Moving from planning and concept design into actual development, and I’ve been doing some research about Blender and other tools that are commonly used for the arts and asset creation. And so I was wondering how much of all that is really necessary? If I choose to create my own original assets for everything from meshes, to characters, to landscapes, to sound effects without using any outside content, what tools would I need for a 3D First person game?
(I’m not planning to go all-solo btw, just wondering what tools to get or not get)
Opinions may vary as far as what exactly you need, but here’s my two cents:
At minimum, if you were hypothetically creating every asset on your own, you would need a full 3D creation suite, an audio editor, an image editor, and the game engine itself. Those four pieces of software should let you do pretty much anything. (Some humble suggestions: Blender is an excellent choice for 3D software, and will allow you to do all necessary rigging, sculpting, modelling, animating, UV mapping and so on. Audacity is a good audio editor, and GIMP is a good image editor, and both are free like Blender. And of course, UE4 is free and the bomb.)
That said, there are some non-essential tools that can greatly increase the speed and quality of your work. For example, I use a program called CrazyBump to make normal maps, specular maps, etc., which is incredibly helpful. Or for another example, many people prefer to use a dedicated program like Zbrush for sculpting. The benefit of any non-essential software will depend on your project specifically.
Anywho, hopefully that was at least a little helpful, and good luck with your project!