My work schedule should be slowing down in the next month or so as our project nears its end (for those of you who don't know, I am working on Blacklight: Tango Down at Zombie Studios http://www.playtangodown.com/). I am looking for ideas for a side project to work on, I have too many ideas, so I figure I should ask everyone who reads my blog to help me decide.
Here is the list of some projects that I would like to do.
1: a 2D game engine with 3D looking lighting and shadows
2: a shader management system (mainly so I can mess around with writing shaders only SM4.0 until I get a computer with one of those new NVidia cards that does SM5.0)
3: a physics engine (I could always use more math skills)
Those are the top three I can remember at the moment, I should really start writing these things down when I think of them. If you want to see me do one of these things, let me know by leaving me a comment. Or if you have an idea of something you would like me to work on please let me know I am open to suggestions.
Do all three. A 2d engine that utilizes shaders for cool lighting and shadow effects (might as well just avoid the fixed function completely with it) and has 2d physics.
ReplyDeleteI agree with this Aaron fella.
ReplyDeleteI'd suggest that you do NOT do all three. Focus tightly on one of them and drive it to completion. You can always smash stuff together later, but don't go into it with the goal of doing it all.
ReplyDeleteGonna go with Melcher on this one. Normally I'd tell people to focus on one thing, but I know you've already finished several projects before, so I say go for it. 2D shader lovin' physics havin' game of doom.
ReplyDeleteI think you guys are right, sorry Brother Dog. I can probably manage all three. I will probably start with getting a 2D system going image loading sprite animations and stuff without using the fixed function pipeline. Get going on some lighting and shadows and stuff after that, and then try to work in some 2D physics after the other two are completed.
ReplyDeleteI wont be trying to do all three at once, I will definitely start with number 1 which will involve me at least starting on number 2. Physics will definitely come last in this process, and there is a lot of shader stuff that I want to do outside of the 2D realm so I should plan to keep that modular so I can take it and use it elsewhere if I want.
I have programmed enough to not try and focus on the big picture of doing everything and making my awesome WoW killer MMO. I will tackle things one at a time and enjoy each small victory along the way. As well as hopefully learn some new stuff.