A new developer 95% of the time the work in UE4 will spend that many times it was set before him. He produce units, weapons, vehicles, equipment, the environment and more. It may take years. Why not give him all that he could to create the GAME ITSELF(what is new, original and interesting online mode, because it determines the essence of the game).
Why not give the novice developer:
Several types of gaming real estate(houses, bunkers, bunkers, hangars, sheds, fences, trees, grass, pavement, stones, etc.)
As procurement of the simplest and most basic of triggers, markers(to spawn a single person and groups, and their enemies),
sounds, parts of the interface, special .
I think are new-the developers gladly would have paid for such content as a full game, let’s say 30-40$.
A game engine provides you with all the tools you need to create a game, but does not include the assets, that part is up to you. The content for your game will not necessarily work well in another project, so it is very difficult to produce content can use.
If they did start including ready made content you will run into another, where do you stop once you start offering such content? At first you add items such as you suggested above, once that is done someone is going to ask for a different model of car/plane/whatever, they don’t like the ones that were created. This creates a never ending cycle of adding new content, not to mention needing to create assets for fantasy, FPS, sports, survival, low poly, racing, third person RPG, 2d, puzzle, etc etc. No matter how much they make it will never be enough for, every game has a different art style.
You can find plenty of content available on the Marketplace. Plus Epic already gives away a lot of content, check the Learn tab of the launcher, all of the assets in those example projects can be used in your own game for free.
There’s some free content available, but if you want the best results then you should make your own, there’s too much possibilities for variety that you would find something premade that you like for your uses, even then people will often recognize free assets and that lowers their opinion of the game.
Ok. If there are a lot of beginners developers created a full game, for example online shooter? If there is, please show me these games. I want to try to play them.
This questions is absurd, beginners doesn’t create full games, especially online shooters. On marketplace and in user created projects, there are a lot of parts of any basic game, you even have " Shooter" which is out of box online shooter.
Beginners are not doing complete games in UE4. Serious developers will not make games in UE4(because they write their own game engine). Then who’s doing a full game in Epic Games UE4? Maybe I don’t know, please show me these games?
There are a number of indie developers using UE4, like ARK and The Flame in the Flood, they are not AAA studios but they have experienced game developers.
As for AAA, there’s quite a lot of studios using UE4 rather than making their own game engine, like Street Fighter V, Final Fantasy VII Remake, Mortal Kombat X, Lawbreakers, etc.
Not all indies are alike. ARK was made by like 4-5 studios + outsourcing, working full time, and all that was funded. That’s quite different from a single indie (or even a small team) working on their game at spare time (after work; on weekends; etc.)
Yes, assets is what takes a massive chunk of time to produce. I too would like to see Epic licensing assets from UT3, Bulletstorm, Shadow Complex, Infinity Blade 2 and 3, etc. to indie devs so that they could either make games with new IP or spin-off using Epic’s IP. There are only a handful of companies who would do that, and it’s pretty sad.
I already see that people would say “oh, then all games would look the same” and no, it’s not the case. I see it as massive amounts of time and effort wasted once AAA games age. Take RAGE from ID or Doom 3 or UT3 from Epic. There is soooo much more can be done outside of the scope of original games using original content. There are a ton of devs who would love to do that. Everyone wins from such deal.
Unless it’s supposed to look like the other game, it will just look like you aren’t working hard enough on your game to make your own assets. The vast majority of the time, free assets and even paid marketplace assets are used poorly. Not that good things can’t be done with those assets, but usually the good projects that use them have a majority of custom assets.
I get in part your frustration at don’t have a good base of resources/samples/framework that can compete or have features of FPS games with features of the common AAA FPS from 2007 for example.
As I said this more times would be better a more realistic FPS sample with features from last 10 years games, cause for example the ShooterGame lacks of content and is not a good example at all only if you want use it to learn the C++ programming using UE4 but no as a clear base, there are other samples too as that one.
I think would be good to have a decent FPS sample that can compete with 10 years old FPS game features, something like what Cryengine offer, no idea why Epic Games after make many FPS don’t have a better FPS sample, the FPS sample from the launcher don’t even have crouch or prone functions. And UT4 is good reference for C++ too but don’t have nothing from the last 10 years games features and the source code is not under the same UE4 license.
Said that you can always start with a small project then evolve it until get something decent, (not talking about a super big FPS) but this will be the reply you will get in the common of the cases, the problem here is all the devs need to do the same base each time and no one give a clear public usable solution.
So, atm make sure start from the base with something basic then make bigger games or something.
This is a wasteful mentality. If you tried working on your own game, you know that it’s not realistic to make compelling experience in reasonable amount of time, even if you work full time on your game. It’s not about working hard. It’s about competing with other teams who managed to get funding they can spend on outsourcing. There a ton of games that have assets made from scratch and they are meh.
Existing assets can be modified, tweaked, re-textured to add variety.
A lot of great games / ideas die because devs didn’t have enough resources to build enough content. Having quality content that can be used in variety of ways not only help indies to grow and make money, but also would generate more income for Epic.
I don’t see how you don’t see it.
Well, the only ones who are at fault are devs who can’t use them properly. That doesn’t mean such assets should be available to others, who could apply it correctly.
You clearly need to start making FPS to see that simple base is anything but simple :eek:
If you try building a vertical slice of an FPS game, you will see that’s a massive undertaking. If you want 1 gun, 1 ammo, and 1 AI to shoot it, it’s still a major undertaking and might be not as fun at the end. Assuming you need to generate income to pay bills, eat, etc. that’s not the route you want to take.
That’s why I am saying it’s better be able to use existing assets to fill 99% of your game and focus on story or/and gameplay to make starting point from which you can grow into sequels where you use more and more custom content than try to go all out and have 99% of custom, made from scratch content and never finish your game, or end up ruining your health working 24/7 and still not making good enough project to make up all the investment you made into it.
I know man, I just talking to him about pretty basic solution in the middle of FPS template - ShooterGame, I know is pretty hard, after work with other engines ID Tech and Call of Duty engines and check the script any modder can see how hardcore is that part of define weapons, animations, bullet logics etc.
But yeah i made a very simple logic since is the only i can do ^^
*By The way i not talk about assets, but about the logics, framework in the background as you said, triggers, AI, weapons, movements, cameras and network systems. (Code core side basically)
And tbh i don’t even see a good C++ FPS framework in the marketplace. (Or a system I see can help me with my needs)
You’re not necessarily competing with anyone, if your game is good and it takes a certain amount of time/effort to get the results you want, then that’s what it takes. The majority of games that rely on free assets are not good games, often they are done by people who don’t really know what they’re doing. There’s a massive number of games like that on Steam which is actually a big problem. The result of that is that people have a negative view of games that use those types of assets.
It’s bad news for people who have skills in other areas but just need the content, but that’s what happens. I think though that would prefer to have their game with custom assets and looking the way they envisioned rather than trying to scrounge through free assets to find something that looks passable.
If Epic were to release more assets from past game projects (probably can’t due to copyright or other legal issues) then the most likely result would be a lot of inexperienced people releasing terrible games, or nothing. It probably wouldn’t be worth the effort for them to do that.
I take it you haven’t gone through the process of making a game and taking it to the market
Putting certain amount of effort and time is not what it takes to get results. It’s a small part of the whole process. It takes only that to make a good mod for existing games. Commercial game devs is a way, a way different.
So, you think Epic Games makes “passable” content?
I am not talking about folks making stuff for market place and devs just grabbing things that might fit the bill and using them as is. I am talking about assets from games Epic made in the past.
Which doesn’t matter, because people who will manage to use the assets to make good games will prevail and reap the benefits. Everyone has to start somewhere and nowadays starting from scratch usually leads nowhere, unless you have time, money, connections in the industry and money to go to trade shows. A talented (even half-talented) individual/team without those things I just mentioned is doomed. So, it’s a way more interesting and better to use existing high quality assets to put something cool together in short period of time, than spend years of your life trying to build everything unique and fail. If you spend 6 month and fail, not a big deal. If you spend 3-5 years and fail, that’s a big ouch. Note that while you are working on your secret awesome games and hitting your N-year in development, some AAA company can come and sweep a rug from under your feet - everyone have ideas and great minds think alike. It’s just a question of how much resources can one or another dedicated to complete the same (or very similar) vision.
Not sure what you mean. Pretty sure you need to put in the time and effort to make something successful. If you have a vision for a game, you should work to try to make that happen, rather than being concerned about getting something out really fast. I’d much rather see a game take an extra year and have custom assets than to see a game rushed out using free assets.
What I mean by passable is that while the assets might be high quality, it doesn’t fit what you would like if you were able to do a custom asset so you have to choose from the limited free choices available. The asset might not be quite the right style that you’re looking for. Epic has lots of high quality assets, but they are Unreal Tournament or Bulletstorm assets and they don’t necessarily fit with other stuff.
Game development isn’t easy, you’ll have a much greater for success by doing a good job rather than trying to rush something out that isn’t done well. You’re not going to be successful just because you can get a game out quickly. I know I wouldn’t be interested in buying a game that used UT3 assets and was made in 6 months.
For a few hundred dollars, you can buy a number of characters (military and otherwise,) weapons (modern and medieval and sci-fi,) sounds (music, explosions, ambient, footsteps, …) and environments (indoors, outdoors, a variety of climates and biomes.)
Is the complaint here that the assets that are available on the marketplace are not free? If so, it turns out that equipment rental is not free for film makers, and cutting tools are not free for machinists, and seed corn is not free for farmers.
My original game was a success to me. It took more than 3 years to make (part time mostly) and it doesn’t have massive amount of assets. As a matter of fact, most textures came from then-CG Textures and free texture packs.
If I could use UE4 and existing assets, I would spend a way less time making the game, and since I could focus more on level/mission design, the game would be more fun and even more successful.
It’s a simple as that - there are some crappy games out there that made millions, simply because of clever PR and design aimed at YouTubers/Twitchers. Working hard and putting effort into something, whether it’s game dev or anything else, does not guarantee achieving your goal (unless you goal is to simply finish what you started).
Like I said, putting effort into anything you do is part of the deal. As if using existing assets counts as not putting effort. You are going to put effort into other parts of the game. There are plenty of games with nice visuals and mediocre everything else. It’s not because devs were not putting effort. It’s because they put a lot of effort into assets, and didn’t have time to do the same to the rest of the game.
As for Epic assets not fitting the game, it’s up to you whether you set your mind on making Disney-like cute kids’ game usign Bulletstorm assets, or you are flexible enough to make a game about something more grim.
You wouldn’t know what the game is about by just seeing UT3 assets and knowing about short development cycle o.O Small puzzle game can take 6 month production time and be great. Hell, Deus Ex HR took only about 1 year in production and 2-something for pre-production. But that’s AAA team, with money and manpower. Indie can focus on substance of the game and not worry about assets much.
Anyhow, it doesn’t seem that you are grasping the idea and dead set on only one way of making good games. No need to reply to this post.
The biggest with any assets whether it’s free or in a marketplace is that it’s most likely not quite what you’re looking for
I think marketplaces are mostly useful for stuff like gameplay scripts and systems which can be really difficult to figure out. For instance, Speedtree is great because while a 3D artist could make a nice looking tree, Speedtree adds a lot more things that allow you to customize it and control things like quality and add wind and stuff like that.
