Ange Andrianavalona. Author, Illustrator, Painter

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Photo by Jazzmasterson

Some quick news about the current progress of the template :
I am completely rewriting it.

As I was adding new features to the template, I noticed that it became hard for beginners to understand and update it themselves later.
The 2.49 version of blender introduced a lot of things that can improve the template.
I want that template to be effective, light, a good learning resource for the beginners, compatible with 2.49 and making the best use of it.

Here is a bit of what I want to modify/improve :

• I want to make a better use of objects’s properties, global dictionary, and messages.
• There is no need for a message actuator anymore : sendMessage(subject, body, to, from) is what I was expecting.
  I will use it to clean the armature control system.
  I want to ‘disconnect’ a lot of objects and make a wide use of messages.
• The new ‘Tap’ sensor’s option will help a lot. No need for extra property to check if a key was pressed/released or not.
• There is this new « Sensor » object type that can help for getting rid of those extra rays that are checking if the player is grounded or not.
• I wanted to clean my scripts : I needed to learn a bit more of programming,, make a better use of functions, etc…
• I would like to add GLSL visual effects

Links :

• BGE DEV: New « Sensor » physics object for advanced collision management : thread on the BlenderArtists forum
  Blendiac provided a example .blend file
• 2.49 demo files

My ToDo List is much longer than that.
And this is pleasure to work on it.

Voilà!

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Coming soon

Third person template for the Blender Game Engine

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// This page is avaible through the following link : www.bge.aandria.com //

Description |  Features |  Screenshots |  Download |   Credits |  Controls |  Level Submission |  Support

Game Blender is a sub-application of Blender, the popular open source 3D application, used to make games using Blender.
The Blender Game Engine is growing fast and is now one of the best prototyping tool available (pre-production, short demos).
It is free and open source, appropriated for the development of indie games, and benefits from a strong and fast-growing community.

That template that I have developed and released really makes it easy to produce a quick and cost-effective materialization of your ideas.
If you have any doubt about its possibilities, please consider downloading and giving it a try.

News

11.04.2009
The AAA Game Company Twilight 22 project to Develop BGE Into A Full Production Game Engine chose the 3rd person template to build out their game further.

This news is really exciting because the (very talented) team members and I will work together to contribute to the future of that template, push it a step further and make it available for the community.

Until then, you can already enjoy the current version that brings a lot of new features.

Using the Blender Game Engine as a prototyping tool

The Blender Game Engine is the perfect prototype or even full production toolsf for commercial Indie games (platformers, casual games, etc…).

Features

• All in one package (model / sculpture / texture / animation / scene / logic editor)
• Cost-effective (fast and easy to use, that means quick prototyping and feedback, gain in terms of productivity)
• Bullet physics engine
• Reliable modeling/texturing tool
• Strong community (support, help, feedback)

The Blender Game Engine can also be used for :

• educational software with interactive 3d- to learn chemestry, physics etc
• architectural visualizations
• simulations for TV news
• military projects – simulators
• small 3D visualisations

Hire me

If you are interested in a better insight into the use of this game engine template for prototyping your or your clients incoming projects, don’t hesitate to contact me. This includes character designs and illustration requests. I am also available for remote work.
Apart from working with the Blender Game Engine, I’m a published writer, illustrator, character designer, and consultant in creativity.
And, you know what?

Educational resource

I have developped and released that Third person template for the benefit of indie developers, and the Blender community.
It is intended for both beginners to use for educational purposes (logic basics, introduction to Python, flexible settings control…) and advanced users as a production tool.
I hope it will help artists to continuously push themselves to create more creative and complex work.

Note : The graphical aspect was not the main objective of this template’s development process.
The character and platforms are just used to provide a working example : neither modeling/texturing nor animation was polished.
Also, this is a work in progress so a lot of things can still be cleaned and improved (scripts, logic bricks).
Please take that in consideration.

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photo by Matthias Mehldau

A quote from Steven Poole on his article Free Your Mind : On writers, ‘digital rights management’, and the internet.
Steven Poole has made the experience of giving away his new book as a free PDF download.
He shares the results, his thoughts, pros and cons of this system for content providers.

- – -
Summary of the results : poor results in terms of revenues, good results in terms of publicity
…Clearly this is not any kind of business plan. Still, some people insist that all creative work ought to be given away like this. Several idealistic types in the comments here welcomed my giveaway as reflecting the true spirit of the free dissemination of knowledge. Although I quite admire this sentiment as a utopian principle, I have some problems with it in the real world. Because, you see, this is what I do for a living.

Although I dislike the word “professional”, hostage in this day and age to multifarious abuses, I am a professional writer, in the sense that writing, and only writing, is what puts a roof over my head and food in my mouth.2 As one commenter here suggested, maybe it’s the term “copyright” itself that rubs people the wrong way: perhaps reactions would be different were it changed to “righttoeat”.

If the breathless advocates of “the free distribution of ideas” are serious, they need either a) to come up with a realistic proposal as to how I am to keep feeding myself while giving the fruits of my labours away for free; or b) come out and say honestly that they don’t think any such thing as a “professional writer” ought to exist, and that I should just get a job like anyone else.3 In a way, I’d respect people who came out and said the second thing. What I don’t respect is people who can’t see that those are the choices.

Read more on Steve Poole’s blog

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