Would love to make a game in Source, how do I start?
15 replies, posted
Pretty much what the title says. I've been wanting to make a game for ages now, especially in Source. I don't care if it's a mod, I just want to be part of a big project and develop something.
I'm not just some "Ideas Guy". I've got skills in 3D modeling and I've dabbled a little bit in animation, I've done texture editing and I consider myself decent at texturework in Photoshop. Problem is, [U]Source itself is still a pretty big mystery to me[/U]. I've tried to get into it before but it's always been confusing. [U]And I know that everyone always says "There's lots of tutorials out there", and I have read a few, but they've all been confusing[/U]. I feel like what I really need is some live interaction with people who have actually been working with Source for years who can teach me and answer my questions rather then having to flip through a hundred tutorials just to find the one reference to something I can't figure out.
I want to make an action/adventure puzzle/platformer type game, like Portal, Tomb Raider, or Zelda. Those have always been my favorite types of games and I would love to do something like that. Can Source be used to make a game like that? I know Source can't be used for big open worlds, and I'm fine with that, Linear games can be fun, too.
On top of that, should I wait for Source 2 to come out? Which game would work best as a starting point to Mod, if that ends up being the case? Who should I be talking to to find people who'd be interested in working with me/people I'd like to work with?
Get together a portfolio, it might help.
You need proof of your works before anyone will "hire" you.
Bingo, portfolio site right here, man.
[url]http://patronr.wix.com/otakuwithashotgun[/url]
Really I would wait until Source 2. A vanilla SDK platform will probably come out sometime in mid-late 2015 and Source is waaaay behind industry standard.
True, but I still need to start talking and meeting other developers, other people who have developed content.
I wouldn't use Source at all, even Source2 looks damn outdated already... You should try Unreal Engine 4 or Unity.
1. Source2 inside Dota2 is slow and very limited. It's drops a lot of fps at some areas.
2. While working with Source1 you have to change too many things to make something nice looking, and I don't see any changes in Dota2's version of Source2.
3. A lot of awesome mod makers and game developers already moved over CE, UE4, U5 engines, and Source community is quite dead.
4. Valve's support is bad and slow.
A big part of why I wanted to use Source is because of my love for Gmod, etc. If I make a game I want to make the content available for people to use in Gmod. Making a game in Source would make that a lot easier.
Trust me, you don't want to use Source. Hammer is very outdated and handles quite differently to more modern editors and is very inefficient at actually creating things. All the optimisation brushes and entities are unneeded in other engines which makes that whole process completely obsolete. The editor crashes all the time (unless you are using the csgo one, that has never crashed on me) and everything is needlessly hard. In unreal, there is a template brush for stairs. In source, to properly make optimised stairs, it'll take you 10 minutes if you aren't experienced and aren't using a prefab. Lighting is very much guess and check since there's no in-engine window and vrad takes ages for a large scene. The engine itself hates large open areas and is very different to modelling programs, whereas Source 2's hammer (or more specifically, the Dota 2 alpha hammer) is very similar to modelling programs, so you won't have to learn an entire new interface when many of the functions should be similar. The material system is text-based and is fairly limited compared to unreal. The need to avoid leaks and optimise the skybox is gone in other engines not using bsp.
I would not recommend learning source 1 tools right now with a new engine on the horizon and many vastly superior options available right now. As much as I like to map, it frustrates me how much of source engine mapping is guess and check.
If you still really, really, REALLY want to map for source for some strange reason (I am certain a garrys mod clone will appear for source 2 if garrys mod doesnt come to source 2 itself), I recommend tophattwaffle's tutorials. He made de_facade for csgo which is in the current operation. 3kliksphilip gets a lot of disapproval here, but I find that a lot of his content is good for quickly getting the grasp of using a particular entity without having to sit through a 10 minute video. ALthough you'll have to go through his channel since a lot of his stuff these days is csgo oriented and not hammer oriented.
The creators of Age of Chivalry didn't move to UDK to create Medieval Warfare for no reason.
[QUOTE=Ryu-Gi;46664646]A big part of why I wanted to use Source is because of my love for Gmod, etc. If I make a game I want to make the content available for people to use in Gmod. Making a game in Source would make that a lot easier.[/QUOTE]
Ripping models from other games is not that hard as it was before, so my guess it won't be an issue for gmod community. And as others suggested you should really look into Unity or UE4, or better yet just improve in a field you feel most comfortable.
The only solution to get shit done is working on it.
[QUOTE=Nicolas;46659808]I wouldn't use Source at all, even Source2 looks damn outdated already... You should try Unreal Engine 4 or Unity.
1. Source2 inside Dota2 is slow and very limited. It's drops a lot of fps at some areas.
2. While working with Source1 you have to change too many things to make something nice looking, and I don't see any changes in Dota2's version of Source2.
3. A lot of awesome mod makers and game developers already moved over CE, UE4, U5 engines, and Source community is quite dead.
4. Valve's support is bad and slow.[/QUOTE]
Dota 2 isn't Source 2 yet.
A lot of people seem to be speaking out against using Source. I can understand that, as I'm well aware that it is severely outdated. Still, I would like to see how Source 2 turns out to be before completely dismissing it. In the meantime, though, I'm open to trying out Unreal or whatever.
Still, I really want to get in contact with people working on game development projects. I want to talk to them, learn about how the process really goes, etc. I want to show lots of people who work on games professionally my portfolio so I can get feedback about what needs to be improved, etc. (Because I know with absolute certainty that it needs improving...)
If I do end up making a game in another engine then I hope to at least provide working models from my game in an official addon for Gmod/SFM and the like. Maybe work with a mapper to make some maps based off the environments from my game.
That aside, I don't even care if I'm not working on "my own game" yet, I just want to start working with people.
[QUOTE=Ryu-Gi;46673352]A lot of people seem to be speaking out against using Source. I can understand that, as I'm well aware that it is severely outdated. Still, I would like to see how Source 2 turns out to be before completely dismissing it. In the meantime, though, I'm open to trying out Unreal or whatever.
Still, I really want to get in contact with people working on game development projects. I want to talk to them, learn about how the process really goes, etc. I want to show lots of people who work on games professionally my portfolio so I can get feedback about what needs to be improved, etc. (Because I know with absolute certainty that it needs improving...)
If I do end up making a game in another engine then I hope to at least provide working models from my game in an official addon for Gmod/SFM and the like. Maybe work with a mapper to make some maps based off the environments from my game.
That aside, I don't even care if I'm not working on "my own game" yet, I just want to start working with people.[/QUOTE]
You could try to make some models pack and release it on Unreal Engine 4 Marketplace, that would be a great start. You can also sell your models there.
[QUOTE=Nicolas;46659808]I wouldn't use Source at all, even Source2 looks damn outdated already... You should try Unreal Engine 4 or Unity.
1. Source2 inside Dota2 is slow and very limited. It's drops a lot of fps at some areas.
2. While working with Source1 you have to change too many things to make something nice looking, and I don't see any changes in Dota2's version of Source2.
3. A lot of awesome mod makers and game developers already moved over CE, UE4, U5 engines, and Source community is quite dead.
4. Valve's support is bad and slow.[/QUOTE]
OP; if you go for UE4, github will give you an 8 year license/subscription for free
[editline]9th December 2014[/editline]
[QUOTE=Nicolas;46675806]You could try to make some models pack and release it on Unreal Engine 4 Marketplace, that would be a great start. You can also sell your models there.[/QUOTE]
also try making low-effort low-poly models for second life, those sell way too easily
I was invited to join development on the mod "Terminus" as a modeler. We'll see how this goes.
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