It's been awhile since we've last posted a status update. The RTS Creator website is up and from here forward we'll be posting our dev progress here -
www.rtscreator.net
The beta has been officially released and can be downloaded here -
http://www.rtscreator.net/index.php?/files/file/4-rts-creator-beta/
3 years and 24 days ago we began developing RTS Creator. After 3 revisions and lots of research and rewrites we've finally reached a state of stability and functionality that allows anyone to create a Real Time Strategy game with no coding.
Thank you for all your support and we look forward to seeing you on the RTS Creator forums.
Saturday, December 7, 2013
Friday, July 19, 2013
Final Preperations
We're down to the final preparations before the initial release of RTS Creator!
Right now we're packaging up resources such as models and images, and finishing the web site!
RTS Creator will include a sample game "Genesys" that includes lots of models, objects, obstacles, and weapons so you can start remixing and modifying a full game.
We'll also be posting our roadmap with our future plans and feature releases.
Right now we're packaging up resources such as models and images, and finishing the web site!
RTS Creator will include a sample game "Genesys" that includes lots of models, objects, obstacles, and weapons so you can start remixing and modifying a full game.
We'll also be posting our roadmap with our future plans and feature releases.
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
Beta Released!
RTS Creator Beta! Thank you all for the continued support. Please follow the link to the blog post where you can download RTS Creator beta.
Tuesday, May 14, 2013
RTS Creator First Game
At 12 years old, I was incredibly inspired by Command and Conquer to create my own Real Time Strategy game. I had absolutely no game development experience and was surprised by the lack of software and tools available specific to creating real time strategy games.
A few years later I began learning how to program. I could not have been in for a bigger challenge. It takes awhile to learn how to program, it takes even longer to become good at programming. Of course, the first game I would try to create was an RTS Game. It was a sloppy ugly mess but the best I could do at the time.
RTS Creator has been in development for 3 years and undergone 7 revisions. The learning curve to produce a RTS game far exceeds that of the average person, and even if you have programming experience you're probably not going to get it right the first time.
After many years of wishing I had a product like this - I finally get to use it. We're creating our first game to eliminate any missing features and bugs we may run into. We then have a select few people that will beta test so we can knock out any bugs we may have missed.
We're looking to have our initial stable release May 20, 2013. We'll be revamping the site, there'll be a demo in the downloads section and the full version in the store. RTS Creator will cost $59.95.
A few years later I began learning how to program. I could not have been in for a bigger challenge. It takes awhile to learn how to program, it takes even longer to become good at programming. Of course, the first game I would try to create was an RTS Game. It was a sloppy ugly mess but the best I could do at the time.
RTS Creator has been in development for 3 years and undergone 7 revisions. The learning curve to produce a RTS game far exceeds that of the average person, and even if you have programming experience you're probably not going to get it right the first time.
After many years of wishing I had a product like this - I finally get to use it. We're creating our first game to eliminate any missing features and bugs we may run into. We then have a select few people that will beta test so we can knock out any bugs we may have missed.
We're looking to have our initial stable release May 20, 2013. We'll be revamping the site, there'll be a demo in the downloads section and the full version in the store. RTS Creator will cost $59.95.
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
9 And Counting Down
There are exactly 9 things left on our "to do" list before RTS Creator is "finished."
We've crammed a good number of features into the game creation tool and we believe it's a good starting point in order to asses what people like about it and what new features should be added.
This has been a 3 and a half year project and we're excited to see the light at the end of the tunnel. We plan on releasing RTS Creator at the end of March 2013, which will also include revamping the website to fully display the software's capabilities.
Even though we're releasing RTS Creator in the next month our plan is to continually make improvements and add features to make it a better product.
We've crammed a good number of features into the game creation tool and we believe it's a good starting point in order to asses what people like about it and what new features should be added.
This has been a 3 and a half year project and we're excited to see the light at the end of the tunnel. We plan on releasing RTS Creator at the end of March 2013, which will also include revamping the website to fully display the software's capabilities.
Even though we're releasing RTS Creator in the next month our plan is to continually make improvements and add features to make it a better product.
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
The Lean Startup Strategy
RTS Creator has been a 3 year work in progress and a much larger endeavor than we initially anticipated. We have been very rigorous in our development and testing techniques to ensure that every function and feature works flawlessly upon release.
This has been a great strategy to produce quality software though in retrospect it may be a great mistake.
With insights from the book "The Lean Startup" by Eric Ries we've decided to take a different approach from here till the release of RTS Creator.
Instead of spending many hours developing features that may not be used, we've decided to focus our efforts on just "finishing" RTS Creator. There may be some bugs, and there may be some missing features but in order to know if these features are truly missing, we want to hear it from our users.
The product we aim to build is the product the users want to use and seeing that there are no similar products to RTS Creator, this is both a highly experimental and niche market.
This has been a great strategy to produce quality software though in retrospect it may be a great mistake.
With insights from the book "The Lean Startup" by Eric Ries we've decided to take a different approach from here till the release of RTS Creator.
Instead of spending many hours developing features that may not be used, we've decided to focus our efforts on just "finishing" RTS Creator. There may be some bugs, and there may be some missing features but in order to know if these features are truly missing, we want to hear it from our users.
The product we aim to build is the product the users want to use and seeing that there are no similar products to RTS Creator, this is both a highly experimental and niche market.
Thursday, February 14, 2013
Newton Physics
One of the most challenging aspects of the RTS Creator engine has been path finding and ground unit movement. When we first started development, there was no collision system and the units moved like tanks in the original Command and Conquer.
This would be OK if we were inventing the first ever Real Time Strategy game, but this style movement is very old fashioned. To modernize the ground unit movement we've added the newton physics engine.
http://newtondynamics.com/forum/newton.php
The newton physics engine is an open source sdk that calculates physics very quickly. Ground units can now collide and push each other. This produces a much smoother movement that can be seen in more modern Real Time Strategy games.
This would be OK if we were inventing the first ever Real Time Strategy game, but this style movement is very old fashioned. To modernize the ground unit movement we've added the newton physics engine.
http://newtondynamics.com/forum/newton.php
The newton physics engine is an open source sdk that calculates physics very quickly. Ground units can now collide and push each other. This produces a much smoother movement that can be seen in more modern Real Time Strategy games.
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Making a Good RTS Game
As we're adding the final touches to the engine and fixing the last bugs our focus is beginning to shift when it comes to engine features.
It's cool when you can make an RTS Game with no coding or 3d modeling knowledge. But can you make an interesting game that people will actually want to play? What things about your game are captivating?
That great thing about the existing AI engine and editor is its more then just a Player AI engine but a Game AI engine. We're beginning to focus more on the Game AI aspect now, and what aspects of the game can be manipulated so you can add slick level briefings and debriefings, have a video screen display in the players HUD, and add more methods player interaction that make your game interesting.
As a teaser shot, here's a picture utilizing the newest features -
It's cool when you can make an RTS Game with no coding or 3d modeling knowledge. But can you make an interesting game that people will actually want to play? What things about your game are captivating?
That great thing about the existing AI engine and editor is its more then just a Player AI engine but a Game AI engine. We're beginning to focus more on the Game AI aspect now, and what aspects of the game can be manipulated so you can add slick level briefings and debriefings, have a video screen display in the players HUD, and add more methods player interaction that make your game interesting.
As a teaser shot, here's a picture utilizing the newest features -
- Level Size
- Level Texture
Sunday, January 20, 2013
Saving and Loading
The player can now save and load from within the game.
We have a few more changes that need to be made to the engine before we continue working on the editor.
Things have been progressing fantastically and as soon as we find a bug we resolve it.
As a teaser, here's a pic of the main editor in its current state!
We have a few more changes that need to be made to the engine before we continue working on the editor.
Things have been progressing fantastically and as soon as we find a bug we resolve it.
As a teaser, here's a pic of the main editor in its current state!
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