hey there all fellow code monkeys and game devs alike. The names Luke “Fisty” Davenport and I’m here to say hello :). . hmm… redundancy…
Anywho I’m an intermediate Java programmer with python and limited C++ experience as well, and i have a burning passion and desire for making games, designing games, analysing games, etc. etc.
I’m from Australia and i study games and entertainment design full time and I’m my off time i make games 
(personal projects that is) and after looking around for about 96324978467389568479023749723.6756345 years for a decent engine that uses java i had me a nerdgasm when i found Jmonkey, and urban galaxy s what REALLY caught my eye
(looking at making an rts with similar control and look and movement sometime), and form then i decided that i was going to commit myself to stick with Jmonkey.
after a few growing pains with learning to use the SDK (still floundering quite a bit to be honest), and reading + running + trying to understand every example i can find I’m slowly patching together what will be my first full 3d game that i hope to make (quite possible solo).
i don’t want to give too much away about the concept, but think terraria. I realised pretty early on that that voxel worlds seem to be being made by every dev and his/her dog these days, so it isn’t about making epic marvels and what not it’s a survival rpg/town builder. but like terraria. in 3d. well that’s enough for you >.< you’ll see more as it comes and i hope to make some great friends as i attempt to become part of this active, amazing community you have building around such a great project.
tl;dr:
derpy newfag game dev makes another minecraft clone.
Welcome to the community fisty. Bear in mind, “voxel worlds” are not as easy to make as it may seem. Simple as cubes may be, they’re not that easy to render efficiently once they’re in the thousands. Best of luck to you though!
i’ve hit that snag and got around it already, this is done by limiting the amount the player see’s, as soon as i get the textures right i’ll put up a few videos, and i am NOT going for a minecraft clone :), take a look at terraria : terraria.org, for a idea on the maximum outward zoom the player has (i feel like they really got it right) and the game is played as a 3d sidescroller.
Ooooh, you’re actually doing a side-scroller. That changes a lot 
I’m familiar with Terraria, but I figured you would be borrowing from its style of terrain manipulation; I didn’t realize you were going to mimic it’s camera style as well. That’s really cool though, I’m definitely looking forward to those videos.
So is yours a side scroller, too but in 3D?
Just remember… when rendering block worlds in 3D (even if only side-scrolling) you aren’t rendering blocks but visible faces. Even if you limit zoom, etc., that optimization will save you thousands and thousands of triangles to render.
we don’t have a website up yet that’s viewable to the public, but I’m part of the south Australian games makers association, and our view on optimisation is this “1. get it working. 2. get it working properly. 3. get it working fast”. and I’ve had a tinker with minecraft’s source code and he does some mean vertex buffering, a bit beyond me at the moment because I’ve only really done 2d stuff, it’s an adventure, i will be honest 
i’m also a hard logic/design guy so i think a few months later and after a growing myself a hefty neckbeard i’ll be able to get my head around it.
and yes, a 3d sidescroller
You made a typo. There, I corrected it.
fisty said:
"1. get it working. 2. get it working properly. 3. get it working fast". 4. make it work even faster.
;)
Oh lol, there are actually schools for game design??!
@fisty, where do you study and what faculty is this?
InShadow said:
Oh lol, there are actually schools for game design??!
Heh, yeh man, they're popping up all over the place these days. Check out this list if your interested (and start a new thread if you want to discuss this further).
http://www.gamecareerguide.com/schools/
I'm personally enrolled in the game design course at the Vancouver Film School. Lots of both good and bad to be said about it.
A quick note on Game Design schools. John Carmak said during QuakeCon that there are very few good of those schools in the US, so if anyone wants to enroll, better do your homework and search first. Look for people that are/were part of the gaming industry (coders, artists) and not some unknown know-it-all professor out of nowhere. Look the professor’s credentials first and foremost.