Content Creation

General Discussions
#1

In a few discussions I’ve seen people talk about the importance of content creation to writing good games. Is there a place for a content creation forum, where people can discuss how they have gone about creating models, animations, images, textures, scripts and whatever other elements are essential to the game but not necessarily a direct element of programming.

I thought at first that this would mostly fall into the “tools” section and then I thought there might also be automatic content generation techniques - fractal plants, landscapes and so on- and that might not. Finally I wasn’t really sure.

Perhaps it even goes with the neighbouring post and we have a “content & gameplay” section, to cover both.

Any thoughts?

#2

I like the idea.
It could be a place to post links to graphic and sound media that could be used for games as well as talking about how to create such stuff. E.g. techniques for using GIMP or Photoshop to biuld sprites, or suing MilkShape 3D or other modeling tools and 3D renderers like POV Ray for making slick looking shaded images without needed to be an expert artist.

Algorithms and techniques for landscapes, texture generation, random mazes or structured levels, placement of game elements like enemy bases, goals, etc. would also be good.

#3

yea i like that idea too :slight_smile:

btw i would like to have a nice map format like q3 bsp. it took me ages to get some mapping skills… and building a map editor like (gtk)radiant would take ages. a bunch of ppl wrote it and it has taken ages.

is there something similar, wich is free to use (even for commercial stuff)?

and hmm… “content” is a wide range of stuff. textures, sprites, sound-fx, music, models, maps/levels and leveldesign itself.

#4

It is a very big area, but it is also one that is not stricly java-related. The reason that I am a little doubtful about it as a section of its own or that maybe it should be lumped in with gameplay is that I much prefer having a few busy forums than a lot of quiet ones.

#5

Lots of things that aren’t strictly Java related can be included on the site. For those doing Java gaming it makes the site a more conveinent one-stop source of info… True that there are other sites that would be better sources for some info… but I think that in such cases links to external sites could still be posted in forums here.
I just like the idea that there is a place for thing here, even though it won’t be the most popular board for some topics.

#6

i might write a gimp or blender tutorial if i can find the time (not likely :confused: )

i use those programs for graphics and the best thing about them is that they are free. the second best thing about them is that they are good.

#7

While I love the idea of a place to discuss content creation, I am averse to adding yet another forum to the boards. As it stands, I find there are three or four forums which receive the vast majority of posts, while the rest are (at best) infrequently used. Perhaps a consolidation is necessary?

On the other hand, as mentioned earlier, “content” covers such a vast range of topics that perhaps enough posts will be generated to keep the forum from becoming stagnant. Bottom line: it’s certainly worth a try!