Choosing the Right Game Engine

It’s been a while since the last post, well, hope this is going to change as I had quit my daily job and I am starting my own business, which is making video games !

As I said in the latest post, it is not easy to choose the game engine, developing everything from scratch or using an AAA framework.

There is a big difference in pricing models and the needed effort to get the job done, also, in the last two weeks, I have found an other problem: Does the game engine match your needs and your game design ?!

Video Games for Indies, part II

So, as promised, I’m going to discuss choices made as a new comer to Indie video games development.

Now let’s talk about video game engine and middle ware, Unity, Shiva 3D and UDK. I am not going to discuss in details the technical aspect of each engine or what each engine can and can not do, you can visit each middle ware site to get such information, but in term of capabilities, Unity and Shiva 3D are both useful when targeting multi-platform and hand-held devices, but UDK is the best choice when you want to develop some PC game with really awesome graphics and physics.

As an indie, one of the most important aspects is costs, and here is what I found:

Video Games for Indies, part I

Aloha !

It’s been a while since my last post, you can blame it on work ! It became a lot harder for me to find time and will to publish anything.

Whatever, last time I have talked about video game development, I have made a little technical study and I want to share with you my thought. I will not talk about game design/ideas, as this will be done on further posts.

To start making games, you need a game engine, the middleware and libraries needed to develop a game:

2010, 2011, Resolutions…

2011 -14mn

So, another year is passing by, it come with lot of changes and events,

The good one: i got my “Computer Sciences Engineering” diploma, I got a job, I met new friends, health is good, family is fine, I’m really grateful for that.

The downside : problems with girlfriends, at least I’m sure I’m not the one to blame,

Resolutions for 2011:

• Maintain what I already have and make it better
• Get more involved with video games creation
• Buy a saxophone, and learn how to play

Not a big list, just things I like to have/achieve… And No, I’m not talking about having a girlfriend or finding the “great love”, because, having good life style will make this a “side effect”, and this is better than searching and looking in vain

Well, 2011 -5mn

Happy New Year !!! And may you live happily forever after !

Past, Present and Future 2

Well, it’s been a long time, more than six months since my last post…

As you can see, I have updated my last post with some non useful informations, also, I think it may be a good time to have a little check-up…

So, December 22, Christmas is on the corner, another year is preparing to leave and a new one shows the “bout de son nez”, what more could I say…

Well, this is my fifth month on work, the start was a little bit messy (yeah, when you are new on the field, you “may” screw-up things), but now it is ok, of course it’s a big change from university, but I do not have enough time to feel/understand this, things are just cool, good workmates, good work environment… and I have to acknowledge, having salary is good too

Otherwise, the family is doing well, my elder brother is getting married next summer. Friends also are doing well, almost all of them are getting engaged, or even married, the season started the last month and will continue till next summer,

What else can i say… Well, nothing useful, thing got screwed up with the girl I’ve talked about on the last post, don’t really know why things went wrong, maybe it was my fault, maybe hers, maybe both, or i may just choose the simpler answer “we where not meant for each other…” Well, she is a good girl, wish her luck !

Least but not last, I recently saw pictures from an X open source / FOSS event, Damn ! Except few, Hell it was full of nerds ! Same faces, same subjects, same speech, nothing more, nothing less, no charisma, nothing… And they keep asking why FOSS is not strong in Tunisia ! I’m glad I did not turn into nerd too, I managed to keep my “coolness”

What can I say about future… Hope to score better at work, buy a new computer (i do not like computers that much, but mine is almost broken), buy a Saxophone, continue trying concepts with video games, and maybe finish a good one, do some useful things, and also, find a, or THE, good girl… It is not bad idea to have a good girl as a girlfriend, if I have lust and find someone who deserve it of course, no rush.

Last thing to add, well since my latest post, Duke Nukem Forever got back on the track, North Korea almost waged war against South Korea, Wikileaks published US embassies cables, Forest fires spread through Russia etc.

See you soon, and you shall not forget: “Always bet on Duke” !

Past, Present and Future

Hello everyone,

Well, this is a time to make a short stop, look backward, see what went right and what went wrong, where am I now, and what do I plan for the future.

Sometimes it is useful to look back at the choices made, feelings felt, people met etc. To be honest, I have no remorse concerning my professional life, I wanted to be a doctor, but then I have found IT more interesting, getting a job is easier, and, with fields such as video games, I have the possibility to express my creativity, and this is nice !

If I have something to regret, it is the fact that I have spent a lot of energy and time for the wrong people (yeah, I’m talkin’ about love), I don’t regret what I did, I don’t regret the action it self, I find it stupid, with no remorse. What I regret, or fear to regret, is the impact of such foolish things on my present and my future.

Never mind… we learn from our past and our mistakes, don’t repeat such things in the present, and hope the future will be alright !

Otherwise, for the present moment, everything seems to be cool, Thanks God, I have got my engineer diploma, I will start job August the 1st, my little brother succeeded his exams, I’m OK with my family and friends… and… I think I finally found the one, the real one…

She’s two year younger then me, she is adorable, I mean she is cute, intelligent, smart and, the most important, she knows what she wants.. I really like her, I do… She is lovely, and I really want to be with her :$

The future… what can I say about it… well, I have projects for the future, all I want for my project is to realize them in duo, not single…

That’s the point for now, sometimes later, I will do another check-up !

Updates: 1- Regrets are useless, 2- Yeah, it turned out to be “bla bla bla” bullshit thing…

5 Good reasons… for being Single

So, it’s the spring time again, and what happens in spring… new relationships, people gets in serious relations, they even “fall in love”…

Other ones, like my self, are alone, with no one to think about and no one who thinks about them. So they feel sad, they become envious to other ones who aren’t lonesome any more, they even think they’re out of luck…

Well, here’s five reasons why you shouldn’t bother anymore :

1- Freedom !

When you’re single, you’re free to do what ever you want. You can eat unhealthy food, ice cream, drink soda a lot… There’s no partner who will complain about your eating manners, about your weight gain (or loss)…

Also, when you walk on the street and you see some girl/boy you like, you can stare at her/him and no one will complain, or get jealous… You can flirt with anybody without being afraid of a partner catching you up !

2- Money !

Ask anyone who’s have a girl/boyfriend, engaged or married ones too, they will all complain about money, the lack of money indeed.

You keep all your money for your self, you don’t need to buy gifts, go to fancy restaurant once a month (at least !). If you think about getting married, you must save money for your wedding, for home loans etc, you can’t think about buying a BMW !

Also, no one will complain about you buying some thingy just for fun. Your money is yours, you can spend it on what ever you want, burn it, or, more interesting, you can save it for future use, the thing many “others” just dream about !

3- Peacefulness !

First part : “Where have been ?!”, “Who’s that girl you’re talkin’ to ?”, “I think you have many girls/boys friends !!”, “Why didn’t you call ?”, “I think you don’t love me anymore…”, and the list is very long…

The second part… I think you can figure this out.

We, singles, we don’t have such bothering, at night, we can sleep peacefully !

4- Health !

Life is a little bit hard, you have to think about work, money, family… If you add thinking about the “lack” of money, the lost freedom, the hassles etc, you will have a lot, really a lot of stress, not very healthy indeed.

Also, when you don’t need to spend time with a partner (or partner AND kids), you can do sports !

5- Future !

This is one of the most important points, when you’re single, you can think of building your future the way you like.

You think about immigrating to some foreign country, no partner will stop you.

You think about starting your own business… go on ! You don’t have to think about the kids future, or saving money for marriage and live with a partner,

And the list is still long…

Final note : I’m not against sharing your life with another person, loving each other etc, I will even write an article about good things for being engaged, but, if you’re still sailing alone, don’t blame your destiny, don’t get upset, it’s not your main goal to achieve… You still have your whole life to live, so live it at good !

Samsung and Open Source

From Phoronix.com

Announced via a small news post just minutes ago on the Enlightenment web-site that the project is working with “working with a top-5 electronics producer (one of the largest in the world, who produces millions of mobile phones, televisions, sound systems and more per year) to bring Enlightenment and especially it’s deep technology to their products.” In fact, this unnamed company is actively sponsoring the development of Enlightenment and the Enlightenment Foundation Libraries (EFL).

[...]

While their news post barely sheds any details, we have found out that this major manufacturer that is backing the Enlightenment project is Samsung Electronics. Some public confirmation of this can be found via this Trac change-log commit that introduces Editje, which is an edje file editor.

For those who don’t know what Enlightenment is, or E, well, it’s an open source desktop environment, like Gnome or KDE. The E file manager can be used in conjunction with Gnome or KDE, or it can be used as a whole desktop environment.

Read the whole article on Phoronix.com

Paul Allen diagnosed with cancer

According to a memo sent to Vulcan employees on Monday, Paul Allen, Microsoft co-founder, has been diagnosed with cancer.

Fellow Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates said he and his wife, Melinda, were keeping Allen in their thoughts.

“Melinda and I have Paul and his family in our thoughts and prayers,” Gates said in a statement. “Paul is among my closest friends, and I know to him be a strong and resilient individual.”

You can read the rest of the post on ZDnet.com

Fedora 12 Released

This is the last release of a major Linux distro for this year, Fedora 12, codenamed Constantine, has been released today.
In the menu we have improved performances, smaller (so faster) updates, the open Broadcom firmware (so some of the Broadcom wifi cards may work out of the box) and many other new features.
You can read the release announcement on the Fedora wiki, then don’t forget to grab your copy at FedoraProject.org !