.

Now, when I came across 3D gamestudio, I was amazed. No other product out there can match it in it's ease of use. You don't even have to program unless you want to. And even at that, WDL is pretty easy to pickup.

The easiest game to make would be a simple 3D shooter (like half-life or quake) to start out with because there are allot of functions already written for them. Such as weapons, charactor movement, etc., So you could just put the game together in one afternoon. Check out the 3D gamestudio home page and read up on it. It's awesome!!!

thanks for the help but is it really that easy to make a quake 3 game in one afternoon? and could someone please sennd me a sample script of a quake like game i want to see how much coding i need to learn. thanks,
Matt

Hi Matt, no you won't make Quake in an afternoon! You can make the simple game in the tutorial in that short of a time. But an actual game will take a lot more planning, artwork and strategy to design levels, gameplay and so on. This is all above and beyond just what the engine does. Yes you can make a game like Quake or Half-Life, it just may take you 6 months to a year. My current project may not be finished till the end of summer.

[This message has been edited by mbee (edited 09 April 2001).]

Hi Matt,
Half-life / Quake shooters are probably the the easiest to make with A4 because of the many prefabricated scripts. The key thing, however, is level design. If you've got great graphics, but crap for levels, you wont have a very worth-while game.

The level editor is all you could ever ask for (well... close at least )! Creating levels is easy once you get used to it.
Should you buy it? ABSOLUTELY!!

My current game is a shooter called 'Delirious', which is also my first game to get past the concept stages

---You can also d/l the 30-day trial version at http://www.conitec.net/a4update.htm

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-Dan Niezgocki aKa NizZy
Founder of NizZyWare productions