Game character modeling for game engine developers

For the past week, I have been working on a demo for the game engine. I have not written a single line of code. Instead, I have been modeling game characters and game environments for the demo.

Contrary to what you may believe, game engine development requires some artistic skills. As someone who has been doing this for the past three years, I can say that game engine development is 75% coding, 25% game asset modeling.

I learned this fact the hard way. In the beginning, I bought game characters and tried to render them with my primitive engine. It didn't go so well and spent hours trying to figure out the problem. Against my will, I was forced to learn 3D modeling tools such as Blender. As I learned 3D modeling techniques, Computer Graphics concepts started making sense. As a result, I was able to improve the engine and know its limitations.

There are plenty of 3D modeling tutorials, videos, etc., online. Unfortunately, their target audience is game-artist students. As an engineer, it was a bit hard to follow. The other issue that I encountered is that these tutorials don't focus on low-polygon characters. Instead, they focus on high-polygon characters which mobile devices can't handle. This is a problem since my game engine targets mobile devices.

Recently I found three amazing low-polygon modeling tutorials written by Karan Shah.

Karan teaches you, step by step, how to model a low-polygon character. (I'm currently using this modeling techniques in the second engine demo.)

Modeling a low polygon character

Karan also shows you how to unwrap a character and add texture to it.

Unwrapping a low polygon character

Finally, my favorite tutorial is where he shows you how to model a low-polygon game scene. I ended up using his techniques in the first engine demo.

Modeling a low polygon scene

I hope these tutorials helps you as much as they helped me.

I wish I had found these tutorials when I started developing the engine.

Understanding Git commands visually

In the next six months, I'm planning to release the engine as an Open Source project.

Am I excited? Hell Yeah!

Am I prepared? No! The game engine will be my first open source project.

There are so many things I don't know about managing an open source project. Technically, I think I will do OK. Management-wise, I have no idea. I ended up buying this book from Amazon: Producing Open Source Software. Hopefully, it helps.

To manage an Open Source project (I believe) you need to have strong Git skills. I don't feel that I do. Of course, I know the familiar commands like add, commit, checkout, merge. But I don't know it good enough to manage an open source project.

The best way I learn is through visuals and hands-on. Luckily, I found two fantastic sites that teach Git visually and interactively. I have played around with their tutorials for about three days, and they have helped a lot.

The first site is by Wei Wang. The site has an interactive terminal, and after typing a Git command, you get to see Git in action.

The second site is LearnGitBranching. It is very similar to Wei Wang site, but it has more tutorials, more Git commands, and nicer visuals.

If you are a visual learner, you need to check out these sites. I believe you will learn a lot from these sites.

Try to design user-friendly APIs

One of the goals of an API developer is to make the API user-friendly. Your public API should be compact and intuitive. It should provide enough information to start development without the need to read the whole manual.

The game engine is the first API that I have ever developed. As I used the API in several demos, I realized that the API's naming convention was not user-friendly. It didn't inform the user when and where to use certain functions. For example, the Collision Response of a character depends on its inertia tensor, center of mass, etc. These properties should be set in the initialization routine. So instead of using the "set" keyword as shown below:

void setInertiaTensor();
void setCenterOfMass();

I hint the user to use these functions in the initialization routine by prefixing it with the "init" keyword:

void initInertiaTensor();
void initCenterOfMass();

Also, the API did not indicate whether a function enables a behavior or property. For example, Collision Detection is a behavior that can be enabled, paused and resumed. In contrast, a character's name is a property that is set to a value. So instead of using the keywords "set" and "disable" as shown below:

void setCollision();
void disableCollision();

I hint the user that the function enables, pauses or resumes a characters' behavior. I also append the suffix "Behavior" to each function as shown below:

void enableCollsionBehavior();
void pauseCollisionBehavior();
void resumeCollisionBehavior();

In contrast, all properties use the prefix "set".

void setModelName();

A good API design is akin to a good GUI design. It should be simple enough for anyone to start using it and hard enough for anyone to use it incorrectly. Do not discount the importance of a well designed API. It is as important as writing documentation and as your (app) source code itself.

So make an effort to review, simplify and improve your public API.

Developing an app is not just about coding

I finished implementing all the features in the third beta version of the engine (v1.0.0-Beta-3). Most of the implemented features relate to the animation of 3D characters and improvement with the collision detection system. There is no better way to test these implementations than by doing a simple game demo.

In my mind, creating a demo is a must. But it is also the activity I like the least. Not because I don't like to develop games, but because I have to spend time modeling game characters; time that I rather spend coding. Not only that, but you also have to set up the right game environment for the tests you want to run.

For example, I want to test how a character's animation and its collision detection are affected throughout the game. The ideal game environment (in my opinion) is one where there are multiple platforms (floors, stairs, etc.) that allows a character to jump and walk freely.

I don't have an artistic eye so instead of creating such environment from scratch; I search for ideas online and then model them myself. For example, the image below shows the environment which I will implement in the demo:

Image Credit

My 3D model implementation in Blender looks like this:

Blender 3D model

In my game engine it looks like this:

You may ask "Why don't you hire someone to model the game environment?" or "Why don't you simply buy the 3D model?" The reason is that developing a Game Engine is not just about coding. Is also about understanding how your users will use your engine.

Game development requires an artist and a developer. An artist produces the characters. The developer gives the characters actions. The linkage between the artist and the developer is the game engine. The game engine holds the character's artistic and geometrical information, which the developer manipulates.

As a game engine developer, you must not only understand how a developer will use your API but also how an artist creates the characters your engine will render. For example, I'm aware of certain modeling techniques that the engine can't handle yet but is common among 3D artists.

Another benefit is that by you developing the characters and creating a demo; you get to experience your application workflow. During the second demo, I ended up making several modifications to the API after realizing its awkwardness.

So yes, it is far easier to hire someone to do the creative work, but it defeats the purpose of development. You don't develop an app for you; you develop it for your users. If you don't provide a good user experience, the number of features in your app won't matter.

A good place to get game characters ideas

I'm currently developing a demo for the latest features of the game engine. For me, the hardest part of developing a game demo is not the programming part, but the artistic aspect. I spend days looking for game characters and game environment ideas. Moreover, since I am not an artist and I'm the only one working on this, I look for ideas which I can create.

You may be an indie-game developer who plays the role of the programmer and the artist. And you may have the same problem as I do.

If that is the case, the next time you are looking for ideas, search for them on Pinterest. For example, I did a search for "low poly models" and these were some of the ideas that caught my attention:

This site has given me plenty of game ideas. You may want to give it a shot the next time you are out of ideas.